Let's Do April, Shall We?

March was finished out with a bit of swimming.

Although there are complaints every Sunday morning when they have to get in the car and go, they really do enjoy their lessons and have been learning a lot.

And in case you were wondering, Mikey does still occasionally channel his inner superhero....

Katie's tonsillectomy was scheduled for April 14th.

Easter, it turned out, would be on April 20th.

Judging from all that I had read about tonsillectomies and the info I received

 from The Doc, it would take Katie 7-10 days to recover from surgery.

So as not to risk Katie not being able to enjoy her chocolate Easter Bunny, we decided to hold Easter a week early.

It was a beautiful day and the kids were properly attired for the Easter Egg Hunt.

Baskets in hand.

Bunny ears on.

Ready to roll.

It was really hard to get Katie to NOT "help" Mikey find all his eggs.

Then it was time to open the little egg-shaped treasure chests of goodness.

Ponies, Minion Squinkies, Hobbit Chibis and Lego Guys... 

...OH MY!

Then it was time for the main event:

The Extravagant Easter Basket Hunt!

Mikey got what he most wanted; a totally awesome Lego set.

And, Katie got what she most wanted; candy.

Let the building begin!!!!!

Months of worry and fret came to a head on Monday morning when it was time to take Katie in for her tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy.

We arrived early, early in the morning for pre-op stuff.

Katie was really calm about the whole thing as they explained what would happen.

Eventually they gave her some sleepy Tylenol medicine to prep her for anesthesia.

She got really giggly and started staring at the various points on the ceiling.

It was time for her to go back to the Op Room.  

The nurse and anesthesia assistant rolled her away on the bed while she was smiling and waving at me.

The surgery took a little over an hour.  The Doc came out at the end to let me know all went well and she was in the first stages of recovery.  There would be antibiotics waiting in the pharmacy for me and that I should have time to pick them up before being called back to sit with Katie.

I went down to the pharmacy and about 10 minutes after being there got a call on my cell phone from the nurses upstairs letting me know Katie was waking up.

What the what?!?!?  And I'm down in the pharmacy.  Grrrrr.

I dissed the pharmacist and ran back to the day patient surgery center, was ushered back to the recovery area and saw Katie laying on the lap of one of the nurses.

Talk about feeling like Worlds Worst Mom....

Anyways, I took the nurses spot and waited for Katie to wake up enough to talk and drink.

And waited, and waited, and waited.

They called for a wheelchair, since I had to go back to the pharmacy, and off we went.

We made it home.  Katie slept in the car.

I brought her inside and laid her on the couch.  She gave me a panicked look and pointed towards the bathroom.  I picked her up and then she threw up all over me.

Ugh.  Poor girl.  Could it get any worse than to have surgery on your throat and then throw up?

The days after that were a hit or miss owee-wise.

Days 1 and 2 were actually the best days; the days where Katie ate and drank the most.

And it was a whole variety of things: popsicles, oatmeal, ice cream, and instant mashed potatoes.

And then Day 3 came and the no eating/drinking began and the pain began in earnest.

It wasn't so much the pain in her throat as it was pain in her cheek and ear area.

The meds began to wear out faster and faster.

It was not a happy time.  Lots of tears and screaming when it was time to have the meds.

It's kinda hard to choke down Tylenol, Ibuprofen and Amoxicillin when you really can't swallow.

By Day 5, I was ready to take a trip to the Urgent Care center for fear of dehydration.

She was not drinking - only as a chaser after meds - and was eating nothing but an occasional small bowl of whipped cream.

She lived off of whipped cream (Reddi Whip, in case you were wondering) for about three days.

Katie spent a good majority of the time lying down, curled up in a ball with a heating pad stuck somewhere to help with pain.

Mikey would do his best to try and cheer Katie up.

He did a great job being some comic relief in an otherwise very owee time.

He was also a great help to me in that he kept himself busy and understood that Katie needed a bit more attention than he did.

Sometimes, he even got her to smile.

By Day 7, she was doing pretty good during the daytime.

Pain became manageable and Katie began to move around a bit more.

She was still not 100% and needed meds to be able to eat and drink.

And that's when the Night Terrors began.

Sigh.

She'd wake up in the middle of the night screaming and clutching me, saying that she was scared.

Happened for two nights.

It was more horrible heaped on top of horrible.

On Day 9, she built this.  It was the first time she had really built in a week.

I had the feeling we were out of the woods.

Finally, at Day 10, I sent her back to school.

She made it through the whole day with minimal meds for pain.

All in all, it was quite the experience.  Here's Katie's take on it....

Her voice is still not back to normal and still (it's now Memorial Day weekend) has throat pain sometimes from hot foods.

It was a rough, rough week and us parents can only hope that it was all for something.

