E-bikes

I thought some of you might be interested in this. There is a guy up here in Minot who has started a new company that sells electric bicycles. You've probably heard of these. When you search on line for ebikes, there is all kinds of cool stuff, even a "pterosail", or a recumbant, street legal bike with a sail! The problem is a lot of this cost saving stuff is actually pretty expensive, some costing as much as cars. His prices are comparibly less ($700-$900 versus $1500-$6000!)
This guy says he's looking for distributors or "dealers". He's set up shop in Minot and has dealers in a few other states. He seems very keen on getting into Utah and Arizona (although I think he has one dealer in Arizona so far). So I'm including some links so you check this company out. If anything it's pretty innovative( Kristin and I actually rode some of his bikes and they were really fun, a combination of a good quality bike with moped except all electric. He has one that folds up which is really neat).
He told me (the owner) when he went to China to check out the electric bike market there, that over 20 million ebikes are sold in that country every year. In the U.S., the number is about 100,000. But consider, that number is up 6000%! Could this be the next CNG or Alternitive transportation craze? Check out some of these links and let me know what you think.

www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/515759.html?nav=5002
http://www.electraped.com/

went into labor last night

i was having contractions 5 minutes apart for over 3 hours last night. had to go to the hospital to have them stopped. crazy. for pics and the full update you can go to our blog.
http://ddjohnson.blogspot.com/

Grace

Just thought I'd post a picture of our cute little Grace.

Another Big Boy

Just got back from a "growth" ultrasound. So, we are exactly 8 weeks away from the due date, and they estimate this little guy weighs about 5 1/2 pounds already. (the norm would be to hit this weight in 4 more weeks) We had an ultrasound with Porter to find out his size just before he was born (six weeks early) and they estimated that he weighed just under 7 pounds. Two days later he was born at 7 lbs 15 oz.....so I'm guessing this little guy might be a bit bigger than they are estimating. Maybe technology is better now. Either way, unless he comes early, the little newborn outfit I bought for him to wear home from the hospital is going to be too small! But his little ultrasound pics look very much like Porter's did. So, hopefully he's a cutie. I keep saying that for all this pain and trial he has to be as cute and as smart as Porter! I am doing well though. I'm being really good about the diabetes diet I am on and it's helping a lot....with how I feel. Just not quite as exhausted, or hungry, or thirsty as I was before. The glucose levels still aren't quite down to where they should be, but I'll find out more about whether I need to be on medication in the next week. I'm still on partial bedrest just to make sure my blood pressure doesn't get too high. It seems fine, but I don't want to have to be on magnesium again for pre-eclampsia. That was awful. It looks like we may be able to do this one planned and not emergency. Right now it's planned for Sept. 4, but since baby is big, and daryl has school that day, I'm going to talk to the dr. and see if we can switch it. We'll see.

This makes us laugh!

We saw this on tv and then found it on youtube to laugh again! It's fun to watch my kids watch it.....they feel his pain! :)

Gestational Diabetes

Well, it's finally official. I have gestational diabetes. So, now that the c-section is probably only a month away, i finally get to go get some counseling and instruction on what i'm supposed to do and by next week i will finally have a glucose meter. crazy i say. maybe, if i could have been monitoring a while ago.....and known what to do then. but it's already pretty obvious that my baby is super oversized and complications began a while ago. oh well. maybe with all this info, i can actually try one more time to have a baby and see if i can have a close-to-normal pregnancy. of course, i'll be 40, so i may be done anyway. at least there are excuses now for all the complications with porter. crazy!

Little entrepreneurs on the prairie

We are sorry we missed the great get together. We love you all and are still praying for you, Kirk and Cherrie and nanay. I am posting a few pictures. One of Grace on her blessing day. One of Ben's pinning on Captain (I am so proud of him). And one of the little entrepreneurs on the prairie. A couple of weeks ago we had a yard sale. The boys wanted to participate, so we decided they could do a cookie and lemonade stand. They decided not to set a price, but to ask for donations only and just give them out. Very smart! People thought they were so cute. The boys would say, "You can have a cookie. It is free, or you can just make a donation if you want." Some people paid $5 for one cookie! They worked hard, paid me $5 dollars for supplies and still made a profit of $28. Amazing!
We are doing well and enjoying some nice weather here in Minot, finally. Darcee and Darryl and Porter should definitely come visit us here. We just barely got to 80.
Ben got a call yesterday informing him that his brother, Richard, was racing motorcycles, and crashed and then was run over. He is in the hospital and not well at all. He has broken 12 of 13 ribs, his scapula, clavicle, 2 lumbar vertebrates and one cervical vertebrate. He also punctured a lung and broke his breastbone. They don't know if he is going to have some paralysis or not. They are doing some surgery today. He has a wife and 4 children and no medical insurance. Needless to say, we are worried for them and would appreciate any prayers in their behalf.
Tragedies do occur, but we are so thankful for the gospel perspective that we have! We are so thankful for loving and supportive family and for all the blessings that the Lord gives to us. He loves us. He loves Nanay and her family and Richard and his family. I love Him for loving us so much and when I focus on that, I am happy despite temporal, temporary circumstances. We are eternal beings, and we can be an eternal family. Cause for celebration!

