Friday May 22nd was Elijah’s last day of Kindergarten. Yay!!  Unfortunately, he was unable to go to school to celebrate.

On Tuesday night Elijah started complaining about a sore throat and on Wednesday morning he woke up with a high fever.  He continued to have a fever (low-grade and high) on and off, however he was getting a lot of rest on Wednesday and Thursday and we hoped that he would be able to go to school on Friday.  I am such a worrier, but I figured he probably had a cold (or flu) so of course I gave him Motrin and Tylenol every 3 to 6 hours, kept him sipping water, gave him lots of hugs, and applied the necessary cool wash clothes to comfort him and bring his temperature down.  By Thursday afternoon Elijah was acting like he felt SO much better and he told me his throat wasn’t hurting that much.  I had even called his teacher Thursday night and told her Elijah was feeling much better and we couldn’t wait for us all to attend his Kindergarten graduation celebration Friday morning.  Sadly his sore throat persisted and by Friday morning around 6 am he had a 103.2 temperature. 

Later on that afternoon I stopped by Elijah’s school to pick up his things and drop off a present for Elijah’s teacher (an apron we made that says # 1 Teacher with an apple logo made in vinyl). After briefly speaking with a school administrator I found out strep throat was going around the school.  Of course I immediately called his Pediatrician’s office and managed to get him in right away.  Surprisingly he protested and insisted he was fine.  He really did not want to go to see Dr. Hodson.  He was so apprehensive. —I am not sure where this started from, but Elijah gets so worried when he has to go to see a Doctor.  For some reason he is afraid we will have to leave him there.  (It may be related to Jonah’s stay in the hospital).—

SURE ENOUGH he has strep.  AND we found out Saturday morning after discovering hives and a red rash on his hands and feet – Elijah is allergic to Amoxicillin.  He is now on another antibiotic and he is doing so much better.

I feel so bad he had to miss the last few days of Kindergarten.  Thankfully his WONDERFUL teacher Mrs. Young provided him with a Kindergarten Memory book chalked full of pictures and special memories from the school year.  She even gave him a CD full of pictures of his classmates. There is no wonder why she was name TEACHER OF THE YEAR.  I only wish she could be his 1st grade teacher too!

Here’s to a fun and HEALTHY summer!!!

Elijah has been enjoying his time off from school this week.  Today marks the last day of his spring break…tomorrow we are back to early rising, 8 pm bedtime, and working on homework. On Thursday and Friday I took time off from work and planned some “getting out of the house” fun.

Thursday afternoon Jill, Caleb, My parents, Ben, Elijah, Jonah, and I all went to the Indianapolis Zoo.  We arrived at the Zoo around 2:15 pm which gave us about 2 hours to walk around and take in the Zoo sights before it closed and before Ben had to leave to get to work on time.  I think I was more excited than the kids!

This Zoo visit was special for many reasons:  1. It was one of the first nice days this year (70 degrees and sunny).  2.  I am normally working and Elijah is normally in school, so we cannot go during the week.  3.  My Dad had never been to the Indianapolis Zoo, this was his first time experience.  4. We usually don’t have this large of a group going to and enjoying the zoo together.

When we pulled into the parking lot we were amazed at how many cars were there.  True to Indiana life, the first nice days draws the Indiana residents out in droves. From the looks of how full the parking lot was, we thought the Zoo would be crammed full of people.  Much to our surprise it was not bad at all.  There is a lot of spread-out space once you get in there.  There were a few occasions when we had to squeeze by people to see an animal or two, but for the most part we did not have trouble viewing and enjoying the animals and beautiful surroundings.

We walked our normal route. First seeing the sea lions, seals, penguins, and petting the sharks.

Next we checked out the polar bear and walruses.  Then, we went into the “Desert Pavilion” to look at the lizards, meerkats, turtles, and snakes.

We took a small break at the playground area so the boys could run off some energy and enjoy a snack. After which we entered the “Plains” exhibits to see the giraffes, lions, rhinoceroses, baboons (with a cute little baby baboon showing off for the crowd), and elephants.

As always the visit felt rushed. Every time we go to the Zoo we wish we had more time to check out all the exhibits.  There is always next TIME!  We had a very enjoyable time.  Good exercise, great sights, and GREAT company!

