Finished

Round One of the swim lessons is finished. Sheela passed her Bronze level class and could take the Silver level if she wasn't already booked for a three week vacation. Sunil did very well with all of his Block Two requirements but still needed support to swim the required 15 feet lengths. So he will repeat Block Two after a week break. I'm actually pretty pleased with the way that this worked out. When I registered for the swim classes that was how I set it up. So Sunil is already registered for the next round.

Recalls, etc

I took my new van in today to get a few minor items resolved. Mostly stuff that any self-respecting dealer would have fixed before they sold the van. One of the power outlets in the front (there are two) doesn't work. One of the lift gate lights doesn't work and the lens is missing. Apparently there are a couple of recalls on the car as well that they failed to address. It will all be taken care of today... or so they say.

The dealership that I took it to (not the one that we bought it from) is about half a mile from my office. I pulled in at 7:30 and there was no one in line. I asked for a ride to the office (it's close enough to walk but I'm not dressed to be cutting through fields) and was delivered at my door less than ten minutes later. I could get used to having the world revolve around me.

Homecoming

Today is the day that Mommy is to be released from the hospital. It has been 20 days since she has been home. The support rails are up in the shower. The bed has been lowered a few inches. The furniture in the living room and family room have been rearranged to allow for easier access. I meant to throw away a few of the area rugs on my way out the door this morning but I forgot. Daddy knows that they can go and will probably take care of it himself before I get there. The three rugs that she would walk over most often have had the non-slip backs shredded over the last few months and are a danger to everyone. We will just wait a few months before we replace them.

Project Management

At work we typically use a computer program called Microsoft Project to manage our project schedules. We are all fairly comfortable with the basics but we use only a fraction of its capabilities. Our IT department took it upon themselves to not just upgrade us all to the latest revision(that was at our request, when some people upgrade but not others everything gets complicated) but to take it one step farther and get us to use their whole project management suite. In general, I enjoy these big initiatives and I think it makes more sense than barely using the tools that we are given. However, this time I resent having the IT department fix this problem for me. I've been working for two years on a suite of tools, that would have addressed this small piece of design process as well as our complaint files, our corrective and preventive action system, our discrepant material tracing and a host of other items. I can't lobby to add it in to next year's budget until August. By buying this software now, it weakens my case for why I need the other package. The project management portion is the piece that was to contribute the hard dollar savings that would make it possible to realize the soft money compliance savings.

It will take me a few days to get over being ticked and get on board. I will eventually be on board. I like the software, it just changes things I wasn't ready to change and doesn't provide the scope of what I really needed. Of course there was a very real chance that I wasn't going to get approval to spend the $500K on what we really need. This will be better than nothing.

Work day blahs

With no major crises at work the energy level here has taken a dramatic drop. That is supposed to be a good thing and yet it doesn't seem like it. There are still things to do but none of them seem to hold my attention for very long. At least I still get paid.

Extra pictures

The last post stopped letting me add pictures... it could be a comment on picture quality but I choose to look at it as a size restriction. Here are the kids at the beach and sitting like automatons in the car.

Jaden's Birthday Weekend

Saturday night we swung by the hospital to visit Mommy. Her hard cast was put on on Friday and she is doing very well. She has graduated to a blue star on her door. That is the code for being able to do most things without assistance (though supervision is still required.) She is even getting around on her walker a little bit. She doesn't seem to enjoy it quite as much as Sunil does... of course she has to do the work herself and he still gets a free ride.

After the hospital we went on to Sheela's soccer game. It was not one of their better showings but we enjoyed seeing Sheela back in the goal (much more than she enjoyed being there I'd guess). Neither of the regular goalies showed up and neither did most of the normal front line. With Sheela in the goal and only Kelzie taking shots it was rough.

On our way out of town we actually let the kids set up the portable DVD player. It's pretty rare but it was going to be at least a ninety-minute drive all at one stretch. I wanted the kids to be good and drowsy when we got to the campsite. I didn't realize it was going to be a quarter mile hike in to the site and I needed the kids to be alert and shlepping junk like the rest of us.


Then we went on up to Lake Ray Roberts. There are a couple of State Parks up that way. We camped at Isle du Bois. The weather was a little bit too warm for actual comfort (until around 3 am) but it was bearable after midnight or so. The location was beautiful, we were right along the shore in the trees in a very secluded "primitive" spot. The original plan had us staying in the RV area with the pop-up camper and A/C, but those spots were already booked. So we didn't even take the camper.
We went over to the playground/swimming area early the next morning to stake out some prime spots for Jaden's party. We had the entire playground to ourselves for a few hours before it got to be too hot. I expected more kids and thought that we should be close to the playground. I don't think any of the kids that came were playground age (except for Sheela and Sunil and they were over it by the time the party started). We spent most of the party swimming in the lake of building sandcastle's with Brenda and Jaden.

