Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

Top ten from the Holts (in no particular order):

11.     George Strait concert in January. It was our anniversary gift to ourselves. We had great seats on the floor! He even touched Steph’s hand!

22.     Steph passed her hunter safety class.  So, Justin took Steph hunting for the first time ever. We just went for 1 day and hiked a lot and camped out.  It was a fun trip.  We saw some deer, but never got close enough.  We also saw a huge moose!

33.     Went fishing a couple of times. 

44.     Had an amazing Goodson family reunion in Virginia. Hooray for family!

55.     We were able to work on the farm for the 7-week break.  Justin helped build a huge bailer barn and increased his welding skills to professional status. It was Justin’s first trip out to the farm and he loved it!

66.     Steph broke her foot in October.  Her first broken bone and first trip to the ER.  It happened at work. A solid metal panel on the bottom of a cow shoot broke off and dropped on her foot. Papa Goodson was the first person Steph talked to and he was a voice of reason and told her to go to the hospital. She couldn’t have done it without him.

77.     We moved into a trailer to save some money. We have more room and it feels more like a home. We love it! Super Mama Goodson came out and helped us move, clean, organize, cook, shop, etc… What an amazing woman. She saved us.

88.     Steph is on an elimination diet to try to get feeling better. It has worked wonders, but has been very hard. She lost 15 pounds.

99.     Justin was the CEO of Tito’s Tacos.  A student run business that he helped create.  They were very successful and made just under $20,000 in 8 weeks.  Unfortunately, they were unable to keep any of the profits because it goes back to the school.

110. Justin built his first knife. 

Update on the old foot

I can now put a little pressure on my foot and I try to hobble around with one crutch.  When we go outside Justin is my other crutch in case I slip on the ice and snow. It still hurts quite a bit though, so I am going to get an MRI.  If my ligament is messed up, then it could take up to 9 months to heal completely.  Hopefully, that is not the case.  But here is some things I have learned about myself: 

- I do not easily get bored. 

- I am sort of (and by sort of I mean really really really a lot) enjoying not having to work outside in the freezing cold. 

- I wish I could be more helpful around the house with things. (I can now do dishes for a short amount of time and laundry...progress).

- I took my first shower since I broke my foot. It was exciting and I sat on an ice chest that we put in the shower. Good times.

It's kind of hard to see, but my foot is still swollen and bruised (this was a couple weeks ago...but it still pretty much looks the same. Maybe more bruising).

Steph's first broken bone

On October 23, 2013 Steph broke her foot. It happened at work. Her first broken foot and visit to the ER.

This was taken a week after it happened, when she got her temporary cast off. Now she has to wear a boot. She can't walk on it for 4 weeks, and then has to walk with a boot. 

Here is the temporary cast

My mom is here and she has been AMAZING. Hooray for moms! She cleaned our old apt so good that we got all of the deposit back that we could! She is also organizing our new place and cleaning it up. She cooks us meals and works non-stop to help us. She is the best.

Journal entry:

I broke my foot today at work. I had only been there for 15 minutes. I opened up a ghetto shoot and a heavy solid metal panel dropped on it. It hurt so bad. I took off my boot right away because I didn’t want them to have to cut it off, because they are my new boots that I love. I just sat on the ground and called Justin, but he was in class.  Then I called my mom, but she didn’t answer. I finally got a hold of my dad and I was hysterical and I asked him what I should do. He was awesome and asked me about it and then told me to go to the hospital.  So I called my mom again and talked to her. Then I called my co-worker, Roberto, and he came to rescue me. He was awesome and just picked me up and carried me to the truck and rushed me to the hospital.  It was a long and painful ride to the hospital.  Then I had to wait forever (about 2 hours) till they finally took and x-ray and gave me a painkiller. Then I had to wait some more for the results. Justin rushed to my side and made it just in time to hear what the doctor had to say.  I don’t have to have surgery, which is good. But it’s broken and there is a little piece of bone just floating off to the side. So much pain. I have to elevate it till Sunday. I can’t walk on it for 4 weeks.

It’s bad timing because we are moving tomorrow and we have to clean our apt and now I can’t help with anything. But my mom is planning on coming out to help us and save the day! What an awesome mom and husband I have.  Ben called me while I was in the hospital, which was awesome. He said he knew how boring hospitals can be. What a sweet brother.

I am getting worker’s comp, which is good.  I feel bad because I was in charge of running the cows through the shoot to pull their CIDR’s and give them a shot. What a day. Justin has been so sweet and is making me dinner and taking such good care of me. Karen gave me some books to read too.  What great friends and family I have! Poor broken foot. My first broken bone and my first visit to the ER.

Our first camping trip/My first hunting trip

Last weekend Justin and I went on our first camping trip since we've been married! We had been wanting to for forever, but never found the time.  But we finally went!  It was also my first time going hunting for myself. We shared our tent with Justin’s cousin and his friend.  Justin was so sweet and made sure I was warm.  I usually freeze when I go camping and I didn’t this time! Justin gave me his huge sleeping bag and I had two blankets.  Plus, Justin boiled some water and put it in a water bottle in my sleeping bag.  He also told me to wear less layers because then the sleeping bag will be able to trap my body heat.  What a sweet man I married, he took such good care of me.  He also cooked me a hamburger and carried all the heavy stuff.

The ride into our campsite was a rough one.  I rode on the back of a dirt bike with Justin.  We had it loaded down with all of our stuff and we had to ride in at night, in the dark.  I was scared for my life.  But I trust Justin with my life; he did really good.  We were glad we bought a nice headlamp because that is how Justin saw the trail.  I had my heavy backpack on my back and it was hard to hang onto Justin. I also had to hold my legs up the whole time because there weren’t any pegs to rest my feet on.  That was tiring and something hit my shin a couple times (probably a rock).

