You know those moments in life that are just perfect? Sometimes they are brief, fleeting moments that last merely a few seconds, or they can be a day made up of perfect moments. Sure, you know when certain perfect moments are going to occur, like when one of your children are born, or when you hold and look into the eyes of your child for the first time. But I am talking about the unplanned moments that just happen. They are typically quite rare. They are impossible to plan, because they will never live up to the expectations you build up in your mind. And if you've had one, they are impossible to replicate because you can never duplicate the spontaneity that created the moment the first time. I have been lucky enough to have some of these moments that I keep locked away in the recesses of my mind and try to pull them out on 'blue' days to re-live the moment - as slowly as possible - so that I can for just a fraction of a second feel a splinter of that joy again. In order to really experience these types of moments you have to be the type of person that is willing to open yourself up and let the experience happen to you. You can't be a shut off person. You need to be in touch with yourself and the world around you.
One of these moments involve my son 'Jake' and me. It was on his 10th birthday. We were on a family vacation with my wife and our daughter as well in Oceanside, California. I told Jake for his birthday that, within reason, it was a day of yes'. I would do my best to avoid saying "no". His choice was to go to Disneyland. Margaret and my daughter would stay in Oceanside for the day. So Jake and I headed out bright and early for Anaheim. We got to Disneyland before the park opened and stayed until it closed. We went on every ride he wanted to, in the order he wanted to, regardless of which park it was in. We took full advantage of the park hopper tickets and the fast trac access to the attractions. We ate what he wanted, where he wanted, and we had one of the best days of our lives. I re-live that day often. So does Jake. He mentions it to me nearly every weekend he comes up to stay with us.
Another one of these perfect moments happened just last Wednesday evening. This was one of the rare spontaneous moments that to the outside world makes little or no sense. My dear wife got me a zero-gravity chair for Fathers Day this year. She liked it so well that she got herself one too. My brother-in-law and his wife also got me a Fathers Day gift of a 'bug zapper' that uses two AA batteries and looks very much like a racketball racket. The idea behind this is you press a small black button until a red light comes on, then you swing it at the bug and with 2,700 volts, it incinerates the insect. On Wednesday evening, my wife and I were sitting on our zero-gravity chairs and watching the sunset. Our 2 1/2 year old daughter was jumping on her small trampoline and doing 'bumbies'. Our nearly month old son was asleep in my wifes arms. Tom Petty was playing on the iPod - classic songs off of Wild Flowers. We had cold Otter Pops that we were eating after dinner and I was swatting bugs with my bug zapper. To the four of us, this was a perfect moment. A beautiful sunset, no whining, everybody happy, good music and bugs under control. May sound odd to you but we enjoyed this as a perfect moment for us.
Here's to you and yours hoping you have many perfect moments and may they come often and may you be receptive to them. Cheers...
Monday, June 24, 2013
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Whirlwind of the past 24 hours
OK, here it is the 25th of September, less than 24 hours from my last post, and I have had some news come to light that is going to rock my world come the end of May to sometime in June of 2013.
For about the past two weeks Margaret has been complaining of allergies and feeling sick to her stomach every evening. I thought it was just her way of saying she was not interested in doing the wild thing. (Like a sniffley nose or her not feeling good for two weeks in a row would stop me, OK it did.) I would say as I always do, "then take a pregnancy test."
That is my pat answer to anything she complains about.
She would always say "No, it's not like morning sickness, I just don't feel good."
To which I would reply "Then call the doctor in the morning and go see what is going on, maybe you have an ulcer or something."
Well last night, Margaret took my advice and took a pregnancy test. Thirty seconds later, in bold Ariel type the ClearBlue results were in. Pregnant Margaret kept looking at it and shaking it waiting for the Not to appear in front of pregnant. But it never appeared. We're going to add a member to our family for Sophia to be a big sister too. As a stay at home dad, I will be at least twice as busy with two little ones to care for, plus looking for additional income to help out with our day-to-day expenses. Margaret's first doctor appointment is not until 9:00 a.m. on November 7th, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything to do between now and then. We have to start getting the house ready, find homes for the cats, (YEA!) tear up the carpet in the downstairs and replace it with tile or hardwood. Change rooms for Ethan, (not that, that will change where Ethan sleeps when he comes up here to stay.) It will just be more crowded in our room at night.
I know, I know, you're thinking, how did Margaret get pregnant with other people sleeping in their room all the time. Because we are sneaky. Hee Hee Hee. And trust me, where there is a will, there is a way. Anyways, now that my sister is blushing and my brothers-in-law are about to lose their lunch lets change subjects.
Let's talk baby names. If this baby is a boy, I really REALLY like the name Trajan, for several reasons. First it is unusual in the western world. Second, I like what Trajan stands for. Trajan was a Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 A.D. He was a great and just ruler that freed many of the prisoners that his predecessor's imprisoned unjustly and returned personal property that was taken unfairly from main of the Roman subjects. After his death of a stroke in 117, the Senate deified him and each of the following emperors were bestowed with the wish of felicior Augusto, melior Traiano which means may you be luckier than Augustus and better than Trajan. [Wikipedia]
One of my sisters-in-law, claim he will be teased in school as Trojan, (the condom). However, I think he will be called Tray for short and it is a great, noble name and a great person to be named after. Of course, this could all be moot as the baby could be a girl, leaving me open to additional suggestions. I have some ideas, but I will save them for a future blog.
It is now the 27th of September and we have told our families. Of course everyone asks what do you want a boy or a girl, and we always answer "Healthy." We pray for a healthy baby and for Margaret to go this time without the pre-eclampsia that plagued her the third tri-mester last time and brought Sophia to us 3 weeks early. We were very lucky with Sophia that she only spent 40 minutes in the NICU and we had the totally best OB/GYN for our needs. She seemed to always have the time for us and the time to explain everything to us in layman's terms and she was always available and never rushed, yet we never had to wait very long for her. And come to find out she is one of the highest demand OB/GYN's at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake. I swear, she is really one of a set of triplets.
