Category — accident

Yesterday we found out that HS-6, a squadron aboard NAS North Island, lost a bird and all that were on board.  These incidents are always so far-reaching in the lives they touch.  2 1/2 yrs ago, Clay’s squadron lost a bird and all who were on board and it took many months for things to feel normal again.  It not only touched the workplace, but each of our homes as well.  You find yourself examining your life and the life of your family.  It brings sharply into focus the fragility of this life we live and the imminent danger that our loved ones and friends are in.  Yes, both these incidents happened during training exercises but the training was for the purpose of the impending deployments.  While yesterday’s loss wasn’t as close to our home as the one 2 1/2 yrs. ago, we still knew people on board.  

While the loss of life is never a positive, I’m choosing to use this incident as a chance to be reminded of what’s in front of me and to cherish what I can of this life in the time I have.  

May you each find a moment to cherish the good in your lives and may the families that are touched by this incident find peace in the coming together of the squadron for their support.  

Lastly, may the Lord bless each of those who were lost.

~

Here is an account of the adventure I’ve had over the last 24 hours.

Yesterday afternoon, Tristan needed to be at the church to serve in a wedding. I took him and stayed for the wedding and then decided to make it a “Mommy and Me” day with him. So, I asked him where he wanted to eat and off we headed to Pick Up Stix. Yum! Then it was over to MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot) to pick up a bike for him, some new sunglasses (mine liked Sacramento so much they decided to stay) for me and an iPod player for my new car (next blog!). We got everything purchased, including a new movie for a family-movie-night when I accidentally whapped myself in the eye with the very hard and sharp, key tag for my new car. OWWWW! I knew I had probably scratched my eye, but it felt like something was in it. It continued to bother me the rest of the day and throughout the evening. I headed for bed figuring I’d wake up with it feeling fine.

Wrong!

My eye was all puffy and wouldn’t stop watering. I figured something was stuck in it, for sure! So at 5 am I made the command decision to head to the ER. I left instructions for Clay to keep the kids on the Sunday morning schedule and get them to Liturgy. May I say that Sunday morning is a perfect time to go to the ER? There were only 5 other people in the waiting room and I was walked into triage upon checking in. That’s service for you! After having my eye dyed and looked at under a blue light, I was told that I had cut it and would need antibiotic drops for the next few days. I was also told that it feels like something’s in it because there is a flap of skin that my eyelid brushes up against. I’m trying hard not to think about that part because it makes me queazy!

This has not been a good week for me and keys!

Have a great day~

There have been so many things on my mind these last weeks. I’m getting my kids ready to face their dad being gone for at least 7 months. I’ve been trying to make sure that Kateri and JJ can get where they need to be for Easter. I set up a party for Clay’s farewell. Luke-Xavier has had some dental issues. I’ve been stressed about taxes and paying off the rest of JJ’s tuition. Anyway just lots of stuff all at one time. But piece by piece it’s all coming together. I’m amazed at how everything will work it self out if you just step back, take a big breath, utter some prayers and let God take over. Some beautiful people have been put in the path of my family and when we all work together things get done.

Kateri has been lent a car by a wonderful family in Ohio, so that she and JJ can drive to VA for Easter to be with friends. She’ll be able to pick him up at the airport and then they can take a little road trip. ~Whew~ Big weight off of my shoulders! I was trying to get them on a train for the trip but it was a long trip that actually would have sent JJ hours back in the direction he had just flown from.

Luke-Xavier has some teeth that need to be worked on and when the kids are little the dentist likes to have them asleep for the procedure. The cost for the anesthesiologist is substantial. We’ve had to do this with Max and Gabi. These last 3 kids have really had a lot of dental issues. I need to find out if it’s our water or toothpaste or what because none of the older kids ever had issues. But, Luke-Xavier does and it became one more thing in a pile of expenses that I was finding hard to face. Yesterday he went in for a cleaning and he did so beautifully by cooperating with the hygienist that I asked if she would recommend to the Dr. that Luke-Xavier be worked on without the anesthesiologist. They tested his listening skills by doing x-rays. I was amazed at how well he followed their directions! So, long story short- he’s willing to try to work on 2 teeth without putting him to sleep. Let’s hope and pray it goes well!