I DO know that she doesn't snore anymore.

I hope there are some other benefits than just not snoring........

While Katie was at her first day back at school, Mikey's preschool had a visit from some State Troopers.

One of which is the Dad of one of his friends.

Here he is enjoying utilizing the squad cars loud speaker......

That weekend, I went away to a state PTA conference and while I was gone, this happened.

It's a good way for the kids to get out some energy.

I try to ignore the fact that there have been about a dozen injuries since it was installed.

On April 26th, a soon-to-be-member-of-our-family was born!

Our guy is somewhere in that pile o' puppies.

If you'd like to see his mom and dad, you can see them here.

I'll have more pics of puppy awesomeness in my May update.

This is a picture of Katie asleep two weeks after surgery.

As you can tell, she still wasn't very comfortable.

She slept upright and was bothered by a runny nose.

And then on the last day of April an era came to an end.

The motorcycle that has been sitting in our garage for almost 8 years was ... 

 ... DONATED!

Coming Soon......

I know.

So lame, right?

There's good reason why there's nothing here.

Easter occurred, tonsils were removed, PTA conferences happened, I went to various meetings, lots of members of the family were sick at one time or another, school events were attended, a certain soon-to-be-special puppy was born and preschool graduation is currently being planned. All that amongst just plain life in general.

I promise, PROMISE, that as soon as things calm down I'll get to updating.

But, please, don't hold your breath.

It probably won't be until the end of this month. Maybe Memorial Day weekend.

Maybe.

Emerald City Comicon

Okay.  I don't know why we have never - NEVER - attended a comics convention in our lifetimes.
It seems pretty strange that we have been on the planet for 40 years and never once went to one.
Renaissance Fairs - check!
Video Game conferences/conventions - check!
But no comics conventions.

Well, that all changed this past weekend when we attended the Emerald City Comicon.

The convention was HUGE.  It took up the entirety of the Washington State Convention Center and even had an area for table gaming and 80's arcade games in a nearby hotel.

And it was PACKED.

Okay.  So, for those who don't know what "comicons" are, they are conventions that cater to people who enjoy, well, comics in general, superheroes, sci-fi, fantasy and just about every other pop culture fad currently occurring.

And you know what, it's also an excellent place to check out totally tubular cosplay.

What's cosplay, you ask?  Go here to read all about it.

And cosplay we did.

Here is Ant Man (aka Hank Pym), a brilliant scientist who whipped up a substance allowing him to change his size.  Ant Man is mostly known for shrinking himself to insect size and using his antenna helmet to mind control ants to do his bidding.

Regular size.............

SHHHHHHHHHHHINK!!!!

(Mikey insists that you must make this sound)

........Ant size!!!!

Then there was a knock on the door and who of all people was there?

Hermione Granger!

She quickly gave Mini Ant Man a discourse on the proper way of wearing ones antennae.

The group was completed as a member of the Green Lantern Corp. took a detour from her return to Planet Oa to join in on the fun.

The kids LOVED it.

The first thing they did was geek out with some other kids dressed in costume and talk zombies.

Did I mention that there were A LOT of people there.

Many, MANY of them were dressed in costume.

So many that we just couldn't take pictures of them all.

Besides, you're supposed to ask them first, and that's almost impossible to do when you're chasing two kids (or carrying one).

If you want to see lots of pictures of some cool cosplay, check this out! 

If you scroll down far enough (really farrrr....you're almost there!), you might see some familiar faces. One face of which got a "Like".

And if you want even more, there are pics here.

You can click on "More Galleries" for pics from Day 2 and 3.

Oh.  They had legos there.

Totally awesome lego displays.  Beyond comprehension.

Jokers Funhouse WITH moving parts as well as a

Emmet and Wyldstyle/Bad Cop chase on top.

A complete model of Rivendell.

Elves, hobbits, dwarves and lofty arches present and accounted for.

And for the Potterheads.....

The Hogwarts Quidditch Stadium.

There was a lot of walking.

This Green Lantern wished that:

A) Her power ring actually worked and she could summon a stroller to roll Mini Ant Man around.

B) That female superheroes did not have to wear high heel boots. Ow.

(It's 4 days post comicon and my little toes STILL hurt)

Lunch time!!!

Then we were back at it.

We headed up to the Kids Area where they had a superhero obstacle course and some other things to do, like face painting and tattoos and stuff.

And then there was the "Blast-A-Trooper" charity booth sponsored by the 501st Legion.

Pay some bucks and shoot Star Wars bad guys for charity.....

But first a photo op!

Oh yeah.

Check out that Nerf blaster!!!

Katie...I mean...Hermione had extra incentive to put those bad guys out of their misery.

We learned that Anakin (with glasses in the middle) was a DEATH EATER!!