Later on that evening Elijah, Jonah, My parents and I enjoyed a delectable pizza/pasta/salad bar/desert buffet at Cici’s Pizza. I was surprised at how good the food was and how reasonably priced it is. The Manager was very nice and said he would make any pizza upon request. We will definitely go back and enjoy some family outings there in the near future. Next time I am going to think up a crazy concoction for the pizza chef to make!

Friday Elijah and I met up with Taryn (my neighbor and good friend) and her 3 year old daughter Kendyl to go see “Monsters vs. Aliens”. Before heading to the theater we stopped at Walmart to pick up some candy to sneak into the theater. I can’t bare to pay $4-plus at the movie theater for the same box of candy you can get at Walmart for $1-$2. Taryn and I spent about $20 dollars between the two of us in candy, gum, wheat/cheese crackers, and bottled water. We stashed all our goodies in Taryn’s tote and laughed at how heavy it was. We arrived in time to see the 2 pm showing, but due to distractions from our children we both mistakenly purchased tickets for the 2:30 pm showing. I guess we were too busy enjoying a good conversation and shoving candy and popcorn into our mouths to notice we purchased the wrong tickets only right when the previews/trailers started.

The movie was really cute. Elijah enjoyed it a lot. Kendyl seemed to like the movie up to about 15 minutes before it ended, to which she loudly yells, “Mom, is the movie over yet? Can we go home?” Perhaps the movie was a little too long for a 3 year old.

I am very grateful to have this special time with Elijah and enjoy the special time on Thursday at the Zoo with all the family!!!

In an effort to rule out food and environmental allergies as possible triggers for Jonah’s seizures, his Doctor ordered allergy testing via blood tests.

Last Monday I took Jonah to a nearby lab to get his blood drawn. The lab techs were very kind and gentle. They tried their hardest to find a vein on Jonah’s arms and hands to draw blood from. After one unsuccessful try his vein rolled. The ladies asked me to bring him back the next day.

On Tuesday, soon after finishing work, I brought Jonah back to the lab and let the ladies try again. This time they searched and searched for a vein, all the while Jonah was helping them by squeezing his fists and poking his arm (the inside bends) with his index fingers extended; mimicking what the lab techs were doing. The ladies were smitten by him and did not want to poke him with the needle unless they were absolutely sure they would be successful. After 20 minutes or so, they apologized profusely and told me they could not find a good enough vein. They suggested I take him over to a sister lab at the Community South hospital where they were equipped with smaller needles, and if necessary a Pediatric nurse could help draw his blood.

Later on that evening I headed over to the hospital lab with Jonah, Elijah, and my mother in tow. We got called back and two older women (their name tags read Beth and Shirley) surrounded Jonah and I, and they started surveying his arms and hands. After finding a slight indication of a vein, they too pricked him with a needle and again his vein moved. DANG!

The lab tech said she did not want to try anymore and told me to come back on Wednesday. After a quick call, the Pediatrics department said they were too busy to help and she was giving up. Though I did not want my baby to have to endure any more of this, I explained to her my insurance coverage dictations, and asked that they try again. Reluctantly Beth left the room and after 5 minutes time she returned with a not so happy Shirley.

Beth held Jonah’s arm and Shirley poked around until she found a semi-suitable vein. With one fell swoop she DID IT, she found the vein and started to draw blood. The relief I felt was quickly squashed when Beth and Shirley start tsking. The blood flow had slowed to a drip and they were making comments quietly to each other that this vial would not be enough. As Shirley removed the needle she directs her comment to me. In a pessimistic inflection she said, “Well, I guess we will submit this and see if this will be enough”. The skepticism in her voice said otherwise.

While I was consoling my sobbing baby, I was taken aback by her tone and disgruntled look on her face. All I could muster was a thank you to the women for trying. Sympathetically Beth replies by saying something like “You’re welcome” and “I hope it will be enough”. Bluntly Shirley replies, “Mom – I am not going to poke him again, you really need to let him have a break”. WOW! I really did not know what to make of her comments. She was NOT treating me with the kindness and understanding normally shown by medical professionals.

