Bunk Bed Injuries

Unfortunately, we had a bit of "excitement" around here. In a freak accident our daughter was reaching off her top bunk for her water that she keeps on a shelf built in to the wall. She dropped the cup and in an effort to catch the cup, she flipped herself out of the bed and smacked her head on a dresser drawer she had left open on the way down. She ripped the shelving unit out of the wall, shattering all the glass trinkets she kept on the shelf. It was unreal. Blood was everywhere. We couldn't tell where she was bleeding from exactly. We wrapped her head with a towel and rushed her to the Emergency Room (which was a horrible experience that I won't go in to here).

 This is after waiting for three hours and having the lead nurse telling us her bleeding was under control. I beg to differ.

 Head wounds bleed FOREVER!!!

 They finally got her all stitched up. 14 stitches in all. She was also exhibiting signs of a concussion so once we got home at almost 1 am I spent the entire night watching her sleep because I was so worried.

 This is day 3 of the stitches. The doctor did a great job of making the suture line even since the cut itself was a bit jagged.

 On day 3 some of the concussion symptoms worsened so we were sent back to the (a different) hospital for a battery of tests. The good news is while we were there they thought the incision was healing so well that they could take the stitches out. They felt like the longer they kept them in the stronger the chance of scarring. The bad news is there are some noticeable cognitive deficiencies and we've been referred out to a brain trauma specialist. I am hoping that sounds worse than it is and they are just attempting to cover their butts, but some of the symptoms she is having worry me a little bit.

 Here is her face after the stitches were removed. Looks pretty good. I am hoping it won't scar and over time it will fade. Nothing worse than a scar on the face....particularly for a girl.

In the grand scheme of things it could have been far worse so we are thankful for that. It has definitely been a frightening experience and she will be missing quite a bit of school as she has been placed on complete "brain rest" which consists of essentially sitting quietly in a dark room and resting: no tv, no reading, no homework, no school, no physical activity, etc. etc.

When she does go back to school it will be gradual, starting with half days and progressing to full days over the course of a couple weeks.

Never a dull moment.

Back to School

Well, our son started Kindergarten this past Monday. This past summer was a rough one for me and while I normally become incredibly depressed sending our kids back to school, this summer I was ready. The week before we went to meet his teacher and check out his classroom. He is going to the same small, private school where he attended pre-school. His class size is 12 and it is ALL BOYS (I am going to have to buy his teacher booze for Christmas)!

 This is him on his first day. He is a huge Miami Heat fan and his favorite player is the Birdman. The night before school he drew tattoos all over his body. It took forever to scrub them all off. I settled and allowed him to rock the mohawk on his first day.

 Me and my boy being silly before school!

 Here he is sitting at his desk and reading (pardon the ass in the background).

 He survived (and thrived) on his first day. He said he had so much fun but had to do "a lot of math. It's tiring."

 My husband was able to leave work a bit early to surprise our son at pick up.

 Apparently being in Kindergarten is exhausting because he did not make it through Costco.

 In celebration we went to check out this new pizza place by our house that has huge, flat screen tv's at each table where you can play video games. The kids loved it.

All in all, I am expecting it to be a great year for him. My daughter starts school tomorrow and I will likely start a Master's program next month. This year will likely be incredibly busy but I'm excited!!

My past month in pictures

 As we started wrapping up the school year life became insanely busy. That is the same time when the summer season for the high school basketball season I coach kicks in to high gear. So, before things got too insane we started spending every afternoon after school at the pool. We belong to a country club every summer basically for pool access. Aside from just being a lot of fun, swimming has had huge benefits for our 6 year old son who has struggled for the past 4 years with serious asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Last summer when he started swimming we were able to take him off 8 medications that he had been using daily for years. He has consistently remained on 1-3 meds since and so far that continues to hold true this summer as well. We actually pay less in country club fees than we did in medical copays for his medicines.

