15 Random Facts about Phats

It was interesting to see in the comments a few posts ago that you liked learning something new about me, so here is another! I am not big of sharing too much of my private life, but i'll give ya this. Some of you might already know some of these but coming up with this many wasn't easy. :) Bekah I will be interested to know if any of these things are new to you since I have known you pretty much all my life. These are in no particular order by the way.

1- I am a diehard Purdue fan. OK OK I know that most of you know this, however I am not sure if you know to what extent. For example I plan my entire social calendar around Purdue football/basketball. It drives my family and sometimes my friends nuts but what can I do I am a diehard Boilermaker fan!

2- I am WAY too competitive. I absolutely hate losing, it's the worst feeling in the world to me. When Purdue loses my family and friends know to leave me alone for a few hours haha. However not just talking sports, I am just as bad with board & card games. You can ask Bekah about Dutch Blitz games at game night and how competitive it gets. When Nutz and I get together for Dutch Blitz people worry elbows might start to flying!

3- I am addicted to TV but especially reality television. I love watching TV I don't really care if I watch it too much or what people say. Favorite show right now is definitely Glee and we are very excited for the post super bowl episode here coming up. However, I love reality tv. I will pretty much watch anything reality with probably the only exception being The Bachelor. My favorites are American Idol, Amazing Race, Top Chef, and Big Brother. I used to love survivor but I haven't watched it for 2 straight seasons and after hearing about this season I won't be watching it either.

4- I love to read. I have been a bookworm for as long as I can remember, which is odd after reading the fact above! I love all kinds of books but mostly murder mystery types. Some of my favorite authors are James Patterson, Stephen King, Iris Johansen, Tammy Hoag, Mary Jane Clark, Suzanne Collins and Lisa Gardner. Currently reading a James Patterson book. Right now my all time favorite book is a series called The Hunger Games. If you haven't read this you need to, I absolutely promise you, you will LOVE all three of them. The Long Walk, and Penrod are both right up there as favorites as well.

5- I am deathly deathly afraid of snakes! I have always had this fear, and I know it's common but man they scare the living shit out of me. I also have an odd fear of fish, I believe it goes back to being stung by a jellyfish when I was a little kid. Not sure maybe some of you do as well, but I have a fear of dying.

6- I cuss WAY too much. I am not sure why but I have always been a potty mouth not sure where it comes from. I have tried in the past to stop, and it doesn't usually last long, I have to remember at times when at work not to cuss. I have wanted to stop saying "fuck" and "Jesus Christ" so much, but so far not so good.

7- I consider myself preppy/metro. It takes me an hour or longer to get ready for work in the morning. What can I say I like to look my best. I will not leave our house unless I am shaved, showered, and dressed that includes just going to get the mail or the newspaper. I am not sure where this comes from, but it's something people have to deal with. I also use more hair product than Kristen ha.

8- My favorite vacation to go on is Disney World. I know this might be surprising to people, but I love the happiest place on earth!! I have been there 23 times, and our 24th trip is planned for August. My family is Disney fanatics for sure, and I think people that say it's only for kids, or don't like it haven't done Disney the right way. I have been as a kid, with kids, and without kids and everytime I have had a BLAST! My favorite trip was when I was in 6th grade for spring break my mom, her friend, her daughter, and I headed out on our very first trip, and it was the most fun I have EVER had. Keep in mind we needed a vacation I had just had my transplant that Nov. It's crazy thinking how nuts we were driving 20 hrs with me on almost 20 meds, but what a great time.

9- I am kind of bilingual. I can speak Spanish for the most part fluently, oddly enough though I can't write it very well does that even make sense? I took a LOT of Spanish in college more than I had to, and I even had an adviser trying to talk me into making it my major but I passed on that. I felt like Spanish would be something valuable as I got older, and if I decided to move to Florida which I had talked about. The best part I can watch the Spanish channel and understand everything they're saying the other night I watched a talk show it was awesome!!

10- I have been a HS Girls and Middle School tennis coach for almost 10 years. I was very nervous when I first started coaching, but now I feel like I have settled in nicely. I do the MS job but I am not a big fan of it, it is nice to basically script my feeder system how I want it, but man Jr High kids can be hard to work with. I absolutely love coaching the girls team. I am going to brag a bit, when I first took over the program they had never had a winning season, and they didn't really even care when they lost. Right now my current group of Seniors are set to graduate with more wins than any other class, and be the first 4 year class to never have a losing season. They are still the only group in school history(boys or girls) to win a sectional title. I saw it with this group in Jr High they were motivated and they wanted it BAD. I am looking forward to this season, and sending this Senior class out with style.

