Wow, what a crazy few days...

Well, lets start things off happily. Here is a blogiversary contest... go over and tell her I sent you!!

http://mariknits.blogspot.com/

Last Friday was a very stressful day for me. A lot of you may already know this, but here goes. (I got this news at 230am too) My brother Pat, is studying over in Australia for 5 months. Well, he decided to go home early from the club on Friday night and took the typical shortcut. Although, usually there is a group of them that all walk together. Well, being 6'4" tall and weighing 190 pounds... he prolly thought he would be ok(plus he had been out clubbing). Well, he wasn't...

5 guys jumped him in the shortcut through the neighborhood. They broke his jaw in 2 places, 2 black eyes, sore ribs, brusied and banged up. They took the money from his wallet($150) and 4 of them started to take off. Well, the 5th one had a bit of a problem with my brother... when the 5th guy jumped out and hit Pat first, Pat laid him out flat on the ground with one punch. Well that guy was super mad and gave pat a couple of extra kicks and that is what shattered the jaw. Well, he eventually found a taxi after a few minutes (about 20 or so, he thinks) and they took him to his dorm where all his friends were at this point. They got him to the hospital and he got some pain killers. They couldn't do much else for him at that point except wait for the swelling to go down and take a catscan and x-rays on Monday.

Well, this whole situation was very hard for me. He is 15 hours ahead of me in the world. I can't jump on a flight and get to him quickly. I feel like I am closest with Pat. There are 4 kids in our family and we are all close, but I feel closer to Pat. We used to speak almost everyday before he went overseas. So I have been missing him horribly since he left. I took care of the younger 3 after my parents divorced and unfortunately, to my young siblings dismay, I sometimes regress back to feeling responsible for them or like I need to give them advice when they really don't need it. I have tried very hard not to do that to them anymore, but sometimes it slips. That was one of those nights. I just wanted to give him a hug, I wanted to be there..... pause for wiping of tears.... The thought of those 5 scum sucking sacks of chicken shit beating on one person just pisses me off to my deepest depths. What a bunch of sonnofabitchs?!?!? Sorry for the language, but who the HELL do you think you are!?!? What a bunch of gutless bastards. Ok, I feel better.

Well, My mom filled me in at 230am... I didn't fall asleep and quit crying until about 430am and thank god... Pat called me at 630am!!!! ARGH!!! I was so happy to hear his voice. He actually sounded pretty good for the situation. He told me that besides having family with him, he wouldn't rather be with any other group of people in his life. The friends that he has made over there are the best, loyal ones he has ever had in his life. he said when he got back to his apartment there were about 40 people waiting for him. He is one of those people that sucks people into him. He has a personality that will charm anyone! He doesn't even realize it either... but this made him see how much people gravitate to him. He told me that his phone holds 200 numbers and his is full. He just meets people and they fall in love with him and his amazing personality. He said that almost every person in his phone either called or stopped by to say hi!! He was pretty excited about that. He said anytime he wanted anything about 5 people would jump up and fight each other to get him whatever he wanted! He said he felt like a king!!

So he went to the doctor on Monday to get catscans and x-rays. Well, they weren't sure if he would have surgery in Lismore or in Brisbane(a bigger city) until they got the results from the tests. Well, they did it in Lismore on Tuesday. Pat called mom after surgery(it went GRRREEAAAT!!) and said he felt so much better he couldn't believe it. The jaw was displaced about 2/3 of an inch!! So once they went in and put in titanium plates, rods and screws he felt better. They also had to remove a shattered wisdom tooth and a cracked one on the other side. He said within hours his swelling was down about 75% and the pain was manageable. YEA!!

pause for more tears...

It may not sound so bad to some, but when you cannot get to someone who is so important to you in any kind of timely or financial matter, it is hard. I'm so thankful to God that he has good friends and a great U.S. supervisor over there to watch over him and help him. Christine(the U.S. supervisor of the kids) went to Pat's appointment on Wednesday morning to discuss how he will function over the next 6 weeks while his jaw is wired shut. Pudding and yogurt and shakes only last so long. He will need someway to get nutrition during that 6 weeks and Christine was gonna get the info so we knew what was up. Haven't heard at this point but will probably hear tomorrow. whew... Thanks to those that read that madness... sorry to bore you but I needed to type it out. It made me feel better. So thankfully, he is doing well, surrounded by great people, and is staying in paradise. Someone asked me if pat was going to come home. What?! That is not Pat's(or my style) We roll with it and keep on truckin!! Why leave paradise now? Might as well recover on the beach!!! hee hee. I hope you all have a good day. I have some surprises to post for tomorrow, but you'll have to wait... I must say goodnight! Oh Pics!!


Here is Pat and Peter. Pat is on the left(the one in Australia) and Pete is on the right. This is 3 years old, but they look similar.




This one is really old, but this is the four of us at Thanksgiving about 5 years ago. Pat, Me, Peter and Sara sitting in front... Good looking group huh??? My wonderful Fam... Mom is taking the picture!! :)