The Bad News Bears play in Tacoma!

Katie and her friend Ashley
Katie at bat Kyle caught texting during the game, it was hard to watch!
The team

Katie played in a softball tournament this weekend in Tacoma. It was fun staying at the Red Lion, fun eating out and shopping, fun seeing David and Tiffani, fun for the boys to spend a little time with Kinley. Not so fun watching out girls play. WOW, embarrassing. Their uniforms were some shorts and a tank top from Wal-Mart. Someone, not sure just who, then tie-dyed the tank tops and then the girls wrote their team name "Cyclones" on the front and their number on the back with a black sharpie pen. Uh, most of the teams are pretty decked out with matching everything including fancy bat bags. Katie actually pitched pretty darn well, it's just she had to get anywhere from 3 to 6,7, maybe even 8 outs an inning.

Scooter + Kyle = WIPE-OUT

Well let's just say Kyle is probably lucky to be alive right about now. At the very least he's lucky to not be in some ICU hooked up to all kinds of monitors and machines. He decided on Tuesday afternoon to take the scooter down to a friends to pick up a basketball. He was going down the hill by our house at 50 MPH(yes 50 but don't tell Bob) with no helmut. I'm not sure exactly what happened then but for some reason he needed to hit the brakes and due to his inexperience in scooter riding he hit the FRONT brakes. The scooter lost control, he slid into some gravel which then caused the scooter to flip and threw him off. After rolling several times he came to a stop. He left quite a bit of skin on the road. Bob and I weren't home at the time. There were several people around who witnessed the accident. A friend gave him a ride up to the house and another friend drove the scooter home (the scooter came out of this accident better than Kyle). At first Kyle thought he could just clean up the various scrapes and bandage them up at home but he quickly realized it was a little more serious. Bob got home about 10-15 minutes later and took him to the emergency room in Brewster (about 7 miles from Pateros). I was getting my hair cut in Chelan. At the time Kyle and Bob were trying to reach me I think the stylist was blow-drying my hair because I didnt hear my phone at all. When I got up to pay I could feel it vibrating and it was then I noticed I had missed 20 calls from Bob. Needless to say I got to Brewster as fast as I could and we spent the next couple hours in the ER while they scrubbed and bandaged him up. We went to the doctor today to follow-up and decide exactly how to treat each wound. Some are just abrasions so a little neosporin will do, some are more serious and need more attention. He started on some antibiotics today as well. He needs pain pills to sleep at night and mom has to wash his hair in the sink. This little accident will be putting a little crimp in the rest of Kyle's summer plans which were to play golf every Friday and play in a 3 on 3 basketball tourney this Saturday with Brian and a few other friends. But these are just insignificant sacrafices compared to what could have happened. Believe me Kyle has had quite a few lectures from doctors, nurses, random people and even the lady at the pharmacy counter (not to mention Bob and I). We are very glad and thankful it wasn't more serious. Hopefully lesson LEARNED.

Help!!

I have the basics, and I mean the very basics down as far as blogging goes. I did not want to publish my new post like it is but after spending a couple hours and losing the pictures I had downloaded once I just had to go with it. I didn't like how all the pictures are in a long vertical row and I want to be able to make comments about certain pictures under the picture itself but I can't do it. I am going to be calling someone soon to help walk me through it, so maybe just give me a web site that has good basic instructions. I would like to eventually have my blog be a little more than just the basics ... that might be a while though!

Family Road Trip and Reunion

We left Pateros Saturday morning around ten am. The trip got off to a bad start, I broke my camera trying to rush outside to take a picture. The kids think I'm getting a little obsessed. So...

that meant a stop at Costco in Spokane for an early birthday present for me: a new camera! Prior to that we made a quick stop at the River Square Mall in downtown Spokane. Brian and Kyle bought me my birthday present at Nordstroms. A new pair of jeans, thanks guys! I would have worn them on the trip but they need hemming first. We stayed in Bozeman, Montana Saturday night. Sunday we drove down through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Forest. The kids weren't real impressed but it's one of those things you can say you've done. Bob got to make a stop at the Harley store to pick up a couple new t-shirts and then Sunday night we stayed in Montpelier, Idaho. Monday was spent checking in, unloading and driving to Logan for food. The rest of the week whizzed by so fast and before I know it, it was Saturday and time to leave. I was a little relieved to hear that others were a little emotional at saying good-bye as well. I was on the verge of a major breakdown as we drove away. I won't even get started! Here's just a few pictures (the kids started complaining about posing an hour or so into the trip so then I didn't end up taking as many as I wanted).

On A Lighter Note...

I just had to post this picture of all these cute little goats. (not as cute as Loraya by far, I don't have a cute 4 year old who will sing for the camera!). I drive by this pasture regularly on the way to visit a patient and they are always out grazing. The picture doesn't show it but there are at least 100 of them. In the early spring all the babies started appearing. Unfortunately I asked my patient what the owner did with the goats and I won't share the answer! I guess they are safe for a little while and enjoying their short little life in the pasture.

Loss

Most of you "bloggers" have already figured out that blogging is similar to keeping a journal that you share with your family and friends. It gives you a chance to express all kinds of feelings and events that are happening to and around you. This is great! So I thought I would take advantage of it and express some feelings about something I have been thinking about the last day or two. That is about loss. This word can mean a lot of different things to people and can change day to day depending on what our personal situation is. I had been thinking about some losses I have had and will have shortly. First of all is mom and dad selling their house. To me it feels like a loss. A loss of not just my family home where I have lived since I was 12 but also my kids spent a great deal of their growing up years there , a loss future memories that will not be made there, a loss of Christmas eve celebrations, a loss of always having a place to call home in Shoreline etc ... all the things most of you have already mentioned in your e-mails. Then I have been having this overwhelming feeling of loss as Brian and Kyle prepare to "move on" with their lives. They will soon be at a point where they will return more as occasional visitors (at least that's the plan)! Of course having them leave home is not just a physical loss of their presence here every day but of everything that goes along with it: friends, laundry, sports, school activities, attending church together, cleaning up after them every morning after they leave for school or work :) Then today at work I was really overcome with this overwhelming sadness watching families of patients have to face the fact that their loved one is dying. There is nothing anyone can to do stop it. I had a mom of a 52 year old who is dying of pancreatic cancer that has spread to his liver follow me to the door when I was leaving and she just had the saddest eyes. They were filled with tears as she talked to me and it was so hard. I had to sit at a table and try to answer the questions of this same pts dad who wants to know what he should "expect" as the patient declines and his death is imminent. Of course this is not the first time I have dealt with this in my job but in the last two days I have had 4 admissions with similar scenarios: cancer that has spread and there is no further treatment that can help. What I really know is that there is only one person that can truly ease our burdens and give us peace. I am so grateful I have this knowledge because to be honest I have no idea how people cope without it. "When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustices and inequities of life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are so totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance. " -Elder David A. Bednar