We were notified Sunday night around 9pm that Marty officially was going home.  We were so excited because we had come to the realization that he was going to be spending another night in the hospital.  By the time we got all the paperwork completed it was a little after 10:30 and we were off!

As we were headed out Marty motioned to ask how far away we lived.  I told him about 20 minutes.  He shrugged his shoulders.  Not sure time has a meaning right now.  Once in a while I would ask him if anything looked familiar.  He would shake his head no.

When we pulled into the garage, Marty pointed to the wall of shoes, back at me, and back at the wall of shoes, shaking his head the whole time.  (I own over 100 pair of shoes, perhaps he thinks I have a problem)  Once I turned off the car, he sat in his seat clapping so excitedly.  It was like a kid going to Disneyland.

As soon as we got in the house he was swarmed with hugs by his girls.  They were so glad to have him home.

Marty spent a few minutes wandering around the house looking very lost, very confused.  He looked in each room on the first floor and shrugged his shoulders as he entered the doorway.  We have family pictures that hang on the wall in the hallway.  Marty studied each one intently.  He pointed at each of the girls and me and smiled, he then pointed at himself with a grimace on his face and then shrugged his shoulders.  I cracked up laughing.
Marty rarely smiles in family pictures.  He might smirk a little, but rarely a smile.  We bribed him when we got these pictures done to try to get to smile a little.  His reaction to these pictures cracked me up.

We then asked him he was ready for bed.  He remembered he needs to take medicine before he goes to bed.  I nodded yes.  This is one of those things that I get to learn.  I'm not used to giving him his medicine.  I am thankful that he remembers that he needs meds even if he doesn't know which ones he needs.  Together, we make a great team.

Monday morning I woke up and came out to the couch to update the blog.  Soon, Marty came out of the bedroom and waved at me.  He then stopped and let out a strained, but booming "hi".  This is the word they had worked with him at the hospital.  He was so proud of himself.  We both cried as we embraced.  He is making progress.

He then motioned for me to come into the bedroom with him.  He had remembered to make the bed.  He always used to make the bed.  He couldn't remember how to make the bed, but he did a pretty good attempt.  I was so happy he at least remembered on his own that he makes the bed.

I asked him if he was hungry.  He nodded yes.  I gave him a few choices for breakfast.  He indicated that he wanted a breakfast sandwich.  I showed him where they were and how to make them. (on a side note, on the way to the refrigerator in the garage Marty saw his motorcycle out there.  He was VERY impressed.  Now I just need to find someone to teach him to drive it this spring)

Marty still can't remember to eat.  when we put food in front of him, he just looks at it, until someone asks him if he's hungry.  He'll then take a few bites until he gets distracted and then he needs to be reminded to eat again.

Marty continued to wander through the house looking at different things.  He opened the coat closet and saw his Denver Bronco's jacket.  He motioned as though to ask if it is his.  When I told him it was, you'd have thought it was Christmas morning.  He then pointed to the emblem on the sleeve and then at his tattoo on his ankle and back to the sleeve.  He has a sign he uses for his brothers and sisters and then back at the sleeve and the tattoo.  I asked if he remembered Jon's tattoo.  He quickly nodded yes.  Marty and Jon got tattoos together.  Marty's is a ying & yang, Jon's is a bronco.

When it was time to get dressed, I asked him if he needed help.  He nodded yes.  When we walked into his closet he saw the dozens of ties that he owns.  He motioned to ask if he needed to pick out a tie.  I told him no.  He looked puzzled as though to ask why he would have so many ties and not wear them.  I told him he wore them everyday when he taught seminary, but today he could wear jeans and a t-shirt.  Once we got all of his clothes picked out he was able to dress himself completely except for tying his shoes.  We'll work on that one.

For the rest of the post, I'm going to use Marty's journal.  I am grateful to have the list of things that Marty has written so that we can remember all the fun we've had.  Warning, he wrote 8 pages today, so this will be a LONG post.

• Beer Boil in King Super we got the stuff Becky Bought Beer - Sec 89 (Marty was wondering through the kitchen, opening cabinets and came across a drawer of crab crackers.)
• Susie (Marty pointed at the word King Super and shrugged his shoulders.  I explained it is a grocery store to buy food. He then wrote Susie's name.  King Super is where we shop when we visit Susie
• What's Seminary (Marty still doesn't believe he taught seminary)
• Eye Drops in Sage (I don't remember him putting eyedrops in Sage's eyes, but I have no doubt he did.  He loves that girl)
• Dancing Queen late night on a boat with girls singing (somehow the girls got on the topic of Karaoke and Marty remembered

I then went and got all our scrapbooks and started going through the pictures.  These next few came out while looking at pictures in the scrapbook.  I left to talk to my boss shortly after getting out the books, so I don't know exactly what was the context of each of these.