11- Absolutely LOVE dogs! I think bar none they are the best pets in the world and you can't beat a dog. I hate cats(sorry bek) I think they are sneaky, and most aren't friendly. Whereas a dog you get home they are waiting for you, waiting to love on you and just be with you after a long or bad day you can't beat that! I have grown up all my life with dogs, my grandparents ALWAYS had dogs. When I was really young they had a st bernard and an Alaskan malamute that lived outside, and a miniature schnauzer that lived inside. My sister and I were the only grandkids NOT scared of the malamute, infact we would often play out back with them, and read books to them! When they had to put them down they transitioned into golden retrievers who I fell in love with the minute they got adopted my grandparents I just love dogs they are definitely the best, sorry cat people.

12- I am proud of the fact that I can still tumble! I can do my backhandspring easily, tucks scare me more the older I get and will only do them on mats or the grass, and the other day just to prove I could I threw a full. I am 33 and can still tumble, that's pretty cool! Of course my tennis team, my friends, and when i go to my nephews birthday party I am often treated like a circus freak asking me to tumble.

13- I have NO idea how to cook anything that doesn't go in a microwave or a toaster. It's odd I am incredibly cheap, but we probably eat out or do take out/fast food 6 nights if not 7 a week. Bad I know, but I am too lazy to learn, and Bekah keeps saying she'll teach me but I haven't gotten a lesson! The only thing I remember making in mandatory home ec in MS was that gross California Blend crap. I could probably make cookies too.

14- I love Roller Coasters! That's one of my favorite things to do in the summer is to go to Kings Island, or Cedar Point. Luckily I live relatively close to both although Cedar Point is still a decent trip. I got my love for these at an early age, and I can't kick it :) My favorite is Diamondback or the Beast both at Kings Island, if you like Coasters check em out if you ever get to the Cincinnati area it's worth it!

15- I am addicted to Coke.... acola :) Had there eh? I drink soda like it's going out of style and it doesn't really matter what brand. Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, Mt Dew, Dr Pepper, Mr Pibb you name it I drink it. I usually start my morning with a jumbo sized Vanilla Coke to wake me up. Those are the best by the way when you get a Vanilla Coke from the fountain nothing better! Our town has the best little place to get flavored drinks too called Lexie's Drink Barn that is a daily, sometimes multiple stop for me. I know it's bad for me, but I don't really care :) I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs so I feel one indulgence is OK.


Well there ya go, now you know a little more about me, maybe you already knew if so sorry haha :)

A day I will remember

WOW!
Exhausted, lost my voice, and yet it was one of the most amazing days ever! Let me recap my Saturday for you all. The day started at 5:15am when I rolled out of bed(literally) to get ready for the day to meet up with my friends who I was going with at 6am. After heading out we stopped for a nice sit down breakfast at the CB otherwise known as Cracker Barrel in Lafayette for before our final stop at the mecca, AKA Heaven Mackey Arena. We got there around 7:30 they were letting the students in who had been camping out since 6am at 7:45 and general public at 8. Once inside it was absolutely crazy as an estimated 6000 Purdue fans Boilered Up for College Game Day hosted by Rece Davis, Digger Phelps, Jay Bilas, and Hubert Davis. Once inside before the show started a guy briefed the crowd and what to expect and what will happen yadda yadda yadda, and then Mr Phelps made his appearance to a LOUD chorus of boos. See Digger Phelps is not well liked in West Lafayette as he was once the head coach of Notre Dame. When Purdue tried to get a series going he went public stating "Notre Dame needs to play teams on a national level" and then said "There are no roads that lead from South Bend to West Lafayette" I have to say he was a good sport and took the boos, and believe me they got louder when he tried to lead us in some cheers before the cameras came on. He tried to get everyone to do the Fire Up cheer, he meant Boiler Up

Oddly enough by the end of the show when he was dancing(more on that in a bit) he had won quite a few Boilers over including yours truly. Game day ended with all four analysts picking Purdue to beat Michigan State which resulted in a loud eruption. It was later quoted in local papers, and on the news by Rece Davis he said that Purdue had the best atmosphere of any college game days they had done for basketball. Pretty high compliment. So, Gameday ended at 12, and after hanging back for awhile before being kicked out we discussed what to do as the game didn't start til 9pm. We thought about sledding at Slayter but realized we're old and might get hurt, thought about heading to Harry's but figured it would be packed. Since I only live an hour from mackey we chose to head to my place of course stopping at Arnies on the way home for the pizza and salads ever.

