The Curtis Clan - Spring 2013
Spring Equinox to Summer Solstice
Cate Turns 9
For us, the first big event of spring is Cate’s Birthday. It fell on the day before Easter this year as she turned 9. On Friday she had a friend over for a Harry Potter sleep over and we had the annual family get together at our house on Saturday. This year for dinner we decided to try the 28-inch Pointasaurus from Pointers Pizza. If two people can consume the whole thing in an hour they can win $500. We had twelve people but we were done in much less than an hour. Cate genuinely loved her presents of Hermione’s wand, Star Wars Legos and the DVD of the Hobbit movie. Hard to argue she isn’t quite the nerdling in training.
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Cate at 9
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The Pointasaurus
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Cate's Birthday Group photo Think Pink!
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Read, Right and Run
Along with a few of their friend from school, Cate and Jane participated again in the Read, Right and Run Marathon cumulating in a 1.2 mile finish in Forest Park on 6 April. It was a beautiful day and a fun event,
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Sydney Cate and Jane start out fast
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The girls with their medals
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Afterwards we took the girls to the Hi-Pointe to enjoy a screening of Beetlejuice. It is an iffy inclusion for the classic series but it is mostly fun, in no small part to the best of Harry Belafonte soundtrack (quick – what are the funny parts without it).
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Sydney Cate and Jane at the Hi-Pointe
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Trivia Night
In the middle of the month, WGCS held their annual Trivia Night at the WG Masonic Hall. We finished in 2nd in the standings and apparently in the number of bears consumed (Queue Randy’s Motto: Optime nisi secunda, Nothing but the second best for us). Afterwards, we hung-out at our house until early the next morning in a post party gathering of the team. A very fun evening even without the late night karaoke (and certainly less embarrassing).
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Team Curtis Channeling Steve Jobs
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Strings
The girls were in the annual WG Strings Concert with Jane on the cello and Cate on the violin.
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Jane and Cate pose at home as a duet
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One of their tunes they learned for their concert was essentially Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty from the Big Bang Theory. We could barely keep ourselves from singing along with it while in the audience (and keeping a straight face). Jane was a bit on the fence about continuing on for a third year in the strings program until they presented trophies to all the third year kids graduating out of the program at the end of 5th grade. She was hooked and Cate was in too.
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Soft Wookie Meme
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The next day was dress up as “What I’m going to be when I grew up” Day. Jane chose a scientist wearing a lab coat from who knows where and Cate chose an engineer, wearing one of Randy's ties. They chose engineer and scientist, in part to make Dad happy and in part for the ease in coming up with the costume. Either way, it was kind of cute and something we can remind them of when one of them is a struggling dress designer and the other a starving author!
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Engineer Cate and Scientist Jane?
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May - Mother's Day
We had Mother’s Day brunch with the Sages and Shaws on Van and Gwen’s patio. It was a fun family event where we were treated to watching a mother robin tending to bird-lings in the nest under the eaves of the house.
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Cate Jane and Mom
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We had a similar show at home as a pair of robins built a nest on one of the planters on our back balcony at the end of April (A robin feathering his nest has very little time to rest while gathering his bits of twine and twigs. Though quite intent in his pursuit, he has a merry tune to toot. He knows a song, will move the job along ) As the parents became quite agitated each time we would go out on the balcony, especially after laying their eggs, we abandoned the enjoyment of the balcony for the month plus while we watched from inside the glass of the doors 3 feet away. The mama robin laid three eggs (a new one on each successive day), sat on them for two weeks and then nursed them along until one day they were all gone (about three weeks for the whole process). We assumed they all made it away happily to hopefully to return next year.
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Mama Robin and three bird-lings 2 days before leaving the nest
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Gussie did eat a full bird a couple weeks later that plowed into the window of the side French doors, totally traumatizing the girls who witnessed the whole thing and vainly tried to stop the dog before it was all over in a few minutes. Bethany came home from a quick trip to the library to drop off some due items to two uncontrollably sobbing girls who had lost faith in the goodness of their furry pal. Fortunately they didn’t put it together that the “small dark grey bird” was probably one they just watch hatch on the back balcony. It’s unclear what Gussie thought as she was the most enthralled of all of us by the nest tantalizingly close but denied to her. Circle of life.
