Sad day

Mister had a vet appointment today to have an ultrasound done to see if we could figure out why he's been losing weight.  The results came back and they were not good.  He's got a big mass in his abdomen, tangled in and around several organs, and it looks like it's in his lymph nodes, too.
This wasn't entirely unexpected because he's lost a lot of weight in the last few months, he's had some digestive "issues" (let's just leave it at that), and he's been a lot more lethargic than usual.  He's also 12 years old, which, for a big-ish dog like Mister, is pretty geriatric.
Still, I was hoping they wouldn't find anything and the high calorie puppy food and the big batch of crockpot chicken and rice that I made him would fatten him up and he'd go back to his usual happy and occasionally very annoying self.  :-)
The vet couldn't give us any exact timeline, but she did say there wasn't anything to be done at this point and at his age.  She told us to think of 3 things that he really likes to do, and when he no longer can or likes to do two of those things, then we'll know that his quality of life is very compromised.
Oh, this was a hard thing to tell my boys.  I held it together on the phone with the vet, and then I called the boys into the living room to tell them the news.  I mostly held it together then, too, and then I called Ben on the phone.  That was also a hard conversation.  Mister has been with Ben and I longer than our boys! 
The boys and I got in the van to go pick Mister up from the vet.  We talked about the good life that Mister has had, and what fun things we would do with him in the time we have left. 
When we got to the vet's office, I turned around and saw Joseph sitting in the back seat with his head buried in his arms, his shoulders shaking with sobs.  That's when I couldn't hold it together anymore.  Joseph has a special relationship with Mister.  Joseph is my animal-lover.  And he really, really loves Mister.  There have been many times when Joseph has had a bad day, and all he wants to do is lay on his bed hugging his dog.  He's my most dedicated dog-walker, and the most concerned of the boys when Mister takes himself on his illicit "adventures."  I brought Mister in to the vet for the first time (just for bloodwork which came back mostly normal) a few weeks ago, while Joseph and Brigham were at Scouts.  Joseph asked me if he could come to his next appointment so that he could be with Mister. 
I can handle hard things, but having to stand by and see my child in pain is really, really hard.
This is the list we made of things Mister really loves:
1.  Licking the dishes as we put them into the dishwasher.  (ewww)
2.  Eating hot dogs.
3.  Going on walks.
4.  Howling along when we sing "How Much is that Doggy in the Window."
5.  Wrestling with the boys.
As of now, he still loves and can do all these things, although his stamina for walks is definitely diminished.  I hope he's got a while longer.  But he is so very thin.  He is just skin and bones. 
I'm thankful my boys will have the opportunity to experience the sadness and permanence of death in the context of losing our Mister.  There are importance lessons to be learned about the value of life, when one comes face to face with death.  And losing a dog is very sad, but won't cause my children permanent trauma.
At least, these are the things I am telling myself as I wonder how I'm going to help my boys, especially Joseph, navigate these painful waters.
Until that time comes, though, Mister will be enjoying the good life, being showered with attention and love and treats.  And you know what?  I wasn't tempted to yell at him once the entire day! Maybe there's a soft spot in my cold stone of a heart after all.  :-)
Yesterday Brigham got a camera and took a bunch of pictures of Mister as he lay on the couch (his favorite place, these days-- either there or laying on his dog bed next to the piano as the boys practice).  He asked me to put them all on my blog.  Well, he took 31 pictures, so I don't think I'll put them all up here.  But here are a few.  I'm going to take some special pictures of each of the boys with Mister in the next few days.

In these last three, Brigham was trying to get Mister to stand still so he could take a picture, but Mister was not cooperating.  So Brigham got the pepperoni out, and balanced a piece on the camera.  I think it's funny to see this progression of Mister walking through the kitchen...

 Then suddenly getting a whiff of something delicious in the air...

 And suddenly he is all ears and big eyes and 100% focused attention on that piece of pepperoni on the camera.  :-)  As long as Mister still takes such joy in pepperoni, I think he's doing OK.  :-)

We love you, Mister.

A couple of things

The boys are going to bed right now.  Supposedly.  Aren't the voices and laughter of a mother's children supposed to delight and gladden her heart?  Somehow after a certain hour of the night the voices and laughter of my children turn me into an anxious wreck.  GO TO SLEEP!!!!!!!

In my quest for funny little things to remember about the boys, here are a few.
Mosey has picked up a really charming new conversational technique recently.  It goes something like this:
Me:  "Mosey, where is your violin?  It's time to practice."
Mosey:  "It is where it is!"
Me:  "I'm serious, Mosey, where did you put it?  It's your turn to practice."
Mosey:  "I put it where I put it."
Me:  "Yes, I know, Mosey, but WHERE is did you put it?"
Mosey:  "I don't know, it is where it is!"
These kinds of conversations are soooo funny.  Not.
I'm going to have to use this one against him.
Mosey:  "Mom, where is my falcon lego plane?  I've been looking everywhere for it!"
Me: "It is where it is!"
Mosey:  "Mom, when are we going to have lunch?"
Me:  "We'll have it when we have it."
Mosey:  "How many more math problems do I have to do?"
Me:  "You have to do as many as you have to do!"
We'll see how much he likes that!  :-)

Joseph likes to ask me at very random times: "Mom, am I annoying?"  Well, he's usually not annoying.  But after the 514th time he's asked me if he's annoying, my answer starts to change.  :-)
Joseph also likes hot chocolate.  Even on 103 degree days.  

