MOST BORING 4TH OF JULY EVER!!!

My 4th of July this year was NOT anywhere near as good as pretty much well ANY of my past 4th’s because I just sat at my house after a splendid evening with the parental folk at one of my favorite restaurants: which indeed I don’t remember which one. After that when I arrived back at my place of residence I pretty much just showered, watched TV in bed, and I tried to fall asleep but it WAS a ‘iil hard considering all the fireworks and their LOUD booming and popping in the O2 area! But on ANOTHER note my physical therapy and my physical state of mind ish is all going pretty darn well! The only thing that is not coming along as well or as fast as I would like is my R arm. I mean it has shown some outstanding improvements since I have returned back from the GHOSTLY state of Nebraska. My walking in the sand, preparing for my sisters wedding on the beach in Rivera Cancun, in which I will be in as a groomsman: (THANKS FUTURE BROTHER IN LAW), is coming along A LOT better then I would have thought or imagined. Living alone is still awesome, and I am looking/researching places to move into when the time comes. MAN am I excited about that when the ball is in my court!!! My current or recent endeavors in my “social life” consist of meeting an AWESOME young chap who also has a brain injury and who I can relate to, name being Isaiah, who is a’lil younger then I am but he still is an awesome young chap!!!

Nate

whats crakin yo

Whats crackin yo,

FYI...

Work is still going well, I've kept my promotion (more days), and I'm still working the front desk at the Y. I've made some good friends at the Y as well...

I finished up with the social skills group I was in, and made a friend at the center who makes AWESOME banana bread!

My physical therapy is on track, and going well. I'm walking more and more without my cane.
I'm starting karate today, and looking forward to checking out what it has to offer.

Went to Arizona last month, and it was FABULOUS to see my long lost family,. (far away family, who I only get to see 1-2 times a year) and go to my aunts graduation party. I travelled by myself with my parental units parental units aka grandparents for all you slower folks..... mmmhmmm Michele, and it was AWESOME to get out of the state...and not be going to Nebraska :)

I'm planning to sit through a class starting sometime soon for personal training, should be pretty cool! Michele told me to add this whole schpiele or part of my "Nateizms", and not to ramble on!!!

Nate Dawg

An Evil monkey is in my closet!!!

Hmmm, there’s probably A LOT of new things that I can update you guys on, but I can’t remember!

HAHAHA, just kidding! No but lets be real now… Luckily we’re all still here, and it’s a good thing we weren’t listening to that gentleman about how the earth as we know it is gonna end!!! I believe that when God wants us to come home and spend eternity with him, he will let us know! This goes back to the why I’m still here, God said to me at the Pearly Gates “Go home child, your job on Earth is NOT done yet!” that being said I think we all need to live our lives like tomorrow isn’t promised which it isn’t!

But on the other end of the spectrum, y’all are here to see how spectacular I’m doing! So let me just go ahead and tell you: I seriously R O C K!!! Speaking of which I ate at The Rock Bar & Grill restaurant with this AWESOME/AMAZING/WONDERFUL woman named Tracy! I haven’t known her for a long time, but she has become a GREAT friend!!!

Physically, I just keep getting better and better with my walking without a cane. I’m still practicing walking in the sand here at my apt. complex because I am in my sisters wedding in Riviera Cancun on the beach at sunset! You have NO IDEA how stoked I am about this!!! Next week I will be starting a martial arts class to help improve my balance. I USED to be nervous and hesitant on curbs, but now I’m not nervous just CAUTIOUS!

My trip to Phoenix last week was a LOT better then I thought, not that I thought it was gonna suck. The reason I might have thought it’d suck is cuz I didn’t know how well I’d do at DIA and Phoenix airport. I also didn’t know what to expect once I arrived. Mainly because I thought I wasn’t gonna be able to do half the things I did there, or keep up with everyone and do certain things that I did. I thought this cuz I’m a little bit different from when I was last out there, before my accident. It’s NOT that I have ever had a bad trip to AZ. I went out there because my aunt just graduated with her bachelors of arts in communication and writing. And a BIG OL’ thanks to my grandparents for including me in this WONDERFUL adventure to the Grand Canyon State for my AMAZING aunt’s grad party.

Nate Dawg

freaking amazing

To all my faithful readers and people who check up on my blog religiously...

See I DO drink A LOT of coffee which does NOTHING for me!!!

Well this month has been pretty freaking amazing considering A) my 21st birthday, B) I went up to Breckenridge and went snowboarding the April 6-10th, went snowboarding the 7th and my dad and I went up the 5th! The next day I went over to Breck and went snowboarding the next day, and sure enough I sprained my AC joint in my shoulder. They thought I had broken my right clavicle, but sure enough NO nothing out of the ordinary!  C) At the "Toast to our Teams" I was able to speak with Bird Man, Adam Foot, some of the DU hockey players, a few of the younger Avs players and their girlfriends. I was able to have nachos with coach Carl from the nuggets and it was awesome! D) One of the MOST IMPORTANT part of this past week/month is the fact that Josh, my brother in-law asked me to be a groomsman in his and my sisters wedding.

