Sarah's Accident

It has been just over two weeks since I received the frightening call that my daughter had been in a serious car accident.

I have struggled to put her accident into words, how do you even put a title on a post about a day like that!

Just over two weeks ago my daughter and her friend went to the store to pick up ice cream for dessert, and a short time later we got the call letting us know that they had been hit by a semi truck only a few minutes from our house.  My husband, son, and I raced to the scene of the accident, and as you might imagine I was hysterical.  All I could do was fervently pray and pray.  When we arrived at the scene my daughter was trapped in her crunched up vehicle and barely conscious.  I was so grateful to see her alive!  My daughter's friend, the passenger, and who also happens to be my son's girlfriend, was out of the vehicle with bruises and a broken wrist, but fortunately had been able to call us and let us know what had happened.  Some of the first people at the scene of the accident were so kind and wonderful, they stayed with my daughter until help arrived and comforted and prayed for her, it made me feel so much better to know that good people had been with her, I am so thankful for them!  I am also incredibly thankful for the first responders from our fire and police stations!

(Sarah's Car, and pictures from the ICU and ICU window)

My daughter suffered a severe blow to her head and left side, after half an hour of carefully extracting her from the vehicle, the paramedics Life-Flighted her to a hospital in Portland, about an hour from our home. When we arrived at the hospital we were greeted by family and friends who had also made their way to the hospital.  I was wholly focused on my daughter, and her care, but I definitely felt the love and support from all of our family and friends.  My daughter had some bleeding in her brain, as well as a severe cut on her forehead, and glass embedded in her arm.  She was not conscious for the first 24 hours, but when some of her medication wore off she was able to wake up and communicate with a thumbs up, once her breathing tube was removed she was able to talk to us, and I tell you, hearing her little whisper was music to my ears.

We were in the ICU for 2 days and then the trauma ward for 2 days.  She is now back home and healing very well.  She has no memory of the incident or even most of the day of the accident, and no memory of the hospital except the last day.  Her short term memory has returned, and although her balance was off as a result of her head injury, her balance improves every day.  Her stitches are healing nicely, and we have all been spending time nursing her back to health.

(Thanks everyone for the beautiful flowers, cards, gifts, company, and support!)

During our time at the hospital, and now that we are home, we have had such wonderful support from our family, church family, friends and community members.  I am so thankful for everyone's prayers and love, and feel incredibly blessed to have my daughter home and healing.

"...He is my rock..."  Psalm 92:15

A Small Town Fourth of July - Part Two

Every year on Fourth of July our town hosts the Molalla Buckeroo Rodeo.  This year was the 100th year of the rodeo.  People from all around come to our town to celebrate the fourth of July and watch the rodeo and enjoy a fireworks display after the evening show.

After the Fourth of July parade, which you can read about in my post  A Small Town Fourth of July - Part One , we got ready, and made our way over to the rodeo grounds.  As you can see the weather was beautiful!

Rodeo's are always so exciting, my grandma used to bring my sister and me to the rodeo every summer that was held at the county fair, and I used to love watching the horses.  The rodeo opened with a beautifully coordinated flag display. 

It is always so exciting to see how long the riders can hang on!  

All of the horses were stunning, at one point they let the horses out to just run around, sans rider and gear, they were just gorgeous!

Both the saddle and bareback broncs events were fun to watch, I will have to say though, especially watching the bareback event, those riders get in the most contorted state, it is a wonder they can walk afterward! 

The team roping was fun to watch, and went so quickly!

Of course the barrel racing is always very exciting to watch, I love how fast they get going!

I really enjoyed the bull riding, they were feisty!  

We all got a kick out of the bulls' personalities, some would finish the event and head right out of the arena, others would turn around and look like they were deciding whether or not to give some trouble.  Such powerful creatures, and always so exciting to watch!

The rodeo was a perfect way to spend fourth of July!  Afterward we walked over to the little carnival at the park next to the rodeo grounds, to get a snack.  When I saw they had a Red Velvet Funnel cake I knew I wanted to try that.  So we all split an elephant ear and a red velvet funnel cake, which was yummy.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out, and enjoyed some of the fireworks that were going off around us, had a nice Fourth of July dinner of ribs, corn on the cob, potato salad, rolls, and apple pie for dessert. All around it was a wonderful day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July and a great weekend!

A Small Town Fourth of July - Part One

We had a wonderful Fourth of July Celebration yesterday, and spent the day taking part in our small town festivities.

The weather was absolutely beautiful, nice bright sunny weather, but not too hot.  The town's parade is in walking distance from our house so we grabbed our fold-up chairs and walked a few blocks to find a seat for the parade.  

