Little K's school photo

Happy Halloween!

I know it has been awhile, but I have been so busy with school, etc, oh yeah, and we have had the swine flu. Well not officially, but Little K had all the symptoms and as they say if you hear hooves look for horses not zebras. Besides, if my professor is to be believed, the test for swine flu is only 40% accurate, so even if he was tested it might not be right. Anyway, big project finally got finished, well kind of until we get it back, so spent the last few days just relaxing some. I was very short on patience with the whole family, so I tried to just relax and enjoy Little K to make it up to him. DH was home Wednesday and got to take Little K "trunk-or-treating" at the church. Then DH was off to Idaho and down to Salt Lake, for our newest granddaughter's blessing tomorrow. So today Little K and I carved pumpkins, this is my first try at such intricate carvings, but I am pretty pleased with how they turned out. Little K picked the patterns, and I did the carving. I have to say the bigger pumpkins are easier, I actually bruised the sides of my thumbs cleaning out the middle sized pumpkin. (should have made the hole in top bigger) Little K took a three hour nap, while I finished carving and cleaning up. Then we watched a Halloween movie, had dinner, and then about 7 headed out to trick-or-treat. We went to three cul-de-sacs and he was done, we were back home by 7:30! I guess it is better than the four houses last year! I should be grateful, I know he will one day be wearing me out trick-or-treating!

Labor Day Fun

Amazingly enough, we all three were home for the weekend! We decided we should not let such an opportunity go by without having a fun activity. So for Labor Day we went to a local miniature golf/go kart place. Extra blessings were that I actually had buy-one-get-one coupons, so it was very affordable. Little K has only been miniature golfing one other time before we moved here, so we thought it might be fun to go again. He tried putting from the right area on the first hole, then with each hole there after he kept moving closer and closer to the hole for his first put. By the end, he was basically putting the ball right next to the hole. It was still alot of fun. Then Little K and DH rode on the bumper cars, they really enjoyed that. Then it was off to run errands and prepare for the beginning of the week.

First Day of School

I know it is a little late, I am having a hard time keeping up. Little K is officially a first grader! His teacher seems so nice, I think it will be a good fit for him! After the back-to-school night he was so excited to get his own locker. That only lasted for the first day though, then it was not enough excitement for him to want to go back the second day of school. I am back in school as well, carrying 19 credits this semester. The schedule looks to be pretty tough with most of my classes scheduling tests around the same time. But as my Dad used to say, "nothing easy is worth it." So here goes!

Airsho

This is in the back of an air refueling plane where the operator would lie down to guide the equipment.

The inside of the big transport plane in the background.

The day that Grandma T left was the local airsho. DH had wanted us all to go, so even though he was not here, Little K and I went. I had no idea what I was getting myself into... I should have put sunscreen on all over before we left and brought some with, I should have brought a lawnchair, and earplugs. Those mistakes overlooked it was still a pretty good time. It lasted for five hours, ( I was thinking a couple) but there were inflatables for Little K to jump on, and planes that we actually got to go in, so it was enjoyable. The wait for food was terrible, as was the pricing (they did not allow any outside food or drink) so a hot dog was $4.50, a bag a chips was $2... That was probably my biggest complaint. After waiting for the whole time to watch the Blue Angels, they were last on the venue, we ended up leaving as they were performing because Little K said it was too loud and "I am not going to plug my ears, FOREVER!" It was an overall cool show and it stirred my heartstrings as I thought of our family members who have served over the years. There was a variety of planes from all eras, WWII to present.

Minneapolis

A few days after the kids left, Grandma T came for a visit. She arrived late here and the plan was to leave early the next morning for Minneapolis for a three day trip. We ended up leaving later than planned, but it was a fortunate thing as if we had left when planned we would have been there when a tornado went through the area we were going to be staying at. There was no damage to the hotel we were staying at, or the things we went to see, but I still was happy to be on our way there when it hit. Our first night there we just went to dinner at a restaurant in the mall and to the Legoland store, then back to the hotel to rest. The next day we started by going to the Underwater Aquarium, which Little K enjoyed more this time. (Starting there instead of ending maybe?) I even got a great picture of him holding a starfish. From there we decided to grab lunch before going to Nickelodeon Universe. There were so many people there and the noise was so great, hard to imagine all that humanity being thrown at you. Not sure it is something I would want to deal with all the time. Nickelodeon Universe was fun and we had lots of time to ride different rides. Little K's favorite during our last trip was beat out by a new favorite that took him up and dropped him back down in spurts. Grandma T's favorite was the swings and we rode those a couple of times, too. I did not really have a favorite, I just enjoyed watching Little K. We ended the evening with a pizza in our room. The next day we loaded the car up and drove to downtown St. Paul the the Science museum. It was really fun for Little K at first, but we probably should have stopped after the first floor. I think it was overload and he just wanted to leave. We had lunch at the IKEA store before heading to the Minnesota Zoo. The Zoo was probably my favorite part, they had lots of animals, a dolphin show, tiger sharks and stingrays to pet... was much more like the Hogle Zoo than any of the other zoos we have visited out here. Then it was just driving home and seeing Grandma T off the next morning. It was a lot of fun, but still a lot of stuff packed in to a few days.

