Crazy days of summer

Anyone ever feel that summer is more busy than the rest of the year? Between baseball games, basketball camps, girl's camp, Martin's Cove Trek, guitar lessons, cheerleading practice, softball and misc projects our lives are as busy as ever. I'm not complaining mind you. Having the kids outside and playing instead of infront of the TV is well worth it. Rock Band for the Wii comes out this week though, so we may be spending a few nights indoors. :)

Nicknames

Who doesn't have a nickname or family pet name? I'm not going divulge the private embarrassing names that my parents, fellow teammates or mad coaches made up for me during football season. But I bet just the previous sentence made most of you think of those same names you've been stuck with.

While traveling this week to a basketball tournament the girl's decided that everyone needed a nickname. You see, I am the type of person that loves to come up with those sarcastic teasing nicknames just to lighten a persons mood or get a point across. For instance in the middle of a game last weekend I had one of my players coming to the line for a free throw. It was a close game and I could see a bit of tension building. So as she approached the line I yelled knock 'em down Leprechaun. Not all the funny as a nickname by itself, but take into account that she is 5'1", redheaded and full of fire, it made quite the impact on her and the bench. She immediately glared at the bench as all the rest of the girls on the team fell to the floor in gut wrenching laughter.

So, now everyone has to have one. We have Baby Bop or Tiss (short for tissue and always emotional), we have Nessy (he name is Janessa and she disappears for long periods of time), we have Ping (she looks like the girl on Mulan and she hated her original nickname of Flower because of her skunk'esc black and white hair), there is Snuff (I watched a lot of Sesame Street as a kid and she reminds me of Snuffaluffagus), there is Peetry and Ducky (two friends that reminded us all of the land before time characters), ChitChat (shes the girl that naver talks -- we shortened hers to Chit, but it sounds very bad when I yell it from the bench "What were thinking Chit?"), there is Snapper (she always has thing habit of snapping her fingers when she wants the ball), my personal favorite is Dora (she needs a map to find her way around the court), there is JJ (Judge and Jury on the court and her name is COURTney), Sticks is a tall skinny post(her sister used to be known as Twiggy, so this fit), Jayco is a post thatlvoes to "Camp" in the key, there is Willy (my daughter and no one could come up with anything more creative), and then finally Lucky (short for Lucky Charm or Leprechaun).

So next time you think your pet name is horrible imagine that it could be worse. You could have me for a coach and be named after a skunk.

One day 5 years ago...

After my previous post I had someone ask me to share our experience when our son Dawson fell out of his high chair.


Dawson was 8 months old and we had one of those stupid high chairs that sit on the counter top. My oldest daughter was helping mom get the kids cleaned up from dinner. She was 9 at the time. She pulled off the tray set it aside and just then my son leaned forward. The back of his head right behind his right ear.

My wife called the doctor, because Dawson seemed fine, but she was worried. The doctor explained what to look for and suggested she just monitor him. I was in Florida on business, so I knew nothing of the whole ordeal at the time my wife went to bed and took Dawson to lay with her. About 11:00 pm, about 5 hours after the fall, my son began to throw up. My wife quickly ran him to the hospital.


On her way, she called my brother in law and friend from church, they met her at the hospital. The doctors took Dawson in for a CT scan and said the results would take about 15 minutes. Less than 5 minutes later the nurses came and took my son and told my wife to give him a kiss, because they needed to take him in for emergency surgery. Just as they took him he went limp and unconscious.


After hours of surgery the doctor came out to tell my wife that everything seemed to go well, however the head pediatrician want him life flighted to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT.


Meanwhile, my wife called me after they took him into surgery, about 1 AM, and filled me in on what had happened. I was scheduled to fly out the next morning, but not on the earliest flight. I called the airline and was placed on the 5 am flight and headed off the airport. That was the longest 4 hour flight I have even flown on.


He had fully recovered and except for the scar, you would never know how close we were to losing him. We continue to thank our Heavenly Father for miracles.

Life is precious

Wow. I guess my parents aren't bulletproof. Or at least that is the realization I am finally coming to. Does anyone every want to think about life without a parent, a child or a spouse? I sure don't. I can still remember my son in the hospital when he was 8 months old. You can see from the pictures how close we were to losing him.

Just yesterday I received a call from my mom informing me that my dad was in the hospital with what they thought were heart problems. It turns out that everything seemed to be fine, but the call brought back childhood memories when my dad was sick in bed and turning a bright shade of purple. It turns out he had been sick for about a week and refused to go to the doctor. When mom finally insisted, he found out he had had a heart attack (he still claims it was just a "chest pain" and not a heart attack). He had been acting tough for a week thinking it would go away. What a knucklehead. When I talked to him this morning he actually said, "I'm tired of going to the hospital and being told everything is fine. I'm not coming going in there anymore." I told him to bite his tongue and quit trying to act so tough.

Love you mom and dad. Quit being so tough and stick around a while will ya?

Basketball Irony

For anyone that knows me, the irony of a Wills coaching basketball is similar to a Clinton teaching an ethics class. It just doesn't seem right. However miracles never cease.

The JV Girl's Basketball team for Madison High School has for some reason has been stuck with me as their coach. Maybe it's the fact that I am such a skilled basketball technician? Or quite possibly that my wrestling skills come into play in girl's basketball? More than likely however, it is the fact that the Varsity coach is my sister-in-law and was desperate for a coach on her staff that actually worked at the high school. Thanks Traci.

Dispite my vastly underestimated technical skills in the game, my JV team has seemed to do well this past season and my new crop this summer are doing even better. We just spent the weekend in Pocatello, ID at a team tournament and went undefeated. It doesn't hurt to have 4 girls over 6 foot tall on a JV team. :)

The best thing about the experience is the types of girls we have... bright, fun, well mannered, but getting very competitive. At one point playing against Twin Falls, a conference rival, our team was winning 71-15 and the girls wanted very badly to run it up to 100. However, cooler heads prevailed and we ended the game up 90-16. However, one our guard didn't get the take it easy on them memo and threw up a last minute 3 pointer from 3/4 court which banked in and sent the bench into a frenzy. Obviously we had the win with class discussion later that day.

What a fun weekend. Thanks girls. I look forward to a great year.

Introduction

We are the branch of the Wills family in Rexburg, ID... Erick, Cami, Dani, Aubri, Connor, Braxton and Dawson.