Pants On The Ground

Boys! What can you do with them? I always knew God was going to give me boys and I was right. Now that I have 2 of them, I am forever amazed, amused and aghast at their antics. Recently, we had the pleasure of experiencing one of the many rights of passage of boyhood in our home. Stitches!

Allow me to digress just a bit. My Honey, in all his wisdom, decided that a nice, shiny, new pocket knife would be a GREAT Christmas gift for each of the boys. The boys, of course, were ecstatic to receive such a "grown up" gift. After the knives had been opened and thoroughly inspected, we explained to the boys that while the knives were theirs, they were not to get them out or use them without supervision. We had every intention of spending some time discussing proper handling of knives and knife usage but had not yet gotten around to it. On January 18th, we discovered just what a mistake that was. Apparently, knowing those knives were so close at hand and not having had the opportunity to use them proved too much for my little munchkins.

That morning, during a stop at WallyWorld, Muffin Man had used a bit of his Christmas money to buy himself a new Bionicle. It was around 3:30 P.M. when I finally told him that when all his things were picked up and his chores were complete he could open it. I headed into my bedroom to change clothes and freshen up for a job interview I had scheduled for 4:30. I had started curling my hair and partially undressed when suddenly, from the opposite end of the house, came "The Scream." You Moms know what I'm talking about. It wasn't the scream of joy that should have come from opening a new toy. It wasn't the scream of "Leave me alone! It's mine!" that comes when his big brother tries to take over the new toy before it is even out of the box. No, this was the pure scream of terror and it was coming in stereo, from both of my boys!

Dropping everything, I sprinted to the opposite end of the house only to find Muffin Man, with his hands cupped and FULL of blood, more blood streaming down his arms and dripping onto the carpet, (Did I mention we just got new carpet?) blood sprayed on the furniture, and bedspread, blood everywhere! There was so much blood I was not even able to see where it was coming from. I quickly grabbed him and pulled him into the kitchen where I had him lay down and then I just started squeezing his hand with both of mine in an attempt to stop the bleeding. I told Little Man to call 911. Both of the boys were hysterical! Little Man was so upset that he couldn't get the call completed. He kept accidentally hanging up. Muffin Man was crying hysterically and alternately screaming "Dad's going to Kill me!", "I ruined your new carpet!" and "My thumb is gooooone!". Needless to say the scene was chaotic. I was struggling to get both of them to calm down and failing miserably. Little Man eventually got through to 911 and immediately started screaming again. I finally got him to hold the phone to my ear and I was able to let the dispatcher know what was going on and that we would need the paramedics. After a few moments discussion with her, she said to me, " the paramedics are only a few blocks away and should be there any moment."

It was at this moment that I came to my senses and realized that I was not dressed! Remember, I had been in my room changing clothes for an interview when all hell broke loose. So here I am, squatting, in nothing but my granny pants and a small camisole, covered in blood, and unable to let loose of my son's hand! Can we say AWKWARD? I calmly explained to the dispatcher that I was unwilling to have 8 firemen, most likely in their mid 20's and good looking, walk into my house and see me in all my glory half dressed on the kitchen floor. I told her that I would need to put the phone down for a moment while I had Little Man help me get my pants on. And that is just what I did. Let me tell you, we were just in time! As Little Man pulled my pants up, the fire engine drove up to the front of my house! WHEW! Disaster averted! Thirty seconds sooner and I would have been caught with my pants on the ground! NOT a pretty sight!

Once the fire department arrived, I was able to allow them to take over Muffin Man's care and I was able to finish dressing and call My Honey and let him know to meet us at the hospital. My Mom and Dad came over and my Mom drove with us to the hospital while my Dad took Little Man to their house. In the end, Muffin Man got 8 stitches around the base of his thumb and we were told that he was VERY lucky that the tendon was not involved. The cut was literally right up to it but did not involve it. YIKES!

So in the end, all is well that ends well. Muffin Man's hand has healed wonderfully and he has full use of it once again. Both of the boys learned a very valuable lesson and we all have a new found, healthy, respect for knives. There was more than enough guilt to go around. My Honey and I for ever having bought the knives in the first place. For not having spent the time teaching knife usage before then. For not putting the knives in a less accessible place. Muffin man for using the knife even though he knew he wasn't supposed to. For getting blood all over our new carpet. (P.S. Stain Master treatments really are worth the extra money!)Little Man for encouraging his little brother to use the knife in the first place. (We found this out later!) For doing what he knew better than to do resulting in a really scary situation. There were other lessons learned that day. My boys learned the importance of staying calm and quickly reacting in an emergency. They learned about putting pressure on a would and how freaking out only makes getting otherwise simple tasks, like dialing a phone, nearly impossible.

