June 5th - Another eventful day!

Well our trip to AZ has come to an end. I leave back to GA tomorrow. But I couldn't leave without another BIG eventful day! (Not by choice)

As most of you know, my parents live on a citrus farm and my dad works it himself. He is 72 years old (Next week) and retired and so that is his full-time hobby. He gets up early and goes to work on whatever needs to be done around the farm. He LOVES it!!! Well, at about 10:30 this morning, my sister was in the shower and my mom was still in her room (I think in the shower too) I was the only one to answer the phone. My dad called and asked me to come get him on the other side of the citrus orchard. He said "I fell out of a tree and I think I broke my leg." My dad does not call anybody for help. He will come in bleeding and hobbling before he will call. So I knew it was bad when he asked me to come get him and when he said "I think I broke my leg". I am so grateful he has a cell phone and that he keeps it on him. If he kept it in the truck or something he wouldn't have been able to call. So I asked my niece to run and tell my sister what happened so she could watch my kids when she got out of the shower and then asked my 16 year old niece and 13 year old nephew to come with me because I knew I would need help with my dad. And we ran out the door. As I was looking for my dad, I saw my 17 year old nephew who was looking for grandpa for some other reason (a major blessing) so I told him to follow me and then a minuet later I saw my other 20 year old nephew who is married and has a job but luckily wasn't at work today and so he was over mowing his dad's lawn (another big blessing!) He saw me and I waved at him to come over. I know the lord put them there right when I needed them. Being 8 months pregnant and knew I couldn't lift my dad up myself. And I wasn't sure if my niece and nephew that I brought with me would be enough help. We found grandpa (my dad) he was laying on his tummy, on top of a ladder that was on the ground. OUCH! He was up in a palm tree trimming the limbs and a friend of his called him asking if he could get some citrus from my dad. So he was getting out of the tree and as he put his foot on the ladder, the ladder fell. So he was hanging there and he thought he could just scale down the tree but little limbs on the tree gave way and he just fell right to the ground instead. He says he landed standing but then when his leg broke he fell. So anyway, my strong nephews lifted him up off the ground and got him into the car. Then my brother pulled up. He looked at my dad's leg and told me to get him right to the ER! He had a compound fracture. A bone was sticking out of his leg. So I took him to the ER. I stayed with him until my mom showed up. She came right after they did x-rays and I took off. One of my brothers came and my other brother was on his way so the ER room was getting too crowded. So I left. I needed to get back home anyway. But after the x-rays, they said he broke both bones in his leg and broke his ankle. They had to do surgery today and put medal rods through his heel and leg above the break and attached a big metal plate. He has to stay in the hospital til' at least Monday maybe longer, I'm so bummed we are leaving tomorrow. But at the same time I am so glad I was here to help and so glad that this happened at the end of our trip so we could spend as much time as possible with him. The kids and I went down tonight after his surgery to say good-bye. He has to have another surgery in 2 or 3 weeks to actually fix the break (I guess to cast it?) because they couldn't fix it today. I guess it was so badly broken. He will be in a wheel chair for a long time! Which wont go over well with my dad. He can't sit still for very long. And they say his ankle will never be the same. I am so glad my parents have an elevator in the house so he doesn't have to sleep on the couch. He can go upstairs to bed. Anyway, It was a very eventful day!

Up date: June 8th- My mom called today, my dad is still in the hospital and she said they are moving him to Scottsdale Memorial Trauma Center. I guess they feel like the break is so bad they need a Trauma Specialist to work on it. WOW! Totally crazy! I feel so bad for my dad.

Here are some pictures....
On Saturday (a week before) Riding in Grandpa's truck. Going to feed the cows...


Helping grandpa feed the cows.

Kenna thinks the cows stink...



WARNING!If you have a week stomoch, DO NOT look at this next picture....



Friday at the ER (bone sticking out of his leg)...


Visiting grandpa after surgery...

Good-bye hugs for Grandpa...



Some of the cousins that came to visit grandpa that night...