Father's Day 2021

Happy Father's Day!

I love any holiday that gives me an excuse to get my family together. Father's Day is especially fun because I have two of my favorite dads who live right here with me... my sweetie and Grandpa. 

I only have to look a little further in my family circle to find 4 more great dads, one is my son and the other three are all married to my daughters.

We had 10 of our 12 children with us today for a fun BBQ and water party in the backyard. We were only missing Teach and her family who now live in New Jersey and Prima Donna who has chosen to build a life away from the family. I hope and pray for the day when that might change.

Our water party included a huge hose that flooded the sandpile as well as a toddler-sized splashpad and slip n slide. 

The older kids had a great time with our little blowup pool and about 100 water balloons.

The grownups visited and enjoyed the amazing food mostly prepared by my sweetie. I know, I tried, but he prefers cooking for the family to the cleanup part of the job. I did teach Curly to cut melons, so that was something...

But I digress.

We all loved the BBQ chicken, penne alfredo, salad, rolls, and fresh melon. 

The ice cream cones were a huge hit!

We had a LITTLE basketball...

I sure love all those dads we had today. This one is my favorite. 

Guest Blog: Lateral Release Surgery by Gamer

Sorry for the delay in this posting.

I have been in and out of sleeping and running to the bathroom of late with all the water I have been drinking. Momoftwelve asked me to write the post for her blog and since I was still way too drugged up for a coherent answer, I have decided to oblige her.

On June 9th, I went in for a lateral release of the tendons and ligaments in my knee. This is a “simple” procedure where they cut the before mentioned items and get them to relax. This is being done so that my patella “kneecap” will sit back in the place it is supposed to be in. I went into the hospital with my lovely wife, Bossy, and yes, that name suits her well, and Queso in his carseat at 7:20 am. This was way too early for the other kids in the house, so they stayed behind. After hobbling over to the main door
entrance, we found the doors locked. We now had to walk into the ER and get to the check-in from there.

Now this is where the fun begins for the day.

Covid questionnaire person: Hi, can I ask our name?

Me: Gives name

Person: Proceeds to ask about contact with people about Covid or if I have had my shots.

Me: I work in a high school. Of course, I have been exposed. No, I have not caught it.

Person: Have you had a test recently?

Me: Yes

Now, I’m in a grumpy mood since I don’t like this hospital very much because of a history with them. Finally we are allowed to continue checking in and we wait for a person to take my information. So while Bossy is carrying Queso, I glance down at the paper they gave me. It has my correct last name on it, but the first name is nowhere close to what my name is. I tell it to Bossy and even she was dumbfounded by how bad they got my easy to spell first name so horribly wrong. I am sitting there in the lobby waiting. I handle all my prescreen/pre-op stuff and get my fancy little bracelet. 

We then move into the surgery waiting room area. We are led behind the pre-op doors and
immediately Queso is the star of the show. All the nurses are talking about how cute he is. How they want to take him home with them. His laugh is so cute. I mean I was getting jealous of my own kid since all the nurses were tripping over themselves just for him and I am there for a surgery. My pre-op nurse comes over and starts hooking up my IV and everything. She lets me know she is going to take some blood out in case something bad happens and I need a “blood booster shot (my own blood with other stuff mixed in).” So she takes 20CCs of my blood and has it ready in case I need it in surgery. I meet with my doctor again, the anesthesiologist, and my OR nurse. So, I am having a blast messing with these guys and girls in pre-op. My OR nurse comes in and says that my fancy little bracelet is not able to scan in and needs to be changed to a new one. So I get another little fancy bracelet.

Here is where it will get foggy for me: I am taken into the OR and helped onto a bed that I get strapped onto. At this point my dark humor decides to come out. I begin making dark jokes about how I am going to be crucified and I am going to be sacrificed… I won’t go on with the jokes. One of the nurses has some tattoos of birds on his forearm so I start talking to him about them. The other OR nurse puts a breathing mask over my face and says to start taking big deep breaths in and out. So I begin doing that. After a few breaths, she tells me “to start bringing up memories of my favorite vacation.” I tell her I don’t have any since I always work to support my family. She says that is really sad…. That’s all I remember from the morning.

