My Dad is Funnier Than Your Dad

Bonanza!

Taylor loves the absurd. Here are a few absurdities he's thrust upon David! Our son sure better develop a sense of humor fast!

Onesie stuffed with Legos

"Dad, why is this so funny?"

Cousin Time

Sara and Rob came to Utah for his family's reunion. But we were able to snag them for a short while: they stayed overnight with us last night and spent this morning playing. Sara took Jasper and David for a walk, something I appreciated since I can't walk him these days.

David did cry at the sight of Rob and his big bushy beard. (He did this at Christmastime, too.) But Rob smiled lots at him and he eventually warmed up.

Jasper is such a strong and cute boy! Sara & Rob have been such good parents to him. And they're expecting a second boy due Christmas Eve!

Here are a few fun photos.

Rob bounced Jasper on this ball, to his great delight.
David wasn't half so enthused by it!

A new superhero movie: Atlas Returns

Is Aunt Sara really trying to feed me something off the floor? I love this!

Kausik & Sharyn

At the top of the chair lift at Sundance

This post is a week overdue, but I'll not postdate it, since I want it to be "first" for a few days.

My best friend from undergrad, Kausik Rajgopal, and his wife Sharyn Efimoff came into town for a two-day visit. It was way too short! They got in late Friday the 18th, and left Sunday evening. Originally we had planned on hiking Zion National Park. We decided against that before I broke my foot, but had planned to do lots of hiking closer-by. I'm grateful that they put up with the pretty radical change in plans.

We did go to some lovely places. We drove to Sundance, stopping on the way to hike up to Bridal Veil Falls. That was a bit challenging for the armpits due to my crutches! So we bumped David from the Bob and I was wheeled down (running!) by Sharyn. At Sundance we took the chair lift; Stewart Falls would have been an hour's hike from there, but alas. So we came back down the lift and had lunch. There is something very peaceful about riding slowly through the air on a warm summer's day.




Afterwards we drove to Cascade Falls. I stayed in the car because David had fallen asleep. We then continued the lovely Alpine Loop. By the time we were home everyone needed a nap! And we hadn't even hiked all that much. But being out in heat in the mid-90s wears you out!

Sunday we had a late start, Kausik & Sharyn needing to get a bit of work done. Then while Taylor, David & I went to church, Kausik & Sharyn hunted around for a restaurant at which to get brunch. (I told them it was like looking for pork in Mea Shearim! :) They also wanted to see the Great Salt Lake, but we convinced them to be content with seeing Utah Lake.

The wind was blowing very hard at Utah Lake.

Then we headed up to Temple Square, stopping first at the Conference Center. One of the hosts offered me a wheelchair to replace the Bob. So David got his throne back. I had fought the idea of renting a wheelchair in Springville for the duration of my fracture, but hey, it is a lot more comfortable than crutches or the Bob!

Then we headed up to Temple Square, stopping first at the Conference Center. One of the hosts offered me a wheelchair to replace the Bob. So David got his throne back. I had fought the idea of renting a wheelchair in Springville for the duration of my fracture, but hey, it is a lot more comfortable than crutches or the Bob!




Kausik and Sharyn are both so cute with David. They are gentle and playful to him. They are like family, so David's been lucky to see so many of his uncles and aunts this month! Here are two shots of Kausik & David by the reflecting pool at Temple Square.







Sharyn had never been to Temple Square, one reason we wanted her to see it. But it's also nice for me to get there -- I feel great peace near the Temple and am grateful that President Hinckley had the vision to increase the the number of temples throughout the world.

Middle Aged?

So it's my 35th birthday. The US Census (says Wikipedia) includes both the age categories 35 to 44 and 45 to 54 in the "middle age", though pretty much everything else assures me I haven't hit it yet. Heck -- I get enough acne still to be a teenager! The Wikipedia entry focuses primarily on what we lose once we reach middle age: our waist lines; our skin elasticity (Botox anyone ? :); our hair's color; our fertility; even, in the developing world, our mortality! They do spend a few lines mentioning that it also tends to be a period of job stability, family life, and more settled sense of identity. But we know our youth-obsessed society is more worried about looking 20 than about being wise as 60.

It's kind of a bummer to have a broken foot on your birthday. But Taylor planned for us to picnic up the beautiful Hobble Creek Canyon. We found a lovely spot with picnic tables. He'd packed all sorts of things: corn on the cob, masuman (sp?) curry, lots of gifts of chocolate for me, cards from him and my parents and Sara. We picked up a Sonic shake on the way home; very yummy. Now we'll watch The Princess Bride. It's a nice, gentle birthday celebration, just what I need.