When we told Rory and Ethan last night it was after Ethan's scouting awards ceremony where he got a whole bunch of awards, and moved from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts with his Arrow of Light Ceremony. He was really cute with it all and got his face painted by the four mom's of the boys that were moving on to Boy Scouts last night. He is really looking like a grown up to me now, a good looking kid. He was really excited about having a new brother or sister next year and he was cute about it. Rory said "Congratulations," and then didn't really know what else to say. That's okay, I think I understand.
Well, I'm going to post this now and get back to taking care of Sophia, Caillou (her other TV love addiction) is almost over. Talk at you again soon.
For about the past two weeks Margaret has been complaining of allergies and feeling sick to her stomach every evening. I thought it was just her way of saying she was not interested in doing the wild thing. (Like a sniffley nose or her not feeling good for two weeks in a row would stop me, OK it did.) I would say as I always do, "then take a pregnancy test."
That is my pat answer to anything she complains about.
She would always say "No, it's not like morning sickness, I just don't feel good."
To which I would reply "Then call the doctor in the morning and go see what is going on, maybe you have an ulcer or something."
Well last night, Margaret took my advice and took a pregnancy test. Thirty seconds later, in bold Ariel type the ClearBlue results were in. Pregnant Margaret kept looking at it and shaking it waiting for the Not to appear in front of pregnant. But it never appeared. We're going to add a member to our family for Sophia to be a big sister too. As a stay at home dad, I will be at least twice as busy with two little ones to care for, plus looking for additional income to help out with our day-to-day expenses. Margaret's first doctor appointment is not until 9:00 a.m. on November 7th, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything to do between now and then. We have to start getting the house ready, find homes for the cats, (YEA!) tear up the carpet in the downstairs and replace it with tile or hardwood. Change rooms for Ethan, (not that, that will change where Ethan sleeps when he comes up here to stay.) It will just be more crowded in our room at night.
I know, I know, you're thinking, how did Margaret get pregnant with other people sleeping in their room all the time. Because we are sneaky. Hee Hee Hee. And trust me, where there is a will, there is a way. Anyways, now that my sister is blushing and my brothers-in-law are about to lose their lunch lets change subjects.
Let's talk baby names. If this baby is a boy, I really REALLY like the name Trajan, for several reasons. First it is unusual in the western world. Second, I like what Trajan stands for. Trajan was a Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 A.D. He was a great and just ruler that freed many of the prisoners that his predecessor's imprisoned unjustly and returned personal property that was taken unfairly from main of the Roman subjects. After his death of a stroke in 117, the Senate deified him and each of the following emperors were bestowed with the wish of felicior Augusto, melior Traiano which means may you be luckier than Augustus and better than Trajan. [Wikipedia]
One of my sisters-in-law, claim he will be teased in school as Trojan, (the condom). However, I think he will be called Tray for short and it is a great, noble name and a great person to be named after. Of course, this could all be moot as the baby could be a girl, leaving me open to additional suggestions. I have some ideas, but I will save them for a future blog.
It is now the 27th of September and we have told our families. Of course everyone asks what do you want a boy or a girl, and we always answer "Healthy." We pray for a healthy baby and for Margaret to go this time without the pre-eclampsia that plagued her the third tri-mester last time and brought Sophia to us 3 weeks early. We were very lucky with Sophia that she only spent 40 minutes in the NICU and we had the totally best OB/GYN for our needs. She seemed to always have the time for us and the time to explain everything to us in layman's terms and she was always available and never rushed, yet we never had to wait very long for her. And come to find out she is one of the highest demand OB/GYN's at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake. I swear, she is really one of a set of triplets.
When we told Rory and Ethan last night it was after Ethan's scouting awards ceremony where he got a whole bunch of awards, and moved from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts with his Arrow of Light Ceremony. He was really cute with it all and got his face painted by the four mom's of the boys that were moving on to Boy Scouts last night. He is really looking like a grown up to me now, a good looking kid. He was really excited about having a new brother or sister next year and he was cute about it. Rory said "Congratulations," and then didn't really know what else to say. That's okay, I think I understand.
Well, I'm going to post this now and get back to taking care of Sophia, Caillou (her other TV love addiction) is almost over. Talk at you again soon.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Well, it's been quite a while since the last posting - sorry to keep you waiting - I know most of you have probably been loosing sleep over this, LOL. Anyway, here is what has gone on, in a nutshell, since that last posting in June. Sophia has had her 2nd birthday come and go. We had a blast at a 6 person birthday party where we rented an inflatable bounce house and an inflatable water slide. It was a blast and we all had fun, there were about 25 of us that were all there including Sophia's brother Ethan whose birthday was also celebrated during that party. About a week or two before the birthday party, Sophia, Ethan, Mommy and Daddy went on a road trip to visit Aunt Susan and Uncle Bob in Colorado. The kids were real troopers for the road trip and hardly complained about the long hours in the car. We visited Rocky Mountain National Park and saw moose and elk and deer and other wildlife, as well as traveling the Trail Ridge Road that exceeds 11,000 feet above sea level and is a beautiful drive. We stayed in Estes Park and Ethan was intrigued with the Stanley Hotel and the stories of it being haunted. One of the elk we saw close to the road just outside of the National Park had apparently gotten tangled up with someones Christmas lights and had its' antlers all wound up in the lights and wires. I am sure the elk is looking forward to losing this years rack of antlers and growing new ones next year as they were a bit in the way of eating.