I can now look back at the whole ordeal and laugh but I really have no desire to repeat any of it any time soon. I know injuries are pretty much inevitable but I hope it is a good long time before we have to face another. And I hope to never again have to face the possibility of 8 firemen walking into my house and finding me with my pants on the ground.

Below is one of the photos of the wound. It is not for the faint of heart. Enjoy!

Judge William Young and the Shoe Bomber Sentencing

I received this in an email. I am not sure who wrote it but it bears sharing with everyone who lives in this great land we call America, The Land of the Free!!! We need more judges like Judge William Young. May God Bless America!



Remember the guy who got on a plane with a bomb built into his shoe and
tried to light it?

Did you know his trial is over?

Did you know he was sentenced?

Did you see/hear any of the judge's comments on TV or Radio?

Didn't think so.!!!

Everyone should hear what the judge had to say.

Ruling by Judge William Young, US District Court.

Prior to sentencing, the Judge asked the defendant if he had anything to
say. His response: After admitting his guilt to the court for the record,
Reid also admitted his 'allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, and to the
religion of Allah,' defiantly stating, 'I think I will not apologize for my
actions,' and told the court 'I am at war with your country.'

Judge Young then delivered the statement quoted below:

January 30, 2003, United States vs. Reid.

Judge Young: 'Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court
imposes upon you.

On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the
custody of the United States Attorney General. On counts 2, 3, 4and 7, the
Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on
each count to run consecutively. (That's 80 years.)

On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years again, to be
served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes upon
you for each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 that's an aggregate fine
of $2 million. The Court accepts the government's recommendation with
respect to restitution and orders restitution in the amount of $298.17 to
Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines.

The Court imposes upon you an $800 special assessment. The Court imposes
upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires it.
But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need go no further.

This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes. It is a fair and
just sentence. It is a righteous sentence.

Now, let me explain this to you. We are not afraid of you or any of your
terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been
through the fire before. There is too much war talk here and I say that to
everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, we deal with
individuals as individuals and care for individuals as individuals. As
human beings, we reach out for justice.

You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier
in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a
soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether the officers of government
do it or your attorney does it, or if you think you are a soldier, you are
not----- you are a terrorist. And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We
do not meet with terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists. We
hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.

So war talk is way out of line in this court. You are a big fellow, but you
are not that big. You're no warrior. I've known warriors. You are a
terrorist. A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted
murders. In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when you
first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the
press and the TV crews were, and he said: 'You're no big deal.'

You are no big deal.

What your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys
have grappled with and what I have as honestly as I know how tried to
grapple with, is why you did something so horrific. What was it that led
you here to this courtroom today?

I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I ask you to
search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you to
do what you are guilty and admit you are guilty of doing? And, I have an
answer for you. It may not satisfy you, but as I search this entire record,
it comes as close to understanding as I know.

It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You hate
our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live as we
choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we
individually choose. Here, in this society, the very wind carries freedom.
It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea. It is because we prize
individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom, so
that everyone can see, truly see, that justice is administered fairly,
individually, and discretely. It is for freedom's sake that your lawyers
are striving so vigorously on your behalf, have filed appeals, will go on in
their representation of you before other judges.

We Americans are all about freedom. Because we all know that the way we
treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties. Make no mistake
though. It is yet true that we will bear any burden; pay any price, to
preserve our freedoms. Look around this courtroom. Mark it well. The
world is not going to long remember what you or I say here. The day after
tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however, will long endure.

Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America , the American
people will
gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not war, individual
justice is in fact being done. The very President of the United States
through his officers will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence
on which specific matters can be judged and juries of citizens will gather
to sit and judge that evidence democratically, to mold and shape and refine
our sense of justice.

See that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United States of America .
That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag stands
for freedom. And it always will.

Mr. Custody Officer. Stand him down.

So, how much of this Judge's comments did we hear on our TV sets? We need
more judges like Judge Young. Pass this around. Everyone should and needs
to hear what this fine judge had to say. Powerful words that strike home.

I'm Ba-ack!

