More Family Fun

We were able to get the van fixed in record time. Eric pulled out the alternator and put in a new one. Relatively inexpensive and something Eric could do. I think we have saved thousands of dollars in car repair over the years with Eric's knowledge of car engines. I keep telling Sierra, a man who knows cars is a plus!!


We were able to pick up Eric's rental car. And it is just in time because he will be back to work next week. He is worried because it isn't a "Man" car. It's a little Chevy Malibu. He will be so happy when he gets his SUV back. Buck up camper- at least you aren't walking!!


I made the decision today to stop teaching preschool so that I can start taking care of my nephew Skyler. He is three months old now and the dads are ready to start back to their full-time work schedule. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse. So I am sad to leave in the middle of the school year and I will miss teaching- but the money will help me get over it I am sure. So I will be at home all day again, and I am part-time at KJZZ. So things are settling down some. I hope to get the house back in order and get rid of my baby hungries. Skyler is such a sweet baby- I am excited about the change. Justice will get a chance to be a big brother instead of being the baby all the time. We hope it will be a positive change for the whole family.


Here are our latest family pics. I know Eric posted the funny one- but here are some of the better ones. Nadine cried when we gave her the family pic for her present. She said it is the first one of us all together.

Eric, Jenn, Sierra, Montana & Justice

The Whole Crew

Shaun, Steve, and Skyler

Dave, Steph, Travis, Tyson, & Lane

Christmas

Talk about a fantastic holiday! We started it off with Mom's annual Christmas Eve party. It was a complete blizzard. Everyone was late, but it turned out great. Santa made all the kids smile with his arrival! Tana kept saying "you rock Santa!". The kids in the family are all getting older- so it seemed pretty small this year- but pretty soon the next generation will start coming and it will grow again. It is fun to watch the kids as they grow. Especially as they start their own families. We had Sierra for Christmas Eve and morning . Yay! We got home Christmas eve about 11:00- so everyone was tired and didn't fight going to bed at all. Eric and I stayed up late- just to make sure they were really asleep. Luckily we had everything wrapped and ready to go- so we were in bed about 12:30. Not too bad. We got up about 6:40 and the kids excitedly went through their stockings and squealed about what Santa had brought. Mom and Dad came over to open presents with us about 8:00. The kids were totally spoiled as usual. Electronics, toys, games, clothes, and all manner of fun! We still haven't actually played with everything yet. So it was a very Merry Christmas.

We had our Christmas breakfast and settled into relax mode. Then we headed out to Eric's parents for Christmas dinner. It was delicious and fun to see everybody again. George has grown a great beard! He reminds me of Doug Miller-the outdoor sports guy on TV. He looks great. Steve's mom was here from Vermont. She is always fun to be with. So we had a great crowd. Dave was sick so he stayed home with his family. We missed them- but I think we ate their share of the dinner!

We've been playing games, watching movies, napping, and just enjoying each other today. We were going to go out to Sushi with Shaun, Steve, and Janice ( Steve's mom) but the van starting having engine trouble of some sort. So we had to cancel. Bummer ! We were excited too! Mom said she would bring one of their cars over for us to borrow. Eric's rental car should be delivered here tomorrow so that will help until we figure out what is going wrong with the van. We just got the van paid for- so it was to be expected I guess. Found out today that the guy that hit Eric, his insurance is going to pay for everything. The deductible, the hospital bills, the car repair, the car rental- all of it! So that was great news. Also- they are not going to total Eric's car- it is repairable. Which is what we were the most worried about. So in about a week things should be back to normal. Eric is feeling much better- still a little stiff- but getting his mobility back little by little. All in all, a great holiday. One that we won't soon forget. Merry Christmas!

Too funny!

Last night Eric and I tried to do a bit of shopping. Here we are, the man who can only move his upper torso and head like a robot, and me in my bionic leg boot, he is trying to escort me into the store. I start to slip on the ice- just barely- I scream and he is trying to catch me but can't move. I am still laughing about it. We both sauntered around the store looking pathetic. So we didn't stay long. Good thing we are done shopping- just trying to find those annoying last minute things. Happy Shopping everyone!

Eric is lucky to be alive!!