Sophia has progressed very well with her academics over the past 4 months. She not only knew her ABC's song before her 2nd birthday, she also knows each letter by name and where in the alphabet it goes. We have a 'Melissa & Doug' puzzle of the alphabet that she loves to play with and she says the letter of the alphabet and then puts it into the proper place in the puzzle without hesitation. She also has been counting up to 16 without assistance since the end of July. Margaret and I attribute a great deal of her learning to several of the learning apps that Sophia loves to use in 'her' iPad. We can kid ourselves and say it is Margaret's iPad, but Sophia uses it 90%-95% of the time now, and calls it "MINE". Sophia is sleeping about 8 hours a night and then about 90 minutes for a midday nap. She also loves to play basketball. Ethan has an adjustable hoop up here at our home and when it is on the lowest setting of 8.5 feet, I can lift her up high enough for her to roll the basketball over the rim and through the hoop. I then set her down and she chases after the ball, comes back with it, stands under the hoop and says "Dada, bask-eyball", to which I am supposed to pick her up again and let her do her impression of Karl Malone once again.
The night before last she was singing songs to Margaret and I. Her favorites are the Barney songs (I Love You, You Love Me), Crap now I have that song stuck in my head again, and "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Sponge Bob, Happy Birthday to you". The funny thing about that is that she has only seen Sponge Bob Square Pants a hand full of times, but she got a McDonald's toy of that creature during the Olympics and became fascinated with him ever since.
Her 2 year follow up doctor appointment is not until the 3rd of October and we are a little concerned the doctor is going to rip us a new one because she is so damn skinny. She is taller than kids older than she is, but even 18 month pants won't stay up on her bony butt. We buy 24 month pants and I take them in by hand, (I know, I'm very versatile and some day I'll make a great wife, yeah, yeah, yeah), but you do what you gotta do to cover up the diaper. Well, she is beginning to stir, so I better end for now, I promise it won't be as long till I write again, and maybe I'll have a funny story or two by then. If you like the blog, please share with your friends, if not, share it anyways. Thanks and enjoy.
Sophia has progressed very well with her academics over the past 4 months. She not only knew her ABC's song before her 2nd birthday, she also knows each letter by name and where in the alphabet it goes. We have a 'Melissa & Doug' puzzle of the alphabet that she loves to play with and she says the letter of the alphabet and then puts it into the proper place in the puzzle without hesitation. She also has been counting up to 16 without assistance since the end of July. Margaret and I attribute a great deal of her learning to several of the learning apps that Sophia loves to use in 'her' iPad. We can kid ourselves and say it is Margaret's iPad, but Sophia uses it 90%-95% of the time now, and calls it "MINE". Sophia is sleeping about 8 hours a night and then about 90 minutes for a midday nap. She also loves to play basketball. Ethan has an adjustable hoop up here at our home and when it is on the lowest setting of 8.5 feet, I can lift her up high enough for her to roll the basketball over the rim and through the hoop. I then set her down and she chases after the ball, comes back with it, stands under the hoop and says "Dada, bask-eyball", to which I am supposed to pick her up again and let her do her impression of Karl Malone once again.
The night before last she was singing songs to Margaret and I. Her favorites are the Barney songs (I Love You, You Love Me), Crap now I have that song stuck in my head again, and "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Sponge Bob, Happy Birthday to you". The funny thing about that is that she has only seen Sponge Bob Square Pants a hand full of times, but she got a McDonald's toy of that creature during the Olympics and became fascinated with him ever since.
Her 2 year follow up doctor appointment is not until the 3rd of October and we are a little concerned the doctor is going to rip us a new one because she is so damn skinny. She is taller than kids older than she is, but even 18 month pants won't stay up on her bony butt. We buy 24 month pants and I take them in by hand, (I know, I'm very versatile and some day I'll make a great wife, yeah, yeah, yeah), but you do what you gotta do to cover up the diaper. Well, she is beginning to stir, so I better end for now, I promise it won't be as long till I write again, and maybe I'll have a funny story or two by then. If you like the blog, please share with your friends, if not, share it anyways. Thanks and enjoy.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Mexico (Or I need a vacation from my vacation)
Today is Tuesday June 12th, 2012. We've been home from Mexico for 3 days and it was, lets say, an adventure. It all started on Saturday June 2nd. we got up at 4:00 am so we could make it to our 7:30 flight to Denver to catch our connecting flight to Cancun. We all three got up and piled into the old Nissan Xterra and headed for Margaret's brother Ethans house in Kaysville. We got there about 5:30 with no problems. Then we went to get Margarets mother in West Bountiful. We made it there without any hitches. Little did I know or realize things were going too smoothly. Next, we get to the airport by 6:30 and checking for our flight to Denver and also check in for the international leg of our flight to Mexico. Got through security with only one minor glitch, Margaret had a lucky pair of tweezers that was confiscated from her going through TSA. Maybe they were afraid that she would tweeze the pilots unibrow during the flight, i dunno.
We get to DIA in Denver a little early and get a breakfast burrito at Quizznos. Then we had 90 more minutes to kill before they started boarding the plane.LaNan and Margaret took Sophia up the escalator and down the escalator half a dozen times at least at DIA. We go to the gate and find out that we were supposed to get to the gate 30 minutes ago because they needed to check our documents (lame, since we checked in at SLC with our passports). We find out as we are trying to board the plane early that we don't have a stamp on our boarding pass that says "Documents OK". so we go to the desk that checks the passport and documents and get our little stamp, then we are the last people on the plane. we put our carry on luggage in the overhead bins and under the seat in front of us. The plane takes off with the four of us (Ethan was just driving us to and from the airport in SLC). We have a fairly uneventful flight to Cancun. Then we land in Cancun and the flight attendant come on the intercom and says that we have to wait on the tarmac a few more minutes cuz our flight arrived early and someone else is parked at our gate. No worries, we can handle this.
