a visit to the rawlins hospital

I finally got to ride in a wheelchair with my baby- I never got to when he was born since he left in an airplane- but I got to on Tuesday morning!

Brecken has had a fever since Friday. We thought it was another molar coming in- he had a fever over Christmas and when it went away, we found a molar. So we kept alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen and trying to keep the fever down. Monday we decided we better get him to the clinic to get checked out, so I stayed home with him. Dr. Jake thought his ears were pretty red, but not infected, and that his throat looked terrible. Brecken had a good cough too, so Jake thought it was the same crud that has been going around. He prescribed us antibiotics and we went home. Brecken had some energy back that evening and we went to bed as normal.

At midnight, I heard him wimpering in his sleep. So I went in his room and felt his head and almost burned my hand off. Brecken was BURNING. I got out the temporal thermometer and totally freaked out when it said 106. I tried several more times and got readings between 104 and 105. Josh tried the under-arm thermometer and go 102.9. He called the doctor on call, who thought we could probably give Brecken a half dose of ibuprofen since it wasn't time for a full dose yet. After Josh hung up, Brecken threw up all over me. That's when we decided it was time to head to the ER in Rawlins.

When we got admitted to the ER, they took his temp rectally, and got 105.1. It's so much more scary to get a reading like that from professionals. I was terrified. My first thought was "Oh my God, he's got meningitis." His heart rate was over 200, and his oxygen level was only about 72%. They started him on an IV, which was TERRIBLE. They only had to stick him once, thank goodness, but the look of terror on his little face is something I'll likely never forget. They drew blood, did a nasal wash to check for RSV (negative), and then we had to do two chest x-rays. Let me tell you how fun that was. It wasn't. He had to sit on a stool by himself. Josh held his head and I held his hips. At 3:10 am, when you are two years old and not feeling good AT ALL, it was a miserable experience. They said his upper right lung looked a little off. They asked if Brecken had ever had problems with his lungs that had hospitalized him before. Why, yes, he has! (click on "why yes he has" if you don't know the story!) By this time, Brecken had had a bag of antibiotics through his IV and was started on his second bag of fluids. They decided we better be admitted into the hospital. FINALLY at 5:30 am, we were given a room. (this is when I got to hold him and be wheeled up to our room!) Then they poked and prodded him and we got no sleep. (I forgot to mention that the hospital is under reconstruction, and at the dot of 7:00, the construction started. RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR ROOM, IN THE HALLWAY.)

So we got to hang out in the hospital bed all day yesterday. Couldn't go anywhere since Brecken was hooked up to the IV, and we had to keep an oxygen tube near him at all times to keep his oxygen up. Plus, Brecken didn't feel like going anywhere- he felt pretty terrible. He would cry every time a nurse would come in because he knew they were either going to mess with his IV in his hand, put a "sticker" on his foot or finger to check oxygen levels, take his temp, make him do a nebulizer treatment, or something else he wasn't interested in doing. Poor kid.

Early this morning, around 3:00 am, his fever broke. And you could tell- he was up and hyper! He was pushing the buttons on the bed I was sharing with him (Josh slept in the other bed in the room), making it go up and down and up and down. He channel surfed on the TV, watched movies on his DVD player, we walked the hallways, he put a million stickers that the nurse had given him on to his hospital mug, and the best thing- he asked for food! He hadn't had an appetite in 4 days so that was a wonderful sign! Finally, he went back to sleep about 6:00 this morning. Just in time for construction to start at 7:00. :) The doctor came in around 8:15 and said we could go home. Hooray! His final conclusion was that he thought Brecken had an upper respiratory infection, even though his white blood cell counts were in the normal range when we came into the ER. And he didn't know why exactly Brecken's temp was as high as it was. But he sent us home with a decongestant, the nebulizer machine, antibiotics, and tylenol.

So, we got home around 11:00 and after lunch, Brecken and I took LONG naps. :) Now we're hanging out and taking it easy. It's so nice to be home! I have to go to work tomorrow morning to work with my all-state kids before we leave on Sunday, so I will go and Josh will stay home with Brecken. Then we'll switch at lunch and I'll come home and Josh will go to work for the afternoon, since he has a home game that starts at 3:00. Josh doesn't have school on Friday so he can stay home with Brecken. Next week we'll get back to normal!

