Rediscovering dragons

Ian just finished reading the “My Father’s Dragon” series by Ruth Stiles Gannett to me.  I remembered reading “My Father’s Dragon,” “Elmer and the Dragon”, and “The Dragons of Blueland” when I was in elementary school. 

When Lisette was still learning to read I checked out “My Father’s Dragon” from the library.  It was one of the first chapter books that Lisette and I read together.  We enjoyed it so much that we read all three books, and then I bought the set for her and gave it to her for Christmas.  Since then Miles and I have read it together, and now Ian and I have finished it.

This charming book from the 1920’s is great book for beginning readers to read together with their parents; not to hard for the tykes, yet still engaging enough for mom or pop

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

Yea, I’m glad to be home again!  Yesterday I had my knee surgery in Heber and I had to stay overnight in the hospital.

Cool things about surgery:

• Getting my knee shaved and writing “YES'” on it with a magic marker
• Coming out of anesthesia is like some weird trippy TV flashback sequence
• The cool machine that has a nylon and velcro wrap around my knee and pumps ice water through baffles every 30 minutes to keep the swelling down
• Saltine crackers and pineapple juice with my pain meds
• Pain meds
• Knowing that your knee won’t be permanently messed up

Not so-cool things about surgery:

• Getting my knee shaved
• Hospital gowns
• The operating room was freezing!
• My foot was numb for hours
• The oxygen monitor that started beeping every time I went to sleep
• Staying overnight in a hospital bed

Everyone at the little Heber hospital was really nice.  The surgeon was Dr. Vernon Cooley who is in practice in Park City with Rosenberg and who helped fix Tiger Wood’s knee.  I felt like I was in very competent hands.

Parley’s canyon was all snowy this morning, so I asked Arden to pick me up (he has a bigger car with good snow tires).  He had to turn around because of an accident blocking the road, but he was able to come back and pick me up before they kicked me out of my room.  He made a great little “nest” in the back seat, with a foam cushion against the backdoor seat, and some sleeping bags behind the passenger seat for me to put my leg on with plenty of blankets and pillows; very comfy.  I was very glad that Melinda didn’t have to drive in the snow. 

So I now have to have a straight, locked brace and I can’t put any weight on it for four weeks (ouch).  I suppose I’ll get lots of practice being patient.

Disneyland morning – day four

For our last day of Disneyland we entered in under the train station, strolled through Main Street USA, and then passed the castle into Fantasyland.

Miles, Lisette, Ian and I love riding the Matterhorn in the morning.

   

We made sure to ride Dumbo and the Carousel again for Saffron.  

 

 

Ian tries valiantly to pull the sword of the stone.

Beautiful weather, lovely blue sky, light crowds, happy kids; it was a perfect morning at Disneyland.

Excessive Misery

I've been getting around a lot better lately. I can drive again and I only need one crutch. On Friday I took Ian and Saffron to a friend's wedding reception. We went to Harmon's to get a card and a gift certificate and I had to walk down the seasonal isle which was full of gardening equipment. I felt sad walking past the seeds, shovels, clippers, garden gloves, hoses, and sprinklers thinking about all the things in the garden that I want to do but am unable. It brought to mind this song that I remember hearing as a kid from Hee Haw on TV.

I always liked this tounge-in-cheek ode to sadness. It's kind of a pain not being able to do what I want, but it makes me appreciate more the things I can do.

Superior

Lisette has been working hard practicing the piano and memorizing her songs for Federation. On Saturday, she went to Kingsbury Hall and played her songs for the Federation judges. She played “Merlin’s Dream” and “Irish Jig.”

She was a little nervous, and she made a couple of small errors, but she got a rating of Superior! I’m so pleased on how well she’s been playing. She plays with a lot of feeling and style. It’s so nice to hear the nice music she makes at home!

The bee’s knees

Today is the three week anniversary of my monumental ski flub-up.  The moral of the story being don’t follow your 10 year old son into the trees and over ski jumps.  Even through it’s really cool to come down the mountain in a toboggan, it’s not really worth it.

I do have the consolation of knowing that I’m special, because when I hurt myself, I don’t do any run-of-the-mill ordinary injury; I do the unusual.  No sir, no straight-forward ACL knee injury for me; I went for the gusto and ripped by PCL (along with my MCL).  My injury is uncommon enough that the first doctor I went to doesn’t even treat them.  So I had to make an appointment with a more experienced specialist.

