Monday, October 20, 2008

Thank You Eversons


Sharon and Axel

Eversons:

As most of you are aware, Shalaine's mom, Sharon Hendrickson, passed away last Sunday due to complications from Leukemia. She was diagnosed almost a year ago, the week of the Everson St. George reunion, as you might recall. She put up a valiant fight, determined to beat it even till the last day. Her and her husband have been incredible examples of faith and hope as they fought together against this cruel disease. The trust they put in the Lord and His will is something I will always look to as I face my own challenges in life.

One thing I have been impressed by throughout this ordeal is the value of the family. I have come to understand even more how important families are in caring for each other, supporting each other, and helping each other reach our full potentials. Each individual in Shalaine's family played an important role in helping the other individuals care for their mother, cope with the situation, and maintain faith throughout.

Since Sharon's passing, Shalaine and I have been so impressed by and so grateful for the sympathy cards and the calls of support from the Everson family. I know calling someone to express your thoughts and concern regarding a death is difficult and perhaps awkward. I know some of you even intended on coming to the funeral services despite heart attacks (Dave) bed rest (Brooke) and travel plans (probably the rest of the Eversons). Many of you left thoughtful comments on the Hendrickson blog expressing your thoughts and concern for the family. Shalaine's dad kept coming to us and asking, "Who's KWE? Who's Aunt Lindsay? Who's Syd?" We were proud to say they were part of our Everson family.

So thank you to each of you for your support during this difficult time. This is a great family made even greater by each individual in it. We love you all and hope to see you all soon.

Cort and Shalaine

Friday, October 17, 2008

All you need to know about using the Park City House:

RESERVATIONS
1. Go to the website and check the availability calendar. www.ParkCityHouseForRent.com
2. Confirm that the dates you want are in the "Low Season" or Summer only.
3. If you are an Everson or if you are married to an Everson, you pay $10 for day use and $15 to stay overnight.
4. Call or email Heidi glauser@cox.net
and Laurel Laurel@barclayButera.com so they know about your plan.
5. Stay flexible. Like non-rev air travel, if a full rate renter comes forward you may get bumped.
6. Make your check out to Heidi Glauser, mail it to 10 Soto Grande, Dana Point, CA 92629
7. If a non-Everson wants to use the house, they pay half of the posted nightly rate.

CLEANING
1. To cover the costs of maintaining the house we rent it to people paying $225 - $550 per night and it has to be clean and orderly.
2. Anyone who uses the house has the option of paying for a cleaning service $80. or cleaning it yourself.
3. If you clean it yourself, and it doesn't pass the Laurel Green white glove inspection, you will be asked to pay $80 on top of your nightly rate.
4. Cleaning includes: clean sheets and towels, sparkling bathroom and kitchen, dusted everywhere, vacuumed floors, trash removed. Read the instruction sheet that's in the kitchen. Also, look at Laurel's photos to make sure you make the beds correctly.
5. We appreciate anything you can do to improve the house while you're there - shovel snow, pull weeds, replace staples, repair anything that's broken, report problems.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Sorry....he's "Done" now....

I have to confess - I forgot about this blog entirely until just yesterday. I was just coming on to put up Asher's info - I'll put more photos up soon. It was amazing, as all births with epidurals are. He came naturally on the day that we were to be induced with him and he arrived after only 4 hours of labor. He had a true knot in his umbilical cord (just like Everett) which is pretty rare and really really rare to have two in one family. He was in the NICU for 24 hours because he wasn't breathing deeply enough and therefore wasn't oxygenating his blood. And now he's home and we love him and just enjoy having a pipsqueak around again.

oh - here's the link for the in-hospital photo they took....just cause it's also online right now....

Thank you for your love and prayers.

And thanks to those in CA and NV for taking GREAT care of Everett over this last weekend - he had a blast and we enjoyed the "babymoon".

Scott and Ken

Ken and Scott helped Bree and Eddie put in their cabinets. Here is a photo



They were actually using Hearl Everson's (my great-grandfather!) drill and it worked like a charm. I just thought this was a fun thing to share.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Newest Little "Doing"


Many congratulations to David and Jefra!   Baby Asher, 8 lbs. 4 oz. 21 inches. He is SO cute.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Dave Wagner's "Not a Heart Attack!"

Written by Dave Wagner, Posted by Heidi G. (We love you Dave!)

