It's really been 4 months!!!!

I can't believe that it's really been 4 months since the last time I blogged!!! Holy Cow! So I've decided to for my New Year's resolution I'm going to keep up on our blog spot and upload more pics of our family and our adventures. Over the past 4 months what has gone on hmmm......

Let's see Addie turned 7 and realized that she is only 1 year away from being Baptized she's so excited already!

Our new next door neighbors/friends were married and they asked Russ and I to be their witnesses; it was such a beautiful ceremony and I'm very thankful that we were able to be part of such a wonderful day!!

A.J. made me a really old mom he turned 13 this year. Yes we really do have a teenager in our house now. With him becoming a teenager we decided to take him back to his home town of Big Ol' Laramie to watch his favorite football team get crushed by his least favorite football team. UW vs. BYU yes it was a very sad day for all of us but we sat through the whole game and still cheered our beloved Cowboys on! While we were in Laramie we finished getting the supplies for our new adventure in life! We've started a clock and sign making business it has been a joy but also a stress in our life. Though we didn't get to stay all the way till Thanksgiving we did get to head back down the first week of December which at that time we celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, and our first ever being snowed into Laramie. That made for a very interesting trip to say the least. After that trip Russ made me promise that we wouldn't even consider going back down until February or later. Well that pretty much wraps up all of the highlights for the past 4 months.

From this point on our life is yet to be seen we just pray that the future is full of good health and happiness. For everyone out there in the Blogging world I would just like to send to all of you a wish for a Happy New Year that is filled with love, excitement, and good health.

Love to All,
The Dickson's

When it Rains it Pours!!!

I'm sure all of you are familiar with the old phrase "When it rains, it pours" for our family we're to familiar with that phrase. Here's a glimmer of a day in the life of the Dickson's.

About 2 months ago the plant that Russ worked at finally had to do some layoffs and guess who was one of the firsts to get laid off.... You're right Russ. After about 2 months with no pay or insurance he finally lands another job at Georgia Pacific. Things are going great until last weekend. Allie fell and split her head open, then the boating trip that the kids have been dying all summer to go on (this is different than our normal trips we're going to have the PONTOON BOAT out there with their cousins) falls through because the boat still isn't as finished as we thought it was, so CaMee and I take off to do our shopping only to discover that takes longer than expected.

Here comes Monday oh boy... we're finally going to do this family boating trip with the PONTOON BOAT so Russ, CaMee, and myself with all of the kids take off to the lake with the ski boat ahead of Travis and Brent (their bringing the other boat). We go out on the lake and do some tubing and knee boarding realizing it's getting to late and the other boat never showed up. Once back to the dock we find out that as they were turning the corner they discovered water leaking out of one of the pontoons. So that idea went bye bye quickly. While Russ is trying to pull the boat up on the trailer he discovers the the engine won't lift. 2hrs later we finally get it out of the lake and the engine lifted and now were rushing home so Russ isn't late for work to his new job. We're not done yet in fact we're just getting to the exciting part.

Now it's Tuesday.....
We own 4 vehicles; '75 GMC truck, '78 Olds., '96 Nissan, and an '04 Suburban so one would think out of 4 vehicles we should have no problem having a car when needed right? Oh know not so much for us. First a piston goes out on the Olds. which at this point it's a matter of is it really worth the work. Then the tire blows out on the Nissan and it won't start, sounding good so far right. While we were in Cody which is about 45miles away from us, grocery shopping the fuel pump on the Suburban goes out on us, leaving us stranded for oh about 6hrs. We finally make it back to Lovell around 10:30 p.m. just in time for Russ to make it to work. Once arriving to work he here's this hissing sound and watches the back tire on the truck go flat. Oh boy!

There you have it that's the update on the Dickson family. I have decided that after every large rain storm there's always a rainbow. The theory goes that if there's a rainbow then there's a pot of gold waiting at the end with Leprechauns. I'm hoping that when my rainstorm ends I'll find that little piece of Irish luck hopefully the good luck and find that pot of gold!!!

Speak To Early!!!

