What have we been up to!?

I work with Albertsons and collect all of their food they would THROW AWAY that day and bring it to my house, I get food from every department, meat, deli, fresh deli, bakery, produce, floral, & dairy--I typically will get 18 banana size boxes of food--my denali is PACKED top to bottom, front to back & thats WITHOUT the 3rd seat in--quite often its overflowing to my 2nd seat even!

I do it every day except wed/sun--i leave my house at 9:30am to pick up tracy and we drive 12 minutes to get there, load my truck up and get back home by 930am to my driveway lined with friends/families that need the extra help with food-we quickly unload it then tracy & i get to go thru it 1st to pick out what we want for our families then i open it up to everyone else who is there...
THIS WAS TUESDAYS RUN:









I ask them to donate 2 dollars to cover my gas going back & forth--everyone is SO good about paying and often want to donate more--you typically will walk away with ATLEAST 30 dollars worth of groceries EACH PERSON if not more...

The food is stuff that is out of code, ie close to the due date, stuff they've ordered too much of or it has a dented box etc--its all GREAT EATABLE food! I tell people to just take what they will eat for dinner that night, what they will have for lunch and anything else like milk, bread, eggs, cheese, yougurt etc..it works really well..I tell everyone to be done by 10:15am so I can go on with my day--

This program is called Fresh Rescue & was started only with Albertsons in 2005..you have to have a NonProfit Organization with at Tax ID # to do it--all of the stores in Cali are taken & they are moving the program eastward--
THIS WAS THURSDAYS RUN:





It really is SUCH an easy thing for me to do everyday--it doesnt take a lot of my time and i LOVEEEEEEEEEEEE helping all these families--i have about 25 families that Im helping--1/2 of them arent LDS--just friends of LDS families that come because they heard about what I was doing--

I havent even gone to the grocery store since i started this--Im not even using the church food program either--that gives you an idea of seriously HOW MUCH food im getting--

i wanted to take a photo of my ALWAYS STOCKED fridge--

EVERYTHING literally was free from albertsons...the food run has just been fabulous!

we drove to lake hemet on saturday to meet up with some friends-here are a few photos from that..the girls didnt catch anything only our friend russell did--the guy with the white hair is our friend named jeff--he taught them how to fish..so he had the girls reel in the SAME fish for each girl--too cute...





jeff bbq'd us some burgers & hot dogs, it was complete with smores too--its about an hour drive from our house and was WAY WAY fun for the girls--

Is it cute or what! Jon wants me to now get a license plate that says "Beauty & The Beast"--




We are STILL WAITING to see if we get any bites on jons book-so far about 7 or 8 no's...patience...patience...patience...

LASTLY --you may remember last year how Rachel was nominated to attend the National Young Scholars Program (a camp like thing that you have to have excellent grades, be a leader at the school & be nominated by a teacher..she was able to go to a LA college for a week & earned a full ride scholarship to go)-she was nominated AGAIN to go this year to Washington d.c!! it will be in June--we tried for a scholarship but she didnt get it this time (probably because she got one last year) so we will have to work on raising money for her to go..its not cheap 1880 for her to go & thats JUST the camp part...
on top of that a few weeks ago she was ALSO nominated to attend a program in which she will get to go to the 2009 Presidential Inaguaration!!!! As an Inaugural Scholar and special guest on the National Mall, Rachel will not only bear witness as the President of the United States is sworn into office, she will also meet a major presidential candidate, White House officials, congressional staff, political experts and special VIPs such as Lance Armstrong. Ive already spoken to a few of our friends here that own their own business to see if they can help sponsor her to go..I've got 1k so far (its 2500 to attend)--again we're hoping we can pull this ONCE in a lifetime opportunity for her--we keep telling her SEE what happens when you work hard at school!!

SO this is what we have been up to!

Still waiting

to hear back anything on Jons book--but in the mean time Robert (jons dad) had his 60th SURPRISE bday bash last weekend..here are a LOT of photos from that--ENJOY! Mom did a GREAT job putting it on!!!
getting ready to yell


SURPRISE!!



Robert's Reaction


Chad,Kelly & Cameron (the youngest of four boys)


Jon, Christina


Todd, Celene


Kristi & Chris


Scott, Kellie, Esther (their 1st)


Mark, Jennifer


Katie, Seth


Kellie's family The Wilsons (some of them!)


