Now it's official

 It's birthday season at our house. Dax is officially 21.  He is doing well in school and he survived "The Plague" as he calls it.  Life is good.  Dax didn't ask for much for his big day.  He said he just wanted to go to dinner in downtown Gilbert walk around and enjoy the neon lights/ Route 66 feel.  Curtis had bigger plans for him.

Now that Derek and Dax are both driving, they are going to different places at different times.  Sharing the car worked out great, in the beginning, most things were still done online due to the pandemic.  Now that things are getting back to normal and Dax will return to school on campus rather than online next month, he is doing more photoshoots for Curtis's Real Estate team and driving around the city a lot more.   We needed to make some arrangements.  This was Curtis' idea.

This was a great car with very low miles and a good price.  It just so happened to be Red, Dax's favorite color.

This Birthday shirt makes me laugh " I'm always disappointed when liars pants don't actually catch on fire"

I made this neon sign for Dax, going with the Neon/Route 66/car theme

Bosa Donuts for breakfast.

Dax was very surprised and grateful for this gift. 

We ended the evening by having Dax drive us down to Joe's Real BBQ in downtown Gilbert.  We went too early (summertime) we missed the Neon signs.  We will have to go back in the fall.  It was a fun day.




 

Crappy end to the school year

 Covid came in and really did a number in our house.  It took Derek months to feel better.  He was just worn down and struggling to feel well again.  Vomiting and no energy was his daily ritual.  On May 3rd he finally felt well enough to return to school, although he didn't make it the entire day.  It was touch and go for the next few weeks.  Occasionally he would make it an entire day, most of the time I had to pick him up after the first class, and some days he still did not feel well enough to leave the house.  We were just hoping he could be well enough to take his finals.  He made it to his finals and miraculously he did decent on his finals.  He ended up with C's in English, Chemistry, Weight Training, and US History.  He got a B on his health final but the teacher said he failed the course so he had to retake it.  I found out later I could have fought this since he had health issues. He will need to retake Algebra II.  I'm ok with that, I want him to have a good foundation in math.

  His final report card said he missed 69 days of school out of 180, about 40 of those absences happened in the last quarter.  Considering almost 12 weeks of the school year was online and he did school from home during "virtual learning" it would have been worse. There were several days during virtual learning he would not have been able to make it to school. 

Since Derek hadn't left the house in months, his hair got long and shaggy.  I snapped this picture the first day he returned to school.  He still didn't feel great and it was a few more weeks before he actually got a hair cut.  He looked amazing once he got his hair cut.

Then there was Trey...

On April 25th Trey started to have a headache.  The headache was so bad all he only wanted to lay down.  So that is what he did for the next 3 MONTHS.  I took him to multiple Doctors, his pediatrician, then a pediatric neurologist.  The medications they were prescribing for "persistent migraines" were not helping at all.  Trey continued to lay down, missing school, end-of-year projects, end of year parties.  It really was a terrible way to finish elementary school.  This was a never ending constant Migraine, Trey only felt relief by laying down.

By early June I started taking both Derek and Trey to a Naturopath Doctor.  Nothing else was working I figured it couldn't hurt.  I explained to Derek and Trey what a naturopath was and they said "it sounds like Voodoo" We started calling him Dr. Voodoo instead of his real name Van Driel. 

 On top of the headache issues, Trey started to have digestive issues. Nothing was going well for him.  I took him to the ER one Friday afternoon on May 28th.  He had been on the migraine medication for about 3 weeks and there was no progress, his neurologist just kept telling him to keep taking the meds.  His stomach was upset and Trey was just miserable.  The ER gave him a shot for the migraine, and some Miralax to drink.  Trey was very constipated (about 3 weeks worth).  No wonder he didn't feel good.

Trey in the ER feeling miserable

After a few days, the "drains" got unclogged and the digestive system started working again.  The headaches persisted.  From the first doctor visit, I suspected Trey's headaches were linked to COVID.  The doctors didn't seem to care. I started learning about other kids who started to have migraines after COVID.  It was due to high pressure from spinal fluid.  The next step the neurologist wanted an MRI.  I asked them if we could skip this step and go straight to the spinal tap.  They said "NO".  I asked them if we could at least schedule the spinal tap at the same time as the MRI.  I highly suspected the MRI wasn't going to show anything and they are so slow getting anything scheduled.  The MRI took one week just to schedule it then we would have to wait for the actual appointment and the results after a few days.   Then start over again trying to schedule the spinal tap.  They again said "NO".  On June 11th Curtis took Trey in for the MRI while I was up at Girl's Camp.

