FC DALLAS

The boys and I had a blast last night at the FC Dallas game. The YMCA sold tickets to the kids that play soccer for $15. With that, you get a free FC Dallas Tshirt and the kids got to be in a parade on the field before the game. Below is the boys in the parade. It is very easy to see where they are. See the big gap in the line? That is Bradley talking to his friend as he walks, not paying attention to the line!

Ready for some soccer action! Yes, I colored Jake's hair red. I colored both the boys hair red last time we went. This time Bradley didn't want his red...I guess he is too old for that. :(

SCORE!!! The game was exciting at the end. It ended up tied 2-2 against Toronto. I really like professional soccer games. They are exciting. Jake making some noise!
Me and Jake. I was playing with the settings because I didn't like my make-up...it had come off and I didn't have on lip stick and I just think the green color is much more becoming than my regular self.
Jake and his buddies.
Bradley watching the game. I love to see my boys having a good time.
Jake picked up streamers off the floor and began tying them around his eyes and mouth. He asked me if I would tie one around his nose...I said NO!
Goofball! Gotta love him!

"Nurse, Nurse, Paiging Nurse Scott"

Here's the nurses station...the living room floor. This will last us all of oh 3 days! I covered the top of the trash to spare you the "puke factor". Let me just say thank you to family and friends who have been sooooooo supportive and helpful. We are tired, but healing :)

THURSDAY UPDATE: Randy went to therapy today. The nurse said his wounds are healing quickly! She think the burns will heal quicker than his arm however. She said they didn't realize initially how deep the road rash was on his arm. He looks so much better though, and no more whirlpool therapy!

UPDATE

I was able to take Randy to therapy this morning. They said we did a good job washing his arm and getting the gravel out. They put him in the whirlpool and cut off more dead skin. They sent me home with a bag of "goodies" to take care of Randy with. I took Randy to Chick Fil A for lunch and he said he wanted to go to work. I took him and he hung out in the coaches office until time for practice. He made it through practice and came home with yellow stuff seepeing out his bandages. I am not happy. I wish he would stay home. The people at therapy said his wounds look good though.

I just helped him take off the bandages and it was nasty! I can't tell you how many times I have wanted to puke. I asked for a trash can at the ER yesterday. The nurses gave me another lesson today in how to dress it. They said he didn't need to come back to therapy until Thursday, which is good for Randy but bad for me. I was hoping he would have to go every day and that THEY would have to dress the wounds for one of the times per day. Hopefully, they will heal quickly even though he is being stubborn and going to work.

Bradley got in the car today and started crying. He is upset to see his dad helpless in some areas and that his dad hurts. He wanted to go to Wal Mart immediately after school and get stuff for dad. He picked out a card, balloon, an Indiana Jones movie, Star Crunch, and Whoopie Cushions HA! He said maybe that would make dad laugh. Randy is TOUGH and handles it well. I'll be glad when we are done with this. Thank goodness we have good insurance that will cover the bike and medicall expenses!

Day I will never forget

Okay let me start with this morning. One of the sweetest mornings of my families life. Randy got to baptise Bradley this morning at church. I cried and cried it was so sweet. Randy did a good job and he gave Bradey a big hug afterward and said the best prayer about his son who is now his brother in Christ. Sweet precious unforgetful morning. In fact I know I am about to probably type paragraphs about this afternoon, but should be typing paragraphs about the baptism. It was a precious moment.

We came home and the boys went to play at their friends house, Randy went to work, and I laid down to take a nap.

2:40 the phone rings..."Hello Laura your husbands been in a wreck on 513 and hwy 69, laid his bike down, he's okay, we've got medical on the way." OH MY!!! I say I'll be there immediately.

Speed to Christie and Bens, run in their house ask them to keep the kids. Speed to Lone Oak (very carefully to not wreck though). Longest 15 minutes of my life! Thoughts racing through my head. They said he was okay. Does this mean he's conscious? Is he broken? Or is he really okay???

Get there and the paramedics have him bandaged in the ambulance. He's talking, whew! Thank the Lord!

My tough husband refuses to ride in the ambulance because of money, I tell him DO NOT WORRY about it. I end up driving him to the ER. He is scraped up pretty bad on his right side. Basically scraped off all the skin on his right arm and bottom part of his leg. Second degree burn on his hands. His poor hands are bandaged like mittens and he can't use them hardley at all. He will go to some type of therapy tomorrow for the burns. THANK THE LORD he was wearing his helmet.

