Trips to the E.R.

. A parents most dreaded thing is to have to take their 2yr old child to the E.R. for stitches. This is another wonderful story about Chris and his carelessness. Which I guess you can say started at a very young age. Now I was really young at the time and I don't recall exactly how old I was for this first incident. Now as most of you know Jennifer had quite a scare a few weeks. Aiden insisted on playing on a chair at his grandma's house, being quit careless. After several attempts of Jennifer and everyone else telling him Aiden don't do that your going to fall and get hurt. Well of course he is man, and man does as we please. He fell and hit his face causing him to bit a hole in his upper lip. Man, the smartest creature on planet! Oh by the way I think this is really where he gets his determination, the stubbornness comes from Jennifer. I love you honey. So I am sure you all remember the rest of the story. My son is lucky he didn't have to endure the pain of the stitches.

Now I was saying I think I was like 2yrs old. We went to my aunt Patti's house for the day. In fact she has a daughter that is my age. Well it was ab out the same time I was getting really good at walking. Well I was wondering through her house trying to find something to entertain me. Well appearantly there was this vase on top of a hutch that I insisted on playing with, well after several warnings from my mom and the other grown ups to not play with it I might get hurt. Well the inevitable happens. I end up knocking the vase over which then fell and cracked open on top of my head. Yes that is right I was determined to play with this vase after several warnings that I was going to get hurt and then it happens. Well appearantly my head wasn't as nearly as strong as I had thought. This vase actually gave my a nice little cut across my forehead, which I still have to this day. So of course my mom had to rush me to the emergency room after several failed attempts to stop the bleeding. So a few hours later and a bunch of stitches I was good as new.

So as most of you know I grew up in Sacramento, CA where they have have countless things for families to do. Well somewhere in the vicinity of they have this Mother Goose Fairytale Land. Well every now and then my parents would take us there. Now I know we are all grown ups, but come on . We all grew up in a time where fairytales were always being told to us children. In fact I am sure a lot of us fantasized about being able to be part of a fairytale. Well at this park all of your fantasies come true. I was actually in a fairytale (well at least that is what I thought). Well as we or should I say as I ran carelessly through the park. I would always manage to get hurt and not just any old hurt. Yes, you guessed it emergency room hurt. In fact everytime we would go there, we would leave shortly after to take me to the emergency room to get stitches. Of course everyone else was mad at me for ruining their day. So that is how I managed to split my chin open the first time. It was so bad that I got to a point to where I feared going to Fairytale Land.

Swimming. It is by far one of my favorite past times. In fact I think Aiden enjoys it more than I ever did. I mean this kid wasn't even walking the first time we took him to the pool in Ft. Benning and he was trying to take off on his own. I think he is part fish. So anyways, the best thing to do on a hot sunny summer day is to jump into a nice cool pool. So I vagely remember this. But, my mom took me to my friend Danny's house where we went swimming. Well kids will be kids. We were having so much fun. Well we finally gained enough courage to jump off of the diving bored in the deep end. Now we weren't scared of the height of the diving bored, heck it was only 2 feet off of the ground. We were scared of the deep end. It was like a bottomless pit. You in the shallow end if we got tired of swimming we could always stand up on our tippy toes and stretch our necks out and be far enough out of water that we could easily catch our breath, and then continue on across to the other side of the pool. But, the deep end. We heard stories of kids trying to go to the bottom and never coming back. I mean we were in total fear of this side of the pool. So after a few I triple dog dare you chicken to jump off of the diving bored, and I will if you will. Or the infamous your first. The two of us finally mustard up the courage to jump off of the diving bored, but of course good old mom was right there to make sure we were being safe. As both of our mothers chimmed at the sametime make sure you jump straight off of the diving bored and not to the side. So we did as instructed and jumped straight off into the bottomless pit of the unknown. I remember the first time thinking I would make it to the bottom and push off to come flying out of the water like a rocket launching into the atmosphere. Well let's just say that I never made it to the bottom. In fact I was so terrified that I jumped to the side thinking I could grab the side before getting sucked into the black hole at the bottom of the deep end. Well I did and not only did my hands get to the side of the pool so did my chin. At first it didn't hurt, my chin just felt numb. Then my mom said come here and let me see if you split your chin open. Well no sooner did I get out of the pool blood poored down my neck and all over my body. I was terrified for I knew where we were heading next, that's right to the E.R. More stitches. So here are some of the few wonderful milestone's in my life. I just hope my kids have Jennifer's stubbornness more than they have my determination. Hopefully at our next duty station we will have an E.R. right around the corner. Take care.

Stay on your TOES Christopher!!!

Okay, so as I sit here in Iraq waiting for the coin toss to decide what mission we go on next and to where it will be. I have an opportunity to remember some golden moments in my life. The list is really long, so I am not going to bother with it. But there is one thing in particular I am going to talk about. The old saying "Stay On Your Toes!" now growing up, regardless how poor my family was my mom always saw to it that her kids played in organized sports of some sort. It began when I was probably 4yrs old. For those of you who don't know, my older brother Robert is 19 months older than me (which means he hit 30 first), and for as long as I can remember I was always jealous when my mom or dad took my older brother to baseball practice or soccer practice. In fact I think I had fits about the whole thing. To this day I remember my mom telling me when you get older you can go and play baseball and soccer too. Man those 19 months sure did seem like an eternity. Sooner than later I got my shot, and boy was it great. I finally started to feel like a big boy. I was maybe 4 and a half years old and I finally got my chance to play big boy sports like soccer. To me at the time it made me feel twice as good as Michael Jordan did when he got drafted to the NBA. So the season starts out with soccer practice twice a week. We would do our warm ups and then watch our couch kick the ball while all 15 of us kids would race to retrieve it for him. But after awhile it payed off. After about the first two weeks of soccer practice we finally had our first game. Now watching a bunch of 4 yr old's who really don't understand the game play soccer, well it is quit hilarious. Picture 10 midgets all going for the soccer ball at the same time. It didn't really help as you could here in the back ground every screaming soccer mom yelling at the top of there lungs kick the ball or go get the ball. So as us kids are trained at a very young age do what mommy says. I am sure you can just imagine the chaos that ensued.