Swim Class

Both kids have been enjoying the annual swim class ritual. Sunil uses it as an excuse to pick up chicks (for a change this one isn't a 10 year-old named Taylor).
Sheela actually works on refining her strokes. I use it as an excuse to sit outside and catch up on some Sudoku puzzles.

Just when I thought it was over...

Sheela has been free of all lice indications for two weeks. I wasn't quite celebrating but I knew we'd gotten through it. I forgot about the rest of the kids in the world. The signs are up at Kids' Club. Many children had to be sent home yesterday for lice. At first I was pleased as neither Sunil nor Sheela were sent home. Then I found out that even though we were told that they'd all been checked they hadn't actually been checked. Fearing the worst I took them home and began picking at them again. Both kids really are clear at the moment but I'm going to keep on oiling Sheela's hair until she leave town in July. I want to make sure her head is clean when she goes to Mom's and I'm not taking any chances. Sunil's hair is so short it isn't really a problem.

Sunil's Life Plan

Sunil has begun to plan for his future. He intends to work at a car wash in order to pay for the walkie-talkie cell phone that he wants. That will happen when he is 15. Two years later he expects to buy himself a car. Longer term he intends to own a car wash in Rhode Island where expects to live with his new family (a wife and her two kids). When he wants a hug from me he'll jump in his car and drive to Texas. He may even come by every morning before work.

Treatment number two

I had my second laser treatment yesterday. Apparently, since I showed no adverse reactions the first time they stepped it up a notch. That means it was just a touch more painful this time (honestly, it still wasn't bad) which I wasn't expecting. My real concern is that I didn't have a bad reaction this time either so next time they will take it up one more notch which means that it will hurt just a little bit more.

There's always something....

The upstairs A/C went out yesterday, luckily we are only going to be in the mid-90s today and the wind is still blowing. With a good wind the upstairs can still be pleasant even in the heat, if we lose the wind we will all be sleeping in the living room.

The kids' shower continues to leak into the kitchen. It started about a month ago but we haven't had time to address it. It only happens during about once a week and so far the leak is tiny. This was the site of the most impressive damage to the house when we bought it though. We don't want it to get like that again.

We still haven't found an A/C company that will change out the compressor for the mini-split that we were so proud of last year. It was a six month ordeal just to get the compressor. Eventually we will spend some time trying to do it ourselves. I'm secretly hoping that the guy that comes to fix the upstairs unit can be bribed to tackle this job too.

Update

We actually got to see Mommy's doctor (one of them anyway) for a few minutes on Sunday. Both legs are broken, the "Sprain" is actually a small bone chip but its too small to fix. She will have a walker boot on it in another few days. Her staples will come out of the surgical site within another week. At that time they can put a hard cast on the left leg and she will be able to try using the walker. They don't expect her to be weight-bearing for at least 3 months and it will be 6-9 months before she can walk unassisted. I put a bone-stim on her Sunday. She will wear it for three hours a day (over either the soft cast or the hard cast) until she heals.

Life is back to normal...

I didn't actually leave early but we did stop for a drink on the way home (on the boss of course). Then I picked the kids up from school for the first time in three weeks. I dropped them off with Farhana, picked up Sid and drove to Grande Prairie to watch the horse races (on the IS department of course). We lost a little bit of money, ate a lot of free food and had areally enjoyable evening.

We got up early, bought a birthday present for Jessica, picked up the kids dropped of the car (oil change), and drove up to Prosper for a bounce house party. Its a million miles North of Farhana's and the party started at 10AM. Yikes! I did get to see Deion Sander's house (a 32,000 sq. foot monstrosity). After the party Suni and Sid went for haircuts, Sheela and I bought Father's Day presents and then I got to take a nap!

We went by the hospital to visit Mommy and found Sushama, et al, there too. So we collected up Seema and Nita and went to Sheela's soccer game (indoor thank goodness). Super Blue won 5-3 and Sheela had one of the goals. Then we went to dinner, came home and put the kids to bed.

Tomorrow the schedule is empty except for lunch with Mommy at the hospital. We are going to pick up Chinese food and take it with us. I may even finagle another nap... the first one was so nice.

Certification!!

We have successfully completed our ISO audit with no major deficiencies and very few minor discrepancies (all of which we've already fixed). This was a success all the way around. I hope to celebrate by leaving early instead of working late. With any luck I can take the kids over to the hospital to visit Mommy before I need to have them at Farhana's house (sleep over tonight).

