On Friday morning while Logan was eating breakfast, he mentioned having a sore throat, but he still had a fine appetite.  However I received a call from the school nurse at 10am to report that Logan needed to be picked up.   He was putting his head down on the desk in class, and therefore he was sent to the nurse and found to have a fever (100).  Going home meant that Logan missed out a big day at school.  He missed the Valentine’s Day party and farewell party for his teacher as it was her last day before the three month of leave of absence.  Logan also missed the chance to read his favorite book to the class that day.  When Stuart arrived at school, they did return to the classroom so Logan could give the teacher a Get Well card and say goodbye.  Shortly after being home, Logan fell asleep and slept for 2.5 hours.  He must have needed it as he never takes nap nowadays.  After he woke up, he seemed better.  They went to pick up Connor together and then hung out to play in the house the rest of the day.  Since I had my farewell dinner that night, Stuart had to take care of the sick boy and Connor on his own.  They had their usual pizza dinner whenever I go out, and Logan ate fine.  Before bedtime, Stuart gave him a dose of Tylenol so he could have a good night sleep.  The next day Logan looked just a bit tired, but otherwise seemed to be back to his usual self.

     The final week of working at Santa Clara is now over.  Tuesday was the day when Paula, Robyn and Joanne organized a potluck at Campbell for me.  I had attended multiple potlucks there throughout the years, and this one was to say goodbye to me.  I did not have a huge appetite this time, so I just got a little bit of everything.  But it was great to sit down and chat with the people.  Over time, some doctors came in and out from other meetings to say bye too.  There were two beautiful cakes; one that Robyn had to go through some trouble picking up too.  After eating the yummy desserts and having goodbye hugs, my time at Campbell was coming to the final stretch.  I had learned so much at this facility that Campbell will always be very dear to my heart.

    On Friday, my very last day, was a busy day.  I still had a relatively full schedule to make final calls to some of my patients.  At lunch time, I also attended a Celebration of Life for one of beloved managers.  I was glad that I could have a chance to pay her my respects before leaving.  By the afternoon, I went up to see a manager and returned my key and my badge.  It felt so strange that I no longer belonged there.  I left a little bit of time at the end of the day to clean up my desk, and I quickly realized that I had accumulated quite a bit of stuff over the years.  There were some interesting things I discovered including my first year evaluation by Dr. Green that was fascinating to read.  Before long, I learned that I had to finish quickly in order to make to the dinner.  Fortunately I ran into the security guard who helped and saved me at least another round to my car.  Finally, I was done and my days with Santa Clara Kaiser had ended.

   I quickly rushed to the restaurant where Julie kindly organized a goodbye dinner for me.  I arrived just slightly late and met up with a few girls there, and slowly the rest of the group trickled in.  We got seated and we continued to chat.  It was so nice to see and catch up with everyone there, especially a few girls who I had not seen for awhile.  It was also wonderful talking with my boss Lawrence in a causal setting about all kinds of other things.  We had a yummy dinner and enjoyed great wines brought by Jenn.  Later we also ordered some delicious desserts to share among us.   With the fun conversation and great laugh, almost three hours had passed and we finally ended the wonderful dinner.  I gave final hugs to all my friends and my boss, and this was a great way to end this memorable chapter of my career.

P.s. This is a picture of me at my desk at Campbell.

    We had signed Connor up for spring soccer, and Logan decided against it.  So we thought we can try him out for martial arts.  We received a month free trial, and the first lesson was scheduled for Monday.  After I walked the kids home from school, we changed to lighter clothes as it was a hot day.  Then we started the trek down to the studio.  Logan was not too certain what to expect and he wasn’t really sure if he would be interested.  When we arrived, Logan followed the lead to put on the uniform and listened to the rules by the instructor.  Then he was led onto the mat to join the rest of the students.  Logan did his best trying and repeating the routines.  Connor and I were sitting on the bench watching the lesson.  Connor was drawing on the paper while he kept his eyes on the class.  A couple of times he turned around to tell me that he would like to try martial arts too.  After the lesson, Logan was quite excited to show us his “roundhouse” kick while we walked home.  He told us that he did not mind doing the lesson again, but now Stuart and I are considering if we should continue after learning the high cost of the program.