Seth's parents The Goodmans (also the Orange Stake President!)


Brother Christensen


Uncle Mike, Aunt Diane (Robert's sister)


Hal, Colleen Williams -Celene's parents(also in the Orange Stake Presidency)


The Wilburs


Anna/Becca dancing


these were just a FEW of the guests!!

the next day was "family picture day":
Before the BIG photo-do we look THRILLED to be doing this or what!?!??! too funny!


After!


MOST of the grandkids (there are 17 of them and PLENTY more to come-NO THIS IS NOT ANY FORM OF ANNOUNCEMENT FROM ME!!)


Im certainly blessed to be part of this fantastic family!

Waiting...

Its been a while since Ive updated. Mainly because not much has changed. Jon still goes to Project Walk twice a week, girls still in school & cheerleading. Me still running the house!
Jon has finished his book he's been writing. Its hopefully the next harry potter type series. He wrote up his 2 page synopsis & cover letter along with the 1st 50 pages of the 350 that he wrote for the 1st novel and sent it in.
So now we WAIT to see what happens...keep us in your prayers & pray that those who read his words will be prompted to move forward & act.
Thanks to all those that continue to pray on jons behalf & continue to render service to our family-we're so grateful!

Sarah had her baptism satrudayhe turn out was SO GOOD! the room was completely full! we were totally shocked! i had the whole family take part in the baptism..so the bishopric member kept saying "i guess its safe to say thank you bro. or sis. hales" it was funny..we had my parents, heidi's fam, jons parents, chads fam, todds fam, scotts fam and a lot of our ward friend families--it was just so neat..
jon was able to baptize her in the font-it was something special..after the ordinance, they both looked at eachother like "we did it!" it was awesome..then we had everyone come back to our house for some good grub..






this is my parents holding heidi's little girl paige-she's GORGEOUS!



it was so neat to have SUCH huge family & friend support--thanks to everyone!!

deadlines, baptism, PW video..

our roadshow is fast approaching-still going good there--
sarah's baptism is set for nov.3rd but there MIGHT be a possibilty to do it on another date so that JON CAN PERFORM the baptism-HELLO! would take a lot of work and a lot of help-but i know jons family would do whatever it took to make that happen..we asked sarah what she wanted and she immediately said she wanted "dad" to which it made jon cry...so touching..
i had to take jon to PW on thursday (sandra was busily eating im SURE on their mexican riveria cruise w/ grandma mikkelson-can you tell im SO JEALOUS! i miss cruises!!)and i noticed they were video taping him-i'll need to go online to www.projectwalk.org to see if they've FINALLY updated his video..

well life is busy as usual at the hales home...before i know it the holidays will be here..girls are having fun doing dance and cheerleading--i thought i'd have a houseful of athletes..guess that may have to wait till highschool years..

Jons on the mend!

whoo hoo jons on the mend..things are a little bit back to normal again -well normal for us anyway!! He stopped the fever thing and all is well again..
We have been put incharge of the youth roadshow, we presented the script to the youth on wednesday night -there were 30 of them and they LOVED IT!!!! jon said that was the best part-that they actually liked it!! He has been SO BUSY with that-keeping it organized...we start "real" rehearsals each wednesday for 4 weeks, then a couple dress rehearsals then the REAL SHOW! YIKES!
Today is Sarah's 8th bday-im BUSY making 35 cupcakes--we'll be going to our family FAVORITE place called Jose's (for 30 bucks we feed the WHOLE family & our kids think its a "real" restaraunt" and not fast food!)then back home for the rest of the cupcakes and gifts...tomorrow she'll have a small little bday party and we'll call it a birthday success!
She will be baptized Nov. 3rd--which is the SAME day as one of our dress rehearsals..can we say STRESSED and busy mommy i am!!

doing better...

well girls are healed YA FOR MOM -its back to school for them! they only missed monday...
jon seems to keep getting the fever at NIGHT?? we think his body cant "cool off" so it builds up heat thru the day and by 7pm he's DYING and wants everything off!! so today he is in bed since we will be at mutual for roadshow stuff, and he's got cooler clothes on-ive got the AC right at 77 (if its more then that he has a SERIOUS radar and will come a calling! its quite funny!!)

