Saturday Miscellany

Well, the late nights and lack of sleep took their toll on Suzanna: she woke up today with a nasty case of tonsillitis. Susan took her to the doctor and got her some medicine, and we've got tentative plans for her tonsillectomy over Christmas break (per Suzanna's own request). There were two more performances of Seussical in her future (tonight and tomorrow afternoon), and the show must go on; so Suzanna steeled herself for the challenge, started her meds, and napped throughout most of the day.

En route to the doctor with Suzanna, Susan dropped off Abigail and Hillary at the riding arena on DSU's campus. A friend of the girls had invited them to join him for a trick roping class held by an expert, Felix Lopez, who was on campus this weekend for a rodeo event. So the girls donned their cowboy boots (yes, they have cowboy boots--we're in Dickinson), joined their friend and a bunch of other kids, and tried their hand at roping.

Here's the whole gang of youngsters being taught trick roping by the expert (the gentleman in the black hat, blue vest, and green shirt in the back) and his son (the boy in the red coat and black hat on the left). Can't find the Mobergs? Abigail is in a brown shirt on the left, Hillary is in a blue shirt in the front, and Suzanna is in a green coat on the right (and on her way out the door to the doctor's).

Hillary and her friend Sam, who invited the girls.

Abigail the trick roper!

Mr. Lopez's son, showing the other kids how it's done.

And where was I, you might wonder, during all this fun? On the floor in the laundry room installing the pedestals for the washer and dryer. There were supposed to have arrived weeks ago with the rest of our new appliances, but they took another week to get here, and I took yet another week to finally remove them from their boxes and read to find out what was involved in installing them. Just pick up the washer and dryer, slide the pedestals underneath, and set down the appliances on top of them? Nope. I had to disconnect both the washer and dryer, drain the washer, lay them both on their backs, bolt the pedestals to the bottoms, get the washer and dryer upright again and back into place, level them, and reconnect them. Good times. But they look snazzy, they make both appliances easier to access, and they offer convenient storage in their drawers.

My department colleagues and their families attended Seussical tonight, and beforehand we all met at Sanford's for supper together. It was a crowded table, and the Mobergs had to eat in shifts (we had to get Abigail and Suzanna fed and off to the theater before the others even arrived, but Susan, Hillary, and I waited to eat with everyone else), but it was fun to spend time with them.

The show started approximately 25 minutes late because people were lined up out the front door and onto the street outside waiting for tickets! Yes, it was sold out. Tomorrow's show is predicted to be the same, and Thursday's show had a full house, too. (Friday's wasn't completely full, but it was Halloween night, after all.) The audiences have included people of all ages: a good number of university students, lots of families with small children, parents and grandparents of the cast members, adults from the community and from the faculty and staff, etc. How nice to see the arts so well supported in this community!

Surgery and Four Other Important Items

So much to tell! This post has gotta have a checklist (in rhyme, for your edification):

1. school shopping
2. birthday greeting
3. skin chopping
4. outdoor eating
5. classroom hopping/teacher meeting

Yesterday Hillary had a medical appointment in Bismarck (more on that in a moment), so we left early enough to spend the morning there shopping for school supplies (1) and a li'l' home decor (photo frames). Then we met the girls' aunt Cheryl and cousin Arron for dinner at T.G.I. Friday's; it was also Cheryl's birthday yesterday (2), so I allowed her to sit directly across from me as a special birthday treat for her. I'm nice that way. That Arron just keeps maturing--he looks years older every time I see him! The girls just love him, and he's so tolerant of their hugging and hanging on and storytelling, etc.

We love the kinds of expressions we get from subjects when we make them pose with the sun shining directly into their eyeballs. Left to right: Hillary, Cheryl, Abigail, Arron, and Suzanna outside T.G.I. Friday's.

Afterward we went shoe shopping for the girls, and even I got a new pair! (I'm suddenly picturing myself at a craps table, blowing on the dice: "Come on! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!" I'm weird.) Then it was on to Hillary's appointment.