A lady apparently did not see him and pulled out into the intersection causing Randy to fall and skid. The lady does not even know what she did and continues on. Thank goodness there were witnesses who saw everything and stopped and helped my husband.

Anyway, had he not been wearing his helmet, we would have been much worse off. It busted the side of his helmet. I can't imagine if that had been his bare head. Randy actually took a course that exempted him from wearing a helmet. So glad he wears it! He said his shoulder and head hit the pavement first.

I've got him showered and bandaged and in his recliner watching football. It has been a very bitter sweet day. I am so thankful for my boys and glad they are with me tonight. Shook up, but thankful.
This would have been the right side of his face hitting the pavement at 55 miles per hour. Instead it busted off the visor. That's the one thing we insisted on spending money on...a good Shoei helmet.

Cell phone is no more. I'm hoping we can get his ring sanded down or something. Not a very good picture, there are just scrapes all over it.

Grotesque and Comical

DISCLAIMER: I have permission from the author to post this as long as I don't mention his name. Let's just say a certain parent was tired one night of all the nose picking her child has been doing over the last couple of weeks. After getting on to her child several times that day, she gave her child the punishment of writing for 30 minutes about why he liked to pick his nose. Here is what he wrote (also typed below in case you can't read the picture)...


"I don't really like to pick my nose. But I do sometimes. I'm not sure why, but I do when my nose is stocked up. When I pick my nose I'm not trying to get in trouble, but when my nose is really full, I can't take it any more, So I pick it. I wish I had something to make me stop, but I don't know what. Sometimes, I do really stupid things. Half the time I do things without thinking, but after, I realise I could have done better. I also feel like my nose makes more bugers than the average nose does.

At least I don't eat my bugers, I would never do that. I want to stop, but I don't know how. If I knew a way, I would use it. Mabey I could pute some thing over my fingers, but what? If you have tips I need them, I really really really wish that somehow, I could stop for good. If you ever picked your nose, I really need to know how you stoped.

My mom got on to my twice for picking my nose today. My adress is (no such luck crazy bloggers), male me the story of how you stoped picking your nose. Mabey I could stop by doing what you did. If you maled me your idias, that would be great."

Friday

Friday was one of "those" days for sure. Actually, Wednesday started it all. Someone at school spilled water on the office floor and it didn't get cleaned up completely. Well, long story short, I slipped on the water puddle that I didn't see, and busted on my elbow after school. Luckily there were witnesses. The principal had someone go get my husband and the trainer out of football practice. Trainer thought my elbow was either chipped or just badly bruised, so principal encouraged a trip to the ER. So, I ended up on some good meds wednesday night. No chipped elbow which is good, but the pain killers made me really tired Wed. and Thurs.

So on to Friday...I was tired and behind on some work I had to get done for my mom, and I had a doctors appt. in Rowlett at 4:30, and I promised to take the boys to see Clone Wars...I was feeling a bit overwhelmed Thursday night :) I decided to take the day off Friday from work.

Long story short again, EVERYTHING went wrong Friday. Everything except dinner at Fudruckers and the movie with the boys. It ended up being pointless to take off from work, the doctors visit went HORRIBLE...so bad that the doctor called me after I left his office to apologize and give an explanation for the mess up, and said there would be some serious repremanding at the office. Geesh...

So the boys and I had a GREAT time at the movie and it was 10:00, time to head home. THANK GOODNESS I brought pillows and blankets for the boys, because I knew they had soccer games at 9 am Sat. and the theater is a 45 minute drive from our house (under normal driving conditions)....

So we left the theater and made it all the way to I30, only to find that the entire interstate heading East has been SHUT DOWN! Okay, usually not a big deal in the Dallas area where there are numerous alternate routs. No, the problem was that it was shut down at Dalrock, which is at the lake in Rockwall, which means there is NO easy alternate route heading East towards my house!!!

Long story short, again, we found a guy at a gas station that told me how to go down to hwy80 and cut over to 34 at Terrell. So I head down my alternate route. Well, some IDIOT has his brights on and is driving right behind me down 34, and my rear view mirror is all messed up, so that nice little button you push for night time to help take out the glare of bright lights, DOESN'T work! I thought I would try flashing my brights on and off and maybe he would get the hint even though I was in front of him. NOPE. Then I tried breaking lightly. NOPE. So I breaked a little harder... NOPE, but he did back off a little. Finally I put my blinker on and got in the shoulder for the idiot to pass me...