My goodness, it has been such a very long time since I really posted here. I am so disappointed in myself. I actually really enjoy posting and putting pictures of our crazy life up for all the world to see but life just seems to be so dang busy!!! The days just seem to fly by with me falling into bed each night, exhausted, and feeling like I accomplished only half of what I should have.
So very much has happened in the last year. My boys are growing like weeds. They change so much, even daily! I look at Little Man and see that he is, indeed, becoming a Little Man! How can that be? I swear I just birthed him only a few years ago. How is it that he can be 10? He is now a purple belt in karate and doing so well with it. He is so serious about his lessons and improves daily. He has also made vast improvements in baseball over the last year. He is a great catcher and a pretty darn good pitcher as well. He just loves the game and that plays into how busy our days have become. He is doing well in school and loves to read books about baseball and sports.
Muffin Man is growing by leaps and bounds as well. He is now 7 and quite a character. He is pretty much always joyful and loves to make others laugh. Sometimes he can be a bit too much of a clown but we just love him! He is now an orange belt in karate and has his first stripe. He is not quite as serious as Little Man but for his age, is doing very well. He makes steady progress. He loves school and picks up new concepts easily! He loves learning cursive and reading. He is currently reading the Magic Treehouse Series.
So what have we been up to for the past year? Spring was busy with baseball, karate, and school. Our schooling takes longer than it has in the past simply because we are covering more difficult concepts. We studied the embryology and growth of chickens during the spring as a science project. We built our own incubator using about $15 worth of materials and successfully hatched chicks. It was an awesome project and the boys really enjoyed it. We also spent a considerable amount of the spring painting and organizing the house before getting new carpet. Our house is now painted in browns and greens and we have lovely, clean, new carpet which I just love!!! As is the norm, we spent the summer bowling, swimming, and spending time with friends. Both boys improved their bowling skills dramatically and they no longer use bumpers. They are both great swimmers as well and it is so nice to not have to worry about them around water. Mid summer we went on a family vacation to Southern California. Along with spending time with family we also visited the La Brea Tar Pits, the Cabrillo Marine Museum, and the Griffith Park Observatory. All three provided great opportunities for fun and education. We also stopped by my childhood home and knocked on the door. The new family who lives there was so welcoming and invited us right in. It was so fun to show the boys where I grew up. When we peeked into my old bedroom, the boys were thrilled to discover it is now the home of an 11 year old boy who LOVES Bionicles. My boys would have stayed and played all day if we would have let them. We drove up to my old favorite park, "Rocket Ship Park". That is not the actual name of the park but it is what it was called by all the locals for as long as I can remember. The reason being that the play equipment from my childhood was a huge rocket ship and moon rover. Both had been removed in the past and replaced with the newfangled plastic park equipment of today. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the original equipment has been returned to the park by the Torrance Historical Society. What a blast it was to see my boys climb up the very equipment that I enjoyed as a child. Not only that, but while chatting with a gentleman at the park I was surprised to discover that is was a guy I had actually gone to school with from Kindergarten through 12th grade. What a hoot!
School started up again in August and we have been back to the old grind ever since. We just finished the winter ball, baseball season last week and now we can relax for a few months before the spring season starts up again.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. The house is decorated for Christmas and we are having a garage sale this weekend to get rid of all the junk we pulled out during our spring cleaning and organizing. Sometime this next month we will need to get our house treated for termites. We here in Arizona have the subterranean termites, so no tenting will be needed. We will need to have some areas in our garage floor and patio drilled for the poison to be injected. What a pain! But it is what it is. They say there are only 2 types of houses around here. Those that currently have termites and those that will. LOL!
My Honey is as busy as ever at work. There have been many changes, including layoffs and rearranging of staff. My Honey was promoted and he is now one of two directors of the company. He manages all the mangers for the operations side of the company. Hopefully he will not be traveling quite as much but he is still working long hours. Hopefully after the new year things will calm down a bit and his schedule will get more normal. I can hope, can't I? Sadly, he will be missing our anniversary once again this year. I think he has been home for our anniversary one time in the last 6 years. He gave me the news about his promotion and told me he would not be traveling as much and then just a week later came home and told me of two up coming trips! And of course, one is over our anniversary. So my mom decided to take the boys and I to Disneyland for my anniversary!!! So in a about a week, we will be heading down to sunny Anaheim for two days of Disney fun! Yippee!
OK, so that pretty much catches you up on the happenings of the last year. I will try to download a few pictures in the next week of some of the things mentioned here and I promise to try to be more regular in my postings in the future. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry CHRISTmas, and a Wonderful New Year!!!!!

I know, I know.............

