Seattle Day 1

Sunday Brenden and I drove to Anchorage for our overnight stay before our flight.  We went swimming and had a lot of fun.  Monday morning we woke up at 3:30 and were to the airport by 4:45 for our 6:30 flight.  Our flight was uneventful and we arrived safely.

We are staying with Doug's cousin Jennifer and her husband Rahul.  We are having so much fun!  We dropped Rahul off at work and spent the day with Jennifer.  They have been very hospitable and I think they are oh so funny.  Rahul is from India, so they eat a lot of Indian food and Jennifer made the most wonderful (and I am assuming very tame) Indian food last night.  Brenden and I LOVED it.  To be honest, I am craving it again!  After we ate, Jen threw it back in the pans and spiced it up a little (or a lot) more for Rahul.

Our appointments went well.  Brenden was very still and calm for his CT (but was not still, calm, or quiet for any part of the rest of the day - you know how your kids act when there are visitors?  That was Brenden ALL day!).  We went straight from the CT scan to the pre-op appointment.  The nurse must not have had kids because he told Brenden, "I need to take your pulse."  When Brenden didn't automatically flip over his wrist, the nurse impatiently tapped on Brenden's wrist.  He finally said, "I need your wrist."  In the end, he grabbed Brenden's arm and took the pulse without any help from Brenden.  Brenden was very out of it after being up for 12 hours already.  They asked him when his birthday was and, with a very glazed over look, Brenden said, "I don't know..."  When they asked him how old he was, he hesitated, still glazed over and said, "... 5?"  

The surgeon was HILARIOUS.  I am so thrilled he will be doing the surgery.  Brenden was wearing Adidas clothes and he kept telling Brenden that he would only do certain things for guys with Adidas contracts, not Nike contracts.  He also asked Brenden to make a list of girls he needed to call when he was safely out of surgery.  I just giggled my way through Brenden's whole appointment, but the jokes were lost on my little stoned looking boy. 

When we got back to the car, Brenden promptly fell asleep.  Once we were back to Jen's, Brenden spent the rest of his day playing on the computer, coloring, and reading books.  He stayed up really late (totally unexpected from a kid who was DEAD tired earlier).  I stayed up late with Jen and Rahul.  Rahul grilled me about Alaska and why I like it.  He is sure I just hate people and think I am better than anyone else (please take that in a very joking tone).  He works for Microsoft and is also quite sure that since I have a Mac, I am an elitist.  I laughed so much last night, I just smile thinking about it.

Brenden REALLY wants to eat at the Space Needle.  I told him it was too expensive, so now he says he is NOT having surgery because it is "too expensive."  Oh, the difficult life of a five year old.  Jen and Rahul are at work right now, but when they get back, they will play tour guide for us the rest of the day.  It has been nice to relax a little this morning (and SLEEP IN!), but we are excited to see Seattle.

Finally Legal

I have been driving illegal for some time now.  My license was current - but for the state of Idaho.  Right after we moved, we went in to the DMV with our social security cards only to be turned away because we needed our birth certificates (or in Doug's case, a passport).  I ordered a new copy of mine (my mom has the original, a much safer place for it to be than here), waited, and went back.  I was again turned away because I needed a copy of my marriage license because my current last name is not the same as my birth certificate.  Finally, today, I got all of my paperwork together (including the proof of address, which is no longer needed) and got my license.

Doug has been waiting for me to go get my license with him.  We were all ready to go on Monday and then we couldn't find the key to our safe - containing Doug's social security card.  We tore the house apart for hours looking for it, but had no luck.  Today after I got home with my license, I heard Ethan wandering around with a little *clink clink.*  I don't know where he found the keys (or had previously hidden them), but Doug will soon be legal as well.  Now if only Ethan could remember where he hid Doug's cell phone...  Don't call Doug, by the way.  He won't be answering anytime soon.

So, I have a little trivia for you:

-What is the law of implied consent?  Evidently it means you will willingly provide a breath sample if pulled over for DUI.

-Did you know that you cannot park, wait, or STAND by a no parking sign?

-One beer contains the same amount of alcohol as 1 shot of whiskey and 1 glass of wine.

-It takes an average of one hour to cancel the effect of one drink.

-You get 10 points for driving with a suspended license or driving under the influence.

I can't remember much else, but a large portion of the driver's test here has to do with driving intoxicated - something I know NOTHING about.  Perhaps I should take up drinking just so I have some background to pass my driver's test.  These questions were really on there!  I hadn't planned to read the alcohol consumption section of the manual just to get a license.  Evidently it is a big problem here in Alaska.  My seminary students were complaining that lots of their questions on the learner's permit test had to do with DUI.  Permits are given at 14 - I hope no 14 year old is concerned with getting a DUI when driving with their parent!  Huh - you would think they would want to know if you know how to drive, not how many "points" it will cost you if you don't follow the rules.  The cop can tell me how many points I got, how about making sure I can DRIVE?