You know when you say something only to realize later that you spoke to early. Well that just happened to me recently. I put in my last post that we had to take Bamm Bamm to the hospital and how grateful I was that it had been a 1 1/2yr. since our last visit and I'll probably not be back for awhile. Spoke to soon; just Friday night we were back in the E.R. with Alexandra this time. She sliced her head open above her left eye. When asked how it happened we found out that since we wouldn't let the kids go outside and jump on the trampoline, they (meaning J.R., Addie, Bamm Bamm, Alexandra, and Donavan)decided that the couch in the front living room would work. Never mind that mom and dad both have told them not to jump on the furniture, that furniture is for sitting on not jumping on. As she was attempting to jump from the couch to over the foot stool and land on the floor she discovered her jump wasn't nearly as far as her brothers and sisters; well hers was short quite a bit. She never made it over the footstool, instead she landed head first between the footstool and the couch knocking her eye on the corner wooden piece on her way down. Quite the ordeal as you can see. But the most exciting part was at the E.R., the Doctor decided to just glue it shut. He used PURPLE glue oh boy!!! She was so excited, because purple is her favorite color. On our way home from the hospital she informed mom and dad that when she got home she was going to tell all of her purple friends about the purple glue the doctor put on her head.:) Oh boy!!!! This is why we love her, she always makes us smile :)!!!

Update 1 month Later LOL!!!

Holy Cow!!! has it really been a month since I last wrote on here? I'm really trying to keep up with it but haven't been successful. However I've stayed very caught up with my farm on Facebook. Lets see what have we've been up to over the past month. Went to Laramie while AJ was at scout camp. Received a phone call from him while he's at camp wondering if I was really in Laramie what a world we live in now. While there changed my hair color oh and that gets even more exciting later on! Came home on the night of the big firework show in Byron only I was sick so we had to miss it. Bummer it's the best fireworks I've seen in a long time they're so awesome. The next week did Girl Scout camp for 3 days, learned alot! Learned next year it needs to only be for 1 day. Learned I love kids but that many girls ages from 6 to 9 is to many to have together for 3 days. Also very thankful that the Lord blessed me with only 2 girls with 4 years apart in age:) Russ started a new job so far so good. Went swimming out at the farm and once we got home and showered from swimming discovered that chlorine really will turn your hair GREEN!!!!! Yes I really do have GREEN HAIR!!! To bad it wasn't Halloween huh!!! :) Russ says leave it alone and have fun with it. I'm not so sure but I can say this AJ informs me that if it's not fixed by Sunday he's not going to sit by me in Church. LOL Oh and he won't go out with me in the public with my hair like this ("It's embarrassing MOM") So if any of you want to know how to embarrass your 12 year old just go and die your hair Green!!! Anyways that's about all of the excitement, oh I almost forgot the most exciting thing was last weekend KinCaid BamBam fell on a nail that went right through his knee. That was our latest ER visit however I must admit we haven't been there since we first moved to Lovell so it's been about a 1 1/2 years, I think we're doing good.
Well that's all for now hopefully I'll post quicker next time. God Bless America and everyone!!!
Love the Dickson's

Hello again, so I just posted the post I had put together over a month ago. To update everyone the run for Bridger was quite a success. At this point we have raised over $2000.00!!!! Way to go Lovell and thank you everyone who has supported this wonderful cause.

We just did our first Summer hike this weekend. We hiked to Bucking Mule Falls and it was wonderful. It was a 4 mile hike all together but through some very beautiful country. Once I have all of the pictures than I'll post them for all to see. We hope to hike around 20 to 50 miles this summer and yes we do hike with all 6 kids believe it or not. We're looking for some more suggestions for good hikes in the Big Horns so please let us know. I better run Russ is gathering everyone up for a family game for Father's Day!!! Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there. I promise to post something soon!!!!
Love to all,
Torie

Way Too Busy!!!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. Life seems to be in a constant whirlwind. Ever since we came home from our wonderful family vacation it's been non stop something. Lesson learned: never go on vacation and come home one week before your child'sbaptism. It makes for a very stressful baptism. We now have two kids baptised and only 4 more to go. I ask you, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Good, because they're able to receive the two most wonderful gifts ever: becoming a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Bad, because that means they're growing up and I'm getting older. (Ugh on the older part:-))