Back to what I was getting at. So I was always graced with the opportunity to play sports. In fact, I looked so forward to playing sports that I broke the year into three season's. You had baseball season. Which was fun. You got to run around the base's while other kids tried to catch you. Slide into the plates. I think it got to the point that regardless of how well you did or didn't hit the ball or how far you made it to the next base before getting out, if you didn't slide into base you just weren't that good at baseball. So of course I had many scraped up knees and elbows through this season.

Then there was soccer season. By far my favorite. For soccer season meant that for the first half of the season it would still be hot. The down fall to the first half of the season was the grass was really hard and dry. But then there was the second half, which every kid loved and every mother dread. That is right RAIN. and when it came down it would come down. Which meant that hard dry soccer field turned into the worlds biggest mud puddle. Where all of the rules of the sport went right out of the window. Another one of those things that the muddier you were the better the player you were. Needless to say I was always ranked in the top 2 of my team.

Then there was everyone's favorite season. Christmas, which really meant no school for two weeks and Santa Claus. Where we would drive to the mountains in the back of my grandpa's truck and go cut down our own christmas tree. Yes, that is right we would cut our own tree down to enhance that Christmas feel and the smell of the pine needle's. Now let me get back to the sport thing

So as I played sports through out my child hood. My mom was always there on the sidelines. She was more of my own DR. than anything else. From the countless bloody nose's I would get to the broken arm I received to the sprainded ankles I had to endure. She was always there. Always encouraging me to do my best. She also taught me to never quit. I honestly don't remember a whole lot of what kind of encouraging things she would say to me, but there is this one thing that she always said. Stay on your Toes, Christopher! all's I could think was what are you talking about I am on my toes. So I would try to stand up taller on my toes, make it as obvious as I could to her that hey mom I am on my toes, quit yelling at me! But, for some weird reason it never worked. She would just yell it again and again. It got to the point that I was afraid my toes had been moved to another part of my body and noone every told me about this. For crying out loud someone help me get on my toes. Stay on your toes, Christopher. Not until years later (like at the age of 16 or so) did I ever realize what she was trying to say was Christopher be ready the ball can come to you at any minute, not get on your toes. As I write this I am cracking up. By far this is gotta be the funniest proof of how I have a tendacy to take people a little to serious.

So Aiden and Jack, as you grow up in life take a second to stop and think what people are trying to tell you. Jack it is ok, I of all people know how you feel. The second child syndrome. Regardless of what parents realize, it is there. I to went through it. Aiden just try to remember that one day Jack is going to want to play to, so always try to teach him and include him in everythin you do. Jennifer, relaxe they are boys. The worst part is they are specimens of me, which means they are going to get hurt, bloody nose's, broken arms, and a case of invinsibility like no other. Don't panic. They will recover. Although I will admit that I am probablly worse at that then you honey. I love you guys. I hope you guys got as much of a kick out of this as I did while writing it. See everyone soon.

As Lived

Okay, here it is. I have actually been meaning to start this for quit sometime. So as most of you know I am here in Iraq, but not at the Army's demand. I actually volunteered for this assignment. Like I have for just about every assignment I have been on (except Korea). Volunteering obviously meant that I knew exactly what I was getting myself into, and no I am not talking just about being in Iraq where who knows what dangers you will face when you ride outside of the wire. I am actually talking about the other sacrifices. Such as leaving my wife for a year, again. Or leaving Aiden to grow up for the next 365 days without his father. Or missing the opportunity to watch my wife's stomach swell bigger and bigger by the week as she was pregnant with our second child. Now don't get me wrong, it isn't easy. In fact it is rather hard to do. But, the part that really hurts. Well I am sure you all have guessed it. Missing the birth of my second child. Now that is something that I will never be able to forget or make up. Sorry Jack, but I still love you and I can wait for the day to come to hold you in my hands.

Now a lot of people have asked me why I didn't come home. Some say it is because of this or that, but the reality of it is I have a lot of things to get done on the house. Which means once again the pressure is going to be on my wife to see that this all gets done. Since she has the list of stuff to do, not only that she is the site foreman. Which means I am going to have to manage working on the house while at the same time giving my boys the much deserved and needed attention from there father. Which trust me is long over due. Plus Jennifer needs some much needed time to herself, after all she does deserve it. Plus I think Aiden is way over due on a father son talk. I just hope it goes better than the ones I had with my father, although I will admit they usually ended up with the two of us drinking a beer and 90% of the problems resolved. I know Aiden is to young for a beer, but hopefully he will settle for a glass of milk and cookies. I know Jennifer will.

Aiden, from what I have been told, but mostly from what I have read from my wife's blog.
Pretty much to some it all up, has and is following in his father's foot steps. At 2 yrs old, he is already a joker, troublemaker, and a finger's me gee (my grandma gave me that nickname at a very young age). Apparently he has his little fingers in everything you could put them in. from Jack's nose to the CD drive on the computer. I am not sure if it more of curiosity of how things work, which could mean we have an undiscovered baby genius on our hands. Or if it is he wants to know how much man power things can take before they break. Which means we have a demolitions expert on our hands. Well if I ever need to move a mountain I know who I can rely on. Quick hide the tools before he figures out how to take the door knobs off.