Thanks for everyone that threw prayers our way- they worked and Brecken's on the mend! I can't believe how brave our little boy was. We are very grateful that we have such an awesome kid. Throughout this whole thing, HE was kissing OUR owies. What a trooper.

chicken and nanny

Every single day since August, when Brecken started daycare, we ask him what we have for lunch.  And every single day since August, the answer has always been "chicken and nanny!"  (nanny means candy.)  Every day.  I KNOW that's not the answer because Amy always tells us what he has for lunch.  And it's never chicken and nanny. :)

I thought after 2 weeks off at Christmas, he might forget about that answer.  But Jan. 5, first day back, I asked what he had for lunch.  "Chicken and nanny!" was his answer.  Nope, he didn't forget!

You should hear him say "candy cane".  It's so funny.  "Mommy, I want a nanny cane!"  :)

he wants to go!

Josh and I were talking with each other tonight about how much we loved Marco Island and we wanted to go back.  The word Florida was mentioned and all of a sudden Brecken exclaimed, "SEE MICKEY MOUSE FLORIDA!" 

How in the world does he know Mickey lives in Florida???

He kept telling us he wanted to go see Mickey in Florida though!  Our arms might be able to be twisted.... :)

i love the age of two.

It's interesting, that's for sure.  B thought I was his slave today.  Everything was "Mommy get it." and if that didn't work, he'd shout it at me.  It was a long morning.  For both of us- for myself because I was being yelled at and for him because nothing he ordered me to do got done!  :)  The classic was when he tossed something off the couch and then said, 

"Mommy get it!!!"  

Me: "YOU get it.  You're the one who threw it and you have two legs."

B (in a snotty tone, I might add...): "Where?" 

Oh, my child.  Thank you for keeping me on my toes.

The afternoon was much better and by the time Josh got home from his poker run, B was hysterical.  He's really into pretending he is a horse right now.  He gets on his hands and knees and rares up saying, "Neigh, neigh!"  Tonight he found his stuffed toy horse and was "riding" it, neighing.  Yesterday while doing this, I said, "Daddy, we have a horse in the house!"  B goes, "WHERE???" (again, his favorite question.)  I said, "Right there!" and pointed to him.  He looks over his shoulder and exclaims again, "Where????"  Poor kid probably got very excited thinking we really had a horse in the house. :)

year in review

Most of you won't find this post interesting, but I eventually want to find somewhere where I can get my blog printed in book format, one for each year.  And since today is the last day of 2008, I felt some "closure" was needed so when it's printed as a book, it doesn't end with a random post.  So this is our Christmas letter that was sent in our cards, which I think reviews our year nicely.  I think this will be a good last entry in the future book.  We had a fabulous 2008 and are looking forward to what 2009 has to bring us.  Happy New Year, everyone!

Happy Holidays from the Sandlians!

 

We hope this letter finds everyone in the Christmas spirit, celebrating all that happened in 2008 and looking forward to 2009!  Our year was busy as usual but we wouldn’t want it any other way.

Our family had two graduations this year, and both were on the same day.  Unfortunately, Josh’s was in Montana and my sister’s was in Laramie, so Josh wasn’t able to attend his ceremony.  But yes, Josh graduated in May with his master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction and is now a full-fledged teacher!  My sister finished college and graduated with her nursing degree.  We had a great weekend celebrating those two accomplishments.

At the end of June, we, along with my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, spent some time in Disney World.  It was a great time.  Both Ryan and Brecken thought their first trip there was a blast.  Brecken enjoyed the rides and shows, and had a great time on the trip.  He wasn’t sure he wanted the characters to touch him, but had a good time looking at them from afar.  J  Josh and I had to come home on July 3^rd so we could attend the wedding of Josh’s brother, Jeff, to our new sister-in-law, Beth.  We were very excited to welcome Beth into the Sandlian family!  And what a fun wedding it was!  We had a lot of family at the wedding and it was fun to catch up with everyone. 

Also in July, we moved!  We grew out of our old house and were in need of a bigger one.  We found the perfect one and were able to move after we got back from the wedding.  We sure love the room we have- it is twice as big as our old house and has a ton of storage, which was DESPERATELY needed!  It also has a two car garage, and now that we don’t need the garage for storage, Josh and I can both park in there.  We sure love that, especially right now when we don’t have to scrape windows before we can leave for work!  It also has a built in kennel in the garage that goes to a fenced one outside for our two dogs.  Perfect!  We have a gorgeous view of the mountains out our picture window in the living room.  We also have a lot of bedrooms so if you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and visit!

