Small but sure success

We finally got the pile of rock, dirt and junk removed and replaced with sod and sprinklers. It has only taken months and months to get this finished. It sure looks great. We finally have some grass, and hope it will take root and survive this summer. Now all we need is a chlorine generator, the autofill, the slide secured and plumbed with water, the walk on pool cover tray lids, made and mounted, and some sunshine, and THEN the pool will be ready for use. (We still use it, but it would be nice to have it completed.)

How to get Grandpa up

How to get Grandpa up.
Gene had been napping upstairs when Jane and Tom came over for a visit. I was a little lazy, and didn't want to go upstairs to let him know they had come over. I figured out the best way to get him to come downstairs. I sent him this picture on the cell phone. You can kind of see Jane and Tom's hands waving at Grandpa.

Sure enough, Grandpa was downstairs in 60 seconds!

Tom's first pool "dive"

June 5th, 2010, was the first day it was warm enough for me to use the pool. We had an impromptu pool party with our most reliable guests, the Beckstrands. Tom's first dive off the diving board would be better if you could see the entire video. His belief of his courage far outweighed his ability to follow-through. His speech said he wanted to jump off, but his legs had another idea when he up on the board. Unfortunately, the marvels of modern technology have outsmarted me, and the video I downloaded cut off the funniest part of the video. After Tom "jumped" off the board, he kept climbing up on Jake. As he climbed up, he kept pushing Jake under the water, and saying in his most pleasant reassuring voice, "I got you, I got you."

Katrina was required again, for Tom's second dive. Jake enjoyed catching Tom much more this time. It is reassuring to know that the waterskiing and hotdog lifejackets work well in a calm pool, as well. Jake (with his scant amount of body fat) was much more buoyant with the lifejacket on. You can almost hear Tom's "Huh", which is his "Yes" when asked if he wanted to jump again, as he climbed up on Jake again. The last and third person in the pool is Jane, seen there floating by herself. She has become very confident in that lifejacket, as can go anywhere she wants in it. She does best when someone plays with her in the pool, but lack of a playmate won't keep her out of the water. She has even been known to go down just to look at the pool, give up waiting for someone to join her, begin (and complete) taking off her clothes, and finally, reluctantly go upstairs to get her swimsuit on, only return in a split secnd, ready to climb into her lifejacket and get into the pool. She only lasts about 3 hours before she can be coached to get out of the pool.

We sure have fun with those Beckstrands in the pool!

The Start of Summer Vacation

Well, this summer vacation did not start as I would have hoped. Gene complained of a headache off and on the last couple of days of school. On Friday, the last day of school, the headache was worse, to the point that I was considering taking him to the ER to check for a subarachnoid hemorrhage. This was certainly the worst headache he has ever complained about! By Sunday, tylenol with codeine was not making much difference in his pain. In the past, one of the nurse practitioners at NCC had said taking a decongestant can help to differentiate if a headache needs further workup or is a sinus headache. I talked Gene into taking some Nyquil for the headache. He had just finished taking the Nyquil when he said, "What is this rash on my forehead?" After some time looking at his forehead and searching the internet, we determined he had shingles and learned Valtrex was the best treatment for it. I had him take 2 of my Valtrex tabs right then. I was hesitant to take him to the insta-care, when he was a little groggy with tylenol, codeine and nyquil, and have him complain about the intense pain when he could not even keep his eyes open! I had him sleep off the codeine and nyquil and took him to the insta-care right after I got home from church. (This was the same insta-care I went with Jessica to the night before for her internal and external ear infection which closed off 80% of her ear canal. Jessica and I were lucky, there were only 2 cars in the parking lot.) The "doc in the box" agreed with us, and began discussing the meds for shingles. She wanted to give him acyclovir, but I suggested Valtrex, and got her to agree to 1 gm three times a day, rather than the 2 times she suggested. She also started him on lortab for the headache, and prednisone for 5 days. She cautioned him about blindness from the shingles occurring in his eye, and the need for an opthamalogy consult if his eye started hurting. So . . . . Monday was the third day in a row for a doctor visit. This time we went to the Moran Eye Center and he had 2 lesions in his R eye. They told us to come back on Wed to see if anything had changed.

We didn't go visit any doctor on Tuesday, but Gene was definitely in need of lortab every 6 hours. This is how the shingles looked on Tuesday. We did contact his GP on the phone Tuesday, and she kept telling him he needed to be seen NOW, but we managed to convince them the Moran Center checked him on Monday and we would be there again Wednesday, and that should be enough. OK, they said, we want to see you on Thur. Sure enough, on Wed, there were 16 new lesions on the R eye, and Gene started on eye drops - antibiotics and steroids - 4 times a day. He has his next Moran appontment on Monday. On Thur the GP started Gene on neurontin for neuralgia, in addition to the lortab, and told him he had to take it easy, and NO, he could not run the 5K race on Sat that he was signed up to run. Friday and Sat (yesterday and today) have been spent at times with sharp painful headaches and eye pain, manageable headaches and eye pain, frequent naps, multiple doses of valtrex, lortab, neurontin, ofloxacin eye drops and prednisolone eye drops, but no doctor visits. I guess that means he is getting better. :)

june update

This is a picture of the cutest swimmer in town.

This is me finishing an 8K Saturday. These pictures always look like I am walking. Trust me, that is my sprint form.

They emailed us the day before the race to say they had changed it from 6K to 8K. My chip time was 45.33, which is the best I've done in a long time. (Mind you, it was mostly downhill, only the last mile was up hill.)

Of course, with the yin and yang of it all, I got a terrific headache on the way home. It finally went away, but on Sunday morning, I had a bunch of red blotches on my face, so I now have shingles. What fun.

This is Grandma standing under our new slide. It isn't bolted down yet, but that didn't keep a certain daughter from going down the slide and almost tipping it over. It is a good thing her younger brother was holding firmly onto the slide on the downhill slide!

When it is warm, there is a lot more activity. Becca and her brother and sister are enjoying the sun. Yes, we actually had a whole day of warm weather!!!!

This is what swimming at Memorial Day looked like. They are all pretty cute, but it is far to cold to 1) take off one's coat and 2) put more than toes in the water.