Trauma

I simply couldn't think of a better word to describe this post.
Peter had a wrestling tournament on Sunday in a town called Brawley, Ca. which is about 130 miles from Poway. We got up early and headed out for our 2.5 hour drive. It was a fun drive and we talked most of the way there. I was really enjoying spending time with just Peter and getting to chat with him. We got to the tournament and he weighed in and made the 100 pound novice group which he was very excited about. (Most weeks he has been wrestling at 105). (Weigh ins are at 10am and then they don't start wrestling until about 1p.) Then we went throught the drive thru at Carl's jr. to pick up some lunch. I asked the lady at the drive thru if there was a Target or Walmart around and she told me it was just down the street past 3 stoplights. So we headed over to Walmart and browsed there for a little while to waste some time before Peter had to wrestle.
We headed back to the high school where the tournament was located and I managed to get a great parking space right in front of the school. We went inside and found his coach and Peter went to warm up and I found a spot to sit in the bleachers. The meet started and Peter was the fourth person to wrestle in the first round. His first round was absolutely amazing, he wrestled better than I had ever seen him wrestle before. I was so proud of him and when the match was over he came up into the stands and I told him how proud of him I was.
We talked about his next round matchup against another kid who wrestles for Poway. Peter said he was pretty sure he could beat the guy, but I told him to just do his best. The second round match started and the other kid from Poway was a very tough competitor. During the first period of the match the kid was choking Peter and I yelled out from the stands and said "stop choking him". The kid glanced up at me and loosened his grip on Peter. Then the first period ended and Peter was down 0-5. Peter was doing a good job in the second period of fighting the kid off until the kid took him down and again got Peter in a choke hold. Peter screamed out in pain loud enough for me to hear him in the stands and the ref stopped the match. I ran down to the roped off area and was watching Peter. I noticed that he was having a lot of difficulty standing up and the coach was trying to help him off the mat, so I went out to the mat and helped get him to the wall and sat him down. The whole time he was holding his neck and crying hysterically. I told him to calm down and tell me where he hurt, but he couldn't get himself calmed down so I touched his neck lightly and he screamed again. We had him lay down and when he tried to straighten his legs he screamed again. One of the tournament officials came by and asked if I wanted someone to take a look at him to make sure he was okay and I said yes. A nurse came over and told Peter that she was going to check him over. As soon as she tried to lift his head a little he screamed really loud so she just stablized his neck with her hands and told me that someone needed to call an ambulance. I stood up and told the nearest person to me to call an ambulance and they went to call. In the meantime an off duty paramedic came over and asked if we could use some help and both the nurse and I said yes. He took Peter's vital signs and tried to assess him, but Peter was still too hysterical to answer any questions and so the guy said asked if an ambulance had been called, and I told him yes and he said good. He told me that when the paramedics came they would put Peter in a neck brace and strap him to a board and transport him to the ER. At this point Peter started screaming "I don't want to go, I don't want to go." The nurse and off duty paramedic were trying to calm him down and I was holding his hand trying to reassure him that he was okay. The paramedics got there and I backed away so that they could assess him and they put the C collar on him and strapped him on the board. Then they asked if I was riding with them or if I wanted to meet them at the hospital. I got directions from them and they told me that the hospital was up one block and across the street from Walmart. I got in my car and headed over there. i got there just as the ambulance did and I parked and ran in to the ER. By the time I got in the ER the paramedics had brought Peter in and he was calmed down considerably. They took us to a room and unstrapped him from the board. He immediately tried to start moving around and the doctor told him if he didn't lay still that he was going to stap him back to the board and he wasn't kidding. They took him to get a CT scan of his neck and thankfully it came back that nothing was fractured. He just has a bad strain and won't be able to do any sports for at least a week.

I am so very thankful that he is okay. I was so scared on the way to the hospital. I could only imagine the worst and I couldn't stand the thought of my active, tough son with a broken neck. I hope that I never have to go through that again. But the experience really helped me bring into focus what matters in my life. Some things are important and other things are just background noise. Give your little ones hugs and kisses and praise every chance you get. They are just so precious.

Christmas 2008

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year. Wow! I can't believe it is almost 2009. We had a good Christmas with just the boys and us. It was quiet, but the boys seemed to enjoy it as it gave them lots of time to play with their toys. Santa treated them pretty darn good this year. Peter got a Nintendo DS, and Liam got a guitar. Liam was very excited about also having a stocking filled with lots of things.

Here's a few pics. Liam is very excited in the first one because he found some M&M's in his Christmas stocking.

