REAL, July 4th and blood donations

Well its been a while since I've posted, mostly because the only time I really have to do it is at night but I'm always soo tired that I don't want too...but I'm doing it today. It might be short though. I mean its only 11:30 but I'm dang tired! Anyway, so I went to a REAL soccer game on Thursday with my cousin Kayla, Jen, Kortney, Treasa, Devan, Karl, Becky, Justin, Morgan, Scott, and his date...I can't remember her name for the life of me...but that's ok Karl and Becky couldn't either.  The game was really good. Granted it ended in a tie but it was exciting none the less. There was a fight, Dynamo is jerky and Jason Kreis the coach got really mad and stomped on to the field. It was fabulous! If we would have been in Europe we would have had a riot! They also had fireworks after. They were cool. But really one you've seen one firework show there isn't much difference. Although opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics is probably the best I've seen. Anyway here are some pictures of that.



So the 4th of July started out pretty well. I ended up just crashing on my parents couch and was planning on going to the flag ceremony that morning at the ward but I didn't even hear my parents get up and I slept through it. In my defense I haven't gotten a whole lot of sleep lately. Thank you for 1:00 church tomorrow. Anyway, Becky and Kennan came over for the BBQ and tank wars. For those of you who do not know what tank wars are you first off are missing out, and second are when you buy tanks and divide into teams and try to set the other teams tanks off. So the team with atleast one tank left standing at the end wins. That just happened to be my team this year. Wahoo! You try to set off the other teams tanks by dropping ground roses or whatever else hoping it sets them off. Its fun. I highly recommend it. :) So then we had the real fireworks later and Mari is a child after my own heart. She loves the fireworks and had no problem holding the sparklers and what not. One of my favorite things to do is to hold the ground rose just until it goes off then throw it in the air so it spins in the air. Its cool. I'm going to lose a finger one day but oh well. Anyway, Mari will probably be joining me in that endeavor as soon as she can I'm sure. It turned out to be a lot of fun. I enjoyed my 4th and I just have to say that my mom is an amazing cook! Dinner was delicious! So here are some photos.





Now on too the last one. Sadly no pictures of this one. But on to blood donation. So I get called quite a bit to donate platelets. Which is cool, I'm happy to do it. So I got a call on the 4th and they said that the hospital called and they needed my blood type and all very badly. I'm A+ which is one of the most common blood types. However, I do not have this enzyme that most adults have, which if blood is transfused to a newborn or young baby can make them seriously sick or kill them. So I am a baby donor and I get called a lot. So I tried about three weeks ago but I didn't have enough iron, annoying. So I was good and took my vitamins. I went in today and the lady was taking my vitals and she took my resting heart rate which was 56. She said that's on the low end but it'll work. I asked how low it needs to be before someone can't donate. She said under 50. Unless I was someone who worked out and ran a lot. Then she quickly corrected herself and said, "you know marathon runners." I told her I was a runner but not a marathoner. So then she takes my blood pressure. 124/60. She tells me what it is and says, "good, odd, but good." Why odd? "It's just a big range." Umm...ok. I luckily passed the iron by one point. Phew. So here's what annoys me. I do not look like someone that should have a pulse of 56 and blood pressure of 124/60. I think she assumed I'd be terribly out of shape. Just because I look like a fatty doesn't mean I don't work out. Whatever. Anyway, so I got all set to give platelets and it took a really long time today! Normally I'm there for an hour and a half. Today it was 2 1/2! It was driving me crazy! Plus I hadn't eaten before I went and I got really sick this time. One the last return of red blood cells I got really light headed and almost ralphed. Gross I know. But I was glad it was the last return. I don't think I could have handled another. So I get up, feeling pretty light headed and woozy, but I don't want the workers to know. So I walk casually to the drink thing, get some OJ and a granola bar and casually as I can out the door. As soon as I get out the door and around the corner I lean up against the wall and faint. But it was only for a split second and so luckily I didn't fall or I would have been really embarrassed. Then, this is kind of gross so beware, then I'm taking my bandage off and its soaked in blood! I have never bled that much and I donate pretty much every 56 days. Then it won't stop bleeding. It was crazy. This was the weirdest blood donation ever. Hopefully next time will go better. But here's a question. Was I lightheaded from the none eating or the low blood pressure? If anyone knows I'd really like to know. If its food I can avoid it and eat before hand. If its blood pressure, then I can atleast be prepared for it. Well this turned out to be quite long. But I had some catching up to do. So see ya!