A few pics from the 4th

We had a fun 4th of July over at Katie and Andrew's house. We adults enjoyed hanging out on the patio, chatting, while the kids ran around.

Evelyn said, "It's a party hat"!

Later the guys played horseshoes and then raced while kids rode piggy-back. "Again! Again! Again!"

~Dad and Christie (and tiny, growing baby Boyer, who is now 3.5 inches, head to rump! praise God for the truly amazing gift of children!!)

The Boyers and McKenzies headed back to our neck of the woods and were totally distracted by all the fireworks exploding alongside the highway and over the city. Our neighborhood is up on a big hill and we were able to find a spot to sit where a huge panorama of Arvada, Denver and Golden spread out before us. There were firework shows all over to see. Arvada's was pretty close by, so that was the focus. They did an exciting show that went on forever, and it felt great to be part of the neighborhood with folks oohing and ahhing in their lawnchairs or sitting on their rooftops while car radios competed with kids and distant thunder, the intermittent sound of 'Proud to be an American' and 'It's a wonderful world' breaking through.

happy 4th of july!

health is so underrated

I feel like I just got a second chance at life. A rebirth of sorts. I am just now recuperating after going through the worst physical time of my life (and I've given birth without any drugs, mind you). It feels so profoundly significant to me to come out of this. Anyway, it's big enough to me that I have to put it here, so here is my greatest "poor me" story. Eleven days ago I went in to get all my wisdom teeth out. Routine enough. It was a little scary, but I had said that I thought of it like a mini-vacation, where I would have the weekend to lie around and take a few pain pills while sipping a milkshake while Steven watched Evelyn. That's funny... The surgery was okay, I guess, except that I wasn't fully out of it and could feel them sawing into my gums and yank things out and all that. After it was over I remember there being some fuss about how to get my mouth shut again. I have a bad jaw in normal life and apparently it locked open, causing them to take whatever measure they had to to get it shut again. Usually they expect you to take prescription pain pills the first day and go onto advil and get over it. I was popping vicodin every couple hours and then motrin inbetween, because the pain was so severe. My face was swollen like a squirrel gathering for winter. Steven thought I resembled Marlin Brando. It wasn't pretty. I finally went in five days later to get things checked out to discover I'd had two dry sockets the whole time. Internet sites describe the pain as exquisite and having them shove strips of anesthetic back into the hole was on a whole different level. So that was rough, but that isn't even it. I'd been feeling nauseous that day of seeing the dentist again and as soon as I got home I started to throw up - a lot. I've been really sick before, like to the point I really needed to be hospitalized, but was too weak to go, but this was so much more extreme. It wouldn't go away. For four days straight I was sick. Really sick. The pain and misery of it was unbearable. I prayed to Jesus for mercy and hoped I would die. It just wouldn't stop. I was scared and didn't think I could handle it anymore. Sometimes it would seem to be getting better for an hour or so and then it would start over again. BUT alas! Sunday morning it phased itself out as it should and bit by bit I have gotten better! Oh mercy! I just feel downright happy to be alive again. Being able to be with Evelyn again is so precious. The sublime simplicity of being out of bed, or eating food, or sitting at the desk writing this feels like a huge gift. I'm humbled by it. I'm renewed by the experience. I will not be thankful for being so sick anytime soon, but I feel changed by it in a sincerely profound way and am determined to carry it on to make my life healthier in every aspect. It's been a big deal. For Pete's sake, I actually am happy giving up Starbucks...