Hillary has a good-sized congenital nevus (mole present at birth) on her left side, and in recent months two darkish spots have appeared near its center. We had her doctor in Dickinson look at it, and he referred us to a dermatologist in Bismarck. The dermatologist (Dr. Cornatzer) recommended removing it--not only for cosmetic reasons (which aren't on Hillary's mind now but which will become important to her as she ages) but also to prevent the risk of its becoming malignant in the future, especially in light of the recent changes to its appearance. We were in and out of his office in a half-hour, and before we left, he had arranged an appointment for us later that very day with a plastic surgeon!

We did a little clothes shopping for Susan between appointments and then met the plastic surgeon (Dr. Paulson), who concurred with the dermatologist and then set about seeing when there would be openings in the Bismarck hospitals for him to perform Hillary's surgery (3). The earliest option: Thursday! of this week! that's tomorrow! That's the first day of the school year in Dickinson, and Susan cannot miss opening day at her new job; so I'll accompany Hillary tomorrow.

Missing the first day of the new school year is not bothering Hillary. Nor is the prospect of going under the knife. When the dermatologist left the room to phone the plastic surgeon, Hillary did cry, but for a very different reason: she's going to miss her birthmark. It's something that she and she alone has; it makes her different from her sisters, whom she is alike in so many other ways, and it certainly makes her different from most other kids. In conversations later last night and today, she anthropomorphized the mole, telling me that "he" is always with her, that she enjoys seeing him and washing him in the shower or the bathtub, etc.

Susan and I were thinking as Future Hillary might: that, if she has to have a lesion surgically removed, at least it's a plastic surgeon doing it whose skill will leave minimal evidence of the mole. However we suddenly found ourselves trying to comfort Hillary instead with the thought that, although the birthmark will be gone, at least she'll always have a scar to remind her of happier days with her mole. It's such a sweet perspective that she has toward the nevus . . . and undeniably odd, too.

All this has been in the midst of preparations for the start of another school year. We left Bismarck Tuesday right after the appointment with the plastic surgeon and made it back in time to attend (Susan and I; her dad, Roger, came to our house to stay with the girls) a pre-semester social (4) at the home of DSU's new president and his wife. Their back yard was elegantly appointed with numerous tables set with linens and summery decorations. Three food stations were situated beneath tents around the yard: a beverage table, an appetizer table, and tables for the entrées (toward the end of the evening, the appetizer table was reset with desserts). The food was fantastic, the weather was perfect, and we enjoyed visiting with the other faculty and staff members in attendance.

Tonight we attended (as a family this time--kids were invited to this one) a barbecue at the home of the chair of my department. He and his wife had all departmental faculty members and their families over for hamburgers and bratwursts made on the grill, and everybody who came brought a salad or dessert so that there was quite a feast laid out for us! It was my first social occasion with my new colleagues, and again, Susan and I had a good time getting to know people. One professor new to our department is new to the state, too, so she, her husband, and their son had the opportunity tonight to meet new people, get some questions answered (e.g., "What bank do you recommend?"), and start to feel a little more at home in Dickinson.

Before the barbecue, however, we went to the girls' elementary school for an open house (5). All the teachers were in their rooms ready to meet the students, show them to their desks, and answer any questions that kids or parents might have about the start of school tomorrow. Hillary's second-grade teacher was also Abigail's, so we knew her already when we stopped by with Hillary's school supplies (and with the news that Hillary will miss the first day due to her surgery). Abigail's fourth-grade teacher was also Suzanna's, and Suzanna's fifth-grade teacher was also Susan's sister Cassie's many a year ago . . . so, again, no new faces to meet for either our kids or their teachers. Still it's exciting to get the notebooks and pencils into the desks, the name tags on top of the desks, the lockers assigned, the friends in the hallways hugged after weeks or months of not having seen them, etc. The girls are all very excited for school to start!

Hillary agrees with the "School is fun" motto pasted on her second-grade classroom door.

Abigail is all smiles in anticipation of her fourth-grade year!

This might be Suzanna's teacher's final year after a long career in the district, so Suzanna might have the distinction of being in her final class. Only spring will tell . . .