take nothing for granted. . .

Injured Ball State WR Love likely out of football

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP)—Dante Love may never catch another pass or play another football game at Ball State.  But the senior receiver will always have a special place in the hearts of Cardinals teammates, coaches and fans.  School officials said Monday that Love is expected to live a normal, healthy life after breaking his spine and sustaining a spinal cord injury during Saturday’s game, although he’ll likely have to give up the sport that turned him into an NFL prospect.  “His football career is expected to be over,” coach Brady Hoke said. “He has touched a lot of lives and he will continue to do so.”  Hoke declined to give medical details about Love’s condition, citing privacy concerns, although he said Love was expected to be moved out of the critical care unit later Monday. He would not say when Love might be released from the hospital.  Ball State officials said Love could move his arms and legs after five hours of surgery early Sunday morning, an encouraging sign after Saturday’s frightening scene at Indiana.  Love was injured early in the second quarter after catching a short pass, then turned up the field and collided with Indiana cornerback Chris Adkins in front of the Hoosiers sideline.  He spent about 15 minutes on the ground before being strapped to a backboard and lifted onto a golf cart that pulled away with his parents running behind it. Initially, Love went to Bloomington Hospital before being transferred to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.  With the help of the Indiana State Police, Hoke raced from the game to Methodist on Saturday night. Hoke, Indiana coach Bill Lynch and Lynch’s wife were all at the hospital Sunday. The Lynches knew Love because one of their sons, Joey, was a quarterback at Ball State and played with Love.  Teammates continued to offer support and express concern for Love on Monday, and one, running back MiQuale Lewis, acknowledged it was tough to get through the film sessions when they had to watch the replay.  “At first, I watched it back-to-back a couple of times,” Lewis said. “After that, I just couldn’t watch it again. It was just too hard.”
Love played an essential role in Ball State’s rising fortunes after arriving from Withrow High School in Cincinnati.  He ranks second on Ball State’s all-time list for receptions (199) and yards receiving (2,778), is tied for fourth in TD receptions (20) and is the career leader in kickoff return yards (2,129).  This season started with greater promise.  He helped Ball State open the season with four straight wins, the program’s best start since 1988, and was leading the nation in receiving yards per game (144.3) before the Cardinals upset Indiana 42-20 for the school’s first win ever against a BCS school. Ball State received six points in this week’s Top 25 poll.  The fleet 5-foot-9, 179-pound receiver was also drawing increased interest from NFL scouts, and he appeared headed toward fulfilling a lifelong dream of playing professional football—a dream that changed in an instant.
“That’s the worst part of this game that you ever want to be around,” Hoke said. “It is an ugly part of this game.”  As teammates tried to turn their attention to this week’s Mid-American Conference game with Kent State, they struggled to cope with the loss of a leader and the emotions of having a friend who meant so much to them still in the hospital.  “It’s been pretty tough knowing he’s not going to be with us, but he’s always going to be a part of this team,” tight end Darius Hill said. “It definitely takes a lot (of the concern) off, knowing that he’s going to be all right down the road.”  Ball State was already making the necessary adjustments.
It listed true freshman Briggs Orsbon as Love’s replacement at receiver, and Hoke said he would have to choose between three players about who will replace Love on kickoffs.  But, understandably, those decisions were overshadowed by what was going on in Indianapolis.  And, apparently, Love won’t stay completely away from football.  “You know, he was already telling coach (Stan) Parrish who should get his place,” Hoke said without elaborating on the recommendation. “The role we want him to play is to get better. That’s what his teammates want, that’s what we all want because of the respect we have for him. That will always be there, and he will always be in our thoughts.”

it's been a while. . .

so first i wanted to start this post off my of course mentioning the people who lost their lives on 9-11 just a few years ago. i will remember that day until the day that i die. i can tell you every single detail down to the minute of everything happening... it was such a scary day that i remember thinking...this is the end of the world. i had always thought that when the year 2000 rang in that our world would just "end." and i remember sitting there when the ball dropped on jan 1 2000 at 12:00am and waiting for the world to end...and it didn't...so i kinda thought..okay i'm just crazy... well on that day 9-11-2001 and i thought to myself...oh my gosh...it is the end of the world..it just took a while to get here... i was so scared...