Brigham found a battery on the floor yesterday.  He asked me, "Mom, can I play with this?"  Without thinking too much I said, "OK."  Then I realized who was asking me.  "You can play with it, but you can't take it apart."
"Why?"
"Because it has chemicals inside that will burn your skin."
"Oh.  Can I puncture it with a screwdriver?"
"No."
"Can I burn it?"
"No."
"Can I put it in the microwave?"
"No."
"Can I smash it with a hammer?"
"No."
(Thinking for a while) "Well, can I put it in some water and freeze it?
"Yes!  Yes, you can put it in water and freeze it."
So he put the battery in a glass of water and put it in the freezer, and then joyfully showed everyone his frozen cup of battery water a few hours later.
"Mom, can I melt it?"
"Sure," (again remembering who I'm talking to) "But you can't put it in the microwave!!"
"Awwww..."
Brigham, you are a funny child.  Scary sometimes, but funny.  :-)

Weekly letter

Hi Everyone,
Dinner's over, and I've informed everyone that since I MADE it, I'm not going to clean it up.  So Ben's cleaning it up and the boys are running around outside, screaming.  Literally screaming.  Our neighbors must love us so much.  But I'm determined to ignore them and write this letter!
Well, the first week of summer is under our belts!  And, wow, has it ever been SUMMER, regardless of what the calendar says.  It has been so amazingly hot.  The boys have been asking to see if they can fry an egg on a skillet on the dash of the van, and I think I'm going to let them try.  We'll have fried eggs for lunch.  It's been in the upper 90's every single day, even breaking 100 a few times.  This has been the hottest spring in Austin in recorded Texas history-- since the 1850's.  Two years ago we had a record-breaking hot summer with 68 100+ days (average is 12), and in that year, it didn't break 100 until the middle of June!  We had our first 100+ day on May 24.  And there is no expected change in this weather pattern, so I think this summer is going to be brutal.  We are 15 inches in deficit in terms of rainfall.  Ugh.
Well, I shouldn't complain.  We haven't had any tornadoes, so really, I can handle the weather.  (But it's still so hot!)
This summer we are doing piano, flute, violin, and horseback riding lessons, so much of our schedule will stay the same.  And since I'm super-mean, I'm also making the boys do 15 minutes of math every! single! day! (see how mean I am?), which, for Mosey, has been more like 45 minutes or an hour because he won't sit still and just do it!  He was better on Friday, so I hope he'll get into the swing of things.
I have such grand plans for summer every year.  I know I'm not the only one who does this.  I'm going to get so much done!  We're going to do so many fun projects and activities as a family!  We're going to read books aloud and play board games every day!  We're going to do art projects!  We're going to get up at 7:00 every morning and go play at the park while it's still cool!  I'm going to have time to lay on the couch and leisurely read a book!  The reality is that it's easier said than done.  :-)  If I really want to get all that done, I'm going to have to schedule everything in, and you know what?  I'm tired of schedules!!  I think I need to lower my expectations.  Maybe we'll play one board game a week, and get up at 7:00 for the playground one morning a week, and go from there.
We did hit our first Regal Theaters Summer Family Film Festival movie this week-- Marmaduke.  Don't go running to the nearest Redbox for that one.  :-)  It did involve talking dogs and fart jokes so the boys thought it was hilarious, but I'm thinking maybe I need to bring a book and my little clip-on reading light to our next movie outing.  Mosey doesn't have a  particularly long attention span for movies, and halfway through he climbed over the seat to stand next to me (I was in my wheelchair in the handicapped seating area in the back) and bug me about how long until it would be over (answer: not soon enough).  We went with 3 other kids who stayed with us for the day (some homeschooling friends whose mom went to the Temple), and I didn't even attempt to have the boys do any practicing while they were here. 
The boys went swimming every afternoon, and I got in a couple of times.  Thank goodness for the pool.  It's the only way I can be outside for any length of time at all.  (I can only tolerate horseback riding lessons wearing my ultra-stylish cooling vest and ice packs around my neck.  Yup, I'm sooo cool.  Luckily the boys aren't old enough to be too embarrassed of me.)  Last Monday when we came home from piano lessons, the house was a big mess and needed picking up and some real cleaning.  I gave the boys the choice of staying inside to help me, or going outside and STAYING THERE until it was all done.  If they even set foot in the house, they'd automatically get a job.  Which do you think they chose?  :-)  If we hadn't had a pool, I might have had a fighting chance at having some helpers.  As it was, it was kind of nice being in the cool, quiet house, cleaning, knowing that the boys wouldn't dare come into the house until I was done.  This isn't the answer every time the house needs cleaning, but it worked for me that day.  I remember as a kid having contests about who could stay in the pool the longest.  Mama-- you must have loved those afternoons!  :-)
Yesterday I tried to make the boys do Saturday chores, and after 10 minutes of moaning and complaining and wheedling and crying, I threw up my hands and handed the whole thing over to Ben.  YOU'RE IN CHARGE!  Growing up, I never had any idea how HARD it is to teach kids to work.    Thank you, Mama and Daddy, for making us do it!  Now, will you come to Austin and teach my boys?  :-)
Ben's solution was to make a really fun afternoon activity contingent upon finishing up chores.  He ended up taking them down almost all the way to San Antonio to the Natural Bridge Caverns which, by all reports, was really fantastic.  At first, Mosey didn't want to go.  "I'm not going to the cave, no matter WHAT!!"  But after telling him what he would be doing if he stayed home (picking up dog poop, scrubbing the grout in the kitchen, sweeping off the basketball court), he changed his mind.  And it turned out that he was very glad he did.  Mosey can be a home-body (Joseph has had some of this, too, but is pretty adventurous now), which I understand, but some things he just needs to do!  Although I still need the dog poop picked up. 
While they were gone, I partied!!  I folded a bunch of laundry, hemmed 3 pairs of pants, adjusted a skirt that's been sitting on my sewing machine for a month, and made 3 baby blankets in preparation for my big Relief Society activity coming up next Saturday.  (We're making baby blankets and I needed to do a trial run to make sure I knew exactly what I was doing!)
Today, Mosey AND Joseph gave talks in Primary.  When we got to church, Joseph realized he left his copy at home.  Oops.  (I am nowhere near a good enough mother to have had them memorize their talks-- we were scrambling to finish writing them to make it to church on time!)  So Ben drove all the way back home and got it, and came all the way back to church (about 35 minutes round trip).  Mosey had to give his talk first, in junior primary.  He had remembered to bring his talk which he folded up and put in his scripture case.  Well, when he got up in Primary, he realized he had JOSEPH'S talk!  So Ben made the trip for nothing, and Mosey and Joseph ended up giving the exact same talk in Primary.  Double oops!  Now I need to email the primary president to make sure she knows that Mosey mistakenly brought the wrong talk so that she doesn't think we are SO lazy that we planned on the boys giving the same talk. I do have some standards.  :-)
Well, I think that's all the news for this week.  Next week at this time my Relief Society activity will be OVER and I'll be very relieved.  I hope everyone else is having a good summer!

