Category: Uncategorized (Page 9 of 207)

We returned to Grand Junction for the first time in a couple years to celebrate the holiday. The Masons hosted us for dinner this year. The spread was beautiful and, as expected, we made too much delicious food – leftovers for days! It was a quick trip, but filled with conversation and chill activities.

Jack came down with a cold while we were there. He’s feeling much better now and it seems no one else caught it (yay!). This week I made another batch of deviled eggs so he could enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with his appetite back.

A story by Sam.

Cold Seat
One day a little boy
named benny and he sat
on a cold seat on a
long drive. daddy, he said.
I’m cold. You’ll make it.
responded his dad.
however, benny did not
make it. by the end of
the drive, benny was
an Iceblock.
the end

Cold Seat 2
the rock wall
when bennys father
found out benny was
a block of ice, he brought
benny to the nearest
rock wall and threw
benny at it. it chipped
a bit of ice away. So
he kept throwing.
(( OW.OW.OW! ))thought
benny. (( just put me in
the sun! )) but his dad
kept throwing.
The end

Cold Seat 3
revenge of the ice
after 100 throws, benny
was out of the ice.
hey! said the ice. I have
your butt mark! and
you broke me!
Sorry. Said benny in a
sarcastic voice. I
demand Var! said ice.
its “war,” not “var”.
said bennys dad. but
ice already was
gathering varriors.
to be continued . . .

Cold Seat 4
“Var”
at 11 oclock, there was
a knock at the door.
benny opened the door
and hundreds of people
ran in. some chanting
“war!” others chanting
“var!” they were
cornered. they ran
to the car. this
will be a long
drive. said benny’s dad.
return to Cold
Seat 1.

hot Seat
one day, a boy named
tommy sat on a hot
seat. daddy, he said, Im
hot. You’ll live. responded
his dad. tommy did
not know this was
a long drive so he
stayed on the hot
seat. however, he
melted! he did
not live.
the end.

hot Seat 2
cool down
tommys dad saw his
melted son and brought
him to antartica to
cool him down but it
didn’t work. he threw
benny on it but it didn’t
work. he tried putting
sunglasses on him
and it did work!
he was cool.
the end

Last week Jack performed with his 7th grade orchestra at the area festival. Fifth grade through high school students gather to play a couple songs, and then one all together.

I forgot the name of this first one, I’ll fill it in when I asked Jack later.

Then they played the Jurassic Park theme. With a dinosaur cameo, naturally.

Finally the whole group played 7th Nation Army all together. (Weird choice, no? )

I was happy to sit so close and get a good view of his playing! He’s really becoming a proficient musician.

On the night of the first real snow of the season, Sam dressed in island-wear and performed at the 4th grade music show “Hawaiian Beach Party.”

He did great! He says he doesn’t like doing this, but he seemed to be having a good time.

It was very cute. The teacher does a great job putting these simple shows together. Some kids get solo or speaking parts (Sam did NOT want to try out). The choreography is simple and effective.

Wipe Out was hilarious. It went on a long time too, which brought on another layer of funny.

Sam got to twirl one of the scarves in the rainbow. He proudly told me afterward of the lasso-like technique he used to get the most twirling without hitting anyone.

Well done Sam! You did a great job!

Ben has been working on some changes to my blog to help preserve it. It seems to have caused some image gallery presentation problems. Sorry about that. We’ll try to get it fixed soon.

This year we returned to our church Trunk or Treat party. Time to don costumes all together! Mom put together these amazing costumes for the boys. Sam is Doctor Finkelstein and Jack is Jack Skellington. Sam loved to lift his help to scratch his brain. Jack looked very authentic too.

Ben and I chose comfortable cosplay. He’s Wreck It Ralph, and I’m Valkyrie from Thor Love & Thunder. No one got my reference or appreciated its accuracy (as expected) but I was comfy and got to wear space boot daggers + musical theater merch.

I love decorating my trunk. Sam and I put this together in the afternoon using only decorations from the house. Sam painted the cardboard tombstones. My speaker was hidden behind Zero and played “This Is Halloween” on loop. We won the Best Trunk award!!