Family comes to Fargo!

DH's oldest and youngest daughter drove all the way from Utah to North Dakota, even on into Minnesota to visit us! It was such a nice visit, too bad it is such a long drive :( DH even got to be home for their entire visit, which was an extra nice treat. I can't even begin to say how much we enjoyed their visit. K-dido (the oldest in the family) is such a good mother and our grandchildren are so adorable. (I do profess I am biased!) Little K so enjoyed having A and E here to play with, a change from his normal only child life. Little K and E (she is 2) got along so well, Little K held her hand at church, let her play "Little Piggy" on his feet and hands, and gave her lots of attention. A (he is 4) was perfect to play little boy things with. We spent much of the time just relaxing, but we tried to do something each day except Sunday. We went to the park, went swimming and Grandpa K and Kt-girl (the youngest girl in the family) took all three little ones fishing! All I can say is what a good time it was and how sad I was to the see them go. If only we could move Utah closer to here.

E and her "Popeye" smile, which is extra special because that was Grandpa K's nickname years ago.A at the little birthday party we threw for our two grandchildren.Little K and A driving around in Little K's truck, all the kids had fun with this :)Everyone on their last night here.

Updates coming...

Wow it has been a very quick summer. It feels like it just started and it is already over with. I know I haven't posted in awhile and I do actually have some fun events to post. That said I am back in school, so it might take me some time to get caught up. We did not do anything that exciting around here until August, but I did try to spend time just having fun with Little K. It was a very cool summer here, but we did manage to get some swimming in and Little K and Dad went fishing together twice. Here are some pictures that I just thought were cute...

Today the Disney train came to town and being a once in a lifetime event, I took Little K. We went right after his school got out. We picked a really good time as the lines were not long and we ran into two different families with children in Little K's class last year. Each car had different things in it from the making of the movie, as well as real artifacts from Charles Dickens on loan from a museum in London. The first car contained costumes and pictures of the cast. The second car had concept art from the scenery in the movie. The next car contained the above masks (Little K is trying to do his best Scrooge face) and models of some of the set. In the next car they showed how the movie was made using electronic suits on the actors and then taking that information and putting it to film. The last car took a picture of you and morphed it into a movie character. Along with the train they had a blow-up theater where we got to watch about 10 minutes of different scenes from the movie. It was alot of fun, I don't think we will go to the movie as the ghost scenes scared Little K, but the 3D animation was amazing. Little K actually tried to reach out and grab some words, and it really seemed like it was snowing right in front of you. We had to do a lot of walking, I definitely parked in the wrong place and we never did seem to track down a bus, but it was well worth it.

It's been awhile...

It has been awhile since I posted, I can't believe how fast summer is going. I was going to get so much done with all this free time I was going to have over the summer. Oh well, my intentions were good. I feel like not much has happened, but when I think about it there have been some things done. Little K finished kindergarten and is in transition school for the month of July. The teacher to student ratio is much smaller during transition school and we, his teacher and us, thought it would help him. I can't believe how much progress he has made, though sometimes he is still hard to understand, especially for DH who does not get to be with him everyday like I do. I finished my rotation at the hospital in Valley City, I actually put in more than 80 hours. The hospital was installing a new medication dispensing system and there was lots to do. I am so lucky for my dear friend M who watched Little K and took him to his first week of swimming lessonsfor me so I did not have to pay for daycare on top of the cost of driving back and forth each day. I would love to go back and see how the system is working out for them, once everyone has adjusted to the change. Little K was enrolled in swimming lessons at a local college and did very well. He has now passed the beginners level and his teacher wrote very nice comments. With all of that, DH left for Kansas to help with the wheat harvest on my last week of rotation. Fortunately the weather was good and they finished in a week-and-a-half, instead of the three weeks that was planned. The next week, DH was sent to Idaho and from there to Missouri, he was able to stop in Logan and have dinner with two of his boys! What a blessing! Add to all of that Father's Day, my birthday, and the 4th of July! The above pictures are of Little K and the missionaries on the fourth. That pretty much sums up our summer so far, so I guess we have done a few things :)

School Carnival and Octopus dinner

To start I decided that I wanted to start cooking with Little K. This was the first recipe that he picked out. It pretty much looks like it did in the cookbook. However, while the recipe looked like it would be good, not so much. I really think it was the alfredo sauce, but neither of us really liked it. Hopefully our other tries will be better.

Lastly, tonight Little K's school held their school carnival. It was a lot of fun and all the funds they raised is going to pay to have a new playground equipment put in at the school. The first picture is a great friend of Little K's and yes they are in the same class. I think she is the tallest and Little K is one of the shortest. But they have been friends since the beginning of the school year. I was amazed at how many kids knew Little K by name, especially upper grade girls who all wanted to hug him. I may have issues when he gets older. All in all it was a fun night.