Love,
Gabrielle

P.S. If any of you are looking for a light, mindless summer read, may I recommend "Mao: The Unknown Story"?  Just kidding.  It's definitely not light or mindless.  But it is really interesting and covers a lot of history I never learned-- AP European History really didn't get into this at all.  I've read a few interesting biographies/memoirs recently which I have enjoyed a lot.  Anyone have any other recommendations for me?

P.P.S.  I've been on a photography strike this week, I guess, and I only have 2 pictures.  Christian, the first one is of Mosey reading to Millie, the cute little girl who came and stayed with us (along with her brothers) on Wednesday.  Mosey did this spontaneously and it was the cutest thing.  The second one is Brigham at dinner tonight.  He ate 11 pieces of watermelon, no lie.

Nostalgia

After dinner tonight, the boys and I spent about 20 minutes reading old letters that I wrote back when Joseph and Brigham had just turned 4, and Mosey was 1 1/2.  They were sooo funny!  Oh, Joseph and Brigham were such NAUGHTY little boys!  It is so fun to read about now, though.  The boys were all so interested to hear these stories about when they were little-- Joseph has a great memory and could remember a lot of them.  It reminds me that in another 6 years, I'll be looking back on these days with nostalgia.  I hope I'm recording enough of it.  I love going back and reading those old letters.  There are so many things I would otherwise have completely forgotten, and others I HAVE forgotten-- those memories and those days would be completely lost to me if I hadn't written about them.
I have more trouble doing a daily log type record now, because honestly my days are a lot more boring.  In some ways, that is a good thing!  In the summer of 2005, within about a month's span, the twins painted the inside of the van with makeup, poured an entire bottle of maple syrup all over the living room rug, emptied a container of sunscreen on the floor of the exercise room, flushed a pair of scissors down the toilet (necessitating the complete disassembly of the toilet to retrieve), did an "experiment" with a bag of Splenda and a bottle of 409, and made a "treat" for the dog with leftover oatmeal, dirt, leaves, sticks, grass, and, of course, their own pee.  They were such scamps! And I promise I was an attentive mother!!  They were just the busiest, most creative, irrepressible, and NAUGHTY little boys!  If ever I was doing anything in which my eyes were not glued onto them (i.e. laundry, putting Mosey down for a nap, making dinner), they were invariably up to no good.  :-)
These days my concerns are less about mess making (although that still concerns me), and more about more serious parenting conundrums, which I'm not quite as prepared to write about in the ironic, humorous tone that I could use to detail the chaos that sometimes reigned supreme in our house full of little boys.
Posts agonizing about whether I'm too much of a tiger-mother, or detailing behavior by one or another of my boys that is worrying me, are not quite as much fun to read.
I wonder if this is reflective of a personality change on my part, or simply the change in my life circumstances?  Maybe both. 
Anyway, I have been saying this periodically for a long time now, but I need to do better at recording the little details of our life, and especially in noticing and remembering the funny things, and sweet things that are definitely worth remembering.

This week has been our first full week of summer.  I have grand plans for getting into a good schedule so we can make the most of our time, and so I'll have time to make a dent in my ever-lengthening "when I have time to" list of projects.  We definitely haven't hit our stride yet, but we're only one week in.
I want the boys to do music practicing, 15 minutes of math, and, ideally, one more academic item every day before they are set free.  Somehow, still, it took until 4:00 this afternoon before this was completely accomplished!  We didn't have breakfast until after 9:30, so there's that, but still, I definitely have to streamline the process.  Mosey's 15 minutes of math turned into more than 45 minutes as he dilly-dallied (he is so much like Joseph), needing to eat a handful of popcorn between each individual multiplication problem (he's doing 3 digit by 2 digit multiplication, so a handful of popcorn between each individual fact can stretch one problem out to 5 minutes or more), getting an orange section and eating it as slooooowly as he possibly can, dropping his pencil on the floor about 10 thousand times, etc., etc...  Each boy didn't spend too much time individually on their tasks for the day, but the cumulative time for me supervising everything was too long!
Once we were done, though, we had a nice afternoon with the boys playing legos and swimming and riding scooters around the neighborhood with their friend Jason who lives 2 doors down.  I worked a little bit on our family scrapbook (I'm up to September of 2005-- that gives you an indication of the truly colossal length of my "when I have time to" list of projects!!), and actually made dinner.  We had black beans and rice which Mosey moaned and groaned about.  "These are disgusting!  You put mashed bananas in them that have been sitting outside for a YEAR!"  Charming, huh?  (ETA: there were no bananas in the black beans, he just likes to claim that I put something really horrid in whatever food he deems "disgusting."  This time it was mashed bananas that had been sitting outside for a year.  Other times it is pieces of dog poo covered in cockroaches.  You get the picture.)  I cut a watermelon, too, and Mosey would have eaten watermelon and nothing but watermelon if I had let him. 

See?  This is kind of boring.  Maybe in 5 years I won't think so...

