ER Help

Josh and I went on a 30 mile bike ride yesterday morning. It was my longest of the season yet, and I think I did quite well!

Before our ride even began, though, we had some minor excitement. We had decided to park in the Target parking lot off Santa Fe and ride around Chatfield lake; this would give us the 30 miles we desired to ride.

As we were unloading our bikes in the parking lot, a man and woman walking their bikes approached us. The lady said, "Excuse me, do you think you could help us?"

I figured one of them had a flat tire and needed help pumping it up. They were in luck! I have a fabulous bike pump for such purposes.

"Sure, what do you need?" I happily replied. I am always willing to help pump up a tire.

"Can you take us the ER?"

So that was not what I was expecting.

"Of course! What happened? Is everyone okay?"

The lady rotated her body so I could see her elbow. It looked like she had two fists being help up to her elbow, that's how badly swollen it was. She moaned in pain as she rotated her body.

"We had a bike accident. Since it rained heavily last night, the bridges on the bike trail are very slick. My tire slid out from underneath me, and I landed on my elbow. My husband kind of road right over me as I crashed, and he went over his handle bars."

I looked at the man, and he had a deep gash in both knees and blood was dripping down his legs.

Josh and Shiloh to the rescue! Josh quickly unloaded our bikes off my rack and loaded their bikes on. Josh said he'd stay with our bikes while I drove them to the ER.

The lady was in obvious pain. She kept moaning the entire way to the hospital and she was a bit loopy. She was trying to form sentences but was having a hard time making her brain work with her tongue. Her elbow continued to grow larger and larger on the short 5 minute ride to the ER.

I helped them unload their bikes and got them into the ER waiting room. There was nothing left for me to do. They were very grateful for my help, and I left them with a "Good luck". Both of them were going to need medical attention.

I arrived back to Josh, and we went on our 30 mile ride with no mishaps. I'm still thinking about those two, though, and wonder what happened to her elbow. It looked extremely painful and made my stomach leap whenever I looked at it or at his gashes in his legs.

Lost Ring

Five years ago, I wrote this blog about losing my brother-in-law's wedding ring (in my underwear). It's a great story, so go ahead and read it.

With my upcoming wedding quickly approaching, Shannon keeps mentioning that my wedding day is going to become pretty exciting when she "loses" Josh's ring. It has become a joke that Shannon will have payback for the stress I caused her right before she said "I Do." You know what they say about paybacks, right?

This past week, while working on wedding vows and the wedding ceremony, I came across this interesting statistic:

Of every 10 rings misplaced or lost at wedding time, 8 have been lost by the Maid of Honor. She has a big ring you have asked her to put on her relatively small finger.

That's exactly what happened to me. I put Jeff's large ring on my thumb, and when I went to the bathroom, the ring fell into my underwear.

Apparently I'm not the only one who this happens to!!!

Now, please pray it won't happen to Shannon :)

Name Change

My students are resilient. I see them face struggles that no teenager should have to face, but I have seen my kiddos bounce back quickly. It's one of the many things I love about my students.

But I tell you what, my students are not taking my upcoming name change very well. With 30 days until the best day of my life, my students have become very obsessed with my new name. It just hit them this week, for the most part, that I will no longer be Nichols.

It started like this: "What's your new name going to be?"

"Martinez."

"Hahaha, that's funny. You don't look like a Martinez, with your blonde hair and blue eyes."

"I know, right? It will be weird for both you and me calling me Martinez instead of Nichols."

"Wait, what? You're changing your name at school???"

"Well, yeah, I guess. I mean, I did think about staying Nichols just because everyone knows me by that, but I'm sure I'll change eventually."

"But, you can't change your name. You're Ms. N. What will happen in a few years when we're talking to someone about Ms. N, our former English teacher, and they have no idea who we're talking about because they will know you as Mrs. Martinez?"

"That will be weird, huh?"

And then one student, a Hispanic student, started saying my name with a Spanish accent and everyone was cracking up.

One student says, "I'm just going to start calling you Mrs. Martinez right now so we both get used to it." I chuckled and continued on with class (we actually do learn in my class, despite fun conversations like this).

As the bell rang and my students departed for the day, I yelled out for them to have a good afternoon. One students yelled back, "Bye Mrs. Martinez."

And then again today, another student called me Mrs. Martinez.

Perhaps they are more resilient than I first thought!

Thirty more days of being Ms. Nichols.

Thirty more days until I'm Mrs. Martinez!!!