Just Because

Another week has come and (almost) gone. Sometimes I just feel like I'm passing time just to pass time. I know that the ultimate purpose of life is to live and learn and get back to heaven, but it seems like sometimes I just move along the path of life with no other objective. Kind of boring, huh? Moving on... So a sister that Kelsee and I home and visit teach passed away on Wednesday. She also happens to be the mother of some good friends, and grandmother of some of our youth. Sad, but the family seems to be at peace with everything, which is nice. And her husband, parents, some grandchildren and all but one of siblings preceeded her in death, so I'm sure it was a joyous reunion on the other side. -------- The joy of having a high deductible insurance plan is that you get another day of celebration during the year--the day you meet the deductible. Well, we did it recently and now we're scrambling to schedule doctor's appointments left and right. (The bummer here is you start making a mental list of all the ailments you have, and that can be pretty depressing.) We had scheduled a neuropsyche eval for Haley, but it had been postponed until January. We were bummed because they are fairly expensive. However, after talking with the Doc, we were able to get it rescheduled back to this month. Definitely a blessing. Of course, we'll probably meet our deductible next year, anyway, but whatever. -------- Two home MSU basketball games, and I've not been to either. Another of the many impacts of increased gas prices is that I actually have to think twice before I hop in the car and head to a game (30 miles away). Can't blame the 2nd abscence on anything but stupidity. I had, ahem, traffic school that night. Or as Haley and Kelsee so eloquently put it, Naughty School. As I got ready to leave, Haley wagged her finger at me as she chastized me for driving too fast. She told me I better never do it again. -------- I'll leave on a humorous note, from the star of Man in the Box.

Things Learned During Thanksgiving

Just a little list of things learned during Thanksgiving weekend... - Men and women are very different. (I already knew this; it was just reaffirmed.) - Traditions can be broken. I would like to officially add green bean casserole to the traditional Thanksgiving menu. (Not that I have a say on the Thanksgiving menu.) - You can actually get through Thanksgiving day without watching football. No, really. You can. I'm as stunned as you are. - Rooms with concrete floors really echo. - People really do want to beat me at things just because I'm me. I thought this was all fabricated by Kris as a creative piece of trash talk during Fantasy Football. Playing Settlers of Catan really hammered it home. Kelsee says it's because I'm smug. Whatever. It's strangely satisfying. - The one day I can eat as much as I want and not feel guilty, and I can barely finish off a second helping. Is it the stuffing expanding in my stomach? The anticipation of the event? Some strange magical spell cast upon the food? - Gut stuffing. Gut gravy. How can it be thanksgiving without it? (Those are my terms for versions of those food items laced with giblets.) Mmmm... - Don't buy a "prepared" Thanksgiving dinner from Kroger's deli. Just make your own. It's not that hard. Trust me. - BYU's got a good football team this year. And a good basketball team, too. - I love football. I even thought it was replacing basketball as my sport of choice to watch. And then basketball season started, and I realized every thing was as it should be. Football is just a pleasant diversion until basketball season starts.

Master Negotiator-in-Training

Haley loves to get her way (what preschooler doesn't?). Recently she's devised a new strategy for trying to get her way (other than the "Please mama? Please! Oh-please-oh-please-oh-please" tactic or the "I-really-really-really-really-really-really-really-really want you to do XYZ" tactic). The other day I was babysitting Haleigh (1). She was napping. Haley (5) wanted to wake her up to play. We go through the "please-can-I-wake-her-up-noooooooow" routine many times each day. When she asked to wake her up, I wasn't surprised. When she didn't throw a tantrum over my "no", I was surprised. Before I could respond happily about her self-control she hopped up on a chair beside me, clapped her hands and the following conversation ensued: Haley: "Ok, mama, here's the deal. I'll give you two dollars from my piggy bank if you'll let me wake her up". Mama: "No" (trying not to laugh). Haley, hopefully: "Okay, three dollars?!" Mama: "No." Haley, more desperate: "Four dollars?" Mama: "No, Haley!" Haley, truly desperate now: "16 million dollars? I reeeeeeeally want to wake her up." Mama: "Nope! Good try though!" Tantrum. Oh well. At least she's getting creative in her old age!

5 year pictures

For Kally. Because we love her so.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Yep. The Sunday BEFORE Thanksgiving, and the tree is already up. Haley has been stoked for Christmas this year. I told Kelsee earlier today that I think this year will be the best one so far because Haley is so into it. Kelsee reminded me that I said that last year. And the year before that. And... Anyway, Haley's love affair with Christmas began a couple of weeks ago when an American Girl catalog showed up in the mail. She carried it with her everywhere she went for three or four days. She had it already in her mind that Santa was bringing her one, even though Kelsee pointed out that they are for girls eight years old and older. Didn't phase Haley. She rarely gets that obsessed with anything that's not in the candy family, so this was serious. (For all those that don't know, American Girl dolls cost like $10,000 and only come with one little outfit; Kelsee said this is a "rite of passage." Oookaaay...) Then about a week ago, Haley suddenly became obsessed with putting up our Christmas decorations, something we normally do on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Haley was very insistent. Somehow she convinced her mother (probably with a sweet hug and a "Pleeeeeze, Mama? Pleeeeeze! Oh-please-oh-please-oh-please!!") So the decorations went up on Friday and the tree went up today. The only real drawback is I'll get tired of the Christmas music by December 10th instead of the 17th, but that's a small price to pay to have Haley excitedly running around the house, as she did this afternoon and evening, telling everyone in hearing distance that this was going to be the best Christmas ever. Putting up the tree is a definite event in our house. Kelsee made a new recipe of some awesome orange rolls, we spiced up some cider and we went to work. It was quite a day. But the tree looks great and a very happy 5 year old is tucked warmly into bed while visions of American Girl dolls dance in her head...

