ThaiCircusERKids

Hello there blog-reading/stalking world.  It has been an eventful weekend/beginning of my week.  So let me begin at the beginning.  

Friday.  

my good dear cousin Dan got back from a summer in Illinois and began doing some orientation at the school he attends.  To catch up, we decided to have a date night.  Our evening included dinner at a fantastic thai place.  For the record, I LOVE Thai food.  And this place was really yummy.  Also had some fun random drinks.  Mine was not Thai related at all, just yummy.  Lime Hibiscus and Clove soda.  SO AMAZING!!! I could drink it all the time.  

 Dan got yummy Thai tea...which supposedly is great.  Honestly, it looked a little questionable...but most of the really good things are that way, right?

Overall it was so nice to hang out with Dan again.  As much as I love my new friends here and always enjoy making more, There is something about having a familiar face that has been around as long as you can remember...someone who knows your story and where you come from.  

Next order of business: New furniture. 

For a while now, I have been looking for something for my bathroom to keep my things in.  I have a pedestal sink and not much cupboard space for my hair/hygiene things.  I was keeping it on a little open metal shelf thing that Krissa gave me, but Sierra kept grabbing things off of it and eating them. So I needed something with doors or drawers.  On my date with Dan, we went thrift-storing (you'd be proud of me, mom).  And I found this gem for $12.99 (+tax).  SUCH a good deal.  And it works perfectly.  hides all my things and keeps them safe from the puppy!

 ENOUGH about all the trivial things in life, ON TO THE MORE EXCITING THINGS.  

So I have this friend named Nikita.  She's pretty wonderful for lots of reasons.  One of the more random and exciting reasons why she's wonderful is because NIKITA IS IN A CIRCUS!  what?! who knows people in the circus.  

Apparently I do.

Anyway, she got us tickets to the Circus Juventas. (Not her circus, but almost as fantastic). 

It is a circus school for youth.  A non-profit put on by this man and his wife.  But it's an AMAZING facility, equipment (according to Niki), costumes etc...

So remember I said this was for youth? I meant it.  The kids you see in these pictures to follow are ages 10-21.  TEN TO TWENTY-ONE!  I was in awe.  And a wee bit envious.  I'll do my best to explain what the pictures are, but it will never do it justice.

 These guys were on each others shoulders.  The top guy was standing on one end of the teeter-totter, while someone jumped on the other end.  He then was launched into the air and landed on the stack of guys already standing there.  AH!

 These guys are juggling bowling-pin type things to each other from on someone's shoulders.  (or two guys' shoulders in the one case).  

TEN TO TWENTY-ONE.  

(I'll keep reminding you so that you remain in awe)

 These two are suspended by hanging on to two separate (unattached) ropes.  just using their strength to hold on.  the bottom guy is hanging on to the top guy.  They are parallel to each other and to the ground.  They are not strapped into anything.  

 This is one of the many high-stacks of boys dismounting.  The blur is one of the guys doing some sort of a jump-flip and being caught by the other boys.

 These two were AMAZING!  The guy is on a trapeze , hanging by his knees.  He is holding the feet of the girl who is upside down.  They did so many twists and jumps and leaps, one of them always hanging on to the trapeze and the other person, neither of them tied off to anything. 

 This was an awesome swing that looked like SO MUCH FUN!  They would swing and then jump off and do twists and flips onto a tumbling pad.  But land it perfectly.  It should really be an olympic sport.  

Ok, I can't even describe how cool this guy was.  There were to people holding this long horizontal beam that was not really stiff, but more bouncy.  So the performer would stand on it, bounce to gain momentum, do a flip into the air and then come back and land perfectly on this beam.  

TEN TO TWENTY-ONE!

 The girls were amazing too. SO flexible and graceful.  These were three girls on a trapeze, all hanging on to each other and the ropes and twisting, flipping etc... not tied off to anything.

 Nikita informed me that while this is supposed to be called "Wheels of Steel", they are referred to as "Wheels of Death."  Awesome.  There are two "wheels" on either end, and they spin around when there is enough momentum.  Think your least favorite carnival ride.  These guys are not strapped in.  Instead they walk around the wheels like hamsters, keeping time so as not to go too fast and fall off.

 It got super interesting when one of the guys began walking on the OUTSIDE of the wheel instead of the inside.  And then balanced on the top.  not tied off to anything.  

