One Dancing Princess

Is there anything cuter than little girls in dance outfits?

Tessa started dance classes today. She seemed to enjoy it. It takes her a while to warm up to new situations so she seemed to hang back a bit when they were taking turns doing tricks. She's always been like that, however, so I'm sure in a few weeks she'll be jumping in there with the other girls.

They do a bit of tumbling, a bit of ballet, and a bit of tap. Jay is already looking forward to the recitals and the money spent on dance gear. Even he has a hard time saying no to The Dancing Princess.

Stalking the Sidelines

When Henry was in the hospital last January, he was having a hard time. He was in pain but didn't want to take his pain medication, he felt terrible (rightfully so, I think) and he was just being contrary about stuff like getting out of bed and eating. So the hospital nutrionist, in an attempt to cheer him up, had her husband come to visit him. Turns out her husband is the coach of our local high school football team and he brought about a dozen of the players with him. They brought Henry a helmet, a tshirt, and a lot of good cheer and motivation. They stayed for a while and talked football with him. He loved it. Before they left, the coach asked Henry if he'd like to come on the sidelines during one of their games during the next football season. Jay and I were grateful that they took the time to visit Henry in the hospital and wrote them a note to tell them so.

Henry never forgot the offer to come down on the field during a game and started asking about it as this summer progressed, so a few weeks ago Jay called and left a message for the coach to see if that was something that he could do. He didn't return the call before the first game so we told Henry that he probably just got busy and forgot and Jay took the boys to the game anyway. But last week, he called. He invited Henry to come on the field during warmups, into the locker room, and watch the game on the sideline during Friday night's game. Not many things geek Henry up more than live sports, so having an insider's view was pretty special for him.

Here is a view from the sidelines. He looks thrilled to have his picture taken:

This was during the "Moment of Silence" that they had before taking the field:
The players were so good with Henry. Lots of them remembered him from the hospital and they all made a point to chat with him throughout the course of the evening. As you can see, they were happy to have their picture taken, unlike Henry:
He even got to go onto the field with the captains for the coin toss. He's the short guy in the hood - it was raining before the game:
He had a great time. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a victory for Sky View (well, not having a 45 minute lightening/rain delay would have been nice). We are so appreciative to Coach Ahnder and the team for giving him such a great experience. Go Bobcats!

Back to School

Yesterday was the first day of school for Henry and William. It seemed to go well. William did fine at lunch and seems interested to try school lunch. He had two recesses. His teacher is funny. He sits with Spencer on the bus. Henry was very nonchalant about the whole thing, as is typical with Henry. He liked the science experiment that they did and is excited to try out the challenge words in spelling this year. His teacher is nice. He played kickball at recess.

Things went a bit downhill as the night wore on, though. You could tell that they were both really tired. William said that being at school all day felt like he was spending his whole life at school. He perked up a bit when I reminded him that the first day is always the hardest and he'll get used to it and hey, isn't tomorrow Friday and an early out day? He seemed happy to trot off to the bus stop this morning. Henry was grumpy that his teacher requires him to not only read 20 minutes a night (that's not a big deal - both kids read for 30 minutes at night) but also write a three sentence summary about what he has read. "How will I come up with three sentences?", he moaned. Then, once he did it, he realized that it's not a big deal.

It felt so quiet around the house yesterday. Tessa and I got a ton of errands run. It was nice. Almost too quiet really. Something tells me I'll get used to it.

Routine, Routine, Routine

If you know me well at all you know that I'm all about the routine. I have my daily housework and cleaning routine that I am really good about following - it makes me feel organized and like I can get things done in a timely and efficient manner. I love my calendar and marking things down on it. We have a pretty set bedtime routine for the kids that I'm convinced makes our bedtime go more smoothly. I love a good routine.

This part of my personality is one of the reasons why I look forward to school starting again in the fall (just a few more days). It's a good chance to rethink and refine our daily routine. Getting everything done that needs to be done after school requires some organization on our part and it always feels good. We still have our routines in the summer but we're not as strict about them because, to some degree, isn't that what summer is all about?

