The Walden House

Eric and I were kind of freaked out about finding a place to stay when we went up to see his dad. I googled all the surrounding hotel/motels coming to realize that it was going to be an arm and a leg to stay the night. The cheapest place was $85.00. I guess I'm cheap and couldn't see paying that much just for a bed and a hot shower, but whatever it took to see Cal, we were going to do it. When I asked Eric's sister where they were staying so we could stay close, Chaney told me about The Walden House. All she told me was that it was ran by donation, it had 9 rooms, and a community bathroom. I cringed at the thought. Seeing some of the Ronald McDonald houses growing up because of my sister always in the hospital, I didn't think that this was going to be any better. All they wanted was $25.00 a night plus a $5.00 cleaning fee. Seems very reasonable but what else was I bargaining for? When we decided to head to bed around midnight Friday night/Saturday morning, we went to the house where we had a reservation. I just kept saying to myself.."How bad could it be?? How bad could this be?" Pulling up, it was a beautifully lit house with a well manicured lawn. Our room was upstairs, so we tippy toed up stairs. Observing to the layout, the house was gorgeous. The rooms were large, (ours had two twin beds, not sure if all the rooms were that way), the common room was tidy, the kitchen very welcoming. The bathrooms, we did have to share with all the guests in the house, but you had to clean it every time you used it. I'm sure it was a lot cleaner the your local Motel 6. When we settled in, I asked Eric if he wanted to sleep in separate beds, or try to snuggle into one. He said that he sleeps every other night without me, he wasn't going to that night. Needless to say, it was a restless one. I felt like I was going to fall off my end, and Eric felt the same.
Checking out, I got a better lay of the house. There was common room upstairs, a spacious common room on the main floor with a wall of books, and beautiful fire place. In the kitchen, the little old lady had tea, coffee and cookies out for everyone. I was more then impressed. I was okay with paying $30.00 for the night when all we did was sleep and shower. I will definitely recommend The Walden House to anyone.

Stubborn Mule

This wonderful man is Calvin Edward Reel. It's Eric's dad. On Monday evening he was in a four-wheeler accident. I received a phone call at one in the morning saying what had happened and even at that it was all very sketchy. A lot of questions were left unanswered. At 4am I received another phone call that they had done a CAT scan on him and it didn't look so good: broken shoulder, collar bone, multiple puncture wounds on the upper right hand side of his back and the whole right side of his face was pretty much smashed. The only question I could get out was if he was coherent or responsive. I needed to know that he was still "in there". They told me that he'd squeeze your hand if you were talking to him. By this point they were waiting for the orders for him to be life flighted to Kootenia Medical Center in Coeur d'Alene. Through out the day we had small updates here and there, but nothing to say much of anything. He underwent surgery Tuesday night and that's when I found out what all had happened.

(Calvin with all is son's, except for the lil lil guy)
Cal decided it would be fun to ride off on his four-wheeler by himself. Eric's baby brother, Justin and Eric's nephew Dagen were fishing in the creek when they heard a loud commotion. They turned to see what it was and saw that it was dad's/grandpa's four-wheeler that had flipped. Unfortunately it was those two that had found him. No one knows what had caused him to flip, a pot hole, soft edge, we may never know if Cal can't remember. Dagen and Eric's oldest brother Christian had to carry Dad out and he was then taken to Orofino Hospital.
The injuries that he sustained were pretty much all upper body, face, neck and shoulders.
The surgery revealed that he had to have two metal plates placed under both of his eyes, a metal mesh plate placed behind the right eye to keep it in place, they had to wire his jaw shut and they had to do a tracheotomy because his nasal cavity was smashed and he wouldn't be able to breath. Thus they put in a feeding tube as well. The doctor's fixed and set his shoulder and collar bone. The multiple puncture wounds on his upper back were from the collar bone breaking and stabbing him through the skin 3 or 4 times as he rolled.
(Cal and all the kids and the grandkids)
Yesterday, the doctors made him wake up to try to breath on his own. In that man's stubbornness, he tried ripping all of his tubes out. That's the ornery man that I know.
His eyes are swollen shut, his mouth wired shut... he has no form of communication to any of us other then squeezing hands that are holding his. I am being told that he hears you, and that's all. I haven't seen him yet. Honestly, I'm scared to. I will be leaving work early tomorrow and staying the night up there. I can't imagine how Eric is doing with all of this. The plant that he's working on, the supervisor went on vacations which left him in charge. He felt obligated to stay, only going on the fact that dad's injuries weren't life threatening and it's only the waiting game. Eric is leaving work tomorrow from Yakima and heading straight up.
The bleeding in Cal's brain has stopped and their is a lot of bruising, but they are promising no permanent damage. Their main concern right now is his eye sight. He could end up with double vision, deeming him "disabled". The reason I call him a stubborn mule is because on Tuesday, Eric's older sister, Stacey, called up to his room and actually got to talk to Dad. She had asked him if she needed to come up there to say good bye to him. He just laughed, and if you know Cal, you know what laugh it is, and he said he didn't know what everyone was worried about. When Stace relayed that information, I knew the good Lord wasn't done with this man yet... THANKFULLY. He is truly one of the better men in my life. Many prayers are needed.