Fishy Fun

Monday was Veteran's Day and I had not planned to do anything.  Dan planned to take advantage of some of the freebies to military and was going to go to lunch with some of the kids.  I discovered that the Zoo and Aquarium were both going to be free to military that day.  So I gave up nap time to take the kids (and Dan!) to the aquarium.  We met at the ferry and sailed across the river to New Orleans and enjoyed the aquarium.  The kids had a surprisingly good time and were really good.  It was a nice day out as a family and I enjoyed it a lot more than I had expected.

Hamming it up on the giant shark mouth.

Delaney striking a pose with the seahorse.

And we can't forget the frog.  Must climb on it.

Sure, why not see if everyone can fit on it for a photo.  Yeah, those are my kids.  I let them climb on everything and annoy everyone else.  Actually, the place was not crowded at all, thank goodness!

No waiting to pet the sting rays.  The kids loved this.

They rearranged their play area and there was this faux fishing boat which the kids really enjoyed.  Rylee loved "catching" fish.

We meandered down the river walk a bit.  Here's Rylee being sneaky and silly.

Did I mention the climbing thing?  3 kids up in a tree, and 2 begging for a boost.

My cute Delaney.

View of Nola from across the river, as we headed  home.

Feelin' Churchy

 Joshua got to go on his first Temple Trip 2 weeks ago.  I got to drive up with him and his buddy Jacob.  Then they went to do the youth thing and I went to do the adult thing and we met back up and drove home.  Nothing earth shattering, but a lovely morning.  I was glad to hang out with my boy!

More grown ups than youth, but a good group and they had a good experience.  Joshua is in the front with the strained expression.  He doesn't do fake smiles well at all. 

Last weekend was our turn to clean the chapel.  The kids know the drill by now and are pretty good about it all.  They don't complain much, do their jobs, and we usually go out for food afterwards. They are good sports and they work pretty hard.

Joshua was chief hall vacuumer.

Rylee helped clean off the fingerprints she helped make on the doors.  Window washing is one of the more popular jobs- along with chalkboard cleaning. 

 Callie helped put the hymn books away.

I got to vaccuum the main chapel room.  It always takes forever, because I have to use the hose to clean the pews too.  (I know, not a flattering shot, but hey, if it weren't for unflattering photos, I'd have no photos of myself at all!)

Letter to my Podiatrist

Dear Dr. Podiatrist,

I have been stewing over yesterday's visit since I left your office.  I'm really annoyed with you. This was our second visit;  I saw you six weeks ago.  You were not very communicative.  I walked in, with a list of things I had been doing and you didn't care. I had my shoes in the car in case you wanted to see what I wore, but you didn't ask, and you were so not interested, I didn't even bring it up.  I said I thought I had plantar fasciitis and you spent 10 seconds with my foot and proclaimed my Achilles tendons too stiff.  Then you began wrapping tape around a piece of foam on my foot.  I was perplexed.  You never said what you were doing, or why you were doing it.  You never said what I was suppose to do with it.  Perversely, I just waited to see if you were going to explain yourself, because I'm kind of passive-aggressive like that, but nope, you never said a word about it.

I thought you were going to send me out of your office with no clear answers.  Fortunately, I also had a list of questions I wanted to ask.  Once I started asking them, you actually became more user-friendly.  You did answer my questions.  I kind of liked that you said you wanted to take a conservative approach and you were confident I would overcome this quickly.  I was a little surprised that the only things you mentioned were to stop running, do a specific stretch 3 times a day, and purchase some orthotic shoe inserts.  You suggested anti inflammatories, but I do not want to be taking them for forever and said so.  I asked about the steroid shot but you said no, let's try the easy fix first.  I asked if I should be doing anything else, and should I try a night boot.  You said no. I felt like maybe there should be more, but you didn't think so.  So off I went.

I stopped running.  I got the shoe inserts.  I did the stretches.  I discovered the shoe inserts hit my foot back at the heel.  After 4 weeks, I began to wonder if I was seeing no improvement because the inserts were aggravating it.  I wondered this because my foot hurt worse in the evenings after I had spent time in the shoes with the inserts.  I stopped using them.  However, I switched to a shoe with good arch support for going to the gym, and I wore orthotic (Spenco) sandals the rest of the time. My feet wore some sort of arch support 90% of my waking hours.  I took over the counter anti inflammatories for a week, and was aggravated to see no difference.