Today Eric was in a very scary car crash. He was going back to work in Springville after lunch. He was stopped at a railroad crossing, the warning arms had just come down because a train was coming. A one ton truck was coming up behind him and didn't slow down at all. The truck hit Eric and pushed him through the crossing, breaking the crossing arms and across the track to the other side. Eric said he heard the glass break and saw the truck in the rear view but then blacked out. Both cars made it through safely to the other side just in time as the train sped by blowing it's horn. Eric was put on a backboard and in a C-collar and taken by ambulance to the Timpanogas Hospital. His boss called me from the emergency room to let me know what had happened. I had that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was happy he was ok, but afraid for what I would see at the hospital.
I arranged for my mom to take the kids and hurried down there. He was laying on the bed still in his clothes and shoes. They had his new coat behind his neck/back like a makeshift pillow. They had cut it off of him and it was good for little else. They had taken x-rays and everything appeared to be ok. No broken bones, fractures, or fused disks. So he will be very sore with whiplash and bruises, but he is basically ok. We have been dazed and stunned the rest of the day. Literally, life flashed before our eyes. Eric could be dead, I could be a widow, what would we do now? Luckily, by the grace of God, Eric has been saved for a greater purpose.
We have been holding hands, shedding tears, and counting our blessings. Our "new" car will be in the repair shop for a while. It is pretty banged up in the back. The window, tailgate, bumper, taillights, back wiper and the driver seat all need repair. Other than that it is salvageable.
Thank you God for keeping my baby safe. I am so grateful!!

How many more days?

The kids of course are going crazy waiting for Christmas to come. We got the kids an advent calendar that has a little chocolate behind each window. It's a great way to get the day started. There are only 4 more windows!! It's too exciting.
Yesterday Montana and Justice had their singing program at school. They both had gigantic smiles and sang their little hearts out. Our pics were a little dark but I will post those later.
Sierra has the Christmas dance at school today. She really wants to dance with Hayden! Even though she doesn't "really" like him. So we will see how it turns out.
My leg is healing nicely and I am getting around much easier, although I am slow. I get sympathy from total strangers- people who have had to wear the boot. It is kinda funny- but getting annoying.
Eric and I have next week off from our day jobs. It will be fun to finalize all those last minute Christmas things together. We are pretty much done shopping, but have lots of wrapping left to do. Hopefully Santa's elves will come and do it for us!!

Does anyone know how difficult it is to get 13 people to smile

Well it is Christmas and I was having trouble figuring out what to get for my Mother and Father. So I was sitting at work and a brilliant idea came to me. Mom doesn't have a recent picture of all her kids and grandkids so why not do that. So we worked it out to all meet at a city park last Saturday. Keep in mind it is December in Utah. I spoke with a co-worker who takes good pictures and we were off to the races. We all showed up on time and the shutter began to snap. We took individual family pictures and several entire family shots. Below are the results. Enjoy.

Thanks Kirky for taking time to snap these pictures. Your skill and effort is much appreciated.

Crutches Suck!!

I have bruises under my arms and I keep losing my balance as I hop along. But I can feel myself getting stronger everytime. My good leg is getting the real workout. I went to work last night and preschool this morning. I was completely exhausted just hauling my butt around. The kids and teachers were really sweet. The kids made me get better cards-that brought tears to my eyes. They were so worried about me. They all looked at my leg like it was a bomb and they had to stay far from it. But that wore off. Luckily my assistant at school did all the running around for me. Thank you Kelly! KJZZ was pretty easy- I just pushed myself around on my rolly office chair. The hard part was just getting into the building. I have to count my blessings though. I had my husband home to take care of me, I had insurance to cover the expenses, I broke my left foot and not my right- so I can still drive and get around, AND my toes are still painted. So all in all- I am thankful. This is helping me realize how REALLY out of shape I am and how much I appreciate my feet!!! There are lessons to be learned in everything- even slipping on the ice.

