Made my day!
Kerry surprised me with a beautiful arrangement of flowers at work today. The occasion was ‘thank you for all you do.’ It made my day!
all three of us
Archive for the category “Work”
The ‘in sickness’ part
Since I met Kerry in 2004, he has had shoulder surgery, two spinal fusions, hip surgery and a lower back surgery. This week marked spinal fusion number three to fix the two previous surgeries that did not work. The thing about having the same surgery three times is that we know the recovery is going to be long and not pleasant. Kerry has been a great patient but the recovery from this one is similar to the others for him. Long and painful.
Now, Miss H adds a whole new dimension to surgery and recovery. She is very aware that Daddy does not feel well and worries about it. A few weeks ago, when we took Miss H to the doctor, she would not let the doctor look in her ears. The pediatrician looked at her and very seriously said, ‘I need to see if Tinkerbell is in your ear.’ Miss H is a big fan of Tinkerbell so she totally changed her attitude and let the doctor get Tinkerbell out of her ear. Now, she thinks any trip to the doctor is for the extraction of Tinkerbell. Including for Kerry.
She has been telling her daycare provider, our neighbors, Mom, Aunt Leigh and really anyone who will listen about ‘Daddy’s big band aid on his neck,’ and that ‘Daddy went to the doctor to get Tinkerbell out of his ear.’
There have been a few bumps in the road this week. Surgery took longer than predicted, daylights savings completely messed up Miss H’s schedule and we ended up back at the doctor because Kerry had a high fever. I am hoping this weekend that the corner turns and Kerry starts to feel better (and it would really help if someone would go to sleep before 9pm). This week, we very much appreciate family and friends who have helped us out plus my very understanding work for not caring that I don’t know when I will be back and the outstanding insurance they provide. Again, thanks for the outstanding insurance.
So we definitely have the ‘in sickness’ part covered and we are doing really well. Thanks for all the thoughts and well wishes!
The End of the Year
It has been quite a year! I need to work on my yearly round up post but for now I will just fill you in on what we did this week.
Grandpa left on Tuesday morning and then Miss H and I headed to Annapolis to see a high school friend and then went out with Mom. My friend from high school has two kids, a daughter close to Miss H and a son who is only five weeks old. We had fun catching up with them and Miss H made a new friend. It is fun to see Miss H play with my friend’s kids! We hung out with them for part of the morning and then it was nap time at their house.
Every time we go to Annapolis, Miss H remembers the train at the mall. So, off we went to ride the train. Waiting at the station with Grandmom…
Besides riding the train, we did a little shopping, played on the slides and ate some yummy gelato. It was a great way to spend a rainy Tuesday!
Wednesday we took the tree down and I can’t remember what else we did. I think we ran errands all day.
Thursday, we had a play date with a friend who lives close by. Miss H was so excited to go over to Hunter’s house and Hunter was equally excited to see her. They played with his new train, cars, crayons and markers while Amber and I caught up about the holidays and enjoyed coffee. The best part was the hats they dug out. Not sure how we got them to pose the same.
Miss H seems to like her picture taken now after months of saying, “NO pictures!!”
On Friday, we needed to go to my office to utilize the copier and printer 
Miss H had fun drawing, meeting some of my co-workers and getting several snacks, cereal and juice in our kitchen. We only intended to be there for a few minutes but it turned in to 90.
We are still having unseasonably warm weather so after the office visit, we headed over to Roosevelt Island to burn some more energy.
It is a great place for picking up sticks, digging for rocks and Miss H claims that it is a ‘jungle.’
Finally, today was a trip to the zoo because the weather was still great. And, 60 degrees seems to be the perfect weather for the zoo because all the animals were out. Miss H spotted a cow at the petting zoo and immediately was impressed with our selection of places to visit.
Plus, they had donkeys.
Next, we headed to see if we could get a glimpse of any of the lions or tigers and we were lucky because they were all out. The big cats were just lounging around and had a nice size audience.
We saw gorillas (plus a baby), a dragon (Komodo), lots of types of invertabraes, prairie dogs, zebras and a big elephant. The elephant seemed to like his audience because he came right up to the fence.
All the walking at the zoo made someone really tired. We got our first nap in months!
Tonight, we enjoyed a nice lasagna dinner and will be asleep when the calendar changes over to the new year. Hope everyone had a great 2011 and best wishes for 2012!
Nerd Alert.
Total nerd alert. Earlier this year, my former boss encouraged me to take advantage of a great benefit that we have here that pays up to $15,000 per year in tuition for courses or programs that would ‘contribute to career development.’ It is kind of open ended in what you can take so after asking around and searching for a program, I applied and was accepted into a program at the University of Virginia. The courses are mainly online or at a local campus and my first semester I got a 4.0 GPA. I only took two courses but not bad for a full-time mom, full-time worker plus juggling all the other things that come along. I really enjoyed the classes and probably had a slight advantage that I work in the field that I took the courses in. The classes were online but were not self-paced. I had weekly assignments (that I put off until after Miss H was in bed) plus tests, discussion boards, midterms exams, final exams and a project. And, work paid for the courses, books (all electronic because they picked up the tab for the Kindle too).
One semester down, three to go! Hopefully I can keep up the GPA!
Snow, llamas and waterfalls
I was shocked when the snowflakes started falling yesterday. The weatherman was actually right. Miss H was a big fan of the snowflakes and loved being able to put on her hat, gloves and coat. I think she is immune to the cold tempertures. Our roof top was white this morning but otherwise no remnants left of a cold, windy, snowy and icy Saturday. Luckily, today was beautiful!
Kerry’s c o-worker owns a llama farm in rural Virginia and she invited us out to meet the growing group of 50+ creatures. A baby was born last weekend and she thought more would arrive this weekend. Her farm was so cool and Miss H had a great time with the llamas.
They were all really calm and interested in Miss H.
Seeing the baby llama was a highlight for all of us. (Fact of the day: the baby llama weighs more than Miss H).
Baby llama and her mama.
They all had really long eyelashes and adorable faces.
We were so impressed with how calm they all were. We all got a chance to pet them (and some of them did not want us to stop petting them).
We became really popular when it was lunch time. They heard there food being put out and we were instantly surrounded.
Learning about and seeing llamas up close was a great way to spend a Sunday!
Before we left to go see the llamas, we mentioned going to Great Falls and enjoying the nice weather. Miss H would not let us forget about the ‘waterfalls’ so we detoured by the park on the way home. We decided to visit the Maryland side this time.
Miss H liked running down the paths and over the bridges but the ‘water was TOO LOUD.’ She kept us moving across the bridges because she did not like the noise. But, she liked all the leaves and playing with Dad.
We spent almost all day outside and now we are all exhausted from all that fresh air! Hope you had a nice weekend.
fun site!
All the peeps