    As I was going through Logan’s schoolwork in his backpack on Sunday afternoon, we discovered that Logan was to be the Star of the Week starting Monday.  He needed to make a poster about him for the next day and prepare to read a book to the class on Friday.  Stuart and I were upset and stressed with this short notice.  We quickly had Logan get started on the project, and fortunately he was quite cooperative.  We kept our plan to go out for dinner Sunday night, and when we returned, Logan continued to work on the poster until it was nearly done.  We had emailed the teacher earlier and it turned out that she was late sending us the project as she was out sick during the week.  She also had informed Logan that he could turn in the poster late, but Logan forgot about that part.  Anyway, Logan managed to be on track, and we were proud how he finished his work quickly and well.  On Monday, while I was in the classroom as a helper, the teacher allowed me to watch Logan presenting his poster to the class.  Afterward, Logan had a chance to call on a few of the classmates and answered their questions.  He did a good job standing up there in front of everyone.

    Some of the Asian parents in Logan’s class suggested having a party to celebrate the new year, and it was held on Friday.  I took a very long lunch break from work to help out.  The Asian parents all pitched in to bring a nice potluck for the kids to try.  Logan, along with most of the kids, enjoyed or tried potstickers, chow mein, fried rice, egg rolls, Korean pancakes and some desserts.  After the lunch and a quick recess, the prepared activities began.  A mom showed a slide show to share some interesting facts about Lunar New Year, and a Korean mom showed a quick video about how Koreans celebrated new year.  Then two kids from the class led the classmates making two cute art and craft projects.  It was fun and all the kids were engaged.  I was the photographer of the day, but I finally had to leave before the event was ended.  Logan told me later that each kid received a red envelope to wrap up the fun time.

   Over the weekend we spent a little bit of time cleaning the house to prepare for the new year on Monday.  On Sunday, instead of watching the Super Bowl, we chose to go out for a Chinese meal to keep our little tradition.  We ordered some dishes from the New Year menu, and the boys tried to explore different tastes.  Whenever there was a free moment at the table, Logan was interested to copy some Chinese words and he did a great job.  After dinner, we took a nice walk around the mall before heading home. 

   The boys had some kid play time over the past few days.  I invited Jennifer, Jesselyn and Jayden over on Saturday night as they had never been to our house.  Jesselyn and Jayden went off to play with Logan and Connor in the game room as soon as they arrived.  Later they came down to join us for dinner, and told us that they would be playing “school” next.  Jesselyn was the teacher, and Connor was the star student or her helper.  Logan apparently enjoyed pretending being in trouble and receiving the “punishment” slips they made.  They played well up there as we hardly heard much from them.  Later they moved on to playing “family” too.  They had a good time.

    Logan and actually Connor were invited over to Logan’s classmate Maxim’s house on Sunday morning.  Since this was the first playdate at their house, we decided to keep Connor with us instead.  Connor was disappointed, but he was fine hanging with us too.  After I dropped Logan off at 9:30am, the three of us got ready and off for some shopping at Target.  Afterward, Connor wanted to walk around the mall.  He had fun holding both of our hands and later doing some swing jumps.  He enjoyed being the only child for once.  We picked up some lunch, then it was time to head back to Maxim’s house.  We all went in to say hello and to meet their new puppy. Logan had to stop playing the video game with his friend and said thank you to the parents for the fun playdate.

    After school today, one of Logan’s ex soccer mates from school came home with us to play.  I had the boys and Mason do most of their homework while they ate snacks first.  Afterward, they were off to play.  Mason is just a little older than Logan but still one grade ahead of him.  They played ok, but we felt that we had to keep an eye on them.  Connor hung out with me for the most part, but went to check on the boys sometimes.  A couple of hours later, the mom and the brother came by to pick Mason up.  Then we all resumed our usual schedule for a Monday night.