 This handsome boy graduated pre-school this past May. He will begin Kindergarten in August. This was on the day of his graduation ceremony. He has come such a long way and we are all so incredibly proud of him and all the hard work he did this year.

Our almost 8 year old daughter wrapped up 2nd grade this year with one of the lead roles in her class play. She did an amazing job and it is hard for me to believe that she is going to start 3rd grade.

 I was able to volunteer for her field day the last month of school which was a lot of fun.

 We tend to shut down the pool. It's great being so close to our house. We head over in the afternoon and generally stay until dinner time as the sun is going down. Through May it was pretty vacant, but now with the summer in full swing the pool has become party central.

 Sometimes I look at these three and can't believe how fast time has flown. I'd love to just stop the clock and keep them at this age. Well, maybe not by youngest....she's a bit of a holy terror at the moment.

 This stud turned 6 a few weeks ago. This is his typical "smile" for photos.

 He went to two basketball camps this summer and did an awesome job. The first camp was actually held by our inner-district rival high school. It was great though and I am so glad he went.

 In addition to a birthday party with their friends we always take our kids out for a family birthday meal to a place that they choose. Our son LOVES sushi, so we hit a local sushi spot and loaded up. He was in hog heaven.

 Just love and adore these three!!!

 Another weekend spent at the pool. Are you starting to notice a theme? Basketball, pool, basketball, pool.

 I was hired as the Varsity basketball coach at the school I am currently at last summer. Two of the big projects I wanted to get off the ground was an alumni game and a kids' camp. We were able to put the alumni game together and held it mid-season during Christmas break this past December. We had an awesome turnout, raised a lot of money, and just had a great time with players from the school's past.

The summer camp for kids was many months in the making and A LOT of work! There were times when I just didn't think it was going to happen. But it was a huge success and so much fun and our Varsity players who served as coaches for the camp did an unbelievable job. We were expecting about 20 kids, but 53 showed up the day of the camp. It was awesome!!!

 Some more fun at the pool. There is the "upper pool" which has a bar, a wait staff and is a bit more hoity toity. Then there is the "lower pool" which is more of an "anything goes" pool. Can you guess which one the kids love the best?

 The older brother of two girls who play basketball for me was in a horrific car crash in which he suffered a traumatic brain injury. He was not expected to survive, let alone ever wake up. However, almost a month after the accident, he is awake and making small gains each and every day and everyone is hopeful he can return to the life he and his new wife were about to start (she is newly pregnant with their first child). The shirts my kids are wearing are in support of Dallin and his wife Amy.

 My high school basketball team played in a tournament at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego last week. I took the kiddos with (which was stressful) and visited the Whaley House (related to my husband).

 We also spent an evening on Mission Beach and Belmont Park.

 We, of course, spent some time at Seaport Village. One of my favorite spots!!

 This is me and the kids at PLNU on the last day of the tournament.

 This is the view from the gym (yep, the ocean in the background). Must be rough to go to school here.

 My youngest having a blast on the court during a pre-game shoot-around.

 My older two thought it was so awesome to be able to shoot on a real college floor (not that it is any different from our high school floor, but cool nonetheless).

Me and my two dare devils on Coronado Island....my favorite place on earth.

Our summer dies down a bit in July, thankfully. We scale back our summer workouts to only 2 days a week and we don't participate in any tournaments during the month of July. Next week we are embarking on a staycation for my daughter's 8th birthday so it will be nice to just relax around the resort. We may try to squeeze in one quick vacation before school starts, but honestly I just don't know if we will have the time.

It's hard to believe the summer is half over. Depressing actually. I love having the kids home and the freedom to randomly choose to do something one day. I don't miss the structure of the school year.

How is summer going for all of you?

Don't Feed The Yabut

I run a high school basketball program and while I specifically coach the Varsity all the lower level teams and their coaches fall under my purview.  We are gearing up to start our summer ball program which means the litany of excuses is about to start rolling in. Today I called a program-wide meeting and as they filed in and found their seats I told the following story:

"Have any of you heard of the yabut? It is a little animal that is very dangerous. There have been reports of these creatures being found all across the country around high school gyms."  At this point the girls began gasping and looking around at each other incredulously.

