And it's the end of the month.

What? Where did that go?

It's been a busy one. I've still been working a lot, which makes the day off busy as well...playing catch up.

Oliver just turned 4 last week, on the 25th...and I didn't even blog about it. Huh. He thoroughly enjoyed every minute of being the birthday boy, which around here usually lasts about a week. We usually have a party with each side of the family.

Birthday one..

And birthday two.
(Note Elsa's hair. It began falling out/breaking off in the front over the last two months...and was starting to look like a mullet. I trimmed it between the two parties. It looks a LOT better!)

The days have been full. Many days I've had a full post written in my head, but it just never got typed up. But onward:

This evening I just got home from Duluth and a fun filled girls weekend. This was the view off our deck, we had a "Bridge view suite."

My comrades.
These are the girls I grew up with (plus one, who's sort of a transplant.) The weekend was planned only in the last few weeks, but eight of us were able to drop everything and head to Duluth, a wonderful city that most of us actually lived in at some point in the years following high school. Now we're all but one married, with many kids between us...and it's already five years since we've all been together. How time flies.

It was a wonderful, rejuvenating weekend, full of reminiscence, good food, shopping, and laughing till our stomachs hurt. A great way to usher in spring...(fingers crossed.)


And now. Do you wanna know the real reason I've been a little slow on the blogging lately?

Because there's only one thing that's really been on my mind lately...and I wasn't ready to share it yet...

We're gonna have another baby!

Today

The thermometer has been getting a work out around here the last few days. This morning the water in the kitchen pipes was half frozen and slushy when it came out, meaning it had to be more than -10 last night. This afternoon was a balmy 25 or so out there. The sun has some warmth to it...winter will still be here for a while, but one can smell spring somewhere out there.

I passed my ACLS class today with flying colors. It's satisfying to have that done and checked off the list. I put quite a bit of time studying for it last week, and wasn't really sure what to expect.
Now I'm off until Monday, and have a lunchtime Valentine's Day party to look forward to tomorrow. A friend is having ladies and younger than school-aged kids over to decorate cookies and such.

Now, today:

Last weekend's snow gave Eric a chance to play with his pay-loader...and make a big pile for playing on. Here's Elsa, working her way up. It's so steep that every step she took slid back half way.

Despite that, they persevered.

Savoring a moment at the top

Gathering gumption.

Kowabunga!

To the bottom...

and up again.

Despite the dishes teetering mile high and laundry to my elbows, life is good.

What would you do with someone with pulseless electrical activity?

Not sure?

Hopefully by tomorrow I will be certifiably sure of what I'm supposed to do, should the situation ever arise.

Or should it come up in Trivial Pursuit.

Either or.

I've been spending much of my free time over the last few weeks studying for the Advanced Cardiac Life Support (what you do beyond basic CPR) class I have to pass in order to keep my job. Today was day one. It went well...none of my 'patients' died. Sometimes, that's all you can hope for.

I still have to use my cheat sheet a little more than I'd like, but hopefully tomorrow will go smoothly, I'll test out well, and life will be good.

Oh, and the answer is: administer oxygen, provide high quality CPR, monitor ECG, start IV, administer epinephrine 1mg followed by atropine 1 mg...just so you know.

Make that two nights in a row

Elsa's been completely potty trained during the day for many months, and lately had been doing fine during nap time...I just wasn't brave enough to go the whole night as she was still having a wet diaper in the mornings.

Turns out, she's probably just been lazy. I've worked the last two evenings, so Eric has put the kids to bed. This morning, as well as yesterday, Elsa didn't have a diaper on when I got her out of bed, but has been stone dry. When I asked him why, he looked a little blank and said, "Oh, I didn't? Oops." Oops? Not if she's waking up dry! Cheers to accidentally finding out that *maybe* we're all done with diapers!

I just was emptying my camera and found this. It must have been last night with dad, I guess they were tuckered out!

***

Another Elsa story.

For those who don't know, my hubby works at the local grocery, J&B Foods a couple days a week to make up for the sawmill being s.l.o.w. His uniform shirts are polos that have their logo on the upper left chest. My kids recognize the symbol; any time they see it (ads, billboards) they inform us "Hey, that says J&B Foods!"

Elsa has decided that any and every logo says J&B Foods. If she puts a shirt on that has a little logo in the corner, she says it's a J&BFoods (she says it as if it's one word) shirt.

This morning, when I asked if I could comb her hair, she started searching. For what? The Conair brand comb...which she now calls "J&BFoods Comb." Go figure.

Hello world! We're awake again!

For the last month, Eric and I have occasionally commented on the tiredness we've been feeling. Eric mostly had a problem waking up in the morning, and I just felt tired and lazy all day if I was at home. We chalked it up to winter blahs, not enough sun/exercise, that sort of thing.

Then last weekend, Eric noticed something. The stove pipe was burned out/rusted through and small amounts of smoke were escaping into the porch. Yikes. Minor carbon monoxide poisoning. Probably the culprit.

This week, we're awake again! Granted today I'm still tired (I worked yesterday evening and didn't get home until 12:30) but it's the normal tired. Not the bone tired, lay around but not really sleep kind of tired I was having. Eric doesn't take getting woke up three or four times to finally roll out of bed. It's a relief to feel normal...and to get something so potentially dangerous taken care of.

We do have a carbon monoxide detector, evidently the amount of CO wasn't enough to set it off...or it needs replacement. The smoke detector that is part of the same thing still works and I haven't made it to a store to pick up a new one.

It's good to be awake.