Had to post these cute pictures before I went off to bed. I will write more about the holiday tomorrow. Hope everyone had a great one!
Well last night was the championship game for Mychaels football team and they WON!! The boys were so fired up during the game it was comical. The coaches were just as fired up which is sometimes even more comical. It was a really close game and it came down to the very end with all of us on the sidelines stressed out to the max but they pulled it off and won! Even his coach said that he had only expected the kids to win one or two games because they were the team in the league that had never played before and they were the youngest therefore the smallest team out there, Like he said though they have heart and always tried their hardest. I am so proud of Mychael. He played one of his best games last night. He has decided that it is all about football and no other sport lol. We tried to explain that he can do it all but football is all he wants. :) We will have to see. His coach wants them to do wrestling (yeah cause my heart really needs that!) so I guess we will see. Here are some of the pictures from last night and also his official football pictures.
Well Georges funeral was Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday Kristan came over and spent the day. I was supposed to go over there but she didn't really want to hang out at her house which is understandable so she came here. We got to spend all day and part of the evening together. It was good to be with her all day and talk. We talked about everything. She is doing about as good as you can do in that situation. Tuesday was the viewing. We got to see a lot of people from MedStar that we haven't in years! Most we were really excited to see (Scooter if you are keeping up with this blog you should comment sometime and leave your email for us!) and some we could have went a few more years without seeing LOL. Mostly the owners :).
I was not looking forward to Wednesday. Firefighter funerals are always so sad anyway and on top of that for it to be an EMS funeral doubles that sadness and to see Kristan in that kind of pain makes it horrible. They played the bagpipes as they loaded the casket onto the firetruck that would carry him to the cemetery. Its amazing how many firetrucks / ambulances from all over come to show their respect when something like this happens. On the way to the cemetery the lineup was the firetruck that carried the casket, then his family, then tons of MedStar ambulances and vehicles, then all of us, and then at the end of the line were tons of ambulances from other companies and tons of firetrucks from all around. All emergency vehicles in front and back had their red and blue lights flashing all the way to the cemetery. It is one of the saddest things and one of the most beautiful things you can see. Ive went to two funerals like this and both times could just look at all the lights flashing following the casket and cry. Then once we were there they presented her with his fire helmet, rang the fire bell three times (I'll explain what that means at the end), and then they made his last call over the MedStar radio. That right there breaks your heart. They come over the radio and call the attention of all employees and then they go on to call his truck number for his last call and then read his date of death etc.. Every person there cried. It is one of the saddest things Ive ever seen/heard. I'm sure George was looking down and smiling at all the people who came out to pay their respects and give him such a spectacular goodbye.
*** The ringing of the bells at a firefighters funeral -- A 200-year-old tradition, the bell once chimed in firehouses to symbolize crews returning to station after a large blaze.
Now, it rings at funerals for firefighters who have responded to their final call home. *** This gets me every time. I told Dave that I had to pass away before him because I can't handle all of this.
The newspaper was there and got some pictures of the funeral procession. The pictures don't do it justice but here they are. As you can see the line of emergency vehicles went on and on and that was the ones at the end. They didn't show all the vehicles in the front. The second picture is of them loading the casket onto the firetruck, and the last is another one of some of the emergency vehicles.
See ya,
Christy 
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EVEN A 7 YEAR OLD GETS IT!!! NOW IF OTHERS WOULD OPEN THEIR MINDS LIKE THIS LITTLE GIRL. Make sure to listen to what she says to Ellen before starting her second song. You will have to mute my music player.
Ive never talked about my time in EMS on here and I thought now would be a good time. I LOVED working on the ambulance. I was so upset when my doctor told me I couldn't continue working on it. A lot of people don't understand that way of life. You work for 24 hours every third day. You sometimes spend more time with your EMS family then you do your real family. You spend holidays together, you fight together, you cry together, you are at your goofiest with them (Dave has yet to hear me sing and my partner Kristan has heard me belting it out more times then she probably wanted to lol) , we understand each others feelings on things better then so many other people can. You spend such great moments with your partner and sometimes you spend your worst moments with your partner. One of my worst calls I ever ran was a bad car wreck. The 17 year old had went halfway out the sunroof of the car and the car flipped on top of her trapping her half way out between the car and the road. She obviously died before we ever had a chance to work her. As weird as it sounds that part wasn't the upsetting part to me. When we finally figured out who she was we realized that she was the same girl who had checked us out when we bought our supper at the grocery store that day. We had talked to her and I knew who her family was. We took the body into the hospital and while we were standing there they brought her parents in to identify her. I can still hear her moms cry, her screaming out. That sound will never erase from my memory. The only other person that can understand how I felt at that exact moment is the partner I was working with at that time. I couldn't go home and explain it and have people understand and I won't even try to explain it on here. The reason I share all of this is so some of you can kind of get an idea of how close you are to your partner and those you work with. The good and the bad.
Yesterday morning I was woke up with a phone call telling me that Kristan's (my partner when I worked on the ambulance) husband George had died. He was 23 years old. He was working his shift on the ambulance and died in his sleep. When his partner went to wake him up for a call he was gone. All of the medics worked him anyway. These medics were his friends and in EMS his family. There is no worse nightmare for anyone in EMS then to have to answer a call for family. I feel so bad for those that had to do it.
I have talked to Kristan. I am going to go to their house tomorrow with her so she can get some stuff together for the funeral the next day. My heart is breaking for her. Every time I think of her I cry. I remember when they first started liking each other. We tried to have a girls only movie night and she couldn't stay off her phone lol. They've only been married for a year. His dad lives here in Granite and we went over there after the wedding to celebrate. I just cant imagine what she is going through. I try not to imagine what she is going through. It is my nightmare.
I just had to get this off my chest. I came home tonight and got on ksdk.com to see what was going on in the area and the main story was about George and it had a big picture of him attached. I am going to paste it here along with a picture of me and Kristan that was taken one day where we got posted at a kids event while we were working and all the kids wanted us to paint our faces so we had them paint the EMS star of life on our cheeks.
KSDK-- An emergency medical technician who works for Medstar's Washington Park base has died in the line of duty.
George Schaub III was working a 24 hour shift that began Friday. He made the last call around midnight, and was found unresponsive at shift change Saturday morning. So far, there's no word on what caused his death.
Visitation will be held Tuesday from 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. and Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. with the funeral following at 1:00 p.m. Both will be held at Renner Funeral home in Belleville.
George Schaub was 23 years old.
There will be a nationwide protest on Saturday November 15. If you are looking for something to do and want to go out and support a very important issue visit this website to find a city near you http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/?t=anon``
You will want to pause my normal music player before you watch the video so you can hear it
Well yesterday was the last normal game of Mychaels football season. They won the game which means that they are #1 in the league. It makes me so happy for the whole team. As I have mentioned before on here Mychaels team is the only team that is made up of all kids who have never played before. The other teams have all played before and are made up of older kids. So our team was the youngest, smallest, and most inexperienced and they went out this season and kicked butt! I am so proud of Mychael and of the whole team. Now they have to play the championship game in a couple of weeks. I put together a slide show of the last couple of games including yesterdays. In some of the pictures you can see the size difference in the teams. It makes my heart almost stop sometimes but it doesn't seem to faze Mychael at all. Ill keep you updated on the outcome of the championship. My family will be coming up for it so I'm excited for that as well.
See ya,
Christy
