There was not much change in my lip today. I did stop by the dentist, who seemed rather surprised by how my lip looks, but he thinks I may have accidentally bitten it. I'm not convinced of this, but the main thing is that it doesn't seem like an allergic reaction and he expects it to go down within the next few days.
I made it through most of the day no problem, when I got home to make dinner I crashed.
I had a routine filling done today. I also have a canker sore near where they were doing the filling. They numbed everything up, did the filling, and said it would be back to normal in about an hour.
I woke up from my nap, about two hours later, and noticed that my lip still felt really funny. My cheek and gums felt ok, but my lip was not. It turns out that it had swollen to about twice it's normal size. I'm guessing it was mostly from canker sore plus instruments, but it was annoying.
Around 4pm it lessened in size - maybe to 1.5x. Around 7pm it went down a bit more, but it hasn't gone down since then. It isn't quite as annoying now, obviously, but it still does not feel right.
Here's hoping things are better tomorrow.
After a cool morning, it got very nice out. Ben went out to eFoil
The boys and I biked to Lowes for some paint cards. It was a short but lovely bike ride.
I tried to make a focaccia tonight. It was more of a thick flat-bread. It was edible, because warm bread is edible, but we probably won't finish it.
One of the assignments in my class is to do something with a picture. (There's more to the assignment to make it worthwhile.) Anyway, it's fun to see what the students come up with. Some put a lot of time into it, some put the bare minimum. This one is actually a bit in the middle but the first one I've seen with a title.
I got a lot of errands completed today. I didn't get much else done, but oh well.
It started at the dentist. It was an ok appointment, other than I had a "large gag" reflex. I'm going to be honest, it felt like a normal gag reflex. When you stick something large in my mouth and all the way to the back we should be happy I only gag twice. Also, the fact that you can't get a picture of the root of one in the middle back doesn't seem like my fault. Anyway, it is done for six months.
It turned out that I only had 11 items to get at the grocery store, so I had enough time to get groceries. I give myself a gold medal. I came in just under $100.
I got gas. It was the first time I've had to wait for gas in quite a while, but I usually don't try to get it at 11:30.
I had lunch with a friend.
I stopped by the library.
I finally got home and took my nap. There were a bunch of friends waiting for me. I had a bit more time to do some chores, but I really didn't get much done before I had to pick up the kids.
Between dropping off the kids at church in the evening and karate I also stopped at GFS, just to round out the errands.
Tonight we had middle school move up night. Joshua had his first band concert. There's a chance it will be his last too...he's having a hard time deciding between Spanish and band next year.
After the concert Joshua elected to go around to all the stations by himself and get his card stamped. I felt a little bad for not joining him, but he wanted to go by himself and I have a good idea of what will happen next year since Joshua is the second child.
The frequency that these rocks show up has gone down a bit in the last few years, but it also happens more than I would expect.
We've had a lot of storms recently and Horizon doesn't like them. He usually hides behind a toilet. Last night we found him under the sink, but he did seem rather relaxed there when I checked on him.
We also had Lego group tonight, although I'm not sure much was done with Legos tonight. The kids played outside quite a bit on the trampoline and ghost in the graveyard and the food was delicious. It was just a really nice night.
I don't use AI very often. What tends to happen is I'll try something I think is rather straightforward and it will fail completely. This leads me to not use it as often.
There are some things I've asked of it that work.
The other day though, I asked it to do something that I thought was very simple. It needed to look through a table on Wikipedia and return the image URL. It would not work. It just made up links that looked very realistic.
Ben uses AI on a more regular basis, so he gave it a try. Not because I needed the information anymore, but because I wanted to know what I was doing wrong. Well, Ben tried pretty hard and couldn't get it. It turns out that part of the reason was that Wikipedia was blocking the AI generator.
I was rather relieved. I was glad that it actually didn't work and it wasn't just me.
I've been staying up too late. Then today was a busy day - I didn't really stop until 9pm and I am exhausted. I should go to bed but that involves getting ready for bed.
We play a card game called CuBirds and one of the cards looks like a vanilla wafer to me. So I finally got some vanilla wafers to eat while we play the game.
They reminded me of Sunday after church while growing up. Joshua did not enjoy them. Ben and Isaac didn't say much.
It was a pretty normal day...Joshua and I dropped Isaac off for rock climbing and went to get groceries and to the library. It was nice to have company while shopping.
