Life in May - Father's and Sons, Memorial Day, Denver AAO meeting

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I was delighted to be camping with my three boys this weekend - most of the time anyway. The first hour Tommy soaked his clothes in a shallow stream while Scott ran off on his own for a while. After making sure Tommy was fine (and he was actually happy to be soaked!) I found Scott in our van. He was looking for a new pair of underwear. Ok, so that was an example what happened when we weren't having a flawless, serene time in the beautiful outdoors as the men of the family. One little valium and everything got so much better.

After delicious BBQ pork sandwhiches with the boys on the grass, we had mutiple servings of Bankhead Cobbler: peach, cherry, blueberry...we had to try them all of course! Scott was hit in the mouth with a football, which dislodged a loose baby tooth, which he proceeded to show everyone. I had a blast playing the Photo-journalist for the event. I will post the pics when he showed it to the bishop. SO FUNNY! Oh, that reminds me, I have to get a dollar under his pillow tonight! Whew! He bought that the toothfairy didn't leave anything since it was in my pocket instead of under his pillow. I totally forgot about it. In fact, I was so tired when I put the boys to bed at 9:30 that I fell asleep with them! I never realized how much good a good sleeping matress can do you when camping!

Just now when I took the tooth in to Scott, he asked me to write a note asking the Tooth Fairy for $7. I told him I didn't think we should tell her how much to leave. He disagreed, but changed the asking price to $4. I put my hand on his chest while he spoke to me, loving to feel his little heart beat and watch his big blue eyes look around the room while he pondered how to get the most for his tooth. This is clearly a BIG event for Scott. I'll have to make this one stand out somehow. Maybe I should appear to him as the toothfairy at 3 am. Parker used to beg me to set the video camera up so that he could catch her in the act.

Today after sacrament meeting Parker and I went with the scouts of our ward, and all of St. Louis for that matter, to decorate the veterans graves with american flags. It was great for Parker to have to do something that was much harder than he expected. By the time we were done he had probably walked close to 3 miles, which for Mr. doesn't get outdoors very much was a long, LONG way to walk. He complained of boredom and fatigue, and then RAIN for the first 2 hours, but then he snapped into "Wow, this is really fun!" mode. I got that one on film too - look for the change in his expression once he has the flags. You can see that he is worn out in the photo with me. Parker loves to DO things, and is always excited about Scouts. Thank goodness we followed Lisa's advice and brought snacks. Too bad I didn't bring Pancho's like she had suggested. Aw, the rain was part of the experience - getting soaked, feeling irritated, then getting over it and realizing that it doesn't matter unless we decide it matters.

Last weekend we did a movie day for our patients, minus the Columbia Illinois office. Lisa and Parker went to 'Prince Caspian', which we had in 3 theaters, while I watched 'Horton' with Tommy and Scott in another. I'll post those pics if I can get them from Jill's online photos. She took some awesome pics.

I flew out to Denver that night with Darren and Brent to go to the AAO (Amer. Assoc. of Ortho.) conference. There were severeal highlights for the event: 1) Having dinner with two former classmates: Jerry Johnson (and his wife Julie), and Cheryl Berkman (Golden). SO good to be in the company of true friends from the past. Amazing that the Johnson's have 2 sets of twins. 2) Making amends as best I could with Dr. Barbakow, my former potential employer. It felt so good to tell him thank you for trying, for understanding, and after he gave me a hug, for forgiving me. 3) Having Lunch with Brent and Laurice, along with their niece and her former fiance, Scott McClean, as in the son of Micheal McClean. This was a different social joy - it felt good to be with Thespians again. In fact, he had to take off a fake mustache before eating. Funny that I met his Sister on a double date at BYU that took us to his home in Heber years ago. I tried not to act like a groupie, but he was so willing to entertain any questions, that I felt completely at ease asking whatever I wanted.

My kids love that I reassembled the trampoline in our new backyard. Their favorite game as of late has been 'Doh Doh Bird', where I act like a confused DohDoh, and chase them to get back in their eggs. Tommy and I started the game last Saturday. Parker and I have been playing Risk.

I've been stuck in a book called "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer, which I will no doubt read after I finish posting. I only have 100 pages left. It's been fun. Lisa finished it so much more quickly than me that I've been wishing I had made her wait. We have different sleeping hours most nights of the week.