Ok. I know it was almost a week ago but we have been recovering from a rather strange weekend. Last Thursday, the family was going to enjoy a one-night vacation. Thanks to a very generous Christmas present, we were going to spend a night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City. This resort has a spectacular indoor waterpark that the kids had always wanted to check out. The kids didn't have school on Friday so we had some time after arriving Thursday evening to use the park & then we could stay & use the park all day Friday even though we had to be checked out of our room by 11 am.
The kids had been looking forward to this ever since Christmas. Stephen counted down everyday for at least the 2 weeks prior to leaving. I wasn't sure that the kids were going to explode in the van waiting for Mark to get us registered and find out where our room was. We simply threw everything in the room & changed into our suits and hit the park.
It is really something! There is a fort for climbing through. There are all sorts of water activities along the way. On top of the fort is a giant bucket that is constantly filling. It actually tips over and spills 1,000 gallons of water every 5 minutes. There is a warning bell when it is about to go over. It was interesting to watch because when the bell rings everyone runs right to where it will dump so they can get soaked. There are also 5 different waterslides, 2 are body slides that you reach from the fort & 3 are tube slides that you go up a seperate set of stairs to reach. These slides are 3-4 stories tall so we definitely got in our stair climbing. They have single & double tubes for 2 slides and the third slide uses triple tubes. The air temp is 84 degrees and the water is all plenty warm. There are also other water activities & pools. They even have 2 hot tubs: 1 for families & 1 for adults only. Joshua was even tall enough that he could do everything he wanted to without having to convince someone to go with him. IT WAS A WONDERFUL TIME!
Like I said we spent several hours there on Thursday evening then went down just after checking out around 10am on Friday morning. I was scheduled to work Friday night so we planned to leave there by 7pm to have plenty of time to get home so I could work. Our plans were changed, however.
Not 5 minutes after giving the kids a 30 minute warning that they were going to have to get out, showered, & dressed, Joshua gave us all quite a scare. I went down a slide in a single tube & Mark & Joshua was following me down in a double. Well, something happened & as they were coming down the slide, Joshua slipped through the hole of the tube too far. He was pinned with his neck between Mark's legs and the tube. Mark did what he could to get him back up but there isn't much you can do while in a winding tube with water splashing all around and carrying you down it. Mark jumped off the tube the second they splashed into the pool and scooped Joshua up. At the pool edge, he set Joshua on his feet & I found a chair a few feet away for Joshua to sit down on. Joshua just couldn't settle down. He was crying and just really upset. I went and got towels and grabbed a floor supervisor. Joshua was to the point that he wasn't responding to our questions. He got to the point where he couldn't catch his breath. By this time, we had the other attention of 2 other supervisors. Now his hands were turning inward in a very strange way and his feet were turning purple. They put oxygen on him but still couldn't get him to slow down his breathing or stop the crying. We finally had them call for an ambulance (I wasn't about to transport him ourselves when there was a possible neck injury.)
Mark ended up riding in the ambulance with Joshua while I got dressed and Rachel & Stephen loaded up our van. Rachel and Stephen did great at getting dressed and loading the van so that we could get to the hospital. Actually, we beat the ambulance because the EMT's took the time to put on a neck brace and put him on a backboard before putting him on the gurney and wheeling him to the ambulance. Rachel was impressed that I knew how to get to the hospital without any problems. But since it is the same place that Mom was for her heart attack & surgery as well as having to take Joshua there probably about 4 years ago when we were at Lake Ann.
Joshua had settle down and was looking pretty good by the time I got to his room at the ER of Munson. The doctor's ordered a full set of xrays. The final verdict was that he had a neck sprain. All bones were fine. When people sprain the neck muscle, the muscles have a tendency to continue having spasms. So we believe that the spasms were either hurting Joshua and/or scaring him to the point that he hyperventilated. He was released about 9:30pm and doctors said that it would be ok for him to ride home that night.
I had already called in because I didn't want to wait to late to call and had no clue as to how long we might be or if they were going to even release him that night. Turns out that I could have gone to work but only been an hour late because we got home about 12midnight. But then again, I was also exhausted & it didn't have to due just with the busy day that we had had. I was just very much emotionally drained. That drainage continued for all of Saturday and most of Sunday. I felt as though I had worked even though I hadn't.