We finally get off the plane and have to go through customs. This should be a breeze right? Wel 50 minutes later we are finally to the customs agent. We get through customs with only margarets baggs being searched and her purse, then we go out to the baggage claim and surprise, surprise, our luggage has beat us through customs. Then we walk fast to get past all the people trying to sell us a timeshare and with a little difficulty find our driver to driv e us the extra 1 1/2 hours to our resort in the rivera maya. Outside temp 87 degrees F, Humidity about 80%. The van is air conditioned, and our driver speaks fairly good english. He offers to take us to a 7-11 to get a water for the drive, very thoughtful. I go in and for 3 one liter bottles of evian and one bottle (500ml) of Coke, $11 USD.figured that was a little steep but then again it was a 7-11. LaNan (Margarets mom) speaks fluent Spanish and carries on a conversation with the driver most of the way to our resort at the Grand Palladium Kanteneh. We get thre and get checked in and the bell bot drives us to our jr. suite. This is just another room with Mexican Queen size beds, aka, US Full size beds. Glad we upgraded. We are starving by this point and so we just decide to hit the buffet for dinner and get a good nights sleep for the next days adventures. Word to the wise: DO NOT EAT ANY MEXICAN PORK PRODUCT. I paid for it all the next day. The morning started off a bit rainy, but it cleared by 1:00 pm so we went to the pool and to the beach. The resort is too big to have the bar maids walking around taking drink orders so we had to walk up to one of the bars to order drinks. TIPS EXPECTED even though it is an all inclusive resort. At about 4 banana-mamas we decided to go back to the room and get cleaned up and dressed for dinner. the thing that sucks for guys is you have to wear long pants to any of the full service resturants. In the heat and humidity, that was asking a bit much, but we complied. Just as we were getting ready for dinner, the skies opened up and it POURED as hard as Margaret had ever seen it in her life.I took a really cool picture and the flash relfected off the rain drops that made a really artistic picture. We then went to a meditrainian resturant for dinner and the food was much better than the service. The waiters only know enought english to talk about the menu. Sophia was ordered some roasted chicken and fries. The Chicken was more like jerky - inetable. Thank goodness she likes fries and couscous. The lamb was exceptional as was the salmon. Then back to the room. Unfortunately, Margaret got a visit from mother nature and needed some cotton plugs. The resort knows that they have you by the short and curlies because you are out in the middle of the fricken jungle. $11 USD for a box of 8 tampons. Ridiculous!!!! But we had no other recourse that to pay the ungodly amount of money and deal with it. Not going to let that ruin our whole trip. Monday was a nice overcast day that we spent mostly at the beach. Monday night we went to the Brazilian Steak House for dinner. Good meat, yes it was beef, but thinly sliced. then back to the room. Tuesday we went on our only excursion, to Tulum and Xel Ha (pronounsed Shell Ha). The ruins were neat to see and I wish they would have had a pamphlet that we could see what each of the buildings was supposedly used for and information about it, but that would have put the guides who charge $50-$70 USD out of business. Yeah, I was cheap and didn't hire a local to make up stories about buildings to romantisize the already neeat buildings. We spent about 1.5 hours there and then took the little train pulled by a 1956 FarmAll Tractor back to where we were supposed to meet our driver. He was no where to be seen. So Margaret calls the office and he shows right up. We then go to Xel Ha. It is like a commercialized National Park with snorkling, zip lines, and people wanting to take your picture for their push to show you were there and in the water. Margaret and I went snorkeling first and saw sting rays, parrot fish, damsels, chubs, barbs, cichlids, etc. Xel ha is supposedly the best place on earth to witness a river flowing into the ocean . The layer of water between the ocean and the fresh water is a little murky as the salt water stays on the bottom and the fresh water on top. Margaret and her mom went snorkeling next and I stayed out and watched Sophia. It was HOT like almost 100 degrees F. Sophia had on a sun protecting swim suit that was more like a shorty wet suit. This afternoon is when things started to go down hill. We get back to the room with out any incident. We ate at the Japanese resturaunt that night. Food was ok. The next day was Wednesday. Sophia was a little cranky this morning. She also felt a little warm. It is cooler at the beach so we went down to the beach Sophia seemed to get worse as the day went on. Fortunately, Margaret had rememebered to pack the childrens Tylenol. We took everything off except her diaper, its ok, it was a topless beach. When she still felt hot an hour after the tylenol, we took her back to the room and I put her in a cool bath. That along with the tylenol brought her fever down, for a short while. We also turned the room temperature down. She got worse as the evening wore on. It was a restless night for everyone. the next morning Thursday, we called the house dr to come and see her. $200 later he said she had strep and some kind of a skin rash (we knew this much) and he called the pharmacy 20 minutes away and ordered amoxicillinand some steroid for her rash. In Mexico you dont need a dr to order amoxicillin not the steroid. We toyed with the idea of flying home a day early,but decided to just wait the one more day to fly home. On Friday, her rash looked like little and big white heads all over her arms and legs and the bottom of her feet.and a few on her face by her mouth. By this time we all were ready to get back to the good ol' USA. I will write about our flight home in tomorrows blog. The short of it all we got home late on Friday night and on Saturday we were the second patients at the insta care facility and the dr there told us it was hand,foot, and mouth virus that is very common and has an incubation period of about 3 days. she probably got it at the pool and that it affects younger children usually under 10. The US dr also told us that she did NOT have strep and that the amoxicillin would do no good, same with the steroid. The virus is fairly common although none of us had heard of it before and it spreads like a cold virus. Through direct contact with an infected person or surface or POOL. There were several other kids we saw at the resort that had the same sort of rash. We think the pool was infected. Today is Tuesday again and she is doing much better but it sure had us scared in a foreign country and foreign language for her health. The mexican dr spoke broken english and had studied medicine in mexico city. Apparently most dr's in mexico throw amoxicillin at everything. Tired of writning today - more tomorrow or the next day. End part I.
