Winter miscellany

Saturday, December 5

 

Ana, Miriam, Winnie and Bekah gathered around the kitchen island at Grandma Scott's while we were still living there in the trailer.

Sunday, December 13

Rebekah hurriedly unstuffing her dressing so I won't take pictures of her.

One of the girls asked what would float. I suggested macaroni noodles. I was mostly wrong. The cup of noodles is not amused.

Friday, December 18

Ana with her festive hair on the last day of school before Christmas break.

Wednesday, December 30

Seth, Peach (the lap dog) and Miriam duck hunting with Grandpa Dennis and Cooper.

Bekah duck hunting selfie.

Peach still vying for lap space.

Miriam and Peach tuckered out in the truck on the way back.

Thursday, December 31

Ana, Bekah, Miriam, Winnie and Seth playing Hexes during the Grover family New Year's Eve extravaganza. We stayed up until 10.

Thursday, January 7

Miriam at LEGO robotics, an after-school club. Andrea was taking there taking the group photo, which is why Winnie is in the foreground of this shot.

Tuesday, January 26

The water color art Ana made by my request for the living room.

Sunday, January 31

Aunt Jessica, Grandma Scott, Grandpa Scott, Bennet, Miriam, Winnie, Uncle Tyson, Aunt McKall, Easton, Rebekah and Oakley gathered around the kitchen table for Grandpa Scott's birthday cake.

Saturday, February 6

Winnie, Go Dog Go and Andrea snuggling on the couch.

Rebekah (borrowing Ana's slippers) trying out the strap-on wheels in the shop.

Sunday, February 7

Seth removing a panel from the soffit at the church. Seth called me from the church that morning asking if I could bring him a stool and his cordless drill. He could hear a cat meowing pitifully from the inside of the roof. He and I worked for 40 minutes to coax that cat out. And it was C-O-L-D. We finally accomplished the task, only to watch the cat climb back up into the roof. 

Ana hunting turkeys on our lawn with her BB gun.

Saturday, February 13

Winnie suited up to help Seth install new insulation in the crawlspace. The construction team had installed insulation in the new crawlspace, but left the old stuff in the old area. Seth and Winnie took out the old insulation and installed the new.

Ana and Bekah solving equations with multiple variables. For fun.

Sunday, February 14

Miriam wearing a travel neck pillow on her head while the family plays Numenera.

Monday, February 15

Andrea sporting bowling shoes while on a mother-daughter date with Rebekah on Presidents' Day.

Tuesday, February 16

Miriam dressed as Tam and Winnie dressed as Lihn (from Keeper of the Lost Cities) during Hope Week at school. 

Wednesday, February 17

Miriam and Winnie dressed for '80s day during Hope Week at school.

Rebekah showing Winnie how to play a cornet. Andrea borrowed a cornet Grandpa Scott had to teach a lesson about W. C. Handy.

Saturday, February 27

Miriam sketching for fun and Ana working on a project for school. She was assigned to write a paper and come up with a visual presentation of big business being superior to little business.

Sunday, February 28

Winnie watching Veggietales while wearing her dance costume from two years prior and standing on her head.

Thursday, March 4

Andrea (and her lens-flare-created-light mustache) cross-country skiing in Rexburg. I visit Grandma Hendricks at her house every first and third Thursday. When there's snow, I ski around the golf course after her visit.

Friday, March 5

Winnie sharing an ear bud with her friend in 3rd grade so he can hear the music on her Chromebook. Andrea was at the school taking pictures for the yearbook.

Monday, March 8

Ana and Andrea with the pottery they painted during a mother-daughter date at Possibly Picasso.

Tuesday, March 9

Winnie hugging Peach on the back porch.

Sunday, March 14

Winnie and Miriam snuggling on the couch and watching Living Scripture videos after church.

Winnie and Oakley playing in the guest bedroom at Grandma Scott's house during our monthly family dinner.

Friday, March 19

Winnie acting scared by the mountain lion on display in the Museum of Idaho's "Way Out West" exhibit. Winnie was on a field trip with the other 3rd graders from Fairview.

Winnie touching a human heart at the "Animals Inside Out" exhibit. Winnie and her friends Cora and Savannah were all in a group. Andrea was helping to chaperone the field trip.

Winnie with parakeets aplenty at the East Idaho Aquarium. After seeing the exhibits at the Museum of Idaho, the 3rd graders ate lunch at Civitan Park and then went to the aquarium.

Feet

 Rebekah has had trouble with her feet for years. Most of the time she's fine. But sometimes when she's skiing (downhill or cross-country) or hiking, her feet will hurt her terribly.