We came home, had lunch, then screen time/rest time. Afterwards the kids set up an obstacle course in the basement for a little bit while I prepped some chicken. I had gotten two family packs because they were on sale and we didn't have chicken, but it did take a while to do everything I wanted to do with it.
The washing machine stopped working today too. I got two loads done with no problem and went to do my third load and it just wouldn't start. There are still a few more items to look at to try and troubleshoot. This washer is 18 years old and I'm rather attached to it, so I hope we can figure it out - it's worked really well for us.
After dinner I went rock climbing all by myself. I think it's the first time I've gone without kids.
The climbing session was nice, but I didn't really climb well. There were several routes that I've topped in the past that I was unable to get today. It was a bit disappointing, but I tried really hard. Talking with people was nice.
He is Risen indeed! Happy Easter!
It was a nice day. We watched church from home today, partially because church was going to be crowded and partially to be with Ben.
The boys and I went on a walk/scooter ride after nap time because they haven't been out of the house in a few days. However, Joshua hit a pothole about 1/3 of the way around the lake and faceplanted. Really, the fall wasn't too bad. A small scratch on his knee, a very small scratch near his hip, and a small patch of skin on his hand was peeled off. There was blood, but not too much. Ben came and picked up all up.
Luckily, we were decorating our graham cracker creations after that and so the injuries were mostly forgotten.
Amanda - an Easter basket with a book and grass around the outside. The book reads "Once upon a time there was a sea serpent. The sea serpent was flung a land preserver, so that it could go up on the land and smell the flowers."
Ben - a skyscraper with a King Bear attacking it:
Joshua - a castle with a draw bridge:
Isaac - a climbing gym with a path around it and a bear arch:
As always, Holy Saturday is a weird liminal day. Jesus has died but has not yet risen but we know he will! We did our secular Easter activities.
Isaac and Joshua dyed Easter eggs. I didn't get a picture of the results yet, but they had fun. Isaac had been planning on only doing a few eggs, but he did his whole allotment. They also got out some pipettes and dotted a few of the eggs with mixed results.
We also started our graham cracker houses! Hmm, I guess this is usually Christmas thing, but Isaac gave up candy and store-bought baked goods for Lent so by the time we found a free weekend after Christmas he wouldn't have been able to eat the house. We did the structure today and will decorate tomorrow. Joshua made a classic mansion, Ben a skyscraper, Isaac a sculpture, and I an Easter basket (with a book). We went through more graham crackers than I expected and I had to go get some more frosting today so that we could have enough colors tomorrow.
It was still spring break for me, but I didn't really do anything special. I got a few chores done (or at least started) that have been hanging around for a while, so that was nice. There was very rainy today, which was excellent. I also joined a friend for rock climbing during Isaac's last team practice - there are several good routes right now and several routes that we need to work on.
Tonight I attempted to make a dish that we had in Disney - a sweet potato hash with chicken and a creamy herb sauce.
I found it delicious. Ben said it was ok, Isaac started out ok and decreased it over time, and Joshua didn't like it at all. (Although he did like the mango boba that is part of the recipe.) I also spent a bit of effort to velvet the chicken well so that it was nice and tender.
I'll probably make it again - although I might try with pasta for other people in the family.
I finally got to see Dad and Pat's new house. It is a very nice place and I got a lovely tour.
It was also a beautiful day today. I had hoped to clean two windows in the basement, but only managed to clean one. I'm sure there is plenty to do though, so I'll just wait for the other one until it gets nice again...it might be about two weeks.
We just got Joshua's derby picture on Sunday too.
It's been a rather uneventful weekend, so not much to say. We played FlameCraft as our family game and it was fun. Isaac "complained" the whole game that he was losing, only to win by two points in an end-of-the-game surge.
We went to a friends' house yesterday and they were having an epic dart war with forts and everything.
Joshua had his wax museum tonight! He was Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of the Nintendo Switch.
The night started with a parade of heroes.
I thought we would hang out together during the second session, but he wanted to hang out with his friends and I wanted to see different heroes than he did. So I gave him some quarters, remembered to set a meeting place, and we went our separate ways. There were a lot of athletes, but they were still interesting.
Joshua was fever-free all day! As long as he can make it through the night he can go to school...and he's ready. It has been a boring few days for him. Today was especially boring as I was gone working. Ben was working in the basement but just did a few very brief checks to make sure he was still ok.
I flashed two 5.10- routes while rock climbing today. That was rather amazing, but we'll also remember that I can barely start most 5.10+ routes.