Joshua has been doing very well & is pretty much over it now. He was taking ibuprofen at least twice a day until Tuesday when he was able to go down to once. Then on Wednesday, he didn't have any. I kept him out of gym for Monday but let him do it Wednesday. He is really anxious to get back to playing basketball. He was rather disappointed that he didn't get to do it on Saturday after we got home but he also admitted that he didn't feel up to it either.
So that was our mini winter vacation. It came to a close rather unexpectedly but we really did have a GREAT time other than that.
Well, my time is about up for now. We have cleaning to do & lunches to pack before we get our residents up and finish up our shift.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Different evening
This was quite the different Friday night for our family. Rachel had her first "hanging out with friends at the mall" night. She wanted to go see the new Percy Jackson movie that came out today with a set of twins from school. Their sister had to go to work at the mall this evening so I got Rachel to their house in time to go with her. The first movie showing was booked so the girls went shopping for presents for another friend that they have a birthday party to go to later this month. She was a bit hyper to say the least when she got home shortly after 10 pm.
Mark had volunteered to take our AWANA grand prix track to Allegan for them to use tomorrow. So he took Stephen with him. They had dinner at Sonic & didn't get back till 10 pm either.
That left Joshua & I at home. We went to Fazoli's for dinner & then Joshua played on the computer & watched TV. I did the usual & fell asleep on the couch watching TV & completely missed the opening ceremonies that I wanted to see. Joshua didn't seem to mind not doing much because he did have the computer and TV to himself, not to mention he was still up when every one got home at 10.
Tomorrow we are going to be scattered throughout much of the day too. We will all go to Joshua's basketball game at 11 am. Then Rachel is going with a family from church to put on a show at a nursing home & hang out at their house for a while. It is homecoming week at Cornerstone so Mark is taking the boys to see the women's and men's basketball games in the afternoon while I get some sleep. I believe Mark & Stephen are going to see a movie then in the evening.
You better believe that Sunday will be much more settled at home as the boys are all looking forward to Daytona. Stephen was really excited that I had the Gatorade Duels on when he came home Thursday afternoon. He was able to watch the second one which is the one that Tony was in anyway. So now that football is over, it is on to NASCAR.
Mark had volunteered to take our AWANA grand prix track to Allegan for them to use tomorrow. So he took Stephen with him. They had dinner at Sonic & didn't get back till 10 pm either.
That left Joshua & I at home. We went to Fazoli's for dinner & then Joshua played on the computer & watched TV. I did the usual & fell asleep on the couch watching TV & completely missed the opening ceremonies that I wanted to see. Joshua didn't seem to mind not doing much because he did have the computer and TV to himself, not to mention he was still up when every one got home at 10.
Tomorrow we are going to be scattered throughout much of the day too. We will all go to Joshua's basketball game at 11 am. Then Rachel is going with a family from church to put on a show at a nursing home & hang out at their house for a while. It is homecoming week at Cornerstone so Mark is taking the boys to see the women's and men's basketball games in the afternoon while I get some sleep. I believe Mark & Stephen are going to see a movie then in the evening.
You better believe that Sunday will be much more settled at home as the boys are all looking forward to Daytona. Stephen was really excited that I had the Gatorade Duels on when he came home Thursday afternoon. He was able to watch the second one which is the one that Tony was in anyway. So now that football is over, it is on to NASCAR.
Another snow day
Well, the kids had another snow day this week. It started Tuesday morning and kept up snowing till Wednesday morning. We received around 10 inches and some blowing. Truly, it wasn't horrible Wednesday morning but it was the infamous "Count Day" in the state of Michigan. This is the day that official counts have to be done at all schools and it determines how much money the school will get from the state. I think most of the schools were concerned that parents would just decide to keep the kids home even though it wasn't too bad and their counts would be low. So they closed on Wednesday and that made today "Count day". By mid-morning Wednesday, the sun was out and it looked very pretty (of course, it would have been prettier if it were still Dec.).
Things were so much better that they even decided to have our normal Wednesday services. The policy is usually if schools are closed, so is church but that changed. This wasn't a good thing for me because I was making cakes for our Pastor's birthday for Wed. evening and they weren't done. There was a problem at work Tues. evening so they didn't get done there. I had to cut my sleep short and was a bit late but they did get done & he really liked them. I ended up making 2 cakes both being 1/2 sheet size and double layer. It seemed like a ton of cake but we only had 1/3 of one left so I was happy.
