Before I get into the rest of the pictures I want to first highlight one from yesterday and the story behind it.
Yesterday I took the boys and Grace to get flu shots while Laura and and Dela were at a (routine, regularly scheduled) school conference. Instead of going to the clinic we normally go to where our doctor is, it was decided to go to the pharmacy/drug store just a few blocks from our house. Our insurance provider recently opened up a “care clinic” at the local drugstore, and while we haven’t really familiarized ourselves with its services, we did know that flu shots were available there.
I check in and we are waiting, not too long, but if you have ever had to wait in line with a three year old you know that even 5 minutes can seem like an hour. I’m not sure how long we waited, 15 minutes perhaps, and then we shuffled into the exam room. There’s four boys, ranging in ages 3 to 14, myself, and Grace in her stroller. the nurse practitioner is not quite sure what to make of us all.
Since I am the one who checked in I was first up. I hand over my medical card, answer the standard questions, and get my flu shot. The nurse practitioner then exits out of the system and asks which of these kids is “Bart” or some other name. I replied that I was the only one checked in, but was told we would all be able to get our shots. She looks at the information available to her on the screen a moment, then back at us, then back to the screen, then back at us saying “Then let’s do this in a orderly fashion.”
Tevye, for all of his… whatever the heck it is, did pretty good once we were in the room. The nurse practitioner enlisted his aid by having him hold the bandage to be placed on each person while she was administering each shot. Yes, he even held his own bandage. Unfortunately he squirmed when it was his turn so there was a bit of blood.
Just before the last person was to get the flu shot, the phone rang. She was a little annoyed saying “I have a room full here with a whole family,” but had to go out into the drug store to check on something. Coming back in the phone rang again and she picked it up “Oh, I hung up on you? I’m sorry. Hold on, I’ll be right back.” and she handed to phone to Tevye before leaving again “You can say ‘Hi’ if you want.”
So he did.
“Hello? I have 3 kids in here.”
No, really, that’s what he said into the phone. When the nurse practitioner came back in she told him to say goodbye, which he did then handed her the phone. She spoke into the phone for a moment, hung up, administered the final flu shot and we were on our way.
A couple of weeks ago the final cross country events took place. First up was the ribbon run for the younger grades. Here is Xavier pouring on some speed to pass a few kids at the approach to the finish line.
I would miss the championship race the following week, but I will get to that in a moment.
Kyle moved to Portland for the company he is working for but came over one last time before heading down.
Picking up Tevye from preschool I got to the school a little early and since it wasn’t raining I found Xavier right where I expected him to be – playing kickball.
So why did I miss the cross country championships? I was in Portland. No, not with Kyle, but Déla had a dance competition. Here was are in Target across from our hotel picking up a few things we forgot after a long night’s drive about 5 minutes before the store closed.
Here she is lined up to compete. It wasn’t a great weekend for her, award-wise, but it was still worth going.
Of course we carved pumpkins as well. But that is going to go into another post.
And another game of Munchkin got played. This time it was Munchkin Booty. Note the bandage on Xavier’s shoulder from the flu shot.
And that’s what I have for this installment.