Headed back to Mackey at 6, and let me tell you, you knew it was going to be a special night when the atmosphere was that electric on campus at 7pm for a 9pm game. Once game time finally rolled around it was so amazing in Mackey that I was getting goosebumps, and eventually the game started. After a back and forth game it happened the Boilers went on a run to close the first half to put them up by double digits sending 14,123 people into hysteria especially the student section AKA The Paint Crew

Although Michigan State made one run to cut it to6 late in the 2nd half Kelsey Barlow drove coast to coast and did a one hand dunk on a defender at this point it was so loud I thought the roof might come off, and the Boilers went on to win by 10. I have been going to Purdue basketball games since I was a little kid, I have seen it all and last night was the loudest I have ever heard it in Mackey, and that includes the heyday of Gene Keady vs Bob Knight and iu games. I am so glad I went and go to experience this awesome day. I got home around 1am so I was up from 6am Sat to 1am Sunday. Now it's on to a HUGE challenge as we travel to Ohio State to take on the #1 Buckeyes and their Baby Huey Freshman. Go Boilers! Below are some Videos of the gameday experience, I DID NOT take the videos as my camera is not a video phone. Enjoy!

So it begins, this was how both hours of game day started. The two cheerleaders waiting to tumble are my friends Caitlin and Duane! Whose House... OUR HOUSE!


getting up at 5am was worth it to see this spectacle. Rece Davis' face at the 4sec mark is HILARIOUS


Pretty much all of it wrapped up into one nice present for you

Mackey Arena will be ROCKING

UPDATE- it's 1:33 am and I am just getting home from Purdue and a day that started at 530 AM. I am totally exhausted but this has been one of the greatest days EVER. College Game Day was AMAZING the Boilers totally represented Rece Davis of ESPN called Mackey the best atmosphere of all the places they have been. Then there was the game holy crap it was so loud you couldn't hear yourself think, I haven't heard it that loud in a LONG time if ever. But the final cherry on top the Boilers won!!! Leading for pretty much 30 mins of the game. I have no voice, I am dogtired, but man I am happy. BOILER UP!


Hey kids
First off before I get into the topic for today's blog, wanted to thank all of you for the kind comments on my previous post. I really went back and forth on whether or not I should post it, as many of you know I am pretty private and wasn't sure. However, I am very glad I did, and if it helped raise awareness or even changed 1 person's mind to become a donor then I am really glad I posted it. If you have no clue what I am talking about scroll down and read my previous post :)

Alright now lets get to the topic at hand. I feel like lately I have been VERY good at staying away from sports posts, however tonight I have to because a very special occasion is taking place Saturday at Purdue. That's right College Gameday makes their way to Mackey Arena to spotlight our Boilers as they take on the Michigan State Spartans. For those that don't know, College Gameday started out a college football tradition where they would pick a game to spotlight go on campus start broadcasting early in the morning and do special features. Well, they chose to start doing it with basketball and now the Boilers will make their first appearance. While I am totally a homer when it comes to this, Mackey Arena when it's rocking and rolling is truly the loudest arena in the country. If you don't believe me most commentators agree with me as well as opposing coaches, even in down year's it's one of the toughest venues to play in, and when the Boilers are rolling it's LOUD. At times when the place is going so crazy you can barely hear yourself think, and when IU comes to town no matter what records are forget about it. Adding to the madness is the one of the country's best students sections in the Paint Crew. They will be in full force when Gameday does their first live spot bright and early Saturday morning, they are being let in to Mackey at 7:30am. This is one of the pre-approved campout games for the Paint Crew as well, if it were up to them every game would be a campout where they put up tents and wait to get the best seats, unfortunately living in Indiana in the winter where tomorrow our windchill is suppose to be negative 15 that's not always wise.

So, look for me I am heading over with some friends BRIGHT and early and I am going to get on gameday. Here is the schedule if you want to follow along
Live hits by the gameday crew will start on the 9am Sports Center on ESPN
10 AM ESPNU takes over for an hour of coverage
11 AM ESPN takes over for their hour of coverage
8 PM ESPN for another hour
9PM ESPN GAME TIME BABY!

Should be an amazing night, and hopefully end with an amazing win! It will be nice to see Digger Phelps FINALLY make his way to Mackey Arena, when he was coaching at Notre Dame he once said there are no roads from South Bend to West Lafayette because he was scared to play us. Welcome to Mackey Digger prepare to hear it from Boiler faithful. One thing I know for sure this place

WILL BE ROCKING! BOILER UP!