TLC

Yesterday I was babied all day for the most part. Eric stayed home from work to take care of me. Mom and Dad came to visit and bring me Grama's crutches and these beautiful flowers. They are so good to me. It takes so long for me to get from point A to point B, that everyone just brings me what I need. I sit there like a lump with my leg propped up on pillows and a bag of ice on top. I got out and tried driving so that I will feel comfortable taking the kids around, and so that Eric can get back to work. The worst part is just getting to and in the car. The rest is easy. I was so sick all night from my pain medicine. So I don't know if it's better to just tough it out through the pain, or have my leg feel better but the rest of me in upheaval (literally). It hasn't been too bad- I have had two whole days off from work, slept all night, been waited on; A girl could get use to this. This morning I have been practicing hoping around on my crutches all over the house, and up and down the stairs. Let me tell you, it is a workout. I am sweating by the time I get somewhere. I know it will get easier, and maybe this will help me shed a couple pounds? We'll see!

OUCH!!!

It's a good thing Eric is home- because I fell and busted my ankle last night. Luckily he was here to take me to the doctor and all that fun stuff. I slipped down the stairs in front of our house. They looked dry but were just slippery enough for me to go down like a rag doll. I landed in a pile with my foot in a twisted position. I knew right away it was not good. So I layed there crying like a baby and not wanting to move. It's a clean break at the bottom of my tibia. So I will be on crutches and in a cast for 6 weeks. Lovely. Just how I wanted to spend my holidays. So being the good man that he is- Eric was able to cancel his next trip to help nurse me back to getting around. Can't put weight on it yet as it is very painful still. Keeping it up and icing it is helping. I had a shot for the pain last night and it is just wearing off. Need to get to the pharmacy and pick up my prescription drugs. The bad part about narcotics is they make me terribly nauseous- so I have to take another pill to be able to keep it down. FUN! Anyhoo- my lunch is ready. Thanks Eric!!

I am back

After about 20 hours on 3 planes I finally made it back home. The driver picked me up at the SLC airport and brought me home. He carried my bags in the house and the kids got a big kick out of seeing him. As he got ready to leave they all said "Good Bye Driver". It was very funny.

Now for a recap of the last day in Taiwan. At the meeting we had about 125 people which is a good turnout. Unfortunately, I completely froze when I went on stage. I had to read the majority of the presentation. I am not pleased with my performance. I hope I get a chance to redeem myself. We rode the bullet train to the city where the meeting took place. At one point the display inside the train said "your current speed is 294 kmh. Which is about 185 mph. I must say that it didn't seem that fast.

When we got back to Taipei we went out for dinner. The food was great. I also set up the car service for the next morning to take me to the airport. So at 4:45 am Sunday I went down stairs and checked out of the hotel. They informed me that my car was on it's way. After about 5 minutes the 740Li pulled around and as I got in they brought out a tray with my breakfast on it. So here I am in a 740Li having breakfast in Taipei. What a life.

After 4 hours I landed in Singapore. I believe the Singapore airport is probably the nicest airport I have ever been in. I purchased some pearls for Jenn and #1 and a few others things for #2 and #3. Then it was back on a plane for another 15 hours to LAX which is the worst airport I have ever been in. After 2 hours and a beer later it was on another plane for the 1.5 hour flight to SLC.

All in all it was a great trip.

We miss you daddy!

We take Eric for granted. It isn't until he is gone that we realize how much he does for our family. Our life is turned completely upside down when he is away. We have been spending the week with Grama Laura because I work nights and need someone to stay with the kids. Then she gets the kids up, dressed, fed, and meets me at the Jr. High so that we can get everywhere else on time. Next we drop Tana off, and then Justice and I hurry back to WJ for our preschool classes. We have eaten out quite a bit this week, because, let's face it- I hate to cook, and spaghetti is only good for two meals at the most. We had a huge snowstorm, and although we had fun with snowballs, shoveling, and seeing the lights- we couldn't get in our driveway. Too steep and snowy. I think I have put about 500 miles on the van this week with extra driving back and forth to moms. Here are a list of things that we have missed about Eric this week.
1. Being able to sleep in our own beds.
2. Not getting to bed on time (I am a pushover, and not very organized either)
3. Home cooked meals (enough with the cereal already)
4. The 6:00 welcome daddy home routine
5. Roxy needs her belly rubbed by daddy. No one else can do it right. She follows us around like our shadow in need of more love.
6. Having the driveway shoveled properly- he salts it and has some magic way of getting the van in without sliding down and nearly hitting our other car. I really miss that.
7. Kisses
8. Silly jokes
9. Adult conversation
10. Another parent to help with homework, squabbles, reading books, playing games, and making those damn Transformers actually Transform.
11. Someone to remember to turn on and off the Christmas lights.
12. Bear Hugs and neck rubs.
Hurry home sweetie!!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

I think it is about time you got to see what I am seeing. Here are some pictures of the museum I went to today.