After two days of a fever in the morning, I brought Joshua to the doctor. Turns out he has Influenza A. His fever has been hard to get under control the last two mornings, but by lunch time things seem to turn a corner and by late afternoon he's doing ok. He's lost his voice completely though. This flu is supposed to run 5-7 days, which would be sad because Joshua has a lot of fun things to do in the evenings this week.
Besides that, it was a pretty normal day. I got several chores done, did a few things with Joshua, and went to karate in the evening.
Today was fine. Joshua was ok for most of the morning but his fever spiked in the afternoon. This is rather normal for our family, so I wasn't all that surprised.
Isaac and Ben had a good time at their activity - it was a Raspberry Pi thing that Isaac participated in and Ben volunteered with. Ben ended up helping the students set up their own Raspberry Pi.
I finally gave Isaac a haircut today. He's wanted one for almost a month, but it didn't happen and then it got cold and we got busy. It was very nice out today, so the schedule and the weather worked out!
As part of O:CtH, I fixed the fireplace grate. It's been falling apart for years, so it was nice to finally fix it.
Nathan and family came late tonight just for a place to stay, but it was super nice to see them for a few hours.
Oh, Joshua just got sick. He was supposed to go with Ben and Isaac for a day trip tomorrow and I was surprisingly excited to spend the day by myself. I know I do this many days, but on Saturdays I don't have to do as much work, so I was going to do some fun things interspersed with some work. I expect there will still be some of that, but I have to be a parent now too.
Hmm. It was mostly a normal day. There were a few issues, but nothing all that big.
I accidently made a little too much sourdough this morning, so I made another thing tonight. I had pizza, naan, bread, and apple raisin bread all going at the same time, which might be a record. Of course, the naan is now all gone...and it was delicious.
Today I got more done than expected. I've needed to deal with my email for a while now, and I even took 20 minutes to deal with that. (It's not finished, but it's going in the right direction.)
I found Isaac's second school picture. He left for his math class right after getting his first school picture taken, and I think somehow he got on the list to get it taken again. So I have two sets of pictures for this year, although this one isn't amazing.
About every three months Joshua takes a piano test and levels up. Every 1-2 years he gets a trophy and it was surprisingly motivating for him. Anyway, he recently had another minor level up.
I felt rather on-task at work today. I was a little worried that I wasn't going to have enough time to prep in the morning, but then one student who was going to show up overslept. There was also an easy lecture today with nested IF, IFS, and VLOOKUP. (And why do we still learn VLOOKUP? Because Ben still hasn't transitioned to XLOOKUP even though I suggest it several times a year. I figure there are others like him.)
I also got a lot done while Isaac was at rock climbing. I did some work on the computer before climbing, and got through quite a bit.
We were going home today, but had late afternoon flights. We hung around in the hotel room for a bit and played some games in the morning. Well, four of us played games and Joshua built things with the pillows.
We went for a walk on the boardwalk, and found out that the pedal carriages were open! We thought they were going to be closed, so that was exciting. We pedaled around the lake, and ...it was harder than expected. Isaac and Joshua's pedals were linked and they were having a hard time going at the same speed. For the most part, it didn't matter too much. Joshua pedaled the whole time and Isaac helped when we were going uphill. Uphill was hard!! We missed a turn once, easily turned around, and found where we were supposed to have turned. However, it was up a hill and I decided that we didn't have enough speed so we went back down (the wrong way) so we could get a better pedaling start. In the end, I'm not sure it mattered - we still ran out of steam about half way up and each pedal was work until we got to the top. I had fun though! It was a fun way to get around the lake.
Then we left for the airport. It was relatively easy getting home. Our flight into Chicago was a little late, but we had enough wiggle room that we didn't have to worry, we just had to move quickly to the next gate. We got home and there wasn't a lot of snow on the car. We still had to pick up Ben's car from the dealership, but it all went smoothly. We were a little grumpy at home, but it had just been a long day of travel
Today I got to pick up one of the flower arrangements from the funeral.
However, we have a cat that likes plants so I had to put a bag over it. It's not as nice as being without the bag, but it's nicer then having cats eat it.
Hollywood Studios was our last day, and it was the best. I remember a lot of details but I took a little too long to write this post so a few things might be out of order.
We started with day with Rockin' Rollercoaster. Joshua was a bit nervous because it went upside-down, but he loved it! It was also better than I remembered - I remember coming off it ten years ago and having a headache. Yay for a great start!
We moved into the Star Wars section to ride those two rides. Isaac and I were the pilots for one of the rides and we didn't do all that well.