Other things to make note of from the week:
Joseph is working hard on a story he's been writing for a few weeks.  It's called "Lightning the Dragon" and is already more than 10 typed pages.  He loves writing and is good at it.  He talks about wanting to write a book someday, and asks me lots of questions about publishing and how writers get paid.  I remember wanting to be a writer when I was his age, but I soon learned that I actually like reading stories a lot more than making them up. :-)  He also has been working on perfecting his dragon drawings.  This is his current favorite thing to draw, and he finished up a really good one this week, completing it by outlining each one of it's approximately 5000 scales in a red metallic pen.
Brigham has been plowing his way through our "The New Way Things Work" book.  Yesterday he was determined to master how electric motors work.  I am made aware of the huge gaps in my knowledge base when he asks me things like, "How does electricity make something move?"  I had no idea!  I know the basic theory behind combustion engines, but I really had no idea about electrical motors.  But now Brigham knows all about electromagnets and coils and brushes and commutators (except for how to pronounce this word!  COMmutator?  ComMUTator?  CommuTAtor?  I have no idea).  Tomorrow he's going to figure out how machine guns work.  He asked me if I thought he might get onto an FBI watch list for googling how machine guns work.  I told him I thought he'd be OK.  :-)
And Mosey is busy, busy, busy.  Building legos, running his hexbugs around, playing with his dragons, reading Highlights magazines, trying to sneak onto Webkinz World (the rule this summer is only 30 minutes of computer time per day and that is only AFTER the rest of their daily duties are done), listening to his MP3 player.  Did I write about that?  I don't think so.  Mosey got it into his head that he wanted to buy an MP3 player.  He spent several days looking at MP3 players online, debating what he could afford.  Finally he and Ben struck a deal and Ben sold Mosey his old Sansa, and got himself a new one.  Mosey loves it, and has downloaded a few audiobooks he is listening to.  He is my gadget guy and has figured out exactly how it works.  I have mixed feelings about it though, because I really don't like him to be disconnected from the rest of the family, listening to his MP3 player while the rest of us are interacting.  I've told him that I reserve the right to tell him when he can't listen to it.  So far it's been OK, but as a matter of principle, I'm not really excited about my 7 year old having an MP3 player.
Well, that's it for tonight.  I will try to notice more funny and interesting things about my life!

so cute

Today we had some homeschool friends over for the day while their mom and dad went to the Temple.  The two older boys are almost exactly the same age as the twins and Mosey and their little sister is I think 3 1/2.  The two older boys of course fit into our household like natives, but the little girl probably felt a bit like a fish out of water.  Or maybe she's used to it, having 2 older brothers.  Anyway, it was first of all fun to see how DIFFERENT little girls are from little boys.  She is so quiet and cute and shy.  I tried to find things for her to do as the boys went gallivanting around the house with swords and lego spaceships.  She found our stuffed animals and carried Joseph's black and white cat around so sweetly for most of the day.  I showed her some of our books for younger kids and she sat down quietly to look at them for a while.  A bit later I went into the living room to see this:

Mosey was sitting down next to her, reading her this story!  It was so, so cute.  He went on to read her a couple more books, saying, "I'm going to read you this book.  You try to memorize the words, and then you'll be able to read it!"  Then he got out a white board and marker and wrote down the alphabet and started to teach her about the different sounds the letters make and how to put them together to make words.  He got a little ambitious and launched into an explanation of how different letters can "transform" (his word) the sounds of other letters.  He wrote down "us" and "use" as an example.  Then he started telling her about silent letters and wrote down "why."  It was quite the lecture!  And cute Millie sat there, the most quiet and polite little student as ever I've seen.  They were so adorable.
I wish Mosey did have a little sister-- I don't often get to see him in the role of big brother.  He was so kind and solicitous!  I know it wouldn't always be that way with a permanent sibling, but I think it would do him good.  The after-effects lasted clear through to this evening when, after stopping for groceries at HEB on the way home from violin lessons, he told me, "I'm going to bring the groceries in from the car and put them away, and you don't even have to pay me!  I'll do it for free all summer."  Now that is a big, big thing for my mercenary little boy, trust me.  :-)

The Primary Teacher Trap

On Sunday morning I came home from my meeting to find Joseph and Brigham concocting a diabolical plan.  Not really, but it was funny.  Joseph and Brigham don't put much thought into the fact that they are twins, because it's all they've ever known.  They don't look all that much alike, and they certainly don't have similar personalities.  But, for some reason, on Sunday they decided to try to play a trick on their primary teacher by dressing up as each other.
Brigham likes to dress sharp for church.  He usually wears a suit and tie, his black tie church shoes, and combs his hair very carefully, sometimes even using hair gel. 
Joseph, on the other hand, really, really does not like dressing up.  He wears black church pants and a sweater most Sundays.  And he has been known to go to church with his hair still looking decidedly "bedhead."  He knows once he turns 12 he'll have to don the white shirt and tie, but for now he takes comfort over style. 
So on Sunday they decided to dress up as each other and see if their primary teacher mixed them up.  Joseph wore Brigham's suit, Brigham wore Joseph's sweater, Joseph combed his hair and used about a week's worth of hair gel to keep his hair parted on the right (they have opposite parts, isn't that funny?), while Brigham... did not.  :-)  The cutest thing was watching Brigham help Joseph with his tie shoes.  Joseph wears black slip-on Sunday shoes and almost never wears tie shoes, so he's not very good at it (I've just added another item on my summer "to do list"-- make sure Joseph and Mosey can tie shoes!).
When they were all ready, it was indeed hard to tell them apart-- at least from the back.  :-)
I was skeptical that they would be able to trick their teacher, though, because Brother Taylor has the most identically identical twin boys that I have ever seen, and if anyone can tell twins apart, it's definitely him.  But, sure enough, after church, Joseph and Brigham came rushing into the Relief Society room all excited to report back that they DID trick their primary teacher!  Now I don't know if their switching Sunday clothes had anything to do with it as people frequently forget which name belongs with each boy, even though they can easily tell the boys apart.  But Joseph and Brigham sure got a kick out of it!
Joseph had his shoes, shirt jacket, and tie off before we even made it home, but I made him put them all back on so I could take a picture.  :-)

Please ignore my messy house in the background.  And the bizarre angle I took the picture at.  Not sure what I was thinking with that one.

Joseph was awfully excited for me to take a picture of him, can't you tell?  And by this time his hair was definitely reasserting its natural inclination towards dishevelment.  :-)

Wednesday--Victoria to Vancouver to Seattle to Texas

The LAST installment of our Seattle trip.
Wednesday morning we woke up really early (it's so much easier to wake up early when the sun comes out at 4:30 AM), loaded up the car, and drove up to where the ferries from Vancouver Island leave to the mainland, about 30 minutes away.  This ferry was HUGE, much bigger than the ferry coming from Port Angeles.  Waiting in the car in line to get onto the ferry, I was doubtful that all the cars would be able to fit, but those ferries are bigger than they look!  The ferry ride was about 2 hours, and it was beautiful.  There are dozens of lushly forested gulf islands between Vancouver Island and mainland Vancouver.  I stayed inside the ferry most of the time (it was COLD outside), so I didn't really get great pictures, but we did go outside for a couple of minutes.  Here's the shoreline of one of the islands we passed by.

