Summer by the numbers

I wrote this last week sometime, and didn't get around to posting it.  

Well, in the 77 days of summer vacation so far, here’s the numbers:

23 chiropractic visits (my back is feeling GREAT)

8 - 3 hour family sessions at Daysprings (Brandon’s rehab program)

3 medical procedures for Roger: vien ablation, REDACTED and an MRI.

1 week of Scout camp for Roger.  The amount of time he put into preparation?  Tons!

6  Karate classes Ethan attended. It should have been 18.  Either we forgot, or……… see the following.

1 doctor visit with xrays for Ethan after he fell off the basketball hoop and hurt his foot.  (we have a new family rule.  Don’t climb on the backboard.) 

1 set of crutches, which ironically caused him to injure his OTHER foot a few weeks later as he goofed around on them and fell off the deck.  (new rule, don’t try to go downstairs on your crutches)

2 weeks of limping and sadness over the 2^nd hurt foot.

1 birthday party at Pirate Island, 1 cousin late-night birthday bash.

4 days and nights with the 4 Stone cousins as their parents went on vacation.

1 overnighter with the Butler cousins for the same thang.

1 Baptism of a lovely boy.

4 days and nights at the FABULOUS BUTLER REUNION in Park City

1 week total of lovely houseguests.

6 movies, Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Green Lantern, Super 8 and Cars 2 (at the Mount Pleasant drive-in.  No Ethan didn’t get to see all of these.

Books: The Lost Gate, by Orson Scott Card, a couple of #1 Ladies Detective Agency, The Mysterious Benedict Society, 1,2 and 3, by Trenton Lee Stewart, Pirates by Celia Rees, Maisie Dobbs by Jaqueline Winspear and Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

2 family gatherings with food (at my house) - adjacent to and because of the baptism and reunion. ( I’m not counting Sunday nights with relatives or friends over for dinner;  I’m sure there’s been a week or 2 that we haven’t done that, but mostly we do.)

3 swim days at Aunt Amy’s pool with the cousins.

2 Seven Peaks days, 1 Trafalga day.  We barely got our $$’s worth out of the Mother of all Passes, but I don’t care.  Those places suck my soul out of my nostrils.

1 ER visit with my brother in law, who separated his shoulder playing frisbee at the park with Roger and Ethan. 

8 days subbing at work

1 visit with the Stake Presidency, in the which our minds were blown when Roger was asked to be Bishop.  The panic attacks followed by blessings and tangible feelings of comfort cannot be numbered.  Sadly, since he has been set apart, he hasn’t gotten a full night’s sleep.  Happily, he is blessed to be able to carry on anyway.  It's kind of funny, 25 years ago I became a mom, and promptly forgot how to sleep.  Now the same thing has happened to Roger;  I really feel for him, and then at the same time I secretly think "welcome to MY world!"  (wish I was a nicer person) The difference is he's thinking about all the people in the ward, and I'm just aggravated at being awake.  If you're ever up at 5 am, you can be pretty sure one or both of us is up twiddling our thumbs in the dark (or doing the laundry), right along with you.                                 

Huh. I sure have a hard time writing about the big things.  I just slide right over into nattering about all the little stuff.  I have all these tender/wondering/thankful/nervous thoughts and feelings about Roger's calling, but.................... aaaack!  I'll  have to stick with writing about the stuff that is pretty.darn.prosaic. otherwise I can't seem to write at all. So!

A local parade, an evening of fireworks, a garage sale, the return of my parents from their mission, a primary activity, weeding, housework.  Voila -  one too-busy summer.   

Look!  pretty flowers!

For one brief shining moment

Ok, SOME people have already made fun of me (Darrell, I'm looking at you) but when things get me down, I can open my pantry and totally find my (you name it) in a second flat!  This gives me a happy, big time.  Everything's labeled too, which I used to do to give the household a clue, but now I have to label things for ME just to be able to put things back in the right place.  Sigh.  

If you have 5 flyswatters, you can make/invite others to help you this next September, when the fly hordes descend.

Multi-tasking, Roger style

So anyone remember Roger's migraine/passing out incident in (Jan? Feb?)  Well it happened again on Wed. with out the migraine.  We both woke up super dizzy on Wednesday, which was weird.  My ear hurt like crazy also, but for Roger it was his same old thing of late.  He drove to work, which scares me, because - hello? dizzy?!?  and when he was walking to the building, he started to be sick and passed out!  He came to -  covered in barf, with bloody road rash and head bonks!!  It scared him enough to agree to let me come and get him (Breanne had a job interview) so I discovered what he had been telling me all along, driving dizzy isn't so bad, you just have to keep your head level.  It's not the head turning that's the problem, it's the head tilting.  