We get to DIA in Denver a little early and get a breakfast burrito at Quizznos. Then we had 90 more minutes to kill before they started boarding the plane.LaNan and Margaret took Sophia up the escalator and down the escalator half a dozen times at least at DIA. We go to the gate and find out that we were supposed to get to the gate 30 minutes ago because they needed to check our documents (lame, since we checked in at SLC with our passports). We find out as we are trying to board the plane early that we don't have a stamp on our boarding pass that says "Documents OK". so we go to the desk that checks the passport and documents and get our little stamp, then we are the last people on the plane. we put our carry on luggage in the overhead bins and under the seat in front of us. The plane takes off with the four of us (Ethan was just driving us to and from the airport in SLC). We have a fairly uneventful flight to Cancun. Then we land in Cancun and the flight attendant come on the intercom and says that we have to wait on the tarmac a few more minutes cuz our flight arrived early and someone else is parked at our gate. No worries, we can handle this.
We finally get off the plane and have to go through customs. This should be a breeze right? Wel 50 minutes later we are finally to the customs agent. We get through customs with only margarets baggs being searched and her purse, then we go out to the baggage claim and surprise, surprise, our luggage has beat us through customs. Then we walk fast to get past all the people trying to sell us a timeshare and with a little difficulty find our driver to driv e us the extra 1 1/2 hours to our resort in the rivera maya. Outside temp 87 degrees F, Humidity about 80%. The van is air conditioned, and our driver speaks fairly good english. He offers to take us to a 7-11 to get a water for the drive, very thoughtful. I go in and for 3 one liter bottles of evian and one bottle (500ml) of Coke, $11 USD.figured that was a little steep but then again it was a 7-11. LaNan (Margarets mom) speaks fluent Spanish and carries on a conversation with the driver most of the way to our resort at the Grand Palladium Kanteneh. We get thre and get checked in and the bell bot drives us to our jr. suite. This is just another room with Mexican Queen size beds, aka, US Full size beds. Glad we upgraded. We are starving by this point and so we just decide to hit the buffet for dinner and get a good nights sleep for the next days adventures. Word to the wise: DO NOT EAT ANY MEXICAN PORK PRODUCT. I paid for it all the next day. The morning started off a bit rainy, but it cleared by 1:00 pm so we went to the pool and to the beach. The resort is too big to have the bar maids walking around taking drink orders so we had to walk up to one of the bars to order drinks. TIPS EXPECTED even though it is an all inclusive resort. At about 4 banana-mamas we decided to go back to the room and get cleaned up and dressed for dinner. the thing that sucks for guys is you have to wear long pants to any of the full service resturants. In the heat and humidity, that was asking a bit much, but we complied. Just as we were getting ready for dinner, the skies opened up and it POURED as hard as Margaret had ever seen it in her life.I took a really cool picture and the flash relfected off the rain drops that made a really artistic picture. We then went to a meditrainian resturant for dinner and the food was much better than the service. The waiters only know enought english to talk about the menu. Sophia was ordered some roasted chicken and fries. The Chicken was more like jerky - inetable. Thank goodness she likes fries and couscous. The lamb was exceptional as was the salmon. Then back to the room. Unfortunately, Margaret got a visit from mother nature and needed some cotton plugs. The resort knows that they have you by the short and curlies because you are out in the middle of the fricken jungle. $11 USD for a box of 8 tampons. Ridiculous!!!! But we had no other recourse that to pay the ungodly amount of money and deal with it. Not going to let that ruin our whole trip. Monday was a nice overcast day that we spent mostly at the beach. Monday night we went to the Brazilian Steak House for dinner. Good meat, yes it was beef, but thinly sliced. then back to the room. Tuesday we went on our only excursion, to Tulum and Xel Ha (pronounsed Shell Ha). The ruins were neat to see and I wish they would have had a pamphlet that we could see what each of the buildings was supposedly used for and information about it, but that would have put the guides who charge $50-$70 USD out of business. Yeah, I was cheap and didn't hire a local to make up stories about buildings to romantisize the already neeat buildings. We spent about 1.5 hours there and then took the little train pulled by a 1956 FarmAll Tractor back to where we were supposed to meet our driver. He was no where to be seen. So Margaret calls the office and he shows right up. We then go to Xel Ha. It is like a commercialized National Park with snorkling, zip lines, and people wanting to take your picture for their push to show you were there and in the water. Margaret and I went snorkeling first and saw sting rays, parrot fish, damsels, chubs, barbs, cichlids, etc. Xel ha is supposedly the best place on earth to witness a river flowing into the ocean . The layer of water between the ocean and the fresh water is a little murky as the salt water stays on the bottom and the fresh water on top. Margaret and her mom went snorkeling next and I stayed out and watched Sophia. It was HOT like almost 100 degrees F. Sophia had on a sun protecting swim suit that was more like a shorty wet suit. This afternoon is when things started to go down hill. We get back to the room with out any incident. We ate at the Japanese resturaunt that night. Food was ok. The next day was Wednesday. Sophia was a little cranky this morning. She also felt a little warm. It is cooler at the beach so we went down to the beach Sophia seemed to get worse as the day went on. Fortunately, Margaret had rememebered to pack the childrens Tylenol. We took everything off except her diaper, its ok, it was a topless beach. When she still felt hot an hour after the tylenol, we took her back to the room and I put her in a cool bath. That along with the tylenol brought her fever down, for a short while. We also turned the room temperature down. She got worse as the evening wore on. It was a restless night for everyone. the next morning Thursday, we called the house dr to come and see her. $200 later he said she had strep and some kind of a skin rash (we knew this much) and he called the pharmacy 20 minutes away and ordered amoxicillinand some steroid for her rash. In Mexico you dont need a dr to order amoxicillin not the steroid. We toyed with the idea of flying home a day early,but decided to just wait the one more day to fly home. On Friday, her rash looked like little and big white heads all over her arms and legs and the bottom of her feet.and a few on her face by her mouth. By this time we all were ready to get back to the good ol' USA. I will write about our flight home in tomorrows blog. The short of it all we got home late on Friday night and on Saturday we were the second patients at the insta care facility and the dr there told us it was hand,foot, and mouth virus that is very common and has an incubation period of about 3 days. she probably got it at the pool and that it affects younger children usually under 10. The US dr also told us that she did NOT have strep and that the amoxicillin would do no good, same with the steroid. The virus is fairly common although none of us had heard of it before and it spreads like a cold virus. Through direct contact with an infected person or surface or POOL. There were several other kids we saw at the resort that had the same sort of rash. We think the pool was infected. Today is Tuesday again and she is doing much better but it sure had us scared in a foreign country and foreign language for her health. The mexican dr spoke broken english and had studied medicine in mexico city. Apparently most dr's in mexico throw amoxicillin at everything. Tired of writning today - more tomorrow or the next day. End part I.
