Family Time

It started out by us going to by an early family Christmas present...yes, I do know that it is only the end of June but we'd been talking about what we were going to get as our family Christmas gift this year when it dawned on us that we should by kayak's since the kids enjoy them so much and we live within walking distance to the river, and if we get them early we could use them this summer...so, this morning we went to the marine store and purchased two RTM Tango kayak's. One looks like the one below which is a fishing version...which means it includes a hole to put your fishing rod in and a built in tackle box and the standard version in blue.

After that, we headed to Sykesville to visit my aunt and family for the day. It was a beautiful day...we played outside, ate crabs, shrimp, hotdogs & hamburgers then headed home in the afternoon so we could get to church on time since the boys served...not that we don't normally make it to church on time. ;) LOL

A Fun Day at Work

Today was our semi-annual department outing. This year we dined at Carrol Creek Restaurant for lunch. I had a salad, crab cake and vanilla ice cream and it was delicious. Our tables were overlooking the water which was just beautiful. Afterwards, plans were to take a boat ride. Since we had some time before the boat was to leave, we all decided to take a walk through downtown Annapolis. If you looked at the linked map, we actually started our walk at the bottom right hand corner of the map. If the map was extended farther down, you would see that Compromise Street goes across a bridge into Eastport. Carrol Creek Restaurant is on the other side of the bridge. We walked from the restaurant, across the bridge, up Main Street to St Anne's Church and then back down the other side of Main Street (had to make sure we saw all the shops and restaurants on both sides of the street ;). Downtown Annapolis is such a beautiful place with all it's old buildings and unique shops. It was a fun way to pass the time. We then all regrouped, got a few drinks...which our boss paid for ;) ...and then headed for the boat where we took a 40 minute ride offered by Watermark aboard the Harbor Queen. It was a lovely trip on the Severn River that included sights of historic Annapolis and the Naval Academy. It was a wonderful way to spend the day. Too bad every work day can't be this way. LOL

I wonder how we'll top this outing next year. In the past, we've done games at Jillian's and picnics in Centennial Park.

Glue

Last night we had our first experience with getting a cut glued shut instead of getting stitches. I want to know why kids always seem to hurt themselves after hours. Around 9pm last night, Bekah tripped walking up the steps and somehow got two cuts around her eye. By the time I got to her she had blood pouring down her face. Amazing how two small cuts can bleed so much and it sure it a scary sight. You could tell by looking at them that they would need to be stitched to heal right so that prompted a call to the urgent care center. After playing 20 questions with them about where the cuts were located, how big they were, how deep they were they gave us an appt at an office almost 30 miles away stating that they would evaluate her but if the dr didn't feel comfortable with where the cuts were in relation to her eye that we'd have to take her to ER to get them stitched. Thankfully Andy, along with Kenzie took her to the drs, thank goodness as I was dead tired from being up the night before with Kearsyn who still isn't sleeping well. Of course at that point I couldn't have slept anyways but still felt it safer to not have me on the road. Andy said the drs there were great and that Bekah did amazing. She didn't make a peep while they cleaned out the cuts with soap and water. Ouch! Not sure I could have sat there without making a peep. The only time she cried was when they inadvertently glued her eye together a little but Bekah was able to correct that problem herself...her tears dissolved the glue. LOL Here's a few pics of her...think she's a ham when it comes to picture taking? LOL

Good news

Just a quick update on Kenzie...I took her to her drs appt this morning and the test results show no fracture, no infection and no tumor. Whew! He's thinking that's it's either a deep bruise or possibly a damaged nerve. If it's a bruise, it will go away and if it's a nerve, it won't so he wants to reevaluate her pain in another month.

Lots of Pictures

Too bad I haven't a clue what any of them mean. Taking a wild guess at the bone scan one not showing any "hot spots" on the collar bone where she is having the pain, I'd say that is hopefully good news for not having an infection and definitely not being broken. The MRI is just a bunch of jibberish to me. LOL

Kenzie was a real trooper today and did great with both tests even though she was very nervous. She got the dye injected around 8 this morning, they took a few pictures to make sure the dye was traveling through her system correctly and then we told we could go and to be back at 11. With 3 hours to kill, I decided to take her to get her hair cut since she's wanted be to do that for a few weeks now. She was very happy to get that done. =) I also got mine cut, then we ate something real quick before heading back for the after pictures. With those done, we headed up the street to get the MRI done. Wow, what an interesting machine! I had no idea it made as many strange sounds and was as loud as it was. Kenzie, again, did great and stayed still thought all the picture taking.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring us good news although if it's not broken and it's not an infection, I'm not sure what that means is causing her pain. Maybe the blood work she had done will something.

A Sad Day

I found out that my boss passed away this morning. It's been kind of surreal here at work today...I'm not sure that we've all fully processed that he's really gone. That might not hit home until the services which right now look like they will be held on Friday. He's was such a kind and generous guy and a wonderful person to work for...I worked with/for him for 18+ yrs. He'll be greatly missed.