Inside the boat, Ben was busy working. 

But he's not too upset about it.  :-)

Brigham admiring the scenery.

Mosey just thought it was cold.

Here's another ferry just like ours, and a view of some of the islands in the distance.

We were back on the mainland by 9:00 AM, and our flight out of Seattle wasn't until 3:00, so we thought we had time to drive into Vancouver, only 20 minutes away.  Or so we thought.  Vancouver has horrible traffic!  I couldn't believe how bad it was!  We never did get to the downtown, because we had to leave in order to make our flight.  So I wasn't real impressed with Vancouver.  We made it to the border and then sat and waited for nearly an hour before finally making through into the US.  I was starting to sweat at this point.  I was only slightly distracted by the very solemn looking older gentleman standing on the side of the road holding a sign announcing, "PREPARE FOR THE RAPTURE, MAY 21, 2011.  REPENT NOW!"  Wow, I hadn't realized the end was so near.  :-)  We finally got through the border and once we were back in the good old USA, the highway had more reasonable speed limits.  The speed limits are SO SLOW in Canada!  I drove as fast as I dared and made it to the airport just a little less than 2 hours before our flight.  I thought we were safe. 
Well, our flight OUT of Seattle was nearly as exciting as our flight INTO Seattle, and not in a good way.  I dropped Ben off to check his bag and get our boarding passes while I took the van back to the rental return area.  For some reason they made me go back down into the rental office in order to finish checking out.  I'm not sure why the guy couldn't do it in the parking garage, but there was some problem.  So I waited in line before finally being able to check out and start heading to the airport terminal.  Meanwhile Ben was having "issues" with Continental.  They apparently had switched computer systems the day before and somehow lost the records for our flight!  Ben went from line to line, person to person, with no one able to figure out what happened.  I knew we were on the flight because Orbitz had called me 3 hours before the flight to let me know it was on time!  The people at the desk kept telling Ben to use different credit cards at different kiosks.  At one point he waited in line to talk with an actual person.  She was looking through the computer trying to find us, and then suddenly asked Ben if he was a Continental Gold Club member or whatever, which Ben was not.  "Oh, I'm sorry, this line is only for Gold Club Members.  You'll need to go wait in that line over there for another ticket agent."  Okaaaay, our flight is now less than an hour away, and the problem is obviously with Continental, and they're making him go to another LINE?  Really?  Anyway, finally he was able to talk with a real person who managed to find our records and print boarding passes.  Our flight is now about a half hour away and we haven't gone through security.  I finally make it back from the car rental place with the rest of our bags (we used mostly carry-on suitcases so we wouldn't have to pay the $25/bag to check them).  Usually security is pretty fast for me because with a wheelchair I bypass the line and go straight to the x-ray machines.  However, they only had 2 X-ray machines open and the line was horrendously long.  We bypassed some of the line, but not all of it.  Finally we got to the X-ray machines, now 15 minutes before our flight.  Ben and the boys make it through, but I'm sitting there waiting for a female agent to come do the pat-down, since obviously I can't go through the metal detector gate in my wheelchair.  The TSA agent at the x-ray machine asked a couple of times in a very non-urgent voice, "Female agent needed at lane 1."  I told her, "You know, my flight leaves in 15 minutes.  My husband and kids are already through security waiting for me."  She said, "Well, we're a little understaffed today, sorry."  On, you're SORRY, huh?  What the heck-- we're about to miss our flight, and she couldn't care less!!!!  Finally another agent came, and to her credit she gave me the FASTEST pat down I've ever had.  Finally I get through, and we start RUNNING through the airport trying to find our gate (full disclosure-- Ben and the boys were running, I was holding on for dear life :-)).  Well, we keep running, and running, and running, and then discover we have to get on a TRAIN to get to our gate.  And the train is downstairs, so we have to wait for the SLOWEST elevator in the WORLD because I can't go down the escalator.  We just miss the train because of the stupid slow elevator and have to wait another 2 minutes for the next train.  Our flight is now scheduled to be taking off in less than 5 minutes.  Finally we get off the train, and then have to go back UP another elevator.  At this point, Continental begins to redeem itself by sending a gate agent to wait for us at the elevator.  She calls and tells the flight crew that we're coming, and we rush out of the elevator, down the hall to what must surely be the very farthest away gate in the ENTIRE Seattle airport.  They don't even bother taking our boarding passes, but send us hurtling down the ramp to the plane.  At which point the front wheels of my wheelchair get caught on one of the metal connecting things on the floor of the telescoping ramp to the plane and I go flying off my wheelchair and land sprawling on the ground along with the 5 bags I was carrying on my lap so the boys could run unencumbered.  That was a really great moment in my life.  Anyway, we do FINALLY make it to the plane where we have to walk all the way down to the end of the plane with everyone looking at us and knowing we are the jerks that they've been sitting there waiting for during the past 10 minutes.  Ah, well, we finally made it to our seats.
The flight from Seattle to Denver was fine until we were about an hour outside of Denver.  Then we started flying into a great big nasty storm sitting over Denver.  The plane was rocking and rolling with the turbulence, another really awesome thing that I love so much.  I was sitting there squeezing the arm rests of my seat wondering if all the drama at the Seattle airport was God's way of helping us to MISS the flight because it was going to go down in a storm killing everyone on board.  Now that would be irony.  However, we did manage to land safely in Denver and got on our next flight uneventfully.  It was another bumpy ride getting out of Denver, but at least on this flight our family was able to sit together.  On the flight from Denver they had seated us randomly around the plane, no one next to anyone else.  If I'm going to die in a plane crash along with my whole family, I at least want to be able to be holding their hands as the plane goes down.  Aren't these lovely thoughts to be having sitting in a plane going 500 miles an hour 30,000 feet in the air?  But, somehow we made it through that flight as well, and landed smoothly in Austin at around 11:00 PM.  We got our bags, got our car, and were home at around 12:30 AM.  What a long day.
Anyway, it wasn't the most pleasant ending to an otherwise awesome trip, but all's well that ends well, right?
I was WAY too stressed and harangued to take any pictures during our return-trip adventures, so all of those lovely memories will have to remain in my mind's eye.  :-)