My mind was screaming out, “I REALLY do not want my baby to go through this. REALLY! I was shocked, and instead I could not mutter anything in my defense. I just stood up, grabbed my things and ushered my crew out the door.

My mother wouldn’t let it go and immediately started asking me over and over again, “Do you think it will be enough?” Almost in tears, I replied with frustration, “I don’t know”. I was not going to have them try again and would rather scrap having the allergy tests done than make Jonah go through this all over again. As we headed out the door, my mother went back to confirm if they got a successful draw. In a far off voice I hear Beth say in a reassuring tone that they did get enough, not to worry.

As I breathe out I feel relief and I released my hurt caused just moments before from the unkind technician. She may have had a bad day and didn’t realize she was being uncaring. Or she wanted the last draw for the day to be simple, not for an unsuspecting, smiling, 2 year old boy with elusive veins.

I hope these tests do what they are intended for and rule out more things that would and could cause Jonah’s seizures.

On the way home we stopped and picked up four shiny Mylar balloons. (Jonah’s most FAVORITE things.) Balloons and some candy from Grandma returned his smile!

Look I'm Smiling Mom

Quaid, Caleb, Ben, and Elijah are having a Daddies/Sons day at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum today.  Being that they are all big Star Wars fans, they had to go check out the new Star Wars Clone Wars exhibit that just opened up at the museum.  I know they are having so much fun and I cannot wait to hear Elijah tell me all about it and see the pictures I am sure Ben is taking (which I will post later).  This leaves me home enjoying some alone time with Jonah.  Since he is currently taking his afternoon nap, I thought I would take advantage of this quiet time to read my friends’ blogs and update our blog.

This following week Elijah is out of school on Spring break.  We are all looking forward to having some special family time together!   For sure we are going to take the boys to the  Zoo one of the days and maybe a movie outting to see “Monsters vs Aliens” another day.  Future posts with pictures will follow ; )

Since we made the move to Indianapolis a little over two years ago, it has always been on our list to make a weekend getaway to Chicago. The drive itself is relatively painless, its just under three hours from where we live. However, our driving experience was a little bit different since for whatever reason, we decided to drive into town on a Friday afternoon.

After almost three hours of driving and almost reaching our destination, we were abruptly greeted with busy city traffic. This traffic was eerily similar to the traffic congestion we used to experience when driving from Phoenix to San Diego and/or Los Angeles. I would say that the traffic was probably worse than that of Phoenix, but probably not as bad as LA’s. Having been living in Indianapolis for the past two years, I almost forgot how fast big city traffic moves. The ‘traffic’ here in Indy moves probably at an average speed of 62-68 mph. Of course, you get the young teenage drivers from time to time that zoom past you in thier ‘souped‘ up Dodge Neon or Pontiac Grand Prix doing a whopping 75-80 — but aside from that, traffic moves fairly slow compared to other major city traffic.

Once we finally hit Chicago I noticed that their freeway signs were very cool… For example, depending upon the amount of traffic at any particular time of date, the digital freeways signs would provide you with an estimated time frame of how long it might take to arrive at any particular destination. (something I had never seen before) As I was monitoring the signs every couple of minutes or so, I noticed that O’Hare (Chicago’s INT Airport) was notated with a 55 minutes. WHAT?!?!?!? I asked to the wife to double-check where our hotel was located, to which she replied, right next to the airport! I quickly responded, O’Hare Airport? She stated, I believe so! **SIGH** At that moment in time, I realized that our drive was no where near done. We still had an hour to go in stop and go traffic until we reached our final destination –> our hotel.

Well, we finally did reach out hotel later that evening… As I recall, it was very hot and humid that day. As much as I was looking forward to walking around downtown Chicago, I was feeling some apprehension in doing so based on feeling completely beat up by the traffic on the way in and the weather. Keep in mind that our hotel was located in a small suburb called Mt. Prospect which is approximately 40 minutes North West of Chicago… (Note: we just drove through downtown Chicago and now we’re turning around and heading right back in that same direction) Whew, okay, we can do this, lets roll!

