Copying

I learned some things about Holly yesterday.
I have to be careful how I put it because it won't be long before she figures out the internet and starts reading every blog entry I've ever written.  (You might think that's an exaggeration, but time is relative.)

Anyway, Holly is the kind of kid I was, and the kind of kid her mom was.
Yesterday was library day, and when Kelsea got to school to get Holly, she was sitting on the balance beam, reading her library book.  Kelsea tells me that other kids were talking to her, encouraging her to play with them, but she was too excited about her book "Pinkalicious," about a girl who ate so many pink cupcakes that she turned pink.  Kelsea immediately thought about the youngest kid on the show "The Middle,"  who is named Brick, and who reads during everything.  (We recommend that show for anyone who has kids or has ever been a kid.)
So that was the first thing.

The second thing has to do with the title, which I'm sure you were wondering about.
Also yesterday, Holly got a progress report.  Usually, I don't see those, but I get input from Kelsea about any problems.  Yesterday, though, I was sitting at the computer when Kelsea had Holly bring her progress report to me.  She had all "A"s and "B"s, and I pointed out her highest percentage was in math.  I said something like "you're the best at math."  Then she told me that sometimes, a classmate copies her work.    Kelsea told me that Holly told her teacher about it, so Holly and the girl who copied her work aren't friends anymore.  Holly added that the copier gets moved around now, so that she can't copy Holly's work.

It made me a little sad to know that Holly told on her friend, but I had to be positive since she was only trying to do what was right.  It made me think about what I had done as a kid.  I never let anyone copy my work, but I don't think I ever told a teacher, either.  I was proud of Holly, and sad at the same time.  Cheating is wrong, but I wish she had told that to her friend, not the teacher.  Maybe that's a lot to expect of a first-grader, though.

He's doing much better now

On Sunday, Jay wasn't feeling well.  He was having some trouble breathing, and his albuterol wasn't helping as much as it usually does.  After a full day of waiting and hoping he would improve, I called a nurse help line, and was advised to take Jay to Urgent Care (they said he didn't sound so bad that he had to go straight to the ER).  

At Urgent Care, they gave Jay more Albuterol, Oxygen, and a steroid shot, but it didn't seem to make any difference, so the doctor said she was sending us to the hospital.  Jay and I rode in an ambulance to UMC's children's hospital, and they took a chest x-ray which showed that he had slight pneumonia.  They figured it was only slight because he was probably dehydrated, so they expected it to get worse once they started him on an IV.  Fortunately, it was gone the next morning, but Jay had to stay at the hospital for just under 48 hours, and was doing very well by the time we left.  

He hated the cage-like bed he was supposed to be in, and got frustrated if his IV, oxygen tube, heart monitor, or pulse oximeter lead got pulled on even slightly.  We were able to find a few small things to make him happy for short amounts of time while he was there, though.  Such as a balloon.

And a Popsicle.  

And a little tykes car that I was able to push him around the pediatrics floor for a little while, until a nurse took his blood pressure in it.  He also enjoyed the play room, but they close it at 5 pm, so we were only able to go once.  

He had a hard time falling asleep, since he hated the bed so much, and generally hated being in his room.  We got him to calm down a few times, and he did sleep a little bit.   

He's still a little traumatized by the whole thing, being a little more clingy and grumpy when he's tired, but when he's rested, and can find something to play with, he's back to his usual self.  

Catching up with pictures

Enough ties for you?

Half the total

The rest.

Installing some Linoleum. 

Partially finished bathroom.

With different lighting, the paint color sure looks different.

Eight years of wedded bliss.

My favorite joke when people say something about how long I've been married is to say that it feels like it's been forever.  It's partially true.  Eight years isn't really that long, but it's long enough that you feel like your life has always been together.  And for me, it's been great.

Kelsea and I went to St. George for our anniversary, and saw the Tuacahn production of Tarzan.  We stayed at a bed & breakfast called the Seven Wives Inn.  Despite the apparently true connection the house has with polygamy, I think the name and theme of naming each room after a supposed wife is in poor taste.  I'm sure they could think of something equally clever, but less controversial.