One more check off the list is JJ’s tuition. Now, this story is going to sound funny, but it’s a good example of how there’s a reason for everything and how we are given exactly what we need, when we need it. Go ahead and think I’m crazy, but here’s the story; A little over a year ago, Clay was biking to work. He had started riding a few days a week and was really enjoying it. Well, one morning he left for work on his bike and about 15 minutes later my phone rang. There was a frantic woman on the other end and she said, “I’m at the rec center. I have your husband and I need help”. I immediately figured I was going to get down there and find a pile of mush. But I threw on my robe, jumped in the car and went. Now, the rec center is on the street in front of ours, so it’s a quick trip that you wouldn’t normally use a car for, but again, I was thinking I was going to the hospital (didn’t think of ambulances). When I got there, he was on the ground off to the side of the sidewalk and he was bloody, but I could see that he was talking and his head and face were not injured. I thought, “ok, I can do this”. He was telling people what he needed and who to call at work etc. The poor woman who hit him was more of a wreck than he was. He could see that she was going to hit him so he was at least able to prepare for it. She never saw him! Imagine her shock when her windshield was smashed and a body was flying over her car! Anyway, he went to the hospital by ambulance and spent some time getting glass out of his arm, but was back home hours later and back at work in 2 days. However, the settlement process has been long and drawn out. We were beginning to wonder if it would ever be done. Well, apparently there was a plan, bigger than us for all of this! Clay received his settlement this week and it’s just the amount we needed to finish paying for JJ’s schooling! So, even something as scary and stressful as an accident can have it’s purpose in the big picture! (still thinking I’m nuts? That’s ok! Thinking this way has gotten me through a lot of tough times).

Well, that’s my long-winded Thursday morning post. I just wanted to share that even when things are stressful and appear bleak (or even impossible), a force larger than us can work it out!

Have a great day~

When I picked the kids up from the school yesterday, Tristan met me at the van looking very worried. He came around to my window and said that he needed to tell me something. My first thought was that he had gotten into a fight (no history of that, but that’s where my head went). Then tears started to well-up in his eyes and he started to say he’d made a mistake. I got out of the van to be with him and see why he was so upset. He said that whoever made the lunches didn’t put his name on the bag, so when lunchtime came around, he couldn’t find his lunch and thought he had left it at home. He then went to the teacher, very upset, and explained that he forgot his lunch and didn’t know what to do. She told him to go to the office to borrow $ for lunch truck. He started to cry and said, “How can I tell my mom that I borrowed $?” So, even though he was upset he borrowed the $ and bought lunch. After school he noticed a bag in the classroom and decided to look in it. It was his lunch. He started crying to the teacher that he had borrowed $ and his lunch was right there! She assured him it would be ok and to take the lunch home to show me that it had no name on it. When he got to the van, he was so upset that he had borrowed $3 and that I was going to have to pay it back and that his lunch was there the whole time.

All I could do was comfort him and let him know that he’d done the right thing and that I’d never want him to go hungry. I told him that $3 isn’t very much and that it’s not a problem for me to pay it back. But, when you’re 8 and you don’t get an allowance $3 seems like a lot of $. His big tears over this were so sad and so cute all at the same time. I couldn’t help thinking what a sweet kid he is and how good life must be if that’s his biggest worry!

Have a great day~

After a long weekend, it’s back to the routine of early mornings. So, out of bed I jumped at 5, when the alarm went off. I headed to the computer to check all the things I check and then to look at schedules for sending JJ to Kateri for Easter. I tried the train schedule. Hmmm…………someone needs to talk to Amtrak about the user-friendliness of their site! I spent a good chunk of time trying to decipher the whole thing and then gave up and decided to look at Southwest airlines! Well, they were offering their $49 fares! Hooray! I promptly booked a flight! When Clay got up I shared the good news.