If you happened to try calling the house phone for the past 2 days, you couldn't get through. We were in the process of dropping our landline but we don't quite know why it took 2 days to get the port of our house phone number to the new cell phone. Here's the $ saving plan the we are trying: We have cancelled our landline but purchased a new cell phone and added it to our plan. That cell phone is to stay at the house and become the house phone. Good news is that it even has the old house phone #. So we are saving by not paying for the landline ($40-$50) & when we went to add the new cell phone, we were told that the same plan had dropped $20/month so we are still saving $10 on the cell bill even with another line. The only thing going up $10 is our DSL line for our internet service. All total, we should be coming out ahead each month. We can also now receive text messages at the house #. So if you like texting that is fine too. Every little savings helps, right?
Not much else to tell you about right now. Work is work & we are still busier than we know how to handle. Mark's dad is staying with Mark's aunt for a while so that has settled down a bit. There may still be more to deal with there but for now our focus is on pressing concerns and responsibilities right here.
Things were so much better that they even decided to have our normal Wednesday services. The policy is usually if schools are closed, so is church but that changed. This wasn't a good thing for me because I was making cakes for our Pastor's birthday for Wed. evening and they weren't done. There was a problem at work Tues. evening so they didn't get done there. I had to cut my sleep short and was a bit late but they did get done & he really liked them. I ended up making 2 cakes both being 1/2 sheet size and double layer. It seemed like a ton of cake but we only had 1/3 of one left so I was happy.
If you happened to try calling the house phone for the past 2 days, you couldn't get through. We were in the process of dropping our landline but we don't quite know why it took 2 days to get the port of our house phone number to the new cell phone. Here's the $ saving plan the we are trying: We have cancelled our landline but purchased a new cell phone and added it to our plan. That cell phone is to stay at the house and become the house phone. Good news is that it even has the old house phone #. So we are saving by not paying for the landline ($40-$50) & when we went to add the new cell phone, we were told that the same plan had dropped $20/month so we are still saving $10 on the cell bill even with another line. The only thing going up $10 is our DSL line for our internet service. All total, we should be coming out ahead each month. We can also now receive text messages at the house #. So if you like texting that is fine too. Every little savings helps, right?
Not much else to tell you about right now. Work is work & we are still busier than we know how to handle. Mark's dad is staying with Mark's aunt for a while so that has settled down a bit. There may still be more to deal with there but for now our focus is on pressing concerns and responsibilities right here.
Friday, February 05, 2010
Time to brag!
That is a parent's rights, right? Report cards came home last week. All 3 kids did very well!
This is Joshua's first year getting letter grades & he did well. There are a few improvements that need made but nothing very major. (Most of it is even behavioral, not knowledge problems.)
Stephen was on the Honor Roll again this quarter. He also made a program called TCB which stands for Taking Care of Business. This focuses more on responsibilities and behavior. Each quarter that he makes this they have a party of some sort for the kids then if he makes it at least 3 of the 4 quarters, he could spend a school day at Cedar Point. So far this year, he has done it 2 quarters. I don't know if I posted it earlier but he is also doing 8th grade math this year like Rachel did. He should go on to algebra next year and stay a year ahead the rest of the way. He also did a paper at the end of last semester that was very impressive. It was graded in both history & English and he received excellent scores in both. It actually surprised his teachers and us at how well he did on it. He didn't even ask for much help which made us a bit nervous but he evidently didn't need it.
Rachel took her first finals that will be following her throughout the rest of her schooling. She ended up with a 3.74GPA. Not too shabby! She was a bit disappointed in a C+ that she received on one final but since it was in her college level history class, we can't hardly complain. The fact that 4 of those classes are all advanced for her grade level adds to the impressiveness to me. She will also know more of how and what to study next time. She was invited to an honors party at the school tomorrow. It is for everyone with a 3.0GPA or higher who also didn't receive any referrals (demerits). There were only 40 kids invited to it so that is pretty cool. They will even be giving away some gift cards.
OK...I guess that is enough bragging! Rachel says I embarrass her when I talk about her grades but then again, she is a teenager I always embarrass her!
On to other things: Mark's dad is being released from a hospital tomorrow. He had to be taken in due to a severe blood sugar drop almost 2 weeks ago. They have also now discovered the start of heart failure & dementia. As you can imagine, this has been a difficult situation for us. Mark has made 2 trips over to the Detroit area during this time which has been a bit overwhelming with our already busy schedule. For the time being, Bob is going to go stay with his sisters' "Up North". It is even more stressful as there was nothing discussed or put in place ahead of time and Mark & his sister are not necessarily in agreement with what Mark's aunts want to do. We are having to take this all one day at a time to see just how well he can get with new medications. It is also getting us busy making things are set up for Mark's mom as well as for ourselves.
