November at the Beach

Nothing like a weekend afternoon at the beach in the middle of November without any crazy tourists. Shane's favorite pastime is throwing rocks in the water, the kid is getting a good arm.

Signs of Global Warming

It's pushing 90 degrees in Oceanside this week, for those of you keeping score at home it's hotter now than it is in July.

To fight the heat we spent Monday wandering through Disneyland's many climate controlled rides. The heat made it feel like summertime at the park, just without the swarms of foreigners and sweaty overweight tourists from middle America. In fact I counted a grand total of 20 people walking on Main Street in the afternoon.

As much as I love warm weather even I think Christmas decorations are odd during 90 degree weather

We stayed late to watch Fantasmic and Shane stayed awake until about 5 minutes before it started. He was so tired even the fireworks couldn't wake him up.

New Blog Title

In the past I have had a few people ask me about our blog title "It All Begins In September". Shane, Ken and I all have birthdays in September so for our family that is when the holiday season begins. Once birthdays are done it seems like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year are just around the corner. However, with a new addition coming to our family in May, I thought it was only fair that they not be excluded.

Halloween

Only a 14 day gap in between blog posts, that's pretty good for us. Shane dressed up like Woody from Toy Story for Halloween, it looked great but I'm convinced that there's no reason for a 3 year old to have such a complex costume. When I was a kid my cowboy costume was an old pair of pajamas and a hat. Shane had a great time for about 10 houses then decided he was over walking and too scared to walk up to the decorated houses. Like any good parents we kept dragging him around, mostly out of our selfish desire for more candy, and the payoff was excellent. Here's a few shots of our Halloween festivities

Sheriff Woody

Making Halloween Cookies

Shane was not a fan of cleaning out the pumpkins, he said the pumpkin guts were "disgusting"

Shane and his "Pirate Skeleton" pumpkin

In case there was any concern about us becoming Padres fans...

Three Months in Review

Once again we're a little behind, partially due to our lack of camera toting. Here's a few shots from our trip up the coast, a visit to San Francisco, and a recent stop at Disneyland. Other than that life is good, the leg is healed, and maybe someday Amanda will start doing this on a more frequent basis.

Shane grubs on some hotel chocolate.

The Giants have been so bad this year that we were the only ones at the park.

The highlight of our weekend in San Francisco, parking garage in Chinatown with a fortune for each spot.

Shane and Amanda got passes from the Million Dreams people to stay in the park an extra hour, hence the thing hanging from his neck.

Shane before going on the new Toy Story ride, which is wildly entertaining, maybe my favorite attraction at the park

I'm a lucky girl!!

Now that Ken has posted about our anniversary, I guess it is my turn to brag about him a little. One of Ken's favorite things to do is plan weekend getaways. My anniversary weekend included Ken making all of the arrangements for Shane to stay with my mom for the weekend and us living it up in the beautiful La Jolla Marriott. When we arrived at the hotel Friday afternoon, I was welcomed by this gorgeous arrangement of flowers.
We had a yummy dinner Friday night at BJ's. I love their pizza and the pizzookie is to die for. We slept in Saturday for the first time in a looooong time. We spent the late morning on scenic drive around Pacific Beach and just enjoyed adult conversation. I was handed a note that said "open at noon on Saturday". The note included directions to a day spa in Del Mar called Pukalani.and informed me I was being treated to an hour massage. This place is amazing. I will definitely be making a return trip. Maybe a birthday present. I returned from my wonderfully relaxing trip to find another envelope that said "open at 5:00 pm on Saturday". This note revealed plans for dinner at Roy's. Roy's is one for our favorite restaurants for special occasions and is actually where we had dinner the night we got engaged. We had a lovely seafood dinner and to top it off, one of the best desserts known to man. The chocolate souffle topped with ice cream and raspberry sauce.
I also received a beautiful sparkely diamond necklace. I was very pampered. I truly felt like a princess that weekend. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful, romantic husband. I love him so much and I am so grateful for that last five years of my life.

5th Anniversary

On June 14th Amanda and I celebrated our 5th anniversary, and in typical Harrison fashion it's made it's way to the blog a month and a half later. We were married so long ago that our wedding pictures were taken on that old fashioned film stuff, but for kicks I though I'd post a few of those new fangled digital images from the open house we did with our friends Brian and Tasha a few weeks after the nuptials. Ah, the good old days when I was skinny and didn't have a metal rod and screws in my right leg.

Only Brandon would show up at my open house with his guitar. I'm just glad he let me play the congas instead of that washboard thing.

My little cousin Eva, coolest kid I know who's not named Shane.

Greatest Wedding Present Ever. This image is just wrong.

Shane's First Squirt Gun

One of Shane's rewards for finally getting potty trained was a squirt gun. We had a great water fight, Shane is a little over dramatic sometimes; he would run and dive to the ground and throw his gun in front of him every time he got hit with water. This was great until he dove onto the cement and broke his water gun. Good thing the water guns came from the dollar store. (Its depressing to see these photos and remember what life was like with two good legs)

Injury Update

It's now been a little more than two weeks since the big wreck. The surgery on July 4th took care of the compound fractures of the tibia and fibula by inserting a metal rod down the leg with a screw by the kneecap and two by the ankle. The good news is I didn't need a cast to hold everything in place, just a fiberglass splint with an ace bandage. Last Thursday I had a follow up visit with the orthopedist and the bandages were removed. I got the first post-surgery view of the leg, and it's pretty nasty. There's a few pictures below but be warned, they're pretty gruesome. Right now the leg is out in the open and recovering decently. I have a walking boot which is kind of an oxymoron because I can't put any weight on the leg for 4 weeks. I'm not sure how I'm going to survive 4 more weeks of being off my feet, after just two weeks I'm bored out of my mind.