Me-I booked JJ a flight from Philly to Pittsburgh for only $49 each way!
Clay-How’s he getting to Philly?
Me-Huh?
Clay-It’s 3 hours (give or take) from Scranton.

I then remembered why we never use Southwest for JJ’s flights! They don’t fly from where he is. So I bought a ticket that no one can use. ~banging head on desk~
Luckily my husband can be level-headed and diplomatic (and it doesn’t hurt that JJ is actually Clayton Jr. so Clay can say “I booked a ticket for myself from the wrong city”) and was able to get them to agree to refund.

So, I’m back to square one. The school told me to have him travel from a train station that isn’t listed on Amtrak’s site. Though a 15 year old boy might think that traveling on a phantom train would be exciting! Hogwarts anyone?

Just one more chapter in the complicated world of having kids be away. I’m thinking I need a geography lesson and that booking travel at 5am may not be so smart either.

So, start your day with coffee, yoga, walking the dog, making breakfast, listening to Michael Jackson, anything but what I did!

Have a great day~

This long-distance parenting is kind of tough. We got a call yesterday from JJ to let us know that he had been hurt during rugby practice. I know……,”rugby practice! Of course he got hurt”. So, we had to figure out the Dr. situation and what to do. We contacted our provider and found out that he could go to an ER or Urgent Care and it would be covered, but to see a Dr. in a clinic would not. Ugh! So, off to the ER he went. The report is that his wrist is fractured. Luckily he will be home in a couple of weeks and can HOPEFULLY be seen here at that time. We have a friend who’s an orthopedist and is going to look at his x-rays to determine if he can wait that long. Long story-short, we need to get some paper work done to have him eligible to see a Dr. where he’s at school. Why does life take so much paperwork?!

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It’s Mariah’s birthday! She’s 14 today. This makes her very happy because she’s been one of only a couple Freshmen at her school that were 13.

The kids are getting big SO fast! Thank goodness I still have little ones (even with their crazy messes and changing diapers) because I’m not ready to just have “big” kids.

Have a great day~

There is just NO excuse for what I found in my purse tonight! I reached in and pulled out all the papers that had accumulated in the last month and found an envelope with a very large check in it. This actually made me cry because it was my daughter’s loan check for her college tuition. I didn’t cry because she’s away and it made me miss her. I cried because I had mailed it in a special envelope and paid for tracking weeks ago! I made a point of mailing it before I went out to see her because I didn’t want it in my purse while I was flying because it might get lost! We have been in a panic over it because the tracking showed that it was delivered on the 8th and Kateri said she received it, but that it was just junk mail and that she threw it away. So, we’ve been in a tizzy! Now, I find it and it’s expired! Dear Lord, help me! It’s definitely time for prayer! Let’s hope they are amicable to replacing it. So now I just need to figure out what happened in this mushy brain of mine. Do I need more vitamins? More sleep? 6 more hours in each day? Less to do? Hmmmm……..Probably all of the above.
Lesson of the day-everyone makes mistakes. YIKES!
Good night~

Yesterday, one of Clay’s friends, who was stationed on Guam, went down in a helo crash. He leaves behind his wife. This is the second crash, this year, that involved people Clay knew. Please remember the pilot and his family in your prayers and thoughts today.
Thank you~

Dear Jen,
In the future, when filling a travel mug full of your morning coffee, take a few sips before hitting the road, to make sure that the mug does not leak or drip. Coffee stains don’t go with any outfit.
Ugh!
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So, yesterday (without coffee all over my clothing) I did something exciting! I went to a friends’ house and learned a little about podcasting. There’s tons to learn, but I am planning on getting my feet wet soon! I will keep you all posted. I’m excited! OOOOOOOO, maybe I can slip the “song of the day” in now and then……….:-)
Have a great day~