Monday, March 12, 2012
I Finally Figured it Out
Ever since Sophia started walking something has looked vaguely familiar about it. I couldn't quite put my finger on it until this morning when I was watching her in my coffeeless stupor. She walks, then runs, then walks again, all while flailing her arms around in random motions. All this while trying to move forward in a straight line, but bouncing off the left wal then the right and so on and so on. She is doing her impression of Johnny Depp doing an impression of Captain Jack Sparrow doing an impression of Keith Richards. She hasn't even seen the Pirates of the Carribean movies yet, but maybe she go it through osmosis while invitro. It is the most perfect impression of the walk I have ever seen. It is brilliant.
Additionally, she is starting to string two words together to form simple sentences. When Margaret leaves us for work in the mornings, she always tells each of us goodbye, then as she is walking down the stairs to leave she will shout back "Bye guys, see you later." so now when Sophia is saying good-bye to anything it is "Bye guys." Whether it is good bye to one person or good bye to the television set, it's "Bye guys." Even at the end of her favorite TV programs she says, "Bye guys". Same goes for when we leave the house, she repeats the phrase to the cats and dogs. The drive thru dude at McDonalds, same thing goes. So don't be offended if your a gal and not a guy and she says, "Bye guys" either when she is leaving you or thinks it is time we were on our way, it's just her way of saying good-bye.
Yesterday it was a BEAUTIFUL day along the Wasatch Front. The thermometer here at our home said it got up to 72ºF. We decided to take Sophia to the Hogle Zoo down in Salt Lake by the University of Utah. She spent about 20% of the time in her stroller and 80% of her time running around like a drunken pirate. She even insisted on climing up the steep hills all by her self. It was a good activity for her since it wore her out and helped to make up for the change to daylight savings time. Her Grandma LaNan and Auntie McCall came with us too. It is aq good thing we had all four of us to keep tabs on the little stinker. She was always insisting we go the opposite direction than we needed to go, so one of us would lead the way and the other two would walk by her side and the fourth would bring up the rear to make sure she was not turning around and bolting the other way. When we would leave one area of animals she would tell them "Bye guys", and saunter off to see what was next. She really liked seeing our four Amur Tigers, and she loved the Carrousel and wanted to do that part of the zoo a second time. The poor little sweet-cakes also got bit by a bee while we were eating lunch. Atleast it wasn't a sting. At the end of the zoo-fari experience, Grandma watched Sophia while Margaret and I were picking out a treat for her from the gift shop. Sophia finally warmed up to the "floating marble world globe" fountain and got soaked. She was very cute about it and wanted to go do it again but we didn't have enough dry clothes for her to do it a second time. We wound up the trip to the zoo with a train ride, then we walked back to the car, and she was a little like a Captian Jack Sparrow getting to the car, but very tired by the time we got there. All in all, it was a good family day (except we didn't have Ethan), and we were all exhausted and ready for the day to be over. Thanks Grandma for going with and for everything and thanks Auntie Cally for coming with.
Additionally, she is starting to string two words together to form simple sentences. When Margaret leaves us for work in the mornings, she always tells each of us goodbye, then as she is walking down the stairs to leave she will shout back "Bye guys, see you later." so now when Sophia is saying good-bye to anything it is "Bye guys." Whether it is good bye to one person or good bye to the television set, it's "Bye guys." Even at the end of her favorite TV programs she says, "Bye guys". Same goes for when we leave the house, she repeats the phrase to the cats and dogs. The drive thru dude at McDonalds, same thing goes. So don't be offended if your a gal and not a guy and she says, "Bye guys" either when she is leaving you or thinks it is time we were on our way, it's just her way of saying good-bye.