One of the ironies of this injury is that despite my accident prone past this is the first time I've broken a bone or had surgery. To think I've rolled an ATV, laid down a motorcycle, crashed on a longboard at 25 mph while getting towed behind Vespa (that was a fantastic set up, one of my college roomates had a vespa and we attached a wakeboard rope to the back and he would tow us up hills so we could longboard down), it's crazy. I once went down this monster hill and got the speed wobbles at the bottom, I was going so fast that I bounced from the middle of the road onto someone's lawn, and all I got from that was a mild concussion and a few staples in my head. That did lead to a hilarious emergency room conversation:

Doctor: "So, any drugs or alcohol involved in this?"
Me: "No"
(Doctor looks at my dad for confirmation)
Dad: "No, my son's just an idiot"

All that and I finally break a bone while doing a few turns in the driveway, just ridiculous. I guess that's the universe's way of evening the score. Anyway, here's the photos, you've been warned:

The incision on top of the kneecap is where they opened up the leg and slid the metal rod in. The other scar on the inner leg is from the screw to hold the fibula in place.

The two lower scars are from the screws that hold the tibia in place. The third is a remnant of where the bone broke through the skin

How I Spent My 4th of July Weekend

My sister and I were out riding the longboard around my grandparents neighborhood and before we finished I decided to do a few turns in the driveway of the house we were renting. I was making a long frontside turn when I leaned forward a little too much and had to put my right foot down to keep from falling on my face. When I put my foot down the rest of the body kept moving and I heard my bones crack as I fell. Luckily a neighbor with some medical background heard me screaming in pain and came rushing to my aid. He got my foot elevated, gave me some Advil and called 911.

Fortunantly 3 EMTs got there in about 10 min and started oxygen and an IV and got my lower leg braced. Because this was a compound fracture the bone was sticking through the skin just above the ankle, and every movement of my foot made me scream in pain. The bad news was the EMTs can't administer morphine, and the ambulance was having a hard time finding us. To complicate matters there was another call in the neighborhood for an elderly person who had fallen down, so their manpower was limited. Finally an ALS (advanced life support) arrived with morphine and made the call to skip the ambulance and get me on the chopper that was in route. They put me on a gurney and lifted me into the bed of one of the EMTs trucks for the mile drive down to the golf course where the chopper was waiting. Every movement of my right foot sent shockwaves of pain through me and the screaming continued. By the time we got to the chopper the morphine had set in so they carefully manuvered me on the stretcher into the cockpit and flew down to the hospital in Truckee where an orthopedic surgeon was available to operate. I passed out at some point on the chopper ride thanks to the combo of pain, drugs, and naseau and was in and out of sleep for a few hours while they took x-rays and prepared me for surgery. The doctor confirmed that I had fractured both the tibia and fibula on my lower right leg. During the 3 hour procedure they placed a titanium rod in my leg and fastened it to the bone with several screws. Needless to say I'm going to have a great time getting through airport security in the future.

I'm recovering well and now taking a lower dose of pain killer (no more morphine), but I've got four different pills and a shot I have to take daily for the next few weeks. According to the doctor I need to use crutches for the next six weeks. For someone not used to sitting around this is going to be a challenge.

This is the leg a few minutes after the accident, notice the odd bulges on the lower section of the leg. The blood is where the bone broke the skin's surface.

Amanda and the EMTs checking my vitals.

Loading off the truck and on to the chopper

Before and After x-rays

The aftermath

The Shane Sized Surfboard

A few months ago Shane and I were at a surf shop when he spotted a boogie board and said "it's a surfboard my size!". In our recent trips to the beach he's seen people riding them and asks for his own surfboard. Last Saturday we picked one up for him at Costco and took it to the beach with Jeff and Heleena. I was going to put in a picture of Jeff and I helping Shane out but we looked like white whales, and I'm way too vain to show myself in such an unflattering light. Shane was insistent on standing up on it as soon as we got in the water, he still needs to figure out the concept of catching the wave before he does anything else. I eventually pushed him into a few small breakers while he was on his stomach and seemed to have a good time.

Jeff and I had plans for a monster castle but ended up with a giant sand pile that Shane loved to climb and jump off of.

Future Ballplayer

Shane and I went to Petco Park last week, and now I know why my Dad waited until I was 7 to take me to a ball game. The ballpark is not the best place for a potty training two year old with a morbid fear of big toilets. We spent a considerable amount of time in the bathroom but still had a great time.

I know, I know. A Padres hat, how shameful. On the bright side Shane still prefers his two Giants hats over this one.

Petco's souvenier shop opens up to a small area at field level where you can get an up close view of the game.

The park also has a small field where kids can hit and run the bases. For some reason Shane really wanted to slide. So he hits the ball off the tee, runs about halfway down the first base path and then just flops onto his stomach. It was hilarious. Here he is with his glove playing a little defense.