I am brought out of what I can only describe as “black sleep” since I don’t dream very often. I am in Post-Op and have a lady talking to me. At first it is all incoherent, but then my brain comes out of the fog and I can understand her. She is telling me everything went fine. But there is a problem with my breathing patterns… in other words, I do not take enough breaths while I sleep. The doctor was worried about that. She asked if I was hungry or thirsty. I declined food at first but did want some water. After a few sips, I slipped back into unconsciousville. I woke up several times throughout the afternoon. When I was finally able to stay awake for longer than 5 minutes, I decided I was hungry and asked for some saltines to test my stomach out. Not even 2 minutes after eating, I was retching everything in my stomach into a little blue bag. I think I threw up about 9oz of liquid and it smelled foul. The nurses where nice and all, but I still was embarrassed. After puking though, I felt way better. Soon Bossy and Queso showed up to take me home.

(This kid loves Oreos.)

Helping Drama Queen

You probably remember that a few weeks ago we were helping Drama Queen paint her house and work on her yard. That is because she is getting it ready to sell. She is planning to move to New Jersey so she can stay with Teach and her family for a while. I'm sure she will be a real blessing for them, but we will miss her and her helping hands and happy laugh.

She is not quite ready to move yet. Her roommates are mostly gone now, but Drama Queen still has some things that need to be done. Her deck had all the railings blown off in a recent storm, so we brought our little army to make sure it was all put back together right.

The backyard had a pile of branches that needed to be gathered up.

We had so much fun doing a little service and a little dancing at the same time.

My job was the best. I got to hold Queso and keep everyone working.

My Favorite Part of Hogle Zoo

We have had so much fun with our pass to Hogle Zoo! Little Warrior and Little Squire have been wanting to see the animals for weeks, but we couldn't get our schedules to mesh until The Beast had a thing with some friends this morning. That left Beauty with several free hours so we could finally make the trip.

Curly had baseball practice, and we decided to leave as soon as he got home. Bossy offered to drive for me since she knew we had been out late last night and Gamer drove the rest of their kids. Beauty drove her car too.

That made for a big, fun group!

My favorite part was the train.

And the carousel.

Watching my cute grandsons was the best!

Too bad Baby Doll and I had to take off early, but there was no way we were going to miss her last soccer game of the season. She even played goalie for the first time ever!

Actually, I think my favorite part of the Hogle Zoo is the fact that I can go again anytime I want (as long as I can find a few cute kids to go with me).

Giddy-up!!

Just Cede It

We had such a crazy Saturday! I already told you about the baseball game and the soccer game. We also had dance pics and a major school project for Sport.

He had to do a parody for his English class and this one had been percolating for a while. It required all of us to be successful and Sport is pretty happy with the results. But I will let you be the judge. As you watch it, please remember that it is supposed to be funny and the opposite of truth. 

Our family has complete respect for our men and women in blue and we are grateful for their hard work at keeping us safe every day.

For those unable to view the video here is the link to YouTube https://youtu.be/lCh2fatjqCk 

Fulfilling His Responsibility

Curly has been assigned to run the flag up the flagpole at the church every Sunday morning at 8:45. On the days he has been out of town, he checks with a friend to make sure his duty is covered by someone else. He likes to be there 5 minutes early so the flag can wave for everyone as they pull into the parking lot. Freedom to worship is only one of the amazing things about living in the United States of America.

This past weekend, we had high winds on Saturday and when we arrived at church on Sunday morning, this is what he saw.

Most kids would have used it as an excuse, but not Curly. He immediately looked around for some way to get the pulley rope out of the tree.

A large cluster of branches had blown down from one of the huge trees in front of the church. He took off his jacket, handed it to me and started working one of the longer branches back and forth until he had detached it from the bunch. 

Minutes later, his branch did the trick and the rope was free. He clipped on the flag and had it flying by 8:47. I am so proud and glad that this all mattered so much to him. I would have taken a final pic, but I love placing my hand over my heart each week as I watch him pull the ropes. It is always the perfect reminder of how much I love my country... and my son.

