Sweeps II

It has been a long time since I posted anything, and mostly that's because I don't think of anything that I think is interesting enough to post. But I noticed a couple of old posts that I should update.

The first is the one about the trees in my front yard. They're fine. Definitely not poisoned. The one that was almost completely dead now is almost the size was when it was last healthy. It can take the heat, but apparently isn't very drought tolerant.

The second is the post about Sweeps. In July, we were actually involved in sweeps, and we filled out a TV viewing diary. As I promised on facebook and on my original post, no reality-tv shows were included. The shows in that post were Glee, Dancing with the Stars, Survivor, The Biggest Loser, Survivor, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, The Sing-Off. I was happy to record watching Jeopardy several times, as well as Sesame Street and The Big Bang Theory. No reality TV was viewed in our home during that time.

Since then, however, we have enjoyed a few unscripted programs. Monday night on NBC has been the best. American Ninja Warrior is followed by Bear Grylls' Get Out Alive. The first is more of a game show, and though the second is a reality show, it's not as catty or underhanded as survivor or big-brother (or Glee or Honey Boo-Boo or whatever else). It's a survival skills competition, in teams, and Bear decides who gets eliminated each week.

Dang that's boring. Sorry for making you read that.

Who do you call when you need your pants hemmed in hurry?
Taylor Swift.

That's slightly better. Not funny, but less boring. Good enough that I can stop.

Italian graffiti doesn't last forever.

This post is no longer accurate. The buildings along Via Magenta have been painted, and there is almost no graffiti there any more. It only took ten years.

Post title

This is a picture post. I finally organized and backed up recent photos, which I hadn't done since Eli was born. So here's what I would call too many pictures.

This first one is Jay, during our father and son outing. He had a great time. He wasn't much of a hiker, and I carried him up most of the hill we explored. He loved his "light-saber" glow-stick flashlight. 

This was our family picture from Mother's Day. It's very professional: five out of six of us are looking at the camera, with no crazy facial expressions. 

On the Saturday before Memorial Day, we went to the Springs Preserve. Jay needs a haircut. 

I'm not sure this is a good picture at all, but it illustrates how family outings go. Holly is very attentive, Mia stays close, and Jay gets distracted easily. Eli won't carry his own weight. 

Also at the Springs Preserve. The curbing in the parking lot is one of their better attractions. (Not really; they have great exhibits and trails.)

On Memorial Day, we went Sunset Park, and noticed a few native birds and plants. This quail was just outside the park boundaries, on undeveloped land that was pretty similar to the desert-landscaped park. 

The new part of Sunset Park has some unique playground equipment, including this lopsided spinning seat. With Jay in my lap, I could control how fast we were spinning, and I was able to stop. When I sat in it by myself, I was spinning literally out of control until I reached my foot to just barely touch the ground to slow me gradually and keep me from getting ill. It was pretty fun, though. 

In organizing our pictures, we saw Jay's first Halloween, where he was a skunk. Eli will be too big by Halloween to wear that costume, so we tried it on him now. It was a perfect fit. 

Not that paranoid.

After my last blog, Kelsea asked me if I really thought someone was poisoning our tree(s). I don't. But the thought did cross my mind. There are two reasons it crossed my mind. First: Another of our trees died because it didn't get enough water, but it didn't get enough water because someone closed the sprinkler. Repeatedly. After I replaced the tree, I replaced the sprinkler with one that was slightly broken, so that it couldn't be turned off completely. The new tree has done very well. The second reason I thought of poisoning was because of a couple of news stories of poisoning of trees. Someone poisoned a very old tree on the University of Alabama campus. I think they found out it was a rival school supporter. Also, I read about billboard companies poisoning trees to improve sightlines to their billboards. Neither of those situations remotely applies, which is why I didn't believe the trees had been poisoned. I was more suspicious of the first tree's death, because a big healthy tree there would have shaded my neighbor's pool for part of the day, and possibly dropped leaves in his yard. I don't think he's that petty or bitter, but it was a reason I found plausible, and that tree actually died.

