There were some good times as well...

On the swing at the school playground...or reading with Grandpa...
or spending hours and hours with Alice building an X-wing fighter...
or spending hours and hours on the trampoline, with and without the sprinkler.
Even Alastair loved it, along as the rest of the kids didn't bounce too high.

I'm so glad when Brenna comes to visit...

What would I have done without her when we were baking cookies?Or mopping the floor?
(notice the gardening gloves)
Or dusting the furniture?
She even helped pick up all the apples that had fallen from the tree.

What a great helper!

On a short trip to Wisconsin...

Now that school has begun, it's time to post some recent happenings. Like the quick 3-day trip to Wisconsin to celebrate Catherine's birthday (a major milestone one that ended in a zero) and have some fun.

Unfortunately, Kevin had to work and didn't get to go with us. But Lily, the dog, can now recognize when we're getting close to Catherine's house and she gets so excited. Afterall, this is the house where food "falls from the sky". When we arrived, the dog didn't rush to check the smells on the trees left by other dogs--she ran into the house and checked under the kids' chairs for any tasty morsels that had fallen.While Connor was at a tennis class, the rest of us cooled off by wading in the creek.

Later, Catherine taught us how to make cool jewelry.
And on a warm afternoon, the slip-n-slide was fun for big and little kids. All of this was prelude to the next phase--taking Connor and Brenna home with us to Iowa!

When Tonsils Turn Against You

On Friday morning, I took Alice to have her tonsils removed.

"No food or drink after midnight. Arrive at 7:20 a.m."

The outpatient surgical unit is attached to a group of doctors' offices, so it isn't in a hospital, and doesn't smell like a hospital. The nurses were very nice and spent a lot of personal time with Alice, addressing any concerns she had. They used a topical anesthetic before putting in the IV. They did everything they could to make this as easy as possible. They even let me go with her into the operating room and be with her until she fell asleep with the anesthesia.
Then it was only a half hour before the doctor came out to tell me those tonsils had been HUGE and there was no option but to have them removed.

Also, the adenoids did not need any further work.

As Alice came up out of the anesthesia, she would give such big grins at me, but she wouldn't let me take a picture post-surgery. I fully understand. I wouldn't want any post-surgical pictures of me either! (It would look worse than any passport photo!).

She's been surviving on popsicles, pudding, ice cream, applesauce, instant mashed potatoes, soup, and fruit smoothies.

The doctor prescribed liquid Lortab, so she has been a bit on the loopy side, but the pain is better that way.

On the up side, on Saturday she watched a marathon of Fred Astaire movies on TV.

On Sunday, she didn't want to stay home by herself and went to church with us. After the first hour, she said she could make it through the whole block. And she did! But after a quick lunch she slept 4 hours straight.

She's hoping to be able to attend school when it starts on Wednesday.

Where did the summer go?

I can't believe it has been a month since I last posted. After our Idaho vacation, I looked forward to lazy days by the pool with a book in hand, and I think maybe I've had one or two of those days, but nothing like what I was hoping for!

As usual, it is the schedules of others in the family that seem to dictate what my schedule will be:

Elley's orthodontist appointment;

Girls' Camp;

a school physical for Alice that led to a Ear, Nose & Throat specialist, which led to a visit to an allergist AND to having her tonsils removed;

Elley going to EFY;

back to school clothes and supplies shopping;

going to Wisconsin for Catherine's birthday;

bringing back two grandchildren to spend the week;

Deborah coming to visit;

Catherine coming here to pick up her children;

helping with school registration

and

Kevin leaving for Mexico for a week.

Whew! Maybe when school starts this week I'll get to relax and read that book.