Just 2 weeks later, my Girl Scout Troop decided that we needed to do a Navajo Taco Dinner as a fundraiser for summer camp. We were planning on 200 to 300 people. Boy did we guess wrong. We had over 500 orders! It was great, other than that I've never made that many Navajo Taco shells in my life. We figured 50lbs. of hamburger was going to cover us. Not even close; we had to buy more. Maybe 25 lbs. of flour would work? Try 75! Two #10 cans of olives? Nope, we needed 12!. We bought the local restaurant, fast food joint, and grocery store out of olives. I can't even remember how many tomatoes. And sour cream? Holy cow, 4 Costco size tubs and everything the grocery store had. Not to mention every biscuit package off the shelf to try to expedite the taco shells. It was insane, but well worth it. And I am so thankful for the town of Lovell for supporting our fundraiser; everyone here is so awesome. We made enough money that we should have no problem with camp this summer. For all of you whom are not familiar with Lovell we only have one grocery store here, and one building that has Blimpies and Taco Johns for our fast food. The restaurant I was talking about is in the next town 6 miles away.

As you can see, it's been very hectic. Easter was in there somewhere, but I'm not sure I could tell you when or what the kids received. I do think they received something.

I'm looking forward to a relaxing summer (I hope). I do have one very major event coming up on June 13th. I'm organizing a Run/Walk for Russ' 5-year old cousin Bridger. He's going to have a Bone Marrow transplant soon and will have to live away from home for several months. I plan to do a write up on it here shortly with links to go to to learn more about him.

In the craziness and planning of everything I forgot something very special in my life also. The sad part is so did Russ. As we were planning this run we realized there was something else special about that day; we just chalked it up as Ethan (Russ' cousins son) is also getting baptized that day. However, the other night when Russ and I were talking about that day, we both kept saying and feeling that there was something else going on that day but couldn't remember what. It wasn't until 1:30 in the morning that it finally donned on us... That's Donavan's 2nd birthday; the same day:-)!!! Now my question is, can I just pass this off as I've been a little overwhelmed and that's why I couldn't remember my sons birthday? Or is it because he's child #6? Or is it that getting older thing that's catching up to me? In about two weeks I turn 32 and that's scary!

There you all have it, that's the low down on this wild, crazy, running in every direction, Dickson family. I plan to update my pictures soon. So please bear with me:-).

BRIDGER (MONCUR) GUSTAFSON

Bridger is JanaLee Moncurs' son, she is Russ' cousin and lives in Dallas, TX. JanaLee, Blake (her husband), and Bridger all moved there last summer they hadn't even been able to unpack all of their boxes when Bridger ended up in the hospital very ill and struggling to make it. After numerous tests and procedure the Doctors were able to diagnose Bridger's disease. He has Chronic Granulomatous Disease (CGD) his white blood cells don't create hydrogen peroxide, and aren't able to fight off typical bacteria, molds, and fungus's. He is currently taking nine different medications to help prevent further infection. The only cure available is by having a bone marrow transplant. The hospital was able to find a match once that procedure is finished he will need to have other follow up procedures and will need to stay in the hospital in Houston, TX for 4 to 6 months. Therefore we (CaMee (JanaLee's older sister) and myself) are putting together a Run/Walk for Bridger on June 13th. The registration is $15 and you'll receive a t-shirt. If any of you would like to register to be in the race just call me @307.548.2581. You may also do a strait donation if you would like. We have a bank account open for Bridger at The Bank of Lovell that you may call them and do a donation or send them a donation. Here's their information Bank of Lovell 179 E 3rd St Lovell, WY 82431 307.548.2213. Also if you have any other question or want to know more you may feel free to call me or email me and I'll feel you in on all that I know. Thanks in advance for any support and donations the whole family greatly appreciates this.

In closing we send out much love to everyone near and far.

The Dickson's

Urgh!!!!!!!!!

O.K. so I'm still learning and trying my best but how on earth do you change the header color? I'm sure I'm looking right at it. I was hoping to add more pics and everything but I'm very frustrated at this point. Could someone please help me!!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll have some updated pics. Love to all and Thanks to everyone!!! Torie

WE HOPE THIS WORKED!!!!!

Yes I did it or at least I think I did. Now I'll try to add some more pics and fun stuff to it. I hope this worked. Let me know what ya'll think. I'll try to update some more and keep ya'll posted on everything.
Love to all,
Torie