Ouch

Doug called from work and told me I didn't post his favorite moose picture, so here it is:

Wide eyed moose with a stick up its nose.

Doug says that if moose could talk, it'd be saying "Shoot!  Ouch!"

Monsters

As I was sitting at my computer reading, Brenden came in and said:

Brenden: Mom, what are you doing?

Me: Reading

Brenden: Why?

Me: (shrug)

Brenden: Are you reading about vampires and werewolves again?

Me: (sheepishly) Yes... (while wondering how did he make that connection since I am on the computer and not reading THE book with the black cover?)

Brenden: Mom, you shouldn't have even started that...  

Me: (blink, blink)

Brenden: There are other monsters, you know... like frankenstein.

Doug found it especially humorous that Brenden is encouraging me to expand my horizons.

We seem to have a new friend in the neighborhood.  The same moose, and sometimes his mom, have been hanging out at our house and at our property across the street.  A few days ago, I snapped some pictures of the moose right outside my bedroom window (where there is a fresh pile of poop).  I could have reached my hand out and touched his hiney.  This morning Brenden knocked on the window until the moose ran away and then reprimanded me for not getting a picture.  This afternoon Brenden pointed out that the moose was in the front yard, so before I even peeked, I grabbed the camera and yelled for Doug to come check it out.  The moose had it's head touching our deck, while munching on some delicious twigs.  I think we lost a few feet of bush and tree today.  Doug took 75 pictures, while standing only feet from said moose.  I won't subject you to ALL of them, only a few.

Look at those eyelashes!

Although I'm not thrilled she is eating my tree.

Nolan and I ran through the house to catch a glimpse out my bedroom window:

Words Words Words

Brenden informed me last night that the other words for slow are: dilley-dalley, pokey, and sluggish.  He reads too much!  Brenden also picks up other words from books: "Is it a girl?  Perhaps, it's a boy..." "The rope gently set me down."  They may sound normal to you, but coming out of my 5 year old's mouth - well, it just doesn't seem to fit.  Doug says it has nothing to do with Brenden's reading - we just use such "regal speech."  HA!

Darn Cute

Nolan has been so supportive lately.

While I was cleaning my bathroom, he came in several times and asked, "How's the cleaning coming, mommy?"

While I was getting a tetanus shot yesterday: "It's okay, mommy.  It's okay."  And then he proceeded to shutter as Doug gave me the actual shot.  (There was a nail sticking out at an angle between the ungrouted section of tile in the kitchen (yes, still...) and while shuffling my feet, the nail found its way deeply into my heel.  That resulted in excessive amounts of blood, followed by finger painting by Ethan.)

While we were in the car, I heard Nolan from the third row: "I'm just doing fine back here, mom."

While cooking dinner: "How's the cooking coming, mommy?"

After goodnight kisses: "I love your hugs and kisses, mom."

Basically, he's just darn cute.

Always on the run

Today was... busy.  Ethan had his first speech therapy session this morning.  It was fun.  He had his first physical therapy session yesterday.  Evidently, early intervention thinks he has some balance issues.  I would agree with that, but I have also seen my other kids outgrow their stumbling.  After speech, Doug went in to work for a few hours to make up for the hours he will miss on Friday (because it too will be a busy day).  This afternoon, Nolan had his follow-up audiology appointment.

Nolan's OAEs in his right ear were still absent in the low frequencies, but after doing some audiometry, it appears that if there is a loss, it is only mild.  It is still unsure what is causing the absent OAEs, but his hearing was within high normal hearing levels, so for now we'll take it the way it is and just keep watching it.  

Last Friday I got a letter from our insurance that Brenden was approved for his second cochlear implant - with a surgery date of 3/12/09!  Whoa!  I haven't even talked to doctors to set a date or anything and then suddenly I hear from insurance that surgery is in 2 weeks!?  I called around and no one seemed to know this information but the insurance company and me.  I was on the phone for 4 hours yesterday and an hour today trying to figure out where this date came from.  After all of that, our consultation is on 3/9 and surgery is on 3/11.  I am in a mad rush to get plane tickets and arrangements made for the other kids.  The good news is that our insurance out of pocket is only $4500 (in-network), but the bad news is that everything we have spent so far on previous appointments was applied as out of network, so we are starting from scratch.  

That, in a small nutshell, was my day.  How was yours?