Brigham and the forbidden fruit

Ben and I went on a date tonight.  It was great.  For me, anyway.  :-)  We went to Hancock Fabric to check out the "blow-out sale" they were having (it wasn't much of a blow-out), and then to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy a bridal shower gift.  I'm sure Ben loved that.  :-)  Actually, he is a pretty good cook and baker, and we came home with a few things we didn't know we needed until we went into the store.  Funny how that happens. 
We left the boys at home with instructions to be safe, be nice, clean up after themselves, and call us right away if there were any problems.  (I have to say I adore living in Texas which actually believes in freedom for the individual and leaves it up to the parents to judge the age, emotional maturity and capability of the children in deciding the appropriateness in leaving them home alone.)

Well, we came home, parked, and walked in through the door from the garage.  The first thing we heard was Brigham calling from up stairs, "I didn't have anything to do with it!" 
Uh-oh.  That's never a good thing to hear.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Something really annoying, but I didn't have anything to do with it!"
I start going around the house, expecting to find a great big mess, something broken, or some other obvious sign of mischief.  There was nothing.  The kitchen was clean, the dishes were in the sink, the food put away (except for a bag of cherries, but that was OK).  The play room was in order except for the ever-present scattering of blocks around the current construction site.  The living room seemed just as it had appeared when we left.
"I don't see anything, Brigham, what happened?"
"Look right around you, you'll see it!  It's really annoying but it wasn't my idea!"
I looked around.  The exercise bike was there.  The right foot strap was broken, but it's been broken since the day we put it together.  The computer hadn't fallen to the ground.  The synthesizer still had all its keys.
"Brigham, I don't know what you're talking about, just tell me!!"
"It's the chocolate bar, mom.  Dad told us not to open it, but Joseph opened it."
Ah-ha!!  I just had to laugh.  Ben brought a chocolate bar home from work and told the boys they could have it, but not to open it right then.  The idea was for them to eat actual dinner first.  Well Brigham, our resident police man, being the very obedient and exactly diligent child that he is, took Ben at his word and had no intentions of opening that chocolate bar until his dad gave the OK.
"Oh, that's OK Brigham!  Dad brought it home for you!  We just wanted you to eat dinner first!  You can have some, come on downstairs and you can break off a piece!" 
And then the truth comes out.
"Well, I already had a piece.  Joseph gave one to me and I ate it."
Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!  Joseph must have been beguiled by the serpent (maybe it was Mosey), and then, partaking of the forbidden fruit, bade Brigham to partake of it too.
It wasn't exactly the original sin, but it sure made me laugh.  :-)

If that's the worst trouble they get into while Ben and I are out of the house, I say we go on dates more often!