The other tree isn't completely dead. I saw yesterday that there is some new growth coming up from the base of the trunk. Which means it wasn't being poisoned. Just drastically underwatered. But if the roots are healthy, the tree should grow up quickly again, and be a strong tree for me. Here's hoping.

Trees and other random thoughts.

I'm not a paranoid person, but I think someone is poisoning my trees in my front yard, one at a time, for no apparent reason. First it was a eucalyptus tree, then a chitalpa. I think the sprinkler to the eucalyptus was closed, so it dried out. Now I'm watering the chitalpa like crazy, but it's still quite wilted. This is the primary reason I want to get a home surveillance system.

Eli can roll over from his back to his front. He has rolled over from his front to his back, but he doesn't do it often enough that I think he's doing it on purpose or can actually do it if he wants to. Perhaps the motivation is different, and he just doesn't want to.

Jay likes legos. He doesn't like to build or play with legos, but he likes to have them. He does like to play Lego Star Wars, but he is terrible at it. It's tolerable if the map is flat, with no obstacles, because then he doesn't have to make his character jump, or walk around things, both of which he has trouble with.

Mia is an awesome reader. She is probably reading at a second grade level, though I don't know who decides those things. She is the best reader in her class by far. She is almost too smart for her own good, and has decided that she is smarter than her older sister. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to bother Holly, who (allegedly) agrees with her. Of all the things they fight over, I don't think that is one.

Holly is really good at playing the piano. Not prodigy good or anything, she's just doing well. But she prefers to practice early in the day. If it's 45 minutes to bedtime, and I tell her to practice for 15 minutes, she throws a fit. Not a real fit, just a stubborn obstinate fit where she pouts and tries to outlast my attention. But lately I only tell her to practice the piano in those situations if I have no reason to leave the room for 20 minutes. Then I ignore her pouting and wait her out. In the morning, even before school, she's really excited to play, and does a good job.

Kelsea and I have finally painted our bedroom, which involved moving out of it for a while. Now we have moved back in, but our closet is empty, because we haven't painted the inside of that yet.


Interestingly, I am always sucked in by sentences that begin with the word "interestingly."

This post is in no way a delay tactic.

I'm not really sure why I blog. It's not to share anything deep or amazing with the world. I'm not sure I have anything like that to share, and even if I did, almost no one reads this blog, except for my closest and dearest friends.

I think the major reason I started doing this was as a substitute for a handwritten journal for my family. I can add pictures, announcements, amusing anecdotes, and they would mostly be for me to look back on sometime in the future. However, I have not kept up. Most of my posts are catch-up posts. This one is too. 

We had a baby in November, and had an unusual Thanksgiving because of it. We had a very nice Christmas, and we sometimes get enough sleep. My two youngest siblings got mission calls, and will be leaving in the next two months. Mia and Holly are doing well in school, and are both amazing readers. When we read scriptures together, I am literally amazed at some of the words they don't need help with. How many kindergartners know the word "Israel?" Holly told me she reads at a fourth grade level, which she knew because her classmate told her. Kelsea and I think it was because of the listed grade level on a book she read. The friend said she was reading at a sixth-grade level. They are both in second grade. 

Now you're caught up. Maybe you'll stay that way. More likely you won't. 

Sweeps

I was watching tv last night and noticed how many idiotic shows are on now. I generally give most new formats a chance, although I can only stand to watch reality-type competition shows after recording them. I even record sports to skip through the commentary by increasingly inane announcers. I've found myself skipping through Mythbusters episodes just to get to whether the myth is confirmed or busted (or, perhaps, to see the explosion at the end).
But, there are a few shows that I can't stand at all, and hate that they are so popular:

Glee
Dancing with the Stars
Survivor
The Biggest Loser
Survivor
Extreme Makeover Home Edition
The Sing-Off

I laugh at shows all the time if they are not credible, or if there is a silly factual mistake, but I realize nobody's perfect. For some reason, I can't get past the above shows, despite trying more than once, to watch an episode. There are shows I dislike but haven't watched, but I didn't include those. I don't want to offend anyone specifically that loves one of the above shows, but I just had to put in writing that I hate them. I think they are stupid in premise and/or execution.