still VERY rough...

its still rough over here for jon...he stayed in his bed all day sunday to rest up--having a UTI is like having the flu...his fever had broken thru the night, but was back again by sunday night..
today the nurse helped him with his morning care..then he stayed in bed till about 1230pm..i took him out and he's been working on the roadshow for our ward on the computer..he's eating some chicken noodle soup now and will get back into bed here shortly...
tomorrow he wont be going to project walk..

on a side note my 2 older girls got sick too..one has a fever, the other a cold..both stayed home from school..they REALLY wanted to go though because they were competing for the 100% attendance award at school..they wanted me to take them in the morning then after roll was taken, pick them back up..but this AM neither of them even wanted to do that plan..so they must really be miserable..makes for a quiet house here though!

quick update..Jon has his fever STILL tonite..its low grade at 100.7 but still! I told him tomorrow if he still has it im taking him in..he's never had a fever that wouldnt go away..especially after being on medication...i'll update tomorrow morning..he did manage to stay up in his chair from 1230-8pm! he got to working REALLY hard on the roadshow and was on a roll..but he's in bed shivering because he's hot yet cold at the same time..

Prayers for Jon..

We took jon into the Urgent Care today..he has a really bad UTI..he's starting the antibiotics so hopefully in time all will be better...he has a fever of 101.2 and his muscle spasms are very difficult...we wont be going to church tomorrow and letting him rest--getting out of the truck when we got home..he teared up and said "this is so hard"---its REALLY rough right now for him...

i'll keep everyone updated on his progress...THANKS for the extra prayers!

Cold weather...

is hard for jon--now that its cold..he's gone from BURNING..to almost STINGING..when its cold, his body reacts to it..he says he feels like he's smothered in snow and its a stinging burning pain...
i cannot imagine being in such CONSTANT pain all day every day for the rest of your life..he takes medication for it--but like he says..he doesnt want to take heavy narcotics to be at a 0 level all the time, but he FOR SURE doesnt want to be at a level 10 where he cant even function or get out of bed..so he's compromising by trying to stay at a level 4 or 5--
he was asked to be IN CHARGE of the ward roadshow-can we say STRESSFULL!!!!!! he was given 5 days to come up with a 15 minute script..due tomorrow..together we've worked something out-so hopefully its approved and we can get busy with the youth--i will have to find someone to help me care for the girls on wed nights while jon and i are at the church for the next 6 weeks--i'll have to get working on that--
everything else seems to be going well--kids are still doing great in school, jon continues to work hard at PW, we've just been SOOOOOO blessed to have wonderful family--both sets of parents have bent over backwards to help us right now and we will forever be indebted to them...sometimes we sit back and think what just happened?!?! how blessed and grateful we are to have such tremendous support from our parents, siblings, friends and church members--continued thanks for everything everyone does to help our family---it never goes unnoticed!

Life in progress

Life seems to be progressing for us all over here-we're on our routine now and following it pretty closely. We are enjoying the quieter days and Im enjoying the cleaner house!
Jon is doing well-he's working hard everyday on his project and he hopes to have something completed by the end of the month-
Sarah will be having her 8th bday the end of the month-we look forward to her baptism nov. 3rd.

That's about all thats happening over here-but like they say never a dull moment!

Rolling on...

So our family is still rolling on..im THOROUGHLY enjoying my garages...especially because i can park my truck back into the garage--my poor truck has missed its parking space in the garage! jon jokes that garages are suppose to just be attached storage units-i say garages are to hold your cars! obviously i won that little battle..heheh

I think Jon has another UTI--I need to get him tested and then get him some antibiotics, UTI's-they are just CONSTANT!

The girls have started school this past week-Rachel's in 5th grade, Sarah's in 3rd grade and Anna is in Kindergarten. Becca will be going to "potty training school" at my friends house this week-looking FORWARD to that! Poor becca cries EVERYTIME ALL of her older sisters walk out the door to walk to school..she feels SO left behind..which is why I keep talking up the potty training school..poor girl..little does she know right!

During the day its sooooooooooooooo nice and quiet, becca and i hit the gym every morning, jon is able to work SO MUCH more with less distractions too.