I'm grateful for how supportive Taylor has been throughout this foot ordeal. Since I can't carry David anywhere, I rely on Taylor to bring me David, even when I'm trying to be the one to feed or change or play with him. If this foot fracture had to happen (which I don't believe it did), it's a good thing it happened this summer, while I don't need to teach and while Taylor works days from home, and thus can help so much with David.

I Hate PacifiCare

So my insurance instructed me to go to an Urgent Care to x-ray the foot. We did so Monday night, and found it was fractured. The doctor said I need to be seen by an orthopedic surgeon, and may need surgery.

However, PacifiCare refuses to pay for me to see a specialist out of state. I broke down Tuesday after speaking on the phone with one of their reps; we were going to have the neighbors over for dinner, but I just was so disheartened and worried that I was in tears. I also realized Taylor would need to go to the Urgent Care after work, instead of rushing home to dinner, to pick up a floppy disk with my x-rays. (Don't ask me why the Urgent Care has digital files but is unable to just email them to us! I was just glad they'd give us the files at all.)

We emailed the files to my dad, who asked a favor of his orthopedist friends, Drs. John Erkkila and Leon Malkin. Those guys all deserve medals, and my dad deserves honorary status as an orthopedist, since he called what they too said: I don't need surgery. It's a so-called "Dancers Fracture" and not a "Jones Fracture" which would have required surgery. I just need to protect it with a big removable boot and the use of crutches for a few more weeks. About 3-4 weeks I need to re-x-ray it. (Will PacifiCare cover that?? I'll be in Oregon at the time.) And about that time I can start being weight on it. Total healing process will be about 6-8 weeks. So stupid that a 2-second mistake is costing hours and hours of care and lost time.

I wrote an ugly complaint letter to PacifiCare and cc:ed it to the Better Business Bureau, consumeraffairs.com, my district, and the PAEA president (who said it was actually the fault of my clinic, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, though my doctor explained why it was not). My letter writing kind of lost steam once I got the news that I would not need surgery. But I am still angry about how lame this coverage is.

Reminds me of the staff-student musical this past February, "Alice Down the Healthcare Hole: A Musical Coma," which poked fun at the American health care system. It really is a mess. I need to talk to my dad to hear what he thinks would be a reasonable solution.

Kids at Heart, Brothers in Spirit

Just some fun photos of my dad and Tom Sherry, taken at a wedding reception held at the "Peach Place" across the Willamette River near my hometown (Corvallis). These guys look like twins, act like brothers, and are so much fun. Love you, Dad!





This does seem like a lot more fun than schmoozing with hors d'oeuvres in hand!

Halverson Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Ancestors - Free genealogy

So my sister Sara had a Look-alike Meter on her blog. Her little Jasper looks 3% more like Rob than Sara. I wondered: What happens with our adopted David? People are always telling us that he looks a lot like Taylor (dark hair, curls). But hey: I have the chipmunk cheeks that resemble those of a toddler! Well, I guess when your child is adopted they look equally like (or might it be unlike) both of you! Ha ha!

I'm Asian! Or not...?

So here's why I look like David: I'm South Korean! We share some Asian heritage! Or at least, the celeb that I look most like is Choi Ji Woo. But hey, I also look 66% like Matthew Broderick...and I'm pretty sure I'm all girl.

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Dynasty - Pedigree

OK. With a different photo, I either look like the infertile adoptive mother in Juno (well, that fits!), or else I look Hispanic or Indian. Gosh! I thought I was white bread all the way!

I guess the fun thing about all this is it shows, as I've read to be true, how little race really means or matters. I feel sure Taylor and I will look equally like our next adopted child, too!

Fowler Fun

My sister Anna, her husband James, and their two boys were able to stay with us for a while as Johnny had his 3rd cleft-related surgery and as they searched for a house to rent for the fall, when James begins his MBA program. It was so fun to have them here! They are such good parents and their boys are delightful. I couldn't believe how well Johnny handled his surgery. He's such a trooper!

David is still a little young for activities. But Jimmy (3 1/2 years old) isn't! So we went to Springville Library's storytime. Very cool! For half an hour they read and acted out stories, all themed around bugs this summer ("Catch the Summer Reading Bug"). Then for another half hour there were activities based on the bug of the day. We attended one on worms (are those actually bugs?) and one on spiders. Here are some photos:

I took several more minutes than Anna to warm
to the idea of picking up the worms! David was ready to squish them!

Crawl through the tunnel like a worm! (David never actually ventured in.)

Making a worm treat out of Tootsie Rolls and graham crackers.
Jimmy refuses to smile for the camera.

The home we are subletting is wonderful for children. Besides the child-proofing throughout, there are lots of toys. In the backyard, David mostly just tried to eat clover flowers, but Johnny loved the potato bugs and Jimmy loved the ride-on toys.