                                Lanae Jones, Taryn Johnson (TJ) and Marilyn Johnson (MJ) at Girls Camp 2021 up at Camp Raymond near Flagstaff, AZ

The MRI came back normal, which is good, there is no tumor but we still don't have answers for the migraines.  Starting all over again trying to schedule a Spinal Tap through the neurologist's office.  In the meantime, we amped up the visits to Dr. Voodoo.  Trey did start to see some improvement in his headaches from Dr. Voodoo's treatments but he still didn't feel good. We were really trying to avoid the spinal tap.  Trey was terrified to have the spinal tap and go under anesthesia.  

Trey getting Micro Current Treatment from "Dr. VooDoo"

After a few treatments with Dr. Voodoo, Derek finally started to feel "good" again as well.  

We were out of options, on June 25th Trey went in for the spinal tap.  Because of his age, they put him under anesthesia.  Trey was a nervous wreck and did not want to do this.  It kind of reminded me of how Curtis feels when he has to go under anesthesia.  I actually enjoy it, for me going under anesthesia is the best nap. It doesn't help that at the hospital that is no urgency to run anything on time.  We were told his procedure was scheduled for 9:30 a.m.  They told us to arrive at 8:00 so we did.  After a lot of hours waiting around and making Trey more anxious and scared they finally took him back around noon.  It's not like this kid hasn't been in pain for the last two months.  UGHH!

The anesthesiologist was fantastic.  She talked to Trey about what was going to happen and she even let him choose if he wanted the gas mask or an IV.  He chose the mask, then she even let me back in the procedure room until Trey was asleep just to calm his nerves.  

Trey in the procedure room about to get the "gas"  it was interesting to watch him go under.  It only took about 3 minutes for him to get into a deep sleep.  They kicked me out at that point and gave him an IV to get him even deeper. The anesthesiologist gave me a play-by-play of what his body was doing.  Did I mention that she was fantastic?    

The entire procedure took about an hour. When they brought me back to the recovery room Trey was all smiles and relieved that it was over.  He realized it was not nearly as bad as he anticipated.  The spinal tap showed he had excessive CSF (Cerebral Spinal Fluid) causing pressure on his brain and giving him a never-ending Migraine.  This is usually brought on by an illness.  

This Mom was right I figured it was excess spinal pressure brought on by COVID.  After a few days on a new medication, his headache was much improved.  Trey still has a slight headache but at least he can get out of bed and live his life.

June 2021's VIP

 Another trip around the sun for Curtis, this is last time around in his '40s.  Curtis turned 49 this year, he got the new big TV he has been wanting and we went for some family fun to  Octane Raceway for some Virtual Reality Zombie hunting, go-cart racing, and yummy food.  Derek was still not feeling well he came along but just as a bystander.  Trey was feeling a slight improvement from his headaches he at least felt like getting out of bed and going.  He was able to have some fun killing zombies and racing the cars.

Then we did it all over again for Father's day.  Curtis got a much-needed new phone.  It was a fun weekend of celebrating Curtis.

Virtual Zombie Hunting.  This was very fun even for me who usually gets motion sick with virtual anything.

Birthday Boy

Not surprising Curtis came in first, I came in last.  There were other people in our race

.  It was a fun day.

Almost to the Finish Line

 

On Monday, March 22, 2021 The Arizona Department of Health announced that anyone over 16 years is now eligible for the COVID 19 vaccine starting on Wednesday, March 24.  Perfect that means 4/5 of our family members qualify except we found out on Tuesday March 23 we were all COVID positive. UGHH the irony.

About March 10, Curtis started not feeling well.  He had found out that a Coworker was positive for COVID.  His family had come to visit from Minnesota, while they were visiting they all got sick and then spread it to the family they had visited.  Curtis didn't originally think that it was COVID because he didn't actually spend much time around the sick person.  The day he had really planned to work side by side the sick person didn't happen because the guy called in sick.  Curtis wasn't feeling well, but it didn't feel like typical COVID symptoms, loss of smell/taste ets.

We had planned to take a little Spring Break trip around Northern Arizona, we dicided to put it off a day until Curtis started feeling better.  We left Wednesday headed up to Holbrook/the Petrified forest

On the drive up we spotted a few patches of snow.  We stopped to play for a bit.  Trey soon learned snow is hard to play in when you don't have snow gear.  Luckily we did have some gloves in the car, other than that he was getting cold and wet fast.

