a little background info

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when i crafted my catch up by photo dump post i didn’t give much – or any – detail about my dad’s leg surgery.  so i’m gonna fill in a few of the blanks.

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my dad was out enjoying his last morning in chiang mai, visiting the market, just taking it easy and minding his own business.  my mom had stayed behind to do a little packing and wait for me to get back from working out.  once i got home the two of us headed out to grab a cup of coffee (or iced chocolate for her) and do a little reading, but before we could get into the coffee shop my mom got a call from my dad.  he was in the emergency room at maharaj nakorn chiang mai hospital.  he’d been hit by a car.  did i mention he was out and about taking it easy and minding his own business on a motorbike?  (a slightly sketchy motorbike at that.)  he told us he was certain his leg was broken.  my mom and i headed over to the hospital and after finding a parking spot – no small feat – we located the er and then located my dad.  he was right about his leg.  he had a spiral fracture of the tibia. it was his left leg – he has a history of injuries on that leg.

the orthopaedic resident informed us that surgery was necessary, but that it would take a week or two for them to get around to operating at this hospital.  this is a public hospital and the worst cases get seen first.  the resident suggested we move my dad to a private hospital.  thanks to some quick replies from friends here in chiang mai we were able to connect with an orthopaedic surgeon and get my dad moved to ram hospital just a few minutes down the road from maharaj nakorn chiang mai hospital.

we eventually met with the orthopaedic surgeon.  he was hoping to operate that night, but because of my dad’s prior injury and some blood clotting issues in that leg he needed to consult an internal medicine doctor first.  my mom and i left our phone numbers at the nurses station and headed home so she could take care of cancelling their flight home, check with traveler’s insurance requirements, and find out the date their visa’s expired.   it was 7:30 or so when we made it back to the hospital and my dad was in surgery – they’d wheeled him on down to the internal medicine doctor so she could give her yay or nay.  the surgeon came out to speak to us about 10.  he said the surgery had gone well and that my dad should be out of recovery in a few hours.  he answered my mom’s questions and then we waited for my dad to be rolled out of recovery.   they rolled my dad out about midnight and we all headed up to his hospital room.  we made sure he was situated and we headed home for some sleep.  i was a little alarmed that they hadn’t put a cast on his leg and that they had no intention of casting it at all, but i’ve been told that’s they way the do it now.

my dad was out of the hospital on saturday and they began figuring out when they could go home.  due to some constraints from their traveler’s insurance they needed to fly sooner rather than later and managed to book a flight that wednesday (or maybe it was thursday).  my dad went to see his doctor this week.  i haven’t heard how that appointment went, but i’m assuming no news is good news on that front.

can’t ignore it any longer

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look what c19 brought home today -Photo-17a pretty snazzy cap and gown.  it’s nothing like the cap and gown i wore when i graduated high school.  mine was made of some kind of flimsy poly/nylon blend  tissue paper, but this one is a heavy-duty-you-would-probably-wear-this-to-receive-your-phd kind of cap and gown.  my first thought when he brought it through the door was, “wow, this is really happening.”  my second thought after i felt it was, “wow, he’s gonna be miserably hot in that thing.”

the most noble purpose

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Cat: Alright, for your own sake, I’ll be blunt. Why do the Bosses keep ducks? To eat them. So why do the Bosses keep a pig? The fact is that animals don’t seem to have a purpose really do have a purpose. The Bosses have to eat. It’s probably the most noble purpose of all, when you come to think about it.

Babe: They eat pigs?

Cat: Pork, they call it – or bacon. They only call them pigs when they’re alive.

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harpey

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*spoiler alert…  there’s a video at the end – or at least a link to a video*

a16 had a harp recital tonight.  a duet recital.  she’s never played a duet before.  much less several duets.  both girls also played a few solo pieces.  and two students from payap university joined in – both payap students were very new to the harp.  everyone did a fantastic job.