We welcomed a new niece into our family on July 29, named Brooklyn Paige Winegar.  This is my sister’s 2^nd child and we’re loving watching her grow!  Brecken even named his baby doll “Brooke”.   He loves babies and pays her a lot of attention!

This fall was a bit rough on us.  Football season started and not too soon afterwards, one of my students, who was also one of Josh’s favorite football players, was killed in a car accident 4 days before his 18^th birthday. It was horrible.  Neither of us had ever dealt with the death of a student.  It hurt so bad to watch my other students be in so much pain.  The team struggled, too.  They never really got their momentum back and ended the season not making the playoffs.  If you text on your phone while driving, STOP.  If you don’t wear your seatbelt, START.  Got it?

Brecken turned two years old in September.  Not sure how he grew up so fast!  The age of two certainly is a lot different than the age of one… lots more challenges but a lot more fun, too!  He is a talker and can mimic anything you say.  He is very good at bossing the dogs and cats around, and is the most hilarious two year old I’ve ever met.  His favorite game right now is hiding body parts.  He’ll sit on his hands and say, “Mommy, where hands go?”  Then pull them out and shout, “There they are!”  He started at a new daycare this fall; the lady that owns it is the head coach for Josh’s basketball team.  She is FABULOUS and Brecken loves going there to play!  He also started pre-school this fall, Fridays for an hour and a half.  He is learning things at an alarming rate and brings home the best paintings and crafts.  I have a very smart child.  J

Another new niece was born in September, Josh’s brother and sister-in-law had their 3 ^rd child, Hailey Jo.  Brecken’s other baby doll is now named “Hailey”.  I told you the kid loves babies!

Brecken got to go trick-or treating for the first time this October.  He was dressed as a monkey and caught on to saying, “Trit-er-reet!” very quickly after he realized there was candy involved!  I’m pretty sure that was the best night of his whole life.  The kid is a candy monster. J

Josh is still teaching high school science, coaching high school football, and coaching high school girls basketball.  Basketball has started and Brecken gets to go to practice sometimes.  He loves practice.  He cried when football season was over because he couldn’t go to practice anymore.  He thinks basketball practice a good substitute for football though. J  Josh is also still running on the ambulance as an EMT-AI (Advanced Intermediate) and that keeps him very busy in his “free time” from school and practice.  He’s also still on the fire department but luckily they don’t get too many calls.

I am still teaching K-12 music in Encampment and loving it.  I love the diversity it gives me- I don’t have time to get tired of any one age group!  My free time is spent at home playing with Brecken!  We have a ball together.

We are leaving soon for a trip to Florida, to attend my cousin’s wedding in Marco Island.  I know, I know, visiting Florida in the winter while we have snow on the ground is a rough job, but someone has to do it!  J  We are going with my mom and dad, and after a very quick two days in Disney World following the wedding, we will fly home on Christmas Eve.   It will be a nice vacation. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
Josh, Kara and Brecken

(along with Birdie, Hogan, Charlie and Ditka!)

where?

That's B's favorite question right now.  Converstions in our house take a while now.

Josh: I'm going to go see if the dump is open.

B: Where?
Josh: Out of town.

B: Oh.

B: Where daddy went?

Me: To the dump.

B: Where?

Me: Out of town.

B: Where?

Me: You can't see it from here.

B: Where?

Me: You have to drive on a road.

B: Where?

Me: Out of town!!

I can't wait until the "why" questions start!!!

only in florida would you see this...

who wouldn't love this wedding

with a wedding party that looks like this...
with a bride and groom as awesome as they are...

with the coolest little tropical boy in the whole entire world...
on a beach that looks like this...
and a band like this...
after waking up to this sunrise...
this one says it all.

stay tuned

We are leaving right after school tomorrow for our Christmas vacation.  Don't know when I'll be back on the computer, so until then, MERRY CHRISTMAS and we'll talk to you when we get back!!!

our little reindeer

Christmas 2007- B was not happy about the antlers.

Christmas 2008: Much better!

when a 2 year old helps wrap christmas presents...

