Here’s some pictures of my older sister Cassandra posing for her picture in the noodle express commercial she did. I’m so proud of her! This billboard was on Sprague near University Ave. She has two more in Spokane somewhere. You go girl!
My 1st Driving Lesson, or, “Hey, it’s just a scratch”
Well! I went on my first driving lesson today! I only hit 4 people! And the 3 of them will heal up just fine! The other one…well…. we’ll forget about that.
IM OH SO EXCITED I FELT REALLY GOOD OUT THERE, I THINK I’LL BE A GOOD DRIVER. I THINK I WILL RESPECT THE RULES OF THE ROAD AND NOT HAVE ANY ACCIDENTS. I THINK I FINELY FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH IT AND AM NOT SCARED ANYMORE. MY DAD SAYS I NEED TO WORK ON STAYING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD. I DON’T KNOW WHY I KEEP DRIFTIN OVER BUT THAT SHOULD GET WORKED OUT SHORTLY.
Beth
Dad here: Yes, today was Beth’s 1st practice at driving. For the most part she did well. Once reason Beth never learned to drive is she could never get over the fear of 2000 pound weapon. It used to scare the heck out of her. Since her accident that fear appears to be gone. Beth drives like a brand new driver and does the typical mistakes new drivers make. For instance, she has to look down to use the turn signal and she wasn’t sure which way to push it when making turns. She also had some issues with the pedals, using the gas for the break and vice versa, although that only happened twice.
We did some panic stops and the 1st one took her a good 1.5 seconds before she responded, but each additional one she got quicker and quicker.
And for some reason, even when going straight, she drifts, rather quickly, over to the left side. Although near the end of the 30 minute session she did so less frequently.
Parking. Wellllllllll, that’s going to require lots of work, either that or the city’s going to have to increase the size of all the parking spots! 
We tried parking to the left and to the right, and she doesn’t have the feel for the car yet so normally she parked very close to the left line. We also tried backing into a parking space and she got it right in the middle!…..of two spaces. LOL! We had a good laugh at that.
So on the way home we talked about it and joked about it and had setup a joke to tell as we entered the door so Sandy could hear. (That’s the one she typed at the start of this blog)
We also decided to add a few pictures to make the joke complete. Enjoy.
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A Poem from Bethany
my boredom will untie my mind
my boredom is in overtime
my boredom will not take a break
my boredom doesn’t know whats at stake
my boredom is on high alert
my boredom has got all my dirt
my boredom thinks it owns my mind
my boredom is so out of line
my boredom is insulting me
my boredom just cannot see
the end of this, the cease and desist
when will it stop when will it not exist
when will it go bug someone else
when will it just go kill itself
when will it get out of my life
when will it see its not my wife
cuz i cant take it anymore
i can no longer stop shutting the door
i must slam this damn thing shut
i must ceas all contact, but
i don’t know how or when or if
i don’t know why we have this tiff
when will it leave me all alone
why cant it just stop and go home
Update 12/27/2011
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We had a wonderful Christmas with ALL our kids here in Spokane so I thought I’d share a quick note.
Christmas day was VERY busy! We crammed a lot into one day.
We woke up around 10:00 AM as we were up late getting things ready the night before. Started the coffee, Rachael was up earlier making walnut and fig scones..yum! Nothing better than a hot scone right from the oven along with hot coffee. So good.
Then we poured our “mimosa’s” and took all of that into the front room where we started our traditions.
First we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, at the end the lights on the Christmas tree “magically” go out, as though Jesus blew out the candles. So funny. We started this when the kids were young and they still love doing it.
Then comes the hourS long unwrapping of presents. One person opens one present at a time, as we all watch for the look of surprise (or disgust) on their faces. Takes a LONG time to get through the morning, but it’s much more enjoyable. We take breaks to fill our coffee, mimosa’s and bathroom breaks, and by the time we’re done 3 or 4 hours have gone by. Very enjoyable.
Obviously we thanked God for being able to have ALL the Mooter’s together this Christmas. Of course Beth didn’t understand when we all looked at her. Then she thought for a moment and said, “Oh yeah, my brain injury. Was it really that close?” So funny. She has no idea of how close she was… And even when we tell her she doesn’t remember.