Yes - he has been to the doctor about this, who referred him to an ENT, who did bunches of tests, who said possibly Minears disease, but the results are inconclusive.  When he called on Wed. about this - the ENT said, huh, you should go back to your family doctor.  So, he has an appointment on Monday, and you can see, we are not doing our usual "ignore it till it goes away routine" here.   Iffn anyone has any ideas - shoot.  (my vertigo was probably a short term virus or just sore ears, it's mostly gone away now.)

So there he is with his banged up face (Ethan exclaimed "Dad!  Your face is a wreck!")  and here is the Friday he had planned for himself.

 7am.  Vein ablation.  800 degrees burning the deep vein in his leg.  He has to wear bandages and a leg length compression stocking for 2 days.

10:30 Dentist.  2 cavities.

2 pm.  The BIG FIX.  snip snip.  The drug they gave him to take before he came in kicked his butt HARD!!  He was so out of it he could barely walk.  Characteristically, he talked pretty much non-stop until he passed out at home for good and slept for a couple of hours.  He would totally be a chatty drunk.

5 pm.  A wonderful visit from Glenn and Timmi.  At least that part was good!

So you see, Roger can make anything, even a day off for a few same day medical procedures into an EXTREME SPORT!!

This morning:  he wakes up with a uvula swollen to 3 times it's normal size.  It keeps flopping forward onto his tongue!  So bizarre, but it did go back down by lunch time.

After that, was all the fun of Ethan's birthday party, going out to eat with the family, and playing a little baseball with Ethan.  No rest for the man, and he faced it with good humor and a few jokes, of course!

Apparently I can drag this out forever.

The spring break extravaganza was so long ago that I can barely remember what happened anymore!  But, I'll do my best, because that was where the drama happened!  First, we toured a few monuments we had missed, and it was wet and rainy.

We got to the airport with plenty of time,  got loaded on the plane, taxied out to the runway, then WAITED.  and WAITED.  and WAITED.  and WAITED.  There were storms in Detroit, where we were going.  Planes were being hit by lighting.  one hour.  two hours.  At the 3 hour mark they taxied back to the terminal, but brightly told us not to get off, because we would be taking off any minute now.  But wait!  Now the lighting and wind was close to us, so we couldn't take off.  Now there's WATER LEAKING IN OUR PLANE.  The captain was pretty excited about that actually, because it became a maintenance delay, not just a weather delay and the airline would have to pay hotel etc. for those who had missed flights (us, for one).

So!  For the 4 1/2  hour delay in that cramped teeny airplane how were we prepared?  Well, the kids were tired of their books and toys.  We forgot to charge both the gameboy and the DVD player, so they both conked out after about 15 minutes.  I played a million card games with the youngest 2, after which Roger read Gregor to Ethan and Eli.  Our kids did a really, really great job - for which we were all grateful.  It really helped that there was about 20 teenagers from a school group, so our kids weren't the loudest ones!

In case you're wondering, no, they don't feed you any extra while you're being a sardine in a can.  Once they passed out the package of peanuts and little cup of pop, THATS IT.  When we finally landed we were tired and hungry, and we still had to take the shuttle to the hotel.  .

The one really awesome thing about this whole fiasco was that Chris, my brother who lives in Detroit heard we were laid over, drove up to our hotel, and visited and ate dinner with us at midnight! (bad picture, I'm sorry) Then he came back the next morning and visited us for breakfast, then drove us back to the airport.

And thats not the end of the story!!

We got to the airport in plenty of time, dun dun dun, got on the airplane and it started to take off.  We were going really fast - then all of a sudden the plane slammed on the brakes!!!!  It was pretty scary!  After we finally got stopped, the captain said that an error light that had popped on, and the maintenance guys would come look at it.  It took 1 1/2 hours! And THEN we still had the 4 hour flight!  So in the end, we were on the airplane for almost the same amount of time as the day before.  I had purchased 6 granola bars at the airport, so that and the darn peanuts were the kid's lunch.  We were all tired and hungry when we finally got back to good old Salt Lake City, where Breanne picked us up.

And THATS the end of the story!

Busch Gardens

Our plan for Friday was to go to Colonial Williamsburg, which is supposed to be pretty fabulous, but we were feeling like the kids were getting museumed  out.  Well, OK, we might have been feeling a teeny tiny bit the same!  Arek suggested Busch Gardens theme park  - Bring it on!  SO, of course it cost a mint and then some, but the FUN WAS HAD in a serious way!!  The roller coasters were the main attraction, and I have never seen anything like them.  Roger said one was the scariest thing he had ever been on, and the man has been bungee jumping!  Weather-wise, it was the most perfect and pristine spring day ever.  It only got chilly when you got yourself soaked in a water ride, which, of course everybody (but Roger and I) did.


