Why we pay for health insurance...

Here is a running cost of Cody's recent hospital costs:


Hand Surgeon..............$17,536.00
Ambulance Ride............$912.31
Hospital Stay................$18,364.00


Still haven't received the anesthesiologist bill

A Summary of January Events

I am going to try and give a brief summary of January 2012. We (Cody and his dad mostly) were making great progress on our family room addition that also included a large storage room (5 ft x 25 ft), laundry room and pantry. The addition was framed, the siding was put on and Cody and I had installed the roofing on Friday. On Saturday, January 7^th, the two boys and I were outside helping Cody with some of the finishing trim work. I was holding one end of a long piece of trim that we were cutting using the table saw. Cooper was right next to me, playing with a stick and Max was in the stroller about ten feet away, facing us. Cody cut the piece, turned off the table saw then reached across to pick up the cut piece. The table saw had not stopped yet and it cut off his right thumb just above the middle knuckle and his pointer finger at the middle knuckle. We were very blessed that two of our neighbors were outside and heard the screams and ran to help. We were also very blessed that I was outside when it happened.

After a quick ride in the ambulance, we were admitted at the John C. Lincoln hospital. We had an amazing hand surgeon (Dr. Schaub) and some great nurses. Cody went in for surgery just a few hours later, but they were unable to reattach the fingers. We stayed in the hospital for a few more days because they were unable to control the pain and Cody kept vomiting.

Just a week after this happened, Cody returned to teaching and began his master’s in administration. Cody has been extremely positive and optimistic from the very beginning. We have had some good laughs and enjoyed the jokes from others.

Through all this, we have realized our blessings. We have amazing family and friends that don’t wait to be asked. Within an hour of the accident, several people from the ward came and cleaned up the yard and put away the tools. Our ward fasted for Cody the next day. His name was put on the prayer roll of fifteen temples.

Our good friend, a surgeon at Good Samaritan hospital, interrupted a surgery to ask that hand surgeon if he could come do Cody's surgery at John C Lincoln hospital. Dr. Reed, instead called his partner (Dr. Schaub) who was in a surgery at our hospital and asked him to make our surgery a priority. Because of this, we moved ahead of four other surgeries. 

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers for Cody. He is recovering remarkably well and even the surgeon is impressed with how the hand is doing. Cody goes to therapy twice a week to work on decreasing the sensitivity, specifically on the transplant and skin grafted portion, and to increase mobility. He is very encouraged by the progress he is making in his thumb which has a lot of movement, but discouraged by the minimum amount (5 degrees) of movement in his pointer finger. 

We had a bit of a scare on Sunday when Cody's hand began to throb and ache which it had not done in weeks, but after Tylenol and a nap, the pain subsided. An odd side note - the skin graft from Cody's wrist also blistered during this time into one huge lump. We finally took a needle to it that afternoon and drained it, but it began to fill again the next day. Cody wondered if maybe we should have saved the liquid we drained stating that it might have had 'magical properties'. Funny guy!!

Cookie Recipe Please!!

I'm looking for a new cookie recipe that includes white chocolate chips? Anyone have anything?

Update: these look yummy. Anyone have something similar?

New Times

Cody was set apart a few weeks ago as a member of the High Council. In order to do this, he had to also be set apart as a High Priest. We were fortunate enough to convince our stake president to do this at the Riding's so the whole family could be there. Thank you Kristi (Cody's Mom) for making this a special occasion and serving a complete meal to 17 people!

Not sure what our kids are doing.

Set apart as High Priest.

Hank, Logan, Jed, Pres. Lythgoe, Cody, Frank, Kyle, Chris

Set apart as member of High Council.

Hank, Jed, Pres. Lythgoe, Cody, Frank

My parents with Max.

The little kids table. Elizabeth, Crew and Cooper

My father-in-law...aka mule/horse/donkey.

I can't believe it!

How did I come to have a preschooler?


Cooper was really excited to begin school. I'm glad to report that he, nor I, cried on the first day of school, however, he has cried almost every day since. When I asked him what his favorite part about school was he said "My teacher". I think that's a good sign.

I couldn't belive that Cooper just walked right in to class on the first day. Truth be told, it made me a bit sad. Was he that excited to leave me and Max?

Picking Cooper up from school. This is my favorite part of the day. Well, this and when both kids are napping.

Almost 3 Months...crazy!

My Life