Yesterday it was a BEAUTIFUL day along the Wasatch Front. The thermometer here at our home said it got up to 72ºF. We decided to take Sophia to the Hogle Zoo down in Salt Lake by the University of Utah. She spent about 20% of the time in her stroller and 80% of her time running around like a drunken pirate. She even insisted on climing up the steep hills all by her self. It was a good activity for her since it wore her out and helped to make up for the change to daylight savings time. Her Grandma LaNan and Auntie McCall came with us too. It is aq good thing we had all four of us to keep tabs on the little stinker. She was always insisting we go the opposite direction than we needed to go, so one of us would lead the way and the other two would walk by her side and the fourth would bring up the rear to make sure she was not turning around and bolting the other way. When we would leave one area of animals she would tell them "Bye guys", and saunter off to see what was next. She really liked seeing our four Amur Tigers, and she loved the Carrousel and wanted to do that part of the zoo a second time. The poor little sweet-cakes also got bit by a bee while we were eating lunch. Atleast it wasn't a sting. At the end of the zoo-fari experience, Grandma watched Sophia while Margaret and I were picking out a treat for her from the gift shop. Sophia finally warmed up to the "floating marble world globe" fountain and got soaked. She was very cute about it and wanted to go do it again but we didn't have enough dry clothes for her to do it a second time. We wound up the trip to the zoo with a train ride, then we walked back to the car, and she was a little like a Captian Jack Sparrow getting to the car, but very tired by the time we got there. All in all, it was a good family day (except we didn't have Ethan), and we were all exhausted and ready for the day to be over. Thanks Grandma for going with and for everything and thanks Auntie Cally for coming with.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
I've created my Grandfathers (Pops) and Dads Little Monster
Okay, growing up, at times both of my parents worked outside the home to make ends meet and to give my sister and I a more priviledged childhood, with family trips to Disneyland, Hawaii, Washington DC, Calgary Canada, etc. My sister, a.k.a. Sisti-uglar, is 9 years, 5 months, and 9 days older than me. I don't let her forget it too often. She was well into school long before I ever got to go to kindergarten. On occassions when both my Mom and Dad were needed to work in the office, I would sometimes get dropped off at my grandparents home. These were my Mom's parents that we called Mom and Pops. They adored me because I was so cute and imaginative. (No conceit on my part). Pops always had a pocket full of butterscotch life savers. Pops, to say he had a sweet tooth, is a major understatement. I guess that is what made Mom and Pops such sweet people to be around and why all the grandkids wanted to be at their house. At their home I was intoduced to fresh squeezed orange juice with about 8 teaspoons full (heaping full) of sugar. It was very good and Pops made the OJ for Mom (his wife) every morning. On mornings that I would arrive, he would also make the OJ for me too. At their home I was also introduced to Coca-Cola. Still love it. And one of Pops vices, Oreo's. I don't know how many times I ate his complete stash of Oreo cookies, but I know it was a lot. My Dad also loves Oreo's and has taught my two older boys to enjoy and devour the tiny chocolate morsels of ambrosia, with a cream filling that preserves your insides so mummification is not necessary, in a flash. I, to this day still love Oreo's. I think my Mom is right when she says I was raised on Coke and Oreo's. Well, I have had to pass this tradition along to my daughter Sophia. She, at 18 months young, will take a half eaten Oreo from me and pound it down, then come back and get a whole cookie from me and snarf that one as well. When the Oreo's are all gone, she will put on her cute little pouty face for 30 to 45 minutes, until I can get her involved in something else. I try to make her eat something with nutritional value like grapes or strawberries, after the cookies are gone. Some times it works, some times we put on our shoes and head to the grocery store to get some more (for her of course). Needless to say, if we would have invested in Nabisco, as a company, more than that of a consumer, when I was young, I may not still be paying on student loans. But that was not meant to be, so I will continue to pay my student loans and eating Oreo's (much to my wife's discouragement - at 240 lbs, I am not a svelt man), and continue to allow my children to enjoy one of the few childhood memories I am able to share in a safe, or semi safe activity.
It is sad to me that many of the things I enjoyed as a child, my kids will never get to enjoy. Things like Hide n Seek, Kick the Can, Steal the Flag, and No Bears are out Tonight, all played until 10:00 or 11:00 pm. Todays scarey environment with creeps walking the streets make it so you don't trust your kids to be out of your site outdoors for more than a few minutes. In the late spring, summer, and early fall, the parents can take their lawn chairs out to the front yard and keep a better eye on them. It is also better if you are in a neighborhood that has a number of kids the same age as your kids, the old strength in numbers adage. Creeps are less likely to try something if there are a number of kids around that can identify them, get license plate numbers and the make and model of creeps in cars, etc. I don't know how this blog digressed from eating Oreo's to child safety, but let's just say it is inspired and hopefully it will be of help to someone who reads it. I know I have said, semi-jokingly, that Sophia will be allowed to date once she hits 25 years old and she will have to have her prospective suiter fill out an application, complete with references, and have it approved prior to any dating. I have begun creating the application, but it has a long way to go before she hits 25 and the form is put into use. I still have 23 1/2 years to go before it will be necessary to have it available for use.
My kids are what keep me going. I can't imagine losing one even while shopping at WalMart for 5 minutes. My head is filled with the fear of something like Adam Walsh happening and I could not bear it. The loss of a child has to be the hardest thing a parent would ever have to deal with. Sure there are times when we get on each others nerves and need a break from each other, but that happenes in separate rooms, not by them going outside.
Okay, back to the Oreo's. I think all three of my kids would be happy with a birthday present of either Oreo's or the extra creamy goodness of Double Stuff Oreo's. I have done extensive research (eating) on the benefits of eating anything chocolate, and it is nearly impossible to frown or be sad when chocolate is in your mouth. My research has extended to the observation of my kids and wife. Whenever they are upset or grumpy, I try to force feed a little chocolate and that seems to make things much better. When I was a child, and I would get an ouwey, my Mom would give me a small sandwich baggie with about an 1/8 of a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips (she called them chocolate bumps for my bumps and bruises). They always made me feel better and I would share this recipe for healing with my friends growing up. One time a friend got into a fight with his brother at his house and after he got beat up, he came to my house for some chocolate bumps. I also recall one time I got into a fight with a friend and slugged him in the stomach and immediately I felt horrible. I ran home and got some chocolate bumps for him and took them to him to apologize. It took a few minutes, but by the end of the day we were good friends again.
So if you have a little one that is hurting from falling while learning to walk, or ride a bike, I highly recommend chocolate bumps to make it all better. Wishing you all health and happiness and a little chocolate to make it over the bumps in your life.
It is sad to me that many of the things I enjoyed as a child, my kids will never get to enjoy. Things like Hide n Seek, Kick the Can, Steal the Flag, and No Bears are out Tonight, all played until 10:00 or 11:00 pm. Todays scarey environment with creeps walking the streets make it so you don't trust your kids to be out of your site outdoors for more than a few minutes. In the late spring, summer, and early fall, the parents can take their lawn chairs out to the front yard and keep a better eye on them. It is also better if you are in a neighborhood that has a number of kids the same age as your kids, the old strength in numbers adage. Creeps are less likely to try something if there are a number of kids around that can identify them, get license plate numbers and the make and model of creeps in cars, etc. I don't know how this blog digressed from eating Oreo's to child safety, but let's just say it is inspired and hopefully it will be of help to someone who reads it. I know I have said, semi-jokingly, that Sophia will be allowed to date once she hits 25 years old and she will have to have her prospective suiter fill out an application, complete with references, and have it approved prior to any dating. I have begun creating the application, but it has a long way to go before she hits 25 and the form is put into use. I still have 23 1/2 years to go before it will be necessary to have it available for use.