Here is our family schedule & chore list-i LOVE schedules! our family functions SO well on a schedule!
HALES FAMILY SCHEDULE:
730-8am wake/dress/scriptures/prayer/send kids to school
8-9am pick up house/start laundry/chores/personal scripture/prayers
9-1015 gym
1030-1220 make calls for work
1230 pick up anna
1230-1pm lunch for family
1-230 make calls for work
230-3pm email/blog
3pm homework w/ girls
330-5pm cath jon/pick up house/laundry/girls do chores
5-6pm make dinner
6pm eat/family clean up kitchen/downstairs
(Rachel clothes in basket/Sarah toys in basket/Anna&Becca trash)
700 showers/pick up bedroom/fhe
800 family prayer/BEDTIME for small girls (color/read for 30 minutes)
830 BEDTIME for big girls (color/read for 30 minutes in OWN ROOMS)
830 Jon in bed/scriptures
9pm LIGHTS OUT


CHORE LIST:

Monday: Bathrooms (Rachel upstairs/Sarah downstairs)
-wipe sinks, counter, mirror, toilet
Tuesday: Stairs (Rachel wipe/Sarah wipe)
Wednesday: Dust (Rachel piano, dinning room table, lamp table/Sarah computer
desk, office desk, living room table)
Thursday: Doors (Rachel outside back door/Sarah inside back door w/soap&water)
Friday: Trash (Rachel upstairs/Sarah downstairs) TAKE OUTSIDE


FAMILY HOME EVENING LESSON SCHEDULE:
1st Monday: Dad
2nd Monday: Mom
3rd Monday: Rachel
4th Monday: Sarah
5th Monday: PLAY DAY!

Well thats about it--Hope everyone enjoys their Labor Day Weekend!

Garage Clean out Day with the Hales!

Today at 8am Robert, Sandra, Scott and Todd met us here to help clear out the two garages-now that all the construction is done it was time to clear it all up--it only took about 2 hours! Here are some before and after photos- of course our favorite is the one with Todd on Jons motorcycle "contemplating"!!

School countdown is oN!

School starts Aug. 27th-we've had a good summer-- filled with lots of things for hte kids to do..beach on tuesdays, multiple trips to sea world with Jon, musuem, water parks, and lastly a 2 day trip to vegas (actually henderson) to stay at my cousins house- it was great! we left monday and it took about 3 hours to get there..we NEVER went outside (except for the kids to swim in the backyard 3-4 times per day) then we left wed at 4pm getting home at 7pm..it was perfect!

Jon is doing good-he seems to be REALLLLLY tight..his legs will curl up realy bad or go straight really hard..its really hard on him to have his body constantly tight like this all the time..he continues to either be burning hot or freezing cold..but its more bearable for him now--maybe he's just getting use to it..poor guy..

He's still in great spirits and has IMMENSE hope that he will walk again and gain his body back--

The wheel of life

Keeps on turning...things are pretty good here..jon seems to be VERY tight all the time-when i transfer him back into bed-his legs go everywhere and tighten up-its hard to be moving him and then his body moving fast and hard the OPPOSITE way i need them to go!! But we're managing..

We ventured out to Sea World yesterday for the 2nd time this summer with the girls-it was lots of fun-so nice to have so many shows to SIT AT and enjoy! The Shamu show at nite is a must see!!

I met with Wendy again -they are home now-it was great to be able to share knowledge back and forth!

Well Ive been asked to speak for 30-45 minutes for the Woodcrest Ward Relief Society Overnighter-which is SATURDAY!!?!?!? YIKES! Ive got thoughts going thru my head..ive got a few things written down but need to work on flushing them out..My HOPE is to work on it tonite and all day tomorrow if the girls will let me-jon will be home tomorrow so I can hide in my room and work on it..good thing im a not shy about speaking in public!

Just thinking....

I have been asked to speak to some ladies in the other ward about facing trials..I realize i should probably get to work on this since its NEXT SATURDAY that i am to deliver!! yikes!

