Day 29 - 3 Things You’re Proud of

It’s rather convenient that this is todays prompt because it’s Kennedy’s birthday. This lets me brag on him just a little bit extra.

1. I’m unexplainable proud of Kennedy who is now a winged pilot in the Air Force. Everyone talks about how hard pilot training is and you believe them but until you experience it first hand you just won’t fully comprehend it. And I don’t even fully understand the stress of it because I’m not the one being tested every single day of the week. Kennedy has handled pilot training like a champ. Very rarely has he let the stress or workload weigh him down at home. He never takes it out on me when he’s worried and he always makes time for Gus. And when he’s with Gus, he’s very present. Even if sometimes he’s reading Gus the 202 as his bedtime story. I knew Kennedy could handle pilot training, but he’s been absolutely amazing. And he’ll tell you he’s not a good pilot, but his instructors and peers don’t agree with that. He’s already been an amazing husband, and he’s off to a great start as a phenomenal dad and I know when we’re finally done with all this that he’ll be a great pilot. I’m proud of my husband and I always will be, no matter if he’s sinking or swimming in life.

2. I’m proud of mom for a lot of things, but most recently I’m proud of her for doing things even when she’s scared. Last summer I came home to help mom when her horse was passing away. We had that horse for almost as long as we had my brother, so she was and always will be family. It was touch and go whether or not mom would get another horse. She definitely wanted to but there were a lot of mental obstacles to get around to be ready for that. And on top of that, the market is super high right now but that also means it’s pretty saturated. I knew we could find her a good one when she was ready. And I love keeping my eyes peeled for a good horse to buy. Just a few weeks ago my mom tried out a horse. It was the first time she’d been on a horse since Shasta. She had to prepare a lot mentally for that. I know Satan was trying to beat her down and she recognized that also. That horse didn’t end up being right for her, so she moved on. I am especially proud of her because she stepped out of her comfort zone in several ways to get ready to find the next one. She asked a neighbor if she could come ride with them to get tuned up. That was tough because she knew she had some cracks in her riding and didn’t want to be embarrassed. Totally understandable. But then she found another horse to go look at. She wasn’t sold right away and took her time thinking it through. There’s been a lot of pressure from the horse market that she would have to move fast on a horse that she wanted and that just wasn’t the way mom was going to be comfortable buying a horse. Anyhow, she went back a second time but took the neighbor who she rode with to tag along. My mom has been busy being John Wayne lately: Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyways. I’m really proud of my mom for not giving up on her dream of having a horse to ride and enjoy even though it would’ve been so easy to walk away from right now.

3. I had to think on this one a bit, and I’m probably going to cheat a bit here but it’s my blog challenge so I guess if anyone can bend the rules then it would be me. I’m really proud of the people I get to call family. They’ve been absolutely stepping up to the plate in the last week and loving me super well. Last Friday I had surgery to correct my genetically-gifted bunions. Recovery has been no cake walk.

My sister Carrie flew down to take me to the surgery and was here until Tuesday. She was the perfect person to have at the hospital because she could really advocate for me and calm me down when someone was drawing up lidocaine to put my IV in. She almost went into the OR to watch them do nerve blocks on my legs because she thought it would be “interesting,” but they definitely didn’t allow that. And then my other sister drove 10 hours on Monday and stayed all week to be helping hands for me. Since I literally can’t put any weight on my foot, I’m pretty helpless.

Desiree learned how to change a poopy diaper this week and that’s the gift that just keeps on giving all year Clark. And then my in-laws, sweet Julie and Ken, have let me and my crazy sisters crash at their house for an entire week during all this. I know the King kids are a bunch of tornados so they’ve been dealing with a lot. Julie has played nurse, caretaker and baby monitor all week. I know she loves getting to take care of Gus but being the one to respond to the baby monitor at the 3 in the morning isn’t her favorite activity.

And then Christi just up and decided to make us food one day this week and was my drug runner today when I needed even more pills to pop. Next weekend my mom will take over as nurse, caretaker and baby monitor for the final two weeks of recovery. She would’ve come down sooner if I had asked her to because that’s just the kind of selfless person she is. I’m so very proud of the people in my life who don’t even give it a second thought when I ask if they’ll help me if I let a doctor put hardware in my foot. I’ve just been absolutely blessed with some of the very best people in my life.

And a special shoutout to Clark who has only taken a potty break in the house one time during the week that he’s been chilling in Choctaw. It might sound like a small feat for a small dog, but it’s a big one.