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there aren’t many opportunities for a16 to play her harp in public.  she’s a bit of a nervous performer, but still manages to do an amazing job.  a while ago a16′s harp teacher came up with the idea of providing an opportunity for a16 to perform some solos in public and why not a few duets, too?  learning to play with another musician is a great skill to have and one that a16 has never had the opportunity to develop.  so she paired up two of her students and voilà the music was getting made!

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both girls really did an amazing job.  i watched them warm up before the performance and-  if i’m being honest – i would admit that i was more than a tad bit nervous for them.  apparently they got all the kinks out before the concert because the performance was so good.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ytzYzb1fk&feature=youtu.be

catch up by photo dump

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i’ve discovered how to move photos from my phone to my computer without email – which means i can quickly do a photo essay catch up of the very recent future.  go me.  it’s possible that parts of the very recent future aren’t all that interesting.

starting with – sometime in late march/very early april i ate something bigger than my hand.  and my hand looks old.

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april 3 my parents came to visit.  these pics aren’t of my parents, but they are of the folks who are getting ready to do a super special cultural welcome for some arriving passengers – also not my parents.

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my mom did a few crossfit workouts with me.   that’s her swinging the kettle bell – with the red shirt on.

2013-04-05 09.51.23we went for some mookata.  that’s thai barbecue where you cook your own meat.  it’s all you can eat and we can eat a lot.

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out with my mom one day we came across these guys performing high wire events working on the electric wires.  we’re pretty sure this behaviour is not osha approved.

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april 30 my parents were supposed to board a plane and fly home.  but instead my dad had surgery.  on his leg.  just in case you weren’t sure which bandage was covering up the most serious injury.

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and we’re caught up.  my parents flew last night.

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they should be home in the next few hours.  my dad is still recovering and will be recovering for a little while longer.  but i’m pretty sure he’s ready to be home.  i think most people find recovering in your own bed to be preferable to not recovering in your own bed.

and now the catch up begins

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no worries, i’m not gonna try to catch you guys up too much, but you might ought to prepare yourself for the next few posts to be about the mostly recent past – starting as recent as this past weekend…

michael was invited to train a course in muak lek, thailand.  the folks who invited him were kind enough to invite the rest of the family along, too.  c19 had other, more pressing, senior-y type things to do, but a16, s13, and i were game for a weekend at a resort and 24/7 air con.  the other thing we were all looking forward to was picking up krispy kreme donuts while we were at the don muang airport in bangkok – i’ll get back to that.

we flew into DMK – that’s don muang airport.  and were picked up and given a ride to muak lek – a few hours outside of bangkok.  we arrived after the dining room was closed.  but not to be starved we headed out to find some dinner and lucked into a little mookata restaurant – a thai bbq place where you’re in charge of your own grill.

after dinner we checked into our rooms (wish i’d taken a picture, we had a very nice 2 bedroom/2 bathroom with a living room cabin).  we quickly (there might have been a little drama) divided up boys’ room and girls’ room.  turns out brothers and sisters – when they are a 16 year old girl and 14 year old boy – aren’t so keen on room sharing.

michael had to be up bright and early to start teaching, but the rest of us slept in, then breakfast and an entire day of nothing.  i had a little work to do and some reading i wanted to catch up and some air-con i just wanted to soak up.  so it was sort of a day of nothing.

on sunday we got up, headed to worship and then the kids and i ventured out to chet saonoi waterfall.  it was nice and cool and very pretty.

Imagewe hiked around for a bit and then headed out to what see what google said muak lek was famous for – the milky way.  there are a lot of dairies.  big ones.  and farm chokchai is all set up for tourists.

2013-05-05 11.07.30the kids fed calves.  they had ice cream shakes.  really, really good ice cream shakes.  we felt a little guilty about eating burgers.  and we skipped the tour.  i was the only one really interested in it – it was 2.5 hours long and all in thai.  if we’d made prior arrangements english could have been arranged, but since my dairy thai isn’t all that good i figured the kids were right on this one.