Today has been an interesting day for me..i received a voice message from my friend Amy Novak about a family who had an accident in February. WWW.scottortizeupdate.blogspot.com I visited his site and immediately felt the need or prompting to go visit scott and his wife wendy. I made arrangements for my girls and headed off to the Fontana Kaiser. I found his room and stepped in-Scott was resting in his bed I proceeded to tell him who I was and how I came about to his blog. He said his wife had just stepped out and would be back shortly and that she was anxious to meet me. Very soon after Wendy, his wife, came in and immediately we hugged. It was a little overwhelming for me to think that I am now in a position to off her help and assistance and a listening ear to someone else who is now JUST BEGINNING to go thru what we have gone thru this past year and a few months. It will be good for both of us as wives to have eachother to talk to about our excitements and frustrations.

With this event fresh in my mind-I went thru the beginning of my blog archives which Im SO BLESSED TO HAVE-and realized just how blessed we truly have been. Jon has come amazingly so far in such little time. To think there were many nites where he wasnt even sleeping! He wasnt eating! What really has brought tears to my eyes is to go thru the comments family, friends and strangers have left -to read their thoughts, encouragements and hopes for the best--thats just really something. Im grateful for the technology these days to have such instant thoughts of hope from around the world-even Brazil! To again witness people changing because of the trial our family is going thru. Another favorite quote of mine is the purpose of this life is to "change".

Well time for me to get back to work around here-the house is settling down for the night-Robert will be here tomorrow to help us-I need to utilize him as the HANDY MAN-i have like 37 lightbulbs that need to be replaced! Good Times!

Thanks AGAIN many many many thanks again to all those that continue to read the blog-im sorry i havent been good at updating--with kids out for the summer its been a little hetic-we are all still doing very well and very happy--continue those prayers for jon that his body will recover with the work of project walk-he's a fighter!

UPDATE

Sorry its been so long..our life doesnt change much so there isnt too much to update about...

Jon is still doing great! He continues to gain more strength and mobility in his arms and chest-he continues to move around enough so that we aren't doing pressure releases for him constantly like last year..essentially this is his schedule:

730AM Amanda the caretaker/nurse comes in and prep's him for the day
11AM on tue/thu he continues to go to project walk
11am mon/wed/fri he continues to work on the laptop
130pm he has lunch which he continues to be able to feed himself
330pm i cath him and give his medication
6pm he has dinner again feeding himself
730pm mon we have fhe which he prep's the lessons
730pm tue he has his Elders Quorum Meetings at our house and does family visits
830-930pm his good friend russell continues to come EVERY NIGHT to put him back in bed and stretch him
1030pm i prep him for the night -he continues to use and all night cath and the bed is an airmatress so he can stay in one spot and not have to rotate all thru the nite like before

he is able to use his knuckles to work any computer and is able to make and receive phone calls as well--

so as you can see life is A LOT easier then it was a year ago!!!

We no longer receive state disability-so its ONLY social security which isnt very much-we're VERY blessed to have family and the church to carry us through until we can figure out what is going to work for our family. We've been EXTREMELY blessed to have someone donate money to our family which will pay for jons Project Walk therapies. Ive been working on ways to provide income for the family during this time to help ease the burden that's before us. Along with the travel business, I've been telemarketing calls for a friend who does Reverse Mortgages-I receive a very nice commission for leads that I can provide. I have just started that this week and pray that it will be beneficial for our family-I am able to leave the girls here with jon for a couple of hours and go around the corner to her house into her office and make the 120-140 phone calls. Then I can come back and feed lunch to everyone get some laundry done and head back for a couple more hours.

the BIGGEST update is the lift is completed and working--Monday was his FIRST nite that he slept upstairs with me in OUR ROOM since march 15th 2006--its so wonderful! the things we take for granted!! He is able to sleep up there in his bed which is pushed up against out big ol' cal king bed (which i have MISSED so dearly! ive been sleeping on the couch next to him the past year). The nurse is able to do all his morning care right upstairs-he's even able to have REAL showers now which are HEAVENLY for him he says..






The girls are doing great too-its now summer- thank goodness we have the pool--the little 2 girls where their life jackets and so they all swim together like fish out there- they go in it just about every single day! On tuesday's i take them all down to the beach with other moms in our ward. Rachel got accepted into the National Young Scholars Program (its kind of a prestigeous camp for kids will excellent grades but also very good leaders-she was nominated by her teacher and the only child in her school that got in). She's been at this camp at a college since Sunday and I will pick her up tomorrow! YA!

