A powerline, lines of which give this park its name.
A Dandelion.
Red berries on a tree.
One of the ducks from the pond hoping for a handout but only getting his photo taken.
William in the sun by the duck pond.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Nature Walk
Today the sun was shining. In true Oregonian fashion, this meant we simply HAD to go outdoors. I suggested a nature walk and the kids loved the idea. We headed out to Powerlines Park and William demanded that I take the camera and take pictures of the nature things we found. Here are some of the results.
A powerline, lines of which give this park its name.
A Dandelion.
Red berries on a tree.
One of the ducks from the pond hoping for a handout but only getting his photo taken.
William in the sun by the duck pond.
A powerline, lines of which give this park its name.
A Dandelion.
Red berries on a tree.
One of the ducks from the pond hoping for a handout but only getting his photo taken.
William in the sun by the duck pond.
Costume Party
Intel's Halloween party (aka: madhouse of parents with young children vying for cheap toys and free candy at carnival-style games) was last Thursday night. We headed to Butch and Jo's for dinner first and to meet Jo's new little Rachel baby. The baby is adorable and the dinner was good. Before heading to the party, we dressed the kids and lined them up for photos. So, here's a preview of what our kiddos will be for Halloween. William chose his outfit from Value Village and, although he's never heard of a Power Ranger before, he LOVES it. Anna's I found at Goodwill. She wants to wear it all the time and feels very princess-y in it. Butch made the robot costume for Spencer and was the envy of all the Intel parents.
Apple Farm Field Trip
William's preschool went to the apple farm for a field trip last Wednesday. It was a perfect day for farm touring. It hadn't rained in a few days, so it wasn't incredibly muddy. The sky was overcast, but the rain didn't start until afternoon. William loved the hay maze. They both loved the hay ride. We got on its first run and as soon as it ended it's 15 minute tractor-pulled tour of some of the apple orchards, Anna was crying to go again. I dragged the kids to the Jumpin' Apple (big air-filled apple for kids to bounce in) but William wouldn't get in without Anna and Anna wouldn't get in at all. The kids got apple-shaped cups of cider to take home. Anna loved hers. William didn't like his at all, so I drank it. Both kids also got to take home a pumpkin from the mini pumpkin collection. I forgot the camera at the farm (unlike every other mother there), so here are some pics of the fruits of our trip. I bought a bunch of apples to take home and they are DELICIOUS!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Halloween Craftiness
William is REALLY into painting lately. Every day he asks, begs, whines, and screams to do some painting (depending on my response to each level of demand). I bought him this pumpkin craft at the craft store a while ago. I was frustrated at first with his slowness in painting, but I was really pleased with the final product. My plain orange pumpkin doesn't seem nearly as creative/artistic. William says it's just "ordinary" while his is the work of an "artist."
Boot of Power
Anna really likes my boot of power. She tried to put it on the other day, but it's a little too tall. Here she is attempting it.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Broken Foot
(Warning: this is a long entry. Read if you wish. There is little mention of the kids or Kip.)
Last Wednesday I broke my foot. I wasn't doing anything unusual. I was trying to put William in time-out. And it broke my foot. See if I try to discipline him again!
We had a good morning that day. We went to our singing group at 10am and sang songs about apples and squirrels and autumn. Then, we came home to make some lunch. The kids decided to watch 'the horsey show' while I put lunch together (Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron). I let them do it so I could have some peace and put together some really good bagel and veggie sandwiches for me and William and a hot dog for Anna. Then, William had a meltdown. He threw a little fit on the floor because he wanted the show off. There were just a few minutes left at that point and Anna wanted to watch it. Her hot dog wasn't done, so I wanted to let her. I got sick of hearing William slam his bus-shaped bin of Legos into the hearth and went over to stop him. I didn't feel up to carrying him all the way to the staircase to have his time-out, so I thought I would just swing him onto the recliner. I grabbed him under the arms and went to swing and something went wrong. My angle was totally off and he slammed into my left leg instead of the recliner. It twisted under me and something snapped. The pain was intense. I let him drop as I fell to the floor and tried to straighten my legs under me. As I lay there gasping and moaning in pain William crawled over to me and said urgently that we needed to go to the hospital. "What did I do to him?" I thought in terror. I didn't drop him that hard - I really thought he should be OK.
