The Headleys House: July Explosions

July came in with a BANG!

Victoria is such a hard stick that her veins have had enough. She got a PICC line placed on July 3. I hadn't even really thought of it. I thought maybe we were over reacting but when the Home Health nurse said that she should have one, I was more confident in my observations. Everything is SO different when it is happening in your own living room. All my nursing skills have been uses to it's fullest potential lately. No more pokes for her. They can even draw blood through it. She is getting 2 L of fluids 3 times a week. Cross Trails Cowboy Church in Texas is sending her to Falls Creek Church Camp at the end of the month. This will make it so much easier for her to give herself fluids.

She was commenting as we were driving down the road that you see weird stuff that people do in their cars and now she is one of them. I assured her that most people won't even realize what is going on.

We marched in the Lewiston 4th of July parade with Cache Cowboy Church.

We loaded up Jared's new goose neck trailer, threw candy to the crowd and cooled them off with water.

Three generations of lovely women. Kathy, Sundi and Haisley waiting for fireworks in Malad.

I first saw this little guy along the driveway. I have never seen a horned toad in Utah. He was the cutest little guy. I left him where he was and about a week later I found him hanging out amongst the tomato plants in the garden. I have seen him several times since then. He is the cutest little guy. He turns his head to the side to watch me.

Victoria had her very last 4H Ambassador role up at USU for Teen Summit. She was essentially in charge of the entire planning of the event. We are really proud of her. This was a tough year with all her health issues. She has managed to hang in there living with pain almost every day. She built a Team Building Obstacle course for her workshop. We came to the Dinner one of the nights. Kaleb saw this kid with a sequin dinner jacket and asked the kid if he could try it on! He is crazy!

Victoria and Olivia, good friends, past Ambassador and future Ambassador. Victoria is just finishing her term and Olivia is just starting hers. Cache County hasn't had any State Ambassadors for 5 years before Victoria and now Cache has had two in a row and both from the Dog Program. I think we are doing something right!

There is a whole story behind these green and orange socks and the Green Converse!

This has been a great group of kids. They are from all over the state of Utah. Victoria is excited because a couple of them are going to school at USU this Fall.

Kaylyn and Victoria, partners in crime!

Victoria doesn't just hug people so if you get a hug from Victoria, you're special!

Pretty sad that this is the only family photo we have had in years. Life has been hard but we pull it together for eachother.

I felt like I had to get away so Kaleb and I went hiking in Tony's Grove. Being a Friday, there were quite a few people all around. I felt like we couldn't get away from people so we kept taking side trails. Kaleb needed to be away from people too. The introvert in us, I guess. We managed to find a trail away from everyone and sat on a boulder just talking about stuff for about an hour.

We didn't even bring any dogs with us because we just had to get away from everything. I have found that when I need a break from life, I head to the mountains. I just want to run down the trail and immerse myself in nature. I like to just listen to the sounds of life, natural life, the wind blowing through the pine trees is my favorite. We always find something to look at whether it's lichen, moss, bugs or tree bark.

The instigator, the butler and the kid.

Storm rolling in at Bear Lake

I came around the corner with Kaleb asleep in the chair and Jasper in the other one.

Victoria made it to Oklahoma to the Falls Creek Church Camp. There were 5 kids from Wasatch Cowboy Church and Victoria from Cache Cowboy Church that traveled and met up with about 100 youth from Cross Trails Cowboy Church in Texas. They stayed in a lodge together and had a wonderful time. Some of the Seniors from Cross Trails wanted to kidnap Victoria and take her back to Texas with them. She had asked me what I would do if that happened. I said, Oh, I'd send you a plane ticket in about a week. She tolerates so much in a day because her body won't cooperate. She lives through pain, discomfort with the PICC line now, an abdominal drain that she has had for 8 months at this point, Crohn's pain, poor appetite, the list goes on. BUT....she manages to hang in there when she needs to. She crashed when we picked her up. It took her over a week to recooperate from the trip.

It took two days drive to get back. On the last day, a Sunday, Kaleb and she were playing BattleShip via texting. It took them almost 3 hours to play the game completely. I love their relationship.