Taking the Scenic Route

I am doing this in pieces so I don’t lose a big chunk if the electricity goes back out.  Please bear with me.

Zane was pretty freaked when it went out.  He made a terrified sound as he ran, full speed, from his room to the living room where we were.  It took a while before he was ok with this whole strange thing.  Holding a scared child who is clinging to you and then slowly feeling him relax is a very powerful experience.  For a while he put his hands over his eyes, peeking out every so often to see if the scene changed.  Eventually, he was ok to man a flashlight and started having fun playing with that.   Zach pulled some of his toys to the living room since it is warmer in here and this is where we put all the candles.  It was good to see him relax enough to start playing.  He did try and turn the tv and lights on a few times, and seemed rather confused, but we were able to get him playing again.  One interesting discovery….a lot of  kid’s books have big enough and bold enough print that they can be read in very dim light.  I never really noticed that before.

A cute thing he did was try to blow out our candles.  He just had a birthday and we had worked with him on “blowing” so that he could blow out the birthday candles.  He pretty much just makes a really strong “F” sound and sometimes actually accomplishes the task…which is pretty funny normally, but when you are trying to use the candles for light, it can make for an interesting situation.  He was also really fascinated with the candles and I had to really watch him to make sure he didn’t burn his hair off. 

When the electricity turned back on, his face was full of wonder, like it was the best magic trick in the world.  He looked around and started clapping.  I told him to try the tv, and he tentatively reached the button, and then cheered and clapped when the picture went on.  Then he cheered and clapped and giggled as each candle was blown out.  It was pretty sweet.

As I write this, the guys are both in the back room setting up his trains in some new configuration.  We have electricity back, and they set up the wooden, no electricity needed, train set.  lol.  That gave me a bit of a chuckle.

Ice storm fun.  We lost electricity for a while.  That is a really freaky experience when you live in a city, it is pitch black, and all you can hear is the sound of various city vehicles as they pass on interstate intermixed with the clacking of tree branches.  Our trees look like something right out of a science fiction film right now.  There is a very strong possiblity that our electricity will go back out again, so we are making coffee and filling up pots of water on the stove to warm the water up.  If we keep electricity, it will feel like a steam room.  lol.

Joy Update:

Somewhat good news.  She had the tests this morning (don’t know why she didn’t have them yesterday).  The artificial valves in her heart are ok (whew…that was a big deal and would have meant open heart surgery again), but she does have “vegetation” (great medical term, eh?!?) growing on the wires to her pacemaker.  She will have to have those replaced, but we don’t know when because they hadn’t talked to the heart surgeon yet.  It is a blessing that she is where she is because one of the best heart surgeons in the region practices at the hospital she is in, and he is the one who put the pacemaker in originally.  Replacing the wires might even be just with a local so she probably won’t even have to go totally under, which is good too.  Steve has been with her since last night, which is especially good since the roads are getting dangerous.

If I don’t post for a while it is likely to be because we have lost our electricity.  There is a massive ice storm that has just begun and expected to get much worse.  Right now, it is coming down as rain, but we already have some icicles starting and the tree outside our window is starting to droop a bit.  The power lines don’t do well in storms like this.  Zach is home today because the travel advisories are bad enough that he does not have to go in.  Everything is closing down around here, even the University, which almost never closes even in ridiculously bad weather.  So, we have the heater cranked, did laundry so we have clean warm clothes, and I cut up all the veggies in the fridge so I don’t have to handle cold food in the cold, and put a few pitchers of water in the fridge.  I hope we don’t loose electricity since we don’t have a fireplace or anything, but we have plenty of blankets and warm clothes and enough food that we could be holed up here for a while, even if the pickings get a little weird.

WOO HOO!

GOOD NEWS!

Well, Zach doesn’t have to go through the major hassle of trying to work the Boeing job around school and trying to get a part-time position established there (something they don’t do normally) because he just had his offer from the University ammended.  He still has the Graduate Assistantship for grading papers for an 800 level class, but he is now ALSO the Graduate Teaching Assistant for the CS 300 labs for 2 classes.  This means more money (not lots, but enough) because he will also get a 50% tutition break in addition to the small salary.  He will now officially be considered “staff”.  Yes! 

Joy seems to be holding her own for the time being.  She faces some painful, yucky tests tomorrow that she is dreading, but her fever is not as high and I was able to talk to her on the phone for a bit earlier this evening.  We are all fighting some nasty colds, so I can’t visit her, which is a little frustrating since we live not far from the hospital and everyone else is driving and hour to an hour and a half to be with her.

Joy update:  She is being transferred by ambulance to the big hospital here in town.  She needs a pic line and this is the closest hospital with people on staff 24 hours to do that. (It is a level I trauma hospital).  She will be admitted overnight at least.

Joy seems to have taken a turn for the worse.  I don’t know the whole thing yet, but they are in the ER right now and Steve has been called back from his trip to be with her.  They suspect full-blown staph infection at this time, and due to her underlying health issues, this can be very, very bad.  It is serious enough that they are thinking of transfering her to the hospital where her heart doctor is.  Please contiue to pray for her.

My computer.  Zach’s “vacation”

It was warm enough yesterday to bring out the bubbles.  Zane was thrilled!

Zane is figuring out how the mouse works this afternoon with the “New Years” message from last night

Get your kids, click on the link.  They will giggle uncontrollably. 

http://web.icq.com/friendship/swf/0,,16961_rs,00.swf  
 

Thanks mom!  Great New Year’s greeting!