Well that is the update on our family--we're still plugging away and pray everyday that jon will regain his strength. We certainly have our ups and downs ( a couple of weeks ago we attended one of jons cousins weddings-when the bride started dancing with her father-i completely lost it and had to put my sun glasses on--things like that are hard on me). Just last monday anna was giving the fhe prayer and prayed "that daddy would remember how to walk again so he can stand up"..both jon and i had SUCH a hard time trying not to cry! But all in all-life is SO good..we constantly remind ourselves that it can be 100 times worse then it is now..and we are so grateful to be where we are today-even if its not like it was before..it can always be so much worse..

Thank you for your continued prayers on our behalf--each month our life DOES get better--one day at a time!

NEW BUSINESS ANNOUNCEMENT!

Welcome to my NEW BUSINESS!
www.choosetherighttravel.com

I have now begun the exciting venture in the Travel Industry. I have always had family and friends call and ask me to “find them a good deal” on the internet for their travel. I was presented with an opportunity to provide income for our family by doing just that!

Please take a quick minute to visit my website www.choosetherighttravel.com. There are two options, you can either click on BOOK TRAVEL to make reservations for all of your traveling needs (Air, Hotel, Cruise, Etc). You are certainly welcome to compare our prices to big names such as Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, Cheaptickets etc. You will soon realize that thru my website 95% of the time –it is cheaper!

The 2nd Option you have is to learn how to become your OWN travel agent just like me. Click on LEARN HOW TO BECOME YOUR OWN TRAVEL AGENT and view the company presentation. You will discover the opportunity that is available to anyone!

Thank you for the time that you have taken to view this letter and visit my website. Please take a moment to list the website under your FAVORITES-so that you’ll always have access to it when you are ready to take your next vacation. Please feel free to refer all your family and friends to the website as well. You’ll note on the website for your 1st reservation you will receive a FREE gift certificate for a 3Day/2Night stay at over 26 locations in the US valued at $200-$300.

I am very grateful to have this opportunity to help our family and appreciate your business!

Thank you,


Christina L. Hales
Travel Agent Specialist
www.choosetherighttravel.com

Whats been going on here???

WELL I have been VERY busy putting together a business Im involved with! SO come back Monday after Mothers Day for my BIG Announcement! I hope you all will support me and utilize it to help our family! Im VERY excited about it!!

Other then that HUGE project, things are going well. Jon continues to workout hard at PW tuesdays/thursdays. My dad continues to take him on Tuesdays, while his mom takes him on thursdays-then his dad helps him on Fridays here at the house. He continues to have a positive outlook and is finding more and more ways to be involved with the girls here around the house. He continues to work faithfully in his calling as the EQ secretary. He was a little sick this past week- but seems to be getting better-he's also fighting off another UTI. Amazingly enough he EVEN made my webpage for me! How cool is that?! You'll all be truly impressed that Jon from his wheelchair could do that! Im also working on trying to find a recliner for him for Fathers Day - so SHHHHH dont say anything! He'd enjoy sitting in a "real chair" vs his wheelchair or hospital bed in the middle of the livingroom- he's kind of tired of always being "the patient"!

Im obviously mad busy as always-school is winding down, school state testing is going on for 3 weeks now, school projects are coming due-YIKES! (my favorite joke is the child who came home with a C on his project and the mothers says "what? darn i worked HARD on that too!" too funny huh! I continue to hit the gym daily. WOrk on holding the fort together here!

The girls are doing well- they're anxious for school to be done and enjoy summer- for some reason that frightens me and makes me nervous! 5 people home with me all day everyday!! is anyone else nervous or is it just me???

Well thank you all for your continued prayers and thoughts towards our family--we truly are doing really well. Of course some days are good and some days are sad-but atleast there are good days!! We've come to appreciate them and thank our Heavenly Father for those good days--

Dont forget to come back next Monday!!

Easter

Here is a quick picture of the girls in their white dresses (these are the same ones that were handmade by a friend in our ward- THANK YOU!) with a pretty easter colored sash..
We enjoyed an annual Easter Picnic with the Wilson Family at Irvine Park-then we enjoyed a yummy Easter dinner at my parents house.
Jon is doing well - he is VERY spastic (his muscles)-it may be again UTI issues, we will continue to flush his bladder with liquid neosporin..
Jon now has his therapy at Project Walk Tuesdays and Thursdays in Carlsbad at 12-2pm.
He continues to faithfully serve in his calling at church as the Elders Quorum Secretary and the Presidency meets at our house every tuesday nite at 8pm-they sit around the dining room table and discuss things while jon takes notes using his knuckles on the keyboard of the laptop and takes pretty good notes! He went out with the Presidency last week to visit with a family and they were gone 2 hours- it was a good visit he said!