Are you an organ donor?

Took a little bit of a blog layoff but I am back. I have decided to get a little personal which is a change for me but thought i'd switch it up, and talk about a topic that is near and dear to my heart, organ donation. When it comes to this topic I sort of feel like I am an expert, after turning in probably close to 40 papers from Junior High, High School, and College, and spending 2 summers as a guest lecture for the National Kidney Foundation on the subject I sort of feel like I know my stuff. There is a reason this topic is so personal for me, and I thought i'd share that with you. Some of you already know as I do believe I might have blogged this before, one of you Miss Bekah knows because I know you in person and you know all about this. Anyway, if nothing else I hope this story will inspire you to become an organ donor if nothing else.

Rewind a bit, well ok alot, back in the 5th grade is when this entire story starts as my parents were called by the elementary school nurse because she was concerned I had something wrong with my foot because it appeared to her I was limping. Head to the doctor to get it checked, and while there my parents wanted to check and see some other things including why I was still the size I was(I was very small at the time, for those that don't know I am still rather short), After alot of blood work, x-rays, and other various tests we headed home and had barely even gotten in the door when the phone was ringing and it was our family doctor. He told us he had found some interesting things and wanted us to go to Riley Children's Hospital immediately meaning THAT DAY. Talk about whirlwind it was a crazy time that is for sure. After several tests at Riley they were ready to diagnose me, as I was diagnosed with kidney failure and needed to have a kidney transplant. I was extremely lucky for a lot of reasons, one we caught it early, two they were able to regulate it through medication until it was time to do the transplant rather than having me go on dialysis. However, the biggest blessing of all my entire family were tested to see if any were matches and like God was watching over me all three of my immediate family members were not only matches but all were considered perfect matches. It was pretty easy decision on who we were going to go with, my sister was a Senior in high school and was only going to be the donor if needed, my mom is not that great with doctors or hospitals, so it was my father. After 6 months of frequent visits to downtown Indy and Riley hospital for blood work, transfusions, and tests it was finally time for the actual transplant.

When it came time for the actual transplant we checked in the week of Thanksgiving, and the transplant itself was the night before Thanksgiving in 1989. My Thanksgiving dinner that year consisted of ice chips as that was all I was allowed to have. I don't remember too much of the pre surgery stuff, and some of it wasn't pleasant that I do remember. I had to have an IV put into my clavicle which turned out to be a great thing because they were able to draw blood from it rather than having to stick me every day, but getting it put it in was pretty painful. The morning of the surgery I remember being woken up early and given morphine(which I was grateful for) very very early, and my entire family being there. The song playing in my operating room was Aint nothing gonna break my stride, yes I am not kidding haha, but other than that don't remember much else. I remember after the surgery in recovery sitting up just minutes after surgery and asking about my dad with everyone looking at me in shock that I could sit up since my kidney was now close to my stomach area that had just been operated on. After that it was a month of recovery in the hospital which for the most part went really smooth with the exception of one night where I spiked a very high temperature. It took cooling mats, and meds before it finally came down and all was well again. I was released about a week before Christmas which put me in a fantastic mood nobody wants to be in the hospital on Christmas! I was released on a few conditions I had to be able to tell my transplant coordinator what all my meds were, when I took them, how much dosage, and what they were for. When I was released I was on 15 medications including one that was a liquid that I took through a syringe orally, and I swear to God it tasted like what I imagine oil tastes like disgusting. Thankfully that med came out with a pill, and now I am not even on it anymore.

So, it's been 21 years since I had the kidney transplant and to this day I am still going strong as ever. If you saw me you would never know that I had a major surgery when I was a kid. My scar is pretty cool unfortunately where it's located I can't exactly show people. I still have to go for check ups, but they are less frequent. When I was first discharged I had to go back twice a week for blood work, once stabile that went to once a week, then every other week, then a month, and finally to where I am at now where I go for blood work every three months thanfully I have never had a problem with needles. One of the nice things that's been done is I am allowed to get my blood work done here in town and they fax it to my doctor so I dont have to drive an hour just for blood work. I have to see my doctor once a year and I just went this month and got the all clear everything looks good which is always a big sigh of relief even after 21 years! I do find it funny that about 10 years ago I had to switch doctors from the ones that actually did the transplant because they had both retired. I have since found a great doctor who I have now followed to three different hospitals. Hoping he stays where he is now since it's only 50 mins away. I have very few restrictions, contact sports like football were out because my kidney is now located in the front of my body and has little to no protection. They didn't take out my other kidneys over time they basically kept shrinking til they were no longer there. My diet has a couple of restrictions but nothing too major, and obviously due to all the medications I am on I am not allowed to drink alcohol which is probably a blessing in disguise. Other than that I lead a pretty normal life.