What a Day

Sometimes I think insurance is more trouble than it's worth. I made Kenzie's appts in the morning...was able to get them both scheduled for Weds...but found out during the process that I needed to get one of the tests preauthorized. Well you would have thought I was asking someone to cut off their right arm to get that authorization #. After numerous phone calls to the hospital (where the test is going to be done), to the preauthorization unit at the insurance company and to the specialist office which resulted in being forwarded to referral persons voice mail multiple times...I hate that!...being told that we wouldn't have enough time to get the pre auth because there is a 48 hr turn around time...that we are supposed to be having the test done at the hospital, that it's supposed to be done somewhere else. Ugh! by this point I'm totally freaking out because all I know is that I was told Saturday to get all these tests done and to be back in the drs office Thursday morning. I ended up with a supervisor in the pre auth area who said that she would work with me in the morning to make sure that everything got straightened out. I also talked to the specialists assistant who also assured me that she would get with her referral person to make sure that the info got done asap so the auth could be obtained. I received a phone call around 6:30pm from the specialist giving me the auth number that I needed. What a hassle! Now we're just in a waiting mode until Weds when all the test get done. The bone scan gets done in the morning and the MRI in the afternoon. Kenzie had the blood work done today.

Final Recital

This afternoon was the last piano recital for the kids this year. It's their teachers end of year recital where he has all the kids play a piece and then goes over what was done throughout the year. It's fun to hear all the kids play. I was surprised by how many recitals Connor, Kenzie, Taylor & Tyler did throughout the year. I never would have guessed it was so many. Their teacher goes through the different events and either has the kids stand to be recognized or hands them a little something depending on the event. I think Connor came away this year with the most items...it seemed like everytime we turned around his name was being called. Got pretty tiring having him climb over us to get out of the pew to get his items...we should have just stuck him on the end of the aisle. LOL He got a really nice plaque for playing in the Chamber Choir recital, a medal for another recital and two presents...one for getting the highest score on a Music Theory test...he scored 103 (highest score possible was 105 which included 5 bonus points) and his other present was for most practicing student throughout the year. Their teacher has a big chart hanging on his wall where he evaluates the kids after every lesson with a different color star. At the end of the year he tallys up all the stars in his super secret way and comes out with the top student...one for his first year students and one for those that have been with him longer than a year. Connor fell into the later category.

I'm so proud of all of them. They all work very hard at their piano lessons and they really seem to enjoy them. Tay was scared to death when it was his turn to perform tonight...he was the first one of the bunch...so we skipped him and by the end he had decided he was ready to perform. Every one gave him an extra applause because they recognize how hard it is to get up in front of a crowd to perform. Tyler didn't bat an eye this time, whereas last year he reacted just like Tay did...how far one can come in a years time. And Kenzie did great, as well. Now they get a break for the summer and will pick back up again this fall.

Not a Break

We didn't have a good feeling about Kenzie's diagnosis after hearing the specialist's comment about it when she saw him on Weds...he just seemed really blase about it and then when I picked up the xray report Weds evening (which we didn't have at the time of the specialist visit that morning) that basically said that he didn't feel that it was a break but that the spot was a normal variation in the bone. Because of the conflicting info and just our gut feelings we decided to get another opinion. I took her in this morning to see another specialist who was awesome! I really liked how much he talked to us and how he took the time to explain things. He is very confident that her collarbone isn't broken...so confident, in fact, that he took her out of the brace and sling she'd been wearing and said that she could return to softball. That's the good news. The bad news is that he's worried about the localized pain she's having which is associated with a dark spot on her xray. He's concerned that it could be a bone infection, osteomyelitis, and he wants us to have a whole series of tests done including blood work ups, an mri and a bone scan. And he wants all of this done so that we can go back to see him Thursday morning. It will be interesting to see if I can get all that scheduled in time...blood work is no problem but the other two I'm not sure about and I have to wait til Monday morning to call about them. The drs assistant told me that if I had any problems getting the appts to give her a call and she would make some phone calls for me. Sounds pretty serious to me and after reading up a little about osteomyelitis, I'm now wishing it was just a simple collar bone break. Hopefully all these tests will rule out the bone infection...although, if they do, I'm not sure where that leads us since something is causing her pain.

Classes

Looks like our worries about Alex's performance on the standardized placement tests were for naught. Last night was the new students orientation meeting at SSPP where they handed out the class schedules. Alex's 9th grade classes are:

• English I
• Spanish I
• Honors Algebra II
• Honors World History
• Honors Biology
• Religion (1/2 yr)
  
• Hebrew Scriptures (1/2 yr)
  
• Computer Science (1/2 yr)
  
• Phys Ed I (1/2 yr)
  

I think that's all of them. I'm so impressed by the honors placements...especially the math, just knowing where he started from when we started homeschooling...how far he has come. I'm so proud of him! Next year will definitely be challenging for him but he's very excited about it so I'm hoping all goes well.