Concussion

We were invited to go on a spontaneous trip to Lake Oswego to go water skiing and tubing. Spontaneous meaning that we got an invite and were on our way within 15 minutes. Some really good friends, The Dickinsons, that we grew up with have grandparents that live on Lake Oswego so they have access to a boat and all the equipment needed. Max and I both had an opportunity to go out on the boat in our high school days. Funny and ironic story about that, that will be shared later. Anyway, we picked up some delicious Thai food and then headed to Lake Oswego. We met up with Brother (Larry) Dickinson and his second to youngest son Andy (out of 13 kids) and they took us out on the boat. 

Charlie sat so still on my lap taking in all his surroundings. He was pretty happy to be out in open water. 

Max decided to be the first to go out on the lake, we decided to start simple so he took the tube. Max stayed on pretty well and Brother Dickinson took each curve faster and faster until Max eventually flew off. We pulled the boat back around  to Max and he climbed in the boat, a couple moments later Max asked "what just happened?" I really didn't see what happened because when we were going really fast I was taking extra care to make sure Charlie stayed right on my lap. We answered Max by saying something like...you flew off... Then Max kept saying strange things like..."how did I get here? What just happened? I feel weird? I feel like I'm dreaming?" I guess this is when we started to think something was wrong. I started asking him simple questions like what month it was...I could tell he was thinking so hard but then answered with "I don't know" I asked if it was January...he said "No because it's not cold" I then asked if he knew who we were fearing that he wouldn't remember us...He answered with an obvious "yes, Rebecca and Charlie" I felt so much relief at that point, I felt like as long as he knew who we were, he was going to be okay. I asked Max where he worked and it took him awhile to answer...but he got that one right. I then asked him what he did that day. It was a Saturday and he was incredibly busy all day. I could tell he was thinking hard and couldn't answer. I told him that he had woken early to go somewhere and asked if he remembered...He didn't. I then told him he went to clean the church so then I asked him if he remembered what part of the church he had cleaned (Luckily he had already told me about many details of his day so I knew the answers to all these questions.) He still couldn't answer. I told him that he had vacuumed the pews in the chapel and he had told me that his back had started to hurt, I asked if he could picture himself doing that. He tried so hard but couldn't visualize it at all. I could tell Max was getting worried and his voice was starting to shake so I told him to just stop talking for a little bit, and I was sure he would start to remember...Brother Dickinson started telling us some unrelated stories to help distract us but Max soon interrupted by saying "what just happened?" This happened at least four times, where we talked about his day, I could tell he was getting stressed so I stopped him and changed the subject. He kept asking for us to describe the day to him. I then reminded him of how he helped our good friends Kerri and Corbrett move. He looked confused so I asked him if he could picture Kerri and Corbrett, he said he could. I asked him if he could picture their new house (he had described it in detail to me earlier) He looked confused again and said, "I didn't know they moved" At this point we were both getting a little nervous so I stopped the conversation again. Of course, a couple minutes later Max interrupts by saying "Can you go through the day with me." I started from the beginning again and then told him after he had helped our friends move he worked on our upstairs bathroom, I asked "do you remember what we've done in our bathroom so far?" Blank stares again. I then told him that he went out to do a whole bunch of yard work and filled both yard debris so he didn't have to worry about that for another week. Still blank. I asked if he remembered what we had for dinner...he paused for a minute and then answered "Thai food?" This was our first victory, he then said he could still taste it on his teeth so he didn't know if that counts. We then talked about arriving to the house. Eventually Max was able to describe arriving at the house and knocking on the front door, then coming around the back. I felt my whole body flooding with relief. At least something from the day was becoming clear...In the meantime Brother Dickinson was giving us a beautiful tour of the lake and all the massive houses. Throughout this time, Brother Dickinson was also telling us funny stories, Max was trying so hard to listen, he told me later that he could hear him talking but wasn't able to process anything.

A little later Max was remembering himself on the tube..and bouncing into the air...he still doesn't completely comprehend flying off and how he got back in the boat but we are so happy that he can remember most other details. For the rest of our boating adventure we would quiz him on different aspects of his day and he kept getting more and more questions right. It was a pretty scary half hour until he started remembering things. It really reminded us to not take our health (especially mental health) for granted. He has had a headache since and he also has a really sore rib that he thinks he bruised. 

Anyway back to the boat, after Max started regaining his memory Andy and Brother Dickinson did some wake boarding. Let it be known that Brother Dickinson is in his 60's. Pretty cool if you ask me

Then Charlie and I braved the tube, even after Max and his concussion-causing memory loss. And here is where I add pictures. 

This boy is ready for a water skiing adventure

We went really slow,Charlie looked bored until Max started splashing him with water. 

I then had my own turn, I didn't go nearly as fast as Max and barely got wet but it was a fun ride. 

          

The sun was starting to set so we then headed back to the dock at the house. 