I continued, "They are potentially deadly, a real killer of hopes and dreams. What makes a yabut so dangerous is that they look harmless and cute and friendly, so people feed these yabuts. What happens when you feed animals? More show up wanting to be fed. Not only that but they grow bigger and stronger, making it much harder to get rid of or defend against them."

I could tell at this point that a few of them knew some greater lesson was coming, but most of them were still on the hook believing there were these animals running loose, possibly in the gym we were currently meeting. 

I went on, "The scary part is that some of you have yabuts." They start looking at each other, some start laughing; others quieted their teammates down knowing the hammer was about to fall.

So I said, "For instance, I may say, 'It is important for you to be here this summer.' and you say, 'Ya, but I need to babysit that day.' Or I might say, 'You need to come to this meeting' and you say, 'Ya but I can't make it.' The yabut thrives on mediocrity and excuses. The only way to avoid the pitfalls of the yabut is to stop feeding your yabut. If you quit feeding your yabut with excuses and justifications it will die."

"So, as I start to go over our summer expectations I want you to think about what your yabut is. What is holding you back from reaching your goals or becoming the type of basketball player that you want to be?"

At this point, one of my players says, "Wait, so is this real? Is there really a yabut? I don't get it."

Disneyland/California Adventure/San Diego

Last week my kids were on Spring Break so we decided to head to California and take our kids to Disneyland. Our children have never been and it has been around 15 years since I've been or my husband. After three days in Anaheim we spent two in San Diego. I would have loved to spend more time in San Diego. It is one of my favorite places in the U.S. We stayed right on the water and the kids enjoyed watching the boats dock in the marina. 

Two of our three children were the perfect age for Disneyland and California Adventure. They went on EVERY ride: Space Mountain, Star Wars, Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones, etc. It was great being able to get on everything and not have to worry. Our youngest was too short for most which ended up working out okay. A few days before we left she suffered a bad head injury, which resulted in an expensive ambulance ride to the hospital, a CT, and an overnight stay for observation. We left with a concussion diagnosis and were told to limit stimulation -- hello, Disneyland -- and any rides that could jolt her or spin her. Fortunately, she was scared of most rides. She loved the Ariel ride in California Adventure and I did take her on the tea cups but we didn't spin the cup and I held her pretty tight. Outside of that, she slept in a stroller through most of it or my husband and I used the "rider switch" feature quite a bit.

 Ready for Day 2 at Disneyland and California Adventure

 Seaport Village has always been a favorite of mine. Something about walking around the shops and being so close to the water is just relaxing. We always stop in the little candy shop and get a ridiculous amount of taffy to enjoy the rest of the trip.

In years past we have always stayed on Coronado Island. For whatever reason, I opted to try something different this year. While our hotel was nice I will likely go back to booking on the island in the future. Despite staying off the island we spent a day on the island, walking around and playing at the beach. I was certain the water would be too cold and the kids would want no part of it. So certain was I that I wouldn't let them wear their swimsuits. Lesson learned. The kids ended up totally in the water, loving every chilling minute of it.

 Me and my babies on the beach.

 Me and my youngest on Coronado Island

 Love these pictures of my older two running into the waves. Sheer, unbridled joy and excitement.

 Even our youngest went waist deep into the ocean in her jeans and sweatshirt.

 As a random side note, our son was so sick with an asthma flare and allergy complications when we left town. About an hour into California he stopped having symptoms entirely. Zero problems the entire trip. An hour back in to Arizona and he was back puffing on his inhalers.

 I had to keep pulling him in because I was afraid he was going to get pulled out in to the ocean. He had no fear.

 My husband our our youngest surveying the tide.

 The family.

 My daughter, who is convinced we need to move to San Diego.