Random Bloggy Blogginess Again...

I am going to have to become very creative if I want to keep my unique random blog titles unique.

The sub-title for this post is

How my Kids Rocked Their Day At School.

1. Emily's teachers had a meeting yesterday after class to discuss their upcoming expedition that starts in January. Some of the topics in the running were 'Ghostowns of Utah', 'Water', and well the third one escapes me. Needless to say, Emily was NOT impressed with the possibilities. She suggested to her teacher that they might do an expedition on Food. While her teacher took that as somewhat a tongue in cheek suggestion, Emily set to work writing a persuasive essay for the cause. Yesterday her teacher read it to the school director (Principal) and all the other 6-8 grade teachers. She was informed this morning that while they may or may not use her idea (the kids won't know until January) that her paper received a 4 out 5 on the AP English scale of writing. Being only an 8th grader, this news DID make her day. Some of her supporting themes included the topics they could study might be nutrition, agriculture, manufacturing and distribution. I think Emily rocks because she even thought of getting her point across in this way. She may not get extra credit for her paper, but I giver her an A+ for her GoToITiveness.
2. Tim...well Tim is a great thinker but sometimes struggles getting his thoughts on paper. So I was very happy that Tim rocked his day by getting his 'From the perspective of an Oil Drop' essay, his poster and all other assignments in on time and complete. Hallelujah!
3. Sierra (the third grader) rocked her day by finding out that on her recent Math test in her (mostly 4th grader) class--she was the ONLY one to get a perfect score! You go girl! We do love math around here. :)
4. In a somewhat random form, I learned Savanna has a lazy eye from her Kindergarten teacher. Am I the only one that is clueless about their children's eye problems? Whoops. On a good note, it doesn't seem to be holding her back in the reading department and her teacher gave me a great report on her behavior too. Thank goodness.
5. Ethan...well he didn't rock school today, but he did participate in Library time with gusto and that in and of itself is rock worthy.
   

Just another fun family moment...

This is normal...isn't it?

Miss Photogenic...

I made sun-dried tomatoes...

With my left over Romas...In the oven...

Now what?

Blog Life meets Real Life

Mike and I walked in late to our stake volleyball night. As we took our place on opposing sides of the net the girl next to me asked,

'Are you Kat on Brenda's Blog?'

'Uh..yeah' *thwack* as the first ball came flying over.

I've never been recognized 'on the street' from blogging before. So just in case she visits...

'Hi Robin!'

Progress Report...

A few months ago I committed myself to becoming a better photographer and in the process learn how to post process pictures with Photoshop. This is a progress report.

The latest things I've learned:
*How to make eyes sparkle in post processing
*Popping Color
*Sharpening

Anyway here is my Straight out of the camera shot

And here is my edited shot.

What's your blood type?

That was the question Emily posed at the dinner table tonight. We were talking about Ethan's excursion to Primary Children's Medical Center Emergency Room Sunday night. It all started with Ethan complaining of a sore neck and having a mild fever on Thursday night. I was worried he was coming down with the FLU and watched him carefully but by Friday morning he was fever free and mostly pain free. The sore neck returned on Friday night and lingered through Saturday. A call to the doctor urged a visit if he didn't improve in 24 hours. Sunday night--same thing. Once again the doctor suggested a late night visit rather than waiting until morning. Our appointment at the local clinic finished at 10:00 pm but the night was still young. We trekked to Salt Lake City (45 minutes away) to make our first visit to a hospital emergency room.

Strangely, having 5 kids, we have never had to grace that part of the health care system. Tim did have an overnight visit when he was one for RSV but we sidestepped the emergency room. I am always a bit worried in situations like this if we are going to pick up something that might be worse than what we came in for. The jury is still out on that, ask me again in a couple of days.

Not surprisingly the admittance process at Primary's was all that I have been told it would be. Kind, upbeat, helpful and quick. We did settle down in our exam room for a good long stay though by emergency room standards I think our 3+ hour stay is probably nothing to complain about. Ethan was having trouble turning his head and had a huge swollen lymph node. The doctors were concerned even though the symptoms were somewhat inconclusive that a deeper infection might be present like Meningitis or an abscess so a CT Scan was ordered.

Ethan was a real trooper, he never shed a tear, nodded quietly and bravely everytime a nurse would explain a procedure. When they put in the IV in his hand, they initially missed his vein and had to dig awhile to find it, but he didn't even flinch. They drew a vial of blood and he watched it all. Then he had to hold very still for the CT scan, he was so good. Both doctors and nurses were surprised at how well he took everything for being only three.

Luckily all our worse fears were found negative, no deep infections, no abscesses, just an infected node. Thank goodness for antibiotics, doctors, our health care system and hospitals that specialize in children. I don't have a picture today of my brave little guy, but he was a super patient and I'm very thankful his adventure to the hospital did not turn more serious. We even made it to bed by 3:30 am.

Back to our dinner conversation...Emily asked what Ethan's blood type was and before anyone had a chance to say a thing, He piped up with:

RED!