So other than the name of the place, we really enjoyed staying there.  It is an old house in St. George's historic district, right across the street from Brigham Young's winter home.  It was a very nice house, with some cool little antique (-looking) furniture and smaller details.

For dinner, we weren't very hungry, but needed something to eat before going to the show, so we stopped at Jazzy's Rock 'n' Roll Grill for some very delicious hot sandwiches and sweet potato fries.  The light fixtures were made of brass instruments.  We were the only people there at the time, but I would guess it fills up, and gets very loud, later.  There was a performing area, and ads for local bands, and an open mic night.

Tarzan was pretty entertaining.  I'm kind of a hard sell for most things like that, but they have a few little tricks that they incorporated into the show to keep it interesting.  And some pretty good acrobatics.  Tarzan is a good story, and this one is based on the Disney movie.  The program mentioned that the earlier versions were much bloodier, which of course made me wonder what happens in other versions.  Maybe I'll look it up sometime.

In the morning, Kelsea and I had an excellent breakfast, though Kelsea's croissant french toast was bathed in too much jam.  I looked through the complementary newspaper and, oddly enough, we decided to drive past a few yard sales.  We didn't stop at any, and it was terrible weather for yard sales anyway, but it didn't eat up too much of our time.  We went to the outlet stores after that, and got some fun things, and joked about decorating our house, or my office, with a moose head.  I still think it's a good idea.

Before leaving town, we walked around the temple, and I even took a picture for a couple that was apparently not happy with their self-portraits.  We packed our own camera, and thought about taking pictures several times, but we couldn't find it in our bag.  So after I took the picture for that couple we though it would be funny to ask strangers to take pictures of us, then give them an email address to send it to.  Just to see people's reactions, and to see if anyone would actually send them.  But we didn't do it.

We got home late in the afternoon, and picked up the kids from my parents' house.

Maybe my next post will have some pictures.  Maybe Kelsea will get back to posting.  No promises.

Way behind

So, I had good intentions of blogging a bit more, but you know what they say about good intentions: they make an... oh wait that's what they say about something else.

Anyway, my tie project ended, and I took pictures of all my ties laid out on my dresser.  All of the pictures came out fuzzy.  Don't worry, I'll still post them.  That way, everyone can see what my tie collection looks like to people who are near-sighted.

I have 93 ties.  I still have 45 that I got in Italy, and three from before I went to Italy have survived.  I have given some away, and one time I let Kelsea make patchwork pillows out of some ties that were past their prime.  Kelsea suggested I get 7 more ties to make it an even 100.  She wasn't feverish, though the suggestion was a bit out of character.  The long and the short of it is that I have more ties that are not from Italy than ones that are, which makes me kind of sad.  There are a few Andrew's Ties stores in the US, including one in Las Vegas, so I've added a few Italian ties here.  They sure cost a lot more here, though.

In other areas of our life, our horribly decrepit fence is being painted.  I'll be glad to have a freshly painted, repaired fence, though it means Kelsea is even more anxious to have house repainted, which will require stucco work.  I look forward to that part, too, but it's all money.

The girls started swimming lessons yesterday, which is good.  They love the water, but we hadn't gotten around to putting them in any lessons.  Holly had a great time, though she's one of the older ones in the class.

Kelsea and I will be going to Tuacahn for our anniversary later this month.  We're very excited.  We've gone in the past and had a great time.  I wonder if they have figured out a way to flood the stage during Tarzan....  Our last experience with a motel was less comfortable than sleeping on the ground (true story!) so I went ahead and booked a room at a nice bed and breakfast.  Unfortunately, its name refers to Utah's polygamous history.  Not the best choice, but I've just chalked it up to bad taste on the part of the owners, and will try not to let it bother me.

Oh, I almost forgot.  The reason there aren't any pictures is because I almost ruined our computer by trying to install a second operating system (Ubuntu anyone?) which didn't work and almost broke Windows.  Which I was fine with, but Kelsea insisted was a problem (she didn't want to change operating systems).  It was running slow, and several programs mysteriously stopped working.  I'm convinced it's in bad shape, but I'll let Kelsea and the kids use it as long as they want.