Jumbled Thoughts

Hmmm...so, I really do have a life of Riley picture montage in the works, but I'm a slacker, so you'll have to wait a little longer. Life as I know it has been fairly status quo lately (I'm really not sure that I used that term correctly). Work, Church, Husband, Kid--they all keep me pretty busy. So, maybe I'll talk about those.

Work-


My job is going well. I go through a roller coaster of "I can do it!" and "What was I thinking? I am so not qualified for this!" As well as a roller coaster of stress as events come and go. I guess I just need to hop on and enjoy the ride, but it's difficult. I'm learning to grow up and be in control of things and that is definitely something different.

Church--
Website(I couldn't find a good logo, so a link to the website will have to do.)

Church is going well! We (the members of four hills church) launched a brand new church in Crestwood, KY on June 6, 2010. It's going really well so far. We have a few new members and have had serveral visitors. We have an awesome outdoor worship service and cookout planned for this coming up Sunday! Terry and I are the "Outreach Directors" and we are proud to have that role, but I feel very inadequate and hope that I can live up to that role! We have some awesome kids at Four Hills and last week Terry and I got to be the teachers. It was fun, but boy was I glad to give them back to their parents at the end of an hour and a half! I am praying about a lot of things right now, but a few specifically regarding Four Hills Church.

Husband--

(As Quail Man)

Terry keeps my busy :) I cook (Sometimes) and clean (some) and do laundry (a lot!) and hang out with him and buy him stuff all part of the wifely duties. But for real, he is my world. I love him. When I married him I really did marry my best friend. Do you remember when you were younger, teenager years maybe, and you and your best friend were inseparable? I do. I spent many summers camped out at my friend's houses. There were times when I would spend every day with a best friend and it was awesome...until it wasn't. Inevitably we would reach that point after so many days of being with each other all day every day where we were on each other's nerves and we just needed some time a part. So we would take a few days off and then be inseparable again. I think that's what happens in a marriage sometimes. Terry is absolutely without a doubt my very best friend. I can be myself (even when I am messy or silly or ditzy or mean) with true abandon, I always have someone to hang out with, and he thinks I'm funny (most of the time). But, inevitably, we reach a point where we are spending too much time together and we both end up annoyed. We are faced with 2 choices. We can be irritable and fight, or we can take a break and I can let him play video games with his friends until 2 AM and I can go sit on the porch swing and read. As we mature in our relationship we are learning to recognize the signs of burnout and make choices that will be healthy for our marriage. Growing isn't always comfortable, but it is worth it!

Kid--


Riley is something. He has inherited my love for games. He loves card games, dice games, board games, video games and every other kind of game. I do too. Growing up I was forever pestering my siblings, parents, grandparents and friends to play games with me. When I was young I had a best friend named Heidi. I spent countless hours at Heidi's house and we always played games. She had a huge closet (at least it seemed huge to me) full of games and we would play for hours and hours. Riley is the same way. He would play games all day long if I would play with him. I hope that one day he will as lucky as I was and make a friend who likes games as much as he does. Riley just started Coach Pitch Baseball. He's always been athletically inclined and played t-ball for the last two summers, but I think he is learning this season that sports take work and not everything is going to come naturally to him. I think that's good for him. He is growing up and like I said earlier, growing up is never comfortable.

I guess that's all for now. As most bloggers say at the end of the first post in weeks, I do want to start blogging more often...I'll work on that.

Never a Dull Moment

So, this has been a crazy week in my life. First of all, my job. We have 4 days left until our biggest event of the year, Bike MS. There is still a ton to be done and I cannot wait until this time next week when it is over! So, there's some stress there. But, you would think with a 3 day weekend the week before I would have some time to relax and prepare for the busy week ahead...yeah right!

Last week my cousin and her family were in a terrible car accident. They are all doing ok for now, but it has been pretty scary. I wish I weren't so far away so I could do more, but for now I have lots of prayers going their way! Here is the story and updates for anyone interested.