Trips, Trips, and No Trips

So, we found the deal of a lifetime, right? Discovered Skybus airlines. $10 tickets on every flight! We got 'em to fly from Columbus, OH to Bellingham, WA in January. We were pumped. Kelsee was making a list of the all the people and sites to see. I was making a list of all the restaurants I wanted to eat at. I couldn't be happier. Except that a couple of weeks ago, we got "Skybussed," which will now be my new word for when something that is too good to be true really is. Basically, Skybus cancelled all service from Columbus to Bellingham. Next closest airport is somewhere in California. The sad thing is that I wasn't even surprised. Man, life has made me a cynic.

Man in the Box

Yes, I love the Alice In Chains version, too. But this is something different. Thanks to my brother in law Kris (soon to be known as Kris1), I've been introduced to the joys of Man in the Box, an extremely hilarious short video series about a guy in a cubicle. Here's one... Or this one... Ah, I'm in heaven...

Stupid Story*

OK. You need to check out this article that Kelsee sent me. If you don't cry, or at least a tear, you are a cold, cold person... http://www.kentucky.com/454/story/227609.html * The title of this post is an inside joke. Kelsee and I used to read Ensign articles on the way to work, and by the time we got there our eyes would be all swollen and red and Kelsee's mascara was running. So whenever a story started to make us get all teary-eyed, one of us would say "Stupid story" in an effort to keep the tears at bay. Didn't work.

Ooookaaaaay...

So I'm sitting at work doing my work (or checking out the fantasy football waiver wire, I can't remember which), when an e-mail arrives. It is addressed to the Help Desk. Basically, one of our dear co-workers is unable to perform some procedure she usually performs, and she's stuck at a screen that wants a response. She sends us a screenshot, which contains the following statement: "Do you want to continue? : (Y/N) _" Fair enough question. My boss replies: "Press Y." She replies with a new e-mail, the subject line of which is: "Where is my Y?" and the body of which begins with the following line: "Bear with me because I cannot find where the Y file is." It's in your Internet. You can access it by pressing the "Any" key.

Medical Update

Most people don't have to title a weblog post with the word "medical". But hey! We're not most people! Haley seems to be doing well. We have now gone nearly three years without a shunt revision. Not bad considering we were one a year there for a while. She's taken the year off from formal schooling (her birthday was just a couple of days before the kindergarten cutoff), and we just felt better about keeping her home one more year. However, Kelsee has done a good job of helping Haley stay busy. They do workbooks, crafts, "field trips", etc. Haley has started weekly gymnastics with a really good instructor. It's like physical therapy, just cheaper. She has been having some behavior difficulties, as well as ongoing headaches. She had a couple of seizure-like episodes over the summer, and is being monitored by a neurologist and a developmental pediatrician. She just recently began taking a new medication and we've seen a definite improvement in her behavior. Kelsee is trudging along. She having to deal with the fact that she may have seen all the improvement there is in her mobility and issues with her back and legs. She still experiences consistent numbness, frequent tingling, and decreased mobility. Just like Haley, she gets tired quickly during the day. But, of course, she refused to slow down. I've been dealing with a new medical issue--hearing loss. Actually, I've had hearing loss for a while; however, it was just easier to chalk it up to "selective hearing". Anyway, it had gotten bad enough that I was beginning to get frustrated having to ask everyone to repeat themselves and feeling like I was missing things. Kelsee was just about at wits end with me, and Haley had begun to emphasis how she wished I could hear better. Anyway, I finally went to the ENT, and here's what transpired in a nutshell:

1. Went to ENT. Had hearing test, met with doctor, had tubes put in my ears. (Yes, they do that with adults! Leave me alone.) Anyway, the test showed potential conductive hearing loss (seen as mild in the lower tones), which can often be eliminated with tubes. Though in this case, I feel like they put tubes in to meet their procedure quota.
2. Right ear (my better ear) got an infection. Spent a month, three antibotics, and lots of money trying to zap it.
3. Infection cleared up, but hearing didn't.
4. Went back to ENT. Had hearing test again which now showed mild hearing loss in the higher tones as well as the lower tones. It was worse in my right ear (formerly known as my better ear) than my left, but both showed mild impairment. Audiologist recommended hearing aids; ENT recommended meeting with their hearing guru. Whatever.
5. Hearing aids cost from $1000-3000 each, and aren't covered by insurance. Isn't that lovely?
6. Met with audiologist to discuss hearing aids. Left audiologist without hearing aids.
7. Will instead carry cone shaped hearing device and say, "Eh???" whenever anyone talks to me.
8. Will blame my "selective listening" on my mild neural-whatever hearing loss.

They say you are only as old as you feel. I'll be celebrating my 85th birthday next year. You are all welcome to attend.

More Updates...

I'm hoping that by setting up a weblog, Kelsee and I will be more likely to update our friends and family on what's going on in our little world. This is just the beginning of something beautiful. Right...