He had the Dark Mark tattooed on his left fore arm!!!

For reals!

Mini Ant Man had a turn too.

Clone Trooper Dude took the brunt of the fire.

This was a laugh out loud funny costume.

It was a kid in pajamas carrying a Mickey Mouse stuffy and a sign......

And because comics kinda wouldn't exist without the people that draw them, they had an art room.

You could go draw whatever you want using all sorts of art supplies.

It was a nice break.

Since I can't draw anything without copying from something, here is what I came up with.

Hermione was feeling flowery.

And then we were exhausted!

One stop to see the retro 80's arcade and we were done.

The kids can't wait to go back next year.

Neither can we.

Mikey is already planning his costume out even though I've reminded him that it's a WHOLE year away. He doesn't care.

The kids ask every day, "When are we going to comicon again?"

Hopefully, my feet will have recovered by then.

Next year, no heels.

Two Short Videos & Xbox Fitness

I totally forgot that I had some videos of things that I've posted about!

I have one from January of Katie's last dance class.....

And I have one from February of our sledding adventures and a jam session at the EMP. Katie on drums, Mike on electric guitar, Mikey and John's daughter, Hannah on keyboard.....

And now for the blabbing....

The Xbox One (aka Xbone) offers free workouts on Xbox Fitness for Xbox Gold members. There's all sorts of stuff on there - a couple of Beach Body workouts, some Jillian Michaels workouts, lots of kickboxing and stuff like that.

I HATE running in the dark by myself. So, I've been doing the workouts.

My first observation: They need to have more, uh, normal looking people in these videos. All of them have super star bodies. They need more people like me; rockin' my white oversized t-shirt and Champion brand grey shorts. Oh yeah and they need to work out in bare feet.

My second observation: These people with the superstar bodies have not an ounce of fat on them. A lot of these work outs include plyometrics. Plyometrics = lots of bouncing/jumping. For those of you that don't know....fat bounces. And keeps on bouncing. Maybe for a second or two after you finish your jump.

My third observation: The background worker-outers are corny and need to be slapped. They have super smiles plastered on their faces and exaggerate every movement. Annoying.

My fourth observation: The Kinect sensor watches your every move and scores you. You get stars for working out good. Mikey likes it when I get stars. He cheers for me. It makes me want to get stars. When I don't get stars or when the Kinect crashes and boots me out of my workout without giving me my stars, I get Pissed. With a capital P.

My fifth and final observation: The people in the videos never get wedgies. They need to add an extra second or two in between exercises for me to pick my wedgie.

Good Friends, Good Times

Hey. Did you know that you are only supposed to use one space after the punctuation at the end of your sentence? Yep. I read an article about it and then did follow up research (you know me). It's true. I have been double spacing after punctuation since I learned how to type in high school. But, that was on a typewriter. So, double spacing after a punctuation means that I am old. In an attempt to make myself feel younger, I have begun to try to single space.

It is not making me feel younger at all. Just frustrated.

Enough composition talk! On to what's been happening.

It snowed.

It was on a Saturday night, so everyone was able to be home to enjoy.

Mikey's favorite part was throwing snowballs.

Katie immediately went to work sculpting.

A snow person and a snow dog.

Then we headed to the local Jr. High for some sledding before the rain came back.

Some things never change...... 

....they just get heavier.

I think you've heard me talk about Binky Superhero before.

Well, this is his Lego incarnation.

He was busy fighting the King of the Undead, who kills people and then steals their legs.

The King was assisted by his minion - Zombie Ghost Mummy.

I totally didn't take any pictures of Valentine's Day this year.

Bummer that you won't get to see my kids with chocolate smeared all over their faces.

Sigh. Can't believe I didn't take any photos.

Moving on.

One rainy weekend in February, we headed to the EMP.

There were Legos there. 

The Legos. They totally got built.

They've got fantasy stuff there too.

Annnnnnd, there's lots of music.

And they had this guy.

Wait. What?

Mike and his family came for a visit to the PNW!

Here's the whole group at dinner after a viewing of The Ultra-Awesome Classic DVD version of The Pendragon Legend.

Us.

John, Gillian and kid Hannah.

Mike, Leslie, and kids - Josie and hiding in the waaaaaay back is Henry.

The next day they came over to our place for dinner and games.

The men went to work prepping the meal.

"If you told me that we would be cooking dinner together for our families in 25 years, I would've said you were (deleted expletive) nuts."

Dinner was great and everyone had a good time hanging out and playing Apples to Apples.

(The kid boys were playing Marvel Superheros on the Xbone).

It was great to catch up.

Oh, and remember how I was mentioning feeling younger at the beginning of this post?

Well, there's nothing like hanging out with your other 40 year old friends to make you feel young again.

Does that even make sense?