Sick House

This was a pretty uneventful week.  On Monday, Luke was unwell, and Ryan was still not 100%, so we had everyone at home!  We made our first trip to the pediatrician - he was very lovely, and gave Luke some tablets which made him feel a whole lot better.  He sent our script directly to the pharmacy, and then when we had finished with him, we could drive straight to the pharmacy and pick it up - great system!  If I was feeling a little more adventurous, I could have even tried out the drive through script service, where you stay in your car, drive to a window and pay and they pass out your drugs to you - very nice, especially when it is freezing cold, and you have sick children in the car.  However, they don't yet provide a pick up service for cough lollies, cough medicine and the like, so I did have to get out of the car and go into the pharmacy.  I am looking forward to using the drive through service at some point though!  The boys are also very impressed with the drive through postal service, at the post office, where you stay in your car and just drive by the post box, and drop your letters in.  Every time we have been to the post office, we have been sending something to Australia, so have needed to go into the post office, but another handy system, if you want to avoid getting everyone in and out of the car, unnecessarily!

The boys were a little disappointed when they returned to school, as the Monday they were sick was the 100th day of school for the year. Each class does it's own thing, but both their classes had party food, which they missed out on, but I am sure there will be plenty more celebrations they will be able to be a part of. Luke's name was also called out, and he got to choose a prize, for Bison Strongs. They have a reward system in place at school whereby they get 'Bison Strong' stickers for behaviour, effort etc, and once they get 20, they go into a draw to be able to select prizes. For Luke's prize, he chose to have lunch with a friend and a teacher, which he thought was lots of fun. He told me it was heaps better than going to the the noisy, smelly cafeteria - it has lost it's gloss quite quickly! However, he was happy enough to order his lunch for the first time this week. Thursday is pizza day, and he tells me now that he likes pepperoni pizza. It is a pretty good system - you make a meal payment, online, for each student - you can put on as much or little as you like, and then when they get their lunch, the cost is deducted. It cost $2.50 for a hot lunch, which they have a choice of three different selections each day, and then they get plain or flavoured milk with it. Ryan got his on Friday, once he had worked out the ordering system, and reckons it was great!  The picture above is of the school cafeteria, where all the students eat lunch.  Each grade has lunch at different times, and it is a pretty efficient system getting each grade in and out, and they have just 20 minutes to eat their lunch, then either go outside to play, or if it is bad weather (rain, snow or just too cold), they have what they call indoor recess, where they go back to their classrooms - this is not a favourite!

One of the highlights of the week (I told you it was uneventful!), was the delivery of the Girl Scout cookies).  Phil was happy to support a good cause - one of the guys he teaches with, has a daughter in the girl scouts, and this is one of their big fund raisers for the year.  I think we have tried every flavour they make, and some of them twice.  We haven't really found a flavour that we don't like - funny that! The boys need to be eight before they can join boy scouts over here, so that is one activity we don't need to worry about.  We missed the cut off for registration for basketball which was prior to Christmas, but the season is about to start for football, soccer, and baseball, so we need to see what the boys want to play.

On Wednesday, there was a Pot Luck lunch for the spouses of people who are here on exchange.  Quinn and I went along - it was in Denver, about a thirty minute drive from our house, but it was interesting, as we have not really been into Denver except to the Science & Nature Museum, during the first week we were here.  It was hosted by Americans, most of who had been on exchange to Australia at some point, and they were all very helpful with things we should see and do, and just information in general.  Two other spouses attended, and it was good to chat with them and see what they had been up to.  They were pretty impressed that we had driven there, as neither of them had been game enough to drive over here yet - I would be going crazy!  It is not that bad once you get used to it, I just keep reminding myself that the driver is always on the inside of the road.  It is the little things that get you through, I guess.

Quinn and I pretty much lied low for the rest of the week, still not feeling great.  I know when he asks me to go for a sleep in the middle of the day, that he is not very well!  On Saturday, Phil, Luke and Ryan ventured into town.  They all came back with hair cuts, books and DVDs from a visit to the library, and a new remote control helicopter.  The helicopter was Luke's purchase from his Christmas money, and he was pretty rapt.  However, it wasn't launching very well, which we put down to just needing to be charged.  Phil has since looked into it, and the manufacturer explained to us that apparently that model of helicopter doesn't work well at this altitude (we are in the mile high city - Castle Rock is at over 6,000 feet above sea level).  He told us that if we cut off the blades and sent them a picture of it, they would send us a different model, that will work at this altitude.  So Luke is patiently waiting for a new one to arrive!

On Sunday Phil and Ryan found some snow shoes in the basement, and decided to try them out. Just as they were out in the backyard walking around, it started to snow, so that was quite timely.  We are going snow shoeing in a couple of weeks with the Colorado exchange League, and some other families who are here from Australia, so it will be interesting to see how we go.  The snow shoes are a cross between little skis, and tennis rackets, that you strap your snow boots into, and just go walking in.  Phil and Ryan might be ahead of the pack, now that they have had some practice...