This is a side note but both Max and I thought it was insightful advice so we want to document it. Brother Dickinson was praising us for our choice to raise a family in a world that doesn't value family as much. He has known both of us since we were very very young. He said that many people might say you are giving up many opportunities in life, but I've gotta tell you, because we chose to have a family we get to continue to live a better life with more opportunities well into our older years. I''m not sitting around wondering what's on the next channel, I'm out water skiing with my kids and grand kids. Overall I'm getting to live my life more fully. This isn't an exact quote but that was the main idea. It made me want to have a big family...not 13 kids...but enough where I can have a whole bunch of grand kids. I will probably change my mind about that with Charlie's next tantrum but oh well. 

Anyway, our scary little adventure ended well despite Max feeling a little beat up. 

I briefly mentioned that there is an ironic story about Max's first trip on the lake with the Dickinsons. I will try to summarize it. Max went out on the boat with our good friends Tammy and Richard. Tammy and Richard apparently liked each other at this time so they were all awkwardly flirty and Max felt like the third wheel. Max was so excited to try water skiing for the first time. They were playing in the shallow water by the dock before getting in the boat and Max got a pretty significant cut on the bottom of his foot after landing on a large piece of glass. (He still has a scar.) At this point they all got out of the water and assessed the damage on the lawn by the house. Max sat in the lawn while Richard and Tammy went to go find a band aid or something to help. They apparently got side tracked with some game and didn't come back for about 30-45 minutes. After apologizing they put a bandage on his foot, and all got in the boat to ski. Max had to sit in the boat for the rest of the time and watch everyone else water ski.They had ridden their bikes to the house and Max felt that it would be a huge inconvenience to call someone for a ride so he pressed on with a really long bike ride home. He eventually had his dad take him to the hospital but it had been untreated for too long to get stitches. Max then had to use crutches for the next week. So the irony here is that Max doesn't really have a great track record at Lake Oswego seeing how he is the first to take a turn then immediately gets hurt.    

Love Language Date

Max and I had a fun and enlightening date recently that we will share. I got the idea while I was cleaning the the car inside and out. While doing this I was just thinking how happy Max will be when he sees the car. I've known for a awhile that the way to Max's heart is hard labor. He feels that I care most about him when I am serving him, our family, or others by doing some sort of visual project. In most cases this involves cleaning. His ideal dates have included painting the bathroom together, sanding the kitchen cabinets, sealing the deck, and the never ending yard work.  In my mind this seems kind of ridiculous but I sure love that man and want to show it so I play along. After a good project we always enjoy spending time together and getting a project done. Anyway, back to the car washing story...I started to think that it would be fun to have a love language gift/wish list. I feel that Max and I are both pretty decent at recognizing the needs of each other but why not make it even easier...no beating around the bush, and write down the things that would make us feel the most loved. There would be no obligation to check off everything on the list, we would just be giving each other ideas on ways to show love. No hints around here, we just say what we want. We have taken a similar love language quiz a couple years ago but for this date we took the official one on this website...
http://www.5lovelanguages.com/

The 5 love languages are as follows:
Words of Affirmation
Acts of Service
Receiving Gifts
Quality Time
Physical Touch

If you decide to do this quiz, we recommend not doing in front of each other. The questions were phrased kind of like this..."Do you wish your wife cleaned up around the house more" or "Do you wish your husband listened to you more without being distracted by his phone." You have to pick between two options that don't sound so good. It doesn't take into account that I do clean up the house and Max does listen to me. Anyway, you just have to pick the  choice that's most important to you whether your spouse does it or not.

So Max's results were no surprise. He scored extremely high in Acts of Service, with Quality Time in second place...(seems appropriate as he thinks serving together is quality time)

 I scored highest in Physical Touch but then tied for a close second were Quality Time and Words of Affirmation. (This basically means I have 3 Love Languages thus reaffirming that women are more complicated.)

We both scored very low on Receiving Gifts. This made complete sense as we much prefer to have good experiences (Quality time) for birthdays and holidays instead of gifts or things.

After we did our little quiz we made our love language gift list...On Max's side were things like yard work, back scratches, deep cleaning, working along side him with anything, serving others, cooking great food, and paying the bills. My wish list consisted of massages, love notes, compliments, and cuddle time.
Most of these things are things that we do anyway but maybe not as often as necessary to really express our love to our spouse. We have been having so much fun going the extra mile since our date a couple weeks ago.

I've been finding love notes in all different forms in various places. The flowerbeds have been thoroughly weeded, our house is cleaner. It's the date that keeps on giving, you should try it. Totally worth the time.

And to not be accused of being a picture with-holder again, I will now add a lovey dovey picture...

  

Housing History!

So this blog post will probably be 0% interesting to anyone but Max and me but I think it is worth documenting.