I do have to admit that after 2 weeks of having an immobilized leg without having any end in sight I was starting to feel mighty discouraged.  Luckily, on Wednesday I met with an orthopedic surgeon who is much more knowledgeable, and now I’m scheduled for surgery in a week and a half.  I also got a brace that allows me to bend my leg more, and I went to physical therapy to help me increase my range of motion.  I can actually walk on it now, though I still use crutch for support.

The downsize is I after surgery I will be in pain again and have 2 more weeks of an immobilized leg.  Sigh.  Then I will have to have intensive physical therapy, and 9 months of recovery.  However, I am really grateful right now that I work for a physical therapy company; I know lots of great therapists!  They’ve also been really great about letting me work from home.

The kids have been really helpful and patient with me.  They haven’t complained about having to fetch me water refills or any of the extra work they’ve had to do.  It’s been a hard adjustment for everyone, but we’re all doing well.

Melinda has been really great about the whole thing.  Everyone in the ward was very impressed with her because on Sunday when I was scheduled to give my talk, Melinda just walked up and gave it for me.  While we were driving up to the ski resort on Saturday she read it to me while I drove and she told me all things that I should change.  So she took my talk and got to make the changes she wanted from the pulpit.  Several people told me what a great job she did.  She’s been so good about driving me to appointments and taking me to work and doing all the stuff that I can’t do right now.  I always knew that Melinda was a great catch.  She really is the bee’s knees.

Disneyland evening – day three

Karen and Wendy left earlier in the day, but we were all glad that we still had a day and a half left; we still had too much stuff to do.  We went on Pirates of the Caribbean and walked around New Orleans Square.   

    

I had originally planned on taking more photos, but early on in our trip I decided I had to take it easy with the camera because I was afraid I was missing it all.  It’s really nice to have photos to look back and remember your vacation, but you don’t want to miss it because you’re glued behind a lens.

So not all of the photos matched exactly what we did.  We went over to the Matterhorn just before dusk and caught a ride.  Then I snapped a few shots of Fantasyland at dark.  Disneyland is so stunning at night.

King Arthurs Carousel

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

Sleeping Beauty’s Castle

We went to Space Mountain, while Melinda and Saffron rode Buzz LIghtyear yet again.  Then we all went on Star Tours together.  We all enjoyed Star Tours, even Saffron.  At the exit they had a Star Wars gift shop, and had a kiosk where they insert your face into a Star Wars scene. The photographer was really nice (and a good salesman) and it looked like fun so we said, “Why not?”  Saffy wouldn’t let him take her picture, but it’s just as well, because the 4 person pictures looked more generic than the one we got.  We actually didn’t plan on getting the picture, but it was so cute with our three oldest kids all grown up and fighting for the Rebel Alliance that we couldn’t resist.

They had a build–it-yourself lightsaber station that the kids ere entranced with.  Ian decided to buy one with the money he had saved.  But it was almost closing time and we still couldn’t figure part of it out, so we got one of the workers to enlighten us in the finer points of light saber construction.  When we walked out of the shop Tomorrowland was deserted.  It’s so much fun to wander around Disneyland at dark when the crowds have all dispersed.  We walked down Main Street USA and stopped off at the Penny Arcade to get a few more pressed pennies.  Only one more day.

Happiest Pennies on Earth

This year at Disneyland we had a lot of fun collecting pressed pennies. During the past few years we picked up some pressed pennies at Yellowstone and at the aquarium, and we thought it would be fun to collect pennies at Disneyland. I found a website, parkpennies.com that actually has all of Disneyland’s pressed coins cataloged.

Did you know that midway in 1982 they stopped making pennies out of pure copper, and instead made them out of zinc and only copper-coated them? I had a jar full of pennies, so before we left the kids helped me sort out all of the pre 1982 pennies. Then we cleaned them by soaking them in a solution of vinegar and salt, which makes Hydrogen chloride (an acid). We also went to the bank and got 3 rolls of quarters to put in the machines with our pure copper pennies.

We bought a souvenir book for all of our pressed coins. We even pressed a few quarters and nickels. The kids had fun putting in the coins, pressing the buttons and watching the gears move as they flattened the coins. We filled up the book all except for one slot. Here are some of our favorites: