Showing posts with label cherry blossoms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cherry blossoms. Show all posts

Monday, April 14, 2014

Antithesis of Everything

It is spring break this week, which means that I get to sleep past the 5:00 hour each morning, which also means that I actually have the inertia to stay awake past 10:00pm.  That minor detail and my computer  finally being  back up and running (after getting a new hard drive), means that  I have no good excuse not to blog this week.  

Okay, okay, you can stop groaning now.

I know that intense randomness with a touch of boringness is a common writing style that I like to employ when composing blog posts, but for some odd reason I like to blog anyway and my family (okay...just my dad)  seems to get worried about me when I go too long without updating them on the mundane details of our very unexciting lives.    And when I say "unexciting", believe me that I don't use the term loosely in the slightest.

So this week I am on rash patrol.  Yes, yes...it is as spectacular a job as it sounds.   Ellie just started a new medication this week, which carries a higher than average incidence of dangerous rashes associated with it.  If I were to discover a rash on my daily rash check, it would be considered an emergency because it has the potential to be life threatening.  I am feeling rather opposed to emergencies currently, so it's a good thing that so far she is tolerating it well.  

Last Friday I tried to eschew boringness for a day and boldly threw caution to the wind, made the kids do their schoolwork the night before, and braved a trip to the cherry blossoms by ourselves.  By ourselves, of course, along  with the thousands of other people that were downtown that day.  We rode the Metro down, walked around the Tidal Basin...

took a few pictures of Ellie wearing her "match-the-cherry-blossoms" sequined hat....
then went to the Natural History Museum where we spent a while trying to determine the approximate worth of a display case of gems and minerals.

Afterward,  at Ellie's request, I  took them to Astro Doughnuts (right by the Metro Center metro station) for lunch.   Fried chicken and award winning doughnuts....yes, it was as nutritious a lunch as it sounds.  One of Spencer's fellow cancer survivor friends works there, so we hoped to be able to say hello while we were there, but he never seems to be there when we visit.  I'm pretty sure that the young female co-workers of his always think it's so weird that a forty-something woman with kids in tow is questioning whether twenty-something Tim is working that day.   In fact, they always ask me how I know him.  Someday I am going to make up a really fun story about how he sold me a rotten doughnut or something.


So in other dull-for-everyone-but-dad-news, we bought season passes to Busch Gardens in one spontaneous moment when they were selling their  season passes at the same price as a one-day admission.  So now we are Busch Gardens members and plan to visit there on Thursday. If anyone has that day open, doesn't mind a trip to Williamsburg, and would like to join us for a day of spectacular fun (seriously, Busch Gardens is an awesome amusement park),  let me know.   We like company and Busch Gardens has great shows (the Irish Dancing is my favorite), as well as fun rides for old and young.

Speaking of fun, it's a good thing that season pass sale popped up when it did, because after Glen did our taxes this year and discovered that for the first time ever we owe the IRS a check for thousands of dollars, we are going to need all the cheap fun we can get.   And there's no way we would've bought those passes had he done the taxes before that.  Don't worry, though, you won't hear me cursing the government about stealing so much of our hard-earned money.  I love America and love to give our hard-earned dollars to further governmental meddling in our lives.

Speaking of cursing, I am struggling with my social media right now and wonder if it's time to go back to the dark ages.     For some reason, unbeknownst even to me, I am suddenly feeling much more sensitive about the plethora of events that people are bragging about on Facebook and Instagram that I and my family are not invited to.    I had a complete and total melt-down about an event last week when, against my better judgment, I examined the pictures someone had posted and realized how many of mine and my kids' friends were there and we weren't even invited.  I even went home and checked my spam folder to make sure I hadn't missed an invitation.  Nope.  It was just me and I normally wouldn't care one iota, but for some reason now I do and  it's made me realize the beauty in the whole "Ignorance is Bliss" mindset.  It's one thing for people to have fun events and not invite you, but it's a whole other thing when you know exactly who else was invited and how much fun they really had.

Last, but not least in my random list of updates that's getting more negative by the paragraph (and I'm pretty sure no one is actually reading)....
I have weighed the options and have decided to cancel my birthday this year.    My kids were looking ahead on my iphone calendar today, picked out my birthday as the potential date for some future event,  and swore up and down  that there was absolutely nothing going on on that date.   I took it as a sign and  I have opted to not have a birthday this year.   Randomly,  I feel younger already!



Saturday, April 13, 2013

Waiting for the Cherry Blossoms

One thing that we've learned after 15+ years in the DC area, is that while the world famous cherry blossoms may be stunningly gorgeous, they are also a bit finicky.  Last year we went a day or two too late and instead of delicate pink blossoms as a backdrop for all of our photos, all we got was pink coated shoes.

