Boy, Do We Know How to Spend a Date Night

Teri and I don’t get out on a date night as often as we probably should. Part of the problem is that we love being home with the kids and even though our time alone together is fantastic, it’s hard leaving K and Gibby. But when we do go out we try to make it something that we would enjoy. Until this week.

We had agreed to watch Teri’s sister’s kids on Friday night and then they would watch K and Gibby on Saturday night. Everything was going according to plan, except for the fact that Teri started to feel a little sick to her stomach Friday night. Saturday morning we were all going to trek out to the West Valley to visit Cabela’s – which Teri and K had never seen – so that Teri’s brothers could price check various camping gear in preparation for the big family campout this upcoming weekend. There was only one snafu – Teri was so nauseous she was having trouble standing up.

Teri’s first thought was pregnancy. Fear ensued. But I just wasn’t convinced because Teri wasn’t quite acting the same as she usually does when she is pregnant and miserable. Despite Teri’s misfortune (or reversal of fortunes as the Hot Dog eating competitors call it), we were all having fun at Cabela’s. McKay loved the animals – although he continued to be nervous the first time he saw them up close. Of particular note was the polar bear they have growling just 3 feet away from the enclosure fence.



The bear looks pretty cool and it’s fun to have him so close to you. As we walked up to him McKay gave his little scream, and clutched on to my collar about to bury his terrified little eyes into my shoulder at the polar bear’s first movement. But the polar bear didn’t move and McKay took courage and was willing to say “Hi bear.” Once the greeting was accomplished K figured that he was a “nice bear” and kept telling me “bear funny.” K rounded off the morning by checking out the cougars, the rhino, the elephant, the zebra, the lion, and then taking a little pop gun around the wildlife museum component of the store and shooting every one of them – complete with his trademark saying, “I did it.”

Then came the ride home. As we’re journeying in Teri’s brother’s truck, Teri starts saying things like, “I’m feeling really nauseous” and “I’m having a hard time breathing” and “My chest is hurting.” Because we still had nearly an hour’s drive to go, I began researching with our primary care physician (Dr. Internet – reasonable prices and always on call), what you should be worried about when you have chest pain and difficulty breathing. The Internet tells me that the chest pain/difficulty breathing combo is not always a heart attack and that you should look for other signs such as pain in the patient’s left arm. It was at this point that Teri says, “My body is hurting.” When I ask where, Teri says “In my left arm.” It was at this point I decided against telling Teri that she was gearing up for a heart attack and just tried to keep her calm and telling me what was going on so that I could relay that to the doctor.

I also began calling everyone I knew in my phone who had some medical knowledge. PAs, EMTs, first aid providers at Wal-mart. The common denominator was simple. If you are having difficulty breathing you need to see a doctor and urgent care might not be the best option because they’ll just send you to the hospital. So once we got home we trekked off to the hospital for our date night.

6 hours, 2 EKGs, a chest x-ray, and a full bag of IV solution later, Teri was pronounced to not be having a heart attack. I think everyone was pleased. Teri kept saying that she just wanted to be told that she was being a silly hypochondriac and be sent home. They didn’t quite go that far indicating that Teri was pretty severely dehydrated by this point which could have been why her whole body was cramping and her resting heart rate was up at about 120 beats per minute for hours. The exact cause of the whole thing was unclear and we’ll now get to embark on a fun medical fishing expedition but that is ok considering that Teri doesn’t have to undergo open heart surgery.

All in all, it wasn’t our best date night. Maybe next time we’ll settle on Golfland or something.

Back to the Workforce

"When did you leave the workforce?" you may be asking. Well, actually I was laid off back in May and I just started back to work two weeks ago. I'm now working for Maricopa County. I'm excited for the opportunity. It looks like it will be a great chance to learn and grow.

The new job may end up meaning that this blog will be a private blog. I haven't put too much thought into the idea yet, but switching to a private blog may be a wise safety precaution at some point. It's really too bad, but some lines of work make you fewer friends than others.