I enjoy home improvement shows that actually show you how to do something, even if that's not the focus of the show. I like comedies of almost every kind. I like action shows, if the premise isn't too ridiculous (Once Upon a Time is losing me), and I even tolerate a fantasy story if the plot is good or has a classic good over evil theme. (I like the Harry Potter series, and Lost, though I dislike the obsession fantasy brings.) I'm a sucker for dinosaur shows if the dinosaurs aren't obviously made of paper or something.

Also, I love Antiques Roadshow. I can't explain why, but I could watch episode after episode of that show.

Jury Duty

I get to go to court fairly often as an attorney. But this week I had jury duty. I had had jury duty before, but never even been taken up to a courtroom for jury selection. Either some of the jury cases settled, or they simply didn't need all the people they thought they would. Now that I'm an attorney, I figure there is almost zero chance of me serving on a jury. I know a decent number of civil attorneys, a few criminal attorneys, and there are certain kinds of cases where I would have a hard time being impartial. I always thought it would be cool, though.

So this week when I went to jury duty, I took a bunch of work with me, and I expected to sit in the jury services room pretty much all day. My number wasn't very close to the beginning of the numbers they listed, so I thought I had little chance of being called up to a courtroom again.

However, this time, after the usual dead time while people show up late, and after the silly video about jury service, two or three marshals were already at the front of the room. They immediately lined up fifty or so people, gave them some instructions, and led them out of the room, up to a courtroom. The next marshal lined up another group, slightly smaller, and took them upstairs. Then a third. I was still sitting there, working, and surprised that three trials were actually going forward that day. The jury services coordinator assured us that more of us would be going upstairs soon. I thought that was unlikely, but noticed I was about thirtieth in line at that point.

Then another marshal came down to jury services and they called the next sixty numbers. So, I lined up behind a Kenny Rogers impersonator and went up to the courtroom. With fourteen people in the jury box and another fourteen or so people ahead of me, I thought chances were slim that I would move up and get into the jury for questioning. However, as people ahead of me were excused or challenged, the judge told us the case was simple and would last to noon the next day at the longest. It was a criminal case, and I was the third civil attorney to make it to the jury box. I was questioned about what courses I had taken on criminal matters, and I was not challenged as a juror. After the Kenny Rogers impersonator told a story about being robbed in a bar and the owner shooting both robbers, killing them both, he was excused. He ended his story by saying "There was no need for a trial." He seemed surprised to be dismissed.

The jury was set, and I was on it.

The case was a criminal case about gun possession by an ex-felon. The defense presented virtually no case. No witnesses, no evidence, and what seemed like a half-hearted closing statement. The jury had been selected just after noon, and the entire case had been presented by 3:30. The other attorney on the jury was randomly chosen as an alternate, so I was nominated to be the jury foreman. I half expected it and didn't fight it. We deliberated for about an hour and found the Defendant guilty. I felt bad having to be one who made the decision, but it was pretty much the only decision we could make.

After the verdict was read, the judge told us more about the guy and his circumstances. He was not a good guy in a bad situation, and he has enough other charges against him that this one didn't really make much difference.

I was glad to have the one-day version of complete jury duty, and to be able to see a real trial from that perspective. I had done mock trials that lasted almost as long, though without the jury selection part. It seemed identical to the mock trials I've done, and even in the jury room, the attitudes were just what I expect to see in a setting of less significance. I wish I had some great insight to share, or some amazing story, but it was very short, mostly boring, and anything I could say about it would be the same kind of things I would have said about jury service before.

Oh, you mean this gate key.