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no matter how hard those helpful thai ladies pushed those cows wouldn’t move

and besides, i was coming down with a migraine.  and if you’re gonna have a migraine and take to the bed, it’s very, very nice to be able to do that in an air-conned room.

michael had to train a good bit of monday and then it was time to return to the airport.  michael was a little slow getting through security – he’d forgotten about the 8 pairs of scissors he had in his backpack.  but they were discovered and confiscated and then we were on our way.  we quickly located krispy kreme.  it was open.  and it was donut-less.  not one donut.  there was a little disappointment, but not too much.  everyone knows we’re only weeks away from the land of donuts.

we got home a little late on sunday night and kids returned to school on monday.

there was a little bit of melancholy on the trip as every so often someone found it necessary to comment on this trip for four being what next year would be like all the time.  (it’s possible i’ll work c19′s imminent departure into any posts between now and the day it happens.)

21 days? that can’t be possible

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sidebar: i’ve been gone so long that i no longer recognise (my new fangled computer speaks the queen’s english and i find that rather quant.  eventually i might find it annoying and that’s when i’ll go about trying to figure out how to make it speak good ol’ american english) wordpress.  i’m not even sure how to work it.  but i’m sure i’ll get up to speed again – if i manage more than one post this time around.  end sidebar.  (i hope i’ve used the term sidebar correctly.  if not, oh well.)

so i was chatting with one of the kids’ teachers today and noticed a countdown on the wall.  a countdown for how many days of school are left.  if you guessed 21, you’re right.  which means 21 days until graduation.  c19′s graduation to be specific.  time keeps on moving right along, doesn’t it?

we have been preparing for it, sort of.  at least the school has.  we’re pretty lucky that the school takes care of ordering graduation announcements.

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because i haven’t been able to do much other than think about how all five us are heading to the states this summer and only four of us will be returning.  and that feels sort of impossible.  i know it’s all gonna work out.  he’s been accepted to university – his first choice (go him!)  and that school is close to family – and family is good.  but that’s only the first step.

we’ve still got to figure out the money.  the school gave an initial scholarship and yes, we’ve filled out our fafsa and it indicated that there should be some money for us – but should isn’t a very firm word.

and we’ve still got to figure out just how do we do this?  i know we’re not the first to do this, but it’s not really something someone can give you the play by play on because the experience is different for each of us.  (however, the tips i’ve gotten have been greatly appreciated. and knowing so many others have survived this transition makes it seem like we might, too.)

there are also the practical things like getting the stuff he needs for a dorm room.  making sure he has contact numbers for people he can reach in case of an emergency.  (not that his grandparents won’t do that, but it’s nice to have more than one number.)   and figuring out how he’s gonna make it without his momma. (that’s probably mainly my concern.)

but there are other just as important things that have to happen while we’re in the states.  a16 is gonna need to visit some colleges, most likely not her dream colleges, but we can see different kinds of campuses.  we’ve got some doctor-y type maintenance to see about.  and we’re gonna need to be sure we take time to just be a family.  which is hard to do when you’re couch surfing.  (we won’t exactly be couch surfing, but i feel cool saying that’s what we’re doing.)  we’re planning to get a good start on that – we’re gonna take a family vacation in japan before we head to the states.  but we also want to spend quality time with friends and family.   (each year that we are here i feel more of a need to work on the connections we still have in the states – and i’m really, really bad at it.  thankfully we have some amazing friends there who are very patient and determined to keep these relationships going.)

i keep thinking i’m going to get around to the actual planning of some of what needs to happen this summer, but i’m having a very hard time doing that because i want to be fully present in the here and now.  i have taken some baby steps – made contact and set loose-y goose-y dates for where we’ll be staying this summer – but at some point, preferably sooner than later, i’ve got to pencil in some concrete plans for this summer.