"Are you hurt?" I asked him.
"No, YOU are," he said.
Oh, what a sweet boy. He really cared. Of course, if he hadn't been acting like a ninny I wouldn't have been lying on the floor in agonizing pain in the first place.
I convinced him to sit at the table and eat his lunch after he turned off the movie. It had reached the credits while I writhed in agony below the TV. (I think Anna was still watching it.) I forced myself to hop to the stove and turn off the burner under Anna's hot dog which had miraculously turned itself and kept from burning all in one spot, although it was a little dark in a couple places. I then tried to sit at the table and eat the sandwich I had really been looking forward to just a few minutes before. Instead, I had to grab a nearby grocery sack and try not to puke in it. Eventually, I called Kip and begged him to come home from work to drive William to preschool and take me to the Urgent Care. He got to eat my sandwich.
I spent about 2 hours at the Urgent Care. When the doctor finally saw me he said he would send me off to x-ray. I informed him that I was 5 months pregnant and he said he would check. They decided not to x-ray. He suggested I go home and see if it got better and if it didn't they could x-ray me in a couple days.
I wasn't happy with that option.
I spent the next two days in a fair amount of pain. It really did get a lot better, but I couldn't moved all of my toes and I just wanted to know if it was broken or not and what to do to get it better. So, on Friday I called my OB and they said to go ahead with the x-ray. Back I went to the Urgent Care. (My PCP recently moved to another city and I haven't bothered getting a new one since I see my OB every month anyway, so the Urgent Care was the best option for getting a quick doctor's visit in, even though I'm not fond of the place in general.)
This time I was there three hours. I waited an hour to get in. Then, I waited an hour for the x-ray people to take me from the exam room. Finally, the technician rolled me down the hall in a wheel chair, stopped it next to a wall and walked a few more feet down the hall and around the corner. He then did some computer stuff asking me questions from around the corner from time to time in an Asian accent that was hard to understand without the challenge of not being able to see him. He eventually reappeared and pushed me into the x-ray room and took some pictures of my ankle. Then, back we went to the exam room.
A few minutes later, there he was again. The doctor had apparently asked him to x-ray my foot since that was where the pain was and there was nothing wrong with my ankle. Back we went to the x-ray room. He took foot pictures and then wheeled me into the hall facing the wall next to the corner around which sat his desk. He went to his desk and was there an annoyingly long time. I amused myself by examining the contents of my purse and creating a 'toss' pile of the junk I found. Finally, he came back into view and handed me a packet labeled "x-ray copies." I assumed that this meant my foot had been broken. I was right. The doctor told me to stay off the foot and to ice it frequently and gave me a phone number for the orthopedic specialists. After he left, the nurse came in to wrap my foot and give me a nearly knee-high boot to wear. It took her almost 10 minutes just to get the boot on me and my comfort level with her kept dropping as she grabbed long velcro straps and wondered aloud where they were supposed to attach and then swore to me she had done this before. In her defense, she was very pleasant and kind and the boot is annoying to put on. Eventually, she succeeded in applying it and I walked out to my car. She wanted to wheel me out, but I just wanted out of there, so I took off while she was out of the room and said goodbye to her as I passed her in the hallway.