There is no rush, but if you would like to continue to be a reader of our blog, please email me at davis2028@hotmail.com with the words "Blog" or something like that in the subject so that I will recognize it amongst all the advertisements for pharmaceuticals I receive. Once I figure out what the plan will be I'll email everyone and post another summary up on here.

And by the way, thanks to everyone for your help, thoughts, and prayers on our behalf during the time period I was looking for a job. Teri and I are extremely grateful for your love and kindness.

J. Crew thinks you're a sucker, but I know better.

For the low, low cost of just under $300.00 you too can have this season's fashion must have. Jeans with paint on them.



But I found a guy who is willing to give you a deal. He's offering hand splattered painted jeans for $150, but the price goes up to $180 if you'd like new jeans. He'll even hand deliver them (if you live in northern Utah county). I'll match his price for anyone in Arizona wanting to take advantage of this steal of a fashion deal.

Golden Compass

Before you read on there is something I should warn you about. This post contains information about...the Golden Compass books. If you believe that these books are the root of all evil then I don't know that I can say anything to change your mind. Even if I did come up with something, I don't know that you would even believe me - after all I am a lawyer. Nonetheless, if you stick out this blog post you may have a little more info next time your BBQ conversation turns to "evil literature."

My Summary
1. I read all 3 books.
2. I still have my testimony.
3. I don't think anyone else will lose their testimony by reading them.
4. The Golden Compass books are distinctly anti-Catholic, but not really anti-Christian (if you assume like I do that you have to discuss Christ, a Christ-like figure, or even some vague idea of atonement to be labeled as a Christian or anti-Christian book).
5. If you like fantasy books, or are a fan of polar bears - especially armor wearing, blacksmithing, flame thrower operating, fighting polar bears - you will probably like these books.

It would be difficult to discuss all of the reasons why people say these books are evil without revealing the storyline of the book. So just in case someone wants to read them, I won't talk too much about the particulars. Suffice it to say this - because of all chatter I heard about the books before I read them I was surprised by the minor role that atheism or attacking God played in the book. To be honest, anything in the books that could be construed as an argument in favor of atheism was presented in an almost silly way. One of the characters decides there is no God because, according to her, following a certain man-instituted church regulation doesn't do her or anyone else any good. If that is the best evidence of God's non-existence you might want to rethink. It would be like someone buying a $1.00 bible coloring book at Wal-Mart, seeing that the pictures were repeated twice in the book and because of that feeling ripped off and deciding there is no God.

The one distracting bit in the series was that I was constantly trying to discern who the author, Philip Pullman, thought God actually was. By the time I was nearing the end, especially with all the rumors I had heard about the books before I read them, it became more and more clear that Pullman had chickened out in terms of trying to define God. All in all, Pullman's atheistic tendencies are mitigated by the fact that he's not even sure atheism is correct. In fact, he's so unsure about who God is, that he won't even commit to actually putting the God most people know in his books.

Anyway, the moral of this post is this - if you like fantasy books you'll probably like the Golden Compass books. They have some interesting characters and are generally easy to read. They aren't for everyone, but that has more to do with what type of literature you enjoy than religious overtones. So enjoy. And if you do end up reading them let me know. I would love to ask a few questions about your impressions of the books.

Confidence

Both our boys had interactions with confidence this weekend. Gibson's began because he is now mobile. While most of the time he just army crawls, he has also figured out that when he especially wants to get somewhere he can put his legs underneath him and launch himself forwards. This new found confidence resulted in this.



Gibson and I were playing on the bed when I laid him down next to me and went to roll off the side of the bed so I could come around and pick Gibby up. But Gibson, probably thinking that he could just get down by himself, kicked until he launched himself a full 2 feet and landed forehead first on a chest at the foot of our bed. Luckily it was a slow launch. But as you can see, Gibby got two lines of bruises from the smash itself and two rug burns from where his forehead scraped along the moulding of the chest. Nevertheless, Gibson's desire for mobility has not been curbed by this experience. He just keeps on going.



