Our Family Chronicle

Pattie and myself seem to have some kind of cold.

Melinda had it first with a headache, running nose and sore throat but no cough. We of course thought it was just allergies brought on by the smoke from the California fires. It seemed a bit odd that Melinda was bothered more than Alex but about a week later Alex started in with a cough. He goes through times where he coughs a lot because he does have allergies so this did not seem out of the ordinary. But this week Pattie and I became sick. Its not allergies. NO IT IS NOT THE SWINE FLU!!!! At any rate we feel a little guilty about not taking the kids more serious when they said they didn’t feel good. However, Alex the toughest of all of us just kept playing on the trampoline and running around like nothing was wrong. He would have to stop to have a few minutes of coughing but then he would start playing again. Believing Melinda is the one that started this, it is a bit surprising that she became sick over the weekend and has a cough this time.

Deciding to let Melinda stay home Monday I called the school to let them know, I got an interesting phone message. The school attendance line had a pre-recorded message that asked that any student showing flu symptoms should stay home for at least 7days and after there are no more signs of flue we should keep our child home for another 24hours. I realize that everyone seems worried about the swine flu but if we kept our kids home every time they had some slight fever or a cough they would never be in school. And from what I am hearing a lot of the children in class are coughing off and on all day long.

Tags: Public education RANT, health or lack of, parenting by Randall
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Pattie had her first root canal today. Three hrs in the chair and she has to go back. I can’t wait for my turn. I have some bad teeth as a result of poor care in my teens (my braces). It does catch up and I try to tell the kids that they don’t want to go through this so they need to take care of their teeth. We can only keep after them so much and eventually we have to trust and hope that they are brushing their teeth and flossing – yea right. I will have them come in and watch as I have my teeth worked on. Scared straight, MAYBE.

Alex had baseball practice tonight and he seemed to enjoy it. One of the boys caught a line drive in his family jewels and hit the ground. Time to get Alex his first cup. He might want kids one day.

Alex and Melinda spent most of the day hanging out with grandpa Dan. Grandma had some errands to run and is paranoid about leaving him alone ever sense he broke his leg. Last Friday Pattie and I went up north to get him an electric chair so he could get around better. I am glad I had Pattie go with. We were told that we would have a lift to get the chair into the back of the truck and it just didn’t happen. So Pattie (tougher than she looks) helped me lift it into the truck and back out. Now he can get up and down the ramp that is steeper than it should be and he gets around on the carpet better.

I will have to write about this Past weekend tomorrow because I am falling asleep and do not know what I am writing.

Tags: health or lack of, parenting by Randall
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Yep – today Randy paid his dues for missing his first day of work at the ski area.  Okay, when they said they were opening for the weekend we (Panayota, Tanya & Randy) all thought that meant Saturday not Friday.  All three of us and we heard a few more forgot to go to work.  So Randy and I had to choose another peak day to make up for it:)(  Randy was given a bunch of 4 to 5 year old beginner skiers today.  Although they are delightful – it was a lot of work especially without a magic carpet.  Randy’s feet are killing him but I did rub them out so not soooo bad.

Sidebar:  I and the kids did ski a couple of runs but decided that was good enough cause the snow was not that good and with only a few runs (now that we are so picky) and a bunch of people we called it done early.

Tags: Uncategorized, family activities, health or lack of by Randall
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This morning we made a trip to my surgeon (like I own him). My pain in the butt was not cured by the antibiotics indicating that I must have a fistula – doesn’t that sound just nasty. I will have to put up with some tests and some kind of imaging to find out how extensive the problem and how extensive the operation will ultimately be. And we will have to wait until we have decent insurance that will help cover the expense (joy). But it sounds like it should be OK to wait a while to have the operation. The good news is that my surgeon is open to the new procedure that I found on the INTERNET. He said to fax him the information that I found and he would find out the details that he needs to know. It is great to have a surgeon that is willing to look into the latest procedures. To see what is best for me. And I have been given the go ahead to start working out a bit again while waiting for the operation.

We also stopped in and took a few images of a small fund raiser A young man that had been diagnosed with cancer a year back had been given a wish from “Make A Wish”. He is so unselfish – his wish is to find a cure (not a new concept but a continuation of a good friend who did die from the same cancer as his). Basically, this young man (Jason) gave his wish back to a non-profit that is desperately trying to find a cure. How humbling. What troubles do we have? None. The fistula is but a small fish in a large pond of health issues. “Thank you God for the health of my family and friends.”

Tags: health or lack of by Randall
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So Pattie has caught my cold or what ever I have been dealing with for the last couple of days. The good news is  - it seems to only last one week, so Pattie will be over it soon enough.  In the meantime she (like myself) is feeling like a snot nose kid as our noses just keep running.  On the up side I look at it, as we got our cold out of the way before ski season gets going full tilt as we will be skiing this weekend.  Pattie (with her cold) worked out today after bike riding yesterday so her legs are sore. I am feeling a bit jealous as I do not feel I can work out with that damn abscess that has still not healed and I have finished my $200.00 worth of antibiotics. That was a mouth full. I have actually gained weight because I haven’t been working out. I have an appointment to see my surgeon next week though I do not know what good it will do. Until we have better insurance I do not think I can afford to have his team do the surgery. I am (trying to be) hopeful that he will have some kind of good news for me (like maybe another round of antibiotics might do the trick) In the mean time I am still planning on ski instructing part time this year with Pattie regardless of this pain in the butt. No sense in just lying around waiting for something bad to happen.  Hopefully I won’t need the operation at least until the summer or better yet at all.  I am planing on losing the extra weight that I have gained these last couple of months.

Tags: health or lack of by Randall
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