A couple of days ago, Holly came home saying she got to go to a separate class for part of the day. She said it was her and a couple of the other smartest kids in her class. Kelsea and I weren't sure what she meant, so we kept asking her about it. Holly was the one who said the other kids were really smart, and said they were all kids who got all As or only As and Bs. We figured it was GATE, or whatever they called that program now, but we weren't sure.

Holly said they went to a different classroom with a new teacher at a specific time, and got to do different kinds of lessons. I asked what kind, and she said they were things to help them pay attention and follow directions. That made me think it might have been a remedial-type class, and I began to doubt that the other kids were all that smart, and I thought maybe Holly had some kind of behavioral problem that we didn't know about. Either way, Kelsea and I were kind of annoyed that we hadn't been informed of whatever this special class was.

I started thinking it was GATE again as Holly said how excited she was to go back, and said that they would get to go every week. I just didn't think that a remedial class could inspire that kind of enthusiasm. Then Kelsea and I began to wonder if you have to take a separate test to qualify for GATE, and neither of us could remember for sure. But we were even more convinced that if Holly was in GATE, we should have been informed, and if it was a remedial class, we really should have been informed.

I went to the school's website and found that this special teacher is the GATE teacher. So we think we have our answer. We haven't had the chance to ask Holly's teacher directly, but we're pretty sure she's in GATE. I'm not trying to brag, but Holly's pretty smart. Also Mia. I will brag about Mia another time. I specifically chose to blog about this so I could brag about my kids in a place that no one will read about it. We'll tell family about it individually. If we can ever confirm it with a teacher.

It is time.

Name the movie.

We've had a handful of birthdays int he last month, and Mia started kindergarten. I was violently ill on my birthday, and we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for at least two other birthdays. The kids also enjoyed library story time recently. They made disguises for a spy-themed story time.

We are a happy family.

Back by popular demand

And by popular demand, I mean that one person asked about this a couple of months ago.

Though we don't have a true "before" picture of our backyard, here is what I took right before the cement/grass project.:

Ah, our backyard in all its glory.
I really like this next one because the kids were running around in circles when I took the two pictures that got stitched together in a panorama, so it looks like we have five kids.

 Not the best "after" shot, but the one with the garbage can and the wheelbarrow in the background instead of the foreground. The kids love their tricycle/bicycle path. You can see our vegetable garden off to the left there, but it hasn't done as well this year. We always get some peas, but have trouble with most everything else. I think the soil is terrible, and I'm going to do some serious work on it. Eventually. Hopefully before next spring.

 On the fourth of July weekend, we went to Mt. Charleston and took a little hike to Little Falls. The kids were amazed that there was still some snow. I was a little amazed too. It was a good time.

I suppose I should blog again.

I'd like to take this opportunity to update you all on our lives.

All spring, I'd been half-heartedly getting the backyard ready for grass. Our long-term plan when we bought our house was to have some grass in the backyard, and what we keep calling a tricycle path around it. This was important so the kids would be able to play outside in the safety of our own backyard. (More recently, they've enjoyed playing outside by digging in the dirt, as though our entire yard were a large sandbox. I've wanted to get the grass in so that the kids would get less dirty.)

I'd only been half-hearted about it because I decided I needed to get sprinklers in place before laying sod. I'm more than competent at installing sprinklers, but it's fairly difficult to dig trenches for sprinkler lines. So I'd occasionally get motivated and work on it, but then I'd get tired of it and wouldn't do anything for several weeks. (Or we'd get caught up in another project, like our laundry room).

So, about halfway through May, I finished with the sprinklers, and then said to Kelsea, "Now we're ready for grass," and we both laughed. Then we thought, wait, maybe we are. Could we be? Can we? So we called around and found out Lowe's and Star Nursery had plenty of sod waiting for us. A few hours of tilling and raking the next morning, and we went and picked up some sod and laid it out. (We had to get a little more a couple hours later).