Friends & Family,

I'm sending this e-mail to all of you who have been kind enough to send supportive e-mails and calls in response to my recent health issues. I figured instead of telling the same basic details dozens of times, I would just send this note out with a summary for those who contacted me or have heard about it somehow. Of course, thanks for all your concern and kind gestures. I truly realized how blessed and surrounded by strong friends and family I am by going through this brief ordeal.

First off, I'm OK and I'm feeling almost back to normal, so don't worry about funeral gifts just yet. This e-mail is a bit long, so you can stop here and not worry if you choose to skip the details, which are below:

I woke up with severe upper abdominal and chest pains at about 1:30am Thursday morning. I tried to walk it off and relax, but for some reason, they continued to get worse and within 3-4 minutes I couldn't stand-up anymore and just laid down on the floor of our bedroom. We didn't know what to do, because the kids were asleep, I couldn't drive myself to the hospital and Brooke was supposed to be on bedrest anyway. It was so painful, and in a way that I have never experienced before, that we decided to call 911 to ask them what they recommended. Before we got off the phone describing the details of what was happening, the paramedics had already arrived. I was pretty embarrassed to be dragged out of my house by paramedics in the middle of the night when I'm only 31 (my neighbor had the paramedics at his house a few months ago, but he's pushing 90), but that's what happened.

Once at the hospital, they ran a battery of tests that all pointed to it not being a heart attack (blood tests were good, EKG was normal enough, the CATscan didn't find anything and I was starting to feel better). They also conducted a "Stress Test" where they inject radioactive tracers into my bloodstream, made me exercise and then stuck me in another machine to take pictures of how well my heart is functioning. Funny enough, Brooke hasn't been allowed to be too close to me, because I've actually been radioactive since those tests.

The EKG and other data that accompanied the stress test all came back positive as well, so we were running out of what the potential source could have been. The alternatives are ulcers, esophagus seizures (typically due to severe acid reflux, which I’ve never experienced before) and some other things that don’t lend themselves to testing that would allow us to find out what caused the episode. The thought of leaving without knowing what caused it was initially frustrating.

12 hours after we arrived at the ER, we were finally anticipating a discharge with some basic cover-all type follow-up directions. Then our doctor came in and sat down and told us that the final part of the nuclear test shows that I may have some damage to my heart and that my heart is functioning at a far below normal level (ie. Normal people have a heart that pumps 50-60 and mine was pumping 40). They also said that someone of my age and apparent fitness should be even higher than that. Next they called for an echo cardiogram that is essentially an ultrasound of my heart to get more details.

That was one of the scariest times of my life. The doctor was basically telling me that I either had a heart attack at age 31 or that some sort of virus had made its way to my heart and caused some damage that in his words “could get better, could be permanent and stay the same, or could get worse”. He also cautioned me that they may want to admit me for further tests if the echo came back with concerning results.

Well, about an hour after the echo the doctor came back and delivered some of the best news of my life in that they found that the detail in the echo provided convincing evidence that my heart wasn’t damaged, that my heart was pumping closer to 55 and that they all but ruled out a heart attack and viral damage. Of course, they did tell me that 55 is still on the low-end of normal for someone my age and that they can’t rule out that my heart (or some adjoined organ/vein/artery, etc..) caused the pain, but they were confident in saying that I’m not in immediate danger of having a potentially life-threatening cardiac event occur anytime soon.

Finally, after 14 hours at the ER, I was discharged with the very same uncertain diagnosis that I had hoped to avoid just hours before. The cardiologist said that there is only one more test that they would run if I were to stay and that it had a small chance of complications, so he said that in his mind since the risk of a dangerous cardiac event was so low that he felt that the risks of the additional test outweighed the risks of a heart attack.

The whole process helped me clearly understand that any frustration from not knowing exactly what caused the episode is significantly better than leaving knowing that I just had a heart attack or there’s a virus wreaking havoc on my heart.

I feel pretty good. Most of the negative feelings are probably mental, as I’ve been very sensitive to any abnormality with my body since I’ve been home. I plan on getting back to life as usual next week and am going to focus on continuing to improve my diet and exercise routine. I’m also going to follow-up on my cholesterol levels and keep a close eye on my cardiac health going forward.

Sorry for the long e-mail. Hopefully if you became bored, you quit reading awhile back.

Again, thanks for all the support and I’ll see you soon. I don’t even look different...

Dave