I took her to a podiatrist a couple years ago. He suggested we get her wider boots (ski and hiking) and that she wear cushions on her little toes. 

Rebekah was unconvinced. She insisted her boots were all fine, and she said the cushions didn't help her.

We went cross-country skiing during Christmas break at Teton Lakes (a golf course in Rexburg). Poor Rebekah was in pain almost the entire time. 

Rebekah bent over in pain at Teton Lakes while Seth gets snacks out of his bag for the girls.

We decided we needed to get a second opinion regarding her feet.

Around the same time, Miriam began to timidly complain about her feet hurting. But they weren't just hurting when she skied — they were hurting when she was walking around school. We had noticed that she looked like she had bunions, and they finally started affecting her.

I scheduled an appointment for the two of them to see a different podiatrist than before. This is what we learned:

1) Rebekah probably has plantar fasciitis. The doctor says it's a "probably" because we can't know until we test his theory. He suggested that we tape Rebekah's feet in a very specific way whenever she is about to ski or hike. If her feet don't hurt her, then she has plantar fasciitis, and the taping is the way to treat it.

2) Miriam has metatarsus adductus and bunions. The former is a congenital deformity; her toes bend inward rather than going straight out from her foot. The latter is a complication of the former. Bunions can be corrected with surgery, but where Miriam isn't finished growing yet, we are choosing to treat the pain with custom orthotics. 

Miriam's feet versus what a foot should look like. 

Rebekah has taped her feet for downhill skiing and cross-country skiing thus far. And (I believe) it has helped. At least, she hasn't been doubled over in pain like she was during Christmas break.

Miriam received her orthotics, and after the two-week period of growing accustomed to them by wearing them just a little longer every day, she says that her feet no longer hurt when she walks.

Rebekah's winter concert

The school band holds a concert every trimester. Due to COVID restrictions, their first concert this year was recorded and the link sent out to families. For the second trimester, they moved the venue to the gym (as opposed to the auditorium) so more people could attend and spread out. So on Wednesday, February 24, our family plus Bekah's grandparents got to see her in action.

Rebekah participated in every group except percussion ensemble (concert band, symphonic band, jazz band), and played a variety of instruments as needed.

Soloing on the trombone with the jazz band. 

Smiling between songs.

Playing euphonium with the concert band while Mr. Randall leads. He has taken the job at the new middle school in the district (Black Canyon Middle School), so next year Rebekah will have a new band director.

Playing clarinet with symphonic band.

Smiling in the clarinet section.

Getting ready to play the final song of the night that featured the trombone section. Mr. Randall had just told them to be loud and obnoxious.

Swaying her trombone to the music.

Playing with her section.

Smiling afterward.

Downhill skiing

 This winter marked the year when the entire Grover clan were able to downhill ski together. Winnie joined us for her first time as we went to Kelly's for some night skiing on Monday, February 8. 

The night turned out to be a comedy of errors. First, Rebekah learned early on (after the boots were on but before the skis were attached) that the boots we had brought for her would in no way work. They hurt her feet. So I took her to the rental hut to borrow some boots. As Bekah was getting outfitted, Ana went down the bunny hill and her new (thrift shopped) boots broke apart. We swapped some things around (Ana wore the boots I was going to wear; I wore the boots Bekah was going to wear), got Bekah's boots, and finally made it to the lifts. 

Winnie took to skiing like a natural. Between her experience on cross-country skis and (surprisingly) rollerblades, she was ready to take to the slopes. She went down the bunny hill several times, then decided she was ready for the real deal.

I was her guide down Skier's Lane for the first time. She was a little nervous at the steeper parts, but she did really well ... until she got going too fast and didn't make her pizza slice big enough. (For the non-skiers, beginning skiers are instructed to make a slice of pizza with their skis, meaning they put the tips together and the backs wide. This snow plow will slow/stop the skier.) Winnie zipped down the mountain, screaming in terror until she got to a little rise on the hill and sat down. After sliding on her backside for a while, she finally stopped. I caught up to her and consoled her. As with our other first-time skiers (I swear all of them had this same experience), she asked if there was ANY other way to get down the mountain other than on skis. I told her there wasn't, but she could take her time and I would help her the rest of the way.

We went more slowly, with bigger turns and bigger pizza slices the rest of the way. 

She went down a few more times that night, and each time she did better and felt more comfortable on the skis. 

Winnie and Andrea on the lift at Kelly Canyon.

Our lift tickets included vouchers for food, so we took a break to get some chicken tenders and nachos. That's when we discovered that Ana's ski binding was jacked up, and it took a screwdriver to get her boot out of the binding. We have since gotten rid of those skis.