Suddenly, we had grass!. The kids were amazed. The next step, of course, was the "tricycle path." I had designed the sprinkler spray pattern to coincide with where we wanted the tricycle path to be. To make this part of the story shorter than the first part of the story, and to bore you slightly less than you expected, I'll summarize. We put in the sidewalk "tricycle path" on Saturday. It was harder work preparing than actually putting it in, despite the use of wheelbarrows. So now the major part of our backyard is done, and the kids can race around on their bikes, trikes, and scooters.

That's not really the most important thing going on right now. We're actually expecting a baby in November. Mia has drawn at least one picture of the family, including a "baby in mommy's tummy." It's pretty fun to talk about changes and a new sibling with Holly and Mia. We told Jay about it, and he laughed and said "no," like we were telling a very good knock knock joke. He might start to believe it if Kelsea ever starts to show.

Other than that, and to further bury the important updates with the mundane, we got a new (to us) minivan recently. It was Kelsea's parents, and the transmission is supposedly going bad, but it's been fine so far, Kelsea likes it, and the kids enjoy the extra space when we go places. Jay generally begs to go places in the "blue car," but yesterday he realized the van was kind of blue too, and called it the blue car. That's progress.

That should do it for at least a month or so.

Good times

So, for Valentine's Day, we went to the Blue Man Group.

It was very entertaining, if not quite what I thought it would be. I recommend it, especially with a two for one deal. And the close seats aren't necessarily the best seats. We had seats just outside the "poncho zone," and I think 7 or 8 rows back would have been just as good. They would have been in a cheaper section.

The Blue Man Group Theater is currently in the Venetian, so we walked through the Grand Canal Shoppes, on the Palazzo side, and I bought a tie at Andrew's Ties. Andrew's Ties is based in Milan, and most of the ties I bought on my mission came from Andrew's Ties, except for when I was in a city that didn't have a store. The ties cost more here than in Italy, (though at $45, less than a lot of designer ties) but they are excellent ties.

Also, for Valentine's Day, Kelsea bought me a set of CDs to learn Italian with. I guess the gift is for me, even if she's the one who needs them. I got her to use them a few times, but I had forgotten how hard it is to learn a completely new language. Pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar are not easy things to pick up out of nowhere. Fortunately, we have a while for her to practice.

I got Kelsea a custom box of Ethel M Chocolates. I missed last year, but every other Valentine's Day, I have given her fancy chocolates. I have to get the hand-packed boxes due to Kelsea's nut allergies, but she gets the best chocolates that way. I actually bought it a week or so before hand, and, rather than try to hide it from her, I gave Kelsea the chocolates early. They were gone by Valentine's Day.

Big plans

For Valentine's Day this year, Kelsea and I are going to see the Blue Man Group.  It's a big step up for us.  We live in a city of entertainment, but you have to be careful what entertainment you seek.  Normally for Valentine's Day, we try to avoid the rush of going out on the evening of February 14, and that's true this year as well, but mostly we end up going out for lunch, and maybe watch a movie at home.  We got seats just outside the splash zone. It will be good.

In high school, I remember the big thing for school dances was to go to a show on the strip.  I don't remember if Blue Man Group was around then, but that was the type of show that was popular.  A family-friendly show that was popular with multiple groups of people.  I never went to one.  They always seemed too expensive, and I didn't drive in high school.  Kelsea and I went to a magic show a year or so ago with free tickets I got for donating blood (I gave blood last month and only got a coupon for a free donut).  So this will be the first time we're going out to a nice show on Valentine's Day.  We're very excited.

Other big plans include a trip to Italy.  This plan is less concrete at the moment.
I actually renewed my passport a couple of years ago (just before it expired), and tried to get Kelsea to get one. She didn't want to pay the fee at the time, especially without any real plans to use the passport itself.  So it didn't happen despite my loving encouragement, and the fact that I actually got her to have a passport photo taken.

The church recently announced that a temple would be built in Rome Italy.  The announcement was actually in 2008, but then there wasn't really any news about it.  In October of 2010, though, the groundbreaking ceremony took place.  I found out then that any building project in Rome requires a serious site survey for Roman ruins.  If any were found, the temple project might have been delayed or rejected.  Fortunately, no ruins were found on the site.  As part of the news story, no completion date was given, but it was expected to be complete in 2012 (now expected to be 2013, still nothing official).  That's when I got the idea to go.