On Monday I took my booted self to the Orthopedic specialists. They do a triage sort of deal in the afternoons and the office was crowded with moms accompanying their football-playing sons for examination of their sports injuries. I figured it would take another couple hours to get through, but they had my name called by the time I finished the paperwork and the doctor appeared as soon as I had the boot off. He opened my x-rays and looked at them in silence for a moment. Then, he turned to me and asked me where the break was. The Urgent Care doctor had tried to point it out to me, but where he pointed just looked like normal space between bones to me. Apparently, it looked normal to the specialist, too. After looking hard at all the x-rays for a few moments, he figured out what they were seeing. There was a small break on the end of one of the bones on the side of my foot. It was nothing to worry about, in his opinion. He suggested I wear the boot for a few weeks while it healed, mostly to prevent myself from damaging it more (since my children seem compelled to step on or bump my foot whenever it is unprotected). He said it would be fine to walk without the boot around the house as long as the pain level wasn't too bad.
Wahoo! This was exactly what I wanted to hear. No cast. No surgery. No crutches. Just try not to re-damage it and elevate and ice it when the pain gets too bad. The boot seems a little conspicuous, but I can live with that. Things are looking up. I may even attempt to hobble around a grocery store tomorrow so we can eat something other than canned and frozen foods. Some produce could be nice--and we're dangerously low on cheese (a staple in my pregnant state).
Last Wednesday I broke my foot. I wasn't doing anything unusual. I was trying to put William in time-out. And it broke my foot. See if I try to discipline him again!
We had a good morning that day. We went to our singing group at 10am and sang songs about apples and squirrels and autumn. Then, we came home to make some lunch. The kids decided to watch 'the horsey show' while I put lunch together (Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron). I let them do it so I could have some peace and put together some really good bagel and veggie sandwiches for me and William and a hot dog for Anna. Then, William had a meltdown. He threw a little fit on the floor because he wanted the show off. There were just a few minutes left at that point and Anna wanted to watch it. Her hot dog wasn't done, so I wanted to let her. I got sick of hearing William slam his bus-shaped bin of Legos into the hearth and went over to stop him. I didn't feel up to carrying him all the way to the staircase to have his time-out, so I thought I would just swing him onto the recliner. I grabbed him under the arms and went to swing and something went wrong. My angle was totally off and he slammed into my left leg instead of the recliner. It twisted under me and something snapped. The pain was intense. I let him drop as I fell to the floor and tried to straighten my legs under me. As I lay there gasping and moaning in pain William crawled over to me and said urgently that we needed to go to the hospital. "What did I do to him?" I thought in terror. I didn't drop him that hard - I really thought he should be OK.
"Are you hurt?" I asked him.
"No, YOU are," he said.
Oh, what a sweet boy. He really cared. Of course, if he hadn't been acting like a ninny I wouldn't have been lying on the floor in agonizing pain in the first place.
I convinced him to sit at the table and eat his lunch after he turned off the movie. It had reached the credits while I writhed in agony below the TV. (I think Anna was still watching it.) I forced myself to hop to the stove and turn off the burner under Anna's hot dog which had miraculously turned itself and kept from burning all in one spot, although it was a little dark in a couple places. I then tried to sit at the table and eat the sandwich I had really been looking forward to just a few minutes before. Instead, I had to grab a nearby grocery sack and try not to puke in it. Eventually, I called Kip and begged him to come home from work to drive William to preschool and take me to the Urgent Care. He got to eat my sandwich.
I spent about 2 hours at the Urgent Care. When the doctor finally saw me he said he would send me off to x-ray. I informed him that I was 5 months pregnant and he said he would check. They decided not to x-ray. He suggested I go home and see if it got better and if it didn't they could x-ray me in a couple days.
I wasn't happy with that option.
I spent the next two days in a fair amount of pain. It really did get a lot better, but I couldn't moved all of my toes and I just wanted to know if it was broken or not and what to do to get it better. So, on Friday I called my OB and they said to go ahead with the x-ray. Back I went to the Urgent Care. (My PCP recently moved to another city and I haven't bothered getting a new one since I see my OB every month anyway, so the Urgent Care was the best option for getting a quick doctor's visit in, even though I'm not fond of the place in general.)