So we started with Beth getting to open the 1st one and it’s so funny to watch her. She’s like a little kid. Rachael bought her a purple belt and Cass bought her purple eyeliner and when she opened the presents she would clap her hands together quickly, eyes wide open, and smile so brightly and squeal just like a little kid. She was so happy. Then we’d move on down the line to someone else opening a present, then all of a sudden we’d hear another squeal and look over and Bethany had just re-discovered the purple belt or eyeliner or some other gift she opened but had quickly forgotten. So funny. That’s how her birthday was too. I called it a surprise birthday because each time she would look at the balloons she’d ask, “Is it my birthday?” While she has always been a good sport about this, I know it’s very tough for her to constantly be forgetting things so quickly and sometimes it get’s the best of her and causes her to be very sad, but as you’ll see, she IS GETTING BETTER!!!
So round and round we went, each one opening a new gift with oo’s and awe’s being heard from everyone. Nate told us from the start, that he went for the quantity rather than quality gifts this year and he was right. I received a “gift” called “Instant Boobies“! He bought all his gifts at the Chinese area of town in Seattle, so just the packing alone was hilarious.
Oh, one note in regards to the presents. Eleven days before Christmas, the support group that Bethany goes to for traumatic brain injured people had a Christmas party and handed out gifts. Bethany came away with two of them. So Rachael re-wrapped them and stuck them under the tree. As we handed them to her on Christmas we all were holding our breaths to see if she would remember them. She ripped open the package and you could see by the look on her face that something was strange. She was really concentrating and she said, “Hey, this looks familiar”. We just said, “really?” And she kept looking at it and finally popped up her head and said, “Yes! I got this from that TBI thingy!!”. We all shouted and looked around at each other saying “YES YES YES!!! Great MEMORY!!!” That was 11 days ago she got those presents!!! Amazing!!!! We were thanking God! She IS getting better!!!
Finally we finished around 3:00pm and had to hurry to get dressed because out next tradition was go out for Chinese or Japaneses food!
I’m not sure how this tradition started. Rachael surmises that we did it be cause we didn’t want to put anyone out on Christmas so we looked towards folks who didn’t celebrate Christmas and that’s how we wound up going to Hong Kong Buffet. And you know what? It was GREAT! Crab, shrimp, cray fish (yuck! I couldn’t even pick them up to put them on my plate, let alone eat them!), sushi of all kinds (Beth somehow found all the non-vegetarian ones and quickly spit them out!), and yummy deserts!
With our tummy’s full we waddled over to our next tradition, A MOVIE!
This year it was Tin Tin and it was great! This was a comic that Nate used to read when he was younger and I remember looking at them and being concerned that they were filled with things perhaps a young boy shouldn’t experience. The captain was a drunk and whenever he spoke there were all these bubbles by his mouth representing a foul smelling breath. There were bad guys with guns and people getting shot. So as a concerned parent I was not 100% on board with Nate reading this, but then I started reading them and was hooked! Pretty soon the whole family had read all the comic books, and now here it is in a movie! 3D no less! So we all donned our 3D glasses and settled in for an adventure Tin Tin style!
The first thing Beth did was to rip off the glasses and say they’re all smudged. I stopped her from rubbing them and possibly scratching them and told her the 3D stuff hadn’t started yet so it’s just the glasses. A few minutes later the same thing! So I held onto them until the 3D part of the movie started. And BAM! She was like, “OH MY GOSH! THAT’S AMAZING!” She actually had to take them off at one point as it appeared to be too much for her, but she quickly put them back on.
So after the movie we hopped into the car and made our way over to the Jett’s house for Christmas evening deserts and games. On the way over we were talking about the movie and Bethany asked if we had just seen a movie. We said yes, and if she could remember it….no, she couldn’t. Amazing. That was just a few minutes after watching a 2 hour long movie.
At the Jett’s we had a wonderful time! Great food, wine, games, songs, BINGO, Karaoke, and Dancing! WOW! Terry & Margo always put on a huge spread of food, prime rib, mashed potatoes, gosh…so much! And the deserts? To die for!
But the real fun was down stairs where we played many games of Bingo and whoever won had 30 seconds to pic from a pile of great gifts. Bethany played and was really into it but wasn’t winning. So at one point Nate was the caller so he glanced over and saw what number she needed and “somehow” her number came up and she jumped up and yelled ”BINGO!!!!!!” She ran over to the pile of gifts (and we’re all counting down from 30), she’s frantically pawing through everything and it’s coming down to the final count down (5..4…3…2..1!), at the last minute she grabs a brain game from the Mensus Society. Ugh..Those are HARD!
