Back to the Same Old Routine . . .

. . .Sundays in the hallway at the Fine Arts building at Rider University.  Both kids' classrooms are on the third floor, so I can just plant myself in the corridor connecting the two halls and set up my laptop, iPad, etc.  Micah was a little nervous about going in, which is unusual for him and he's struggling to throw off his first cold of the year (yes, thank you to the parents of the little beast in Kindergarten Extension who sent their child to school sick).

We finished the second week of school, which means homework is starting and Back-to-School nights have been held.  Because the gym at Wicoff was getting its floor refinished, Kindergarten and 1st grade held their B-to-S night Wednesday, and the following night was for 2nd and 3rd.  Both teachers seem nice and are radiating enthusiasm.  Thea's teacher is just two years out of school, and this is her first class.

Soccer has started, and like Ying Hua, both kids' fields are on opposite side of the complex.  Micah's team only plays for an hour, so it's a drop Thea off, got over to Micah's practice and game then go back to watch the end of Thea's game.  Yesterday I had to work, and we were the snack family for Thea's team, so Thea made sure I was up early and we cut up oranges and put together a cooler with Capri Suns and water, and individual bags of chips, hand wipes and paper towels, loaded it with the soccer gear into Steve's car.  I had already put their uniforms out (depending on whether they are home or away, they wear white or green each week.)

Next week Brownies start off, and I am trying to finish autograph pillows using leftover fabric from the quilt I made for Mrs. Church at the end of last year.  The patchwork pattern Thea and I came up with (which someone has likely created years ago is cute and each pillow has something in common with the others and something unique.

Meanwhile the audiologist at Dr. Choe's office was supposed to send in whatever is needed for Micah to get a BP-100 BAHA from Cochlear.  I got a call from the principal because he wanted to check on it so that the school could order Micah's FM system.   She supposedly has sent the prescription in, but as Micah wears his BAHA on a softband, he's not in Cochlear's registry so when I called Cochlear I spent 30 minutes on hold while someone checked on it, nothing was found and I am still waiting for a call four days later.  It's hard to believe one of Micah's current BAHAs is four years old.

Last night while we were eating pizza and watching episodes of The Penguins of Madagascar, Micah asked why his ears weren't like Thea's, while pointing to his ear canals.  I told him that his ear canals were just like Thea's (I had to move her hair out of the way to show him), it's just that her 'holes' are in front of the cartilage and his are behind.  Which seems to satisfy him, for the moment. 

Quilting Class and Hurricane Irene

Saturday at Olde City Quilts in Burlington, NJ.  I made this!  Start to finish in one afternoon.  It's going to be on its way to my mother so she can have an indoor pumpkin without worrying about when it will turn to mush.  Thank you, Eva, who taught the class and who has the patience of a saint and many, many little tips and tricks that I hope I will remember.

The classroom at OCQ was crowded today.  While the Glorious Fall class was sewing away on one side, there was a group making quilt tops for Quilts of Valor.

My light-bulb moment for today was that quilters are nice people, I have met any surly, evil or mean-spirited people (with the exception of me and my classmates in the Learn-to-Quilt class the night we did machine appliqueing, but we came to class in  good moods) at the quilt shop.  Everyone tries to help each other, share and offer encouragement. 

The tide going out in the backyard.  The water was all the way up to the patio wall Sunday morning.

The far backyard swamp.

Checking out the backyard as the tide goes out.

What bored people without electricity do, manscaping.

Thea's watercolor rendering of her guinea pig, Gallileo

Sunday afternoon walk, something else to do when the electricity is out.

Thea's shot of the backyard Sunday morning, the sliver at the center back of the photo is the seat of a concrete bench.

Saturday night Hurricane Irene took our electricity sometime after 11 pm.  Kids were in bed, I was in the family room with my flashlight (still in its packaging) was on the stairs.  Nothing to do but put the batteries in the flashlight and go to bed.  In the year we've lived here, the power has never been out for very long.  Until now.  We were without power until the early hours of Tuesday morning.  Monday I went off to work with all my devices and their respective chargers.  Electricity, it turns out, is my Achilles heel.  I have a Kindle (with great battery life), laptops (so-so battery life), a Blackberry, an iPad and a camera and I love them all.  No more East Coast hurricanes, for this year at least, please.

No matter, we survived, give or take a few shreds of sanity or a few brain cells hear or there.  Overall we're lucky, I would not want to be living in Vermont right now.  Camp is over, we had a week at work with only two or three providers working, time to welcome the Labor Day holiday weekend.  

Hurricane Irene, Part 2

Rain, rain, rain, rain.

And where is my family?

Out driving in the rain.

Meanwhile we have enough food to feed an army.

No air-conditioning.

Humidity or barometric pressure that is crucifying my sinuses.

Hurricane Agnes.  Much more fun when I was 12 and clueless as to the potential consequences.

