Our follow-up visit to Dr. Allshouse on April 3rd was a little more rewarding. Amy had her picc line removed. She had fussed and worried about having it removed for days prior to her appointment. She was afraid that it was going to hurt. Not so. Dr. Allshouse gave her a large cotton swab to hold over the picc entrance and then he just pulled. Amy didn’t feel a thing. The hole bled a little bit, but not much at all. We scheduled Amy’s surgery to remove her appendix (or what was left of it) for May 3 at 11:30. She has been fine since being released from the hospital, and we don’t anticipate any challenges between now and the surgery. It will be a laparoscopic procedure with one cut in her belly button and two small cuts lower on her abdomen. The appendix will be removed and they will insert a small camera to make sure that everything else is looking good. Dr. Allshouse will check “the mass”. Even though it was still present a couple of weeks ago, he said that because she has been on such intense antibiotics, the mass is now sterile and should disappear on its own. Hope so. We aren’t too worried, except for all the medical bills. I guess we do have the money for them, it just would have been nice to use it on other things.
So, I don’t know if I ever mentioned anything about the award Chris received from work. He has been creating a new program for IBM and was encouraged by his boss to submit the idea for an OTA (Outstanding Technical Achievement) Award. He did and later found out that he received the award-$15,000. After taxes and tithing he had about $9000 to be excited about. The first thing that it was put toward was paying off his student loan. Yaaaa! No more student loan payments. We set up a money market account and deposited the rest of the money, thinking that we would put it toward the basement and a few other fun things. (With Amy’s appendix, the “other fun things” will have to be put on hold. Since we switched to different insurance, we will end up paying about $4500 in medical bills).
On the up side, Chris and I were invited to a CRTE (Corporate Technical Recognition Event) in San Diego from May 14-17. Exciting huh? It is a special event to honor the top technical contributors at IBM. This is part of the email that was sent to Chris:
“Located between the San Diego Convention Center and Seaport Village, with easy access to the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, historic Old Town, Balboa Park, golf, tennis, and the area's many other attractions, this year's location offers plenty to keep you occupied. Whether you're an exercise enthusiast, a shopping buff, or a relaxation addict, we have just the right activity for you.
Our event begins with arrivals on Monday, May 14, and concludes on Thursday, May 17. The morning general sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday will focus on recognizing our honorees, new IBM Fellows, and award winners in a number of categories. Each day will also spotlight invited guest speakers who are recognized as distinguished leaders in their professions. Their presentations and performances, enhanced by professional production support, will be memorable elements of our event for you and your guest. After the morning sessions, we offer you a wide array of recreation options, followed by evening dining and entertainment.
On arrival evening, May 14, join us for an informal buffet dinner with a southern California flavor and sound. Relax from your trip and visit with your friends, as you compare notes on your plans for the next few days. For Tuesday night, we will make reservations for you at your choice of many of the area's fine restaurants, and provide a generous spending allowance for the evening. Wednesday will feature a more elegant and formal evening, with a reception and banquet, some very special entertainment, and then dancing into the night to a great band.”
For our Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon activities, Chris and I plan to participate in a sailing Regatta and also kayak in the bay. There were other choices, but we wanted to do something that we would not ordinarily get a chance to do.
We figured that since we have young children, we wouldn’t have many opportunities to get away in the near future, so we also booked a three-day cruise out of Los Angeles from May 19-21. That is to celebrate our tenth anniversary. It should be a lot of fun. We will have the 18th on our own and plan to visit Sea World and then meet an old family friend of Chris’—Joannie McKenna—for dinner.
Chris’ Mom is going to come and stay with the girls while we are away. She is so excited and is even taking time off work to come. I know the girls will have a great time with her. I imagine that it will be hardest on Kristen and me to be apart from each other without being able to fully explain why we will be gone for a week.
Chris, as I mentioned, is in Los Angeles at a conference from Sunday to Wednesday night this week. He will be in Boston next week from Sunday evening until Friday. I don’t like having him gone, but we get by. Amy asked me the other day if I don’t get scared sleeping all by myself. I told her no, but I also said I didn’t like it.
Kristen’s vocabulary still hasn’t taken off, but she is adding words and some phrases all of the time. Her latest is “I no know” for I don’t know. She holds her little hands palm up and shrugs her shoulders. When she accomplishes something amazing she says “ya yaa” for “ta da”.
Yesterday morning as I was tidying up rooms for the day, I went in to Amy and Misha’s room. Their beds had already been made and dolls set upon the pillow earlier before they left for school, but Kristen had come along and tucked all the dolls under the blankets.
Everyday for lunch Misha and Kristen have ramen noodles. The routine requires that I give each of them a piece of uncooked noodles to eat while the rest of the noodles are cooking. Kristen is becoming quite attached to them and will go and get her own package of noodles out of the pantry to eat. I buy the noodles in bulk and had a box of noodle packages sitting on the shelf in the pantry. Yesterday she got a package out of the box earlier than lunch time and wanted some to eat. I gave her a few pieces, and then put the package up high so she couldn’t reach it. Well she hadn’t had her fill yet. I was in the office working on the computer and could hear some funny noises from the living room. Upon investigation I discovered that she had the entire box of noodles in the living room. She had retrieved a new package from the box and was using her teeth to tear off the packaging. She had managed to tear off a corner by the time I found her and had dropped the little pieces of packaging on the floor around her. Just like a little mouse. She wasn’t too happy with me when I took all of the ramen away from her and put everything up too high for her to reach.
Later that morning when we were getting ready to pick up Misha from school, I put a little green jacket on Kristen so we could go. That wasn’t what she usually wears and she began to express her displeasure. I left to put the extra seat back in the van, and when I came back into the house to get Kristen, she had pulled her pink coat off the hook and had removed the green jacket from her body. Little stinker.
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