The IDIOT was a cop!

Luckily, he went past me. I guess my day could have been a little worse HA!

We got home at 12:15 AM. I discovered last night that I have learned to handle stress a little better than I used to. We got up this morning for the soccer games. The YMCA had not cancelled them. We got to the fields warmed up, and then the City came out and cancelled everyones games. Geesh! I really feel though that this is the end to the bad streak. Maybe I'll post a picture of my elbow later this week when it's really black and blue :)

SCHOOL

Well, we seemed to have muddled through our first two days of school. Not only did school start this week, but we also had our first soccer practice this evening. YIKES! Needless to say, my house is a disaster, we are exhausted, and Jake has consistantly had one meltdown per day.

Todays meltdown was over mashed potatoes. Since practice was at 6:30, I had the boys eat some mashed potatoes before practice and decided I would get the rest of dinner cooked afterwards. Well, Jake fell to his knees sobbing at my rediculous notion of eating a snack of mashed potatoes. I asked him what the problem was and he informed me in his own words "I only eat my mashed potatoes with fresh garlic in them." Oh really little buddy....well gourmet mama aint getting paid tonight, so you're just going to have to deal! Uhmm yeah...the kid went hungry to practice...

Surprise! A summer update! We have had a great summer. We did a lot of painting to the house after our Disney trip. Randy painted the outside of the house, and he helped me strip and paint our kitchen. I lOVE it!
Randy's sister and husband and kids came to Texas this summer and we had a great time with them. We house sat for my parents a couple of times. Most recently we have been hanging out together playing Monopoly and spending time with each other before school starts next week. Bradley and Jake's good friends down the street have been out of town for the last month and just got back yesterday. So they are extatic to have their friends back. And I am glad you're back too Christi :)

I had a couple of biopsies done recently on some moles. The dermatologist said the pathology report showed they were progressing into melanoma, but weren't melanoma. I think it means they have potential to be melanoma. He removed two moles completely. I told him to go ahead and cut out the remaining 6, but he said he would wait, because they didn't look as bad and if he did that, I could posibbly have six more spots grown back when I go back in. I will go back every six months so he can check them. I'm not totally happy with having to watch moles all the time, but at least they can be cut out.

I missed not getting to see Mikah this summer, but I am glad they got moved into their new house. We have all our back to school shopping done. I can't believe Bradley will be in the 4TH GRADE!!! Crazy!

Well, on to the pictures. Jake found this frog in mimi and grandpa's pool and caught it. After a couple of times of being caught, I think the frog decided that just laying there, and playing dead was better than being chased all over the pool. Jake loved it, and I finally had to make him let the poor frog go :)





Kitchen pics....Before (All of the befores are from when we looked at the house to buy it, so the previous owners stuff is in the pictures)

After


Before

After...I love love love this built in being painted, you can finally see my Africa, Turkey, Uzbekistan collection on the counter top!



Before


After

Same Kind of different as Me

Okay, I haven't picked up a good book in a long time. Granted I do NOT like to read, but I do ocassionaly pick up a good book about poverty or social injustices (I am a social worker). After a night of blog hopping, I found someones blog who was an ACU alum that I do not know. She had recommended this book and said ACU was handing out to all incoming freshmen in September. Same Kind of Different as Me was right up my ally. I found this picture on their website http://www.samekindofdifferentasme.com/default.aspx It's about a friendship that forms between a homeless man who grew up in Luoisiana and a super rich art dealer from Fort Worth. Their two paths cross thanks to the rich art dealers amazing wife and a lifetime friendship is formed. The book is written by Denver Moore (former homeless man) and Ron Hall (rich guy...still) and they both live in the DFW area. My friend down the street is going to borrow my book and read it and then we are going to go to the art gallery that houses some of Denver Moore's paintings that is somewhere close to SMU. I think the two men are going to speak at ACU in the fall as well. I would love to go to that. Ron's wife was truly inspiring to me. In fact I had a homeless friend here in Greenville this winter. His name is Arliss (at least that's what he told me). We would sit in Walmart and chat on cold nights...not long just five or ten minutes. One night I had Randy drive around with me and the boys to find Arliss and take him to eat, but he turned down the invitation, said he had just eaten. A few weeks later it warmed up and I haven't seen him since. I would love to grow up and be a philanthropist, HA! And I wouldn't give my 8 billion dollars to DOGS like some ONE rich person did (sorry all you dog lovers)!
Anyway back to the book...READ IT! It might just inspire you!