In addition, I have a slant board in my bathroom, and I occasionally use the frozen water bottle to roll under my foot.  I see the chiropractor regularly for my back and the chiro spent extra attention on my foot.  I explored acupuncture on the foot, and while it wasn't pleasant, there was a little improvement.  Sadly, nothing gave me miraculous relief, or lasting relief.

After 6 weeks, my foot still hurt.  Every day, every time I used it. I came back to see you at the appointed time.  You hadn't even asked what I was doing before you began to tell me I wasn't improving because I hadn't done what you told me to do.  I had mentioned a visit to the acupuncturist and that I saw the chiropractor.  You were offended that I would seek help from elsewhere and told me that if I wanted treatment to work, I needed to stick with one, and I wasn't getting better because of that.  I was offended that you had no idea what I had been doing.  I did exactly what you asked me to, yet you did not listen to me at all.  You accused me of not following your treatment program.  You hadn't even asked me if I had.  You assumed that if I had tried acupuncture or the chiropractor, then obviously I wasn't doing what you suggested.  You assumed wrong, and you did not even wait to see if I had followed your 2 protocols.  Astonishingly enough, you were also unhappy with me for not using the prescription you had given me.  A prescription you apparently gave me at our last visit, without ever mentioning you were giving me a prescription.  Honestly, I found out you had prescribed an anti-inflammatory (directly to my pharmacy) when I got the notice from my insurance company 5 weeks after you sent it in. I then had to call the insurance company to ask what this was.  Had you listened to me on our first appointment, you'd have known I wasn't interested in taking drugs long term anyway.

You also implied that I was wasting your time.  That I was stringing out visits when I could be doing more.  That one really perplexed me.  You were the one who wanted to be conservative.  I was really confused as to why you thought I was making us need more visits, but you were on a tirade, and obviously were not interested in hearing anything else.

I'm sure you recall our time together somewhat differently.  However, I have no interest in hearing what you think happened. I have no interest in seeing you again.  I think you didn't listen and I will not be visiting with you again.  If I want someone to ignore me, I have 5 children for that.  If I want a doctor who will listen to me, I will be finding one elsewhere.

Sincerely,
Thoroughly disgruntled

Halloween Wrap Up

We had a lot of stuff going on to celebrate Halloween this year.  I figured I'd put it all in one exceedingly long post.  So, this is all the stuff we did this year:

The Branch Halloween Party:

Is it wrong for me to be annoyed that they insist on calling it a "Fall Festival" when it clearly is not a Fall Festival, but in fact, a Halloween party?  It was the usual thing- Chili cook off, cake walk for dessert, lots of little costumed people running around, and a trunk or treat.

Rylee wore a horse costume, but it was bulky and cumbersome, so she's down to just her freckles here. Dan was himself.

My kitty Marian. 

Poor Delaney.  She was convinced that her adorable glow in the dark pajamas were a scary costume.  She was irate whenever someone suggested it wasn't. 

Callie brought her best friend Dorothy to the party and they were matching cats. 

The pumpkin carving contest.  I thought I did a pretty good one, but the others were way better.   Not the best picture, but mine is in the center... next to the awesome "Where the Wild Things Are" carving. So yeah, I was okay losing this year!

Frosting the pumpkin cookies.  My favorite part of the evening was hearing a kid ask for the "putrid" colored frosting! 

 Rylee posing with her cookie.

Marian, Dorothy and Callie doing the cake walk. This was the only way to get your dessert.  Fortunately, there was plenty of offerings and when they started the trunk-or-treat (a little prematurely, I thought!) I snuck in and grabbed a bag of yummy cookies. (Hey, I had donated pie!)

 Rylee and her horse trunk-or-treating.  Somehow the horse's bridle part got left at home and she had to hold the poor thing's head up as she begged for loot.

Joshua and Callie hanging out in our trunk.  Joshua likes to give out candy. He also thinks he is very clever.  We had gotten a plastic foot as a Halloween accessory, and when kids would come up and say, "Tick or Treat!", Joshua would hold out the foot and say, "Smell my feet!"

Nope, still not a great shot of the pumpkin I slaved over to carve!

Running Group Halloween Play Date: 

My running group got together on Wednesday and had some fun.  I felt silly and ashamed, since I was the only adult NOT in a costume.

 We had a mummy wrap relay which the kids LOVED.