As you can see I was very very fortunate to have my whole family be matches, but I can tell you from meeting other patients, and hearing their stories not all are like me. Some patients have to wait for years to get an organ, and being put on the organ donor list is not a fun thing because you have no idea when or if you will receive your organ. That's where you come in! When they say becoming an organ donor can save a life they aren't lying, but you have to take some steps to make sure your organs are donated.
1- Next time you renew your license make sure you tell them you would like to become an organ donor, here in Indiana when you let them know a red heart is put on your driver license.

2- Register with your state donor registry, pretty much each state has these and it's easy to do!

3- Sign a donor card, if you have already renewed your license carry this with you until it's time to renew again.

4- Most importantly let your family know of your decision. So when the time comes they can be your advocate for donating your organs.

Hopefully I didn't get too preachy, and you enjoyed reading about my experience. As always feel free to ask any questions, either in the comments or at phats_blog_email@yahoo.com feel free to ask if you have any questions regarding organ donation as well. Not sure if I really did this story justice, but if I would have written the entire experience it would have been long, and it's already really long now.

Hopefully you all aren't buried under snow like we are but if you are remember to drive safe!
Phats

What I did over my Christmas break.. for starters survived an earthquake

Hey Kids
Well, I am back on the clock tomorrow, and this might sound odd but I am actually looking forward to it. I am one of these people that without work I tend to get really bored so I am ready to go back and face the daily grind, but before I head back thought i'd share how I spent my Christmas break. Lets start with the major craziness.

A few days ago we were awoken, yours truly out of a sound sleep, to one of the loudest crashes I have ever heard. I am not going to lie, and I think partly it was because I was so soundly sleeping, but I screamed like a little girl. Having no idea what it was it sure sounded like a truck had crashed right into our house. So, I got up a little nervous as to what I might find checked outside and nothing not a thing. Starting to worry about my mental health I questioned whether or not I dreamed this. We turned the radio on and after 1 song finally got our answer as the DJ broke in to say "We would like to inform the people of Howard County to please stop calling 911 reporting the loud thud you heard, we have experienced an earthquake!" OK heart pumping noway I could go back to bed we turned on tv and it started to explode all over the news. Part of the reason it was so loud was the epicenter was like right down the road from where we live in good old Greentown. At first they said it was a 4.2 but later downgraded it to a 3.8 doesn't really matter still scared the living shit out of me. Thankfully no damage, just one picture that had fallen off our wall, but that didn't stop all the local news teams from invading our quiet sleepy hollow. It was cool to be the epicenter, but i'd rather not experience that again. First we have to worry about tornadoes, and now earthquakes!?

Lets rewind even farther, Christmas with the family was great besides the lack of sleep. My sister has three kids and none of them would go to bed with the anticipation of Santa coming so alot of hands of Dutch Blitz, and a new game called Wizard were played while waiting for them to finally fall asleep. It was great watching them tear open their presents the next day with some of the highlights being their football player figures, roller skates(old school not blades) and a pop-a-shot which I definitely wanted to play! As for the adults we all had a good Christmas as well, I got some nice fancy new clothes from all my favorite stores, some new Purdue swag, 10 books(trying to pick which to read first is hard!) lots of DVD's I like to collect TV series on DVD, and some nice new cologne. Overall very successful, and happy Christmas. The best gift all our snow has melted and it's going to be a few days before more comes YAY!! Thanks mother nature keep it up.

New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful here for starters not a big fan of the holiday because it seems like bad things always happen to our family on this day but I won't get into that. This year not the case it might have been one of my favorite new year's eves. The day started at Mackey Arena watching the Nationally ranked Purdue Mens Basketball team CLOBBER Northwestern. 1 of our 2 All American candidates went off for 31 points including 7 threes! It was great, and amazing atmosphere considering the students are still on break. Boilers are now 13-1 2-0(Big Ten) as they take a few days off before traveling to Penn State Wednesday. After that headed home, watched movies we got the Scream Triology for Christmas, and then I was literally reading a book when the countdown started to midnight and almost missed it. Never fear rang in 2011 with a nice kiss!

Hopefully you all had a great holiday, and here is to an amazing 2011 this blog would suck without all of you :)

So what was your favorite present this year?
Phats