Another thing we did that Bethany enjoyed was dancing to the Wii game. Well, Cassie, Nate and Rach also liked it! In fact they all rawked! I tried to dance with them but always came away with the lowest score and the most laughs.
The last thing we did is Karoke and that is always a hit with my family. Cassie and Beth did it a number of times and of course Cass is the drama queen so she really hammed it up and did an amazing job. Beth also did very well. She remembered most all the words and when I tried to help her with the words from one of the app’s on my phone she pushed it away and said she didn’t need it. So somehow she can remember all the words to songs. So strange.
Needless to say, we had a fantastic time, and didn’t leave Terry & Margo’s until 2:30 AM!!! WAY past my bedtime!
I’m so thankful that we had all 4 kids home and we all enjoyed each other. God is so good.
Thanks to Terry & Margo for a WONDERFUL time laughing and joking and singing and eating and eating and …did I say eating? SOOOOO GOOD!Here’s a few pictures of our Christmas day. There’s a couple of drawings from the kids about an Ironman tattoo. I didn’t understand why they were giving me all these drawings until they gave me my final gift….a Visa card with money on it to purchase the tattoo. Duh. Enjoy the pics!
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Update 11-03-2011
Just a quick update to let you know Beth is doing better. She had a terrible day and night yesterday due to a reaction to her med’s. We’re not sure at this time what the issue was but it caused her to itch terribly. I could go into a LOT of details of what went on, but suffice to say she is doing MUCH better today and so are her parents and siblings. Whew! More later!
Update 11/2/2011
*** Update: 11:52 AM Woohoo! Doctor Martz just stopped by and told us she’s in recovery and that everything went perfect. She has 5 small titanium plates and about 20 screws in her head. (I asked to make sure all the screws were tight!) She has a drainage tube in that will remain in place for the next two days. Her wrist will be restrained so that she doesn’t bother the incission so that will be difficult for her. The doctor also removed a beebee that was in the back of her head just under the skin. (One of those stories I really don’t want to know about) She will be in recovery for the next hour or so then into ICU for the next couple of nights. Can’t wait to see her!
** Update: 10:52 AM: Just talked with the Anesthesiologist and they said that Dr. Martz has completed putting the skull in (they use screws and small plates, my Dad said to make sure she doesn’t have any “loose screws”..what a guy!) and it should be another 30 to 45 minutes.
Bethany is at the hospital today to have her skull placed back into her head. She is in great spirits (as usual) and made everyone laugh. The anesthesiologist in particular thought she was halarious.
One of the nurses that was putting in the IV into her arm was telling Beth how she wants to have a mullett done to her hair (We were talking about Beth wanting to wear her mohawk) and Beth said, “What? A mullett? That’s from the 80′s and that’s where they should stay!”. Broke everyone up.
I’m currenlty sitting in the hospital cafeterria but am heading back up to the waiting room. They started on Beth at 9:13 AM and so far everything is going along great. I will report back as I get news.
Thanks to all of you folks that are praying for Beth, we greatly appreicate it.
Mooter Family.
Here’s some pictures of her just before she went into surgery:
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Update 10/24/2011
Sorry once again to have taken so long to update.
Bethany continues to improve both mentally and physically. Her short term memory is slowly getting better and almost daily we see improvement in it.
Physically she appears to be doing well, her left foot has improved (was not able to pull it up) but she continues to need her brace when going on walks as the foot tires quickly.
Bethany is scheduled to have her skull reinserted on November 2nd which we are all looking forward to as it should take a load off the family in having to be so vigilant. (***Update from Sandra (She left this in the comments but I thought it should be here):
A quick note from Mom here. Would really, really appreciate people’s prayers when the surgery roles around. It’s a bit scarey getting her head opened up again. Yes, it will be a great relief to have her brain protected by her skull finally and ditch the helmet! The Dr. reminds us, any surgery carries risks and we are praying and trusting God to have the same big strong angels on duty that caught her when she fell off the bike! Praying against all infections, bugs and viruses as well. Last time around she got some staff and other nasty critters. Believing God that none of the gains that she has made will be lost. There will be not going backwards in Jesus name!
Final word is our complete trust and confidence is in Yahweh as before and always. To God be the GLORY for all His kindesses and for baring His mighty right arm on Bethany’s behalf. Oh, how He loves her….
