What a Whirlwind!!!

Today has been such a CRAZY day!!! This morning we were planning to take a family picture after church. We NEEDED a new picture to put on our Christmas cards. We tried taking family pictures a couple months ago and it was completely unsuccessful!!! As we were getting ready Lynn fell off his riding airplane outside and got all scratched up. We fixed him up and realized we were running out of daylight. We rushed to meet my brother-in-law Hyrum for pictures and his camera was almost dead. They could not find the camera charger so we had about 2% battery to get one good shot! Then he had to get an SD card from someone because that was missing too. As we were driving I said "I totally want Mt. Hood in the background!" We pulled up to our location and the hood was over Mt. Hood. THE HOOD WAS OVER MT. HOOD!!!!!!! No mountain top was visible... AT ALL! So we opted to walk down to the dock on the water. That special magic hour was in full force. The sun was shining among a beautiful Northwestern backdrop. The first picture was snapped, the camera died, and we realized the SD card was not in the camera. How many more things would have made it more obvious that we were not destined for family pictures that day, right???? Lesson learned!

Back to this morning... As I prepared us for church, David was gone at morning church meetings. Everything was great and I was determined to be out the door by 11 am (church starts at 11:30). Well all of the sudden a pipe starts spewing water under our bathroom sink. I turned the water off, panicked, and started clearing everything out from below the sink while trying to clean up the water. As this was all happening my boys came over to the bathroom door giggling at each other. I look over and my youngest son, Lynn, is COVERED in my LIPSENSE!!!! My expensive Lipsense lipgloss. AHHHHH!!!! I held it all together and thought, no big, I will just clean him off (but it was NOT coming off.) Well I go back to cleaning the bathroom and then I hear "mom, Lynn has the red paint." I looked out and he had a red paint bottle on my beautiful grey rug. I saw it was all closed up and thought "he is totally fine!" Next thing I know Stephen is running to me with the red bottle of craft paint. IT IS OPEN! I come out and my boys have red paint all over their sweaters and pants! I just about lost it. Okay lets be real... I LOST IT!!!!! As I am freaking out I look all over the house to see if paint is anywhere else. Well what do you know. Finger painting covered my french blue hutch.

.......I wanted to pull my hair out and curl up in the fetal position....But I had to act fast. All the paint on the hutch was cleaned up quickly and I decided that the boys were going to church just as they are. One, it was a story to tell. Two, I did not have any extra time to change them, Three, I did not want to change them and have them get another set of clothes dirty. Can I get an AMEN!!!!!!! What a morning!!! As I was herding my kids to the car, running around in heels looking like a chicken with my head cut off I realized something special. All of those incidents that happened this morning resembled everything that I do. My boys are around me all the time and just love to use all the things that mommy uses. Their curious little minds wanted to explore. These are days that, yes I cannot wait to hurdle over, but at the same time I love the learning experiences for both me and my boys. Plus, I was THRILLED to have Stephen come to me with the open bottle of paint. HE IS LISTENING!!! He told me when Lynn was getting into something he should not have been. I was so proud of Stephen for knowing when to get mommy!!!

Oh my goodness, when we got to church and walked in I knew everyone was going to say..."what happened??" ...and they did! This story was so ridiculous, hysterical, and beautiful all in one. So when we got home I knew our Christmas picture was obviously out of the question. Then, light bulb!! Why not just take a picture that depicts our life... so that is just what we did...

This is totally us! David and I, madly in love! Stephen chasing Poppy and Bammy's cat, while Lynn's doing his own thing. David and I enjoy dressing up, while the boys LOVE their footie pajamas. Lynn still has lip gloss all over his face and you cannot even see Stephen's face because as of recently he LOVES to hide in pictures. Our beautiful, crazy life! Love, The Richardson's

Definitely Living That "Life Full of Surprises"...

Life has been a whirlwind!! Of course things have been busy, so how does life feel like it seems to get even busier!?! David and I have recently gone through some serious life changes. Here it goes in a nutshell...

We left Kaiser, and also found out that his Epileptologist moved to a new clinic so it was the perfect time for us to find a new doctor.