McKay, on the other hand, has battled his fears rather than overconfidence. Among other things, McKay is as terrified of the garbage man as this guy. But after some research I've realized that McKay just may have been an early learner about the struggles between garbage men and civilians who fit in their trash cans.



McKay is also afraid of any toy that talks and moves (especially toys that look like animals or dinosaurs). And for the last 4 months or so K's been terrified of nursery. The nursery bit is the odd one because they do lots of McKay's favorite things. They sing songs, they color pictures, they get to play with a pretend kitchen, and they even blow bubbles. But McKay refuses to do anything unless he is within his arm's reach of a leader. This week, however, McKay had his confidence breakthrough. He happily went to nursery and he was just his normal, happy, energetic self.



Unfortunately, this may have bred some over confidence in him. Later that night when his cousins came over they all had their baths together and Halle and Mila headed downstairs in their towels to go get dressed. McKay decided he would follow in his towel. The trouble was that McKay has never really run around in a towel, especially not on the stairs.



You can see where this is going, and yes, McKay took his very first tumble on the stairs in the near year we've lived here. He was a little shaken up, but he'll be ok. I think more than anything it was his psyche that was damaged. For the next day he would start walking up the stairs and get scared halfway up. But it looks like he's back to normal now, after all, he's back to his normal routine. Although he's never been as crazy as that girl.

Game, Set, Match

Teri and I have seen a bunch of double takes the past couple of Thursdays. For several seasons now, I have played in the men's doubles tennis league every Thursday. Teri is usually there at the tennis courts too, only she patrols the grounds with the stroller, K, and Gibby. But I decided to take the summer off so that Teri could play in the women's singles league, also on Thursday nights. This has meant a role reversal of sorts, where I get to watch Teri play while Gibby clings on to my shirt and McKay runs up and down the walkway with his little kid tennis racket whacking all the used tennis balls that everyone likes to give him.

The first time the guys I used to play against saw me with the stroller and kids they were a little confused. They remembered McKay - he's hard to forget because he's just about the only kid out there and he stands at the fence and calls "Daaaaaaaaadddddddddy" while we play. But once I told those guys that my wife was playing this season they understood, but the double takes were funny nonetheless.

Tennis has been a lot of fun this summer. Although Teri hasn't had as much time to practice as she'd like, she's done really well. She's holding her own against women who have played for several years. As soon as we can get in out there for a little more practice and get her hitting more consistently she'll start playing like all those Russian girls I used to teach on my mission. Note: My teaching was more centered on the Gospel and less on tennis.

Big Kids

We were a little late in getting the kids in for Gibson's 4 month and McKay's 18 month checkups, but it was fun to get them in there are see how big they had gotten.

McKay, almost 20 months, now stands at a towering 35 inches but only weighs about 24 pounds. In 4 months he has grown 4 inches. At this rate, he'll be Shawn Bradley (7 ' 6") shortly after his 6th birthday.
He's always seemed to be a tall skinny kid. The only time it was different was our last visit when McKay was somewhere around the 70th percentile for height and right around the 50th percentile for weight (which the doctor noted was a big increase from his previous weight percentiles in the 20s and 30s). But this last visit demonstrated that McKay has returned to regularity. He's back to the 96th percentile in height and the 16th percentile in weight.

Gibson seems to be watching and learning from his brother. Diddy or Dibby (McKay's nicknames for his brother) is 24 inches tall and weighs almost 13 pounds. He's now in the 75th percentile for height and the 30th for weight.

It looks like we'll have to feed Little Dibby some Little Debbie.

I've always said that I don't mind if my kids are taller than me. It would certainly appear that I'm going to be held to my word. But I'm ok with that. At least some one in my family will be able to stand up to Randy Newman.