Taipei Day 2

It is 8:41 am on Friday December 7th. Last night my translator and her mother took me to a wholesale street market and to dinner. The market was buzzing and you could just about find anything you want. I made some purchases most of which I cannot say here because they are gifts for my loved ones. However I did spend $900 on a pair of shoes. Ahhhhh the high life. It is so fun to say "Yes these shoes cost me $900." It is the life of a wannabe big shot. Did I say it was $900 Taiwan dollars. That is about $27 US. I think I will stick to the $900 story and leave off the currency exchange.

I am feeling very good this morning. Had a great breakfast and now it is off to see more of Taipei. We are going to the National Museum and to the worlds tallest building today and i hope more shopping. The food last night was great. We had about 6 different dishes all of which were very hot. My nose was running but it was a good kind of hot. Good stuff

There seems to be a lot of political stuff going on here. From what I can gather the current government is trying to erase some of Taiwan's history. It seem crazy but political parties are fighting about such things as the color of the roof of a building.

Tomorrow morning I will be taking the train down to the meeting site. It is about one hour south of Taipei. I don't know what route the train takes but I hope to get to see some of the country side. From my hotel room I can see mountains. It is very green and the clouds hang low in the mornings it is very pretty.

Taiwan

Well I am out traveling again. This month will be as heavy as ever. I am currently in Taiwan until Sunday. On Wednesday it is off to Canada and Nashville until Friday then on Sunday it is off to NJ/NY until Thursday. All told I will be home for 3 days from the 4th -the 20th.

Enough of that. At 2:40 Dave (the care service guy) picked me up and took me to the airport for the first leg of the trip. LAX is not my favorite airport. After a 4 hour layover I boarded a Singapore Air flight for Taipei. Singapore Air really has customer service dialed in. They actually seem to care about their customers. About an hour after takeoff I took 2 Tylenol PM and before I knew it we only had 3 hours left on the flight. The flight was 13.5 hours long so I slept for about 9 of it. It was great.

After clearing customs I walked out to find my name on a sign and this guy running up to me saying "this way" So he takes my bag and walks very quickly out to the street and calls someone. About a minute later a 740LI (I think) picks me up. The driver says "Good morning Sir" and drives me about 30 minutes to the Hotel where I am met by another guy opening my door and unloads my bag. I walk into the Hotel and up to the desk and the person behind the desk say "Welcome Mr. Nugent". Ya know, a guy could get used to this type of treatment.

I will be meeting with my translator later this afternoon and I hope I can talk them into taking me to a night market. That sounds fun. Because I am going to be gone all month I need to find something cool for my Jenn. All in all so far things have gone very well. The meeting is on Saturday and I am feeling pretty good about it. I will update daily so stay tuned.

A day in the life of Sierra

Sierra had one crazy day today. Her cheer squad had competition today at the U of U, and so they were excused from school for the day. I still had to teach this morning, and she was going to be picked up by her carpool. So while she was home alone waiting, the utility man came to look at our meter. He has to come in the backyard because that is where the meter is. Well she freaked out thinking someone was trying to break into the house. So she calls her friend (who lives just down the street), and they told her to hurry over to their house. So she runs out of the house with just her cheer top and spankies on (what they wear under their cheer skirt), and down to her friends house. They came back with her to see what was going on and figured it all out. Well now she was locked out of the house. So she had to break into the house to get the rest of her clothes and stuff for the competition. I swear that girl is such a goofball!! Everything ended up fine but it was a rough start for the morning to say the least.
The competition went great. They did a fantastic job. They took first in their division!! They didn't have anyone else competing against them- but they did score higher than a lot of the high school teams that were there. It was a fun day. The whole team and their families went to Applebees after to celebrate. It was nuts- but the girls had a great time hanging out and being silly. Justice and Tana were flirting with the kids sitting by them- I guess they are learning that from Sierra???? or Eric???? I guess it is a toss up. Then it was off to dance for 3 more hours to rehearse for their upcoming Jazz Game performance. Ahh, the life of the young and talented!!