Someone Gave Me A Scare

The following is from a couple of different medical education websites.

• Choking is an emergency. Call 911 emergency medical services. Do not attempt to drive a choking person to a hospital emergency department. Choking is a blockage of the upper airway by food or other objects, which prevents a person from breathing effectively. Choking can cause a simple coughing fit, but complete blockage of the airway may lead to death.
• Choking is a true medical emergency that requires fast, appropriate action by anyone available. Emergency medical teams may not arrive in time to save a choking person's life.
• The brain is extremely sensitive to this lack of oxygen and begins to die within four to six minutes.
• In adults, choking most often occurs when food is not chewed properly. Talking or laughing while eating may cause a piece of food to "go down the wrong pipe."
• In children, choking is often caused by chewing food incompletely, attempting to eat large pieces of food or too much food at one time, or eating hard candy.
• Someone who cannot answer by speaking and can only nod the head has a complete airway obstruction and needs emergency help.

The family was at Patrick's soccer party at Rick's Pizza here in Lodi. Great Pizza, on the same level as a "Pie" in SLC (almost). They do have something in common, and that's the cheese.

I was sitting with some of the families, and I heard someone say "she's choking." I turned around and it was Georgia. She was on her feet next to where she had been sitting, Suzi was standing behind here, and Georgia had both her hands at her throat with her mouth wide open. I popped up, and asked her "Are you ok?" She didn't answer me, hear me, or make a sound. She reached into her mouth with her fingers and tried to pull something out.

This took about 5 seconds, and I was panicked. Suzi didn't seem panicked. She maybe had a few more clues than I did, she had been sitting next to her. After the fact Suz said she thought she was breathing. I never heard anything.

I grabbed Georgia, and turned her upside down so that her head was facing the ground. I think I had one leg, and Suz must have had the other. Still I didn't hear a sound. No crying, no cough, not even a gagging noise.

She was clearly panicked, and that was what had set me off. Once I turned her upside down I began to hit her upper back with the heal of my hand, and she kept trying to reach into her mouth to grab the object she was choking on. I stuck my finger in her mouth, and fortunately a friend who was a dentist was right there and he said to me to take it out. Later he told me he was worried I would push the object back into her airway. Finally after maybe, 3-4 seconds of beating she made a squealing sound. It was a panicked squeal, but it told all of us that she had an opening. Finally she pulled out the long strand of cheese, and said something like "I got it." She made a brave face for a second, or two and then started crying, and then Hannah started crying.

When I had Georgi upside down, that was the same exact moment moment I had when Patrick was born. The same thoughts, and same feeling rushed through me. The thought was "I don't want to lose my baby like this," and the feeling was that I thought "this might be it." It's really a hopeless feeling. So empty.

I felt the same way when Patrick finally took that first breath, and Georgia cleared her airway. It's a strange feeling. It's not like "Yeah I won!" It's more like "I just got punched in the head so hard I can't see straight."

Not a very comical moment. Except Suz, "I think maybe you over reacted a little."

She's so calm, and I'm so charged in moments like that. Like I said before, we saw that event a little differently. She thought Georgia was breathing, and I didn't. Anyhow, as Georgia would say "Don't talk while your eating." And as I learned from my own choking eating at the Pie, you might want to be careful with the Cheese there too.

The Creators of the Pumpkins!

Barefooted Ghost!

I took a picture of the kids pumpkins last night after Suzi, and the kids carved them. If you'll notice on the right side of the picture there appears to be a ghost with no shoe on standing just to the right of the pumpkins! Creepy.

We Are The Champions!

City of Lodi Boys U14 Champs! Front L to R: Anthony Fugazi, Casey Rea, Patrick Kelly, Steven Fernandez, Tommy Burnnet. Middle L to R: Clayton Silva, Calin Moore, Brandon Calderon, Brent Snyder, Paul Lurma, Miguel Segura, David Baker (behind Miguel), Ryan Bingham. Back Row L to R: H.C. Kelly, Ryan Vandenburg, Chris Rea, A.C. Baker.

What a great season! I thought we were going to be competitive, but I thought we were a little young to win it all this year. We will return 10 of our 15 boys next year. We are going to be tough next year too.