My kids are what keep me going. I can't imagine losing one even while shopping at WalMart for 5 minutes. My head is filled with the fear of something like Adam Walsh happening and I could not bear it. The loss of a child has to be the hardest thing a parent would ever have to deal with. Sure there are times when we get on each others nerves and need a break from each other, but that happenes in separate rooms, not by them going outside.
Okay, back to the Oreo's. I think all three of my kids would be happy with a birthday present of either Oreo's or the extra creamy goodness of Double Stuff Oreo's. I have done extensive research (eating) on the benefits of eating anything chocolate, and it is nearly impossible to frown or be sad when chocolate is in your mouth. My research has extended to the observation of my kids and wife. Whenever they are upset or grumpy, I try to force feed a little chocolate and that seems to make things much better. When I was a child, and I would get an ouwey, my Mom would give me a small sandwich baggie with about an 1/8 of a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips (she called them chocolate bumps for my bumps and bruises). They always made me feel better and I would share this recipe for healing with my friends growing up. One time a friend got into a fight with his brother at his house and after he got beat up, he came to my house for some chocolate bumps. I also recall one time I got into a fight with a friend and slugged him in the stomach and immediately I felt horrible. I ran home and got some chocolate bumps for him and took them to him to apologize. It took a few minutes, but by the end of the day we were good friends again.
So if you have a little one that is hurting from falling while learning to walk, or ride a bike, I highly recommend chocolate bumps to make it all better. Wishing you all health and happiness and a little chocolate to make it over the bumps in your life.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Need to get this off of my chest.
OK, it's Tuesday, February 14th, 2012. valentines day... Can we just say this is the most stupid semi-holiday ever invented. It is nothing more than an excuse for Hallmark and American Greetings to create useless cards that say what you should say to your loved ones everyday, a reason for candy companies to jack up prices, along with florists, and then resturants to be overbooked so your 6:30 reservation gets you seated at 8:30, and they are all out of the valentines day special they advertised to get you to make the damn reservation in the first place. It is a day for popular kids at school to have their valentines boxes over stuffed and nerds like me to feel left out. A day for spending money on another useless stuffed animal that you know will end up in a D.I. pile in less than a years time. A day when mom and/or dad to console their child that "I'm sure it was just an accidental oversight that the person they have a crush on didn't send you a valentine."
Needless to say, I have not had great luck with valentines day in the past, and every year that passes, puts me into a deeper depression because it just doesn't live up to its' hype. I just can't wait until I have to console Sophia on the let down of the day. That is why I choose to celebrate unvalentines day. I do not send flowers or chocolates on Feb 14th, I do not buy valentines day cards (especially at $6.00 a pop), I choose to wear black rather than red, and I wish people Happy V.D. Most people think I am wishing them a shorthand version of valentines day, but I am talking about the STD's that they are bound to get from sleeping around on the 14th of February.
I shop around and find a florist that will deliver for a reasonable rate at least a week before the dreaded day. I give chocolates for Christmas, I give cards just for the hell of it throughout the year, and I write my own mushy message instead of a meaningless message written by a complete stranger that is supposed to convey my thoughts and feelings.
So, if you were expecting a greeting from me this, the most meaningless day of days, I'm sorry to disappoint you, look for green beer in your mailbox in about a month, for the 2nd most meaningless holiday on the calendar. And to top it all off, most employers ignore all semi-holidays between New Years Day and Memorial Day, thus forcing those in slave labor to work more than five months without a day off other than weekends, and soemtimes not even weekends are off in February-the middle of May. So if you choose to celebrate valentines, enjoy it knowing you are getting ripped off, and if you agree with me, wait until tomorrow to tell that special someone that your world revolves around them and you can't wait for the next day they have off to spend with you. Begrudgingly greetings from an unsupporter of February 14th. There, now I feel better. Thanks for reading.
Needless to say, I have not had great luck with valentines day in the past, and every year that passes, puts me into a deeper depression because it just doesn't live up to its' hype. I just can't wait until I have to console Sophia on the let down of the day. That is why I choose to celebrate unvalentines day. I do not send flowers or chocolates on Feb 14th, I do not buy valentines day cards (especially at $6.00 a pop), I choose to wear black rather than red, and I wish people Happy V.D. Most people think I am wishing them a shorthand version of valentines day, but I am talking about the STD's that they are bound to get from sleeping around on the 14th of February.
I shop around and find a florist that will deliver for a reasonable rate at least a week before the dreaded day. I give chocolates for Christmas, I give cards just for the hell of it throughout the year, and I write my own mushy message instead of a meaningless message written by a complete stranger that is supposed to convey my thoughts and feelings.
So, if you were expecting a greeting from me this, the most meaningless day of days, I'm sorry to disappoint you, look for green beer in your mailbox in about a month, for the 2nd most meaningless holiday on the calendar. And to top it all off, most employers ignore all semi-holidays between New Years Day and Memorial Day, thus forcing those in slave labor to work more than five months without a day off other than weekends, and soemtimes not even weekends are off in February-the middle of May. So if you choose to celebrate valentines, enjoy it knowing you are getting ripped off, and if you agree with me, wait until tomorrow to tell that special someone that your world revolves around them and you can't wait for the next day they have off to spend with you. Begrudgingly greetings from an unsupporter of February 14th. There, now I feel better. Thanks for reading.
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