So after a very bizarre conversation with the front desk clerk (a young man who didn’t move his lips when he spoke) at our hotel it was recommended to drive about a half a mile down the road to where the Metra stop was located. As we made our way towards the Metra stop, we realized after about 15 minutes of aimlessly driving that we were obviously going the wrong way. We were provided with some extremely bogus directions — Very frustrated, we turned around and finally stumbled upon our stop.

We got out of the car and walked to the Metra station, just a short couple minutes from where we parked. We waited about 15 minutes before our train arrived. We loaded up all our belongings and hopped on the Metra system. Despite making several stops in between our stop and downtown Chicago, the trip was relatively quick. It took about 40 minutes between start and stop.

Ding Ding Ding, that’s the sound of our stop, everyone off the train. As we unloaded our stuff from the Metra, we proceeded through the Metra station which was stinky, hot and extremely humid. It was the the type of environment that would inherit whatever weather conditions were present that that moment in time. (e.g. hot in the summer, ice cold during the winter) As we exited through the station, we finally were able to locate an exit that lead us to the downtown area. We were all starving so we began our search by looking for a quick place that we could grab a bite to eat. To our dismay, just about everything that we came across was closed. (keep in mind that was around 7:30pm) We finally came across a very happening pizza place about 30 minutes later. By this time, Jonah was cranky and everyone was starved. We quickly ordered a pizza and some appetizers. The appetizers were pretty good and the pizza was superb.

After we finished eating, we walked around downtown for a short while. I couldn’t help but feel completely overwhelmed by the towering size of all the sky scrapers in this town. Wow, every building seemed to be at least 100+ft tall. We headed back to our hotel shortly thereafter. All of us were completely spent for the day. I was really looking forward to getting some sleep.

As we slowly woke up the following morning, we made our way to the continental breakfast that the hotel provided. (I really wanted to take full advantage of this because everything in downtown Chicago was very spendy, especially the food). I stock-piled my plate full of goodies and headed back to our room. I brought some coffee back and asked Momie if she wanted any? This was her reaction after taking her first sip.

Needless to say, Momie quickly gave the coffee back to me. She settled that morning on a cup of OJ instead.

Once we finished up with eating, we contemplated whether we should take the Metra or whether we should just take the car to go downtown. We ended up just driving simply because we did not want to go through the process of taking the Metra back to our hotel area at the end of the day.

After driving around for sometime attempting to locate a place to park that was reasonably priced, we found one that charged ‘only‘ $14.00 for the day. “Finally!”, cried Elijah -

We made our way downtown and started our official ‘Chicago-experience.’ After only a few minutes of walking around, we found ourselves staring right at the Sears Tower. Man, this building is absolutely behemoth in size. My first thought was, lets go inside and get to the top. HAHAH! Wait a second Mikey, before you can get to the top, you need to find the tourist Skydeck entrance, pay a considerable amount of monies and wait in line for 50 minutes. It was still fairly early in the day so I thought that maybe we could get right in and out. Nope, that was unfortunatley not the case. Here is a picture that illustrates the number of people that were in the same exact boat as we were. Okay I thought to myself, perhaps the line will move quickly so we don’t have to wait in this room for hours on end. Well, the line did move somewhat quickly, however, once we made it through the first security checkpoint, we found ourselves having to wait in another room for about 15-20 minutes prior to our official tour starting.

After a grueling wait and a mob of people to deal with, we finally boarded the elevator. I’m glad the elevators were working, I can’t imagine having to climb the 100+ stories.

As we got out of the elevator, we found ourselves in a room that encompasses windows all around ( The room was basically cirucular in shape and had nice large windows wrapped around the room). I thought to myself, how awesome is this. A birdseye view of all of downtown Chicago and surrounding areas. What a site to behold, completely breathtaking. I couldn’t believe all the buildings in this town.

Regardless of where you were at in the room, tall buildings were peppered throughout this entire city. I honestly never knew that Chicago was this big of a city. The room was pretty full of us trouisty type of people. It was very often difficult to get a decent shot since the area around the windows were completely bombarded with bodies. I managed to get a few more shots of the downtown area after waiting for certain areas of the room to eventually ‘open-up.’