Mark & I were a bit disappointed that Rachel didn't try out for the school musical this week. She just isn't confident in her singing ability. She is a lot better then she thinks. She did, however, contact last years science teacher and is making plans to help coach the 8th graders for the science olympiad this year. If you remember, she did well last year & helped her team go from the regionals to the state competition.
Rachel's Monday elective this semester is "Creative writing/Journalism". I think this should be good for her. At least, it will give her some creative outlet & she is such a reader, I'm sure she probably has lots of ideas.
We are still praying concerning a first shift opportunity for me. I have put in some applications/resumes but no nibbles yet. The one that I would most like to get that I have applied for is a school secretary position. They may be bringing another one on at Rachel's school which would be great but also they are starting another prep (charter) high school at the north end of town & they are going to need someone there too. I would be happy with either.
Well, time for bed checks & I have other things to do on the computer tonight. I need to make the best of the time I'm awake here so I better post this and move on.
This is Joshua's first year getting letter grades & he did well. There are a few improvements that need made but nothing very major. (Most of it is even behavioral, not knowledge problems.)
Stephen was on the Honor Roll again this quarter. He also made a program called TCB which stands for Taking Care of Business. This focuses more on responsibilities and behavior. Each quarter that he makes this they have a party of some sort for the kids then if he makes it at least 3 of the 4 quarters, he could spend a school day at Cedar Point. So far this year, he has done it 2 quarters. I don't know if I posted it earlier but he is also doing 8th grade math this year like Rachel did. He should go on to algebra next year and stay a year ahead the rest of the way. He also did a paper at the end of last semester that was very impressive. It was graded in both history & English and he received excellent scores in both. It actually surprised his teachers and us at how well he did on it. He didn't even ask for much help which made us a bit nervous but he evidently didn't need it.
Rachel took her first finals that will be following her throughout the rest of her schooling. She ended up with a 3.74GPA. Not too shabby! She was a bit disappointed in a C+ that she received on one final but since it was in her college level history class, we can't hardly complain. The fact that 4 of those classes are all advanced for her grade level adds to the impressiveness to me. She will also know more of how and what to study next time. She was invited to an honors party at the school tomorrow. It is for everyone with a 3.0GPA or higher who also didn't receive any referrals (demerits). There were only 40 kids invited to it so that is pretty cool. They will even be giving away some gift cards.
OK...I guess that is enough bragging! Rachel says I embarrass her when I talk about her grades but then again, she is a teenager I always embarrass her!
On to other things: Mark's dad is being released from a hospital tomorrow. He had to be taken in due to a severe blood sugar drop almost 2 weeks ago. They have also now discovered the start of heart failure & dementia. As you can imagine, this has been a difficult situation for us. Mark has made 2 trips over to the Detroit area during this time which has been a bit overwhelming with our already busy schedule. For the time being, Bob is going to go stay with his sisters' "Up North". It is even more stressful as there was nothing discussed or put in place ahead of time and Mark & his sister are not necessarily in agreement with what Mark's aunts want to do. We are having to take this all one day at a time to see just how well he can get with new medications. It is also getting us busy making things are set up for Mark's mom as well as for ourselves.
Mark & I were a bit disappointed that Rachel didn't try out for the school musical this week. She just isn't confident in her singing ability. She is a lot better then she thinks. She did, however, contact last years science teacher and is making plans to help coach the 8th graders for the science olympiad this year. If you remember, she did well last year & helped her team go from the regionals to the state competition.
Rachel's Monday elective this semester is "Creative writing/Journalism". I think this should be good for her. At least, it will give her some creative outlet & she is such a reader, I'm sure she probably has lots of ideas.
We are still praying concerning a first shift opportunity for me. I have put in some applications/resumes but no nibbles yet. The one that I would most like to get that I have applied for is a school secretary position. They may be bringing another one on at Rachel's school which would be great but also they are starting another prep (charter) high school at the north end of town & they are going to need someone there too. I would be happy with either.
Well, time for bed checks & I have other things to do on the computer tonight. I need to make the best of the time I'm awake here so I better post this and move on.
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