Seven Years

We have now been married for seven years! I find it hard to believe sometimes, but if Little K is six then it must be true. It really doesn't seem that long. We celebrated by going to the movies as a family. We went to UP! in 3D. This is the second film we have seen in 3D. The graphics were much better in Monsters vs. Aliens, with more of the movie in 3D. But the story was better for Up. All in all we had a good time, then home for a dinner with the missionaries. I am certainly grateful that I have a wonderful husband, I truly feel he is my soulmate. 'Nuff said.

Spiderman Party

We held Little K's birthday party at a local park on Saturday, the day after my last final. It definitely was a crazy week. I went shopping for party supplies right after lunch with two of my newest and dearest friends. Little K decided on having a Spiderman theme. I baked the cupcakes and small cake on Friday and then decorated them Saturday morning. A friend gave me a terrific icing recipe and loaned me her cake decorating kit. (DH has told me this is quite an honor, his mom instilled great respect in him for cake decorating materials.) Anyway, even if I must say so myself, this is the best cake I have ever decorated. We made the cupcakes to eat at the party and the little cake was for our family party and to put the candles on. All in all ten friends showed and Little K had a blast. Since most of the kids are from his class they sang a very special version of Happy Birthday Chaa chaa chaa. We served spider sandwiches, Spiderman fruit snacks, chips, and Kool-aid, then cake. Otherwise we just let them play. Then Little K headed off to his friend E's birthday party. It was quite a fun day for him. When he got home, I laid down for a little while. While I was resting I guess he decided he didn't want his cake for our family party. He removed the candles and the Spiderman figure, then threw the cake away. Guess he knew we would have the missionaries for dinner and needed a bigger cake!

Happy Birthday!

It is late, but I wanted to post on Little K's birthday. He had a birthday party with his friends last Saturday, hopefully I can get to posting on that with pictures sometime this week. But today he officially turned six at 7:46pm. All in all I don't think it was the best of birthdays for him, but he can now say he is six. He has been awaiting this day all month, constantly telling me his is growing so he must be six now. As far as the day went he was home sick. He got two pink eyes Monday night, but we started him on antibiotics right away so he would be able to go to school today and take cupcakes. However, he broke out in a fever last night. By lunch it was almost back to normal, only to spike during an late afternoon nap. So back to the doctor we went. No real answers, but the fever came down. Not the best way to spend a birthday, but he was a good sport through it all. Will post about his party soon, must get some sleep while I can...zzz

And I'm done ... almost

Well, I took my last final of my first year last Friday. I have passed all my classes. As for the almost part I still have my 2 week rotation at a hospital 60 miles away and a some assignments to go along with that rotation. But so far so good. I am looking forward to some free time to work on spring cleaning and catching up on sleep while Little K finishes school. He seems to have a different idea, however, as he has another case of pink eye. So he will get to spend the day with me. I still plan on some sleep and cleaning, and since it is getting warmer, above 60, I think I can put away the winter clothes and bring out the summer ones. Other than the two weeks at the hospital, Little K's school in July (mornings only), and two weeks of swimming lessons, we have no plans. A friend suggested we take our kids to a different park each week, I think it sounds fun. Plus I will get to know more of the area where I live.

You know you are a mother when...

Well it is a little late, due to finals week, however these were some thoughts I had this past weekend. If anyone wants to add more, just leave a comment. Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers I know.

You Know you are a mother when...

Someone is waking you up in the middle of the night and you don't immediately begin strangling them.

Something that is usually considered a weed is now a beautiful floral centerpiece on your kitchen table.

Your sleep-deprived, over-worked, and underpaid and still love it.



Well, there were more, I think, but all I can think about now is protein target sequence signaling, apoptosis, and BER, NER, and ERK.

I did recieve a beautiful handmade mother's day gift from Little K. Here is a picture.

Easter, a little belated...

We actually celebrated Easter a day early, because DH had to be on his way on Sunday. However, I have been super busy playing catch up at school, each teacher is making up for the lost two weeks in different ways but it all adds up to more work. Anyway back to Easter, we did not do much, but the Easter bunny did make a visit. It was still too cold outside, there was still snow piled up, and we just don't have much of a yard so the Easter bunny got to come inside to hide eggs. Little K was perfect, he let out a little burst of excitement with each egg or treat he found. Then he dumped them all out of the basket and counted them again and again. We actually were still finding treats 4 days later! All in all, it was a good family holiday.

Introducing John Edward Cocoa

Well in the midst of the flooding we had another huge snowstorm. DH was unable to work because the roads were shut down either because of the blizzard conditions or due to flooding. It was not freezing cold out and it was a wet snow, so DH and Little K built our first snowman in Fargo (might even be the first one Little K helped build, I can't remember). That night Little K decided that the snowman's name was John Edward Cocoa. (Little K and DH took the pictures, not bad for Little K!)