The Championship game was great. The other team (light blue) knock off the number one team in the tournament to be in the game, and we knocked off the number two team in the tournament to be in the championship game.

I watched the team we beat tonight (light blue) beat the number one team. Light blues game plan worked great against the number one team. The number one team had two players that could score. Light blue played those two players man on man, and would drop 10 guys to defence when the other team was attacking. The other team would, as a result of so many people playing defense, take a quick poor shot. The goalie would pick up the poor shot kick it to mid field, and hope their one forward could make something happen on a fast break (transition). Light blue scored one goal, and the other team scored one goal. The over time was scoreless, and it came down to a shoot out. Apparently this coach plays for this, and never loses in a shoot out, and he didn't in that game. He won.

In our game he ran the same game plan. Our team scores from multiple players, and we move the ball well. We also have four guys who play defense who on any other team would be on offence. The three fullbacks are my size or bigger. Nobody can out run them. So when they are on the field no one scores against us. Tonight I never took them off, and we never had a goal scored against us. Our mid field, and forwards move the ball almost perfectly at times to spread out the defence. Back and forth until someone makes a mistake. They made a lot of mistakes, but we only scored three times on them.

We also play a stopper. He's a guy who plays typically behind the half backs, and in front of the fullbacks. He's our Mr. Endurance. He was to shut down their one forward before he got to our defence. He did most of the game.

We had three different kids score tonight. Patrick had an assist on the first goal.

Great game, these don't happen very often. We win 3-0.

Scary!

"Hold This!"

We had been on a long walk through the Redwoods there in Gualala. Very quite, with the wind blowing in the trees and not much else to be heard except our own conversation. We were on a trail that very often we ride on with the four wheelers, and every now and then we stop at this location. Since we were on foot this time I think the stop here we took a little more time than usual. We talked a little bit about what we had been told about the prior owner who's ashes had been spread at this location. As you can see there is a headstone, and a little vase for flowers.

The owner of the ranch prior to the Bryson's was a Physician from San Francisco, and he loved to come up here on the weekends. He died relatively young, and we were told that his ashes were spread there in the middle of the trees. It was one of his favorite spots on the property. I was told that he loved the circle of tree that seem to go up forever. I love it too, and it really is beautiful to see and hear.

As we stood there and talked about it, we parents thought it was a very peaceful thing. The kids all thought it was creepy. If you look at the first photo there is a stump right behind the head stone. Sam was standing on the stump rocking back and forth while we were talking. The stump was rocking with him. Sam stopped rocking, and turned even whiter than he already is. He said "did you hear that?" I said "what?" "I heard a clanking." Yeah I heard it too. I said "Yeah, Sam maybe you should get off the stump." He got off, and all the kids got really tense. Instead of leaving the stump alone he bent over to lift up a edge to peek under it, and the edge did come up, and he did see an urn, and He SCREAMED " A POT! IT'S A POT!" And sprinted right by Suzi, and I! Two of our other three kids followed him sprinting back to the trail all three of them screaming like they'd seen a ghost. Except one 6 year old. As the others took off in the other direction, one immediately handed Mom her sweater and said "Hold This!" She went right back to where Sam had seen "THE POT!" to investigate. I half heartedly encouraged her to not mess with the stump. I hadn't seen anything either, so I wasn't really sure what was there either. She lifted up the stump, and there was the urn inside the hollowed out stump.

I loved Georgia's bold fearlessness. We all laughed, and laughed as we retold the story. "Hold this!" became the catch phrase of the trip.

Don't worry we had a little talk about being respectful, and they were all on board.

Goodnight Moon

It took me about 10 minutes to get this shot almost the way I wanted it. I took it from inside the house.

Can I be honest. I took a couple outside, and got freaked out. I was afraid to stay out on the back deck to take this photo. Everyone was in bed. It was about midnight, there is a racoon that lives some where around the deck, and I needed the lights out to shoot this picture. I'm certain big foot lives under the deck too.

Mom's

I remember as a kid in San Diego watcing the sunset with my mom while we were in her car. Steph, and I would be bouncing all over the back seat "Can we go? What are we doing? Do we really need to stop to watch the sunset? Can't you see that while your driving? There will be one just like this tomorrow. We see the sun is setting, let's go. How long is this going to take?"All the while Mom is trying to enjoy that moment. I'm not really sure how much she enjoied that moment then, but that moment is fun to joke about now 30 years later!