Nate Dawg

Random: Nate

Memo to everyone: Every chance you get, celebrate that moment of life!  It ONLY comes once!!!

I know its been a few weeks since I’ve put out an update, but I just wanted to keep you all guessing on how awesome I’m doing! Well, to start off the first thing that comes to mind is that I jumped off an aerobic step! Now I know you all are like “WOW, a step! What’s so great about that”, but believe it or not, I had lost pretty much ALL my strength! The guy that could ONCE dead lift 435lbs when he was only a puny 155lbs jumped off A step… WOW!!! But in all actuality it is a HUGE accomplishment because looking back at it I had doctors say, “he might not wake up from his coma, and that he’ll never walk again….” HA, look at me now!!! I believe that all this has been possible due to the love and support from my family and friends, and more importantly, the power of prayer! I am who I am today all thanks to my boy J.C upstairs! So in retrospect I thank him daily for letting me be who I am today!

Just over a week ago I, yes I turned 21! To me it wasn’t all its cracked up to be! Most people go out and get trashed out of their minds, but me having this type of brain injury I have, can’t go out and drink which to me is a blessing in disguise considering when I was younger I partied a little TOO MUCH! This is kind of an informal thank you because there are just TOO many people to thank individually so I hope its ok to thank you ALL in bulk? So THANK you ALL for coming and helping me celebrate my 21st year of life after pretty much cheating death!

So I want to put out a special thanks to those who traveled from far away places, and just up the street to come help me celebrate the turning of another chapter in the book, “The WONDERFUL life of Nate”!

Also, this week I was able to kick a ball! So my friends from my indoor soccer team, watch out because in NO TIME I’ll be back on the team helping you guys… lose, well hopefully win but that’s to be determined in the future!

Nate Dawg

I got rid of that annoying camel in my room (self-titled)

To be honest, I’m not really sure what to blog about anymore, so I would like whoever has thoughts or opinions about my progress or whatever’s on their mind to just leave a comment or remark, or if you have a funny/memorable time that we endured together.

I will now summarize my life in under 3.9 seconds!

1) Walking: whenever I’m in my house I am trying to stray away from my cane. It’s not very consistent, but its because I still have a little bit of fear of falling/exhaustion after my PT workouts because I get my butt kicked (in a good way) GO BARB!!!

2) ROM (Range Of Motion): My spastic arm has gotten a LOT better with my ROM and flexibility and all that jazz.

3) Memory: my memory has gotten about 57.493 times better then it was even a year ago. It seems to never let me down with its improvement… I think?

4) House/Household Stuff: My cooking has ventured out from frozen foods to some BOMB appetizers such as Buffalo Chicken Dip, and a Jimmy Dean Dip. I’ve made some quesadillas on my new quesadilla maker that the rents got for me. THANKS MOM/DAD!!! I have also made a few cheeseburgers thanks to my good old friend George Foreman and his little grill that makes AMAZING burgers!!!

5) Work/Lifting: Well work has definitely had its good days and quite frankly there have been NO bad days. I LOVE the Littleton YMCA!!! I don’t wanna talk about how M A C H O I’ve gotten but YES, its true! I have gotten abundantly bigger/more muscular which is a good thing in a way. It’s “not good” because that means my weight is also creeping up there with my muscular self! But I mean hey, you win some, ya lose some, and some there is no winning/losing done!

Nate Dawg

not gonna beat around the bush

Hello again, I’m sorry that Its been quite a few weeks since my last update. I just haven’t had a whole lot of things to say, well things that were “necessary” in my opinion! But now on to the real reason why people come to this whole blog thing: for ME and MY recovery!!! My new years was a whole lot of fun… well KINDA. I went over to the parental units house and stayed the night. Not gonna lie the next day tho was awesome because I was able to go to breakfast with a bunch of my friends that I made from Omaha. I kinda forgot why exactly they were out here, but I had a great time seeing them on my own stomping grounds. As far as progress, well I’m not gonna beat around the bush here, but I AM doing pretty darn well!!! First off, my memory has increased a ton; my typing has also improved, and my right arm range of motion has also increased a bit. I, my friends am LOVING working at the YMCA here compared to the one in Omaha, mainly because this one is about 1,000 X’s busier. I still have a LONG WAY to go in my recovery, but the good thing is at least I’m still progressing! I’m working on my walking still tho, which is coming along pretty darn good, except the fact that fact that its not quite back to what it used to be, but it’ll all come within time! And with all the contractor issues with my parental units house and the 1,300 sq ft edition we had to put on for me right after my accident, the necessity of that whole room is now being passed off to baby Jaxen!

I’ll be back in two weeks to update you on:

• Walking
• ROM (rang of motion on my R arm)
• Memory
• House/Household STUFF
• Work/Lifting

Nate Dawg