Julius Jinx?

I was sharing a story with Karen (Johnson) yesterday and she was laughing and saying that we (my family) has a lot of funny/interesting life experiences (stories). She is so right! We have often refereed to these experiences as the 'julius jinx' though my family is very large and contends that our many extended family life experiences are simply due to sheer numbers!

Let me share a few of these experiences and you can decide if it is a jinx? coincidence? or just an unfortunate series of events?

Disclaimer: We have experienced some family tragedies that will be excluded from this list. Our daughter passed away, Sarah Avery, on June 18, 1994. We lost my father, my mother, Tod's father, and my grandmother in a little more than a year in 2001-2002.

In blue after each example is our example of our 'silver lining' attitude about life :-)

Evidence:

1. I went to Monticello to take my final exams for my MAT. I stayed in a hotel room the entire weekend preparing for different finals and leaving only to take final. I even brought my own food in a cooler to save $$. Well, on Sunday when I awoke, I was COVERED on my face (left side only thank goodness) and leg with poison ivy. It was in my eye, my hair.. it was everywhere. Of course, I was a little curious about the source of the poison ivy and went immediately to the hotel manager - who, yes, confessed that the records indicated the bedding had not been changed since the last guest had stayed in my room and they were a large group of hikers! I got the room free.. but the cost of treating the stubborn poison ivy was incredible. Final funny on this story is we had a family vacation the following week - lots of pictures and extended family!

The doctors could not get rid of the poison ivy. I went to Hot Springs to meet my sisters for a birthday weekend and Elizabeth paid for us to have a hot bath in the spa. Whatever was in that water got rid of the poison ivy after one bath!

I passed my final exams and earned my MAT. I had a wonderful weekend with my two sisters and due to a family squabble, we have not done it again, so it was an even bigger blessing than I realized at the time! We had a great vacation and it was nice a cool in MN and staying out of the heat helped keep the poison ivy from itching!

2. Tuesday was hit by an 18-wheeler when she was a senior in high school. The same year she was rear-ended by another student. A year ago she was hit head on by a drunk driver. In all three examples, she was sitting at stop lights or in traffic and walked away without major injuries. She did sustain a knee injury in the drunk driver accident that is still bothering her today and prevents her from participating in some intramural sports.

Tuesday being able to walk away from each accident with minimal injuries is such a blessing.. words cannot express how little everything else matter.. even two totaled cars, one repaired car.. who cares! Tuesday is still here, still driving, and we hope.. not stopped at a stop light right now :-)

3. The first time Utah rode his dirt bike was so much fun! On his last turn around to load the dirt bike, he lost control and hit a barbed wire fence (brand new, one week old) full speed. He cut his thigh open from knee to hip through to the femur. Thank goodness for the helmet, which had a big gouge (SP?) in it right where it was protecting his neck.

Utah had to miss a week of school (that is his silver lining). Our silver lining is he is fine, his leg healed, he has a great scar (and our friend James claims that 'chicks dig scars'), and he still loves to ride his dirt bike!

4. Tod has had ACL surgery and double shoulder surgery. I have had double knee surgery. In all circumstances it was due to unfortunate events in our life!

The fact that Tod and I have fantastic insurance that helped pay for these surgeries is a huge blessing. Our quality of life is so much better and we are both close to pain free!

5. We lived in the same house for almost 13 years. When we moved, we were so excited and we still love our new home, though we got a little nervous at first. In the first 48 hours the garage door spring broke, the garage door motor failed, the garbage disposal quit working, there was a recall on the dishwasher, the cable wouldn't work (cox came out about 5 times that week), and the dogs discovered how to get out of the fence (so we chased them through the woods until we figured out their escape route).

We have a beautiful new home!

There are more examples for you doubters....

Below is a picture of the naughtiest dog in the world AND the reason I am up at this hour!