Spring Soccer 2006

This year, James is once again coaching Roman and Hope's teams this year. Roman in on the purple Panthers team, and Hope is on the blue Dolphins. Roman's team has had a bit of a rough start with a low turnout at Meet the Coach Day and a rained out first practice, then being thrown into a game having never met each other, and some never having played soccer before, and put up against a team that has played together for 2 seasons now. They struggled with a 0-4 loss, but we see alot of potential with this team and look forward to really getting this season off right at Tuesday's practice. Hope's team, in contrast, is a mighty powerhouse! We had a great turn out of 11 out of 12 players at meet and greet, an amazing 1st practice that had parents from other teams stopping to gawk, and it all came together at their first game as they ran circles around the other team. The team overall is ready to move into team play and scoring practice which is almost unheard of for 3 & 4 year olds this early in the season! We look forward to a lot of fun with both teams!

Bethany on the Phone

Yesterday in the van, Bethany was playing with a toy phone and just blabbing on and on. She was overheard saying, "Hello ME, I'm talking to YOU!" LOL

Bethany's Arm

Wow was this a crazy saga. It's probably a good thing that I was too busy to update during the actual events! Here's the full, as short as possible, unabridged version:

On the morning of Friday, March 17th - St. Patrick's Day, James took the girls to the mall playground after seeing Roman off to school. They played there for awhile. (note: Bethany is very rambunctious, likes to jump off of things and tumble everywhere when at this playground). Afterwards they went to Strictly Soccer to pick up some things for the season which started the following day. Bethany is bad about running around this particular store and usually there's just us in there anyway, but with a major tournament that weekend the place was crowded, so James held her hand tightly so she wouldn't take off. Well, she jerked back to get away while he still had her hand and she immediately dropped the floor hysterical. He snatched her up and loaded the girls in the car as Bethany screamed the worse imaginable scream and he called me in a panick of what to do. They came by the office and I took a quick look at it and she screamed anytime you touched it and wouldn't use it at all. So that afternoon I took her to the pediatrician. I did call Kari in between and she diagnosed her as "Nurse Maid's Elbow" as Abby also has it. It is essentially a dislocated elbow. (in hindsite, guess we should'a just packed up and headed to Aunt Kari's!) Kari had told me what to do to fix it and I tried and it would not pop, not at all, so off to the ped's we went. Dr. Saunders thought the same as Kari but couldn't be 100% positive. She tried to pop it back in place and only got a small little pop and was unconvinced that was the problem or that that fixed the problem. We took her home for 40 minutes of evaluation and she fell asleep, so we let her nap as long as she needed. When she awoke she still wasn't using her left arm. I lifted it up and she again screamed, but this time it popped, and popped, and popped, 6 times at the wrist and elbow, so Barbara came over to watch the girls while James and I took Bethany to the ER. We believe it was dislocated at both the wrist and elbow, because after her wrist popped she began to move her fingers and bend at her wrist whereas before she was not. In the ER she was an absolute doll and everyone fell in love with her. The nurses kept bringing stuff by to try to get her to use that arm.... lights, tongue depressors, stuffed animals, even a popcicle. She wouldn't even attempt to use her left arm, not for all the temptation in the world. She called it her "boo-boo arm" and told everyone how Daddy held her hand and made her arm hurt. Talk about laying on the guilt! They took x-rays and we were finally told she had a hairline fracture just above her elbow and they put a splint cast on, with sling, and referred us to Dr. Kim, a pediactric orthopaedic specialist. Since it was nearing midnight by then, we had to wait until Monday morning to call. Bethany HATED the sling and quickly discovered how to remove it and hid it every time we turned around. A constant battle. She also learned to unravell the ace bandages holding the cast in place and on Monday I came home at lunch to find her napping with both ace bandages completely removed! Boy did that hurt her when mommy had to rewrap her arm up. I had also called Dr. Kim's office and scheduled her appointment for Wednesday morning... another 2 full days of this! We were completely frazzled and ready to beg him for a full hard cast by the time Wednesday arrived. So, we get there, the nurse unwraps her arm while the Doc looks over her xrays. He comes in, says, nope, it's not broken afterall, just... Nurse Maid's Elbow! He took 30 seconds moved her arm in the same manner everyone else had, only this time it worked and she was instantaneously cured! I mean high fiving, hugging, and shaking hands all the way out the door. Unbelievable!!

Hope blew a hole in the floor!