Drama at the Doctor's

After my transplant nearly 3 years ago (can it possibly be that long?!), my boys weren't allowed to have any immunizations for a year, until my immune system recovered.  At that point, we were homeschooling, and without the yearly immunization requiremenst by the school, I let it slide.  Well, being reminded that I have got to get my 2 year immunizations done before my 3 year checkup coming up next month (oops), I decided to schedule all three boys for a checkup.  I was not anticipating nor was I ready for the drama that ensued...
It started out fine.  Joseph and Brigham are both exactly the same height (53 1/4 inches), although Brigham weighs 65 lbs and Joseph weighs 60.  Mosey is 52 lbs and 48 3/4 inches.  They're all 50% for height and weight, except Joseph at 40% for weight.  Normal, average heights and weights-- I like that!  Blood pressures were all fine and they passed their hearing and eyesight tests with flying colors. 
Then the doctor came in.  (She is a new doctor for us (the boys' old doctor retired), and I really like her and I think she did a fabulous job, and I don't think any of the stuff that followed reflects badly on her at all.)  She asked for their immunization records, looked them over and announced that Brigham and Joseph both need chickenpox and hepatitis A vaccinations.  At this point, Joseph started to freak out.  He looked at me and said, "I'm NOT getting any shots, mom!"  Then Dr. Rusk left and the boys had to put on the lovely hospital gowns and undress down to their undies.  Joseph, my very modest boy, balked at that.  He took off his shirt but refused to take off his pants.  Mosey somehow forgot about undies that morning, and so wouldn't take off his pants either. :-)  Brigham had the first physical which involved the doctor checking eyes/ears/mouth, listening to his heart, checking his knee reflexes, checking for scoliosis, palpating his abdomen, and taking a very, very quick peek (seriously less than half a second) to check for hernias.  Brigham was a trooper and was happy to cooperate with whatever the doctor asked him to do. 
Then it was Joseph's turn.  He bent down and touched his toes for the scoliosis test, got up on the table for the heart and reflex checks, but flat out refused to lie down for the hernia check.  Not that I blame him.  Anyway, Dr. Rusk was really nice and explained what she was checking for, but he was not budging.  I thought I'd use his hesitation as leverage, so I told Joseph that I wouldn't make him do the hernia check (I'm about 99.99% sure he does not have a hernia), if he would cooperate with me on shots.  Well, this was not motivating to him at all.  Finally she proceeded with Mosey's checkup.  But now Mosey was all freaked out and refused to get up on the table, and instead hid behind a chair.  Oh, man.  But Dr. Rusk told him it was OK, and did the heart and eyes/ears/mouth check where he stood.  She got him curious about his knee reflexes, and he finally agreed to sit on the table while she banged on his knee with her giraffe mallet, and after that he was OK with the abdomen and hernia check. 
But THEN it was time for the dreaded shots.  Joseph and Mosey were both not budging on the shot-refusal front.  I looked into Joseph's eyes, and I saw real fear there.  He's got a phobia of needles, and it's hard to talk a kid out of that.  It can be hard to talk adults out of a fear of needles!  But Mosey was more being obstinate.  I'm almost positive that if Joseph had been on board with the shots, Mosey would not have had a problem with it.  Anyway, while we were waiting for the nurses, I tried everything I could to pep them up, distract them, bribe them, whatever!  I told them after it was over, they'd wonder why they'd been so scared.  I tried to tell them that at least every week they do something that hurts more than getting shots.  My boys are pretty tough, and I can't remember the last time Joseph cried for pain (crying over math or piano practicing or the utter injustice of Saturday chores is another matter :-)).  I offered a dollar per shot.  The easiest $2 they'd ever make-- just sitting there!  No dice.  I tried scare tactics-- "Do you know what happens if you get hepatitis?  Well, first, you might DIE, but WORSE THAN THAT, you'll have to go to the hospital and get blood drawn, and IV's stuck in your arms.  You'll be stuck WAY more times if you get sick than you will if you just get the vaccine!"  But my kids are too sophisticated to be swayed by scare tactics.  Or something.
Finally I tried the distraction technique.  I started telling them about all the shots I've taken in my life.  I took twice daily heparin shots when I was pregnant with the twins and with Moses.  Being pregnant for 38 weeks, that added up to 532 shots!  (I'm good at doing multiplication in my head :-)).  THEN, adding in the daily Copaxone shots I took for a year and a half (~550), the 3x/week shots of Rebif I did for 6 months (around 80), we're already up to more than 1100!  And I don't even remember how many shots I did during our 2 IVF cycles and FET.  Suffice it to say, I've had a LOT of shots in my life. 
Surprisingly, this actually seemed to work.  The tears stopped, and when I added that each child who cooperated with the shots could go home and order anything they wanted on Amazon.com that was $10 or less, the deal was sealed.  A very expensive deal, to be sure, but sometimes dire circumstances call for dire measures. :-)  I challenged each of them to try to keep their faces so still when they got the shots that I wouldn't be able to tell when they got poked.  I told them about smiling as hard as I could to suppress the gag reflex (it's weird, but it works) when I was running for the bathroom ready to throw up for the umpteenth time when I was pregnant with them, and told them to try that-- maybe smiling would suppress the pain, too!
Joseph went first.  He was all psyched up.  He jumped up on the table, pulled up his sleeve, and was ready to go.  And then the well-meaning nurse ruined everything!  Instead of just going in and doing the shots quickly and quietly, she stood there and looked at Joseph and said, "I hear you're scared of getting shots!  It's OK to be scared.  I was scared of shots, too.  I used to run out the door of the doctor's office so I wouldn't have to get a shot!  How are you feeling right now?  Are you afraid it's going to hurt?"  Like Joseph needed to be examining himself right then and pondering how afraid he is and how scared he is of the pain.  Aarrgh!  Then she lay the needles right next to him and said, "Now don't look at the needles!  That will only make you more scared."  So of course, his eyes go directly to the needles, and he DID get more scared.  THEN she said, "The most important thing is for you to sit as still as you can, because if you move while I'm giving you the shot, the needle will cut through the skin of your arm, and that will hurt a lot.  You know how bad it hurts when you scrape your knee?  It will hurt like that, so you have to be really still."  "OK," I'm thinking, "this nurse can't possibly come up with anything ELSE to make my boy any more petrified than he is now, can she??"  Joseph's eyes kept getting bigger and bigger, and now great big tears were welling up and spilling down his cheeks.  He started moaning, "No, no, I don't want to do it, mom!  I don't want to get any shots!"  I told him to look at me and I'd make the weirdest faces I could and he'd laugh so hard he wouldn't feel the shots!  Too late.  I finally stood up and hugged his head to mine and held him while the nurse gave him his shots.  And how he did howl and lament and how the tears did flow!!  It was over in just a few seconds, but Joseph was beside himself.  "It HURT, mom, you said it wouldn't hurt but it hurt a LOT!!  You said they wouldn't be as bad as the ones I got when I was four, but that was WAY WORSE!"  I soothed him as best I could and told him what a good job he had done, and now he was done with shots for two whole years.  "No, I have another shot, they only did one shot!"  He didn't believe me when I assured him that yes, he had actually gotten 2 shots.  The nurses corroborated my story, but I began to see the power of fear in my boy.  I'm sure he felt the sting of that first needle, but his fear and panic were what he was really crying about.  He didn't even feel the second pinch! 
I tried to get him calmed down.  Brigham and Joseph were thankfully in the other room (very, very good move on the doctor's part, to put them in a different room), and I told Joseph he needed to be brave and help Mosey to be brave.  But the crying went on.  Finally I picked up his dragon drawing Joseph's been working on and showed it to the nurses.  They admired it properly and got Joseph talking about it, and finally he was calm enough to leave.
Brigham was next, and he was really calm and collected.  He got right up on the table, put his hands under his thighs, and his face really didn't change a bit when he got his shots.  As he left I told the nurses, "That boy helps me to know I'm not a complete failure as a parent."  :-)
Mosey came in last, and he had to get 4 shots.  Poor kid.  He missed his 4 year old shots, so he had to get those on top of what Joseph and Brigham got.  But he really was brave and calm until he actually got the shots.  Then he cried and cried, but he was brave.  He didn't try to get away after the first arm was done, but sat still (I was hugging him as best I could) while he got the other two done in his other arm. 
Finally we were finished!!  It was a grueling hour and 15 minutes, but it was over.  Mosey cried and whimpered all the way out of the doctor's office and all the way to McDonalds where I bought the promised McDonald's breakfast (I'm telling you, this was a very expensive trip to the doctor!).  I asked Mosey what he wanted to eat.  "I don't want ANYTHING," he said in a shaky voice, still crying.  I asked him, "Well, if you were at some point later today to want a smoothie, would you want strawberry banana or wildberry?"  "Wildberry.  But I don't want anything!"  So I got him a wildberry smoothie and a sausage mcmuffin and about 30 seconds after his brothers started eating, his appetite returned.  :-)
SO, that was my really fun morning.  :-)  I told Ben that next time HE gets to take the boys to the doctor.  Although by the time Joseph is 11 years old, I'm betting he will be a little more sanguine about the whole thing.  Actually, I think if Ben had taken them today that none of this would have happened.  Joseph's different with Ben than he is with me-- it's hard to explain, but I'm almost certain that if Ben had been there instead of me, Joseph would have cooperated with the doctor, and would have been better able to swallow his fears about the shots.  Oh well, live and learn, and at least I've got an interesting experience to write about on my blog.  :-)
I bagged lessons for the rest of the day.  We did piano practicing and went swimming all afternoon instead.  I sure needed the break, even if my boys didn't!  :-)