we are back in phoenix

so, we are home now. it's nice to be in our own beds....but that is about it. we pulled in around 11pm (12 utah time) and it was 98 degrees outside. our first day home (yesterday) was 113 degrees. the record high in 1887 was 114. so we came home to "extreme heat warnings" and today is supposed to be close to the same....in fact...the temps are going to slowly drop over the week and by next tuesday we should get all the way down to a high of 108! so, porter is frustrated already....stuck in our house...no outside, no stairs, no cousins. poor kid!
it was so good to see everyone (sorry we couldn't go on to N. Dakota, pooh!). thank you especially david and susan for making an effort to come see us. i know it was expensive and totally chaotic for you. but we really enjoyed seeing you and your kids! and porter loved seeing so many cousins. porter is still talking about our trip. we keep hearing "grandma granpa benge's house," "uncle bret trailer," "uncle devin," "kirk cherrie," "no K.C.!" "toby lily kyle baby dedek," "dave," "uncle david," "nikki etan aaabelle," "playground" "swimming," and he recognizes even more of you all in the pictures we have now. it's so cute. i'll email and post some photos as soon as i get them off the camera.

Cherrie's mom had a stroke

As most of you probably already know, Cherrie's mom Anita (Nanay) had a major brain hemorrhage on Saturday night at about 6 o'clock. It turns out that she has a large AVM (Artereo-Venous Malformation)just like Devin. These malformations have weak walls which is why it hemorrhaged.

At first she didn't have any symptoms other than a sudden excruciating, debilitating headache. For about fifteen minutes we were with her, talking to her, trying to figure out what was wrong, we even took her blood pressure, but she didn't have any other stroke symptoms, just the headache. So we were left to either dial 911, run her to the emergency room (about 15 minutes away) or run to the insta-care clinic in Bountiful (about 10 or minutes away). I was afraid of going to a busy emergency room and getting ignored as the "Lady with a headache", so I left Cherrie and the kids and drove with Nanay and Tatay to the Insta-care clinic. Nanay was still talking to us the whole trip, but as soon as we started to get out of the car, she stopped talking and starting mumbling. She had lost all strength and could barely stand up. We hurried her into the lobby, and we were lucky that nobody was there. Just as we got inside, she started vomiting, and lost all strength in her legs. I yelled at the receptionist that she was having a stroke and everyone in the clinic jumped on it. Within a minute she was on a gurney and being evaluated by two doctors and several nurses. They're response was awesome, and they got her stats and info as they started loading her into an ambulance. It just so happened that our very good friend, Alili Perez, was also in the clinic at that moment, and she came over and got my keys to lock my car and take Tatay home while I climbed in the ambulance with Nanay.
We drove to IMC in Murray while the ambulance team stabilized her and contacted a stroke team at IMC to be ready for us. They put did a CT scan to see if the stroke was a "bleeder" (hemorrhage) or a clot. It was a bleeder, but they also thought that there was something else there too, so they put her on medicine to help control the brain inflammation and keep her blood pressure low while they did further MRI's and angiograms to see what was going on. They found that she had an AVM which sort of changed all the treatment options. If there had been no AVM they would have tried to get in and relieve the pressure immediately, but with an AVM they needed to stabilize her and let the bleeding stop on its own so that they could evaluate where to cut without causing more uncontrollable bleeding. On Monday they performed an angiogram/embolizaton (just like on Devin), where they blocked of the major feeder veins to the AVM.
On Tuesday they performed surgery to remove the clot formed by the blood which had pooled as well as the veins and arteries of the AVM itself. She is still recovering from that. She has weakness on her right side and still isn't able to talk, but the doctors are hopeful that she will make a pretty good recovery and be able to regain some of those functions.
Cherrie and I feel really blessed. We were supposed to go down south for two days to celebrate Cherrie's graduation from the dental assisting program, but Cherrie had a feeling we shouldn't go, that something might happen. Wow was she right. I can't imagine what would have happened if we had been 4 hours away when this happened.



What a change from the way she looked a week ago.

Cup of Tea

"One day my mother was out and my dad was in charge of me. I was maybe 2 1/2 years old and had just recovered from an accident. Someone had given me a little 'tea set' as a get-well gift and it was one of my favorite toys.

"Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea', which was just water. After several cups oftea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home. My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!'

"My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up. Then she says, (as only a mother would know... :) 'Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to getwater is the toilet?' "

(Cousin Rick Benge sent me this.)