We took a day later that month (February 22) to go to Grand Targhee and let the kids run wild on all the runs there. It was incredibly foggy, so we basically stuck around the Shoshone lift and explored all the runs there. Winnie may have been a little cautious in the beginning, but by the end of the day she was tearing down the hill and going through all the kid zones like a master. (Day skiing = more pictures.) 

Andrea, Winnie, Seth and Miriam riding Shoshone.

Ana eating lunch.

Miriam at lunch time.

Rebekah stuck in the snow. I was headed down the hill with Winnie when I heard someone shouting my name from a distance. I finally spotted Bekah buried up to her hips in snow. She had gone off the beaten path into the deep powder and fell over when she ran over a tiny tree. She had to take her skis off to get unstuck.

Andrea, Bekah and Ana on the lift.

Christmas

 It was a dream come true being in our home for Christmas. And (as always) we loved the time we got to spend with our family.

Jackbox games and appetizers at Aunt Rachel's house on Christmas Eve afternoon. Ana likes to demonstrate how much of a pop can she can fit in her mouth. It's remkarkable.

Lighting the spinning nativity from Germany at Grandma Scott's house after a dinner of schnitzel.

Oakley and Bekah watching the candles.

Ana watching.

Ana and Bekah opening up their jammies from Grandma and Grandpa Scott.

Winnie excited about the Mandalorian underwear she got from Grandma. Winnie and Oakley were twins; they both got the same jammies and underwear.

Ana and Bekah wearing their new jammies and checking out the Come, Follow Me journals Grandma gave them for Christmas

Winnie and Oakley are jammie twins!

Miriam wearing her jammies and new hat with changeable bobbles.

Ana in her jammies. (Grandma knows she loves purple.)

Winnie's pile of Christmas presents all laid out on Christmas Eve.

Miriam's pile. 

Ana's pile

Bekah's pile.

The Seth/Andrea/family pile.

Seth checking out Miriam's new earrings.

Ana's new hoodie.

Winnie reading her new Dogman book.

Bekah trying out her new practice mute.

Seth trying on Winnie's new sleep mask.

Bekah wearing her new overalls and checking out the socks Winnie picked out for her (they have brass instruments on them).

Seth rejoicing over his diet Mountain Dew. The girls constantly tease him about how much he drinks, so he stashed a can in his stocking.

Ana wearing the hat Bekah picked out for her and demonstrating the Milk Dud reindeer poop dispenser Grandma Susan made.

Winnie watching the Grover family's Zoom call on Christmas.

Miriam and Ana demonstrating the new game Aunt Annie's family gave us for Christmas while at Grandma Scott's house on Christmas day afternoon.

Seth's carpal tunnel

 Seth's hands had been giving him fits. They were numb/tingly or unable to hold things well. He suspected (knew) it was carpal tunnel, so he saw a specialist who was able to confirm it. Rather than putting up with the problem, they decided to schedule surgery right away.

December 18 was Seth's Friday off anyway, so he set up the time for that date. The day before, the hospital called and said his surgery would be at 2:30 p.m.; he and I needed to be at the hospital by 1 p.m.

The girls had school that day, so he and I spent our morning checking out D.I. and Goodwill. Seth received a surprise call from the hospital at 11 a.m. The doctor was AHEAD of schedule. Could we come? Like, now?

He quickly took a shower and I packed a lunch. We zipped over to Mountain View and got checked in. 

Seth got an I.V. started in his elbow pit. We waited.

He was moved to a different area. The I.V. was in the wrong place for this doctor who prefers to put the tourniquet higher on the arm. A nurse had to undo the I.V. from Seth's arm and put it in his foot. We waited.

And waited some more.

Apparently the surgery right before Seth's had some complications. So instead of the doctor being ahead of schedule, Seth was wheeled off to surgery at 2:47 — 17 minutes later than the originally scheduled time.

Waiting.

No longer waiting. 

Everything went well until Seth woke up. His left hand hurt. A lot. Much more than the right. The nurse in recovery informed him that they had forgotten to put the block in his left hand. Wha?! (We're going to make sure we don't get stuck paying for blocks in both hands since Seth certainly didn't get blocks in both hands.) After getting chummy with the nurses in recovery (Seth's default state when coming out of general anesthesia), we brought him home to recover. That was the last day before we officially moved into our house, but he and I spent the night over here anyway since our bed had been moved in, and we figured it would be easier for him to recover here than in a trailer with no running water. 

Seth was back to work (from home) by the next Monday. He got the stitches removed earlier than originally scheduled (2+ weeks is a long time to have those bad boys in) and is waiting for his 6-week post op appointment. He hated watching Bekah and I move in the rest of the furniture (organ, entry table) and the heavy boxes without him, but everyone managed.