... this is what you get. Not exactly Christmas-y, but he was very proud of it. :)

balls in the sky

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Josh and Amy have practice that starts at 4:00. So Amy brings B to practice and I pick him up at school when I get to town. This afternoon, he and I came out of the school and he noticed the moon in the sky. He got very excited and said, "Mommy! Ball up there!" We were walking past trees, and the trees would block the moon. In between trees, he'd say, "Mommy! ANOTHER ONE!" And then again. "Another one!" It was quite funny to see balls in the sky through the eyes of a 2 year old. :)

game one of the tournament

Josh's team played Encampment at the tournament last night and lost. Saratoga was ahead by 10 at halftime, and then Encampment had 15 unanswered points right at the start of 3rd quarter and Saratoga couldn't keep up. They lost by 5. Bummer. Saratoga only had 8 girls last night because one isn't eligible to play varsity because she's moved too many times (New WHSAA rule), one has a broken wrist, and one didn't have enough practices. They only have 11 girls out this year. Two of Saratoga's stars got into foul trouble pretty fast and had fouled out during the 3rd quarter. Oops.

Two games today, against Cokeville and Baggs. B and I will go up later- their first game is at 10:40. Then again at 2:30. Then tonight we will all go to the Christmas Parade and to the community center to see if B wants to see Santa. If not (and I'm betting not), we'll still have hot chocolate and cookies. :)

We got to ride the bus up to Enc. last night. B thought that was incredibly exciting. He sat down on his seat and said, "let's go!!" During the game, every time there was a time out, he'd go, "Over, mommy!" I had to tell him they were just taking a break. :) Then once it really WAS over, he goes, "Over! BUS!" and starts throwing things into the diaper bag so we could go get back on that bus. :) He didn't enjoy it as much on the way home though, because he fell asleep. It was late- we didn't get back to Saratoga until 10:30.

ice teem

Brecken fell in love with peppermint ice cream this weekend. He can't get enough of it. He makes sure every last drop is gone!

eat it

We had a great weekend!  My mom and dad came down after work on Wednesday and were here by B's bedtime.  Thursday we got up and got cooking!  We had a great spread- turkey, mashed potatoes, the most delicious gravy, rolls, jello salad, the works.  

Friday morning, we went up to get a Christmas tree from the mountains.  B was decked out in his snow pants and snowboots and had fun walking in the snow.  He called it "sticky messy".  Hadn't thought of describing snow as sticky....

That afternoon, my sister and her family came over.  Ryan and Brecken had a fantastic time playing together.  They played HARD and very well together!  Josh and I got to go out on a date that night and celebrate my birthday since we had a lot of babysitters.  I had a delicious dinner of steak and crab legs and Josh had a plain ol' hamburger. :) 

Today we spent the morning baking Christmas cookies.  It was Ryan and Brecken's first time doing so and they thought it was great fun to pound out the dough and roll it out, then cut it out and decorate them with sprinkles and colored sugar.  Some of our cookies are covered in lots of sugar!  After a while, Brecken figured out the dough tasted pretty good and spent the rest of the time saying, "eat it."  As you can see, he gave up making cookies and just ate the dough.

Tonight, Jeff and Beth stopped by on their way home from their travels, for a quick stretch and some free dinner.  It was good to see them again.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

bastetball, mommy!

We headed up to my school today so I could do pictures for the middle school boy's basketball team. This team is 12 players strong, made up of 5th-8th graders. B LOVES basketball. (I need to bring my camera to one of Josh's practices some night, because B does the stretches and pushups with the girls. It's hysterical.) He watched as the boys lined up for their pictures and then got in line and got his picture taken, too. Could I love my little boy any more?!

gobble gobble

Look what B made at preschool today!  He's very proud of it.  He painted the feathers himself.  If I do say so, he did a great job!  But when I asked if he'd put it on and let me take his picture, he said, "No pictures, mama."  Because he is 2 years old and it wasn't his idea. :)  

mmm...mmm...mmm!!!!!

That's what B said when he tried the pumpkin muffins he helped me make. And I agreed! You must make them- they are DELICIOUS. Josh ate his with whipped cream- kinda defeated the "healthy" part, but even more delicious, none-the-less. :)

thoroughly enjoyable

Not. This nebulizer thing is pretty terrible.  Brecken hates every minute of it. But he didn't cough all night long last night, so I know it is working!  We had to do the nebulizer last year when he had RSV, and I don't remember him hating it so much back then!  We still have the mask and tubing from last year, so we let B put that on Elmo's face to give him his "medicine" while we do the mask on B's face.  He cries and cries, though- he's terrified of the noise and the mask and the stuff coming out of it.  Hopefully the cough will go away soon and we'll be done with it!  His cough today was super loose, so I hope that means the junk is loose and will come out soon.