Sunday afternoon we carved pumpkins. Every year they do more of the carving by themselves. This year I only stepped in to do some final cavity wall smoothing. The two little ones I carved are from Dad’s own pumpkin patch.

Monday the kids wore their costumes to school. I watched the parade and then went inside to help with his class party. It was actually great not to be the room parent this year. The last few years no one else stepped up. I’m glad that a good group of parents are working together for the whole 4th grade. They put me in the game room where I ran the ring toss competition. Sam’s costume looked spectacular in the black light.

For dinner I made a spooky stew and jack-o-lantern quesadillas. Sam asked for pumpkin pie for Halloween, but was too stuffed with candy from trunk-or-treating to eat any.

As soon as the sun started to set we went out trick-or-treating. It was so warm this year that I joined them! I still bundled up and turned my costume into a “Fan Girl” with MCU hat and K-pop lightstick – which proved very useful in the dark!

We have a lot of festive houses in our neighborhood. A house near the school set up a haunted house walk-through that tantalized the children all month. It was very popular, with animatronics inside and an elaborate zombie-baby-graveyard. Sam went through twice.

A very Happy Halloween for all! They went to bed already dreaming up plans for next year.

I had to miss Jack’s concert to attend a dance class. I felt bad about skipping, but Jack said he didn’t care and understood how much I wanted to dance right away. Ben went in my place and took pictures and video for me. Enjoy!

Today, exactly 6 weeks after my surgery, my GYN checked my stitches, declared me “well-healed,” and said I could resume all normal activities with no restrictions.

(。⌒∇⌒)。 DANCE TIME!!! 。(⌒∇⌒。)

I tried to take it easy, I even sat out 2.5 songs to rest. Even so, I’m going to be so sore tomorrow. I’m super out-of-shape. Totally worth it.

September 15 I had my hysterectomy, or officially, “laparoscopic robotic assisted total hysterectomy and salpingectomy.” The procedure went very smoothly, according to my surgeon. Recovery has also been going exactly as expected.

I have no memory between laying down on the operating table and waking up groggy in the PACU. I choked down the stale crackers so I could take some pain meds. My BP was low and my hemoglobin was low that morning too. Those are both normal for me and they weren’t too concerned. I think I took 4 hours to sleep, pee, and recover enough for Ben to come in and help me get home.

The first week was rough, as expected. I needed Ben to help me sit forward or stand up. My belly was very swollen and tender and I had terrible bladder spasms that had me crying in pain.

I had an outpouring of love from friends and family that made me so grateful and teary. Mom even came over to help cook and clean, until Andy’s positive covid test sent her back home to help him and keep us from catching it in case she had it too. It seriously made me so happy to have so many people sending gifts and well wishes.

By the end of Week 2 I was feeling a little more normal. I could walk a little more each day. I couldn’t sit up for very long, but I stopped napping and tried to be a little more active.

Week 3 is when I started to feel like myself again. I could drive again and I tried to do more of my normal activities at home. I could sit in normal couches and chairs, roll over in bed, and use the bathroom without too much pain.

Now I’m at the end of week 4 and I feel pretty close to normal. I stopped taking pain medication around the clock, now just 400 mg ibuprofen once a day if I need it. The weight gain from swelling is pretty much gone. I’ve been walking a lot, 3-4 miles sometimes. It’s the only exercise I’m allowed to do, so I’m trying to get the most out of it. I really miss yoga and dancing. If my doctor hadn’t strictly told me to wait until 6 weeks post-op, I would probably try a class this week. I’ll be good and wait, I promise!

Today Sam turned 9 years old! We celebrated today and last Saturday, when he had friends over (mask-free after testing!) to play video games and watch tv and build legos. He wanted a low-key party like Jack had last time. Easy for me, dude! I put up some balloons and made goody bags and cake, and that was it! He invited his two closest friends from this year’s class.

Today at school Sam’s teacher gave him a bag of fun trinkets to celebrate. After school we opened family presents and then his other friend came over to play video games. For dinner he asked me to make spaghetti and meatballs. He was so full he didn’t have room for the ice cream or pumpkin streusel cake that I made. No matter, I think Jack ate 3 pieces!

This was a great present to me – a genuine smile for the camera:

Happy birthday, Sam! We love you so much. You surprise us and impress us every day!