 This was probably one of the most impressive acts.  Just the teamwork, the precision and the practice that goes into this.  it is a pyramid of seven on a...

wait for it....

TIGHT ROPE. 

They all had to take their steps together.  They had one kid calling out the steps so they didn't fall.  Once again, not tied off to anything.  And they made it across the entire rope. 

 The ropes were So cool!  they'd just fall from the ceiling and performers would be climbing up and down, doing flips and twists and all sorts of other acrobatic moves.  ON THE ROPES.  not tied off to anything.

 Like so. 

 Top picture:  Cool wheel things they walked around in and did cool flips n stuff in.

Bottom picture:  Same wheel thing, lit on fire, with a guy in it, but he was doing circles on the floor.  More horizontal rather than vertical.   I can't explain it very well.  Think spinning coin that is slowing down.  How it begins to go on the edges around in a circle. 

 Hoop tricks.

 Guys doing more flips off of each other and catching each other.

 Unicyclist balancing a girl over his head as she does random acrobatic tricks. 

TEN TO TWENTY-ONE.

 Girl is doing splits between two ropes (her feet in two little stirrup things on the end of each hanging rope), the guy is SITTING ON HER LEG. 

 Guy doing upside-down splits, girl hanging on below him. 

Overall, the circus was...asldkfajs;dkfaj  (not sure what word to put there).  It was really really good.  I was so glad Nikita took us.  It made me want to be a circus performer.  Or at least get in shape a little bit.  =)

Alright.  Next part of my saga.  Sunday night post-circus, I had a super sudden onset of abdominal pain.  It was uncomfortable, but I've had stomach aches before, so I thought it would go away shortly.  I was wrong.  It stayed all through the night and into the next morning.  When I woke up, I could still move and function, so I prepped to go watch the kids.  About ten minutes before I walked out the door, the pain was so intense I could hardly move.  I couldn't stand up straight, so I had to hobble around hunched over.  I couldn't lay down, only one sitting position sort of worked to ease the intensity.  I couldn't figure out where it was coming from.  I wasn't nauseous, (although the pain ended up making me throw up later) and I had no other symptoms.  I called Jim and told him I might be late.  But being the cautious, protective, EMT-trained brother that he is, he asked me how long this had been going on etc... Then suggested I go to the ER or urgent care.  He had Krissa pick me up and take me, since driving myself was out of the question.  

I seriously had never been through anything like this before.  And I'm not one to go to the ER at the first sign of pain.  But its persistence through the night and that I could hardly move concerned me (and my family members apparently).  

I sat at the ER for the better part of the day (11-4), and they concluded that it wasn't a lot of serious things (cyst, infection, STD, appendicitis, etc...) and weren't really able to tell me what it was.  So they told me to keep an eye on it, come back if it localized and take tylenol for the pain. 

 Here I am waiting.  At this point, the pain wasn't as intense, and I was waiting on some test results, so I was kind of bored.  Obviously a photo-op.

 I have never had a wrist-band for the hospital before.  I've never been to the ER or the hospital before for anything other than to see sick people and new babies. 

I'm glad it wasn't too serious.  The intense and constant pain is pretty much gone, although there is still an underlying uncomfortable feeling in my abdomen.  Hmm.  Makes me super grateful for how I normally have really good health.  

My good friends crystal and tanya picked me up and had me over to their house for the evening (they refused to let me go home and recover alone).  They fed me, gave me gatorade to improve my electrolytes and rented a movie to watch together. It seemed like every five minutes one of them was asking me if there was something I needed.  It was so nice to have people come around me and take good care of me.  I know my mom appreciated their care for me too.

Here are some cute kidlet pictures to wrap it up.

 Found Ender's newborn cap from the hospital.  When we put it on, it made him look like a little elf.  His wide eyes are JUST TOO CUTE!  

Miss Karlina loves the pickles!  she's so sweet!

Well that's all for now.  Just an update post this time.  Thanks everyone who knew about me being in the ER and prayed.  Even though I was all by myself, I really appreciated the calls and texts and facebook comments.  Not gonna lie, it's a little scary to do hospital stuff for the first time all on my own with my parents 2,000 mile away.  But I spent some of my time talking to God and realizing that was never alone...not really.  Plus I have some pretty awesome friends/family =)