I mean, I always wanted to go back to Italy.  Of course.  It's an expensive trip, and with three kids now, the logistics are difficult.  But with the temple opening, I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to link our travel plans with a major event, some time in the future to allow us to figure out all those issues.  I'm excited to go see some of the areas I lived in, and to see Rome as well.  It will be fun to take Kelsea to some of the amazing places in Italy.  I don't think we'll be taking the kids.  Holly might be old enough to appreciate it (Mia maybe too), but I don't know if we'll be able to afford that.  Without the kids, it will be like a second honeymoon, too.  Awesome.

A basketball game. (Warning: this is a sports post.)

Tomorrow night, BYU and UNLV will play each other in men's basketball.

I got my B.A. from BYU, and my J.D. from UNLV.

I grew up a mild UNLV fan.  I enjoyed their basketball team.  I always thought I would go to college there.  I remember going to a few UNLV games as a kid.  I have a vague memory of a football game, and I have clear memories of going to UNLV basketball games, including the one in UNLV's championship season where Greg Anthony broke his nose or cheekbone, or whatever it was, and had to wear that clear mask the rest of the season.  In a biography I wrote about myself in fifth grade, I even mentioned how proud I was of the championship team (Kelsea has made fun of me for this.)

I grew up hating BYU.  My cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents in Utah were all BYU fans, which was fine with me, but it bothered me that they just assumed I was a BYU fan too.  I didn't have any particular problem with BYU, I just didn't see why I would be a fan of a school in another state that I had no desire to attend.  I looked into it my senior year of high school when I decided I wanted to leave home for college, and it had the lowest tuition, some of my friends were going there.  I figured that if I had a terrible time, I would at least know somebody on campus I might possibly hang out with.

I really enjoyed BYU.  I had great roommates, and met some really amazing and fun people there (as well as some crazies and nuts).  I wasn't much of a sports fan, but bought into the excitement of going to the games.  I remember going to the homecoming game against UNLV with conflicting loyalties.  I had never been a UNLV football fan, but it was those comments about BYU football that had so irked me earlier in my life.  (I remember some comments about Ty Detmer in particular, and in my memory, I picture my cousin saying "Isn't he so dreamy?")  Anyway, I also went to a BYU-UNLV basketball game my freshman year, and cheered for UNLV (though fairly quietly, as I was in the student section).  It was easy then: UNLV was bad at football; and BYU was bad at basketball.

By the time I graduated, however, BYU had started doing a bit better in basketball, and my loyalty to BYU sports, and to BYU, had grown.  On the other hand, I was tired of the college town feel of Provo.  I was a little tired of the Mormon (over-)saturation of the culture, but I could deal with that.  It was the fact that it was a small town with a big school in it that was getting to me.  So I chose to move on to UNLV Law School.

UNLV students got in free to UNLV football and basketball games, so I went to a few.  They were fun.  Being a married law student at a football game is very different from being a crazy freshman at a football game.  But I became a UNLV football fan, to a degree (I can only pay attention to so many terrible games a season).  They're still bad, but I am a fan.  I am remained a fan of UNLV basketball.  Those are fun games to go to.  I love yelling things at the refs, talking to the players and coaches like they can hear me, and getting into the game.

When BYU and UNLV play in football, I expect BYU to win, but I don't cheer much.  When UNLV and BYU play in basketball, I generally expect the home team to win, but I can barely watch.

Now, BYU and UNLV are both ranked in the top 25, and I want them both to win.  Since that's impossible, I hope they both beat San Diego State, and everyone else in the conference.  While it will be a relief that they won't play each other as much after this year, it's also disappointing, as the MWC was just getting to be a really good conference.

UNLV is favored by 3, and I think they'll cover.  But I'll be disappointed either way.

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.