More Disney World and New Orleans

FRIDAY- This was our last day to be in the theme parks. Let me tell you how special Friday was. Only on the weekends in June, Hollywood Studios has something called Star Wars weekends. They have the characters througout the park for pictures, A parade with a lot of the characters, and various shows to watch. They also have three celebrities that were actors in the movies come and sign autographs. We skipped the autographs, because even fastpassing the lines was like a three hour wait and we the boys didn't care much about that. What they DID care about was Jedi training. We ran straight to the line for training when the rope was dropped. Bradley was picked for the first show and Jake wasn't. Jake began boohooing. It was sad, and I was prepared to be there for the remaining five shows at that point for Jake to hopefully get picked. They only chose 30 kids a show. That may sound like a lot, but when you saw all the kids waiting and jumping up and down to participate, it really wasn't.
This is the storm troopers putting on a show on the roof before the park opened.

Here is Bradley getting his Jedi training. It was so funny how serious all the kids were. Then the smoke came and the doors slid open to reveal their opponent. Some little kids cried it was so realistic. And here is young padawan Bradley putting his Jedi training to the test against none other than Darth Vader!!!

Luckily the Jedi who chose the kids to go on stage, picked our little guy Jake for the next show. I was relieved. Jake got to battle Darth Maul.

Jake in training
Darth Mauls entrance. My two padawans :)


The boys looooved getting their pictures with the characters. Especially with Anakin. I let them bring their light sabers with them and this lady we were in front of in line happened to have a sharpy on her and she let the boys use it to have Anakin autograph their light sabers. Bradley said I needed to buy a case for his. Randy said Bradley I don't think that was the real Anakin actor and Bradley said no dad it was, didn't you see the scar on his face. Ha! We let him go ahead and believe in the disney magic :) Some pig guy from Star Wars

Chewbacca and Jake
This was during the parade. Again I don't know how, but we got awesome seats for the parade. Many of the characters walked up to the boys and shook their hands. The boys loved it.

Jake and Boba fet. He's a bounty hunter. Believe me I learned a lot about Star Wars this weekend! Bradley looking at Chewbacca's hands.

Friday night we headed back to Magic Kingdom for one last time.
We had dinner reservations at the Crystal Palace with Eyore, Tigger, Piglet, and Pooh Bear at 9:30. We had already seen the fireworks and spectromagic parade Thursday night, but we got to enjoy another view of it from our table window at dinner. Again Awesome. Jake watching the fireworks..... And Jake falling asleep in his dinner chair after the fireworks. Unfortunately he had to miss the Peter Pan ride after dinner. He did go on it, just Randy had to hold him sleeping while on it.

Now. we left Disney World Saturday morning and were feeling pretty good. Sad to leave, but still had some energy. So, I asked Randy if we could spend the night in New Orleans and go on the Katrina tour Sunday morning. So, here are pictures from our 3 hour tour. They took us all through New Orleans. It really was sad to see that 3 year later, people are still struggling and houses/neighborhoods are in bad shape. I really wanted to go on this tour, because when Katrina hit, we lived in east Texas and our hotels were filled to the max and bus loads of people got sent to our churches and kids started going to our schools. The boys went with me to one of the hotels to meet people and deliver gatorade and toys and diapers. So, I wanted them to see this. Below is Six Flags which got wiped out and never reopened.

The door on the side of this house says "You loot, you die" The Superdome
Remeber the images on the news of the prisoners sitting on the over pass? The guards had to swim them there and keep them there until they could open this place below to be a temporary jail.
On the way into New Orleans we had to take a detour through Slidell because of a chemical spill. Slidell didn't look like it was in very good shape either.
The boys hanging out waiting for our food after the tour.
What a typical street looks like...maybe two or three houses on the block have people actually living in them, the rest are empty and torn up.

This is were Harry Conick Jr. came in and had Habitat for Humanity start building houses for the people. There are 47 houses built so far. 300,000 houses were ruined in the flooding. There is a long ways to go in New Orleans. Our tour guide wasn't real fond of the government, or the govenor of Louisiana. He said she delayed George Bush coming in with aide because she didn't want a republican saving the day.
This used to be a neighborhood full of houses in the ninth ward. It's now full of empty lots. I can't imagine what it looked like before they cleared out all the houses.
Just found this interesting. It was here before the flooding.

And, I leave you with Jake's thought on New Orleans....