Our family is grateful for the Resurrection-especially for Jon. The literal and universal nature of the resurrection is vividly described in the Book of Mormon. The prophet Amulek taught:

"The death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death.

"The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; . . .

"Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame" (Alma 11:42­44).

This gives our family strength and hope. His body may or may not become whole in this earthly life-but it WILL become whole in the next life. We strive to continue to do those things that make the family happy-we read our scriptures at 8pm as a family every nite, we pray morning and nite together, we hold family home evening on monday nite-it is not always easy-but it certainly is holding our family together.

We continue to have help from my dad on tuesdays to bring jon to PW and again on thursdays by Jons parents to take him on thursdays-it truly helps to be able to keep me home with the girls and have the family run on our normal family routine-the girls have really become themselves again having me home like before.

It's strange to think this time last year-jon was really suffering so much in the hospital. He's come a long way and continues to do so-we're grateful for all the prayers that are sent our way-our struggles, fears, doubts, sadness all seems to be a little lighter-and we are all grateful!

March..

Today is tuesday march 27th-WOW that came fast! Jon is doing well..he seems to be in a LOT of burning pain as of late..he's been working on not staying in his bed all day..he's only working out tuesday's and fridays..so before he'd stay in bed the 2 days and by friday be pretty lightheaded..so now he gets out about 12noonish and works on the laptop...then he stays up till about 8pm when i put him back in..

The men are here working away on this lift for him..should be done shortly..he's pretty excited to have a "different ceiling to stare at"..he cracks me up!

Well not much else to say...he's still in good spirits and working to improve all over--

Jon 3:16

Interesting title huh- today is 3;16 jons injury date. Today is filled with mixed emotions from our entire family. Right at this time 11am is when I received the call from sheldon about jon. Its still on our answering machine. I just cant seem to delete it. Im not sure why? But im not ready to delete it yet. I'll never forget Celesta rushing to my side to help me get thru this. I'll never forget getting into her car rushing to the Hospital. I'll never forget the phone call to jons father and then to my father. I cant imagine getting a phone call like that about their son. I'll never forget waiting what seemed like forever for the helicopter to land. I'll never ever forget what it sounded like. What it looked like to see so many many people meeting the helicopter to pull jon out and take him inside.
I will never ever ever forget Jons first words to me-"Im so sorry." That is Jon in every sense of the word. Never worried about him-but ALWAYS about others. I'll never forget the tears in his eyes as I looked at him. He looked so handsome! He had no tubes, no scratches, nothing. You would have never known he had something SO MAJOR, SO LIFE CHANGING as he layed their perfectly still.
I will never forget walking away and overhearing 2 doctors say "What happened to him?" and then to hear the other doctor say "Flipped over motorcycle. Basically Superman." It was in those silent moments, all by myself -I knew. Yet I still couldnt believe THAT was going to be MY Jon.
I'll never forget having so many family rush to meet us and be by our side, for their son and for me. I'll never forget waiting in the waiting room during surgery. I'll never forget everyone that was in the room with us. I'll never forget when the surgeon came in to explain to us Jons new life and to prepare ourselves. I just remember sitting there stunned and crying.

Here we are today one year later. He's home with his family. He's MUCH more mobile the the doctors said he would be. He's on medication to help keep his pain levels down and not constantly so high. He's got a regular morning routine with a WONDERFUL caregiver/nurse that we literally prayed to get here. She is PERFECT! We're so grateful! He's found project walk that will again change his life. Im home more with the girls to continue to bring and keep stability in their lives. We've got amazing help from our families with countless, countless service they do for our family. We have an amazing ward that has provided countless acts of service for our family. We have amazing friends that do so much. One that continues to come nightly to strectch jon-EVERY NITE!