Cute picture

I thought this picture was really cute, and wanted to share :) Sounds like you had some fun this weekend Kirk. Glad no one was hurt.

A drunk driver crashed into my house last night. He crashed into several neighbors vehicles as well. I guess the fellow is an illegal immigrant... no license, no insurance, stolen license plates, and the car which he claimed to own was not registered in his name.

He first hit that green car, pushed it up over the curb, and then continued on, turning just in time to miss my garage and hit the corner of my porch, after which he continued through two neighbors yards, then he crashed into another car about two blocks away.
After that he ran and hid, but we were outside with some neighbors, and they saw him, and chased him down and showed the police where he was hiding. It was a pretty exciting night.


Luckily, he hit the most solid portion of my home, the porch. He only damaged some stone, a little siding and cement, and destroyed my handrail.

CNG Article

A Broken Man

Had some visits with some doctors about a progressively sore wrist this week. My wrist and thumb always hurt. I can't shoot three's or do push-ups, and it is very sore after shoveling or lifting.

I injured it way back when we lived in Manti, and the pain has slowly gotten worse. And guess what? I have a broken wrist. It has been broken now for about 9 years. As the surgeon said, "there are eight bones in your wrist; well, you have nine." I don't know whether that means I am a tough guy or a dumb guy.

It has been so long the surgeon thinks the resulting arthritis has destroyed my cartilage. Thus, there is no point in repairing the bone, as I will still have bone on bone in there. He thinks my best option is probably to remove some of the bones and then let the other ones "settle in." It reduces my movement but should get rid of the pain and stop further deterioration. I'll think about it.

Thanks for letting me share.

Take A tour Without a Top Secret Clearance!

Here are two links to the "Today Show" on MSNBC's website. Al Roker is doing a series called "Access Granted" in which he and the cameras have been given special permission to enter and film what would be normally highly secure and sensitive areas. In these links he travels to Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana and interviews Airmen who work directly in the Nuclear Deterrence mission in defending the United States 24/7 365 Days a year. The second link is what I actually do, although Al didn't interview me or come to Minot. The mission and capsules are pretty much the same. This is the first time the Air Force has ever allowed live cameras in a Nuclear Launch Control Center.
Now, if you would like your very own personalized tour, just head our way and I will gladly accomodate you. But seeing how that won't really happen and is only wishful on our part because we miss all of you, enjoy the links.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/#24479883
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/#24479883

Edit post by DVB: I think I found it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/#24482119

Cherish Grandparents

Today, Grandma and Grandpa Benge began their long trek back home to Utah. They had arrived almost two weeks ago to help out and meet the new little addition. They spent their time serving us. Grandpa did an assortment of construction and landscaping projects, as well as teasing the boys. It made Grandpa laugh when Jeffrey knew when he was pulling his leg. Grandma did cleaning, cooking, and nurtured her grandkids and daughter. Not to mention reading "the little mouse and the red ripe strawberry" to Dallin at least 150 times. It was a wonderful visit and they were a great help to us.

But as we all stood on the lawn waving goodbye, wondering when and where we will see them again, it really struck us just how much we love them. We realized in that moment, or were reminded again, what a blessing a Grandparent really is. Their's is unique role that really can't be filled by anyone else. And Grandma and Grandpa Benge take great Joy in that role. Why else travel to North Dakota? And when we miss our Grandparents and wish they were closer, we really cherish them most. We just pray for them in their special mission to all their grandchildren, that they will have strength and many more wonderful years ahead.

Safety of CNG cylinders

Here is a video for all of us in the family who are currently driving CNG vehicles. Just in case you or you spouse is worried about safety. This is also a good video to show that guy at work, you know, the guy who thinks you are driving a "death bomb" because your car is CNG.

cute scared KC

Haha that is so cute! Big ol tough KC! Toby said something funny last night and it made me laugh, and also think of Kirk!!! You'll see why :) So we made sandwiches for dinner and Toby said "Wow I love this sandwich!!!!! It tastes like mayonaise" hahaha

KC and a scary moment

So, yesterday KC was playing in the garage while I was working, and I left him alone to go get something behind the house. While I was back there I heard him start screaming; like really screaming. I thought he must have gotten hurt or something so I ran around to the front of the house and into the garage. At just about this same time, Kianna came out of the house into the garage to see what was wrong too. KC was just screaming and crying, so i asked him what was wrong.
He pointed at a robin (the bird) in the yard quite close to the garage, and I said, "What? Did the robin come in here and scare you?"
"No!" he sobbed.
"What happened then?", I asked.
He just kept gesturing toward the bird.
Then Kianna asked rather sarcastically, "Did the robin come in here and peck your face?"
Still sobbing almost uncontrollably he replied, "NO, it's LOOKING AT ME!"

I guess he was terrified of the robin's evil eyes.


Remember, given half a chance, a robin would kill you and everyone you love.