A Very Long Night...

So last night a friend came by around 10:15 P.M. and asked me and my roommate Heather and our friend Emily who was at our apartment if we wanted to go with a group of people and go to the "Tumble Gym." For those of you who don't know, the "Tumble Gym" is every kid's dream place, or at least mine. It's filled with spring boards, trampolines, foam pits, blow up toys, etc.! It's amazingly fun, but apparently it's amazingly easy to get hurt. In fact, you have to sign a waver upon entry for legal purposes (ahem). Anyway, so Heather and I ended up going with the group of kids! It was a blast! We were having a great time, jumping around on the trampoline, doing tricks into the foam, and playing on giant blow-up teeter-totters, and hamster wheels.

Around 12:30ish, it was time to leave, but Heather wanted to jump on the trampoline one more time. Well, she did, and it was definitely the last time. As she took off from one trampoline to jump to the other she twisted her ankle, and felt her leg snap. As she explained, her foot was "flopping" as she flew through the air, and then landed on it on the other trampoline. As soon as she hit the trampoline, she started yelling out in pain. She was definitely hurt. I ran over there to see what I could do. She was pretty upset and kept moaning and groaning. After using a few "choice" words (hehe), she struggled to prop herself up to examine the damage. She reached down and used her hands to pull her knee and lower leg off of the trampoline. As she did so everything from about 4 inches above her ankle fell. It was awful. It just simply flopped, a clear indication that the bones were completely snapped in two! Well, after she yelled at the owner of the gym about 6 times to call the 911, he finally did. At this point, I was doing as she asked and holding her leg together. Not the most fun thing to do. Imagine trying to hold a person's leg in place to prevent things from moving, as well as to prevent the bone from coming through the skin. Yeah...it was pretty intense. As we waited for help to arrive, a couple guys were able to give her a blessing.

About 10 minutes later a couple fire trucks pulled up to the scene. They came in and asked her some questions, and made her wiggle her toes about 10 times. I'm guessing it was pretty painful because she didn't seem to keen on continuing doing so. Anyway, then they took some vitals and managed to place an air cast on her leg, as I held it in place. They placed a sheet under her, lifted her from the trampoline, which was also painful because her leg was continuously jostled, and set her on the stretcher. They got her outside, where it was conveniently snowing, and placed her in the firetruck. I climbed in front, and then we took off to the hospital. Surprisingly, at least to me, firetrucks don't drive very smoothly. As I guessed, and was told later, it was kind of a bumpy, painful ride for Heather.

We arrived at the hospital a little while later, and she was examined and x-rayed, another uncomfortable process. Let me just say, wow! The x-rays were pretty crazy, bones shouldn't snap like that, but they do. She was pretty lucky though that the bone hardly penetrated the skin. She just had a little tiny bit of blood on the surface. Anyway, they didn't splint it or anything because they wanted to get her right into surgery. So, they suited her up, AKA put her in a sheet with a hole in it for her head, and prepared her for surgery. Because her family wasn't there, I got to go with her and meet the Orthopedic Surgeon, her Anesthesiologist, and wait with her in the "holding" room until they took her in for surgery.

All of it was pretty exciting, but she was a total trooper! She seriously handled it all so well! She was able to answer all of their questions, and remember significant things like her birthday, etc. I was totally impressed. I think if it had been me I would've been in shock! Anyway...they got her ready and took her in for surgery.

From there, I'm not sure what happened, except that they put her out, inserted a catheter, and an air-tube down her throat. Then they made an incision near her knee shoved a titanium rod down into the tibia, and made two more incisions, one at the top and one at the bottom to screw it into the bone! Apparently, the surgery went perfectly, so that's good news.

Anyway, while Dr. Bacon was performing the surgery, Heather's parents arrived and we sat in the waiting room together and just chatted. After a couple of hours the surgeon came out and described the process to us, and told her that she was waking up. After 20 or so more minutes we were able to go see her. She awoke, and they moved her to recovery. After getting her settled in, I left around 5:30 AM. It was quite the night!

She's now recovering in the hospital and will be there until Sunday or Monday. She will likely be on crutches for the next 3 months, and will not be able to drive. She broke the left leg, but she has a stick-shift car, basically making it impossible! Anyway, at least things went well with the surgery, and she'll be able to heal properly, but things are going to be a bit different for her for the next little while! Anyway...a fun time was had by all...or not.

Funny/Embarrassing Stories

Let me just preface this post of short stories, by saying, I’ve had several hilarious and or embarrassing things happen to me in my time, and felt like recording some of them before I forgot, so without further adieu…embarrassing moments of Ashlie’s life…

Open Mouth…Insert Foot

A couple months ago I had a highly embarrassing experience while working at Costco. I was sick one night, and needed to buy some cough drops. Well, Costco closes at 8:30 and I had to work until 11:00, and I was unable to purchase them during my break, so I had to wait until I got off to do so. Anyway, since it was so late, all of the cash registers were turned off, requiring a cashier to log back into the system. So, I approached a supervisor, whom we’ll call Theresa*, who happens to be lesbian. I said, “Hey Theresa*, will you check me out?!” As soon as the words had escaped my mouth, I realized my mistake and felt humiliated! Luckily, she didn’t see the embarrassment on my face because she was currently working on the computer, and had her back to me. After a moment, she replied, “You mean…help you buy something?” “Yes, yes!!” I responded and quickly left the room. I died laughing afterward, but at the moment I pretty much felt like a prize-idiot for making such a faux pa!

