1. School has been very busy for me this fall. Due to cuts in our district, all of us have taken on more in order to make things work. The load just keeps getting heavier. One one hand, I'm excited to have plenty of challenges to keep me busy. I love each part of my job, and I love the variety. On the other hand, things are quite stressful most of the time! I've been to many workshops this fall and that brings me to my next update.
2. A tree fell on our house during a particularly windy day, which happened to be one of the days I was in Rochester for an overnight workshop. So Joel comes home to this and gets right to work contacting insurance agents, tree removal, and construction workers who can fix our roof. Fortunately there was only one hole about six inches in diameter. That whole peak of the roof is totaled and our chimney is damaged enough that it needs to be taken down. In order to do that, we must redo the duct work inside the house to connect to the other chimney.
3. My dad turned 50! We did a few things to celebrate since he didn't want a big party. First, we sent my mom and dad to the Monday night Vikings vs. Packers game! They had a blast (and we had a blast watching that exciting game at home)!
Next, we had a quiet evening celebrating together by taking some fun pictures out at Father Hennepin State Park and then eating out at a nice restaurant on the lake.
Finally, we joined the Camp Evergreen hayride in Pine City. It was a very cold day, but we had fun anyway, and Caleb thought the tractors were awesome!
4. We had a great MEA weekend! Thursday morning Joel dropped Caleb off at his parents' house. Joel had his final step to finish his Driver's Ed instructor license and had to travel to St. Paul for that. I (unfortunately) had a dentist appointment that morning. Then Joel and I spent several hours in the afternoon organizing and moving stuff from our office into the basement so that we can make the office into Caleb's room! Then we joined Caleb at Joel's parents for a couple of days to spend time with the family. On Friday morning (as most of you already know) we got to have our ultrasound and found out we're having another boy! We are so excited for Caleb to have a brother! I am personally excited to reuse all the many totes of clothes we have stored in our basement! On Saturday afternoon we traveled to Duluth to have our first little family vacation. Joel won a free night's stay at the Hampton Inn in Canal Park. It was a beautiful suite with a separate bedroom and a whirlpool. We spent the evening walking around Canal Park, toured the Aquarium, and had supper at Old Chicago. Then Caleb had some fun "swimming" in the whirlpool before bed.
The next morning we did some shopping and then got to see a 1000-ft ship leave the pier. Caleb loved watching the boat! Unfortunately we are having a little problem with our photo card reader, so we lost all the pictures of us at the pier watching the boat. But the memories will always be there! I'm so excited that we took our first family vacation to Duluth - it has been a special place for Joel and I, and we want to make it a tradition for our family.5. Finally to this past weekend, on Friday night Caleb's cold seemed to come to a head. We had been giving him his two medications through his nebulizer that he always gets when a cold starts to get to his respiratory system, but then on Friday night his breathing was just getting worse. Even with the albuterol, his breathing would only stay good for about 2 hours. So we brought him into the emergency room at about 9pm. We actually packed a bag because Joel and I were pretty confident that they would admit him - it looked just like when he had RSV when he was 2 months old. The good news at the ER was that his oxygen levels were normal, which means no RSV. The doctor determined that it was just a cold gone bad. So they prescribed prednizone to keep his airways open and sent us home around midnight. And of course, Caleb insisted on being awake that whole time! He was actually quite a trooper through it all.
Saturday morning I woke up feeling awful, so we spent most of the weekend trying to rest. Unfortunately it's a longer lasting thing than just a couple days. Caleb is doing well, but I stayed home from school on Monday, went on Tuesday, and then had a fever Tuesday night, so I'm home again today. I'm just ready for this to all be over. It feels like I haven't been actually healthy in a month.
6. And lastly, Caleb is finally starting to snuggle with us! I have always been a snuggler, but Caleb is so busy that sitting down with someone for more than 15 seconds is too boring! But lately he has actually enjoyed snuggling with us while watching a football game. (And he LOVES watching football - he asks for football every night!)
My favorite is when Caleb asks me to come snuggle with him on the couch to read a book. He calls it "nigh-night". I soak up every minute of those cuddles!!!