My love of routines collided with a lesson that we had at church and I'm all gung-ho about getting back into the swing of things. I know that some people set new goals around the beginning of the new calendar year, but I find that the beginning of the school year is a great time to do this as well. So tomorrow night's Family Home Evening lesson is all about getting back into some good routines. Some of them are school-related - when homework will be done and what time lights will go out, for example. But some of them are things that we haven't been good about doing recently, like reading the scriptures together as a family. We did well for a while about doing our family scripture study at 6:30 every night, right before the kids' snack time. But then stuff happened and before we knew it, the habit was broken. So starting this week, we're back at it.

The only part of the routine that I'm worried about implementing is William's bedtime. William is a heavy, hard sleeper. It's a great quality and I love that if he stays up a bit later for whatever reason he will sleep in a bit the next day (unlike "I don't need an alarm clock to get me up at 6:45 every morning" Henry). But the bus comes at 8:25 this year and he has to be on it. If he isn't waking up on his own by 7:30, things will be ugly. So instead of hanging out a little later with Henry (who is typically in bed around 8:45), he will really need to be in bed about 8:15. Which means reading and bath and all that stuff needs to start at 7:30. He won't like it one bit. But a well-rested William is crucial to a good start to first grade. So to bed he'll go. Reluctantly, I'm sure.

Wish us luck. We may need it.

This and That

I wish I had something great and wonderful and fun to report, but alas, no.

Last weekend the boys (Jay, Henry and William) went camping with our ward. I don't camp so Tessa and I stayed home. I mentioned that maybe next year she could go camping too and she said, "I'd rather stay home with you." Sweet, but I was kind of looking forward to a few EveryoneButMomGoesCamping kind of trips.

William was sick (stomach bug) on Sunday. Henry ended up with it last night and today. Poor kid was up and down every hour or so for most of the night. He is better today - slight fever, but better. Unfortunately a tired Henry is a grumpy and mean Henry. He finally fell asleep on the couch a while ago. Thank goodness. Hopefully he'll wake up in a better mood. Now I'm just half-waiting for Tessa to start throwing up.

We had planned a fun picnic/park day today which had to be postponed. Tessa tried to talk me into getting a babysitter for Henry so she and William could still have a picnic. Way to throw your brother under the bus, Tessa!

School starts a week from tomorrow. Can I hear a Hallelujah? They are ready. I am ready. It'll be a good thing. We've bought new backpacks and a lunch box for William. I worry that he'll have a meltdown at school if he can't get his little straw into the Capri-Sun or juice box. These are the kinds of things we worry about with William.

Tessa is starting dance classes in two weeks. Her dance outfit is darling. I can't wait for her to start. She's also doing preschool three mornings a week. Next year she'll be in kindergarten. How did that happen?

Status Quo

Henry had another doctor's appointment in Salt Lake City today. It went well. Henry's mood ranged from quiet and mopey (as we walked into the examining room) to chatty and giggly (once he found out that there would be no blood work required at this appointment). He did have a neck ultrasound but it was easy. Anything that doesn't require needles is considered easy in our house.

The neck ultrasound was good. Nothing suspicious looking, other than a leftover staple from his surgery. Did you know that they just leave those in there? Apparently they do.

Since his last thyroglobulin was low but still detectable, we can't call him Cancer Free yet. And according to the doctor it may be a while until we get there. We go back in December for more blood work and a CT scan on his chest (to check the spots that showed up last March, indicating lung metastases). Then we see the doctor again in February. It looks like we're in long-term monitoring mode - probably biannual blood tests with a yearly neck ultrasound, CT scan and doctor followup visits.

It's good. Not clear yet but about as positive as we can be right now. It's hard to believe we are only eight months out from his diagnosis; it seems longer. But he's good. So we're all good.

Forty-Two

So I'm 42 today. I don't feel any different than I did yesterday, which is good. The hair continues to grow in gray - pretty soon I'll need to up my coloring appointments to every six weeks. I still have the laugh lines and little crows feet that have gradually crept up on me.

But I have a wonderful family and great friends who have made me feel cared for today. We had cake and I didn't have to cook dinner. It was a good day.

Water Party

One of the things that I love about Henry's birthday is that it's easy. The party, I mean. It's summer. We invite a few boys his age over, they play outside, generally in some form of water, and they basically entertain themselves. Throw in some food, cake and snow cones (thanks to my good friend Melissa's snow cone machine) and you've got yourself a fun little party. At least I like to think so.

This year we decided to take things up a notch and rent a water slide for the kids to play on. Again, my good friend Melissa came through. She gave me the number of a woman who rents out their water slide. It came in a big rubber tote with a motorized fan to blow it up. Even without the instruction book, I managed to get it up and running in about 30 minutes. And judging from the exclamations of "this is awesome" coming from my backyard, the boys enjoyed themselves.

(Hmm. I don't know why our grass looks red in this picture. But really, it's green.)

The only thing that I didn't like about it was that it didn't get really firm like I thought it would so the kids had to be really careful when they got to the top - they couldn't touch the sides or it would list a bit to the side. They were good about taking turns and going up one at a time so it wasn't really an issue but still, I wish it wasn't so squishy.

The party was from 2-4 pm, so after Henry's friends left (most of them, anyway) I invited the other neighborhood kids over to play on it for a bit. They were all younger than Henry but I figured, why not? It was already up and running and everyone might as well enjoy it since we had it for the day. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

As for me, I sat on chair in the garage and monitored the festivities from the shade. Occasionally I called out "No jumping!" or "Be careful, boys!" but for the most part I stayed out of the way and let them have their fun.

It's too bad we can't do something like this for William's birthday. Unfortunately, December doesn't typically lend itself to outdoor activities around here, much less a big, blowup water slide. We'll have to think of something else.

Staycation

A few months ago the kids started asking us where we were going on vacation this year. Last year we went to southern California. We saw my brother and his family and did all kinds of fun things, including the beach, Disneyland, and a Yankees game. Our plan was to do some kind of getaway with the kids every summer. Unfortunately our cash flow is a bit tied up in paying off some of Henry's medical bills so a big trip was out. We settled on a weekend trip to Salt Lake City. We stayed in a hotel and did all kinds of fun things there. We can categorize them as follows:

The Good

Temple Square - The kids loved walking through Temple Square and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We walked through the visitors centers and the gardens and had a nice time checking things out.

Boondocks - How can you go wrong, really, with mini golf, laser tag, bumper boats, go carts, batting cages, and arcade games. We spent about 4 hours there on Friday and the kids had a blast.

Despicable Me - We know we can see movies in Cache Valley, but it seemed like a fun, cool (as in not hot), inside thing to do when the temperature was hovering close to 100 and we had spent a few hours outside at Boondocks that day. The movie was cute. And did I mention that it was cool in the theater?

Mayan Adventure - This restaurant was really fun. The food was OK - nothing fabulous - but every so often there were cliff divers and fire dancers that kept everyone entertained.

Clarke Planetarium - We spent Saturday morning at Gateway and saw the IMAX movie "Under The Sea". It was really good and just what a 3-D movie should be. The exhibits in the planetarium kept us occupied for a while as well.

Utah State Capitol Building - The kids didn't want to browse through the new Deseret Book store so Jay took them up to the Capitol Building. They had a fun time checking out all the ins and outs.




The Bad

William's Fear of Heights - This manifested itself more often than you might think - walking up the rounded ramp to see the Christus at Temple Square, during mini-golf at Boondocks, dinner at the Mayan (we had an upstairs table right by the lagoon and William wouldn't even walk over to watch the divers), going up a level on the escalator at Gateway. For a kid whose favorite ride at Disneyland was Soarin Over California, which even freaked me out a little, he sure doesn't like anything that requires you to go UP.

Sleeping 5 to a Room - This really wasn't bad the second night, when we moved "I sleep like a log but move around a ton" William to the sleeping bag on the floor and let Henry and Tessa share the other bed. But having that many people in one room just made everything stuffy, so Jay and I kept waking up and throwing covers off because we were hot.

The Ugly

Chinese Gourmet - This place to eat (I hesitate to call it a restaurant) is on State Street about 45th South. We figured - buffet, Chinese, should work for everyone. Uh, no. Seriously, I don't ever think I've had a worse meal than this. It was terrible. The food was either tasteless or tasted horrible. Even the desserts were bad. The worse part was watching William shovel food in his mouth like he had never eaten anything so good. We finally made him stop eating because we were worried that he'd be sick. This will go down in history as the rare time that Jay makes a bad call regarding an eating establishment and why I was in charge of picking a place to eat on Friday night (see above, Mayan Adventure).

So there you have it. Staycation 2010. We'd do it all again, minus the trip to Chinese Gourmet of course.