Cate signed up for track and golf with the CYC at Holy Redeemer in the spring. Track in 3rd grade is perhaps a tad too early and requiring too much enthusiasm for repetitive running without enough fun to make it palatable. I think we all we glad to be able to blame her oak pollen allergies on her dropping out but it was mostly an excuse as she just didn’t want to do it. Playing golf was more her parents idea so as to get another year of use from the clubs. The practice sessions went much better, mostly as a function of it being shorter duration: consecutive Thursday / Friday training sessions for two weeks followed playing on the short holes at Tower Tee the third week for an hor. She thought it was OK and looked the part but was none too interested in practicing outside the official session. Still it left a mostly positive taste for it, unlike track we’re afraid. Jane had signed up for softball but there weren’t enough girls for a team and she was off the hook from her parent’s pushing her to try a sport.
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Cate on the links
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On the last day of school we celebrated with a DQ Blizzard treat. Never hard to convince the gang to go to DQ.
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Everyday is Blizzard Day?
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Summer Break
The next night we celebrated the cool weather of the spring and build a fire in our fire pit. It was the first time we used it this season. In fact, it was the first time we ever used it at all having bought it at Black Friday sale 2 ½ years ago in Pittsburgh. Perhaps long delayed plan for spending thousands to expand and rebuild our brick patio might not be the best investment given our lack of use of the area. Alternately, the lack of a pleasant patio space maybe what’s holding us back from using it more. Any way we had fun building a fire as the girls are learning to do more of the fire building and like lighting the matches to start it. We also toasted the obligatory marshmallows for s ‘mores .
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Cate, Jane and Randy enjoying the fire pit
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That weekend, Memorial Day weekend, the girls made the much anticipated leap forwarded of getting the training wheels off their bikes. It helped that practically all the neighbors left for the weekend, so there was no cars on Tuxedo giving them LOTS of room to wiggle down the street keeping their fragile balance in check. Within 15 minutes of getting the training wheels off, the girls suggested we go to Grant Trail despite using all ~20 feet width of the road to peddle the first hour or so. We resisted their imploring and waited a few biking sessions until they could go down the road reasonably straight and could reliably stop besides dragging their feet to slow down. A shorter bike ride to nearby Margaret Park also seemed like a good idea. The following weekend, the girls and Randy parked at Applebee’s on Watson to start to make sure they could handle the distance and there was a good place to lock up the bikes. We ducked into the Ulysses S Grant National Historic Site next door and watched the film strip as a break and then continued biking to the other side of Gravois before turning around and heading back to the minvan. We had to stop and look at the Clydesdales mid-way (which was more about taking a break than looking at the horses but it was a clear path forward and proved the girls could ride bikes to Grant’s Farm in the future.
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Cate and Jane take time to stop and smell the Clydesdales
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Gussie at 1
The next day was Gussie 1st Birthday. She’s firmly part of the family and a 28 pounds twice the size of many of her breed. Still she is a good size for us and we’re exceptionally fond of her.
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Gussie 1st Birthday
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She is far from “perfect”. One of her quirks is that ridding in the car makes her throw up it at distance of a mile or less. We discovered the tip that a Benadryl pill can help alleviate nausea from riding in the car for many dogs. We did a test run to Van and Gwen’s a few miles away with the added benefit of letting her have the freedom of getting to run free without a leash in their fenced in yard. It worked! At our house, every couple few weeks in spring Gussie would dart out the door and lead us all on a spirited game of chase down the street. If she wasn’t so oblivious to cars, we’d be tempted to just let her go but we’d hate to have her get squashed. Frequently the only way we catch her is that she spies some stranger that “needs” her to visit them so they can love her too or at least it seems that is what she’s thinking. We’re just happy that she has some kryptonite that stops the silly chase.
Another antidote of the dog in spring was the unexpected treat of early June of Bethany seeing the first firefly of summer along with Gussie who appeared to notice them for the first time. She was quite chagrinned each time the light went out as she followed him around the yard. Too cute! Randy - The glowworm is my favorite insect and seeing them always rekindles treasured memories of summer nights past (and of the Johnny Mercer lyrics to the Mills Brother’s hit single. An exceptionally clever bit of writing).