Baby Doll Kicks and Curly Hits

But not each other...

Baby Doll has never had a chance to play soccer before, and since she is 10 years old, we thought she better try it now or never. I signed her up for a league across town since none of the rec centers near us are doing anything. It's a bit of a pain on practice days, but it is definitely fun watching her play. 

She is still a little timid when it comes to kicking the ball, but she has made huge strides since the beginning of the season. It's too bad we only have a couple of weeks left. By far the tallest on her team, we can easily spot her on the field.

Last week, while we were out of town and Crafty and Grandpa took her to the game, she scored her very first goal! We were so sad to have missed it.

As for Curly, you already know that he loves baseball. On Thursday, the entire team wore pink socks and pink belts (paid for by his awesome coach) in honor of Mother's Day.

Curly hit a ball so hard at the King's Row field that it would have easily cleared the home run fence (if they had one) because it actually rolled its way at least a dozen feet up the hill.

I wish I could say that it was for me, but he hit that one to impress his dentist who just happened to have a son playing on the other team.

Scout Behind the Wheel

 I have been spending an awful lot of time in the passenger's seat lately. Remember around the first of the year when Scout got her permit? Even though she got it in January, we had so many things going on and she was busy, so we didn't get time to put her in the driver's seat.

Lately, all that has changed! She loves driving and she is actually very good at it, in fact, of the 10 kids I have taught to drive, she is one of the very best. She is calm and confident, in my car and in hers. 

Since Sport is almost 18 and will be moving on, I am so glad to have another driver to help me get Curly and Baby Doll where they need to go... and did I mention me? I need her to get me where I need to go.

Cast Away!!

Ok, that was sort of a lame title, even if it is appropriate. Remember last month when Curly broke his hand playing baseball? Then our amazing N.P., Steve, made him a cast that would still allow him to play. We have had some amazing success since then including an over-the-fence homerun.

He did a great job on 1st and he even pitched a few innings!

Except for a few strikeouts, we have had a great month of baseball even with that little cast.

So today was the day and Curly was SO excited to head up to the doctor's office. He kept coming in and giving me the countdown... 34 minutes... 22 minutes... 14 minutes... until it was time to leave.

We arrived a little early and we only waited for a few minutes before being called back. Curly was so anxious that he climbed right up before they could even pull the paper over the exam chair. 

Steve gripped the cast saw and got to work.

After several cuts, he used the separator and it was almost off.

Just the scissors and he was free!

Moments later, he was off to batting practice. That kid eats, sleeps, and breathes baseball. 

Now he can play with two full hands.

Didn't Need a Root Canal After All...

I've been having trouble with a tooth for a couple of weeks now. On Monday, I finally got into the dentist and after a couple of x-rays, he promptly sat me back up and announced that even though I already had a root canal in the offending tooth, I would have to see an endodontist so that it could be redone. I was so upset with his news that I actually cried all the way home. My life is so busy right now that I just didn't need the pain or the recovery time.

When I got home, I called my favorite endodontist and made the appointment for Friday. An antibiotic and carefully chewing on one side made this week more bearable, but I found myself looking forward to getting it all over with. 

This morning dawned bright and early and it wasn't long before I was sitting in the chair, nitrous blowing into my nose. Then  Dr. Thomsen came in and sat me up. I was already in the zone and I couldn't understand what he was saying at first...something about surgery and cutting into my gums... I pulled the nitrous off so I could follow more closely. Then I was wishing that I hadn't heard him at all. "Just put the nitrous back on and tell me everything when you are finished..."

An hour or so later, I was mostly awake, disoriented, and numb. Several stitches ran the length of my upper gum. It had been carefully sliced so that the doc could remove the abscess and cap the end of the root. I seem to remember him saying this option would be cheaper because we wouldn't have to replace the crown, but it would also be more painful.

I hoped he was wrong.

But it is after midnight now and he was definitely right. 

I'm afraid it is going to be a long night.😞