We made it to the museums outside the Petrified Forest.  I would say this car is overloaded with petrified wood and not going anywhere.

This car looks small next to Trey.  Just overloaded.

Portions of the "Painted Desert"

More beautiful Arizona

After leaving the Petrified Forrest/Painted Desert.  We headed to the metropolis of Holbrook, Arizona.  Trey and Curtis were not impressed.  I loved it mostly because of nostalgia.

I know this Wigwam Motel is probably an actual outdated dump of a hotel, and it is kind of a joke to everyone in Northern Arizona, but I still like it and I think it would be fun to stay there just because it has character.  It is also the inspiration to the Cozy Cone from the movie Cars.  I have tried more than once to get a reservation.  I don't know if they are actually that booked up or they just don't use technology like online reservations or a telephone etc, but I have never found success.

Cars Land Inspiration-Wigwam Motel/Cozy Cone

Cozy Cone

I love Cars Land.  The movie came out when my boys were young, it was a great Disney boy movie.  I also thought there were some really funny lines in that movie.  I also love the actual "Cars Land" in California Adventure.  That place is amazing, you literally feel like you are in the movie.  I love the 1950's Neon look everywhere, I love that the town of "Radiator Springs" is loosely based on Northern Arizona, my home growing up. 

We had originally planned to wake up the next morning and head west over to Flagstaff or Williams.  We didn't have a solid plan.  Trey woke up feeling awful and said it was the worse night of his life.  He had a fever, didn't sleep well and felt awful.  We just assumed he had caught the same bug Curtis had.  We scrapped our plans and started to head home.  First we made a stop in Winslow, AZ.  I had only been to Winslow once in my life.  I was in first grade and we took a field trip by riding an Amtrack train from Flagstaff to Winslow.  We got off the train ate lunch, then rode a school bus back to Flagstaff.  That town was sad.  It really had nothing going for it.  I'm really happy Jackson Browne, and Glenn Frey mentioned it in a song otherwise there would be NOTHING going for that sad town. I have known a few people from Winslow, I feel sorry for them.

"Standing in a Corner" monument This literally was the nicest part of town.

"Covid Trey" in front of a Flat Bed Ford

I like how they incorporated an Eagle in the painting.  A tribute to the band.

We made it home Thursday afternoon. Then things really started to get ugly at our house.  Covid came in and just started kicking butt and taking names.  Taking us down one by one.  Today is three weeks since Curtis first felt sick and aside from his lingering cough, he said today is the first day he feels normal.  I think Dax and Trey are feeling pretty good.  I feel mostly better, my stomach still hurts and I have a cough.  Derek is still feeling awful.  I hope he can return to school this school year.  He has been out since February 19.  Derek was having his normal sinus/allergy sickness.  We did finally find out he has sinus polyps.  I think Derek felt good for about 3 days during spring break then COVID hit .  UGHH it has been rough.

Greek Heroes of the Underworld

 Trey is doing a unit in school on Greek Mythology he was assigned the Greek God Hades, the ruler of the underworld to research. The irony is Dax is also taking a college-level class on Greek Heroes he was assigned "Satan".  I don't quite understand how Satan is a Greek God, but somehow they threw in a modern twist with a DC Comic character and that is how is he Satan.

The sixth graders had a "Wax Museum" where everyone dressed up as their Greek God and the parents got to do a drive-by.  I'm still loving this "drive by" way of doing some things.  This has been one good thing to come out of COVID.  

Derek did this a few years ago and he was Cupid.  I recycled the Tunic/Toga white dress that Derek used.  Then Trey came up with the Helmet.  He did well.  His idea was much better than I would have come up with.  Trey told me this Hadas character wore a helmet.  I was like "perfect you had a black bike helmet, put that on, and your done"  Trey insisted that was not going to work.  After he showed me a picture of what Hades actually looked like, I realized how stupid my idea was.

Hades during a pandemic wearing a mask.  This costume went to school in various parts so this is the only picture I got of the final product.

Now for the rest of the 6th Grade Greek/Roman Wax Museum

This is Cerberus (Ryan) the three-headed dog.  This is actually Hades' Dog in mythology.  I thought this costume was great.  Trey went to Preschool with Ryan and his mom, Karyn told me about Ryan's costume I was grateful for the Hades costume.  Not too difficut. I don't know how she pulled Cerberus off, but this is fantastic.

Some of these costumes were really clever.  I thought it was a great project.