Sunday we took Riley to Holiday World, an awesome, super family friendly amusement park in Santa Claus, IN, about 1 1/2 away from home. According to their website anyone 48" tall or over can ride anything in the park. A couple of weeks ago Riley went to the doctor because he had strep throat. While there he was weighed and measured and they said that he was 48 1/2" tall. We thought that was perfect because then he could ride all the big roller coasters like he wanted to. Well, the second thing he wanted to ride was a big roller coaster. We waited in line for 25 minutes and when we get to the front they say that he can't ride it because he is about 1/2" too short. Well, Terry and I were not happy about this! We went and talked to a manager just to get everything straightened out and according to the official Holiday World measurer he is 46 1/2", a whole 2" shorter than the doctor's scale. Oh well, it ended up that there were only 5 things in the whole park that he couldn't ride and a ton of things that he could. We had a blast. At one point we were in an area for younger kids where there was a huge playground and splash park and a smaller roller coaster. Riley was waiting in line for the smaller coaster when a lady comes up to the ride operator and says that he needs to call for help because her son, who has down's syndrome, is stuck in some tire on the playground. There was a part of the playground where there were three or four tires chained up on top of each other to form a climbing tower where you could climb from the ground to the top of the playground or vice versa, this is where the young man was stuck. Terry went to help, and with the help of five people they were able to get the boy out of the tires...like I said, never a dull moment. We had an awesome rest of the day and spent a few hours at the water park. We felt like kids again and we all went home completely exhausted and super happy! I recommend Holiday World to any family wanting to visit a fun theme park!

So, after Holiday World on Sunday we planned on taking it easy on Monday. We had to go to a birthday party at 1:00 and then we were going to shop for some new work clothes for Terry and I and then go to dinner with some friends. A nice relaxing way to spend the last day of a pretty busy 3-day weekend, right? Hardly. We go to the birthday party where within the first 1/2 hour on kids manages to get himself completely soaked by "slipping and falling" into the kiddie pool. Not normally a big deal, but he was wearing jeans which take forever to dry! The party was outside and it was hot and the grill that was being cooked on was super smoky and blowing all over us. But, it was fun. Bailyn, the birthday boy, loved all his presents and everyone had a good time. We left the party around 4 and were headed to Target when we came upon an accident that had happened moments before. A man was riding a bike and was hit by a car. We think that he was riding down a hill on a bike that was much too small for him and the brakes wouldn't stop the bike and he rode into oncoming traffic. His bike was in pieces and the car's windshield and back window were completely shattered from the accident. We pulled over into the turning lane and Terry threw his phone at me and told me to call 911 and then he sprang into action. I called and they said that they were sending someone immediately. Terry was amazing! He is an RN, and in his time in the medical field has dealt with his share of emergencies, but he was never an ER nurse or an EMT, so his experience with situations like this are slim. However, he stayed calm under pressure. He ran to the guy on the ground and checked for a pulse. It was there, but it was weak. He assessed the situation and then did what needed to be done. He reminded me of Jack on the first episode of Lost! He told a guy to give him his shirt and asked someone else for towels and put people to work. The injured man had multiple fractures in both legs and Terry quickly saw that there was nothing he could help with that. He had a large laceration to his jugular and he wasn't breathing, those were definitely the main concerns. Terry gave him a bit of a chest bump and he started breathing. He kept pressure on the wound to help stop the bleeding and the man's pulse grew stronger. Finally we heard sirens, but the first one to the scene was a police officer. Terry told him he needed help...NOW! He got on his radio to try to urge emergency personnel their quicker. Next came the fire truck. Yay for gloves and other medical equipment. Terry finally got some gloves on, not that they helped much at that point since he was already covered in blood, and stayed to help until they loaded the man into the ambulance. We don't know this man's name or what hospital he was taken to, or if he is going to survive, but if he does it will be in large part to my husband!

Riley was in the car with us and witnessed the whole thing. He wasn't scared or traumatized at all though, just had a lot of questions, mainly about the fire trucks and ambulances and what not.

So, then we went to Target and got Terry some work clothes and some clothes to wear to dinner that didn't have a random man's blood on them. We also got Riley some shorts since his jeans were still wet from hours earlier. We had sushi with great friends and finally made it home.

I never thought I would be glad to go back to work after a 3-day weekend, but I'm pretty sure my weekend was more stressfull than my job! Oh well, in 1 1/2 weeks I get a 4-day weekend that will hopefully be much more relaxing!

How was your Memorial Day weekend? Have you ever been on the scene of an accident? How did you react?