• OJ Chase (This was a little random.  He wrote this while looking at Addyson's baby pictures.  The OJ simpson car chase happened on Addyson's birthday.  After writing this Marty pointed at OJ and shrugged his shoulders.  I asked him if he know who OJ was and had shook his head no.  That was a fun conversation ;) )
• Christy she is a dancer
• Colorado Rockies we at Tornados
• Amie, Angela, DJ, Amanda, Danny
• Perish - Army (some friends of ours last name is Perish.  They are currently stationed in Germany)
• Jon's Boy - Same B-day as Susie's Boy
• Zane
• Miachel Allen Christoffersen
• Susie & Will
• Close only counts (there is a picture in the scrapbook from a family reunion of playing horseshoes.  Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades is one of the sayings Marty would say a lot)
• Sep 11 2001
• Some one took your tooth and through
• Becky & Brouser
• caught a lizard
• Buchaner Bazzar
• Bitty Baby, Kit, Addy

Scrapbooks were then put away and the girls just started talking to their dad.

• Peanut Butter choc chip - Rylee
• Peanut Butter & Honey or choc chip - Jessi
• Ham & Honey mustard or nutella - Addy
• Peppering (the girls used to take a self defense class and this is one of the ways of defending yourself.  Not sure how that came up in conversation)
• Hana & Casey new home (One of our friends was over here assembly Marty's new shark steam mop.  The girls were teasing him and told him to read the directions so it didn't turn out like the bike.  Marty then remembered that Brenden had assembled a bike at Hannah & Casey's new home last week.  Marty has only met Hannah and Casey one time.  They must have left an impression)
• Ricky & Jessica she got wet outside where we ate lunch and chased a bird (Jessica asked if Marty remembered our old dog and this is the memory he had of Maggie)
• Kat's dad is Denver He gave us a paint brush (Kat came to visit and this was his memory of her)
• SONA (When Kat came in, Marty also remembered that Kat has a little sister that was wearing a beautiful dress.  We couldn't figure out where Marty would have seen Nora until her wrote SONA.  Marty then remembered hearing Addyson and Kat sing at SONA.  We've been trying for days to get Marty to remember Addyson's singing and Kat is the one that evoked that memory)
• White SUV at Sonic (We saw Kat on Friday at Sonic, but she was driving a red SUV)
• Pictur of Thurnder down (I can't remember what we were talking about when Marty remembered this, but when we went to Vegas Jessica almost got lost because she stopped to take a picture of them)

We then got a surprise visit from our friends in the Central Park ward, Matt & Alicia.  Marty and Matt served in the bishopric together.  The following memories came from their hour long visit with us.

• Matt and I helped pick young women and primary pres
• Sams (that's where Matt works)
• Baby cloths for Germany Garage Sale (Alicia donated a lot of clothes to a garage sale to help Addyson raise money to go to Germany)
• Converse All Star Jumpy (The Lindsey's little boys wants orange shoes.  Marty remembered that he used to own orange shoes)
• John Elway #7
• Arvada West High School (Matt went to this high school which is just a block or so away from Marty's sister Susie's house.)
• Drake Junior High Dragons (Marty went to Junior high in Arvada too)
• King of the Ferries (I think this must be an inside joke for folks from Arvada.  Matt thought it was funny)
• 68th (street Marty's sister lives on)
• Dair Queen (Just down the road from the high school)
• Jolly Rancher Factory - Ward road
• Arby's - Becky workd
• Church building on quail
• I work nursery (Matt asked Marty if he had a calling at church.  The last Sunday Marty was at church he substituted in the nursery, but that's not his calling.  He doesn't currently have a calling)

It was fun to talk about Arvada with the Lindsey's.  Marty remembers quite a bit about his time there and his visits with Susie.

When they left, he motioned that he wanted to go downstairs.  He hadn't been downstairs since he came home.  We gave him the royal tour.  In Addyson's room he flipped through Germany pictures.  When he saw a picture of Addyson's friend Josh Cabrera, he wrote:

• dad's a branch president
• song you girls were (there is a song called "I'm sexy and I know it" that the girls call Josh's song)

Marty also remembered that Darryl was the King and knighted him at Madrigal feast 2 years ago. 

When we walked into Jessica's room he was impressed that she has a guitar and a drum set.

When we walked into the game room he remembered he plays pool with Rylee and airhockey with Jessi.  When he opened the game closet he pointed at the game Rummikub and wrote

• play this game in the cave (name of our first apartment)

He then wanted to play darts.  His first dart hit the wall.  He was so concerned until I showed him all the holes in the wall that had been hit.  He stepped forward and threw the second one.  It nearly hit a bulls eye.  I think this will be an activity we do to strengthen his right hand and arm.

