News del Mercado: October 2024

Sunday, October 13, 2024

Celebrating 20!

We celebrated Victoria on her half-birthday in April when she came home for spring break, and we celebrated with the Kish family just over a month before her birthday before she left for school. Her 20th birthday was on Friday, and we were more involved from a distance than we thought we would be. That was totally fine with me since it's still weird not having her here for big occasions like that.

(Flashback pics to September's celebration)

We opted for 2 candles because she blew the 20 out in April in one breath, so I didn't feel like putting 20 on again.

Sammy and Karyn think of Vicky as another member of their family:)

And of course, Susie does too!

Joe also does. We love this pic of him because he's actually very tall, but in this pic he looks like a short, goofy kid!

Joe let me take a picture of his plate. This is Victoria's favorite meal! Puerto Rican delish!

She had already been on our acute radar since the week before when she announced that she had a displaced rib. Yes, a displaced rib! I thought it had been from when she had a big fall in her tap class, which may have played a role in it, but I think the main cause was when someone cracked her back for her, who was not a chiropractor. After the pain kept increasing and causing more problems, she finally went to see a chiropractor who confirmed what her dance teacher thought- it was a rib out of place. The doc put it back in place and assured her that it happened more frequently than we might think, which made me feel better. He usually puts someone's rib back in place each day. I had no idea! She had to take it easy for some more time, and the pain still intensified, even after she went. I was thinking that she was going to be feeling well just in time for her birthday when she called Thursday night and told me she had just gone to the urgent care and had bronchitis! That day, she had problems breathing, kept coughing, was light-headed, and had a headache. They prescribed her with antibiotics and some steroids. When she returned to her apartment, she was exhausted and hungry but didn't have the energy to make something to eat. Jason and I decided to Door Dash her some groceries that evening so she could start her birthday off on a decent foot and not have to go back to the hospital because of dehydration or something. It was rewarding to pick out some of her favorite foods that would help her heal, like chicken noodle soup, clementines, popsicles, and cream cheese for her bagels. I got Austin to text her that she needed to use the lemons, honey, and cinnamon we were buying for her to make herself a lemon tea- something that he learned when he was sick was very soothing and healing.

By the next morning, she was already improving and she had a lot less pain from her rib. She had to skip a few of her physically demanding classes but went to her kinesiology class. Her friends took her to dinner and she felt well enough for that, which I was so happy about. We're glad she was celebrated and is healing again. No more injuries or illnesses for a while now, please!

With her BYU-I friends!

Monday, October 7, 2024

Detroit Visit

My dad and Mary Lou came for their yearly visit at the end of September into early October. As usual, we took them to a cider mill and some of the kids' events.

Erik's ankle had been healing, and he was able to play in his first game since his injury. He played very well and had about five headers that game, so at least his head took a beating and not his ankle! He didn't have a XC meet while they were here since it was a by-week for Discovery. That was actually good so he could rest it more. He got a 5-second PR at his meet the day after they left and his ankle felt great!

We were excited for them to see Austin run in a tri-school meet, but we found out that the coach didn't want his top 8 runners running in that Tuesday meet. He wanted to save them for the Saturday qualifying meet for States, so they didn't get to see him run. (FYI: Austin got a 19-second PR on Saturday, coming in 19th out of 213 and second on our varsity with a time of 16:39. So good call Coach!)

The top 7. The 8th wasn't feeling well.

We all enjoyed visiting with them and getting our cinnamon donuts and cider. Kade got to bring his friend Isa along for that.

Cheers!

Big kids on the little cider mill toys!

For something different this time, I took my dad and Mary Lou to Detroit one day after work. We had to do what all Detroiters do and tested the Coney Dogs at Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island. The two were opened by brothers, right next door to each other in 1917 and 1924. The coney dogs are slightly different and depending on who you talk to, everyone has a strong opinion on which is better. A coney dog is a hot dog with a special chili on it, then mustard, followed by diced onions. You can order a few other options off the menu, but we opted to split two coney dogs at each place to see what we liked best, which was American. The mustard was less spicy, which I didn't mind, but my dad and Mary Lou didn't like it as much. The onions weren't as strong either, which is the reason I liked it better at American. There are other differences in the chili and dogs themselves, but I couldn't really tell. It was a fun experiment.

We walked over to the Detroit River afterward. That reminded me that I never posted the pics of our Stake activity in Detroit over Labor Day weekend. (We got a private cruise on the river on the Diamond Belle and the guide pointed out some landmarks and history on both the American and Canadian sides. Most of which I have forgotten, except that the only floating US post office in the country is on that river with its own zip code. It delivers mail traveling the Great Lakes that come through the Detroit River port.)

We're glad Grandpa and Grandma Anderson came to visit!