If you didn't take the time to thank a veteran today, make sure you do it tomorrow.  What sacrifice they made for us.  If you are a vet and are reading this, THANK YOU.

home sick

Brecken has had a terrible cough for the past couple weeks that got suddenly worse this weekend. He can't sleep because of it. It's a nasty sounding cough. Josh called Dr. Jake yesterday while we were in Lyman and Jake thought it sounded like the strep throat that has been going around lately. So, I stayed home with him today and got him into the clinic.

No strep, thank goodness. His throat is red and irritated but not yucky like strep. No fever, either. Just a lot of junk in his lungs. So we got sent home with a nebulizer machine to give him nebulizer treatments for the next week or so. Hopefully that will get the junk loosened so it will come out and his cough will go away.

We pulled up to the clinic and B goes, "Sucker medicine!!" He knows what you get there, apparently! The whole exam, he kept asking Jake for a sucker. He got one at the end, and had it gone by the time we left. :)

The GREAT news is, he gained a ton of weight in the past 2 months! He was at 22 lbs 10 oz today! He had his jammies on still, but they are lightweight cotton and his diaper was brand new so that didn't weigh anything. That's almost a pound and a half in 2 months- I'll say a little over a pound if you take away the clothes. YAY! That's the most he's gained in that period of time!

my heart has melted

I was sitting on the floor in the living room tonight.  Brecken walked over to me and said, "I love you!" and gave me a huge hug.  That is the first time he has ever said that.  My heart melted into a huge puddle.

Man, I love that little boy!

daddy games

 

thankful

We are currently watching the Noggin channel on TV. Moose A. Moose (for those of you who know what I'm talking about) asked, "What are you thankful for?" I asked Brecken the same question. His answer?


"Eating chicken!"

pumpkins

We carved our pumpkin tonight. Brecken thought that was pretty neat and liked to see it, but didn't want to touch it. :) And when I tried to get a picture of him with it, he grabbed my other camera and tried taking pictures of me. Good thing we're asking Santa for a camera just for Brecken....


He is saying, "Hi, Grandma!"

trit-ereet!

We went trick-or-treating downtown today. B had a really good time! He did very good asking people, "trit-ereet!" He then would pick one piece of candy (I was glad he didn't throw fits because he wanted more than one- he somehow knew to pick the best looking ONE and move on!) and afterwards would tell them "tate-oo!" (thank you) It is WARM today- in the mid 60's, and that is weird because it always snows on Halloween, it seems!

For the first six or so stores, B would take the candy out of his bucket and say, "Here, Daddy!" I never got any. Only daddy. And the high school girl he is love with- he gave her a box of Nerds when he saw her. Shows where I rank. :)

At our realtor's office, they handed out candy, a cookie, and some punch. He told our realtor no when she asked if he wanted candy, because he was so thirsty by that point that he only wanted juice! Coming from my candy monster, this was funny!

Here are a few snapshots of the afternoon:

He said, "Dita, my sucker!"

And this is what we got when we said no more candy because we needed to eat dinner:

hot hot hot

Brecken fell asleep at 6:55 last night!  I was thinking it was great- a whole night to watch TV uninterrupted.... :) Until, that is, he woke up and when Josh went to get him, he was burning up with a fever.  The poor baby.  We brought him downstairs where it's cool, gave him some Tylenol, and cuddled for a while.  I brought him to bed with me at 9:00, and asked if he hurted.  He nodded and pointed to his belly.  He later pointed to his ear too, but then when I asked him a minute later if his ear hurt, he said no.  So I'm not sure if his belly really did hurt or not!  Sometime in the night, his fever broke, so I don't know if he was sick, or if he's getting molars, or what the deal is.  We're going to try daycare today and if he doesn't feel good, Amy can call one of us to come get him.

Trick-or-treat downtown is today.  Brecken has been practicing ("trit-ereet! Nandy!") and loves his monkey costume, so hopefully he feels well enough to go do that this afternoon!  Josh gets to come with us this year, because he doesn't have football practice.  That's one nice thing about not making the playoffs- 3 weeks of him coming home after school before basketball practice starts!!

