Yearn for Surrender: Summer Vacation Week 9 Part 1

Monday 8/3 -

On August 3rd M and I had a long day at Children's. It was full of adventure. Our first stop was the hospital building for a chest x-ray. The x-ray was very efficient. As we were leaving the area we heard an announcement about a fire, but the tech told us that it was a drill because if it was real we would hear alarms and there would be flashing lights.

We headed over to the clinics building for the allergy appointment. As we walked we saw many people heading towards us. When we got to the help desk they told us we were not allowed to head up to allergy because there was actually a fire and we needed to head back to the hospital. M was not feeling very OK about all that was going on. We decided to go the hospital building and then go to the main floor and hang out right by some doors to outside. It was a very safe location for us should we need to evacuate. After about 15 minutes we were given the all clear and we were able to get to the Allergy department on time. There is major construction happening at Children's right now and we are guessing something got hot triggering the alarms.

The allergy visit went well. We really liked the Dr and he took things very seriously. He said that they couldn't do the allergy testing that day because his Neutorphil levels were too low. When we talked with him about M's dairy issues he insisted that he get an Epi-pen and additional diary testing. M has had dairy testing before and he comes back without an allergy. The GI Dr told us to list it as a diary allergy because he has both GI issues and asthma type issues when he consumes diary. All of this really scared M, and he broke down in overwhelm. The Dr had much to talk through.

At the end of the appointment we called Lab with the nurses help and were able to get his lab work for Allergy, Infectious Disease, and Hematology all done at the same time. The lab receptionists were very impressed. We didn't have a very long wait at lab and things were going so well.

Once we left Children's we talked about what we wanted for treats. M wanted Chick-fil-A and I wanted Nada Moo ice cream. We headed to Whole Foods to try to get the ice cream and we came up empty handed. I was able to get some Zevia (stevia sweetened soda) as a treat instead. Chick-fil-A had a long wait at drive-thru but it was going quite quickly. We made our order and picked it up and then parked in a parking lot to get M all situated with his food and listening. We began to head home when he opened the chicken nuggets and realized they were breaded, not grilled. Because there is no current option to walk in to the store we had to go through the whole line again. This time it was much longer and we waited at least 20 minutes to get to the front of the line. Once at the front of the line they directed us to a parking lot to wait for the replacement nuggets. We waited 20-30 minutes in the lot and nothing happened. Finally I flagged down a worker delivering food to another car and she said she would check on it. About five minutes later she came back with the grilled nuggets. The drive-thru adventure took a solid 70 minutes, but at least we drove away with the food we ordered.

M: I took this selfie to document my meal.

While we were dealing with our food dilemma, Brandon was at home and opened our "gigantic pool" package! We ordered a blow up pool earlier in the summer and had anxiously been awaiting its arrival. As the days turned to weeks I started to investigate the company and found that it was a fraudulent company and that many were being scammed. We were expecting a large pool that our whole family could fit in. Check out what came!

Yep, that is the whole pool!!!! Hilarious!

Brandon did so much work on an appeal to our credit card company. He was able to find all the other bad reviews showing that this is a scam. He submitted everything and we waited a long time. Finally the results came in that they rejected out claim and we would have to deal with the loss. Brandon decided that he would just try to call on more time and perhaps they would better understand. We are not sure why, but the person on the phone reversed the refusal and we were given a credit on the card! Great work Brandon! I learned a hugely valuable lesson through this process. The website looked legit, but admittedly I didn't look up reviews of it, at all. These days I am only ordering from big box stores, or small businesses with extensive reviews.

The rest of the week was much less eventful than Monday! We have no pics from Tuesday.

Wednesday 8/5

M's therapist ordered Yahtzee and M is in heaven playing it with her at every session. He rigged up this whole set up so she could see his rolls. A very smart plan.

M: There is no better game than Yahtzee!

On Wednesday afternoon Jamie came here to visit again. It was such a blessing to have her here and to be able to show her the completed church renovations as well. M just loved his time with her and again cried when it was time to go. She promised she would come back one more time on Sunday.

While Jamie was here T needed to take this artistic picture of the cherry tomatoes.

T: It was a cherry tomato rainbow!

After Jamie left there was dinner and more basketball with T doing the rebounds. It is interesting to see the photo below and how green our grass was. It is currently so dry and brown. I am surprised that it was quite green not too long ago.

T: I am ready!

Thursday 8/6 -

The rest of the week was very quiet. I just have a couple of photos to share.

We often close the family room blinds to keep out the afternoon sun. The cats know just how to use their noses to part the blinds so they can still look out!

Curious cats!

Friday 8/7 -

On Friday we began cat sitting for our neighbor's cat Jingle. We have taken care of Jingle many times before, but I have never seen her. She likes to hide and I had truly never seen her or apparently a picture of her. I thought she was a short hair calico. When T emerged from her friend S's room with this long haired gray I panicked thinking it was the wrong cat for a second. After all these years I finally met Jingle! She has blossomed so much during Quarantine. She now loves affection and enjoyed cuddles with T. Not the typical cat response, but we were thankful for her sweetness.