Health Care Townhall...ALMOST

(the line snaked all around the parking lot, up that hill and to the right to the school...I estimate there were at least 4000 people there)

So, as some of you may or may not have seen on the news, there was a health care townhall given by my Congressional Representative Jim Moran (D). He also was able to book Howard Dean to attend and address the townhall audience. As soon as I found out about it, I knew I wanted to attend. I even read the first 100 pages of H.R 3200 until I almost died (maybe that was their intention? ;-)) of boredom and then realized within a few days I shouldn't bother since so much was getting changed in the Senate anyway. I emailed my girlfriends, but they were all going to be either out of town or getting ready to leave for out of town and Tanner had a Young Men's meeting that night so I hit the townhall solo mio. When I arrived, there were a ton of people already there in line. I was an hour and a half early. There were some crazies on both sides going up and down the line asking people questions or handing out fliers or signs to hold. I stood quietly in line and listened to the people around me. We live in a predominately Democratic district. Everyone around me was talking about how great the health care bill is and pretty much patting each other on the back for the great discussion they were having. It's alright, we all do it when we are around people who agree with us. I am not a confrontational person by nature, I like it when everyone gets along, and it scares me when I can't somewhat predict a person's reaction from something I have said...but after about a half hour, I just couldn't listen to it anymore without putting my two cents in. We were all very cordial and even though it was definitely a debate, we weren't screaming at each other or anything. I think the best response I got was when I said "well, I think we just have a fundamental ideological difference...I don't believe that health insurance is a right, I believe it is a privilege and the responsibility of individuals and families to pay for it, not the government or the taxpayers." They all looked at me like I had just called them all an expletive. Do I think we need changes to our system? Definitely. I just don't think this bill addresses very many of the problems that need to be solved. But it was cool...we understood each other...we just didn't agree.

At one point we were all wondering if we were going to get in. The gym of the high school held 2500 people and we were in the middle of the line. I joked that we would get right up to the doors and they would shut them right in front of us. As we got closer to the front, the energy really picked up. There were a lot of people near the front with signs and they were chanting, but it wasn't crazy or anything. I just looked around and thought "this is democracy personified". I loved it.

We finally got up to the front doors, and just as I was about to step into the school, a cop came out the front door with a sign that said MAX CAPACITY REACHED. She looked at me and said "Sorry Ma'am, we have to close the doors now." I couldn't BELIEVE IT!!! I actually said to her "are you kidding me?" (that's about as lippy as I am willing to get with a cop). I turned around to my now friendly foes and said "I JINXED US!!!" We started laughing, but we were all totally bummed. I was so sad. To be THAT close and not get in was just ridiculous. I was the next person, the VERY NEXT PERSON!!! It turned out to be the difference between turning right or turning left when I went to look for a spot to park. If I had turned left, I would have gotten in, but I turned right first, and it doomed me...if only I was more left thinking. ;-).

Anyway, I watched the news coverage later and it looked to be quite the spectacle inside...from Moran personally demanding to see someone's ID before allowing them to ask their question to Howard Dean admitting they didn't include Tort reform in the bill because they didn't want to take on the lawyers in addition to everyone else (hey, at least he was honest?) it would have been a blast to have been there, but oh well, I tried. I encourage everyone if you haven't already done so to email your congressional representatives and your senators about how you feel about the health care bill. The biggest lesson I got out of the experience is just how powerful the public voice REALLY is when we all actually care. Go here to find your representatives and to contact them.

Wow...Time Flies Part II

JULY

Well, of course July started off with a BANG! because it was the 4th of July AND my birthday. Tanner and I went out on the 3rd for dinner to McCormick and Schmick's. Steak and Seafood, you can't hardly go wrong with that...Except that the next morning we decided to run in a 4th of July 5K at a town close to ours. We had just bought gym memberships to help us start training for a triathlon, but it would be accurate to say I wasn't really READY yet for a 5K. Pathetic I know, but true! I was doing okay, but it didn't help that the run was quite hilly, and just before the end I decided we should sprint to the finish...well, I didn't quite make it. About 10 yards (seriously, I could see the finish line), Tanner gave me a look as if willing me on for us to pass this lady that was at least twice our age. I looked at him, shook my head and went over to the side of the road and threw up last night's dinner in the grass. 10 yards...10 YARDS from the finish line! I would be totally embarrassed, if I didn't find it so funny myself. We finally crossed the finish line after Tanner finished helping me hold my earphones away from my face while I upchucked in the grass. Tanner and I had a good laugh together, and then met back up with our friends who were watching our kids where we all proceeding to have ANOTHER good laugh at my expense. Here we are, post race, and post throw-up.
Later, I opened presents, and I received some great workout clothes from Tanner.
Last year we stayed away from downtown D.C. because we didn't want to fight the crowds, but for some reason this year I was feeling more brave. It was really easy getting into the city via the Metro and finding a good spot on the Mall to watch fireworks was easy too. Getting out of the city afterwards? Not so easy. We walked to a lesser known Metro station and eventually got on our line to get home. Everyone was in good spirits so the fact that we were bunched up so close that we could barely breath wasn't too bad! The boys zonked out on the walked back to the Metro and we got a lot of smiles from other pedestrians on the way. All in all, I would definitely do it again, so let me know if you ever want to join us! The fireworks were great and you can't help but feel patriotic in the middle of downtown D.C.





