Merry Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas 2008

Hello everyone  Well it has been an interesting year for us. I had two knee surgeries this year. The first one to fix an old meniscus tear and the second to remove the meniscus because the first surgery didn’t work. So I have spent a lot of the year my recliner trying to recover. Bentley also had to have surgery this spring. She had a cyst that they thought was cancer on her side, so they had to remove that.

  I also got the opportunity to drive from Florida to Washington with my Aunt Monica, Uncle Chuck, and his son Daniel. That was really fun and tiring. We drove through 14 states in 3 or 4 days I can’t remember it was all a blur. I am very grateful to have had that opportunity it was really interesting to see all kinds of things that I would have never had the chance to see.

Brian went to three fires this summer but it was only two tours. When he got to the second one it was almost out so they sent him to a fire that was only about two hours from our house. He worked in Gold Beach quite a lot this year, which is about 2 hours away, so he did tons of driving.

Brian has applied for a job in Trout Creek, Montana on the Kootnai National Forrest. This would be a dream job for us. Trout Creek is about an hour east of Sandpiont, ID on highway 200. He applied a while back but there was a mix up with the applications so they are going to fly the job again if they can’t get the glitch worked out soon. 

Many of you know that we have been trying to get pregnant for a while now and still no news on that. I have some infertility issues and so does Brian, so we did some simple fertility treatments starting in November of ‘07 through May ‘08. We stopped so that I could get my knees fixed and then we were going to start again. I only have one knee fixed and still one to go then we are going to pay off a little debt and then start again. We have no clue on the time line of all of that. It is in God’s hands now. The sooner we can get out from under this house the sooner everything else can happen.  Prayers for all of that would be greatly appreciated.

If you would like to know anything else that is happening with us I started a blog it is www.brianandalli06.blogspot.com

We want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas full of friends and family and a happy happy new year 

With all our love,

Brian and Allison Robbins

Surgery

Alli's surgery went well today. The Dr got in there and it hadn't re torn, but it never really healed. There was some fibrous scar tissue. He said that the part that was torn wasn't really viable tissue, so he had to remove MOST of the lateral meniscus. So she now has less than half of the meniscus on the left leg. He said that she will be able to live her life but that her knee will never really be great. He also said that if it continued to bother her that he could put in and implant. Having no meniscus also dramatically increases her chances of having arthritis which is bad because she already has arthritis in the other knee. Please keep her in her prayers.

My First Chance

Saturday, Brian and I, one other couple (Dave and Dede) and three other guys decided to hunt this ridge that we have been on the elk like crazy all season. The guys dropped off the top to push the elk down. Dede and I set up in the bottom. I set up and ranged all of the trees in a 360 degree radius. I was just sitting there on this little mound/nob of moss covered dirt reading my book when I heard one of the guys bugle (our signal that there are elk coming) I set my book down grabbed my release just as I started to hear the crashing. I thought they were going to come from my left then all of the sudden I heard them drop down on the trail behind me. I spun and drew in one motion. I looked through my peep just in time to see them. It was a cow and calf running (3pt+ or antler less are legal) I debated for a split second "should I shoot her she has a calf last weekend I'm smokin her someone will take the calf once the cow goes down" I settled my pin right behind her shoulder as she slowed down to a walk. I said to myself "OK if she is at a slow walk I am going to take the shot". There weren't a lot of shooting lanes and I when I had ranged this spot thinking "oh yeah Alli like an elk is going to stop perfectly between those trees." Well as she slowed to a walk her calf was catching up but was still a wase behind her. So now she is at a walk I decide that when she is between the trees I will take the shot. Then as if it was meant to be she stops perfectly between the trees. She was at 35 yards down hill so I split my twenty and thirty yard pins settled just above were I wanted let my breath out to settle perfect and began to squeeze the trigger. Then it happened. My arrow fell off the string. It made so much noise and the cow and calf busted out of there. By the time I let down renocked my arrow and looked up they were more then 75 yds away and on a dead run. I let out an audible curse word and smacked myself in the head. I just.... I couldn't believe it. I have tight nocks but I had an arrow fall off in practice last week so I took the pliers to my nocks and tightened them but apparently it didn't do any good. That was my last weekend to hunt so no elk and no deer. Well that isn't true I have a late season. I still don't know how I didn't dry fire my bow. THANK GOD I have been practicing to not punch my release. I just ease it on. If I had punched it the arrow would have flown God knows where or the arrow would have fallen off and I would have dry fired my bow and probably ruined it. I am so frustrated. I still can't stop replaying it in my head. It was still so freaking awesome though! It was the coolest rush EVER!!! I have always gotten elk fever so bad. If you even say elk to me in the woods I shake like a leaf. But I was steady. I didn't shake. I had confidence. I have confidence.

