The Messe Crew: Phew

This has been a totally crazy, busy, emotional, exciting, sad, fun all over and up-side-down kind of month! Early last month my Grandpa was hit by a truck while he was working as a crossing guard for the local Junior High. As horrible as that day was his 77 year old body somehow managed to begin to recover slightly. We all exhaled as we got the news and decided to go ahead with our Christmas plans. We decided to drive to Texas for Christmas this year to see Jimmy's family. So when school got out for the break we loaded the car and took off (at the very wee hours of the morning) We drove through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas (where we stayed the night) then in through Texas all the way to Austin. Christmas was awesome and we had a wonderful time playing OUTSIDE!!! It felt amazing to be in 70-80 degree weather again. Loved it. It was also wonderful to see Jim's family again and have them meet our little Luke. While we were there we continued to get updates on my Grandpa, he was much worse then they thought but still recovering. He would be paralyzed from the waist down with severe brain damage. Time came for us to leave the land of sun so we drove north through Oklahoma into Missouri were we stopped to help Jim's brother Bob with some of the finishing touches on the Red Umbrella Farm. It was a crazy long trip! We were thrilled to head home when we got the news that my Grandfather had passed away on New Years day. So off we went through Illinois and Indiana back into Ohio headed for our own beds! Two days later I flew to SLC to attend the funeral and help pick up the pieces. The various local news companies came to interview us about the accident and his life, you can read (in my opinion) the best one here. You can see two of my brothers and my dad in the pictures they had posted. It was a very nice week to gather with family and talk about my Grandpa. The other man involved in the accident is a nice man and member of the church. Our prayers are mainly for him and his family at this point. It was WONDERFUL to finally come home Sunday night however and I'm happy just being here for a while. In other crazy news, I started back to school yesterday! I was so nervous but my classes went well and I think it is going to be a blast! It feels great to be working toward my goals! So I think after this month we all need to take a collective sigh. Phew. Here are some pictures of our gallivanting. Enjoy!