We do have a lot of fun with Beth in regards to her short term memory. The other day I was talking very seriously to her about how hard she’s been working and how she will need to really dig in to get to the next level. I think I was going into my coaching mode and sort of forgot that I should keep it short. So as I came to the end of my “coaching moment” she looked puzzled and asked, “What were we talking about?” We all just laughed and hugged her. So funny.
Beth will occasionally, “get stuck” (is what we call it) on a particular subject, sometimes all day.
I think it was last weekend she came up with a thought that she’d like to look into be coming a nurse. She was out walking with Sandy, so naturally Sandy encouraged her to look into it and to see what it would take to become one. Well during the entire walk, the ride home, and the rest of the day, every few “seconds” Beth would say, “I think I’d like to be come a nurse. How do I start?” No matter what Sandy did to try and get her re-directed to another subject she’d always come back to, “I think I’d like to be come a nurse. How do I start?”.
Needless to say, when I got home Sandy was ready for a break. Later that night it was time for me to sleep next to Beth and sure enough she asked, “I think I’d like to be come a nurse. How do I start?”. I was trying to be very patient with her and would answer with the typical thing of needing school etc etc, but it soon got challenging. What’s funny is she was listening to a story, and for 1 or two minutes she would listen and then ask about nursing again. I would comment that she needed to concentrate on the story as she was “stuck” on the nursing thing. She always apologies, then goes quite, and again ask.
So I thought what could I get her to think about that would totally get her mind off that particular track. I asked her to think about one of our vacations in Florida where she got to ride on the back of the scooter with Nate as we rode all over Key West. I reminder her of the wonderful Key Lime pie we had and some of the other fun things.
I went back to listening to my story and thought I had solved it….nope, about 3 minutes later she ask, “I think I’d like to be come a nurse. How do I start?”. Sigh….
So I asked her to think about the most fun she’d ever had in her life and she immediately said, “Oh, ridding trains!” That pretty much did it! I think she asked once or twice more, but I’d put her back on “track” (HA! Pun intended) and I think she went to sleep thinking about her great times of jumping trains from one coast to the next. I know she thinks fondly of those times, but they were some of the worst times from Mom and Dad!
Since I haven’t done much in the way of info on Beth, I’ll put up a few pictures of some of the fun she’s had:
Beth’s BIRTHDAY!!! WOOHOO! Well, as you would guess, we were very excited to be celebrating Beth’s birthday this year. The down side is she doesn’t remember it at all. But we have pictures and video’s and have written it down in her memory book so she can at least look back and read about it.
She had many friends over and many of them called, sometimes multiple times a day! (Thanks Erica!) There was a tea party, gifts from so many of her friends, Grandma came up from Boise and spent a number of days here with her, and Nate and Jamie came over from Seattle and spent the weekend with Beth. Her Grandpa called from Florida and again asked her to come down there to bask in the sunshine and swim in his pool. ”Neon Leon” called from Vegas, and I know I’m forgetting so much, but so many wonderful folks came and made a memorable (HA!) time for Beth. Oh! And GREAT FOOD! Thanks Rach!
Enjoy the pictures! (I don’t have all of them and will try and put more up later)
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8/23/2011
Sorry again for the long delay in posting.
Beth continues to improve. Her short term memory is still short, but does seem to be improving. We had a speech therapist work with Beth (and Rach) and the technique he showed us appears to help a great deal. I believe it’s called “Open Air”, something like that, and basically you tell Beth what you want her to remember and have her repeat it. Then leave off the last word and have her repeat everything. But don’t let her guess, or she’ll remember the wrong thing. (I’m probably not explaining it correctly) But the bottom line it helps. I came hope after the 1st session and Rach asked Beth what’s wrong with you head? And with no hesitation, she said, “I have a traumatic brain injury”. After picking myself up from the floor, Rach asked her how’d she get it? And Beth again answered with no hesitation, “From a bike accident”. That may not sound like a big deal but it is! I was so excited! Now it’s not always that easy and we’ve done test like that again and didn’t get the same results but it shows she’s improving.
We’ll have a big challenge for Beth this weekend as we head to Seattle to attend my son’s wedding, (Woohoo!) The challenge will be all the stimulus and how to minimize it and where to take her when (not if) she gets a headache. (Oh, and these headaches are not your run of the mill, “gee my head hurts”. It’s can’t move, feet shuffling bent over POWER headaches! And get me to a couch quick! So, that’s going to be tough.
But bottom line, she’s great!