Through multiple references we found a new Epileptologist at Legacy Neurology. David had about a one hour appointment with him that ended with light at the end of the tunnel. SO MUCH LIGHT! We were beyond thrilled. He knew and studied David's past history, knew all of his doctors, said what he disagreed on that our other doctor was pursuing (which now all makes sense!!) and has just been a huge advocate for David.
        
Many of you also know how much we battle with his prescription costs. They are astronomical!!! $800+ a month. Sometimes we can get on prescription assistance and sometimes we can't. We had been battling prescription coverage for the last couple months because he was going to run out and we also had not seen his new doctor yet. Finally his doctor was able to set up a plan for him and worked his tail off with insurance to get his medication covered because there is no generic and David has tried EVERYTHING (or everything that is in the same family as other prescriptions.) We literally got the new prescription the night before we were going to leave on our California business trip (where he was going to run out of meds the night before our plane ride home.) That could have been a nightmare, but Heavenly Father made sure that we were taken care of and blessed us with hard- working, competent people. We were set!!!
        
Next we went to California! It was beautiful and the first day we got there we rented a car. We went to a delicious breakfast (thanks Greg for the suggestion), talked with some of the people outside eating by us, and loved the sun shining. Then we went to the Newport LDS Temple, and loved the people there SO much I could cry happy tears! Nicest people ever!!! We drove down to Newport beach and had the biggest, cheapest, yummiest ice cream cone ever. Walked along the pier and the beach!! Made our way to the hotel and registered for our business conference. Then we chatted with others strolling in and we were just getting so pumped up!
        
After that we wanted to grab some Buffalo Wild Wings (it was boneless wing Thursday of course). So, we made a to go order, grabbed it, and ventured off to get gas at Costco. That is when things started to change. We were at a stop light in front of Costco and David started feeling a seizure coming on. So he took his preventative medication. It was coming on strong so I zipped into a spot in front of the store and the grand mal took over. Normally he will have a seizure and be wiped out and we would have just gone home, but this was different. It was not stopping and he was starting to turn blue. I immediately called 911 and thank goodness I was in front of Costco because they have their address on the building out front (gotta love Costco!) The fire fighters and paramedics came and as soon as one approached me I just broke down. He was so sweet and helped me mutter out what I needed to say. When someone has a medical emergency, I just get into what I call "nurse mode" and help. Until it is said and done and the emergency team arrives is when I realize what is going on and it hits me. They gave David oxygen and he still was not aware of anything. He did not actually wake up until he was mid way through the ambulance ride to the hospital. I have never actually seen anyone close to me taken away in an ambulance so it was a rough night.
        
We got to the hospital and it was so busy!! Also, our phones were both dead and we still had a rental car to return, plus figure out how to get back to our hotel. The firefighters stayed with us the whole time and were my saving grace. They were the best and we talked all about places to explore in California. They honestly helped us so much that night. Words cannot express how touched I was that they made sure we were okay and had what we needed the whole time. David was ready to get out of there the moment he got in. He does NOT like being in hospitals (can you blame him?) We had really great staff though and made it through. Our doctor explained to us why David cannot drive anymore and that was a big blow. He was not very tactful in talking with us and it bothered David. However, being at that stop light made me realize that if David would have been in the driver's seat who knows if he or others would have been safe as he felt that seizure coming on. We also felt prepared for this as his new epileptologist skirted around the idea of not driving. We did not fully believe the ER doctor until we talked with David's epileptologist and it was solidified. We just have trust in him and he is tactful in a way that the other doctor was not.
        
So what do you do when your husband does construction and remodels homes for a living and cannot drive! Cannot take home depot trips on the fly! We change our business plan and mindset! This conference we were at (the one that David was determined to stay at) was a life changing experience for us and definitely set us up for success. It will not be easy, but it will be rewarding and definitely what our long-term goal was anyway. We are expanding our real estate investment company and David and I are working from home managing it all!!! We are thrilled beyond belief about this, but we are indeed working our tails off as well as living on a prayer!! Life has a funny way of rerouting us when we need it most, even though it seems like it may be the most inconvenient time, it's not! As we put faith in God, we begin to recognized why life took a different path and how we are being blessed beyond our wildest dreams!!!