Winters are always hard on my psyche, but this year even more so, seemed especially bleak.  I felt a little dark cloud hanging over my head for months on end and it was all I could do to pull myself out of bed each day, yet alone accomplish anything of substance.  Usually March in the DC area brings beautifully mild temps, more sunshine, and a relief from my winter blues.   This year, however, winter didn't seem to want to let go.  Cold temps and even snow continued well into March, keeping me in my funk.  It wasn't until this past week that I got the dose of literal and figurative sunshine that I'd been craving and I felt the clouds start to part a bit.   General Conference was just the kind of spiritual boost I needed (this talk in particular really touched my soul) and proved to be the catalyst for shaking the dust off my soul.  Then the sunshine came too.

I was a little disheartened at first that we seemed to go straight from 40-degrees to 90+ degree days, but  after spending some time outside, I realized that ninety degrees and sunny seemed positively like just what the doctor ordered.   And it helped the cherry blossoms to bloom quickly!

So when we heard the reports that the cherry blossoms were in full bloom this week, I determined that there was no way we were going to miss seeing them this year.   Too bad my schedule didn't agree with my determination.  I had a couple of pretty big deadlines hanging over my head this week and I wasn't sure how to make it happen.  Then one of my kids developed an annoying "condition" that required them to stay home for a couple of days.  Think itchy heads and special combs to get a feel for the kind of condition I mean.  All of the work to take care of their condition added an element of stress to the week and made me all the more determined that I wasn't missing out on my beloved cherry blossoms.

So I did what any good mother would do.

I dragged the kids out of bed before the crack of dawn, let the other kids skip school too, and arrived to this glorious sight before 8:00 in the morning!

We had beat the tour buses there and got to enjoy a much needed walk around the Tidal Basin without all of the crowds.


We stopped at all the Memorials along the way and just had a nice lazy morning without standing in any lines...

or at least not that many lines.


It was just the dose of sunshine and beauty that I needed to instill that fresh burst of hope into my soul....

...and made me all the more grateful to live so near this fabulous city.  


We arrived back home just after lunchtime, tired but rejuvenated enough to be able to face my laundry pile again.




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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

New Room and The Cherry Blossoms that Weren't

Good news!!!!  After getting our hopes dashed this morning when they told us that we were still a few days away from being removed from isolation, things happened quickly this afternoon and he is officially off isolation now.  Unbeknownst to us, coming off isolation also meant that they needed us to switch rooms, so they could totally disinfect the other one.    Originally we were a little annoyed about the unexpected move, but after being here for a couple of hours we definitely are not complaining about the much faster internet connection than the previous room had and the fact that the new room happens to be the biggest room on the floor!  He's now in ROOM 514!   :)

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After over 12 years of living in the DC area, we still occasionally get the random urge to go act like tourists for a day and see some of the sites that DC has to offer.  Of course we don't really act like tourists by standing on the left side of the Metro escalators and asking natives annoying questions, but we definitely do look like tourists  with our cameras slung over our shoulders and our constant checks on my sister's iPhone for the best walking directions to the next site. 

Last week's journey was to see the world famous cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin.  I got the kids out of school a little early and then hopped on the Metro...

The kids enjoyed riding the Metro almost as much as they enjoyed getting out of school early.  Adam and his friend Caleb were our navigators on the trip, giving us a stop-by-stop countdown to when we needed to get off. 

When we arrived, we slowly made our way over to the Tidal Basin only to discover that we were a little late for the cherry blossoms, which apparently had all fallen off the trees the weekend before.   Next time we decide to be tourists I'll be better about doing our research beforehand.  :)

No matter to the kids though.  They were unfazed by the dearth of pink blossoms and thoroughly enjoyed the gorgeous day out of school exploring DC with their friends. 
I didn't mind the fresh air, good company, and sunshine too much either. 

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UPDATE: 

  • Spence's new phone number in Room 514  is 703-776-4514.  Please spread the word!
  • His platelets were low enough again this morning that they transfused him.  Luckily he didn't have any random bleeding with the low platelets this time!
  • It's spring break....please come visit Spencer!
  • We met a new pediatric hem/onc patient today.  His name is Tim and he is 24 years old.  At first I was a little surprised that he was here on the peds floor at that age, but he informed us that  researchers have recently discovered that young adults under age 30 have a higher survival rate when taken care of by pediatric doctors and nurses rather than the adult oncologists.  Interesting!
  • Spencer's ANC was 12 today.  We're not sure if it was a little hiccup or if his counts are actually going back up again.  Last time he stayed at 0 for almost a week before they went up, and this time he's only been at 0 for two days.  We shall see!

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Lara's Quote:
“Ask yourself, 'How did God bless me today?' If you do that long enough and with faith, you will find yourself remembering blessings. And sometimes, you will have gifts brought to your mind which you failed to notice during the day, but which you will then know were a touch of God’s hand in your life.”      –Henry B. Eyring


Spencer's Quote: 

"The closest I'll get to winning the Hunger Games is when I spot the last doughnut in the office kitchen."  --
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