Happy Father’s Day to both my father and father-in-law. Also, a cheerful wish for a wonderful day to all the other fathers.
Today was spent with family enjoying some of my favorite foods – Five Guys burger (bacon cheeseburger with mayo, tomato, grilled mushroom, jalapeño peppers and green peppers to be exact) for lunch AND a Kansas City Strip at Hereford House for dinner.
We received word that Miss Nina (Molleson) died a couple days ago. She has been the dance teacher for the girls since they were three years old. Miss Nina had taught dance for 65 years.
She informed the girls during one of their final dance classes that she had breast cancer and was not sure if she’d be available to be teaching in the fall. It was a very sad thing to hear, but the back of the program for the spring recital commented on looking forward to seeing everyone in the fall.
The picture above was taken at the dance recital just a few weeks ago. All of these girls took from Miss Nina for most of their lives.
We will miss you, Miss Nina. Thank you for teaching our girls tap and ballet – but thank you mostly for teaching them to be young women.
Linda and I participated in Biking Across Kansas in 2011 after Linda had done a portion of it in 2010. Amazingly, I didn’t blog about our 2011 trip, but I guarantee our Facebook timeline is full of posts during our 2011 trip. The next 2 summers found us doing biking trips with some close friends, but our heart was aching for BAK.
The route is announced every year on Kansas Day (January 29) and the 800-person roster is filled pretty quick within a couple weeks. The route is usually a west-to-east route that goes straight across the state, around 500 or so miles. This is completed over 8 days of riding. The route this year (40th anniversary) started in the southwest corner and advanced diagonally up to the northeast corner – going through Manhattan. In fact, that particular day started in Salina and went through Fort Riley and Manhattan before ending in Wamego. Linda and I felt that this was too good of an opportunity to pass up, even if we didn’t have the time to do the whole thing.
We spent the day riding with a very good friend, Stephanie; she’s doing the whole route across the state. We left Salina at 06:30am and went through Abilene, Chapman, Junction City, Fort Riley, Manhattan, Zeandale, Waubansee, and then finally into Wamego.
We rode around Manhattan for a while, taking pictures on campus, in front of Bill Snyder Family Stadium, and at St Isidore’s (where we were married). What a wonderful day.
The big news is that we completed our first Century Ride. We were sore, tired, and very hungry. We ate a wonderful pasta dinner provided by the high school wrestling team and then made our way back to Salina to pick up the other car. We finally got ourselves back home by midnight and enjoyed hot showers/baths and the comfort of our fluffy bed and soft pillows.
Here’s to all of the others that spent the night in the gym or in a tent – and still have 3 more days of riding. Sure made me think about doing it again next year.
The spring piano recital was back on May 3, but I’ve been a bit lax in entering information here on the blog. I was good about getting the videos up to YouTube and on Facebook, but a bit slow here.
However, here are the piano performances from Anna and Emily.
Unfortunately, Anna’s video cut short about 45 seconds from the end of the piece.
Anna: Beethoven – Sonata Op 27, No 2 I. Adagio sostenuto (“Moonlight”)
Emily: Haydn: Allegro scherzando Hob. III 75/4
Anna and Emily danced in their dance recital this evening. They’ve been taking dance lessons from Miss Nina for the past 12 years. It was a real pleasure to see them up there dancing with their friends.
There is rumor that this may be the last year Miss Nina will be teaching (her 65th year teaching). It was great that both sets of grandparents were there to see them dance.
This past weekend, Anna and Emily spent the day at Regional Solo Festival for high school students. Anna played violin and sang vocal solos; Emily played flute.
Linda stayed very busy accompanying both of them and a couple other students. We’re very lucky to have an accompanist on retainer.
Anna plays Sonata in G by Eccles
Emily plays Legende by Joachim Andersen
Anna sings Sebben Crudele & Blow Thou Winter Wind
This is actually audio only; a friend recorded it for us
Just one year ago (February 23, 2013) Anna got braces on a day that a blizzard hit town. They called and said the office was empty and they could put the braces on if we could get her there. Yesterday, on a day of 75°, she got the braces off. She’d been keeping it a secret; she figured it was a surprise that she got them, so she wanted it to be a surprise that they were being removed.
She came home with congratulations balloon tied to a caramel apple. It reminded me of when my braces came off (25 years ago) and all the foods that I ate because I finally could.
Such a beautiful smile, Anna!
Emily had a group of friends over and celebrated her birthday. Being the First Friday in Lent, we didn’t grill burgers or get a bunch of supreme pizzas. Instead, she chose pesto pasta with an array of different cheeses. The girls all loved the food. They toasted the birthday girl with sparkling grape juice and laughed the night away.
It’s amazing how loud 16 freshman girls can get when they’re all talking at once…
Anna is playing Violin I in the pit orchestra for the high school production of “Peter Pan”. She’s been going to practice for the past couple weeks, including days off from school and on Saturdays. The show started this past week and I was able to go this evening (Linda and Emily were participating in the Girl Scouts International Fair).
The music was well done, but I really enjoyed the show also. It’s fun watching the friends of my daughters up on stage. It’s even more fun knowing that the music is being made by my daughter!
The picture above is a peek into the side of the pit just as the show had ended.
Emily has been plagued by recurrent sore throats over the past 5 or 6 years.
On three separate occasions over the years, she had a swollen right tonsil that appeared to me to be a peritonsilar abscess. This is an infection around the tonsil that can become very serious, very quickly. If the infection continues to grow, it needs to be drained before it closes off the throat. Often, if caught early, it can be treated with antibiotics. Fortunately, whenever it seems like she needs treatment, I was able to prescribe some antibiotic and she always got better.
This past episode, the pain got better but the swelling of the right tonsil never went away. In hindsight, I’m not sure if it ever got better because I never really looked in her throat after she got better – because she got better! This time, I decided she needed to be seen by her pediatrician so that another doctor can help make the decisions as to what to do. It was determined that we should try a stronger antibiotic and watch. If it didn’t go away, we’d consult an ENT.
Well, it didn’t go away and an ENT was visited. He took one look in the mouth and clearly stated “That’s not a PTA – it’s a unilateral hypertrophied tonsil!”. That means, the tonsil is big on just the one side. However, this is an indication for removal of the tonsil (concerns about possible malignancy being of the highest concern). You can see in the picture that her right tonsil is significantly larger than the left.
The surgery was yesterday and she did awesome. I promised not to post the pictures of her that were taken in the pre-op area. She did remarkably well both before and after the procedure. She was very calm as we were waiting in pre-op and was absolutely amazing in post-op. It’s always funny how people react when they are coming out of anesthesia. Emily kept talking about Ellen Degeneres and Channing Tatum (I’m guessing the nurse was asking her about things she liked prior to arrival to the bedside). Emily asked us if Ellen was there and, when we told her that she wasn’t, she asked us if we could tell Ellen that she loves her. She was very chatty, but an absolute delight. The recovery nurse fell in love with her.
She recovered very nicely throughout the day and didn’t seem to have too much pain. However, by the end of the evening, it was catching up to her and the inflammation was really starting to kick in. Fortunately, hydrocodone elixir does wonders and she is hanging in there. Here’s to a very speedy recovery!