The parade started off with a marathon, and we all cheered on the runners.  Then the parade began.  There were vehicles and representatives from the local police and fire departments.

A lot of red white and blue and nods to our town's rural farming and logging roots.  

There were lots of beautiful horses, as well as some rodeo royalty. :)

Some of the parade entrants made me smile- I loved the old man in overalls driving the old tractor, I am a huge fan of Smokey The Bear, the Clickscales Porta-loo twisting and turning along the parade route made us all laugh, and the giant Ronald McDonald Shoe was pretty fun too!

I enjoyed the traditional Hispanic outfits of these riders and dancers, I especially love the vibrant yellow!

This darling little rider and her miniature horse along with a darling baby horse was soooo cute!  Hmmm...just might be the right size horse for my little garden. ;)

We were especially excited to see the Molalla cheerleaders marching in the parade, my son's girlfriend is one of the captains, and we were watching the parade with her family.  They did a great job!!

More Red, White and Blue fun- a family from our church decorated their truck red white and blue, and another truck was decorated in support of our troops.

The parade was a lot of fun, when it was done we spent some time chatting with friends, and then walked home to get ready for the rest of the day.  Stay tuned for part two. :)

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Fourth of July.  Do you have a local parade that you attend?

Thanks for stopping by!

Click here to read A Small Town Fourth of July - Part Two

Early July Garden Update and Cooking with Garlic Scapes

The weather has been absolutely beautiful the last couple of days, temperatures have been in the 90's, and although it has been pretty warm, I just love it, and the garden has really taken off!  I spent the morning watering the garden, and soaking up some Vitamin D while reading out on the patio while I waited to switch the hose around.  The goldfinch were out, and one of the male goldfinch was singing such a pretty song, it was a very pleasant morning. 

These are some of the pictures I took of the garden a couple days ago, the plants have grown even more in the last two days with all of this heat. Last time I did a garden update, the zucchini had not germinated very well, and I had just replanted them.  The second planting did wonderfully, and are catching right up.  Something is nibbling at the leaves, but it still seams to be doing okay.  I also planted the winter squash bed, and they all came up beautifully, I am growing acorn squash, and sugar pumpkins this year, as well as miniature white pumpkins.  I have been thinning out the plants for the last couple days, trying to leave the best looking plants.  This is the first year that I have tried growing a regular sized pumpkin in my side garden, up until now I only grew baby pumpkins for fun.  Sugar pumpkins are on the smaller size, so I thought they would be a good start, I look forward to pumpkin vines rambling through the garden!

The green and purple beans are doing very well, the purple variety already have little flowers, and are filling up the bed.  It won't be long now and we will be enjoying our summer favorite.

The pepper plants are trying to catch up, I planted them far too early, and was afraid they wouldn't get going, but like everything else, the sunshine has really given them a boost, and I even spotted a tiny pepper peaking out from under the leaves.  

The blueberries are ripening up, I had to replace a couple bushes this year, so my harvest will not be nearly as large, but I am so happy with one of the new blueberry bushes I planted, the berries are huge!  Blueberry muffins are definitely on the menu this week!

The purple basil is doing very well, and starting to get it's bigger leaves, I am excited to try it out.  The green basil in the pot next to it did have a few sprouts, but they were gone when I went out to check them today, luckily I put a few basil seeds in a stray pot I had, and they are doing much better.

The most exciting thing in my garden this week are the garlic plants.  I kept hearing about garlic scapes, and how good they are.  I wasn't sure what garlic scapes even were until last week, when I decided to read up on what they were and how to use them.  Then I went out to my garden, and noticed that my garlic plants had scapes on them ready to harvest.  Garlic scapes are the curly stems you see below on the garlic plants.  They can be used like scallions and taste like a mild fresh garlic.  So I decided to harvest a few and give them a try.

 First I cut off the flower bud end, and discarded it.  Then chopped up the scapes, and sauteed it in some olive oil.  I then added to the pan some chopped pre-cooked chicken tenderloins that I had steamed earlier, and let the chicken soak up some of that good garlicky flavor and added some salt and pepper.

 I served the chicken and garlic scape mixture over a bed of curly pasta, with a sprinkle of Parmesan.  I loved the flavor and have been thinking of it since, I plan on trying it again, next time cooking the scapes a little less.  I think scapes would be a wonderful addition to a cream cheese spread, or as part of a delicious crostini topping. I want to leave a few scapes on the plants, but I will probably harvest a couple more this week to try some other recipes.  I will definitely be planting a larger bed of garlic next year for more fresh garlic scapes, I may also have to hunt some down at a farmers market.

I would be curious to know how many of you have tried garlic scapes and how you like to use them. :)

Thanks for stopping by!