This shot on the left here shows a better view of both the city and Lake Michigan which borders a lot of the downtown area. Unfortunately, we were not able to make it over to the Navy Pier area based on our time constraints. Nevertheless, we had a very good time with what we were able to see.

Here is another pict (and I know its kind of hard to see) but those little tiny white objects in the water are actually sail boats. It was fun to view the city from this angle. The last time that was in a building this tall must have been when we lived in Seattle and I was at the Space Needle. Although, I don’t know how many stories the Space Needle is, I’ll have to google that to find the answer.

ALL in all we had a very good time — We walked around town and found a popular park known as Millennium Park <sp?> We did get to eat a Chicago hot dog, and although it was good, it wasn’t nearly as good as the pizza that we ate the previous night. Perhaps I was expecting a little too much, however, I will say that the dog was purchased from one of those little concession carts nearby.

We headed home later that afternoon and made it back to Indy around 10:00pm that night. The drive took about 3.5 hours.

I am very much looking forward to visiting Chicago again in the not to distant future. It was one helluva town to spend a weekend at, my only regret is that I wish we simply had a little more time to see the area.

The old Cliché of ‘Time flies when you’re having fun‘ should really be stated as, ‘Time flies regardless of whether your having fun or not…period!

It’s now going on two years since I moved my family from Arizona all the way across the country to Indianapolis. I won’t bore you with my life’s drudgeries but I will say that this chapter in my life has certainly seen its highs and lows.

When I first got here, I was constantly poised with the question, “Why on earth did you move here?” For the sake of brevity, I normally just responded by stating that I just wanted a change in my life. Actually, there were several reasons why my wife and I decided to leave Arizona; I will discuss these reasons in detail a little bit later on in this post.

From a state to state comparison, I wanted to quickly discuss some of the differences that I’ve come across since I’ve been here. The items that I’m about to discuss are simply my own personal observations of what I’ve either witnessed as strange and/or very disparate between Arizona and Indiana.

Firstly, medical establishments - The metropolitan area of Indianapolis is absolutely peppered with these types of facilities. Every corner stands some type of hospital, medical plaza and/or practitioner’s office. I can’t help but lose count on the sheer number of medical associations throughout this area.

Secondly, cigarettes. Holy shit, I am not lying to you when I say this. Everybody including their dog smokes in this city. When I first moved here, I thought perhaps it was just an amazing coincidence that everywhere I went, people were lightning up. I made a comment one night to my sister (who also lives here with her awesome husband and one child) regarding these peculiar observations of mine. I asked the question, “Is it just me or does everyone here smoke?” I was instantly and bounteously supported in my own thoughts of thinking.

Thirdly, the weather. Okay, I understand that the mid-west weather is probably a little harder to predict than the weather we had back in the Southwest, but, c’mon. The weather forecasts we have here are in a nutshell, unbelievably inaccurate. I’m not talking just a little off, I’m spouting dead wrong. (I’m looking straight at you Mr. Weatherman Brian Wilkes!) I will say this however; the summers here in Indiana, albeit a tad on the humid side at times, are much more enjoyable than the ones back in Phoenix. The winters here are the exact opposite, although, I will add that they aren’t ‘that’ bad! I’ll try and talk more in depth about the winters here in a later post.

Fourthly, (Is that even a word?) Chinese Food. Good God, do we really need to have a Chinese Buffet on every corner? No really, I’m being serious. Why is there so many damn Chinese restaurants here? The funny thing about the whole situation is that most of them are always busy. I guess that pretty much answers my own question, however, I will quickly interject my opinion and state that most of them serve up somewhat questionable grub. There are a few that we frequent from time to time that we’ve determined as ‘acceptable,’ however, the vast majority of these places are pretty shitty.

Lastly, and this is certainly not the fault of the state of Indiana but I sure do miss the hell out of good Mexican food. I guess I always took for granted all the superb hole in the wall hot spots that served up mouthwatering chimmy’s. I’ve visited only a handful of Mexican restaurants here (mostly because they’re a real rarity in Indiana) but they all fail miserably in comparison to what we had back ‘home.’ I’ve convinced myself that if I either want good Mexican food (Jack in the Box and/or In and Out) that I’ll have to make a trip back to Arizona cause it just ain’t happening here.
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