Sitting on the back deck with Hannah and Georgia in Gualala that experience was repeated. I was still doing the naging. Me: "Would you just look? Quite." H: "I am, I did, I will, Dad I want to...." M: "Hannah look, look, look, it's almost gone, seconds, just look.quite, quite." H: "DAD, I LOOKED! Why do we need to be quite?" M: "You have to look longer! It's almost gone! LOOK! It's peeking, LOOK!" H: "Hannah, fine, look it's gone, now what? Can I talk?" M: "Yes. You missed it." H: "No I didn't."


Good stuff.

Banana Slugs

"Listen Georgia, it's not that I'm afraid of them, I just don't want to touch them."

Gualala

I had a great weekend. Ton's of great stories. I'm sure I'll get one or two here on the blog before I forget the rest of the stories.

Georgia's Birthday Party

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Six!

So big, so fast, she's so happy, and I get so sad about how fast it all seems to happen.

Hannah's Favorite Colors

I asked her if she was doing home work. "Nope, just writing a book." Maybe I'll write a book too.

Harry Reid

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695217196,00.html

I read this article, and thought about two of my favorite Democrat Mormons, Ryan Dopp & Josh Lichty.

It is kind of funny to me that, with all the Latter Day Saints that are Republicans there have been many popular Latter Day Saint politicains have been Democrats, some of which include:

Harry Reid- Current U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Dr. Martha Cannon Hughes- The first female Senator in American history.
William H. King- "He was a US Senator from 1917-1941. In addition he was the President Pro Tempore of the Senate from November 19, 1940-January 3, 1941, which is the second-highest-ranking official of the Senate and the highest-ranking senator and in addition third in the presidential line of succession."
...and many more.

Me, still probably not voting Democrat.

Rush Hour

http://www.eslus.com/Gizmos/rushour/rushHour.html

We have this board game called Rush Hour. It a brain game. The above link takes you to an online version of the game. Same exact game. I came outside to play it. Can stand trying to play it with Suzi and Patrick poking fun.

I was playing it today, while listening to General Conference (yes I can do both, well maybe not according to Patrick) and Suzi and Patrick sitting behind me were giggling as I slide around the cars trying to solve the puzzle. I started at level 1, and had been making my way forward.

Patrick would try reach over and help, every time I would pause to think. After a while that starts to get on my nerves. I would bite his head off, because that's perfectly Patrick. "Don't you see it Dad, all you have to do is...." "Patrick leave me the heck alone, I'm playing, don't need your help." "Well I made it to level 38, and your stuck on 11." "Well maybe I'm stuck on 11 because you won't shut your pie hole, and I can't think straight." Then he'd start laughing, and even though Suzi was sitting right behind me I can't hear her laughing too. The two of them just giggling together when I stop to think.

It was just grating on my nerves. No kidding I couldn't make a move without the two of them giggling. I couldn't think straight. Then Hannah walks in from up stairs, "Oh I love that game, need help?" "No I don't neeeeed your help." Patrick and Suzi laughing again, this time Suzi's laughing hard, like tears are coming. Then Patrick says to Suzi "watching him play this is like watching Luke (our dog) eat peanut butter.

Then the two of them lose it all together. I quit before I got hostile, it took Hannah another 20 seconds or so to finish it.

That's the problem around these parts. Everyone thinks they are the biggest genius.

Parent Teacher Confrence

Every parent teacher conference I've been too with all of my children have been great. Teachers love Suzi's kids. Yeah they are mine too, but Suzi deserves a ton of credit here.
I went to Sam and Hannah's and the teacher just gushed over them. Good kids.

I thought I would pass along a compliment Hannah's teacher made about Hannah. Hannah's teacher said she had been teaching 32 years, and has had only one student remotely like Hannah. "Hannah is going to do something great in this life" she said. "When Hannah comes in the classroom the whole room seems to get brighter." She said Hannah was brilliant academically, gifted creatively, and socially absolutely wonderful.

That's our "Bear Bear."

Sam

Motherly Wisdom

To good to not pass on to you all. Thanks to Jeff Davis for passing it along.