However, something went wrong when I tried to take David and Johnny for a ride. Here's the story by photo, to answer the question: What went wrong, Johnny?

Was it when I ran into the house shouting for someone to grab a photo?
Johnny was suddenly ready to be done once I had the camera.

Was it David pulling his blond hair?

Was it Jimmy jumping in and then out? Look David wants to make noise too!

Completely fed up. Let me out or else!

Though Johnny was the first to cry here, he sure was happy during bathtime. In fact, David had a melt-down shortly after these photos -- all because Anna made a chimp sound that scared him! Silly boy! We don't have a photo of that choice moment, because I whisked him off to bed!

Love that smile! You're amazing, Johnny!

At least Johnny and David had a few moments in which both were even-keeled and interested in each other!

Bobby is Home!

My sister Sara, who lives in Seattle, was able to see Bobby as he came home from his two-year mission in the Dominican Republic. I haven't yet, but Sara wrote a really nice entry on her blog about him. I'm so proud of how stalwart he was in serving faithfully for two years. I'm excited to see him and have him meet David!

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid: Foot Fracture

So two night ago I took David's blanket, warm, from the dryer. Though he had fallen asleep without it, I wanted to put it on him while it was still toasty. I ran upstairs, and thought I heard the techno music that Taylor had been playing. I shouted at him to turn it off (I know, hypocritical to shout at someone to be quiet!) so I could sneak into the room without outside noise coming in.

As I approached David's room the 2nd time, I thought I still heard techno. A bit grumpy, I rushed down the steps grumbling about techno. That's when I missed a step. I landed not flat on my foot but on the side. My dad says I've fractured it! It will take up to 6 weeks to heal! Right now, I can't even put weight on it. It's hard to be a mom when you can't run around the house! And it's hard to feel like it's summertime when I can't go jogging or hiking. Kausik & Sharyn get into town tonight; guess we (or at least I) won't be doing all the hikes we had planned.

And the worst part is -- the techno was off! I was hearing the dishwasher! I guess I'll laugh about the interchangeability of techno and dishwasher sounds...when the foot stops hurting!

Emma Smith: My Story

Anna and James babysat for us tonight so we could have a date night. We saw the film Emma Smith: My Story at the dollar theatre (75 cents on Tuesday nights!), and absolutely loved it. It is narrated as a conversation between Emma Smith (as an aged woman) and her adopted daughter, Julia Smith. Julia has some bitterness about life, and asks Emma all sorts of questions about Emma's own challenges and heartbreaks. And Emma sure had a lot of them! Only 5 of her 11 children lived to adulthood. Her husband Joseph was tarred & feathered, persecuted, unlawfully imprisoned, betrayed, and finally martyred. She endured polygamy, something I feel certain would have made me crack. (BTW, one of my great-great-great-grandmothers, Emily Dow Partridge Young, was one of Joseph's plural wives. Emily then married Brigham Young.) She left her parents to follow Joseph and the Saints to Illinois, and never saw them again. She was an amazing and stalwart woman.

One of the three producers is a descendant of Emma and Joseph. As well, Gracia Jones, a great-great-granddaughter of Joseph and Emma Smith, served as a consultant for the film project. I appreciated the way Emma's legacy -- including the 5 children who lived, and did not follow the Saints to Utah -- were honored rather than disparaged.

We plan to buy the DVD once it comes out. That's saying a lot, since I think we own 5 DVDs between the two of us!

Hogle Zoo

My good friend from high school, Kelly Davis Garrett, lives in Salt Lake City with her husband and two little boys. They actually leave for a year in France in just a few weeks, but we were able to get together today for a playdate at Hogle Zoo in SLC. My sister Anna, who has been staying with us for a few days as Johnny had his 3rd cleft-related surgery and as she and James pinned down housing for the fall, came too. We had a great time, even though walking around in 90+ degree weather, at times with a baby on your hip, really tests my limits of fun.

Classy Kelly. Even as a mom, she's got style!

I love how kids can be best of friends as soon as they meet each other.
Or maybe Jimmy is just super friendly -- he's had a blast with several kids his age as they've been visiting.

David was fascinated by the cheetah.
And the giraffe. And the monkeys. And the wild turkeys....

I'll write more about how fun it has been to have Anna and James and sons here...but probably after they've left. While there here, I should get off the computer! (I do have stuff to catch up on today while David sleeps, and that's OK with them.)

More of Leah's Lovely Photos

Leah took such beautiful photos for us. She has posted them on her photo gallery, and given us a CD of the shots. Here are some more of my favorites. (Can you tell I think she does good work? I like them all!) Which are yours? (Consider the ones posted on "Orem's Orchard", too.)