And the coloring sheets and stickers were a huge hit for Rylee. 

 Isn't she cute?!

Delaney's Pumpkin Day:
This was an exercise in disorganization, but the kids seemed to have a wonderful time.  I had signed up to assist, but since no one knew what was going on, I just hung out with Delaney and did what she did.  There was a lack of supervision, so I did get to help keep her class going where they needed to, and I got to help with the less organized kids. Again, the kids thought it was great.  They went out to the track and ate lunch out there.  Then they had several different stations to do stuff at.

Delaney having her lunch with her friends. 

They made these cute cotton ball ghosts at this station.  The wind was quite blustery so it was challenging. 

The next station they were given adorable little pumpkins and the kids made predictions about their pumpkins and then measured to see if they were correct. 

This was the "How far will it roll" measurement. 

The "will it sink or float" test.  (They float!) 

The next station was to make these popcorn hands.  Delaney is a little kooky and I have no idea what she is doing!  There were 2 more stations- I think it was decorating a cupcake to eat, and pulling out pumpkin guts.  I had to leave and run over to Callie's class at this point! 

Callie's Party:
Callie's class cleverly scheduled the presentation of "Personal Narratives" on Halloween and thus was able to consider it educational, while still having a party!  I went to see Callie's presentation.  In a class of 30 kids, I thought it might take forever, but it only took an hour.  Score!  And the kids were impressive.  They did a great job on their narrations.  Callie was #27, and hers was short and sweet.  It was kind of hard to hear some of the kids over the sounds of munching, but what I did hear was very good.

 Hanging out at her desk, waiting her turn.  Note all the candy and treats around the room. Callie also got a little pumpkin to bring home.

Giving her narration. She was quiet, and shy, but knew her stuff and spoke clearly, if softly.

Halloween Night:
After school, Delaney and Marian went to the Karate Party.  Dan dropped them off and I picked them up. I think they had fun.  Again, Delaney was heartbroken that no one thought she was scary.  And she got a prize for "silliest" costume, which really hurt her feelings.  She was perplexed as well.  She'd had me draw "angry eyebrows" on her and could not understand why no one thought she was scary.  Poor kid.

Joshua and Callie took off before I got back from the karate party pick up and I never even got to see Joshua in his costume.  Well, I did for 30 seconds when he returned form trick-or-treating, but I didn't have the camera then. Marian opted not to go out, but wanted to help pass out candy.  But she really didn't.  She was too shy to answer the door and hand over candy.

Delaney is in the pink, in the middle of the line.  Marian is all the way on the right, in the black cat outfit.  There were a lot of kids at the karate party.  

Delaney and Rylee with their loot haul. They had fun.  Dan takes them out and they came back with a decent haul.  Joshua and Callie came home a lot earlier than they had to, but that worked out fine since it was raining by the time their curfew rolled around.  There was plenty of candy for all, and I'm pretty sure that is all they ate all weekend long!

Oh, these were the pumpkins we carved for Halloween.  Joshua did the pokimon pumpkin on the left.  I cleaned out the guts and he did absolutely everything else!  The wolf pumpkin on the right was selected by Callie, who was also suppose to carve it, but alas, I did all the work. And it came out awesome!

Lunch with Delaney

Delaney asked if I would have lunch with her last week.  I actually had a little time on a preschool day, so I went.  It was not the thrill I had hoped for, but Delaney thought it was, so yay for that.  The first graders eat in their classroom, at their desks,  and they are not allowed to talk. It was very boring.  To make it worse, the teachers turn on PBS, and the kids get to watch tv geared to preschoolers.  Bleh.

It was pizza day, so I let her buy lunch to make it a super-special day.  For her.  I looked at the lunch tray and couldn't imagine it was filling enough for her- 1 slice of pizza, a bit of pineapple, and beans she wouldn't touch.  But she was happy about the pizza. 

This picture is just in here so you can see her awesome hair! 

So cute and happy to hang out with me! 

They have a stupid system called Class Dojo and the kids get points for random stuff.  It is suppose to inspire good behavior, but the points are so arbitrary, they really don't.  Here Delaney is, waiting in line to give herself a point because she knew how many days were in October.  

Happy with her points!  She has 51 right now, which is a lot, but again, it is totally arbitrary.

Me and my girl! I am glad I went to spend time with her.  She is a great kid!