[The kids in their church Christmas attire.]
Having Scott home for two weeks was very enjoyable. He went back to work today and we missed him terribly. Here are a few things we did after Christmas that I wanted to report on.
Sunday the 28th of December the Toh’s came over for dinner. Li-Li asked me what all my favorite dishes are that she makes and she made them all. Li-Li is an amazing cook of Chinese food. Not the food you get from Panda Express, but real, very good, Chinese food. I ate way too much but it was very good and we even got to keep the left overs. Thanks Li-Li!!
Scott and all the kids enjoyed a Nerf gun fight. At first the kids were a little apprehensive about shooting Scott but finally Ja-Zhen was hitting Scott almost every time. We had a blast (literally!!)
[Li-Li and I taken by Jaime with the new camera she got for Christmas]
Scott took a “day off” on Monday the 29th. He spent it buying new shoes and things for fixing stuff in the house. He then spent the afternoon with Joey doing “guy” things. He came home about 4:30 and reported having had a great time and feeling refreshed and ready for life!
Tuesday the 30th Scott and I donated blood. This has been one of my favorite things to do since I donated blood for the first time as a high school student. It’s the one service I feel I can do to serve others in the community but does not require as much time and energy as other service opportunities would require. There have been times that I have not been able to give blood (i.e low iron, pregnant….) and that always puts a damper on the day. But this blood donating experience was like none other. I feel as though I have a pretty high tolerance for pain. Perhaps that comes from being the youngest child, but whatever the reason I handle pain quite well. So I get in the chair and this tech tries to put the needle in. She finds ‘the perfect spot’ and goes for it. Nothing. She stands there for a few seconds in awe at the fact that she missed. She then tells me to relax my hand. She says she is going to move the needle around and to let her know if it hurts. So there she goes, digging and digging and digging till she smiles and says, ‘got it’. That only lasted a few seconds. She noticed I started bruising and opted to take the needle out. Great, all that for nothing. However, she says she can try the other arm if I wanted to. Sure why not, I’m doing my civic duty here, can’t give up so soon. So we get all set up, she find ‘the perfect spot’ and goes for it. Missed again. Again she suggests moving the needle around and does. Again, digging, digging, digging….I’m sure she’s about to give up when she smiles again and says ‘got it’. She actually did this time. She got all the tape on, covers the needle all the stuff they do to leave you alone while you fill the bag. Except my blood flows pretty fast and by the time she did all that the bag was half full. She was going to start a new person and by the time that person sat down, I was nearly done. I guess I got a record bag filling at 4 minutes and 15 seconds. So I left the blood place with a huge bandage on each arm, a little one on my finger and a smile on my face. And she was not kidding, she did bruise my one arm. That’s ok, I’ll go back. There was the time I went and it was confessed that I was about to be the tech’s first patient. I was a little nervous but gave the guy the benefit of the doubt. He got my vein all pumped and to the surface and, instead of actually going into the vein, just pierced it and blood was spewing every where. I found it quite funny at the time. The poor tech was just embarrassed as was his mentor. Oh the fun times of giving blood!!
You are such a good sport!
Good for you! I wish I could like the idea of giving blood! We too are having daddy withdrawals here.
Gross!! I would NOT be as brave as you to let someone stick me for the first time. You’re awesome to give blood so often.
And aren’t those darts the most annoying things to find all over the house? ;) ;)