Montana

So as many people know Montana would be a dream place for us to live. Well while Brian was on a fire up there, he ran into a guy who he has known for a while. They were talking about work and the guy told him that they were going to have a meeting to try and decide whether or not to open the Sale Admin job (the guy who left is the guy who got the Butte job that Brian applied for).

Well they have decided to try and get Brian to make a lateral move!!! This is such good news. There are a few things we need to consider. Brian is supposed to get his 10 (levels of pay) in March, so he needs to see if he takes it they will still give him a 10. If not he will compete for the job because they are going to fly it as a 10, in April, if he doesn't take it.

We also need to find out if the government will buy the house. They used to have four companies that bought houses. Now that the housing market is where it is, they only have one company. The process is that they send someone to your house and if you get approved. So we are trying to figure out if there is any way that we can get approved before he accepts the job and we need to find out how long the waiting list is. We can't afford to be paying rent and paying a house payment.

I am asking for prayers that we could get this job. It is just the perfect situation. It is about 5 hours from my parents and about 2 hours from his parents. Plus Levi and Branigan would be less than an hour away!!!!! It is a town of 261 people.

What you are looking at is a over head view of the whole town. I am trying really hard to not get my hopes up. Trout Creek would be a dream place for us to live so I a

m trying really hard to not focus on it. Please pray for us.

Knee

Well my knee was healing really well until the Tuesday before season opened, I went up on the mountain with a friend to set up camp. We ended up getting a flat tire so we had to wait up there for a while. I went to climb over a kelly hump and as I was going down the back side I set my right foot down on a rock and I began to slide well kelly humps are steep but not long, so as the right leg was sliding my left knee (the one I just had surgery on) came down right on a rock and my lower legs were turned out from my upper leg. Well, it hurt but not to bad. The pain hasn't stopped since then. In fact it has gotten worse.

I was at Physical Therapy yesterday and the Physical Therapist asked why I was hurting and I told him I still hurt from when I fell. He said "STILL?!?!?!?!?" I said yes so he asked for the details of everything that happened and he just kept sighing and shaking his head. He thinks there is a good chance that I may have torn what I just had surgery on.

I have an appointment with my surgeon on Monday. The PT thinks he will want to do an MRI. I am really discouraged I had come so far. I was having almost no pain what so ever. It is just so disappointing that I did all of that work and now I may have to go through it all again. I don't want to wear that stupid knee immobilizer I mean look at it.

Six more weeks in that thing soundsmiserable. Then I still have to get the other one done!!! I am really angry. Poor Brian is so stressed about the whole thing. I mean I was just starting to look for a job again. He just needs help. He has been supporting me for so long, and it seems like as soon as I get healthy enough to start looking for jobs I get sick or hurt again. It just isn't fair to him.

Hunting

Well we are three weeks into our five week season. Nothing yet. For that matter we havent even seen anything. It is nice to go spend the time together though. We have hardly even seen anything. Matt and I saw a spike one weekend, Brian and I saw a cow that was probably about 100-150 yards away. So keep praying we get one. Bentley really seems to enjoy going up there. She cases sticks, digs holes, and gets to ride around in the truck all day.