As of the end of June, we have lived in this house for 8 months...why is that significant you may ask...During our 4+ years of marriage and 10ish moves we have never lived in a house longer than 8 months at a time. Part of this is because we were living the student life. 8 months of the school year we were in one place and then 4 months of summer we were somewhere else, then there were a whole bunch of extra and somewhat unnecessary moves in between.

Let't take a look at the history...

House #1

 Camarillo California 

Lived there for 4 months!

After getting married in May 2009 we settled into this apartment while we worked for Clark Pest Control. 

It was a comfortable house that we enjoyed while being away for our first few months of marriage. 

House #2 The Studio

Provo UT (the somewhat scary South part of Provo) 

Lived there for 8 months.

This was our tiny tiny 200 square foot studio, basement apartment. Our upstairs neighbors were some wild single girls and the house next door was a half-way house. But hey, rent was $375 a month and we had a washer and dryer...We had everything we needed. 

House #3 

Merced, California

Lived there 4 months

We loved this place, I have some great memories of spending lots of time with Marissa at the pool and the gym and on other various adventures. A proper summer if you ask me.

House #4

Provo UT

1 week.

After coming back from California we were planning on going back to the studio. I got back to Utah before Max because I came from a wedding in Idaho while Max continued to work a couple more days. Within an hour of me being in the house, it seemed the the upstairs shower was leaking into our house. There was also evidence of mold and the new upstairs neighbors were crazier than the last ones. We did not feel comfortable in that house anymore so we set out to find another in the Provo area. 

House #5 The Duplex

Provo UT 

5 months

We loved the Duplex, it had two large rooms, a washer and dryer inside, a yard with the perfect hammock area, great neighbors, a carport, and a quiet neighborhood. The landlord seemed to be a little shady though, he never really fixed anything. He ended up finding someone to buy the house and offered us a free months rent and some other perks if we moved out. We had a contract until August so we could have stayed but he was excited to sell and felt that the buyers wouldn't buy if we waited until August. We felt that we could make our money stretch further so we went on the apartment hunt again. 

House #6

Provo UT

7 months

We found this apartment because it was already in our ward boundaries. We were excited to stay in our same ward which can be difficult when moving a couple streets away in Utah. At the time of moving, this complex only had remodeled units available which cost $50 dollars more per month. We wanted to wait until a non-remodeled appartment was available, but then Max (the salesman) made a deal with the people buying the house we were living in. He said we could move out sooner if they would pay the difference so we can immediately move into a remodeled apartment. They were more than willing to take us up on the offer and just gave us a check that equaled the $50/ month for the months we believed we would remain in Utah. So we got the remodeled apartment for the price of an non-remodeled apartment. We got to enjoy new floors, paint, doors, crown molding, and carpet. We liked living there and sold our contract to our great friends before we left Utah. They are still living there and I hope they are enjoying it. 

House #7 Uncle Jay's House

Portland, OR 

8 months

After I graduated we moved back to Portland in time for Charlie to be born near family and so Max could finish his schooling online. We lived in Max's uncle's house while he was busy in central Oregon finishing up a second retirement. We were able to take care of his house while we was away, it had started to collect quite a few spider webs. We enjoyed it here and all the perks that came with being in a separate house.

House #8 

Roseville, CA

4 months

This was a less painful move because we were able to leave most of our stuff at Uncle Jay's house. We decided to head back to California for one last year of Clark Pest Control. They have been good to us over the years. This was the best house yet that Clark had set us up with. We were excited to have a washer and dryer in the house. I wasn't sure how I would lug Charlie and a whole bunch of laundry to a laundromat. Charlie and I enjoyed his first summer together with frequent trips to the library, pool, and park.

House #9 Uncle Jay's House 

Portland, OR

2 months

After California,. we moved back into Uncle Jay's house temporarily while Max worked hard to fix up the house we are living in now. Uncle Jay had since retired so he was back living in his house also. 

House #10

Portland OR

9+ Months!!

We are now living in this house after 10 moves and 8 houses. By the time Charlie turned one he had already lived in 3 different houses. We love it here. We are especially loving the yard during the summer time. We still have plenty of projects to keep us busy. Hopefully our upstairs bathroom will be functional in the next month. We also need to carpet our stairs and paint and add doors to our cupboards.   

Anyway, we are not planning to move too soon so we are pretty excited about that!

I know that adding pictures would make this post 30% more interesting but we don't have them on our computer right now so I'm not going to add them.

Insane!

We would just like to announce that we are Insanity graduates! If you don't know what insanity is, just know that it claims to be the hardest workout ever put on DVD. It is 2 months long and you work out for 45-60 minutes 6 days a week. I'm pretty sure this is an accomplishment worth documenting!

So one day, we decided to take pictures of ourselves working out...look how cool we are!

My husband is hot!

That's right, don't mess with the Baertleins!

We finished it a couple weeks ago and don't worry, we didn't give up on ourselves. We are continuing to exercise regularly. (okay, well, I can't really speak for Max.) We are pretty darn excited that the craziness is over!