Hurricane Floyd:  Umbrella stolen while I was working.  In a prision.  No honor among thieves or them work to incarcerate them.

Time to fill the bathtub.  And thanks to this house, we only have one.

And find my flashlight.  Power had flickered, but has managed to stay on.  For now.

Hurricane Irene

It will either be the worst meteorological event on the East Coast in decades or a whole lot of nothing, but either way, I went to Target this morning and bought a whole lot of somethings to ride out the storm without risk of starvation and thirst.  Retail America benefits on the panic of the masses.

I even bought a pair of galoshes (on sale!) for me.  I remember walking through thigh deep water during Hurricane Agnes in 1972 wearing sandals.  Ick, ick and double ick.  That will not happen again.

I also got the two of the last three flashlights at the Target in Princeton.  Batteries included, thank goodness, because there is not a D-cell to be had anywhere in the greater Princeton-Plainsboro region.

Earthquake

CNN and the local news stations probably covered it better than I will, but just in case Thea and Micah ever read this for the chronology of their lives, yesterday was the East Coast Earthquake.  It was 5.8 on the Richter scale and its epicenter was in Mineral, Virginia.  By the time the temblar traveled to New Jersey, it was a bit after 2:00 pm.  My office was back to work for the afternoon session, and the patient I was seeing was a new patient, the adult child and sibling two of my other patients.

I was on my feet about to do the abdominal exam portion of the check-up when a rumbling came through the floor, the walls were moving, and we were all left looking at each other with "Did that really just happen?" expressions on our faces.  Which was the same expression of the other faces I saw when I stuck my head out into the hall to see if anyone else felt anything.  Everyone went outside, I managed to grab my purse, keys and tote bag, if that building, made of spit, tissue paper and Elmer's glue, was going to come down, I was not going to be digging through the rubble before making my escape.

My biggest fear was explaining to Thea that New Jersey CAN experience earthquakes; after she saw news footage of the quakes in Japan and Haiti, she was worried that something similar would happen hear.  No, never we swore, very, very, very unlikely.   Thea said she felt it, but was not scared, and Micah probably though that he was the cause of it all.  The owners of the daycare where YingHua is holding its summer camp decided to close early (wimps) so Steve had to pick up the kids.  Meanwhile back at my office, no patients cancelled and the remainder of the afternoon session went on as if nothing happened (and compared to Haiti and Japan, nothing really did happen.)

End of Summer

Just what one wants to do on a Saturday morning is drive to northern NJ for a doctor's appointment (basically any activity other than 'sleeping in' would be the wrong answer), but Micah's appointment to have his ears checked had been moved from the 26th to the 24th and then from the 24th to the 20th.  His ENT was willing to let him go for six months after his April appointment, but I wanted the debris cleaned out of his canals before school started. And I also wanted to talk with the doctor about getting a new BAHA 3.  The unit sits a little closer to his head and supposedly has improved sound quality.

Micah also announced last weekend that he wants a new name, and he decided that this new name will be 'Alex'.  Fortunately he's still answering to Micah most of the time.

Last weekend we went to Maryland to see Oma.  We went to the Amish/Mennonite market, the cemetery to put flowers on my father's grave (his birthday was August 15) and to Watkins Regional Park.  Unfortunately the rain kept the little train from running (a favorite of Micah's), but the carousel was still operating and they played miniature golf.

Sunday we went to the German Gourmet in Falls Church for salami, dilled cucumber salad, brotchen, etc. and then went to visit Christine, Jeff, Elise and Emma.  Micah already has asked to go back to visit Oma so we can go back to visit the cousins again.

This week was the last week of Friends Camp, but the songs are living on, and on, and on - so now we have a repertoire of  two years worth of PFC songs to draw from, and Taio Cruz's Rokstar has found its way into the car's CD player and the Dynamite song has replaced Taylor Swift as the current favorite.

Check, Check

School supplies purchased, bagged, waiting on the floor of the dining room for September 6. Check.

Appointment with Dr. Wexler, the kids' ophthalmologist.  Check.  (Both kids are 20/20, for now no glasses.  Major thankfulness for a colleague who gave me directions to an address the GPS did not acknowledge as existing.)

Appointment with Dr. Vare.  Check.  (Thea is in the 95th percentile for height and weight, Micah is the perfect middle of the road, at 50% in both.  No shots, at least until the influenza vaccine is received and is released for use.)

Appointment with Dr. Choe for the quarterly flossing out of Micah's ear canals rescheduled yet again.  The appointment has been moved from the 26th to the 24th to the 20th.  Just what I want to do, drive to northern New Jersey on a Saturday morning, but having a summer's worth of debris cleared out prior to the start of school is a necessity.

Thea's disappointed that there is only a few more weeks of summer vacation. . . .I'm looking forward to the old routine.  Soccer starts on September 10th, YingHua Language School starts the following day (and Thea is nowhere closer to finishing the green workbook than she was when YHLS ended in early June.)