I love men. Really, I do.

Give a man a roll of duct tape and he can do heart surgery. Just ask him.

Or, there are those men that go further than Duct-Tape-Surgery and use technology to answer all the world’s complaints.

Consider, for example, THIS GUY.

Frustrated by the snarled traffic heading into Davis County, he called up Google Earth on his cellphone, found what he thought was an alternate path around the mess, and took off.

Now, THIS GUY drives a Jeep Liberty, like me. He also has a cell phone that can access the Internet, and Google Earth, like me. (I adore my BlackBerry and am not giving it up for ANYTHING. Don’t ask.) There, the similarities stop.

Herein lies the difference between men and women. Or at least between me and THIS GUY. When confronted with the snarled traffic heading into Davis County I simply slapped on my iPod earphones, listened to music, and watched the show all around me. I did NOT access Google Earth, find a FREAKING ATV TRAIL and try to get home that way. Nowhere in the FOUR WHEEL DRIVE manual does it say, “You can walk on water. Make sure you have engaged the FWD first, though.”

Thanks to all the kind words of support and blessings and prayers in regard to my nephew, James.

The PICU is not a great place to visit. The parents of patients there wander in and out as if lost, staring first one way, then the other, as though they have totally lost their bearings. They have. I’ve seen some awful things in the past few days, and not just the one affecting my own family.

First off, may I just give a HUGE SHOUT OUT to Primary Children’s Medical Center? The level of care there is so excellent.

Guess what James did today? Watched Spaceballs and had a Sunrise Smoothie. What, you might ask? What is this? Yeah, we are pretty amazed, too.

We went from dire predictions of brain damage and possible death to excellent prognosis for recovery.

There is no doubt that his father and brother saved his life, performing CPR for ten minutes while they waited for paramedics to arrive. Those paramedics took over, did an excellent job, and he was then Lifeflighted to Primary. They were brutally honest with us, and his chances for survival and recovery looked slim. But they did everything they could, and it was enough to bring him out of that dark touch with death and back into our light.

Day two was awful, but he began to respond and fight, and try to answer questions. I spent a long night with him, holding him down whenever he tried to pull out his vent tube, or central line, or even worse, FOLEY (think catheter). And fight he did. He did not enjoy those tubes and bells and whistles, and he kept mouthing the words “help me,” to me. That was my first inkling he might just be okay.

He says he remembers me being with him, and he is still speaking to me, so I guess he understands I was trying to help him. Yes, he is speaking. Hoarsely, and with great effort, but he IS SPEAKING.

His breathing is still labored, but not as bad. He is still on some monitors, but no catheter, no central line and best of all, NO BREATHING tube.

Even better, he is now out of PICU and has a room on a trauma floor.

James is one of the lucky ones.

Thanks for all your prayers and good wishes, and voodoo dances, and whatever else you did. It is GREATLY appreciated.

But don’t stop there. On the PICU ward, there is still a little girl named Josie, who cannot breath well right now, because she has severe pneumonia.

Also in the PICU, is Bridger Hunt, whose story many of you are familiar with. I am not going to share any of the details I learned speaking with his family, because I believe that would be a violation of trust, but I WILL ask that you pray for him and his recovery. He needs it.

It’s funny how whenever you think YOUR life is bad, you get reminded just how good you have it.

Today is a good day. Enjoy the smoothie, James.

A few of you Trappees caught this. I missed it until now. It came, by the way, straight out of BYU, thanks to the ISP records.

#

Name: Natalie’s Editor | E-mail: jbhead@xxxx.xxx

Wow!! Natalie, if you are going to try to have an official website with profanities, please, learn how to spell damnit!!

Posted Jul 27, 6:27 PM | Edit Comment | Delete Comment — Edit Post “Half nekkid missionaries bring woe to Vegas man… Kinda…” | View Post

Uh, is he trying to say I misspelled dammit? Or is he swearing at me because I don’t know how to spell? I thought I was pretty good at it, actually. I do typo from time to time.

You know what? That’s how I spell it, buddy, and guess what? The Wordpress Spell Checker AGREES. So there. Plllbbbbbttttttt.

Oh, I am so juvenile when I have had no sleep, dammit.

Life is so fragile. Why it is necessary to be constantly reminded of this is beyond me, but it’s like we are walking on a thin layer of slate, you know, the kind that looks like a sturdy, solid rock, but breaks away when you strike it on the sidewalk.

Tonight, tragedy came calling, and the ground beneath us crumbled. My eight-year-old nephew had a new bunk bed, up only one night. He was in his room, playing with his football gear, and somehow tied the belt around his neck. We are unsure what happened, but his sister thinks maybe he was trying to watch the TV he had on the floor, and maybe fell forward. The result is he hung himself from the bunk bed.

We don’t know how long he was there before he was discovered by my sister and her daughter-in-law.

His father and brother did CPR for ten minutes before the paramedics arrived, and he was Lifeflighted to Primary Children’s Medical Center.

We have just returned home after a vigil at the hospital. We are now in “wait and see” mode. They said he was “posturing” which is a bad sign, and usually indicates severe brain damage. However, the last news we got was that he was making movements and seemed to be fighting the medicine and the respirator, and possibly squeezed my sister’s finger. I went in to see him, and nearly broke down as I stared down on his still little body.

He is in a coma, and they are keeping him sedated. Right now, they say he probably could breath on his own, but they don’t want him to struggle because they are trying to keep his brain from swelling.

Life is fragile. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

Every time I close my eyes I think of him, and how terrified he must have been, and I break down and cry.

He is only eight.

Pray for James. Light candles. Do voodoo dances. Whatever it is you do, please do it. He is too young for this.

I don’t like tragedy.

The Deseret News story about Chad Hardy’s excommunication has brought the arrogant Mormons out in droves. This is when the “ugly” side of Mormonism rears its ugly head. Usually in a venue that is a “gang” type of atmosphere. I thought I would share a few of these “Christian” comments with you, but I’m not sure that would be fair use, so you are going to have to go to the Des News site to read them.

For the record, there were also a few comments from Mormons that were very even-handed and fair. But they were overwhelmingly outnumbered by the angry, hating comments. (Note: After spending some more time reading the comments, I think it is actually a mix of both. The first comments were from angry Mormons who thought Chad Hardy was the Liberace Anti-Christ, but after that it became a mix.)

Most interesting thing I saw in the comments was that a great many people speculated that there was “more” to his excommunication. Why they think there needs to be more is beyond me, but they are speculating about his sexuality, among other things, because it is a “beefcake” calendar, and not a “cheesecake” calendar. This never even occurred to me. Maybe because I don’t really care. Not sure. But occur it did not.

Casting stones, Jason said:

Jason | 7:38 a.m. July 14, 2008
Looking at the picture of this dude & the fact he decided to make a Mormon missionary beefcake calendar rather than one of returned sister missionaries makes me wonder if there isn’t more to this excommunication then just the calendar. My guess is he may have some sort of “alternative” lifestyle that had more to do with his excommunication than anything else (not that there is anything wrong with that).

Regardless, I think it is safe to say the guy is using this whole thing to get PR for himself and his calendar. The last thing is concerned about is excommunication and his family.

You got that from a picture? He didn’t look that nicely dressed to me! Just saying, is all…..