A harrowing tale about a fun day in the desert

Yesterday we took Ben's brother Michael (who came for a visit from New Mexico) to the Anza-Borrego Desert. It was a really great day. The temp was in the mid 70's and it was sunny all around. We started out by driving up to an overlook and got an amazing view of the desert floor below us. Then we drove on to a desert oasis called 17 Palms. We walked around there for awhile and ate a picnic lunch that I packed us. Then we headed to a place called the "Pumpkin Patch" which was a bunch of small boulders that were strewn across the desert floor and they looked very much like a bunch of pumpkins in a pumpkin patch. The pumpkin patch was reached by going on a 4 Wheel drive only desert wash road. There were also hundreds of off road vehicles (dirt bikes, dune buggies, etc.) zooming in and around the area. After the pumpkin patch we went to see the gas domes which were domes filled with some sort of natural gas bubbling liquid out of the ground. Following that we continued down the 4 Wheel drive road hoping to get back to the highway.
HOWEVER,
We headed down the road bumping and turning along. At the bottom of the hill there was a Y intersection and after looking at the map Ben and his brother decided that we should go to the right to get back to the highway. So we started off down the road and it got progressively more bumpy and turny as we drove. Several of the off road vehicles went flying by us jumping over dirt hills and such. After driving for about 20 minutes and coming to an area where a bunch of the off road vehicles were stopped we decided to ask for directions to make sure we were headed the right way. Turns out it was good we asked because we weren't where we thought we were so we turned around and headed back to the Y intersection. This time after again consulting the map Ben decided that we should have in fact went to the left. So we headed off down the left side of the trail and were feeling pretty good that we were headed the right direction to the highway. BUT....as luck would have it....about 10 minutess into our drive the road started getting narrower and twistier....and so, after just barely squeezing into one narrow turn Ben stopped and he and Michael got out to check out the road ahead. Michael climbed up the hill and Ben walked down farther on the path to see what was ahead. Meanwhile, a group of off road vehicles came up behind our Xterra and had to try to get around the Xterra by going part way up the dirt wall by our vehicle. Ben and Michael came back and decided it was going to be impossible to go forward so we would have to back our way out of this bumpy, turny desert wash. Michael stayed out of the car and directed Ben while he attempted to back out of the area. After backing a few feet Ben had to make a rather sharp turn and the Xterra tilted dangerously so he immediately stopped and after Michael assuring him it was okay to pull forward a little he got the Xterra back on 4 wheels and the boys and I decided that we were also getting out of the car. Then Ben backed around a few more tight curves and we found a place that he could turn around. He finally got the Xterra turned around and we all got back in and headed back to a road that we KNEW for certain would take us back to the highway.
I had certainly had MORE than enough excitement and adventure for one day.

Unfortunately, none of us had cameras so we didn't get any pictures of our adventures, but I'm sure that we will all remember yesterday for a long, long time.

Giving Thanks

I am going to try something new today and give a list of things I am thankful for in my life. Hopefully, it will help me focus on the positives in my world.

1. I'm thankful I have a wonderful, caring husband who I've been married to for 13 years.
2. I'm thankful for Peter and Liam, I couldn't ask for two more inspiring children.
3. I'm thankful that I'm healthy.
4. I'm thankful that I have friends all over the U.S who like me for who I am.
5. I'm thankful for good teachers for my kids.
6. I'm thankful that I have a roof over my head and food on my table.
7. I'm thankful that I have enough money to pay my bills.
8. I'm thankful for my extended family who is always there for me.

That's what I came up with so far. I know I have been given other blessings that I have forgotten, but this list makes me feel a little bit better. The items above are in no particular order, or else I would have had to list them all on number one. And of course I'm thankful for my faith in God.

Mean people

Today is one of those days where I'm trying to be happy despite all the chaos around me. I am a generally optimistic person and I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. But, I find that I am struggling lately with being optimistic and seeing the best in people. Just when I think that things are going pretty good, someone does something that throws me for a loop.
Last night a parent on my son's football team sent an email to the entire team giving vague references to problems he feels the team is having, and insinuating that Ben is putting the players in danger of emotional harm because of his coaching style. This same parent also gave a vague threat in this email saying that he is looking into legal action because of things he has recently learned about the team.
Ben is a VOLUNTEER head coach who stepped up to do the job when no one else would. He has been trying very hard to make it a good experience for all the kids on the team. I don't understand how people can be so darn mean! That's what it is, just mean. Whatever happened to do unto others as you would have them do unto you?????? Wouldn't life be better if we all tried harder to follow this rule?
I am far from perfect and I make my share of mistakes, but I do not ever remember a time where I was mean just for the sake of being mean.
It's just kinda been a rough couple of days...I'm sure I'll get my optimism back...I just have to realize that I can't control other people's behavior.

Music and Lyrics

Okay, this is a sort of unusual post for me, because it has absolutely NOTHING to do with my kids. But I have been listening to a new song for a few weeks and I really enjoy it. It is one of those songs that you just want to listen to over and over and over.... It is called "Eight Feet Tall" and is song by Gabriel Mann. I discovered the song because I heard it in the background of my favorite soap "Guiding Light", so I went online to figure out what the name of the song was and to hear the whole song. Here is the link to Gabriel Mann's website where you can listen to the song and also check out the lyrics. www.myspace.com/gabrielmann
I think the reason I like this song is that I have felt the need to live up to others' expectations and rules and I can relate to the feeling of needing to be "Eight Feet Tall". Haven't we all? It is just really one of those songs that I related to.
Hope you also enjoy it.

Nebraska trip

Well, I made it back to Nebraska again this summer and greatly enjoyed visiting with my friends Melanie and Becca. It was nice to be able to talk to them and to catch up on life. I also enjoyed spending time with my family. We took the boys to my uncle's farm while we were back and the boys had tons of fun there as well as learning a few things. Neither of my city boys realized that potatoes grew under ground and they were delighted to help my uncle dig some up. They were also surprised that carrots also grew underground and helped pull up a few of those. Liam was enthralled with corn fields. As we were driving to my uncle's house Liam kept telling grandpa "look there's a corn field" as you can imagine he repeated this few times!!! At my uncle's farm he got to go into the corn field with Aunt Judy and they walked to a pivot in the field. The boys also got to get eggs from the hens and Peter helped cousin Jackie feed the cows and cats (sorry about the mess Jackie!!!) Both boys said they want to come back to the farm again.

Now I am in full football mode. I am on the board of directors for Pop Warner and I am responsible for getting 17 team books organized and making sure that all 350 players have all required paperwork turned in before the start of practice August 1rst. Then once practice starts I will be going like mad for the month of August now that both boys are involved with Pop Warner. So I probably won't be blogging much if at all for the next couple months. I'll try to post some pictures of the farm/Nebraska trip soon.