Zac took the kids to the Eno River again. It looks like they had a lot of fun!
Although I'm too weak and restroom-dependent to go on any of the excursions, I did enjoy an after-dinner ice-cream treat on the front porch with the kids. (Except my "ice-cream" is a frozen banana, peanut butter, and cocoa powder pureed in the food processor. It's actually really good.)
Zac took the kids to Laurel Hills playground, which is the most amazing and huge playground on earth. And of course the kids spent most of the time and had the most fun playing in the nearby creek and building nests out of pine straw.
I got my second blood transfusion today. I've been anemic for a long time, but it just kept getting worse despite my focus on consuming iron-rich foods. I had no energy and was even having trouble breathing (I would run out of air just talking--it felt like after blowing up a balloon). Teaching was completely exhausting. The transfusion perked me up and helped me be able to breathe easier. It didn't help as much as I'd hoped, though, probably because I am still so sick and the underlying problem hasn't been resolved. I have a flex sigmoidoscopy tomorrow to check on things down in the old colon, and we're considering trying a different drug (since Remicade isn't doing the job) and/or having my colon surgically removed (yikes!).
As I received my second blood transfusion for anemia this morning, I was touched once again by immense gratitude for the random strangers that have given me the blood from their bodies so I could feel better. Through my whole health saga over the last several months, I’ve also been impressed by the kindness of the doctors and nurses I’ve interacted with who have gone above and beyond--calling me in their off-hours late in the evening, going to great lengths to get me treatments that might help, making dozens of calls to find me an appointment. But on some level, that’s their job. The anonymous blood donors stand out because they have helped another stranger out of the goodness of their heart. I mean, they gave me their blood. Think about that. I have four strangers’ blood cells coursing through my veins. Pretty amazing. So while it’s easy to get frustrated with humanity sometimes, it’s good to remember that there are strangers giving their blood to strangers so those strangers can feel better.
Also, I think it’s hilarious that with everything at the hospital being so pristine and high tech, they bring the blood up to the transfusion room from the blood bank in a cooler you can buy at Walmart.
Alice always dresses herself. Luckily this year we agreed on the dress she would wear. The picture is only of the top half of her, so I had no objection to her interesting choice of leggings.
Zac took the kids to the Durham Museum of Life and Science today. Looks like they had a blast as always. And they actually saw the resident bear!
This is a fun exhibit where a magnetic conveyor belt takes a "seed" to the top and drops it. I think you're supposed to study they way different seed shapes flutter down in the wind.
Our neighbors invited us to a volleyball game with their friends at a nearby neighborhood. Zac played, I sat in a chair, and the kids played on the playground and in the sand of the volleyball court. A good time was had by all.
Zac had his fall friends and family work party this evening at the arboretum. Alice always calls it the arburrito, which I find hilarious.
The kids did OK with the Mediterranean fare for supper, and it helped that they each found friends to play with. Alice played with Emory, who she knew from school/neighborhood and after he left she befriended an older girl. Meanwhile, Simon made a friend with a giant four-year old that was the son of Zac's also rather tall coworker, and they had a lot of fun looking for fish in the pond together.
Zac also brought some balls and frisbees so the kids could play in the nearby field. Simon took the opportunity to play catch with himself.
By Sunday, things had really calmed down, although there was still some rain. Zac took the kids out to explore the flooded creeks and area near the park. Apparently they found a crawdad, too.
On Saturday, the weather was calm but rainy. We could be fairly certain that the worst was over and our power wouldn't go out unless there was a torrential rainfall and some suicidal trees.
But, we were still pretty house-bound, so in the morning, the kids learned to make chain reactions with dominoes.
In the afternoon, Zac took them out to explore the effects of all the rain and wind.
The yard was strewn with small debris, but no more than after a normal thunderstorm or windy day.
The creek feeding into our pond was pretty full and swift.
The pond was swollen, but hadn't really crested its banks.
The pond up by the pool was definitely flooded though!
Simon will find some little creature everywhere he goes!
So we easily survived day 2 of the now tropical storm Florence. Our power stayed on, our house didn't flood, no trees fell down. We were feeling very lucky, knowing other areas of the state were faring much worse.
Friday morning we had some strong wind gusts, and a bit of rain, but nothing major. We all watched a lot of videos, in anticipation of the power going out later.
I didn't really have a clear food plan for the storm, so that first day my strategy was to make food from the freezer that required electricity (the oven) the cook. The kids and Zac had frozen mini pizzas for lunch and frozen fish sticks for supper. You sure do appreciate your electricity more when you feel like you might lose it!
In the afternoon, the kids played around the house. Simon spent a lot of time with this little rubber shooter, and of course jumping off the guest bed.
That night, we slept together in the basement guest room again, even though the storm had been downgraded and the risk was pretty minimal.
All week, the meteorologists were predicting Hurricane Florence would hit us really hard. Past hurricane survivors warned us that even this far inland, with all the rain and wind, trees would fall and the power would go out for a long time. There could also be flooding. Stores ran out of bread and water, gas stations ran out of fuel, and we all braced ourselves for the worst. Schools closed on Thursday so people had time to take shelter and prepare for the hurricane.
When I left work on Thursday afternoon (my school had a half-day), I took this picture of the three beautiful giant oak trees outside the building and hoped (what secular people do instead of pray) they would make it through the storm.
On the way home, the skies seemed ominous.
I looked at our forested back yard, and it suddenly seemed so dangerous -- so many trees that could fall over! But I wonder if there is safety in number for trees? Like the wind can't smack any one of them too hard?
The storm (now with less dire predictions) was supposed to hit early Friday morning, but we all slept in the basement guest room out of an abundance of caution. We also didn't want the kids to be too scared, since they'd been hearing about the hurricane all week. In fact, when we first broke the news to Simon, he started crying and got very upset. It soon became clear he thought our house would blow away while he was sleeping all alone in his bedroom. So we thought everyone would sleep better if we were all together. They kids had great fun with the "family sleepover."
It doesn't take long: week 2 of kindergarten and the boy already has homework. We tried to pretend like it was a fun and exciting thing, but Simon, having watched Alice do it for the past two years, declared, "It's not fun! It's boring!"
Nevertheless, he sat right down and did it. He is really the opposite of Alice. He had no trouble focusing and sitting still. He had a little trouble understanding what to do sometimes, but quickly got the hang of it.