Speaking of basketball, Josh and Amy had a basketball meeting after school yesterday.  Amy just brought B with her to the meeting so Josh could bring him home with him.  (I got 40 minutes to myself after school!  Yay!) When they came home, B came walking into the house, then saw me and ran to me and goes, "Mommy! Practice!"  He was so excited to have been at basketball "practice".  :)  He loves doing those things- he cried Tuesday when he couldn't go to football practice- he didn't understand that it's all over!!

squirt and nemo

so, so tired

I'm exhausted. It's 6:30 in the morning and I'm getting ready for work, but work is the last thing I want to do today. I had parent-teacher conferences Tuesday and Wednesday nights this week, so I was at work for 12+ hours each of those days. Not getting home until after 8:00 and having left the house a little after 7:00 that morning really, really sucks!! I am super glad we get tomorrow off. B and I will snuggle in bed while Josh goes to his doctor's appointment in Laramie by himself. :)

remember #50?

Here he is again! This guy is one of the nicest boys I've ever met. Easy going, sense of humor, and is nice to his mom!! It's been a pleasure taking his senior photos these past few weeks. We met today up in the Snowy Mountains at Mirror Lake and Lake Marie and had fun laughing at Brecken, who was calling a chipmunk a "kitty". :)

strawberry jelly and biscuits

I heard a story today that almost made me cry. Our secretary at work told me that she and her minister went to talk to the little brother of our student who was killed. To protect his identity, I'll call him Jay. So on Sunday, they went to talk to Jay. And they brought him a box full of food. (Remember, they don't have much. And right now, Dad is out of town working and who knows where step-mom was the day our secretary came over.) He looked inside and saw strawberry jelly and got SOOO excited about it. He thanked them a lot and then told them, "I knew I shouldn't have eaten all the biscuits."

How sad, that he got so excited about strawberry jelly and wished he had some biscuits. I just want him to have strawberry jelly all the time! I think about Brecken and his favorite foods, and if we're out of Cheerios Snack Mix, it's only because we can only get it at Walmart and we haven't been there in a month. But if I can get things at our store, I make sure we never run out so that he can always have it!

I think next time I'm at the store, I'll be buying strawberry jelly and making some biscuits to put in Jay's locker for him to have.

first game with a new team

Friday's game was a very emotional one.  We played Lusk, and we played HARD.  We lost, 14-10, but the boys won, too- they survived their first game without their friend and teammate, Mitch.  The first defensive play was played with only 10 people, they left Mitch's spot empty.  And wouldn't you know it, Lusk only gained 2 yards on that play.  And the team's second offensive play, they played a play that Mitch hated with a passion, and ended up scoring with it.  The boys knew Mitch was with them somehow.

Mitch's jersey on the field with the team:


Mitch's dad and little brother on the field during the moment of silence. Dad stayed on the sidelines the whole game:


BOTH teams, Saratoga AND Lusk, wore these stickers on their helmets. I thought it was super classy of Lusk to wear them, too.:

football

I had my first big job yesterday- the middle school football team!  It was freezing cold but we got it done- and made a nice profit, too!  It was fun- I hope I can do it again!!

i hate when that happens

Our internet went down on Thursday sometime.  Nobody knows how to fix it.  We FINALLY were able to get it to work by plugging the computer straight into the modem, so we are limited to using it just on my bed.  The wireless still will not work for some reason.  How frustrating.

oops

At school, I get called several names.  My little kids are always calling me their homeroom teachers' name, or Mom, or I've even been called Grandma.  And tonight, it happened with my own kid.  I gave him something, and he said, "Thank you, Amy." Then he kind of shook his head a little and looks up at me and said, "MOMMY."  :)

i'm not cut out for this

I hope that I never again have to bury one of my students.  It was one of the most awful things I've ever done.  

The funeral was nice, for a funeral anyway.  The gym was PACKED.  The family requested that everyone wear red and black, our school colors.  Saratoga brought two buses- one with the jr. high and high school football players, and the other with other students and staff that wanted to come.  I think the final count of people from Saratoga was 60.  Our science teacher (also the asst. boys basketball coach) spoke at the funeral, and the first thing out of his mouth was "I want to say how appreciative I am of how many Saratoga kids are here- and I know for a fact that Mitch would have been tickled that he got you to wear red and black."  And that's so true- I think Mitch was jumping up and down in victory up There.  :)

Heath, our head football coach spoke, too.  That's what got me crying hard.  He had Mitch's jersey with him, that the team signed.  He spoke about how at this Friday's game, the first defensive play will only have 10 people on the field.  And how he told the other team's coach that he wants them to run the play like usual- and if they get through the hole where Mitch would have been and their player trips, know that it was Mitch on the field helping out.  And then he laid the jersey on the casket and said he was getting Mitch suited up for his last game.  Here I go, crying again.

