Let's Compare....

...shall we? As a family we have struggled with having Family Home Evening (FHE) regularly. So I decided that new home, new us...I wanted desperately to be better at having FHE. I thought, just for fun, we'd compare our FHE's in Cheyenne vs. here. Let's start with Cheyenne.
Cheyenne FHE

• Opening Prayer
• Opening Song
• Lesson-This is usually where the yelling starts due to the fact that no one is listening. Sometimes we'd do a game instead just to really shake things up.
• Closing Song
• Closing Prayer
• Treat-Now the fist fights break out over who got the biggest cookie. There may occasionally be a bit of blood, someone bites someone else, etc. you get the idea.

In general we laugh, we cry, we feel the spirit and then immediately drive it from our home. That is a run down of a Cheyenne FHE. Now let's go over a Star Valley FHE

• Mommy prepares a wonderfully tasty picnic dinner of tuna sandwiches and chips...with fabulous homemade white chocolate chip pudding cookies for dessert.
• Daddy gets home and we all excitedly drive to the park.
• Opening Prayer
• We eat dinner...which consists of Mommy eating two sandwiches and everyone else eating a cookie with pop...nutritious!
• The games begin....children running everywhere...craziness ensues!
• Mommy cleans up the picnic.
• Kessie yells "Mommy watch me!"
• Kessie slips off the monkey bars...screaming starts (yeah, that was me and Kessie).
• Mommy runs as fast as she can, carrying Kel across the park. (Her fastest run is equivalent to a snail running backward uphill).
• Daddy gets to Kessie first. He shows Mommy how Kessie's upper arm is bent at an odd angle. This is where the yelling starts (see, we made it further in this FHE without yelling than the other one...."Get in the Car, move, move!")
• Mommy drives to the ER.
• Kessie is super brave as the hours drag on, they x-ray her, and different doctors pay her a visit.
• The doctors put a temporary brace on Kessie's arm and send her home.
• Oh, wait, this FHE ain't over yet....we wanted to add a little excitement so we drove to Jackson (a little over an hour away) at six the next morning so Kessie could have surgery.
• Two pins later, her arm is back together and she's sleeping of the anesthesia in the recovery room.

In general we laugh, we cry, scream, and panic. Did we have fun? Yeah, there was that thirty seconds at the beginning that was pretty cool. Did we feel the spirit? Yes, we feel so blessed to have modern medicine and fabulous doctors. I am so grateful for our health, when something happens, you realize how good you really had it. Do I still have that same yearning to hold regular FHE? Not so much. I'm a bit leery. If we do have FHE again, it will be called something like, Group Gathering...please sit and stare...don't even think about moving.
This first picture is of Kessie in the recovery room. She slept for about three hours. I think mainly because she hadn't slept the night before. I had told her that they would do the surgery while she was asleep and so she wouldn't feel anything, and so she had tried to stay up all night so that she would be tired and be able to sleep through the surgery. I finally had to tell her that they had medicine to help her sleep and that she didn't have to fall asleep on cue. Cute girl! They allowed her to take her stuffed animals into surgery with her, but not her Mommy. I have never wanted to be a fat, furry, inanimate teddy bear so much in my life. It was so hard to have to watch them wheel her away. She was sobbing, and it was more than I could take. The doctors and nurses were fabulous, though. They brought me back as soon as she was out of surgery. They let her sleep for as long as she wanted, and while she slept, Kel and the nurses played peek-a-boo! This is a phone picture, so not the best.

This second picture is today when she got home from getting her cast on. It's got glitter! I had to hurry and snap a pic because Lanny came running in with a sharpie. I signed, "I love you, cowgirl! xxoo, Mommy". Aaron, however, thought he was signing autographs and signed, "Daddy "Big Fish" Johnson, yeah, he's a dweeb, somethings never change! Please note the shirt in both pictures. Yeah, it's the same, and no, I haven't washed it. It's the shirt she had on when she fell and she won't change it. I wonder what it will smell like in six more weeks...I guess we're going to find out!

Thanks everyone for your love and support and prayers. I have been amazed at the outpouring of love we have been showered with. Thank you, thank you. And if you're planning FHE, maybe have one like my first example. Although, exciting, I wouldn't recommend the second option!