This time I was there three hours. I waited an hour to get in. Then, I waited an hour for the x-ray people to take me from the exam room. Finally, the technician rolled me down the hall in a wheel chair, stopped it next to a wall and walked a few more feet down the hall and around the corner. He then did some computer stuff asking me questions from around the corner from time to time in an Asian accent that was hard to understand without the challenge of not being able to see him. He eventually reappeared and pushed me into the x-ray room and took some pictures of my ankle. Then, back we went to the exam room.
A few minutes later, there he was again. The doctor had apparently asked him to x-ray my foot since that was where the pain was and there was nothing wrong with my ankle. Back we went to the x-ray room. He took foot pictures and then wheeled me into the hall facing the wall next to the corner around which sat his desk. He went to his desk and was there an annoyingly long time. I amused myself by examining the contents of my purse and creating a 'toss' pile of the junk I found. Finally, he came back into view and handed me a packet labeled "x-ray copies." I assumed that this meant my foot had been broken. I was right. The doctor told me to stay off the foot and to ice it frequently and gave me a phone number for the orthopedic specialists. After he left, the nurse came in to wrap my foot and give me a nearly knee-high boot to wear. It took her almost 10 minutes just to get the boot on me and my comfort level with her kept dropping as she grabbed long velcro straps and wondered aloud where they were supposed to attach and then swore to me she had done this before. In her defense, she was very pleasant and kind and the boot is annoying to put on. Eventually, she succeeded in applying it and I walked out to my car. She wanted to wheel me out, but I just wanted out of there, so I took off while she was out of the room and said goodbye to her as I passed her in the hallway.
On Monday I took my booted self to the Orthopedic specialists. They do a triage sort of deal in the afternoons and the office was crowded with moms accompanying their football-playing sons for examination of their sports injuries. I figured it would take another couple hours to get through, but they had my name called by the time I finished the paperwork and the doctor appeared as soon as I had the boot off. He opened my x-rays and looked at them in silence for a moment. Then, he turned to me and asked me where the break was. The Urgent Care doctor had tried to point it out to me, but where he pointed just looked like normal space between bones to me. Apparently, it looked normal to the specialist, too. After looking hard at all the x-rays for a few moments, he figured out what they were seeing. There was a small break on the end of one of the bones on the side of my foot. It was nothing to worry about, in his opinion. He suggested I wear the boot for a few weeks while it healed, mostly to prevent myself from damaging it more (since my children seem compelled to step on or bump my foot whenever it is unprotected). He said it would be fine to walk without the boot around the house as long as the pain level wasn't too bad.
Wahoo! This was exactly what I wanted to hear. No cast. No surgery. No crutches. Just try not to re-damage it and elevate and ice it when the pain gets too bad. The boot seems a little conspicuous, but I can live with that. Things are looking up. I may even attempt to hobble around a grocery store tomorrow so we can eat something other than canned and frozen foods. Some produce could be nice--and we're dangerously low on cheese (a staple in my pregnant state).
Monday, October 01, 2007
Yurt Camping with Intel-ites
Kip and his coworkers wanted to go camping all summer. They finally scheduled it for the weekend of September 15th. It was supposed to be cool and rainy, but luckily they got some yurts for us to stay in at Fort Stevens on the coast. We got there Friday night and built a fire and ate dinner together. The next morning we went on a walk and played in the lake, then went to the beach. Anna really liked the lake water, in spite of the chill. Neither of the kids liked the beach because the waves were too loud slamming right on the sand instead of breaking farther out and rolling slowly in like at the other beaches we usually go to.
Anna checks out the yurt.
Anna and William, Kip, Chandra and his daughter play bocci in the sand by the yurts.
Anna in the water at the lake.
Playing with kites on a sadly windless beach.
Anna checks out the yurt.
Anna and William, Kip, Chandra and his daughter play bocci in the sand by the yurts.
Anna in the water at the lake.
Playing with kites on a sadly windless beach.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)