Then our FCCLA and home ec teacher spoke, as Mitch loved her.  And that was the end of the funeral.  Then we all went to the Encampment Cemetary for the burial.  A few dozen red, black, purple and gold balloons were released.  I thought it was a nice touch to include both schools' colors.

Then everyone went back to the school, where there was a carry-in meal.  TONS of fantastic food and it was good to be able to relax a little.  

But like I said- I'm not cut out for this.  I hope this can be a lesson to everyone, so we can maybe save a life in honor of Mitch.  I know that I will never again text on my phone while driving, and I hope everyone else quits too.  If we can take this death and save a life, we'll be doing OK.

in the candlelight

We had a candlelight vigil at school this evening for Mitch.  He would have been 18 years old today.  People came and shared stories about Mitch and had hot chocolate, which was good because it's COLD tonight!!  I was doing alright, until we sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  Then I lost it.  One of the hardest things about this whole situation is seeing my students hurt so bad.  To see a "tough guy" cry his eyes out kills me.  I feel so bad for them- they are way too young to have to go through this.  And as hard as tonight was, tomorrow will be even harder.... I better stop and buy a couple boxes of Kleenex on my way to the funeral.

something exciting's going on....

on Beth's blog!!

tragedy

It rained this afteroon, which was only fitting since it matched all our tears.

One of Josh's favorite football players from his team, which also happens to be one of my students, died in a car accident. The pager went off at 7:10 this morning as I was leaving for work. They said it was a rollover accident. Right after I left, Josh heard that it was too late for whoever it was in the car. I followed the ambulance out (it happened about 1 mile away from our house, on the way to Encampment) and couldn't even see the car, it was so far down in a ditch. By the time I got to school, Josh was calling for me and I had to hear the awful news that it was Mitch. Josh was crying, I was crying, our secretary wanted to know who it was so I told her and she was crying, and we were sending kids out of the office as fast as we could. And of all days, our principal was late today. His son had got a deer this morning and they were hurrying, but would be late. Our secretary, through her tears, called his cell phone and said to hurry up. Our counselor didn't want to wait for him, so we had an assembly at 8:05 this morning to tell the kids. They are all really shaken up over this. Mitch was a huge part of our school. And he came from NOTHING. His mom abandoned him, his dad lives in Alaska, and he lived with his half-brother's dad. (along with half-brother, who is a delinquent 8th grader.) The "dad" is never home and works in Rock Springs and is only home once in a while. Mitch really did rise above all the problems and was the neatest kid in the world. His 18th birthday would have been this coming Monday. And to make things even worse, his real dad had flown in to Denver last night so he could be at Mitch's game today.

Obviously, today's game was cancelled. The Saratoga football boys were gathered together and were brought up to Encampment to be with our football boys. We had counselors available, but most everyone just went home. Probably on Monday, there will be a lot of kids ready to talk. I hope they are, anyway- how horrible to keep it inside.

And what's killing me, is he was on his way into Saratoga last night when he wrecked- it was about 9:00 according to the last text he sent anyone. He didn't have his seatbelt on and he was ejected from the car- I'm praying to God that Mitch died fast, since he wasn't found until 7:00 this morning. I cannot stomach the though of him laying outside all night long, knowing what was going on and wondering why nobody had found him yet.

And how horrible to come from a home where nobody realizes you didn't come home at night, so they could go look for you.

So, if you are parents, hug your kids hard today. And EVERYONE call their parents tonight and tell them "thank you for caring about me." Josh feels like he lost a son, and our school feels the same way.

i think i just got called a poop head.

I had made some soup tonight. Brecken calls it poop- he can't figure out the ssss sound at the beginning. B wanted a taste of the soup, but couldn't figure out how to get the broth off the spoon. So I was showing him how to suck it up. I told him to try, and instead of sucking in, he blew out. Soup all over my face. B laughed hysterically and said, "Mama. Poop. Head."

2 years old and calling his mom a poop head. :)

better late than never...

I realized the other day that I had pictures and movies on my little camera that I never downloaded! So I took some off- here's some images from B's birthday.

Riding his new 4-wheeler: It rained hard all day long on B's birthday, but there was a small break in the clouds that evening so he was able to go out and ride for a few minutes:


First day of pre-school, Sept. 12:

At his birthday party on Sept. 13: