Not-See

Yesterday at dinner William said, "I played a new game at recess."  I was happy.  He has been playing a basketball game called War that tends to get rough and cause some issues with a certain child who will remain nameless but who seems to cause trouble with William and his friends.  I've been trying to get William to avoid this kid so I was thrilled to see him branching out and playing something different.  "Great.  What game were you playing?", I asked.

"Nazi."

I froze.  Literally.  I was standing at the sink and turned around slowly.  "What did you say you were playing?", I asked, hoping I had misunderstood.  "Nazi", William replied happily, "it's a fun game."

No.  No.  No way was my child playing a game called Nazi.  So I asked him to explain the game.

"Well, we all lined up behind a kid and then we run away.  The goal is to not let the kid in front see you.  You know, Not See."

Ooooohhhh.  Not See.  I get it.

Thank heavens.

He Drives....

...enough said.

The 4th Grade Field Trip

Every year at William's school, the 4th grade gets to go on a field trip to Salt Lake City.  The itinerary varies - when Henry went they visited the Utah state capital building, the Natural History museum and the planetarium.  This year William and his classmates were able to visit This Is The Place State Park, Hogle Zoo and the Utah Natural History Museum.

On a trip like this, parent chaperones are needed.  I had always planned to go and help out, but then Jay had his surgery.  He is still unable to drive (hopefully that changes on Monday) and had just gone back to work.  Luckily Jay was able to stay home/work from home that day, so I signed up to go.

It was a loooonnnnggg day.  We had to be at the school by 6:45 am for a 7 am departure.  After a solid two hour bus ride, we arrived at This Is The Place Park:

We visited the school house, where the kids had a lesson as if they were attending school in 1865 in the Utah Territory.

 They took turns pulling and pushing handcarts, like some of the pioneers who settled Utah:

 William and his friend Kyron in front of the big monument:

 Next we went to Hogle Zoo.  It seemed like a lot of the zoo was under construction but it was still fun:

 Finally we went to the Natural History Museum at the University of Utah.  The Sky Terrace was a fun place to visit:

 William loves fossils and dinosaurs, so much so that he wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up (although last week he wanted to be an astronomer):

 This dinosaur footprint cast was pretty impressive:

 Fossils, fossils, fossils!

It was a really fun day!  Thank goodness for my friend Kassey!  She chaperoned the trip as well and it was nice to have a friend to talk to during the long bus ride to and from Cache Valley.  Four hours is a long time to ride on a bus that honestly isn't designed for the comfort of adults.

William was happy to proclaim this activity as the Best Field Trip Ever!

Good Riddance, Part II!

Jay's PICC line is out.  After two months of daily IV antibiotics, he is done.  This is actually two weeks earlier than we thought, but his Infectious Disease doctor called last week and said four weeks after surgery should do the trick.  His blood work looks good and there is no sign of any more infection.  So today we went to Logan Regional and they removed that nasty PICC line.

We are actually grateful for the PICC line.  It allowed Jay to do his own antibiotics for eight weeks; he only had to go in once a week for bloodwork and a dressing change.  But it was annoying and uncomfortable.  So it's good to have it gone.

One more week and he has his followup appointment with the heart surgeon.  Hopefully that appointment will see him cleared for driving.  We can only hope!

Good Riddance!

Thanks heavens it's April.  I will take a thousand silly April Fools jokes from my kids as long as it means March 2014 is dead and gone forever.

Obviously Jay's illness, surgery and immediate recovery is the worst of the worst.  Just when he started feeling better I ended up with an abscessed tooth.  Fun, huh?  It is on a tooth that has a root canal and it was nasty.  My gums and jaw swelled up like crazy and it throbbed all the time.  I had a hard time eating and between the lack of food and my frequent use of over the counter pain killers, I ended up really sick.  I couldn't sleep.  I was grumpy.  But I felt like a heel complaining about my toothache because, you know, anything kind of pales in comparison to recent open-heart surgery.  

I have been on an antibiotic for a week and things are looking better.  The swelling is down and the pain is down to a dull ache that isn't too bad.  I am scheduled for a re-do of the root canal on Monday afternoon.  As going to any doctor who comes close to my mouth with sharp instruments is my least favorite thing to do, I'm not excited.  But hopefully that will be in the end of that.

Jay is great, however.  He's back to work and starting up Cardiac Rehab.  He feels good.  He should get his PICC line out next week (after almost two months) and it won't come a moment too soon.  

The kids have been out of school this week on Spring Break.  Between Jay's return to work full time, my dental discomfort and some less than ideal weather, we haven't done too much.  I took the kids to see Muppets Most Wanted, which killed a rainy afternoon.  They have hung out with friends a bit and played some new video games that they bought.  I was hoping to do a fun day trip to Salt Lake but it just didn't happen.  Hopefully they aren't scarred for life from the lameness that is Spring Break 2014.