The only reason that I haven't left already is I'm waiting to get a "compassionate care unit" of our bone-growth stimulator for Mommy's leg. I'd like to have her start treating tonight if possible.

Actually, it was just pointed out to me that there are two reasons that I haven't left yet. I have to go in to the cleanroom and take microbial samples before the weekend and the sample strips haven't been delivered yet.

Leaving early is starting to look really unlikely......

Hospital Captive

Just yesterday we were discussing the tendency for doctors to take advantage of their patients proximity when they are in the hospital to demand all sorts of extra tests and procedures. They can't really get away or effectively counter with, "I'll call and set something up later..." Sure enough Mommy has to have another procedure today. Apparently there is some concern over something that showed up on her EKG from Sunday so they are going to do a dye test on her this morning. Until that is resolved we wont be able to plan for her release. We were working on getting her transferred to a rehab floor for a week or so. She needs to develop some upper body strength before she can use either a wheelchair or a walker.

Shria

Shria (Shree - ah) is cousin Prithi's daughter. She's 20 months old now and just adorable.

Divas' Weekend Pictures

This is Alexander Bed and Breakfast Acres (ABBA). We had the whole top floor.
This is Goofus checking out the divas.
Beckie, Brenda, Maria and I hiked in Juniper Point Park West next to Lake Texoma on the Texas-Oklahoma border.

Surgery

I left the family unattended for a little bit over 24 hours. During that time Mommy stepped down wrong off of a curb and broke both her tibia and fibula. She should just be coming out of surgery right now. We have a babysitter coming over in an hour to watch the kids while we go back to the hospital to visit. Sid and his Dad were there most of the night and they were there with the kids all day today. Right now they are all home taking a break. I haven't been out there yet.

Girls' weekend out...

Brenda, Beckie, Maria and I hiked part of the Crosstimers Trail on Saturday morning. We only did a few miles along the shore, but it was nice to be out for awhile even in the hundred degree plus heat. We picnicked by the lake on homemade chicken salad and fresh fruit. Then we drove down to the Alexander Bed & Breakfast Acres (ABBA). We took the whole top floor. The attic is 700+ square feet and very charming. The whole place is charming. We hung out in the pool, took naps in the room and had massages before a late dinner by yet another lake. Cindy drove up and joined us during the afternoon. We watched a few chick flicks and slept late. After breakfast during which we were totally entertained by Bobbie Ray (the owner's sister) telling us about the attacks that she has suffered at the figurative hands of the llama and the burro. Then we went hiking with the llama and the burro. Apparently their antipathy for Bobbie Ray is isolated and personal. They love everyone else.

Brenda (and Jeremy) bought a little bit over 10 acres up that way last year so we stopped by to check it out then went to lunch and came home.

We had a wonderful time. I'll post pictures later.

Jacee

Periodically we receive emails now from children available for adoption. Okay, the letter comes from their dfps representative. This is relatively new, the approach in the past has always been that this time of broadcast email was a violation of the child's privacy. But now its okay as long as the child is under six years old, figuring I'm sure, that they aren't yet computer literate and don't know that their privacy is being violated. In any case I sent off a request for more information on a little girl named Jacee today. It may or may not pan out to be anything, but its fun to imagine. It would be easier to imagine if I knew how old she was, her birthday was posted twice. She is either about to turn three or four. She has blonde hair and dark brown eyes. She lives in the metroplex but not exactly close by.

The Adventure Bible

Sheela had a great time yesterday with Lisa at vacation Bible School. They even gave her own Bible with her name inside and everything. It's a little bit jazzier than the bibles that I have. It has a picture of kids rock climbing on the cover. And humorous excerpts reprinted at the bottom of the pages, along with ideas of things you can try to do in real life (like asking forgiveness step-by-step: write a letter, call on the phone and then go in person).

My Blog is gone...or was....

For two days now I've been unable to view this blog... it came up as a blank screen. It looks like it got better... no idea why.

VBS and Adventure Landing

Sunil is going to Kids Club all by himself today for the first time.  Being the easy-going kid that he is, this is not a problem for him.  He hasn't really learned the names of any of the other boys yet (except for the ones that play with Sheela) but he'll work it out in time.  They are going on a field trip today to a place called Adventure Landing.  It has miniature golf and arcade games.  He's never played miniature golf.  I think he will like it.

