scary answering machine messages...

on Tuesday July 24th I went to Austin for a baby shower for Angela and as I pulled on the driveway I could tell that Michael wasn't home...which is a little irritating, since he should've been home from his softball game already. When I opened the door, I discovered his worn clothes strewn about the entrance and confirmed that he was not home (my irritation level has gone up a few notches by this time). So, I put down my purse and go to the answering machine...which is dutifully blinking red to let me know that there's a message. I push play and hear this message, "This is Jacelyn, Michael's coach's wife. Michael got hit in the face with a ball" (at this point my stomach does something funny and I suck in my breath)...the voice continues, "but don't worry, it's ok, he's conscious. We're taking him to the dentist to get him stitched up, call me on my cell." Needless to say, all feelings of irritation have disappeared and been replaced by great concern. I called and found out that they were in the process of stitching him up and he should be home soon, I didn't need to bother coming down. So I waited and waited, it took almost two hours. When Michael got home he explained that it was because the dentist was such a clown (as in funny) that all the laughing amongst everyone made the stitching take a little longer than normal. The dentist even cleaned up the nasty scrape on his leg from sliding for a base while they waited for the freezing to kick in.

For all my nurse friends, I'll now go into more details of the wound, if you don't want to read this paragraph, skip it. Apparently Michael was going for a low grounder (hit by a very big & beefy man) that must have caught some kind of edge and bounced unexpectedly high, catching Michael in the mouth. His tooth punched right through him bottom lip, Michael told me he had to pull his lip off the tooth. He also had a half inch deep gash in his upper lip. We don't know exactly how many stitches there were, a few in the top lip, a few in the bottom and one on the outside. The craziest part is that Michael didn't have time to eat supper that day, so he was really hungry and now he couldn't eat! He could actually barely drink either, but he managed to get down a smoothie.

The dentist told Michael to talk as little as possible for the next 24 hours. Well, that's not exactly easy considering what he does for a living (he talks on the phone all day as a dispatcher). The trouble was that his boss was out of town, so Michael had to go to work or there would be no one there. So, I went with him! I got to be Michael for a day! It was pretty interesting explaining to people what happened and repeating everything they said to me on the phone, so Michael could tell me what to say out of one side of his face, and then I would say it into the phone. I have to say it was nice to see what he really does though.

The pictures show the progression of his injury from the night it happened, the day I went to work with him when it got really swollen and the day after that when it started to come down again. He looked totally normal by Sunday, and has been kissing me again since two weeks after the injury. :)

bc in july

ok, so our trip to BC was a whirlwind of visiting with people. Thanks to all of you who took the time to see us, it was great! We really appreciated the warm welcome we got from many of you! Unfortunately I don't have that many pictures as proof, but here's a few courtesy of Sylvia, from one of the picnics we had (thanks Syl).



Another highlight for us was Coldstone's! We made the trip down to Bellingham on Wednesday, which was the hottest day we had while we were there, (it was apparently a balmy 38 degrees celsius) in a car that doesn't have air conditioning (affectionately nick-named "the donkey"). Boy did that ice cream taste good when we got there! Mmmmm-mmm.

weekend in courtenay...

Ok, so we had a long day of travelling to get from Winnipeg to Courtenay, BC (that's on the island, for those of you who aren't sure, and it's about half way up the inland coast of the island). My Dad informed us at the airport that he had booked a marine tour for the next day at 8am, gulp! We arrived in Courtenay totally exhausted, having spent nearly 24 hours travelling by plane, car, & ferry, but were greeted by very friendly B&B hosts, and a beautiful place to stay. It's called the Baywood House, and we highly recommend it! In the backyard, which faces the bay, there's a beautiful garden patio with a fire pit, too bad I don't have a picture of that.

The collage of pictures is the suite that Michael and I had to ourselves, gorgeous isn't it? Anxious to get some rest and be ready to enjoy the boat ride, we crashed pretty much right away. The boat tour was a ton of fun, the guide was a great story teller. We got to see lots of wildlife: sea lions, seals, bald eagles, seagulls (does that even count?), and hold an octopus! The guide had prawn traps that we got to pull up and keep the catch from (that's where we found the octopus). So, he showed us how to take off their shells, and then promptly popped the fresh meat in his mouth. So, Michael and I sampled that as well. It has a pretty sweet mild flavor, it's the really really slimy texture that requires some blocking out to avoid the gag reflex kicking in.

The rather ugly looking teal green fish in the middle is a link cod, which was unfortunately just a little bit too short to keep, but it was fun to watch the guys catch it! The lighthouse is one that is actually still manned by real people who live there all the time, which is less & less common these days apparently.

If you're wondering why we went to Courtenay it was for my cousin Luke's wedding. It was a great weekend relaxing, and helping out with last minute details, since nearly everyone was from out of town.

If you look closely at the bottom right of the picture below, you'll notice the corner of a white blanket. This was one of the last minute details that I took care of. Heather wanted a white blanket for the flower girl to sit on so she wouldn't dirty her dress (not that it helped, the flower girl was sitting on the edge of it and digging in the dirt during the ceremony!). Anyway, I went to Walmart in search of a plain white baby blanket, but there was no such thing. So, I checked to see if they had white fleece and they did, so I bought a metre, and borrowed the scissors from the lady who cut it to cut a fringe into the edges, and then we tied the fringes into knots, viola! a blanket!