The motorcycle all loaded up

I am glad I had my coveralls in my car. They kept me warm on our ride to camp.

Dan was a trooper! He carried so much of our stuff!

We finally got to the campsite and set up the tent, ate dinner, and got all settled in and went to sleep.  Poor Justin had a little sleeping bag that wasn’t really meant for cold weather.  Dan, Justin’s cousin, gave him a fleece sleeping bag ,which helped and Justin would put his head into my sleeping bag.  He also had his feet in my sleeping bag next to the warm water bottle. Daniel was a trooper and packed a bunch of our stuff in and out.  We wouldn’t have been able to do it without him.

Beautiful sunrise

We got up early and hiked up the mountain to try to find some deer.  We hiked all day.  We saw two little bucks and a doe, but they were pretty far away.  Justin and I hiked pretty far and then we ran into a big moose.  Justin was 15 yards away from it when he first saw it (coming up over a little ridge).  He backed away because the moose started coming towards him. It just stood on the top of the ridge, not even 100 yards away and just watched us.  It was curious.  I’ve never seen a moose in the wild so close, and so massive.  It was majestic. We didn’t see any other wildlife and I was wishing we had gone after those little bucks.  It was our only day to hunt, so it was them or nothing.  But it was fun and we were tired and ready to go home.

The majestic, mighty, moose

The ride out was killer.  We were both so sore and had to stop often to rest our muscles.  We crashed once, but it wasn’t that bad.  We just slid in the mud and had a pretty smooth landing. I spotted a bunch of deer crossing the path we had just walked down right as we were leaving.  We tried to go after them, but they were too fast and we couldn’t find them.  Ah well, better luck next time.  We were wishing we had horses; it would have been much easier, and we could have traveled farther.  It was so fun to just be in the wilderness together.  A great weekend! 

Plums!

Roberto gave me some plums from his plum tree, in addition to the apples! This bucket used to be clear full. I ate 30 the first day. And I ate the whole bucket in about a week...yep. They were so delicious and such a nice treat. Yay for plums!

Food

We made some bacon wrapped stew cubes the other night! It was so delicious. 

One of the guys I work with, Roberto, has an apple tree and he said he would bring me some apples. I had no idea it would be such a huge box of them! So we are going to dehydrate a bunch of them. Hooray for awesome and generous people! Also free food!

Elimination Diet

It has been a little over a week since I have started my elimination diet. I am doing this to try to cure myself of all my weird sicknesses/issues. I hope it works. I can only eat meat and certain fruits and vegetables. It. Is. Hard. But I know it will be worth it in the end. Here are some things that have happened:

- I dream about food all the time now. haha I don't think I have ever dreamed about food until now (and then I wake up craving whatever food I was dreaming about).
- Going shopping in a store is killer (especially now that Halloween is upon us) because I see all the delicious foods and candies that I cannot have. It's like I am being tortured.
- Sweet potato fries are the best thing that has ever happened
- When I smell food that is not part of my diet, it is so yummy...just to smell
- I have to get up 30 minutes earlier than I normally do because it takes me forever to make and eat breakfast
- It also takes me much longer to make my lunches for work
- I eat constantly but not very large amounts
- I will suddenly be starving and then I get full if I eat a carrot
- I eat bacon everyday (delicious)
- I have only been super cranky one day due to my sugar withdrawal (it's like I'm going through rehab- sugar is a drug)
- Our food bill has doubled and probably will quadruple by the end of the month

Things I crave:
- rolls
- pizza
- candy corn (everyday)

So it's an exciting adventure. I'm excited to be healthy again! It will be worth it. I will appreciate food a lot more after this.

On a side note, I got really sick the night of the first day I started this diet. What a coincidence.

I am 26!

I am 26 now! Crazy. This post is a little late. We had a late birthday celebration for me when we got home from Nevada. One day after work I came home to flowers, a balloon, gifts, and brownies in the oven! What an amazing man I have married. Needless to say, it made my day!

Justin got me a sweet razor pocket knife that I have been wanting and some chocolate :) He know's me well. And I bought some sweet boots for work with the money my parents gave me! Hooray for new boots and a knife. Yay! On a side note, I went to every boot store in Idaho Falls and tried on every boot in my size until I found these! They fit perfectly and are so comfortable. Turns out they are also made of elephant skin so they are supposed to be really tough. 

Our Summer on the Farm!

This summer we went and worked on the farm! My family was so very nice to let us come. They gave us our own trailer to stay in and everything! They took turns feeding us, and we so sweet. Yay for family! Here are some of the things that happened: 

Justin hurt his leg on a very rugged motorcycle ride. They basically rode up a mountain.  He was trying to not hit a tree and stuck his leg out and it hit the peg and split his shin open. Ouch

This was there very inventive bandage when they were up in the mountains with nothing. It's part of Justin's sock, some toilet paper, and Luke's undershirt. 

We helped build this huge barn where they are going to park the bailers under!

We went swimming in a sweet new pond that has warm water and a swing! Awesome

We tried to explore a sweet mine, but it was collapsed. 

It was a pretty long ride.

The crew

Justin and Justin really hit it off and were very good buddies

Justin got to go off the bail swings for the first time

His foot went through the loop when he went off the 4th bail

He's so handsome

Sweet sand hills that they rode up 

More building

Justin got a lot of welding hours in and is a pro now

We also got to help Nate and Angela build their extension on their house

My 26th birthday

Lauri made me delicious oreo cookies! And lasagna!

What a great summer! We got good work in and were able to quadruple what I would have made had we stayed in Rexburg. We are so blessed!