I have been promising to get on here and update for forever! And I still have simply not had the time. Baseball is finally over and summer is here, which means we should have more time but somehow, we don't. Go figure?
We are still schooling every day because I simply see no reason to stop and get off track for three months. The boys are busy getting ready for their first karate tournament at the end of this month. We are also busy with summer get togethers with all the friends that we do not get to see very often during the school year. We have been bowling almost every day for the last few weeks thanks to the generosity of our local bowling alley. The boys get one free game and shoe rental per day for the entire summer! How cool is that? In between schooling, bowling, and karate we are spending time at the aquatic center and the beach, and just hanging out with friends.
I am not going to promise to get on in the next week and get all caught up on the past four months because I have made that promise for the last 3 months and have yet to have kept it. I will try to get on soon but PLEASE do not hold me to it.
For now I will leave you with this little gem from Muffin Man. This evening we went out to dinner at a local buffet our family enjoys. At the end of the meal My Honey went and, as is our custom, filled a plate with an assortment of small, bite sized, desserts for all of us to share. One of the items that this buffet always has on hand are little, tiny cream puffs. Muffin Man picked up one of the cream puffs from the plate, gave a contented sigh, and exclaimed "These things just always cheer me up!" God love him!

May you too be cheered up by the little things in life. Blessings.

Checking In.............Yet Again!

Oh*My*Goodness! Has it really been that long since I posted? Time has just been flying by for me. The last few months have been chock full of karate and baseball practices and games. In between that and schooling each day I have also, pretty much single handedly, cleaned, primed, and painted every wall, baseboard, door frame, and door in my house. I am not quite finished but I can finally see the finish line! Our new carpet goes in next Thursday and then I can finally start putting my house back together. The furniture is all over the place. Pictures are all off the walls. A large number of totes are filled with stuff that was formerly housed in dresser drawers. All the kids furniture is getting sold at the next garage sale and their room will have all new furniture and shelves. I am determined that at least half of what WAS in their room will not be going back. I cannot wait for everything to be back in order!!! It has been a long time coming, but the end results will be more than worth it!!

I have a whole list of subjects and happenings that I would like to write about. We had visits from a few out of town friends. We built our own incubator and successfully hatched chicks. We planted what is turning out to be an impressive veggie garden. We again hatched praying mantis, butterflies, and continue to raise our pill bugs. We rescued a bunch of baby bunnies and rereleased them into the wild. Both My Honey and I celebrated bithdays. My grandmother went to spend eternity with her Lord and Saviour in March. We had cousins and Aunts and Uncles come visit. We found out that some of them will be moving here in a few months time. I know there is so much more but it is late and I am exhausted!! My mind is drawing a blank! I will do all I can to get on here in the next week and get some updates typed up.

For those of you who do check in, sorry I have been so lousy at keeping things up to date. I am going to make a point of doing better in the future. But thanks for stopping by.

Just checking in...........

........to say hello and to apologize for my extended absence! It is amazing how the days and all our activities can just get away from me. We have been unbelievably busy for the last month and every few days I think to myself, "Self, You need to blog about this!" but then I never quite find the time.

School is going well. Muffin Man is really loving reading lately and is so good with math. Little Man is working on multiplication and U.S geography. We have been following the life cycle of pill bugs, and have a new batch of mantis hatch lings to enjoy. We have five chicken eggs in an incubator and are looking forward to seeing them hatch and learning all about their life cycle. We recently finished growing bacteria and will post some info and pictures on that, soon. We are in the process of memorizing the names of the 50 states in alphabetical order and all of their abbreviations. We are studying the American revolution, and we are reading through the Little House on the Prairie series. The boys have been interested and engaged and have been doing lessons without complaint. God Bless them!

As far as my weekly goals, I have not given up on them. In the past 4 weeks I have finished cleaning out and inventorying both of my freezers, cleaned out, culled and organized all of my school supplies and book shelves, painted two more walls in the living room, filed a 2 foot stack of paperwork that was about to topple over, AND found and organized all our tax stuff and had our taxes done! WHEW! All in all it has been a very productive few weeks.

My current focus is a new home school support group that my girlfriend Michelle and I are putting together. We both belong to the local Christian support group but there are many non Christian home schooler's out there in our county and we want to reach out to them, meet and support them as well. We are in the planning, implementing and publicity stage. Just getting the word out is a huge and time consuming process. We are looking forward to how things will work out. Wish us luck!

The boys are busy with Karate and will be starting baseball this next Monday. Both boys earned their yellow belts in Karate in the last few weeks and that was really exciting. I REALLY LOVE karate and I am impressed with the difference I have seen in them since they started. It is a sport that I hope to keep them in for years to come.

So that is about it. I PROMISE to get some pictures and info posted on some of our recent activities and I also VOW to get back on my goal posting by this next Wednesday. Until then, take care.

A Few Pictures

Here are just a few photos from Christmas. Two of the photos I took for our Christmas card and one of each of the boys with their BIG Christmas gifts. More photos to come later.