It was a great birthday and a great 4th of July!

Wow...Time Flies

Has it really been three months since I blogged? Why yes, yes it has. Well...here is a quick recap of the past few months for those of you who haven't already died of shock.

May

This month consisted of some small fun family activities like a Cinco de Mayo party at my friend Jenna's house. The boys had fun hitting the pinata to death and of course loved the candy.
Our town also had a fair where we met up with our friends and rode on some fun little kiddie rides. I love that we live close to a huge city, but our town still feels small.






Tanner's birthday was this month, and we had fun celebrating his BIG three ooooooohhhhh. He's an old man, but we still love him. :-) Oh, and we had our first backyard family picnic. Andrew eating his first corn-on-the cob...priceless.

That's IBC Rootbeer people...trust me.

June

This month of this year will forever live in infamy as the time of "Clark's finger" accident. WARNING: Graphic details below...

So I took the boys down to my sister Tricia's house to hang with her for the week since both of our husband's were out of town. My parents came to visit for part of it, but had left before the accident occurred a few days later. It was Thursday, and we were going to leave later in the afternoon to drive back home. Tricia had an appointment to get her haircut in the morning and so I offered to watch the four youngest (JB, Izzy, Clark, and Andrew) while she went to get it cut. All of the kids were having a grand time dancing to music in my sister's bedroom and I was finishing burning a cd for me to listen to on the way home when I heard this BANG! (door slamming) and then the most horrible blood curdling scream I have ever heard from my child. I went out to find him and he met me just inside the door where he had slammed his left pinky finger (later we realized he had actually slammed in in the hinge of the door). When I looked down, the tip of his finger was literally hanging off...and blood...everywhere. I pulled him into the bathroom and put some pressure at the base of his finger to try to stop the bleeding. He was crying but not hysterically so...and I just remember he kept saying "I broke my finger off mom...it's bleeding"...over and over again. I didn't know what to do, I was home by myself with four kids under the age of 5. So...I made my first ever phone call to 9-1-1. I tried to act like everything was okay and was 'just calling' to see what they 'recommended' I do with an almost severed finger. I can't decide if downplaying it is better or worse than if I had been hysterical, but regardless, they said to stay put and the paramedics would be there soon. We waited about 5 mins, and they were at the doorstep. We had a fire truck and an ambulance and 4 people come in to help. They taped up Clark's finger as well as they could and said I could take him to the hospital by myself or they could take him in the ambulance. Thankfully, my sister's neighbor came over to see if everything was okay and offered to stay with the other children until my sister could get home from the hair salon. I hopped in the car with Clark and he liked seeing the ambulance and fire truck, but I think he was in a little shock by this time. He was pretty quiet on the way to the hospital.

Once we arrived at the ER, they saw us very quickly. They took x-rays of his finger and quickly realized that he had an open fracture. So the very tip of the bone in his finger was fractured which makes sense since the tip was literally hanging on my a millimeter or two. They called in a finger surgeon from outside the hospital to come in and stitch it up, which I was very grateful for. They sedated Clark in order to stitch him up...which was C-R-A-Z-Y. His eyes were open but nobody was home. Eventually they closed his eyes for him and I watched with fascination as they sewed his finger back on. Stuff like that does not really bother me and I am just amazed that doctors can do what he did and Clark's finger would be as good as new in a few weeks. There was only a slight concern about the tip of his finger necrotizing from a possible lack of blood circulation back into the tip, but the surgeon seemed very optimistic.

Soon enough, they were pulling Clark out of sedation and boy was he a ham coming out of it. He was saying stuff like "Mom, your in charge, I not in charge" with his eyes half closed. By the end of everything the doctors and nurses loved Clark and said how great he had dealt with everything. They asked him what color wrap he wanted for his hand and he insisted on red, since it is the "the color of bloody". GREAT. Morbid much?

Suffice it to say, we didn't go home until the NEXT day and Clark got by pretty well just using one hand. In fact, I think he quite liked showing off his hand to anyone who would look and listen. The next week he stuck his hand in a potted plant I had, and he got his gauze wet, so I had to take him into the dr. to make sure it hadn't soaked through to his finger. While she unwrapped it, I thought Clark was going to make me go deaf, he was screaming so loud and was so upset. This surprised me after how well he acted in the ER before, but I soon realized that he had some emotional issues about seeing his finger again like it was. We had two nights of him waking up at numerous times with bad dreams about his hand. It was actually really sad. After ten days we had to go into a finger specialist to check the finger and Clark did pretty well. Once he actually saw how well his finger had healed, he was a total happy camper. The doctor gave him a lollipop and then after Clark had taken a few licks the doctor jokingly said "Can I have a lick?" Clark looked at him a little quizzically and then reached his hand out to give the doctor a lick. The dr. started cracking up laughing and said in all his years of practice he had never had a child so willingly share his lollipop.

So it has now been just two months since the accident and Clark's finger is completely healed and a new fingernail has almost grown all the way back. Success! Although I can't say that Tricia has had as much success getting the blood out of her carpet. Sorry dude.

After all that, I have NO picture to show for it. I don't know what was wrong with us. We never took a picture of him with his big fat red gauze covered fist. It was a total non-think.

Stay tuned tomorrow for July and August recaps!