Tidbits

I'm working, like, ALL THE TIME these days. I know, I know, self care. All the things about burnout. Yep, I hear ya. I also have bills to pay. So anyway, I don't have time to come up with a coherent blog post and you'll be left with random pictures from my not-dead-yet phone and random notes to accompany them. I just had to manage your expectations, dear readers.

Princess Anna and Queen Elsa

Yesterday, I worked most of the day (shocker!). But I raced from work to meet Evelyn at a birthday party. The theme was Pirate Fairies. There were balloon animals, glitter tattoos, games, dancing, build-your-own sundaes, canvas paintings, and like 30 kids dressed as various combinations of pirate and fairy. Most of the parents stood around in wide-eyed wonder watching the children consume/burn/consume/burn sugar. I guess what I'm saying is, it was a really good fifth birthday party. We took Evelyn's friend Darcy home to our house for a playdate after the party, as her mom was on taxi duty for the other kiddos' Saturday activities. Evelyn and Darcy acted out Frozen and had a great time. Darcy's mom works with Jonathan, so we've known Darcy since she was wee. 

What's gonna work? Teamwork! 

The kids were begging to go on a walk and I'm not a huge fan of walking in the streets in our neighborhood, so we drove to the aquatic center and hopped on the Bronto Trail. The kids were still going strong when we got to Northgate Park, so we stayed and played and Linus and Edison and Adrian joined us for a bit. Then we trekked over to the Little Free Library at Club, where we found a good book to read, and we got in some playtime on the playground there before lunch at Elmo's. It was a good morning.

The WJ-IV! I can't even explain how happy this makes me. 

I was having a rather unpleasant day on Friday*, but as my supervisor was leaving the office she mentioned that the new WJ had finally arrived. You can bet I was opening the shrink-wrap and assembling the kit. I'm so excited about it. It appears that all of my beefs with the WJ-III have been addressed.

The Bear Family

I went in the kidlets' room to check on them before I went to bed one night and found this. Evelyn had sorted through all the stuffed animals and pulled out every bear, and then arranged this diorama with the mama and papa bears and all their bear children. She leaves little displays everywhere. She has decided that she wants to be "a ballerina artists who takes care of animals" when she grows up.

Keepin' up with the texts post-op. 

367 days after his very first bout of pancreatitis, Jonathan was back in ye olde clinic 2H at Duke Medical Pavillion (or whatever they call it) getting his final procedure to remove some of the stents they placed between his stomach and pancreas. These stents were placed December 20th of last year in a botched procedure which was immediately followed by a month-long hospital stay. We were very happy to bid them farewell, and it was so nice to see many of the doctors and nurses who cared for Jonathan when he was sick. His pre-op nurse, Renaye (I'm almost certain I butchered that spelling) was one of my favorite nurses so far. She had me literally doubled over in laughter. Jonathan handled the procedure well and was back at work the next day.

*Which always reminds me of this Jason Mraz AMA, where someone asked him what he does when feelings of melancholy come about, and he replied with: "I say, 'Shit, I'm melancholy' and then I go on with my day."