Daddy is missing his workin buddy...

Oh Dakota,

How much we miss your little body running all around the house!! It's hard to think about those days when you were so active and now those little legs can no longer take you where you want to go. I understand why you want to be held so much and just love walking around the house...I can't imagine what that must feel like for you to have that freedom and independence taken.

Daddy found these pictures of you when he was going through some of his work pictures. He called me into the office to look at it with tears streaming down his face.

You would spend all day in the trailer if you could. He LOVED how much you loved his skid steer and trailers.  In the winter time when the skid steer was parked in the garage he would take you out there and just let you sit and play and push all the buttons and pretend like you were driving. You were the best little workin buddy then and I could only imagine how much more you would LOVE to go to work with daddy now.

Me and you spent LOTS of hours after daddy lost his sight...driving him to bids, hauling his trailers and equipment around, and picking up parts for him. You LOVED riding in the 'big truck" and would always ask while we waited for daddy in the truck..."I wanna drive." You would look at me with that most handsome smile and I had to say yes even if I knew it would only be for just a minute. We don't get to do that so much anymore because it is a lot harder but oh how I wish we could.

Daddy told me something else he remembered that I didn't know. Whenever he watched you and didn't know where you went he would always call out for you since he couldn't see you very good. You got used to daddy always doin that so you learned on your own...every time daddy would say "Dakota!" you would answer right back..."I right here daddy." You didn't even know your daddy couldn't see very good but you were already his big helper! You are still the light of his life and mine!!

KEEP TRYING BUDDY...WE NEED OUR HANDY MANNY BACK...SO MANY THINGS TO FIX!!

Miss this busy body! And sweet voice!

Q & A

So I am really slow at this but I told you eventually I would answer questions so here are some from awhile back...

From bedroom makeover:

1. The room looks great. So I have a question, if Zach is blind how is he able to do all that stuff? Like fix the light?

Pretty much because he is the man! ;) That is a great question and I am working on the revamp of my blog as we write thanks to my friend Becky from cutest blog on the block... so I will write about Zach in more detail soon. But for now...he is considered legally blind but in his right eye, in the outer part of the eye he is able to see contrasts of shades and outlines of objects so it is not completely black...which we are EXTREMELY grateful for! So he is able to get around without running into things for the most part. He has been able to utilize as time has gone on what he can see VERY well. He is also one of those guys that has always been able to do pretty much anything and everything. If something needs to be fixed or done he already knows how to do it...so fixing the light and wiring my other light for him was like no big deal. He needs help with detailed things like telling him which color the wire is and helping him find the wire in the wall, etc. For the most part he just uses the little bit of contrast he does have and feeling with his hands and he is amazing. He can still back up his truck to his trailer or in a tight space WAY better then I can with 2 good eyes. And if you read my hunting post he literally shot a pheasant out of the air that I totally missed. He is AMAZING to say the least. Things are definitely a lot harder for him and take him a lot longer but if he wants to do something he will do it...he doesn't let his eyes hold him back.


2. I am a reader and saw that you are selling the log bed. Can you please tell me what size it is? Also how much you are asking for it?

You betcha and thanks for being a reader! It is a queen size. We were shooting for $500 but decided we would take $400. It is an awesome log bed!! Zach really doesn't want to sell it cuz he loves it so much but he also HATES clutter and storing stuff so he is willing to sell it just for that. Seriously he would throw EVERYTHING away of mine and Dakota's if he could that we are not using.

3. Are there any races in AZ???

I checked out AZ brain injury website and didn't see any info about any races that they do. I did find something cool...they have set up over 1000 different online stores that if you shop through them they will give the AZ brain injury association a percentage of your purchase. There are tons of stores that you probably already shop on like amazon, restaurant.com, etc. So if you are doing any online shopping go to their site first and then click on the store and they will donate to the brain injury association. Here is the link shop . Look forward to seeing many of you at Dylan's Warrior Run tomorrow!! ;)