Our family has come a long long longggg way. We have all learned many things about ourselves and eachother. Jon is an amazing man. He has to work SO HARD EVERYDAY for the littlest things. I think back to when he couldnt even lift a spoon to feed himself, and now he can. I think back to when he couldnt even get out of bed and now with my help he can. I think back to when he was constantly passing out on me, and now thats improved. So much of him has improved!!

Thank you to all of you that constantly think of our family, serve our family, have given money to our family. We wouldnt have made it thru this year without everyone. We have been very blessed this past year. We are so grateful. Heavenly Father is watchful of our family. He has helped us in so many ways. We have much hope for the future and what it holds for us. We will continue to live and discover the many many lessons to learn thru this. We look forward to the day when our family will be together forever and each of us whole and healthy. We look forward to the day when our blessings for being patient, long suffering, and humble will be received in the eternities. It gives us hope. It gives us strength. Its pure and simple.

On to the next year of more improvement and as Jon would say -Rock on!

Sore throat for Jon..

The past couple of days jon has stayed down in his bed...he came down with a sore throat on friday nite..his voice sounds pretty bad..im being careful to listen to any coughing he does..to make sure it doesnt lead to pnemonia or anything of that nature..
hopefully its just a head cold type thing and it doesnt lead into his chest..

from now on he will be at Carlsbad tuesdays and fridays until the schedule changes to get him there 3 times a week..he's shown interest in continuing in LA like he's been doing the past 8 weeks or so..

tomorrow i will be taking the girls out of school part day and heading to the beach! we could all use some sun around here!! Jon will hang out at his parents house while we go (his grandma lives on the beach in Corona Del Mar) so me and the girls will spend some good quality time there..then swing back have dinner and showers and head home around 730 or 8pm or so..

keep jon in your prayers that he recovers from this quickly and it doesnt get any worse..he's in GREAT spirits and has thoroughly enjoyed being around me and the girls!

wheelchair fixed

well the wheelchair is fixed..they picked it up and had it done the next day..its suppose to be here today..of course it was the blame game..but its done. thanks to dad, chad and todd for facilitating that!

today is jons last day in LA for rehab-starting next week he'll be going to PW in carlsbad m/w/fridays..not sure what times yet..

he's doing well-for a while i stopped giving him his midnite meds and seeing if it made a difference..he seemed to have adapted to it..so now he only takes his meds 3 times a day instead of 2 which is SOOOOOOOOOOO good!! he also doesnt require me to get up thru the nites to rotate him-so he goes to bed about 11pm and waked around 7am..which is MUCHHHHHHHHHH better for ALLLLLLLl of us!!

its wierd to think next year will be the year mark-jon prefers not to have an anniversary injury date but rather an anniversary walked again date-so that is our focus!!

Sunday..

The past couple of days have been really fun! Scott blessed his baby today in church-so Chads family came down for a QUICK trip to be part of Scott & Kellie's special day.

We started by hitting the beach- we went to Corona Del Mar where Grandma Perry lives and the weather was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO NICE!!! the kids had a blast- my girls are TRUE californians-they all went in the water and NEVER ONCE complained that it was cold! Im a total whimp if its SLIGHTY cold- my toes could sense it WAS cold though!

Sunday was the blessing- which I needed to get my family down to OC by 850am!!! we did it somehow-and i didnt have to yell the whole way to church-it was quite pleasant! The girls were good about helping, and i had organized everything the nite before to make it run smoothly..

After church we met back at the hales home for some grub- and it was GOOD! by tail end of the afternoon-jons chair broke!??! what on earth! the main axel something or another broke-its a good thing jon didnt fall out..not good...needless to say ANOTHER MAJOR thing i will have to figure out and get taken care of!! I believe its still under warranty- I THINK..so i will be checking that out..but the boys of the family (need i say the hales lawyers boys -which there are 3) say its a MAJOR deal and there shouldnt be a problem getting it taken care of..always helps to have lawyers get things done right!! hehe

well here are some pics of the day--enjoy! (be sure to move your mouse over the pic to read the captions..

JONS ONLINE!!

yaa! finally jon is online..here is the page to go to (copy and paste)

http://projectwalk.org/clientLocatorNew.php

type in jon h from riverside- ENJOY!

JONS ONLINE!!

yaa! finally jon is online..here is the page to go to

http://projectwalk.org/clientLocatorNew.php

click on jon h from riverside- ENJOY!