it was my senior year in high school and we had only been in class for a few weeks... i was always late to my first hour class because jc would stay the nite with me cause my dad was always out of town working...and i would stay up late and then not want to get up in the morning...so as usual....i'm running late to school and on the radio i heard them say that an airplane had hit the world trade center... as i pulled into school and was walking into the office to get my late pass i was thinking "oh my gosh...i wonder how a plane ran into the world trade center?? how did they not see it?" i was so naive thinking who would do that on purpose?? it had to be an accident... so as i walk into class and my teacher makes a comment about me being late he went on to put some stupid history movie into the vcr...so me trying to save & the rest of my class from watching some boring documentary... i said "hey mr. strain...did you know that an airplane hit the world trade center?" he said oh yeah??? i said yeah let's turn on the news and try and see if its on... by that time the 2nd plane had already hit and i was confused because i didn't understand why the radio said 1 plane, but there was two?? so as were watching it they were playing replays of it hitting the 2nd tower.. and i couldn't believe what i was seeing... i was still in denial and thinking it must be an accident... as we were all sitting there in disbelief they flashed on the screen the pentagon on fire... i just remember looking around and people were in tears and had the look of shock on their faces.. we couldn't believe that we were "under attack" it was like watching a movie.. in our lifetime we had never experienced anything like that. you had heard stories of pearl harbor and such... but never in our lifetimes had we ever felt that our country that we were born and raised in...the country that we were safe from danger in... was no longer safe. the rest of the day our school was silent and i don't think anyone really knew what to do or feel...or expect. i'll never forgot that day for the rest of my life... i'll make sure that noone will ever forget...that will be a story that i will tell my kids and so on.... the teacher of that class will never forgot that day either. he tells his class each year... "yeah there was this girl who was always late to my class...and she came in late and told me "hey..did you know a plane hit the world trade center?"

so it's been a week or so since i last posted...i've been busy working on some projects..of course i haven't finished any of them because i have a short attention span. haha i start a project and get totally excited about doing it..and a day or two into it i find another project that i'm totally excited to do so i drop what i'm doing and start a new one...and so on and so on. haha i always end up going back to each project...but ya never know when i'll do it. hehe my goal this year is to make 50% of my christmas gifts handmade. i wanted to make my goal 100% but i don't want to fail my goal and get discouraged and quit.. so i decided to make my goal 50% and when i complete that goal i'll feel accomplished and proud and hopefully the next year 100% of my gifts will be homemade.

i finally got paid on monday.. i went 33 days without getting a paycheck..it really hurt. i had money saved up but i ended up having to take my saved money and pay my bills...so now i'm paying my september bills and trying to save my money again..

i did get all 423 wedding pictures back. i absolutely love them. i can't wait to show them all to you. if you have me on your myspace or facebook you can see them all there if not i'll have them all uploaded onto my webpage soon hopefully. speaking of my webpage it's coming along quite nicely. i finally learned how to do PHP...thank god.. some of you may be saying..oh my gosh she just learned how to do that?? well yes..i did. i tought myself everything i know.. and i had never had to use PHP before because i had never had so much content that i needed it. if i changed my layout or colors or whatever..i usually had like maybe 4 pages to change...now i've already got about 40...and that's just getting started... once i get it where i want...where everything is there i just have to keep adding new content..i'll have somewhere around 200 pages...maybe more. so there was no way i was going to be able to go to each page and change stuff... PHP is awesome...it's my new love and obsession. knowing now that i only have to edit one page...and it will change everything for me....it definately motivates me to update my page more... i've been creating new things here and there...but with the nice weather out i can't stand sitting inside on a laptop all day. i already have my halloween/fall decorations out... i love fall...especially october..i can't wait for october. it's usually when jc and i take our annual week off together. which he is still taking it off and of course i have no job so i'll be off. hehe but i definately plan on doing some major updates this weekend because i hear it's soposed to rain quite a bit.

speaking of nice weather and me having cabin fever..i have decided to start playing softball again. i haven't played since i was 18...so it's been about 7 years or so.. hehe but i'm tired of sitting back and watching jc go to tournaments taking girls that just aren't that good. he always has really good guys... but in a co-ed tournament your girls are really important. i've been wanting to play for about the last year or two but i was never sure about playing with him because we are both so competetive and hard on eachother. so if one of us would screw up or we'd lose or something..we'd both be really hard on eachother. but now that were married i almost feel that we'd enjoy doing it together...even if we do screw up or lose or whatever...yeah we may bitch at eachother for a few minutes..but it won't last long..haha it never does.. and i have faith that i'll really help out their team.. maybe not for the first couple of games haha...i'll be gettin' the ole rust off for a while.. but i've been going up to the diamond and doing some batting practice so hopefully the rust will fall off and the body parts that i haven't used for many years will stop hurting...hehe and i'll help him out and he'll be proud of me.

marriage is awesome. i thought that i'd basically be the same except for my last name changing...which i mean it basically is...but it sorta feels different now. i love it. i love hearing him say "my wife" and i love saying "my husband" i say it whenever i have the chance.. I LOVE MY HUSBAND!! hehe