Adventures with Sherry: Tender Mercies When the Car Breaks Down & Grandpa goes to the Hospital

Sherry got to come home for a quick 5 day "summer break."  Her job this summer with BYU Housing for all of the conferences and camps went from the time she finished finals until a week before school started again.  So she had a lot of dentist appts, hair cuts, best friend and family time to try and pack into 5 short days.

Sherry's hair before (it hasn't been this long since middle school)

She had some sleepovers with Sasha and it was nice for the two of them to get to experience a few days of their relaxed summer they had last year just being silly together.

Kierstin Sherry and Sasha together for the first time in 2 years!

I have no idea what this Cat and Mouse game is about lol

She got to see two of her very favorite teachers, Claire and Monika, Monika and her family are moving north of Seattle so it was especially important.  And of course two of her favorite girls are their daughters (who have played Sherry's daughters and sisters in various shows lol).

I whisked her off to the beach for a night and we did some shopping with Granny, my mom is only here for a short time this summer so thank goodness we could fit the trip in!  She also got to know my coworkers a bit, we stayed with them in Diedre's lovely beach house in Tillamook.

Sher Bear and Gran Gran

We went to the Nike store, aka Sherry's favorite place to shop.  And Sherry thought she saw Rudy Fernandez in the parking lot so I hit a U-ie and we went to go and see...but it wasn't him.  It was fun anyway.

In one of her new outfits

With her #1, Sam Marrott

A bit of a brotherly fight between Sam and Ben over Sherry haha--she dumped Ben for Sam a couple years ago so she caused this sibling rivalry, tsk tsk

(We won't talk about how Tori felt about having her sister home, taking the attention away...haha)

      The day Sherry went home all started out nicely, with delicious strawberry waffles made by Daddy.  Who went to play basketball (even though he "wasn't going to").  After we ate breakfast I decided that we should check all the signals in the Subaru before Spencer's driver license test.  So I went out to where it was parked right behind the truck, and started checking the signals, and the front blinkers weren't working!  This is a little over an hour before Spencer's Test!  So Dad comes out and starts trying to figure out what is going on and getting into the wires to find the problem and so forth.  After a few minutes of this we decided I better get Spence ready and take him to practice in the Beast (our Toyota Sequoia 8 passenger SUV).  So we leave about 10:15 to help him get comfortable with The Beast which he rarely drives and he's doing awesome.  I feel great like he will pass it anyway.  Then Dad calls around 10:45 after we are at the DMV and says the blinkers worked the whole time, they are just recessed in the front bumper underneath, where we could not see them because of how it was parked.  So Spencer goes to take his test.  He starts out good but very nervous.  About 10 min later he comes back and finds me with a yellow paper.  He failed.  He stopped at a sidewalk before taking a left, a jogger started coming toward him, and he was worried that he was too far into the sidewalk, started to back up, and didn't check to see if anyone was behind him, the person behind him honked, and he automatically failed.  Poor kid!  It is all Sherry's fault, of course, since we wanted to send her back with Elmo but she is tired of having people judge her for having an unusual and economically thrifty car, plus wanted to be able to take her roommates to the Brigham City Temple Open House. 
    So Sherry takes off in the Subaru for Provo.  A couple hours later we get a phone call.  It is Sherry and the car is vibrating really funny.  Dad told her to slow down, and plan to go to Les Schwab in Hermiston which is around 50 miles away at this point.  She calls back a half hour later and it was really being awful so she pulled over at an exit, then the car would not start.  Fortunately for her, Grandpa & Grandma Nichols were in Hermiston for an LDS Reception for Grandma's nephew's son (they are LDS too).  I had talked to them the week before because I kept feeling prompted to call them.  So I called them and my dad answered and said they would go pick up Sherry.  I guess I called him right after she first called, then we gave her his number and had her call them when the car died.
      Grandpa & Grandma went and picked up Sherry and Trisha, meanwhile Dad went and rented a car towing trailer from U-Haul to pick up the Subaru, and I drove Elmo so Sherry could get back to Provo since school was starting Monday (this was Saturday if I didn't mention that already).  DEEP BREATH.  So we make the three hour trek and finally get to the Subaru, I put the few of Sherry's things into Elmo that she didn't grab (smart girl) and Daddy pulls up.  He backs up toward the white car and we decide we had better see if it will start.  Yup it started right up and he drove it onto the trailer.  So I start driving toward Hermiston and Sherry, and my dad calls me.  "Rollyce is taking me to the hospital, we think I had a mini stroke, and the girls are at our hotel."  I asked him to repeat because I didn't think I heard him right.  So I call Dad, then Sherry, then Spencer, then Aunt Vikki, and let them all know what is going on to get some prayers happening.  At this point I realize that the white car was supposed to break down so we could be there for my dad and Grandma Nichols.  We got the girls on the road (they didn't get to Boise where her friend Jacob Strain saved them by letting them have his room until after midnight, since it was almost 8pm by this time).  Then we headed to the hospital.  Sure enough, Grandpa had a mini stroke and they ran a bunch of tests to see what was going on.  He is doing awesome and they found a 70% blockage in one of his carotid arteries, so he will be having a consultation with a neurologist Monday then surgery of some type.  Happy ending there, happy ending for Sherry, and Damon has checked on the Subaru now and it looks like a happy ending--there was a big lump on one of the tires (it was old), and maybe something came loose to do with the alternator or a fuse and that is why it wouldn't start.  Plus he realized it will be easy to replace the struts which it needs. (the repairs only ended up costing a little over $200).
    The Lord's Hand is absolutely in our lives, even in the tiny little minutia of living here on earth.  He truly cares about each of us, His children even in our little life here on Earth with billions of other children of God!
     Sherry is safely back at BYU, super busy with all of her classes (various performance classes that sound like a jumble but all fit together perfectly, plus a Physics of Sound class, New Testament and German), voice lessons, and working at Heritage central building.  My dad is fighting with the stupid doctors offices to get his treatment, apparently the hospital should have just transferred him so he could get things rolling instead of playing "I need your records, you need a different type of doctor, but your Primary Care has to refer you, I need your records but we can't read a CD..."  Wow.  Hope he doesn't have another stroke and all of them get Owned.

PS  I couldn't resist sharing a couple more pics from her photo session with Heather.  She wore little makeup for acting headshots so she would be a "blank slate" for directors to see they could work with.  So lovely.