How to Save a Life

The other day I had the unique opportunity to watch Brianna in action working for Mercy Flight.  Bri watches me work during games and open practices, but until the other day I had never really seen firsthand what Brianna actually does when she’s working.

 

It took place on Memorial Day while I was at home relaxing after our most recent baseball excursion to Boston (blog post forthcoming).  I received a text message from Brianna saying that she was going on a call.  She then said that they would be landing at Green Lake Park...  right behind our house!

So I grabbed the camera and ran over to the park.  When I arrived at the park I immediately saw large green cones spread across the field creating a landing zone.  There was an ambulance and several paramedics standing watch while a crowd of people gathered to witness the events.

A faint rumble in the distant became louder and louder…  until…

Brianna’s helicopter arrived at the scene of the accident!

Brianna then emerged from the helicopter dawning her fabulous orange jumper. 

 She quickly grabbed her fashionable red bag and proceeded to the ambulance to check on the patient.

Before reaching the ambulance Bri removed her helmet and subsequently tossed her flowing hair from her face ala Justin Bieber.

After assessing the patient, Brianna returned to the helicopter to make preparations for the flight back to the hospital.  The paramedics proceeded to carry the patient to the back of the helicopter where Brianna assisted them in placing him securely in the aircraft. 

They then promptly took off for the hospital, launching dirt from the baseball field high in the air.  Minutes later they would land at the hospital where the patient received the necessary medical attention.

My hero…  (sigh)….

Graduation

A couple weeks ago I finished the MBA program at Canisius College.  It’s a great relief to finally be finished with school.  Here are some photos Bri took at the graduation ceremony:

In December Brianna will finish her program at UB.  The end is in sight!  Hopefully at that point we will be able to get back to a “normal” pace of life.

Brianna’s been there every step of the way to help and support me.  There’s absolutely no way I could have done it without her.  I owe all of my success and achievements to her.

Sweetheart, thank you so much for everything.  I love you.

Family Time

Over the last few months Brianna and I have had the rare opportunity to spend a lot of time with our families and friends.  Over the next couple of blog posts we would like to detail a few of those experiences.

The first of these experiences was our annual trip home.  As always, visiting family and friends back home was wonderful.  It was crazy to see how grown up our nieces and nephews had become over just one short year.

On our way up from Utah to Idaho we took time to make a pit stop in Logan.

This allowed Brianna to spend some quality time with her best friend Whitney and her family.

We were also able to spend a couple evenings with our Utah friends.  We played games, filled out brackets, and watched basketball.

Shortly after returning home to Buffalo, Jenny and Mindy came out to visit us. 

It really meant a lot to us that they decided to use their vacation time and money to come all the way out to our cold, wet part of the country.  It was really nice being able to show them where we live and what we do. 

See Jenny & Mindy’s blog posts about the trips here:

Jenny's Posts:

utah-to-buffalo-via-baltimore

ralph-wilson-stadium-and-mercy-flight

niagra-falls

palmyra

our-last-day-in-ny

Mindy's Posts:

spring-break-buffalo-style

spring-break-update-travels-within

souvenirs

Beard Me

I forgot to mention in the last post about the beard I was growing during the winter months. Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:

If those pictures made your eyes burn or your children cry, fear not.

The beard has since been removed.

Update

Okay, it's official: We suck at blogging. Deal with it.

Things are going well. Another season is done with the Bills. No playoffs again this year, but there's always next year... and the year after that.... The Bills gave me a two year extension, so we'll be here until April 2014. I'm in the last semester of my MBA program. I'll graduate in May of this year.

Bri took this picture of me fixing a player's helmet.

Bri is doing really well in her clinical rotations. She only has 10 months left. She's still working at Mercy Flight on the weekends. She's working extremely hard and she's been having incredible success. I'm really proud of her.

I included a couple pictures we've taken over the last few months.

Last month we celebrated Bri's 29th birthday.

One of the things we did for her birthday was ice skating. She's a lot better than I am but we still had a great time.

This is one of our proudest accomplishments. Bri made dueling fountains of nacho cheese and fondue chocolate for the Super Bowl.

We can't wait to see you all next month when we come home!

Boston & Chicago

Brianna and I have been on the road for the last couple of weeks. I have been at training camp in Rochester and Brianna went to an anesthesia conference in Boston. She is currently in Idaho visiting family.

This is a picture of Brianna presenting here poster at the conference:

When she was in Boston she was able to go on a tour of the city. Here's a picture she took with her phone:

This past weekend I was in Chicago for our first preseason game. We ate some deep-dish pizza and walked around downtown:

This is a picture from Soldier Field before the day of the game:

It rained the entire day of the game which made our new jerseys (which are all white) a complete muddy mess:

Next week we'll both be back home in Orchard Park and back to our normal lives of school and work.

Idaho (& Utah) Trip 2011

We recently returned from our trip to Idaho. It was good to spend time with our family and friends. I was even able to spend a couple of days in Utah with our friends from BYU.

This year our trip home was extra special for several reasons. It was the first time in over 4 years that my whole family had been together, which made a great opportunity for a family photo. It was also Bubba's baby blessing.

We were also able to spend some time with Karlenn and her family before they left for China.

We were also able to witness Dylan's baptism before they left the country. Brianna was especially grateful for the chance she had to be with her Grandpa Spracher.

I was going to do a complete post about the trip, but seeing how most of our other siblings have already blogged about the events (see blogs by Jenny, Mindy, Warren/Becky, Natalie, etc.), I thought I would just post a couple unique pictures from our vacation.

Bri and I were able to check off another baseball stadium from our list... kinda...

Bubba would fall asleep every time Bri tried to hold him:

Warren and Greg doing some sort of choreographed fighting:

Jakob and Dylan being themselves:

Richard being a sea monster (Richard is one of the most photogenic people I've ever met, so it is rare to get a picture of him without a perfect smile. This was one of those rare moments.):

We couldn't determine who was more excited for this year's parade, Milo or my mom:

The one-legged sharp shooter:

Monkey pooping from wall position:

Milo getting the camera strap caught on his diaper:

Maxwell scared for his life atop the climbing wall at Blastoff:

Gage and his lizard tongue:

And Kylie scolding the selfish goats:

We had a great time seeing everyone. As always, it went by too fast. We'd like to thank everyone for taking time out of their busy schedules to be with us. It is the most precious week in our whole year and we can't thank you all enough for making it so memorable.