Delinquent

That word describes me about the blog.  I am very sorry I haven't been keeping it up.  And now I have to do some catching up.

I made an attempt to get a sore left hip in working order.  I have been limping around for a while and have gotten to a point where I can't sit and sometimes can't run.  That's the end of the point I can handle before I needed to find out what was going on.  Fortunately it is nothing serious.  Unfortunately there is not much I can do to relieve what is going on.  There is some tendentious in the tendon that connects the hamstring to the bone.  You sit on that tendon and of course it is a major leg mover.  I am back to taking an anti-inflammatory again and I am thinking about trying the cortisone shot for some relief.  It is pretty tolerable most of the time but has its moments.

I picked up some large potted plants from a friend.  They are two palms and sit on the back porch now.  She couldn't move them when she went to Houston.  The pots are maybe 20 inches in diameter. They look lovely on my porch.  It was comedy to get them though.  I stopped in the work truck on my way back from the field.  They barely fit in the back where the back seat would be (they only fit because I have my seat so far up....)  I got them to the office thinking I could take them home in my car.  Wrong.  They were much too tall.  They sat in my office for a week before a friend helped me get them home in his truck.  A week or so later I also stopped and got a big metal trough from the same friend.  That is also on the porch and has some herbs and two tomato plants in it.  I am excited to see how they do.

Sidney had a well child check up in mid-February.   Besides being a frustrating experience because the staff was rude and we didn't see the doctor until an hour and a half past our scheduled time, Sidney is well but skinny.  She is the 30th percentile on height but the 3rd percentile on weight.  I really do feed her.  Everything I can that is high fat.

A little poster Sidney made for me

After the appointment we headed for Houston for the Valentines Day weekend.  We stayed in town with old Texas City Refinery friends.  Sidney and I went over to see Cirque du Soleil at the Toyota Center.  The show we saw was called Taruk and it was based upon Avatar.  The show was more dramatic than the other shows we have seen and less acrobatic.  The story was about a boy and his adopted brother and their quest to save the Tree of Life on Pandora.  The Tree of Life is a major part of their culture and connects all the tribes.  Along the way they also meet a girl who helps them collect the five sacred items.  Ultimately to save the Tree someone must ride the great Taruk (leonoptryx).  We had not seen Avatar so we didn't understand everything we saw until we watched Avatar at home the next weekend.  Then we really got it and the stories are similar but different and were in different time periods.  The movie is beautiful and so was the Cirque.  We also got to go to our old Katy church and see our friends from there.  It was a pleasant weekend where I did not have to be responsible.

Kirk has been in and out of the hospital a few more times.  Still issues with behavior because of medication changes.  We are trying to work it out and at least there is less stress for Sidney and I because we know he is being taken care of and that the VA knows what he needs.   Between the episodes though he does seem content.  Based on some of his behaviors we are going to back off on the day program to maybe once or twice per week.  We think he is getting over tired and over stimulated.

Work has been work.  I am still adjusting to all the changes late last year and the first few months of the year are hard on my team.  We have a lot of regulatory reports due before the end of the quarter and there were visits by VPs of the company and performance reviews.  February was really tough.  I have a new team member though and she has relieved so much of the pressure I was under by trying to do my job and two others.  I have also been able to get out to our field locations a bit more with both her help and with Sidney continuing to become more mature.

Sidney has picked her classes for 7th grade.  She will take three Pre-AP courses, a life sciences class and something called AVID.  The life sciences class is about all the things you need to know to run a house and have an adult life.  AVID is a college preparatory course that will be a significant amount of work but hopefully develop all the skills needed to get into and succeed in college.  She will be a busy girl next year and we are still working on strategies to help her manage her time.

I made this little owl nightlight for Sidney.  There was a function for the ladies of the church to paint pottery and go to dinner.  It was very nice and Sidney loved the little owl.

This past week was spring break.  In past years we have traveled but this year we decided to stay home.  Sidney took a class through the Ag Extension office for four days.  They learned about plants, germs, a variety of animals and animal husbandry.  She had a great time and I only worked half days. I dropped her off at 8:45 and worked from 9 until 2:15.  I picked her up after that and we did some stuff around the house or took care of other business.  I refinished most of the outdoor furniture, made great meals every night, got some more fish for the fist tank and just generally had time... Sidney didn't have swimming and had only a small amount of homework so we were able to relax on the porch every night.  We also got the pets in for their annual checkups.  Man is that expensive.  I also fixed another sprinkler though it was a comedy of errors.  Flying sprinkler parts, squirting mud and only a little digging.  But I did it.  And we are going into the next week not stressed out (until Monday...)

Before Teak Oil (right) and after

We have started to make summer and later plans.  Sidney will go to camp the first week of summer and a couple of her friends are going also.  She will help with the kids coming from Katy to San Antonio to work for Blue Print Ministries the second week.  We will go to Florida for July 4th and to Peru in early August.  I am on call for Christmas so we won't be going anywhere then but we did book a cruise to the Bahamas for Thanksgiving.  We will be going with the friends we stayed with in Houston a few weeks ago.  And we said yes to an invitation from another friend to join her for a cruise to Antarctica in December 2017.  I can't believe it we are going to get my last continent and Sidney's 6th.  She will miss a good bit of school but I think this will be worth it.

Spring Break Camp

Sidney and I are still trying to learn to live our life around the new dad.  We still deeply grieve the loss of the old one and worry about this new one.  The grief is maybe a little less raw now and we are learning we can take care of ourselves.  Sidney and I try to support each other and understand when one of us really hurts.  Sidney talks a bit more about it now although she doesn't talk much still.  I'll take what I can get.  I also know she is getting help from the school counselor.  We are also trying to live our lives.  It never seems fair that we are still doing things and living our lives and his has stopped.  The only condolence is that he doesn't know.  Somehow we have to learn to live this new life and to be loving, faithful, patient and thankful.

I always miss something on the blog. I need to start keeping better notes.