Ten Things I Love about You!

Mclayne turned 10 last week!!! TEN YEARS OLD!!!! An entire decade!!!! I can't even believe it. So in honor of his tenth birthday I am going to tell you 10 things I LOVE about him!

1. He cracks me up ALL the time, he is very witty for his age.

2. For a 10 year old he does what he is asked most of the time.

3. He teaches me how to be better.

4. He always wants to help.

5. He is respectful to adults.

6. He is nice to his friends.

7. He loves his family, especially his cousins.

8. His wild hair ;)

9. I love that he loves football.

10. I love that he bears his testimony almost every month.

Sorry this is late buddy, Happy Birthday. I love you very much and I am very very proud of what a fine young man you are becoming. Your dad and I hope to be the parents you deserve. Love, Mom

For the Love of the Game

I love love love football. I don't ever remember a time in my life that I didn't love football. I remember going to my brothers' games and to their practices when I was 3!

I was a cheerleader :) at 3 of course. They taught me "rah rah ree, kick em in the knee, rah rah rass, kick em in the other knee" I think I had little pom poms and I LOVED it! I remember taking boys home after practice and the pads and the helmets and the dirty white pants, and I always loved it.

When I was 6 I discovered the NFL and I became a die hard Bears fan. They went to the Super Bowl that year. You remember, the Super Bowl Shuffle with Jim McMahon, and Walter Payton, (which is why we almost named Mclayne, Payton) the Fridge. You remember I know you do.

I remember watching Sunday afternoon football in our basement with my dad,the fire blazing and falling asleep on the couch.

As a young teen I went to my first BYU Football game and decided that was where it was at. (I have since learned it is NOT where it is at) But what Mormon girl in the 90's was not sure that they would marry Steve Young?

Now I have a 2 sons and a husband who love it too!! As much as I do? I'm not sure. But we all love it, we all have "our" teams, Chris is a Dolphins fan, Mclayne has been a Steelers fan as long as I can remember, and Chandler is a Dolphins, Steelers, and whom ever is playing the Patriots. (That's my boy)

I'm even on a Fantasy football league with 8 other men and only 1 other woman.

This is my favorite time of year, I think that on Friday night around 7 p.m. there is an actual smell in the air and it is the smell of high school football.

Here is where the problem lies, I HATE it!!!! I hate the stress the drama, the obnoxious parents who think THEIR kid is a rock star, and should therefore play all 11 positions at once. Yes I am now referring to Little League football. It is a total love hate relationship for me. I love football so much and I can't wait for it to be August every year, but honestly little league is taking the love out of it for me.

This is Chris's second year being an assistant coach and there is so much drama involved. I go to practice pretty much every night, not because I have to but because I am stuck home all day and it is an "out" for me to go hang out at the park, sit in my lawn chair, eat sunflower seeds, and just hang with some of the other parents. I say some because I don't sit with the "group" of parents I sit on the other end of the field where I don't have to hear parents criticize the coaching staff or the kids, or brag about how great their kid is. We all think our kids are rock stars, and they are!! But not all of them are going to the QB, a running back, wide receiver, or even the center. There are 22 positions that must be played at every football game and there are only a select few that are "rock star" positions. Every kid has a job to do and every kid has to do their job or nothing gets done.

So instead of trying to get your kid to be a rock star, teach them about personal responsibility for their position, and how to do their very best at where ever the coaches feel that they will reach their full potential. I can tell anyone from personal experience that some coaches are pieces of crap and have no business coaching little kids, and I can also tell you that there are some great guys out there, who may not know EVERYTHING there is to know about coaching or football, but they truly just want the boys on their team to have a positive learning experience.

I will get off my soapbox for today, however, I'm sure there will be more football posts to come.

note* we played our first game on Saturday and we got our butt's kicked, but none of the coaches freaked out, none of the parents freaked out, and the boys said they had fun. Isn't that what it SHOULD be about?

This is what it looks like.

I was able to get a little video of Mclaynes eye "twitching" hopefully the dr can tell more from this. Don't mind the "tribal council" going on in the background. We were watching Survivor:)

Seizures

Two years ago next month Mclayne started having seizures. They are not the typical seizure. His mouth goes numb, and then the right side of his face twitches for 10-15 seconds and he drools and then slowly the sensation returns and he is able to talk again. The entire time this "episode" occurs he is conscious he can let me know he is having one he can stand, walk, respond to questions and we have been carefully documenting each one.

In June of 2007 he had a CAT Scan and MRI and an EEG. The neurologist at Primary Children's diagnosed him with Epileptic Simple Partial Seizure disorder. So these "episodes" occur every 4-6 months and he will have 4-6 over a week and then he will go 4-6 months without having any more.

Last week he was talking to me and his right eye was blinking really fast while his left eye remained normal. I called the neurologist at Primary's to find out what he thought we should do. In the meantime I did some research and they possibilities I discovered were Simple Partial Seizures (weird) or Tourettes Syndrome.

The Dr called me back on Monday and they wanted to see him immediately. So Mclayne and I spent the afternoon at Primary's on Tuesday. He had a sleep deprived EEG, and then we met with the dr who told us that this new EEG looked better than the last one and he is pretty sure it is a seizure thing and not Tourettes because he can't replicate the motion and usually tics can be replicated.

I realize this post is really long and your retinas are bleeding but I really wanted to document this stuff for posterity of course.

The dr is ok with him playing football which made Mclayne really happy (and me too).

Mclayne is such a good kid and I really enjoyed spending the afternoon with him. He is really funny (I wonder where he gets that? ) and I am so so grateful that the Dr had good news for us in the sense that things are looking better instead of worse.

Next trip to Primary's is scheduled for June when Chandler will get his yearly EKG.