Tonight for some unknown reason Hope Elizabeth was battling some major MAJOR gas. I've never seen a child fart so much in my life. At one point she farted so loud she had my guys cracking up and James says, "Hopey, I think you just blew a hole in the floor." Poor Hope got this momentary panick look on her face and quickly lifted up to peak under her just to make sure that floor was still there!

Trettel Family Update

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I last posted. That should at least give some testimony to just how insanely busy we've been here. Over all everything is going well. I personally have been stressed and exhausted which is probably the biggest reason why I haven't posted much lately. School, work, kids, just everything snowballing at once. Bethany has been very trying and bring both James and I to the brink of our very last nerve frequently these days. She is worse than a young puppy and chews up EVERYTHING. This is nothing that child won't eat, rip, tear, shred, or chew and spit back out. We are having to re-examine the house for baby proofing and are running out of space to move things up higher and higher on shelves and in cabinets. She is testing every ounce of our patience and it has just been a very tiring battle. The child also doesn't go to sleep anymore without a long, drawn out battle of wills. Just last night she was up till midnight fighting us tooth and nail. Any "normal" kid would have slept in late after that battle, but not B, she was up at 7 ready to go, and grumpy as all get-out all morning long. We didn't battle the "terrible 2's" with Roman or Hope where age 3 seemed to be the hardest, but even that was NOWHERE near as difficult as Bethany at 2! Hope is doing fantastic! We couldn't be more proud of her. She is learning so many new things, writing, drawing, talking up a storm with near 100% clarity now. Literally overnight this child has blossomed and we are doing our best to nurture it. James has started a preschool homeschooling study program for her and Bethany and Hope is just thriving with it. Roman too is doing great! He lost his 5th tooth last month, the never ending tooth that remained wiggly and creating a huge gap in his mouth over the course of an entire month! It FINALLY came out and now he is a snaggle-tooth and cute as a button. His 2nd 9-week report card came back. He did slightly better than last month making straight E's in everything but art and music (which we're convinced only hands out S's). For the most part he is still loving school, though a lot of the excitment of it seems to be wearing off. Guess after day 100 it's all downhill, huh? LOL Everyone is gearing up for soccer season which begins in 2 weeks. James is very excited to be coaching both Roman and Hope's teams again this season.

Like I said at the start of this, life is just busy right now, but we're all doing just fine! :)

Visiting "The Dead People Place"

On the way home from Emily's birthday party today we swung through Leesburg. We haven't been up there in much too long. For those of you who don't know James and I lost our first born. Taylor Marie was stillborn in June of '98. Then between Roman and Hope we lost 2 more little babies to m/c, one of which was confirmed to be a baby girl. Today we stopped by the cemetary to visit Taylor's grave. The kids were interested and this time Roman, of course, asked many questions that James and I answered as honestly as we could. We have mentioned to him in the past that he is not truly the "oldest" as Taylor would have been 18 months older than him, but he never really "got it". James and I were saddened to see so many new graves near our little Taylor. Hers used to stand out as it more or less stood all alone and is now surrounded by many other little babies sent straight to heaven. In explaining who Taylor was to Roman he just sort of soaked it all in. He asked if he had anymore sisters he didn't know about, and James and I both looked at each other before saying "yes". He wanted to know their names and we told him about Isabel who we lost in the second trimester, and that there had been one other that died so young we didn't have a chance to name her (it was an early m/c), so he decided we would just name her "Angel", before taking in a head count and realizing he really has 5 sisters! Then as we were getting back in the truck he says in the saddest little voice, "I miss my big sister. I'm sorry she died and wish I could know her and play with her. I miss all 3 of my other sisters." It was hard not to bust out crying right then and there, but James and I both just smiled and told him how much we missed them too, especially Taylor, and also wished she could be there. It was a very beautiful moment that I will never forget.

True to form with my kids though, the reverence of the moment did not last long. Shortly after that Roman was on the phone with G-ma and so innocently says, "Hey G-ma, we went to the dead people place to visit my big sister. Did you know I have FIVE sisters?" The innocence, the excitment and tone of his voice, and his chosen words for 'cemetary' had James and I laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants!

H-o-p-e

In the car today James was being silly and singing a little Hopey jingle to the tune of Bingo:

H O P E Y
H O P E Y
H O P E Y
and Hopey was her name-o

And Hope tells me through gritted teeth, "He's saying it all wrong, that's just not right! My name is H-o-p-e, there's no Y, he's just saying it all wrong and making me so mad!"