The only fly in the ointment of the day was that Ethan and Aislynn were too short by just an inch to go on most of the roller coasters, (they measured on each ride!)  but there were a couple they COULD go on, which scared the heck out of them multiple times.

BEHOLD ! 

There were critters and critter shows

Only these 2 could take the spinning rides.

Kid runs

Sky Trams

Eli and Ethan are about to get wet for the 4th time.  Arek was poised at the bottom to slaughter them with a squirt cannon in case the ride didn't get them wet enough

You pay $5 and you stand inside the people dryer, complete with heat lamps and blowers.

Can't leave without your whiplash.

Leaving the park after an exhilarating, exhausting and well-fed day.  

Back at Mom and Dad's - Amy came to visit, and Dad cooked up steaks.  YUM!

We all lounged around and talked, and listened to Roger crack jokes.  

These are the best times of all.

Definitely.

The Lovely and Talented Elder and Sister Butler!!

.......... in front of their apartment.

For the first part of the next day, we took the kids to Colonial Beach which was close to King George.  The sane people wore actual warm clothes, and the kids changed into their swim suits and went in the water!  They had the awesome good time kids usually have when surrounded by freezing water, miles of sandy beach and a sunny day.  It was hard to peel them away! 

While we were sitting in the gazebo chatting, a downtrodden man sat down to tell us his sad tale.  I got to witness Mom putting the gospel whammy and sacrament meeting invite on him, and I was quite impressed.  You go - Sister Butler!! 

After the beach, we drove around and toured the local environs, stopped at an awesome antique store (the 2 youngest picked up a chinese parasol apiece, Eli got a ring of antique keys) then went home and ate DELICIOUS local Barbeque  (holy cow, it was really good)  Then the boys went to the US Marines Museum and then to a battlefield in Fredricksburg, while Mom, Aislynn and I went shopping in the cutest little boutique shops in Fredricksburg.    A good and tiring day was had by all!  


We were having such a good time visiting, that we didn't get any pictures though.

Here's a clearer picture of the kids in Mom and Dad's front yard area, the hotel is in that long building on the left.  So peaceful.  
  

Elder and Sister Butler

 The 4th day, we planned on hooking up with Elder and Sister Butler, aka, Mom and Dad, Grammy and Grandpa, aka, the reason I came on the trip!  (along with seeing Amy)  We were going to go thru the Museum of Natural History, but there were GPS snafus, and believe me, Mom and Dad, you need to be glad you weren't there.  Every school in the entire state was going on a field trip that morning, that museum!  So incredibly crowded and loud!   Here's some action shots:

Flat Stanley gets fed to the hippo.

Flat Stanley gets fed to the T-rex.

 Aislynn and I went to the butterfly exhibit while the boys hit the gemstones, then we went to the Ronald Reagan building to meet Mom and Dad for lunch!  It was so great to see them!!   I remember taking at least 4 or 5 pics during lunch, but I can find only 2 and your eyes were closed in the one where we were smiling Mom.
   
BTW - that's NOT my coke in the pic; I'm clean and sober!  It feels really great to say that, and it was awesome not to have to worry about where my next fix was coming from.  Roger and Arek on the other hand - Did! (snicker)


After lunch, we went to the mint, and had a really interesting tour on the actual place where they print our actual money.  There was hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars RIGHT THERE BEHIND THE GLASS (No pics allowed.) Recently I read a true story about a counterfeiter called "The Art of Making Money"  - (the guy's name was Art Williams)and it made me so much more impressed with what the guy accomplished SOLO, when I saw how incredibly much was involved.  

Then we walked to the Jefferson Memorial, and stopped to get all photogenic with the blossoms.

Whats with the darn Flat Stanley?

It was Jefferson's birthday that day, hence, the guy from the parks and rec dept. and the flowers to help celebrate.  The man came over and introduced himself as a fellow member of the church.  (He saw Mom's missionary badge)

These kids are STILL getting a kick out of their heli-spinner toys!  Here we are at Mom and Dad's apt.  The complex included a hotel section where Roger and I got a nice cute, clean room for $40 a night, waaaaay better than Motel 6!  See how green and rural it is?  Quite peaceful. It was reassuring to see my parents in a nice cute little missionary apartment, and be able to put a mental picture to their last year.  I wish we had been able to take pictures before we all came in and dumped our junk around, or let the KIDS in, for that matter!

Gotta publish, will finish up ......... sometime.