In June, Bethany joined the WG Library Board after the city council officially appointed her. It is a pleasant honor and recognition of her efforts on the building committee (and kind of neat that Randy’s mom serves on the adjacent Rock Hill Library Board). It also comes with a mini perk of being considered a WG employee when it comes to getting a complementary entry into the recreation complex gym and more importantly the pool.
Piano Recital
The second weekend of June, the girls had their spring Piano Recital. As previously, it was held al fresco in the green common area across the street from their piano teacher’s house. This year the weather proved spectacular for the couple hour event for parents waiting for their kid’s couple minute moment in the spot light. Cate played a portion of Beethoven's "Fur elise" and Jane played portions of Offenbach’s Can Can and Skip to My Lou. Afterwards, there were snacks and refreshment and more happily for the girls getting to climb in the fabulous tree that provide us shaded comfort. The tree has been recognized as the largest Lindenwood tree in Missouri but the girls only saw it as a great tree for kids to climb in.
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The Curti with the Largest Lindenwood in MO
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The girls and Randy arrived a minute or three before the recital started having chosen to go to the Hi-Pointe’s monthly classic of Roman Holiday, to great satisfaction of all. Other films we showed the girls in spring 2013 were BeeteleJuice, His Girl Friday, Star Trek (2009) and Iron Man in advance of the summer release of sequels. We also let them watch the PG-13 release of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close that delt with a son’s post 9/11 trauma of the loss of his father. We paused frequently to discuss parts of the story. This movie will also satisfy them that there are such things as adult movies that they really don’t want to watch yet.
YMCA Camp Lakewood
The girls spent the last full week of spring at the YMCA Camp Lakewood at Sunnen Lake outside Potosí. It was Jane’s 4th year and Cate’s 3rd and they’re both exceptional fond of their time there. Jane passed the 5 minute treading water and 100 yard swim test allowing her to take kayaking as two of her electives along with friendship bracelets and crafts. Kayaking made her exceptionally pleased with herself and she announced she was going to kayak by herself on the fall camping float trip instead of canoeing with Dad and her sister. Cate chose archery and nature to go along with friendship bracelets and crafts. She proved pretty good at archery and expressed some regret at not signing up for the mud cave. Perhaps next year we can convince them to skip the craft stuff they can do at home and instead focus on the things they can’t do at home. Besides we hardly need MORE bracelets. Bethany and Randy once again enjoyed their week of date nights, going to see four movies and hanging out with other adults several nights. The bickering of two pre-teen girls was not missed in the least. Camp Lakewood is one of the favorite weeks of the year for the WHOLE family (two weeks in 2014?).
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Jane and Cate at Camp Lakewood
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August 1967 - Randy poses in front of the same sign platform when it was Trout Lodge with sister Rhonda, Grandmother Sullivan and mother Nancy
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Cate's 1st Orthodonist Appoinment
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Nancy Curtis - Spring 2013
Despite all the fun activities and events, spring 2013 at our home was mostly focused on Randy’s mother and her health issues. It was a disheartening few months as Nancy went from having a single, independent active life to a much weakened, sedentary one in hospital and skilled nursing beds. A difficult topic to summarize without sounding flippant or overly negative and discouraging. Certainly one without photos of Nancy as that is not how one wants to be remembered.
Recapping the situation:
On March 19, Nancy went to St. Clare Health Center (aka hospital) in Fenton for a fairly routine Aortic Valve Replacement (AVR) to repair a leaky aortic valve. The original plan was to conduct a minimally invasive cardiac surgery (MICS), in which the surgeon replaces the valve through small incisions between two to four inches in length rather than by cutting a six to ten-inch incision down the center of her sternum. MICS typically involves shorter recovery time.
Instead, the AVR was done by a full sternotomy, as is more common. She got a porcine (pig) valve replacement and on their way out, she had an Aortic Dissection, which occurs when a tear in the inner wall of the aorta causes blood to flow between the layers of the wall of the aorta, forcing the layers apart. This is very serious issue with a high mortality rate but fortunately she was still hooked up to the cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) machine (i.e. heart-lung machine) and the surgeon was able to deal with it. Almost as an afterthought, the surgeon mentioned they had done a double by-pass as well. That this was almost not worth mentioning conveys the seriousness of the dissection. It was a very long day (8+ hours of surgery) and she was in very serious condition when they got her to the ICU and there was a high likelihood of her not making it through the night.