 

Sheela is going to Vacation Bible School today with her friend Lisa.  I love Lisa as a friend for Sheela.  She's a really good kid and a lot of fun.  They were in class together, played soccer together for a year and were in the same Brownie troop.  It also helps that I really like her mom.  Cindy is from Canada, very close to New York, and hasn't been down here in "the Republic of Texas" all that long.  She still points out the things that they do here that are just stupid.  Apparently at VBS you are allowed to bring a guest so Lisa asked Sheela to come along.  Sheela tried to ask me what to expect and I didn't have much to say on the subject.  I remember going to VBS when we lived in Tennessee, I don't actually remember anything useful about it.  I told her that they would talk some about Christianity, play some games, eat a snack and then go back to Lisa's house to play for the afternoon.

A few overdue pictures....

Let's see... we have the kids on the Bonzai Falls waterslide in the backyard during Sunil's birthday party. We borrowed it from friends and were lucky we got to use it before the water restrictions kicked in.

Here the kids are watching fireworks after the Roughriders game. Next year we might get rooms in the hotel here and make a bigger production out of it. It only seems fair, Sheela has gotten to go downtown every year for her birthday.

Sunil on his new Spiderman bike (and wearing his home dyed shirt).
and his birthday cake complete with Mustang. I declined to include the picture of him licking the tires.

Futbolito

Sheela and five of her friends played in a soccer tournament this weekend down in Southwest Dallas. It was a long way to go and we got off to a rough start. The schedule doesn't get made until all of the teams have checked in the morning. We left home at 7:30 AM and got the schedule at 9:00AM and our first game wasn't until 11:00AM. That's a long time to sit in the hundred degree heat after waking up early. Luckily we had not one but two shade canopies and Christi staked out a nice big tree for our "camp".

The format was new to us but I liked it and the girls seemed to too. It was 4 v 4 with no goalies and short, very quick halves. We lost two and won one. Sheela scored one of the goals (I think that this was her first goal for Super Blue). Kelzy and Sarah scored too. There were only three all girl teams in the whole tournament and we were the only one in the U8 division. The whole tournament was run in Spanish, some of the referees didn't speak English. All in all it was a very good experience. Just for the record... Cambio means substitution. We are going to learn our soccer terms one at a time. But we are going to learn them.

Gifted and Talented - Check

Sheela's results are back. She did very well on her second round of testing and has been accepted into the Gifted and Talented program. Way to go little girl!

I don't know how they set the curriculum but it appears that she will get to some in-depth studies on Asia over the next two years.

Roughriders 5 - Cardinals 1

Last night Orthofix took us to the baseball game, Triple A ball up in Frisco. We go every year for Sunil's birthday, but this is the first year that we've seen the Riders win. It was a great game and perfect weather. I love the fireworks show after the game too. Its a great experience all the way around. It did make miss Blake. Last year we went right before he went back home. It was his first time to see fireworks.

Sunil's take on the fireworks is that "they" take large lightbulbs, small lightbulbs and food coloring, mash it all up, then pack it into a a barbecue grill until it explodes.

Stage Three - Water Conservation Plan

Mandatory Water Restrictions are now in effect for the North Texas Municipal Water District. The lakes are lower than they've been in 50 years and there is no relief in sight. As of June 1, we are allowed to water our lawns one time a week (on the day that trash is collected) but it has to be between 10PM and 6AM. The fine for wasting water is $2000. Yikes!

Air - Under appreciated

I think it is safe to say that we all know that I am not a morning person. I rarely actually wake up when I roll out of bed but tend to blunder along in a semi-conscious state for as long as possible. Its not just that my brain is sluggish, my whole body reacts as if I'm in a pool of syrup. But I've been a good sport and a willing participant in our early morning bike rides for almost three whole weeks now. I don't grumble, whine or resort to tricks to avoid the rides. I get on my bike in relatively good cheer and then huff, puff and gasp my way through the next 30-45 minutes. To tell you the truth it has been mortifying to realize how hard it is for me to keep my legs moving and I do have to pedal constantly or I drift rapidly to a complete stop. My bike is on the old side and rather heavy compared to some of the snazzy newer models, but it isn't really filled with cement but I've let myself get so out of shape that it feels like its pulling an extra 50 pounds (and I haven't gained that much).

I felt a little bit better when Mom commented on how hard she had to work on her ride with Sheela over the weekend. I know Mom is in pretty good shape. Between the tennis and the hiking she is doing great. So maybe I'm not the complete slug that I feel like.

This morning I wasn't quite as tired as the others, my brain was a little bit more rested and my oxygen level just a touch higher. With this new found AM lucidity I had an epiphany. I should check the air in my tires. You guessed it... the back tire was completely flat and I've been too tired to even notice. It took us a little bit longer to get on the road this morning but we were able to ride farther faster on those wonderful circular tires. I'm not nearly as worn out and I'm actually looking forward to riding tomorrow.