Watch That First Step, It’s a Doozie

So the other day I was hurrying to catch the bus in a parking lot neighboring my apartment complex because I was running late (surprise, surprise)! Well, as I was briskly walking, I was rummaging around in my purse looking for my bus pass. As you might know, quick forward movements aren’t generally advised if you aren’t looking ahead. Well, as I was searching my purse, and didn’t slow my pace, my knees and shins suddenly collided with a bright yellow slab of concrete! The effect was pretty amazing, as I fell forward on my face my feet flew out from under me, and the backpack that was previously on my back, landed on my head! Okay, so while I would have loved to watch it on film, and I cracked up at the time, I had to retain some kind of dignity, so I rushed to my feet, looked around quickly for any bystanders, brushed myself off, and continued on my way.

Anything Else?

My sophomore year of high school I went on a date to a Mexican restaurant called El Charro. Everything was going fairly well, we were seated, decided what to order, ordered, and we were waiting for our food to arrive. After a few minutes our waitress returned with our food. After she gave us our respective dishes, she addressed me with a phrase I couldn’t understand. She kept looking at me and saying what I thought was, “Any good news?” I was totally confused, and sure she was speaking Spanish because I couldn’t understand her at all. She repeated it a couple of times, and I kept wondering why the heck she would ask me if there was any good news! I didn’t know the woman, why would she ask me that?! So, after I asked her what she was saying a couple times, and continued to stare at here with a completely perplexed look on my face, my date finally spoke up, thanked her, and told her we were fine. Apparently she was saying, “Anything else?” Let me tell you, I felt pretty darn cool! Well, as if one mortifying experience for the night wasn’t bad enough, I managed to make another blunder. After we finished eating, my date got up to pay for our meal, and I went to the bathroom. Well, coming out of the bathroom, I got a little turned around. I started walking out, but couldn’t figure out which direction to go. So I looked around, found the exit sign, and started heading towards it. Well, at this point, the restaurant was basically empty, and as I was heading towards the exit sign I saw a group of employees sitting at a table folding silverware into napkins, for the next day. They all looked up at me, grinned, and began chuckling, when I finally realized it was an employee only exit. Again, I felt like a prize-idiot, but to make matters worse, as I turned around to find the correct door, I saw my date looking humored, as he just viewed the entire spectacle. Yeah…I know, sometimes I’m pretty cool!

We Are Siamese If You Don’t Please…?

Okay, so my senior year of high school my friend Jimmy, my little brother Adam, and I had a brilliant idea for “twin day”. We decided we’d spice it up a little bit and we dressed as Siamese triplets! So, the night before the big day, Adam and Jimmy took a pair of each of our jeans and stitched the pant legs together. This proved quite the feat because Adam was 5’ 10” or taller, Jimmy was over 6’, and I was a meager 5’ 2”. As you can imagine, walking also proved difficult! Anyway, so the next day after Seminary, we dressed for the occasion, the only problem was, I still had to drive to the school. Somehow, the three of us slid into the front seat, and by some miracle I managed to drive to school without accident, with Adam’s left leg and foot attached to my right one! Well, we thought we were pretty much hilarious because this was one of the best ideas ever, especially because none of us really had any classes together! And, I might add, it was probably one of the most rebellious things I’d ever done as well! Anyway, so we showed up to school, but surprisingly nobody appreciated our humor as much as we did. Few people “got it” and those who didn’t initially understand, didn’t really find it funny after we explained, but I guess that’s the way it is with any joke, it’s not quite so funny when it has to be explained to be understood. The other shocker was that our teachers and administrators didn’t find much humor in it either. Perhaps that was because we didn’t, as our vice principal put it, “attend our classes.” Well, regardless of what they thought, I found it funny!

A Little Dumpster Diving?

Winter semester 2007, my roommate Kylie had a little problem. As she was cleaning her room one day she threw away a box that contained an earring set she had recently been given. Well, by the time she remembered, and realized what she had done, our trash had been taken out to the dumpster behind our building. Not only that, but she was dressed and ready for church, which met before my own. Well, since I wasn’t dressed up yet, I got to go look for the box she had thrown out. Let me tell you, it was quite the experience, but perhaps not one I would repeat! However, we did find it, so I guess, all’s well that ends well!

Christmas in Retrospect

This Christmas was nice, and fairly uneventful. Nicholas and I headed home on December 21^st after completing our finals. I was so ready to go home and relax! We arrived home, and Nathan, Tegan, and family followed us a day or two later. It was lots of fun getting to spend time with everyone, minus the bought of stomach flu that was shared among us, and then with Aimee, Peter, and Megan when they arrived on the 27^th. Everyone took a turn being sick, and only three of us were lucky enough to escape the vomiting. While the Christmas festivities were somewhat disrupted by illness, and some traditions were put-off until everyone was feeling somewhat better, Santa still managed to make his presence, or should I say, presents, known.

Aimee and Peter opening presents

Kate posing by the Christmas tree

Makenzie taking a nap on Uncle Brett

Kenzie using Brett's bum as a pillow

Dad looking rad in some huge sunglasses

Mom looking stylish while eating at Jim Bob's BBQ

Dad and Mom looking excited about her new scriptures

Sammy and Grandpa lying down for a nap

Adam and Brett being as funny as ever

Brennan showing off his culinary skills decorating cookies

Brett and his masterpiece candy cane

Kenzie spreading frosting everywhere

Sam and Brennan playing with Lego's

Tegan showing off her new watch

Nathan trying out his new racquetball racket

Uncle Nick and little Sam

Makenzie and Aunt Ashlie

Tegan looking cute as always

Nicholas and Adam excited about Ratatouille

Looking semi-drugged or at least sleep deprived on Christmas morning

Brett looking giddy while Dad's passed-out on the couch

Megan opening presents without the help of cousins Kenzie and Kate

Meggers yelling about something

Sammy-Sosa posing for the camera

Somebody's a grumpy little princess

Princess Kate