In the first days that followed, there were mini crisis that left us wondering again if it was going to be her last day. On a few occasions they needed to shock her with the defibulator to reset her heart rhythms when she had fallen into ventricular fibrillation, or V-Fib (when the heart loses its normal rhythm). She also came close to having acute renal failure but the diuretics proscribed got her past that hump. On day 11, Good Friday (March 29), they finally extubated her (removed ventilator tube). She immediately mouthed a barely audibly but clear "I love you"; a sentiment she repeated often. About an hour and a half afterward, when asked if she needed anything, she responded with a clear "I want a Diet Coke". Arm lifting and finger squeezing remains minimal
Her subsequent recovery at St. Clare was very uneven; filled with steps forward and steps backward. Most of the time, she was very weak and talking with her was difficult as she could frequently only manage to whisper a few words at a time. Moving her left arm and leg was causing them to think stroke and after a week or so they performed an MRI that confirmed she had a mild stroke, apparently in the first day or so after the surgery but given her condition in the first few days it’s not clear when it happened. It appears mild as she remembers most things but getting her body to respond proved a challenge. Being all there mentally after the stroke offered much solace in dealing with her weakened physical state but in the first few weeks she was seriously depressed and they put her on anti-depressants in addition to the cornucopia of other medications they had her own.
She had some really good days followed by major steps backward which was hard to accept. Since St. Claire is the hospital where Randy’s sister Rhonda works, we felt she got extra personnel attention and the four yea facilities were very nice to the point we caught our selves calling it a hotel more than once. She also received a cavalcade of cards and well wishes from her teaching and PEO pals in town, but also an outpouring of cards from her jazz club and NHL Booster Club friends from around the country. It was nice to see a card from Steve Wolfe and the other folks at the Rep but I think I was most touched by the card from her waitress at the Columbia Saloon. I guess it pays to be a good tipper.
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Jane and Cate with the wall of cards at St. Clare (New card walls would be repeated at other locations again)
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Nancy began rehab at the ICU at St. Clair with the therapist working with her in the bed but she wore out quickly from physical and speech therapy. Just past the one month mark (23 April), she transferred out of the ICU to St. Mary’s SSM Rehabilitation Hospital in Richmond Heights for acute rehabilitation where that was their specialty. She did a little better every day there but progress was slow and large improvements proved allusive. She had a pretty busy schedule of half hour sessions of Speech, Physical and Occupational Therapy a couple times a day scheduled, so she was pretty worn out by the end of the day. She had little interest in eating and was content to rely on the feeding tube until she came up with a very specific food request after weeks of disinterest of a Joe Bacardi’s small pizza with bacon, mushrooms and black olives.
After a few weeks (May 17), she completed her Medicare Acute Rehab at St. Mary's and moved to Laclede Groves in southeast Webster into the Laclede Groves complex as part of the REACH Short Stay rehabilitation program. They have a rehab workout room and they worked hard to get her standing but that proved beyond her and after a few weeks she “plateaued”, which is a nice way of saying they think she got as much out of rehab as she can and additional efforts would not likely bring any significant benefits (it didn’t help that she spent a week plus fighting off "C. diff" which caused severe diarrhea and flu symptoms and is relatively common for patients on extended stays in hospitals or nursing homes. Spring ended with us looking for a permanent skilled nursing facility to place her.
On a parallel tract to her hospital stays, Randy began working on her house including getting the girls to take over the lawn mowing chores from the landscaping Nancy had used for a number of years. The landscaping had upped his rates to $40 in the absence of any competition from teenagers looking for spending money. Randy figured this was exceedingly good cash for a preteen with few skills and figured it was better to keep the $ in the family and hopefully turn them on to being motivated to work for spending, a characteristic absent in to many of our youths. A cheap used self-propelled mower from neighbor boy in engineering at Rolla made it feasible for semi-athletic 9 and 10 year olds to do it, though they can’t pull start it and need Dad to do that and the edges which are trickier. They also got to explore the woods behind Nana’s house and saw a deer on the path, something Randy and Nana never did in nearly 50 years there. As one door closes, another opens.
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