Cindy, I'm betting he'll be fine. Standardized testing is frustrating.

In some states (can't remember which ones, but at least one of the ones we lived in), the testing "mattered" in certain grades, such that a child couldn't pass to the next grade if he or she hadn't passed the test.

Gud, you have lovely children and that's some great photography.

Cash, you'll love it. Kara is a mad Flea fan now and we had a lovely time at the museum. The dinosaur bones were definitely my favorite. No, meeting Flea and her husband and her husband's parents and the sweet little Casper girl were my favorites. The bones were my second favorite.

Here are a couple of (largish) pictures. [link]

I don't know how Flea feels about pictures for the whole world to see, so it's friend's locked. If you want to see and don't have an LJ, let me know and I'll make it happen.

Massive speedy-recovery-ma to Emmett. Scary I know, but you should help him look at this as a positive. I had my appendix out when I was 13, and the hospital experience ended up being a good one. Subsequently, I don't have a big fear of going under the knife when it's necessary.

Much quick but not too quick healing ~ma to Emmett and much peace~ma to his parental units. I'm sorry things are so scary right now.

(Steph, you didn't get a tamarind ball because I got your tamarind ball! Mwahahahaha)

I'm wondering how the heck you put a cast on a nose

I'm getting an image of Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou link .

Should make Emmett the envy of his peers.

But, oh, I hope it doesn't hurt much. For any of you!

eta: sucky posting skilz today. sheesh.

I had my appendix out when I was 13, and the hospital experience ended up being a good one. Subsequently, I don't have a big fear of going under the knife when it's necessary.

Yup. I was in and out of the hospital constantly as a child, had my first major surgery at age 8 (a bilateral uretal reimplantation), and my second major surgery two days later (correcting inflammation from the first). As a result, I'm very zen about medical procedures.

Emmett will be fine. (But here's some anti-anxiety-ma for his parents. ~~~)

healing ~ma to Emmett and much calming~ma to all the parents. That has to be stressful.

Also, I keep wondering about a nose cast, too!

Hec, I know it's especially tough on the parents. Just got an email from a friend whose two-year-old broke his arm on Saturday. These were her words:

Thanks for checking in on him -- he's fine, I'M THE ONE WHO NEEDS TO GO TO BED FOR A WEEK.

My first surgery was at age 5. The anesthesiologist came in to the children's ward and told all of us going into surgery the next day that he would come by in the morning and take us off to play astronaut. He showed us the face mask we would have to wear in space and the helmet he would wear (he actually had one of those big bubble helmets!).

After I woke up from surgery, the first thing I asked my mom was when could I go play astronaut. I had completely forgotten the whole thing. Don't remember it to this day.

In completely random news, last night I dreamed I was Aeryn Sun. I wasn't me playing Aeryn, I was Aeryn. And, it was pretty cool. In the dream, I was getting ready to go out and fight the Bad Guy. I was getting into my prowler when Crichton stopped me. He didn't say a word. He just gabbed me by the hair on the back of my head and kissed me well and proper (much like a certain someone has done in real life). Of course, being Aeryn, while he kissed me, I was feeling my thigh to make sure I had my gun in its holster. Then I went off and shot up the Bad Guy.

Much ease and calm ~ma for Hec, JZ and EM. I'm sure Emmett will need a fair dose of it as surgery time nears.

Cashmere, so sorry.