Celebrating 40 Years

Bruce & Bonnie celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on May 26th. Congratulations Mom & Dad. We love you.

Ryan At Mormon Prom

Well as Ryan is getting ready to graduate. He was doing things somewhat like the other kids. He was invited to the Mormon Prom. He got in invitation in the mail and was so excited. He said he wanted to go. So we told him that he could go, and when he got board he could tell us and we would go home. the total time spent there was about 30 minutes. We got there Ryan danced a little bit, had some refreshments and then he was done and ready to go home. 

Chainsaws and Knees Don't Mix

Well, once again, I have proved that chainsaws and knees do not play well together.  Seriously folks, between car license plates, a couple of chain saws and two by fours sticking out of the ice, my legs and knees are beginning to look like a MiaMaid service project crossed with a "Young Frankenstein" remake.  Uneven ground, sticks and logs all over the ground did not contribute to an OSHA approved workplace.  But I did have my impact glasses and ear protection on! 
I felt something hit my leg, looked down and saw the torn jeans.    So I called to Krystal to unhook the trailer from the tractor and bring the tractor over to give me a ride to the car.  I had her bring me a towel from the dryer and then a knife.  She brings me the world's dullest pocket knife.  I had to saw away for five minutes on my jeans in order to cut through the side seams to cut the bottom of the jean leg off.  I was about to have her go get me a butter knife.  It might have been faster.  Then I cut up a section of the pant leg for a pad over the wound, and the rest of the jean bottom into strips.  The strips, I tied together to hold the pad and towel in place around the wound, which was looking very scarlet about now.  No fountain effects and it was holding my weight, so I was felling pretty good about things.  Then Krystal set the land-speed record for the slowest traversal from our house to the hospital.  I swear, she managed to hit every stop light through town! "Hey Dad," she says.  "When do the endorphins wear off?"
"They have already worn off.  You have my permission to do seventy miles an hour.  Just don't get us in an accident on the way to the hospital."
Once in the ER, I made serious points with the Triage Nurse.  "Has your wife been notified yet?" she asked.
"She is attending a woman's conference in Centreville right now.  There's nothing that she can do anyway, so let's let her enjoy her conference and I'll call her when she gets done in a couple of hours."She also admired the cool, field-expedient wound dressing that I made.  "When was your last Tetanus shot." she asked.
"Umm, about ten years ago." I said.  "That would have been the last time that I put a chain saw into my knee." At which point, all my atta-boy points with the Triage Nurse evaporated.  She looked at me for a minute and said "Do you do this regularly?""Well, you guys have done such a cool job of remaking the ER since the last time that I was here, that I figured I had to have some reason to come and check out all the changes that you've done."
"We do have visitor hours." She said.I sent Krystal off to work (someone in the house needs to be able to earn a living), and they carted me off to the bowels of the ER.

One of those cool changes is that you can now call on your cell phone from within the ER.  So I was able to keep Kalie and Nikki up to date on my progress. They were having their own mis-adventures crossing the country.  They had caravaned with a guy whose car blew a head-gasket in Nebraska.

The PA who worked on me did a great job.  We sat there and chatted about suturing techniques and why she was using an interrupted stitch instead of a running stitch.  It's been a while since I did sutures and they have some cool new tools.  For one thing, they have a "splash guard" that lets them do a really good job of cleaning out the wound.  It looks like the cups that you use to wash out your eyes, but it's three times as big and has a place to stick a syringe.  With it, she was able to blast the wound with sterile water and really get it cleaned up.  "Man," I said.  "I am glad you get to clean that up.  I had thought it was a nice clean cut, but it's just shredded at the bottom.  Getting that thing debreeded and stitched up is going to be a pain!"
"Yeah, you are right." she said.  "And I can't cut away too much because the cut is directly across the knee and you are going to need the extra skin to stretch."
She ended up putting in these huge 1/2 inch stitches that pulled together sections of shredded skin.  Hey, it don't look too pretty, but it's holding together and healing up very nicely.

When Gail finished her conference, she noticed that Kalie had called and called her back.  Of course, she ignored the text messages from me asking when she would be finishing up the conference.  As Kalie wrapped up her own tale of woe (a very funny story, but you will need to get that from her), Kalie casually queried "Have you talked with Dad recently?"
"No, why do I need to talk with him?" she asked.
"Weeell, he needs you to pick him up at the hospital." Kalie replied.
"He put the chainsaw into his leg again, didn't he." Gail said.
"Yup."
Gail's timing was perfect.  The Triage Nurse recognized her as "The one who was attending the woman's conference" and whisked her right in to my room.  She got there just in time to see the PA finish bandaging things up and to help me limp out the door to the big van (we had to replace it a few months ago.)"

Fortunately, the good Lord looks after fools and children.  The radiology report says I missed the actual patella, and all veins, arteries and tendons.  I've been home for the week.  Sadly, no serious happy pills, but I have been taking serious dosages of Ibuprofen and getting wonderful sores from the knee brace.

-- A. Rick

Libby's Chicago Adventure

Libby had quite the weekend, jetting off (with Amy) to Chicago to see Aunt Gail (Bennett-DeJesus) play Mary Poppins in her National Tour Debut. She loved the show and kept singing the songs all weekend long. But that was just the beginning, she also got to see Uncle Aaron play the Fox in a Children's Production of Pinocchio, play with Uncle Ben and Shelly, take her first ride in a Taxi, check out the parks all over town....and Have some deep dish, chicago style Pizza at the famous Giordano's! Oh, she also got to eat Pink Ice Cream! It was a truly wonderful weekend!

The Answer to Aunt Gail's Question

Apparently this picture proves your never to old for Easter. In this picture is Alan, Ryan, Krystal, & JJ trading candy from their Easter Egg hunt. If you have never been to Aunt Gail & Uncle Rick's house your missing out. There is always something fun brewing. It could be in the form of gaming, watching movies, playing games or even in the form of hard work which somehow turns out to be fun. The Easter Bunny was good to everyone at the Anderson house this year. Thanks Easter Bunny.

Easter at the Anderson's

Little Ben and Libby Ritter Hunting for Easter eggs, in Aunt Gail's front yard. It did not take them long to figure out what to do. Of course there is always a little help from the big people:) Thanks Aunt Babs.

Just one Question are you ever to old for Easter?

Curtis Clan Blog...TAKE TWO

Keeping up with our ever growing Curtis family has became quite a challenge. Our family has been spread across the country for many reasons making family reunions more challenging. Enter Stage right.. The Curtis Clan Blog. My vision for this blog is to create a mini family reunion in a couple of clicks. A place where you can go and share your exciting life changing experiences, your challenges & even your everyday experiences. Introduce us to your new spouse, tell us about your new baby or grand baby, let us know what your studying in school. The more we share the more coming to our blog will come to feel like a group hug at a family reunion. Hopefully a place to connect or reconnect with family.
Along with my own family updates I plan to periodically post stories & questions about Grandma & Grandpa (aka John & Barbara) in hopes to create discussions and share information about who they were. Just imagine sitting around reminiscing about the old days without leaving home.