Victoria and Butchart Gardens

On Tuesday morning we woke up, dressed, put on our jackets, and walked out into the chilly, but clear morning.  We ate bagels and apples as we walked from the hotel to the Royal BC museum.  It was another beautiful day!

Don't these tulips look like flames?

Mosey finishing his apple before going into the museum

Serendipity was with us, and the museum happened to be free that day.  I didn't take too many pictures, but the boys had a great time in the museum.  Ben liked the Indian exhibit best.  There was an entire long house (I know it wasn't called that, but the exact name escapes me) reconstructed inside the museum, as well as an incredible display of the intricate carvings that the British Columbia Indians were so skilled at making.  And of course, the totem pole room, something I remember seeing when I was there as a kid.  I told the boys to pose by their favorite totem pole.

Brigham trying to imitate the totem's face, and doing a pretty good job.

Joseph liked the realism of this one.

And here's Mosey with his!  He liked the cut-out area at the bottom, just his size.

Think he was having fun?  (This was actually just a couple of minutes before he got in trouble and landed himself in a time out.  Ben was trying to gather the boys together and called Mosey to come over.  Mosey refused, and kept walking away.  Ben asked him again, and Mosey responded with an oh-so-respectful, "Whatever."  Yeah, not such a good idea, Mosey!  Luckily, Mosey doesn't hold a grudge and he was soon back to his normal self.)

My favorite part of the museum was temporary exhibit set up in one of the main halls.  Some of the scientists who work with the museum as researchers set up little areas meant to look like their labs.  They had specimens on display, lab equipment, and, best of all, the scientists were actually there to talk to everyone and answer questions.  So interesting!  I hope Joseph, my future zoologist, liked it.

I also liked the Century Room where clothing and objects were on display from various periods over the last 100 years.  So fun to look at items on display from the 70's and 80's and even 90's that I remember well, and that are now completely obsolete.  The pace of history seems to be accelerating, doesn't it?

After a few hours we made our way out of the museum and bought the boys ridiculously overpriced hot dogs from a concession stand on the street.  Those better have been the best hot dogs they ever ate.  :-)  Ben and I were not hungry enough to justify another $4.50 hot dog.

Brigham liked his. He didn't stuff the whole thing in his mouth at once, despite appearances.  :-)

Joseph models the correct way to eat a hot dog

He really loves me taking his picture.  :-)

Mosey did a good job with his hot dog.  I think Ben hoped that at least one of the boys wouldn't finish theirs.  Mosey was having none of that!

After eating our quick lunch, we went on a similarly quick tour of the Parliament building.  We went around back to the handicapped entrance, and were escorted in by a guard, bypassing the regular guided tours, which was fine by us.  We just wanted a quick look around inside anyway.

These are the beautiful colored paintings surrounding the base of the dome inside the building.  Splendor Sine Occasu (Splendor Without End) is the motto for British Columbia.

 After seeing the Parliament building, we drove to Butchart Gardens.  I know I've gushed about how beautiful the weather was during this whole trip, but holy cow, the weather was beautiful!  It was cool-- definitely light jacket weather, but the sun was clear and bright with not a cloud in the sky.  Butchart Gardens was glorious.  I'm sure it's beautiful all year around, but May has got to be the height of beauty.  There were more kinds of tulips than I ever knew existed.  The trees were blossoming.  The grass was emerald green.  It was just so beautiful.  I took about a hundred pictures of flowers and trees, but I'll only post a few of them here.

 This is the view of the sunken gardens from up above.  We came around a corner, and there it was spread out below us, like a fairytale.  So pretty!  2-D Photographs really do not begin to do it justice.

Sunken garden from down below.

 Every detail of the garden was exquisite.  Can someone please come and landscape my yard exactly like this?

 It almost looks fake, doesn't it?

 The afternoon sun slanting down, glowing through the petals of the flowers and leaves of the trees was almost too much to take in.

 OK, so this picture was pretty much a fail.  It was such a cute location, but the sun was at the wrong angle, and I managed to snap the picture right as Joseph blinked.  Oh well, you can't win them all.  :-)

Brigham on a bronze carousel horse.

 Ben took this one of me.  I should have had the boys pose here, instead.

 Joseph by the sturgeon fountain.

Joseph in the Italian garden while we waited for Mosey and Brigham to come back from the rest room.

 Cute Mosey.

 We offered a carousel ride to all three boys, but Mosey was the only one who took us up on it.  I think Joseph and Brigham regretted this, since it was the fastest carousel I've ever seen!  Look how happy Mosey is.  :-)

We finished our Butchart Gardens tour with overpriced (although delicious) gelato in the Italian garden, and then went on our way.  Our plan was to stop and pick up some dinner, and then spend the evening on the beach somewhere.  Well, we found a beach, but by the time we found a place to get food (like I said, there aren't many fast food places in Victoria), we decided not to go all the way back to the beach.  Instead we kept driving and in a couple of minutes we found a nice jogging/walking path overlooking the Pacific ocean.  We parked on the side of the road, walked out to the walking path, and sat on a bench and looked at the beautiful scenery.  We had  great view of the snow-capped Olympic Mountains across the water.  

We finally tore ourselves away and went back to our hotel.  Ben and the boys went downstairs to swim in the heated hotel pool and I stayed in our room and enjoyed the sunset through our big front window and read a book.  Heaven!