Snow Day

This past month has finally given us a true Wisconsin feel, a few significant snowfalls and some bitter temp days.  The kids have even enjoyed a few snow days, and plenty of 2 hour delays which is a warm welcome to this house after having very few at our previous school. The kids enjoyed some great sledding, Alex played with the neighbor boys, and the girls had a karaoke party.  I'm not sure who the back to back snow days was harder on: my patience, the kid's boredom level, or the interruption to Ava's rest.

Poor Ainslee has dealt with constipation issues a good majority of her 6 year life and the wintertime is a time that it typically crops up on her. She's gotten to the point where she will tell me if she needs intervention or is having issues, so this particular bout caught us off guard and hit her really hard. Ains stayed home on Monday, and at about 10 a.m. I got a call from school saying Laura didn't look well and had a low grade fever, so they thought they would call me because they were concerned she might be coming down with the same thing Ainslee had. . . you know, constipation.  I wasn't going to argue to the point that what Ainslee had wasn't contagious, so off we went to pick Laura up.  Laura came home and was fine. . . So in the afternoon I sent her out to take Ava for a walk.  While they were gone Ava got into a fight with some barb wire, and came back obviously not winning the battle.  Fortunately her injuries appeared to be superficial, but I thought she should be checked out just to cover all our bases however I couldn't take her that day because Jason had to work late due to the impending snowstorm we were expecting.  Their first opening was just about the time the snowstorm was supposed to roll into the area the following day.  Her injuries were superficial, and of course they were on her beautiful face. We'll be lucky if her hair grows back in that area, and even better yet-we'll be lucky if the hair isn't white!

Meanwhile, Ainslee was lethargic and had cramps that continually got worse over the course of 3 days. . . .  After we got many inches of snow dumped on us, she took a turn for the worse and we made the decision to make the trek into town to urgent care just to rule out a blockage or appendicitis.  So we all jumped in the vehicle and made the trip because I was too afraid to drive alone in the awful driving conditions.  It was certainly a time where I missed the ability to just drop a kid off at my parents while we tended to some other issue with one of the kids or the dog; however, we made it through just fine. Ainslee was also fine, as the doctor so pleasantly put it "fire the Miralax back up".

 I have a google spreadsheet labeled "Emergency" and within it are all of our important contacts: doctors organized by specialities, veterinarian, kid's teachers, insurance information, etc.  Basically a spreadsheet I've created for Jason or anyone else, in the event I die they will know every thing they need to know about finances and service and medical providers for our family.  When we first moved I shuddered to have to re-establish ourselves in all of these areas, so I coordinated well checks, dentists, and vet visits prior to our move so it was one less thing to have to worry about. Up until this past month, I've managed to fit in hair colors, impromptu vet visits in on the weekends that we are back in Eldorado and any small medical issues have been handled over the phone with their previous doctors.  In the past two weeks I've went to a new hairstylist, an urgent care doctor, and a veterinarian and it was a big growing pain for me. Slowly but surely each line of that spreadsheet is being updated to reflect our life here, but damn it is so hard to find that level of comfort that has taken me what feels like a lifetime to establish.

What's new with the kids lately:  Alex has two basketball tounaments under his belt, and two more left.  He continues to really enjoy the sport, and he does great considering this is his first year participating in it as an organized sport.  I've enjoyed going to open gyms and helping him work on his fundamentals.  He enjoys the winter months and getting outside to sled, build forts with the neighbor, and help with keeping the driveway cleaned off.  Laura continues to practice her innovative thinking and creativity, during the snow days she took some old tank tops, and used some fabric she got for Christmas and sewed herself a new fashion statement that turned out awesome.  Aside from Ainslee's bout with constipation she has been doing well too, she also enjoys getting outside and sledding.  She continues to progress through her sight words and homework and amazes me at how well she reads at such a young age (mom brag).  Ava took the week off from reading due to her injury, so she's anxious to get back into the swing of things.  She enjoys every morning when Alex and Laura take her for a walk up to the neighbor's cabin behind our house and then sled the entire way back down, she's right in the mix of it with a big smile on her face.  This past weekend we went back to Eldorado to visit family, and we were fortunate enough to get to spend some time with cousins from Colorado.  A group of us took the kids to a great tubing hill, young and old we all enjoyed taking turns with each of the kids. Alex got to see an old friend, went rabbit hunting, and got to put a couple poles in the water so he would probably say the weekend was a success.  The girls enjoyed playing with makeup, eating in grandma's bedrooms, making a snowman, and got some sledding in as well.  The time was short, but we certainly made the most of it!