We came back upstairs and started talking about something else.  Not sure how we got on the topic of reading, but Marty can't read.  I don't understand how he can write and not read, but it is frustrating to him that he can't read.  I said we'd get the Bob books and teach him to read.  He got so excited and wrote:

• $50 to read Bob books (He paid Jessica $50 to teach Rylee to read because he didn't want to teach her.  You could tell he felt bad about that and hugged Rylee for a long time.  She then told her dad she'd teach him to read)

He then motioned to ask about $50.  Was it a lot of money?  What do we buy with money?  How do we got money?  He was very confused.  I pulled out coins and bills and tried to explain a little.  Marty lined up the coins as dime, penny, nickel, and quarter and motioned if that was correct.  When we tried to explain their value he got frustrated and pushed the coins aside.  He then wanted to know how we got money.  I told him I work for Walmart.  He motioned that I am at home so we have no money.  I told him Walmart was paying me to stay at home this week.  He was very confused but just let it be. 

We then got swarmed by many of the girl's friends.  With each one, he remembered something else

• You Bike - Addy's teacher Bikes he painted our house (to Brendan about brother Sperry, Addyson's seminary teacher)
• Erika in pictur like Rice milk like me (Addyson was listening to a song called rice milk)
• She told me I gave a good talk (to Lauren Sasine)
• I kissed my sisters kister last easter (to Mariah Wilcox)
• Mentral Camp (to Will Sasine - song he sang in madrigal feast this year)
• 800 Kelly?  I walked By there House Every Morning (To the Causey family - this was their address 3 houses ago)
• They got flat tire on day of his first trip to Temple (again to the Causey family)
• Sam's Club (??)
• Eber Skeber (We had invited the causey's to our home for Aebleskiver one year)
• Sweet Potatoes (Neva Causey makes amazing sweet potato casserole)
• We used to go to church - not LDS (to Michael Causey, Marty and Michael went to an over eaters anonymous meeting at the Lutheran church in Rogers)
• Centerton Gamble (??)
• Plays for choir & played organ with her mom (to Lauren Sasine)
• Mississippi (trying to remember where MIchael Causey is from - He's actually from Alabama)
• Roll Tide (Marty's response to Alabama)
• New Mexico - Green Chili (where Neva is from)
• Big Balloon Festival (when we lived in Santa Fe, we went to the Albuquerque balloon festival)
• Dad ate like a bunch of Breakfast Burritos (I love that Marty used the word like)
• Rose's Lariat Cafe Rawlings (when talking about green chili and burritos, he remembered this little hole in the wall place with great green chili)
• Kinda food (he wanted to know what kind of food green chili was)
• Batman (someone said that Michael was speaking in riddles.  We asked Marty if he knew what riddles were - he remembers the Riddler)
• Gave me poptarts - strawberry - in Big pretty Bag (to Emily Boswell - Emily used to bring poptarts to seminary)
• I can't remember to ask - But I can do stuff (Marty expressing frustration that we were doing everything for him and not teaching him or asking him to help while were were cleaning up the kitchen after dinner)
• She had a sweater and got hot and I helped her take it off and put it Back on.  She was very nice - Dress was green (talking to Brother Zebley about his daughter Clare)
• There pictures were downtown (to Brother Zebley about his family pictures that were in his Christmas card)
• D&C 20:77-78 (Brother Zebley asked if Marty had gotten the sacrament on Sunday)
• maggie was our dog (I had received a text message from Maggie Medford - he now remembers our dog's name)
• 1 can of V8, Bottle of Salsa, 2 cans of beans, pound of Beef, chili powder, taco seasoning (this was spurred from a V8 commercial.  This is a recipe for taco chili.  We usually use chicken not beef)
• Corn bread (we talked about him entering his chili in a chili cook off and he remembered the corn bread)

I don't know where the next three statements started, but it lead to an interesting conversations

• Can you get married more than 1?  (we said yes and gave him a few examples of people that had been married and divorced and re-married.  I asked him if he wanted to get remarried.  He adamantly shook his head no)
• In 3 Nephi more marriage is sin (I told him that there are 3 reasons the Lord says you can get divorced)
• 3A (we confirmed the 3 A's.  He then seemed satisfied)
• Our first kiss was in the rain

A friend of ours had her father write a letter to Marty and I.  I had Addyson read the letter to us as I knew I'd be too emotional to do it.  In that letter there were 12 pieces of council. Two must have struck Marty:

• Love your wife with all your heart.  Being a caregiver with a family is a hugh demand.
• Hold hands with your bride often, hug her and your kids, parents.  Have a twinkle in your eye. Your trials will be but for a little time.

After reading the second one, Marty stopped Addyson and wrote:

• Is this hard on you (when I nodded yes and said at time it is hard.  It is hard to see you not the same.  It is also fun, but sometimes hard, Marty broke down sobbing, harder than I have ever seen him sob)
• I didn't understand (I don't think any of us understand)

Yesterday was a day of many highs and a few lows.  I had a full on panic attack yesterday morning as the reality set in. I was able to meet with my boss and they will work with me as best as possible.  We laughed a lot and remembered things we never would have remembered otherwise.  We saw a lot of friends and enjoyed some great times.  I am grateful that Marty is able to write.  He has a few signs that he does that helps with the communication as well.  I will sometimes say that Marty "said" something, but he doesn't verbalize anything but "hi" right now.  However we are able to communicate pretty well.  I'm am getting better at reading minds, but I am no where near perfect.