Busy few days!

What a whirlwind the last few days have been! Mike was in MN for much of the end of January--and of course his trip coincided with my newest work adventures. I was asked to begin to do some orientations for the GED/Adult Basic Education program at the college where I work. I jumped at the chance to get my feet wet in another area and adored the experience. These students are so humbling--so many of them are considered "less than" by society--but I have such respect for their hard work ethic and ability to make necessary changes in their lives. This new adventure though meant four straight nights of work on top of my usual morning teaching load, and all when Mike was MIA! Thank heavens we have an amazing group of sitters who work with us regularly. We all survived that week and spent the first week of February recouping and just being together.

Mike actually mentioned last night, after an amazingly relaxing Saturday, that he likes being home during the week and on the weekend. "This must be how the other half lives huh?" We decided we like having him around! Everyone does, well except perhaps Charlie, who then has to share my cuddling in the bed with someone else!

Aside from work and school we've been spending way too much time at the doctor's office. With Colin we've been working to figure out the best way for him to learn. And with Ethan--well that's all about the sinuses. On January 26th he had a sinus CT scan at the local hospital. He was such a brave little guy and loved riding on the "magic doughnut ride". I was amazed at how he was able to stay so still--although being strapped to a peds board helped with that I'm sure. Since that appointment, we've had two more. One to discuss the results with the ENT, and another in Madison with his asthma/allergy doctor. In both instances we heard the news that the results of the scan were flat out "not good". I saw the results myself and his four little sinuses are just full of disease and infection. As of last Thursday, we're now waiting for the results from a full immunology work up to find out if there's an underlying reason his body isn't able to deal with this infection, even with all of the medicines he's been on. For the next month, our little happy E gets to use another three medications daily and is also on saline rinses every night. So his grand medication total is up to six per day. We are so thankful that during all of this we've had great, honest, thorough doctors helping us--and we are so thankful for our good health insurance too. Whew! And Ethan, well, he just thinks it's all one grand adventure. He takes all of his medicine like a champ--even the nasal sprays! He really doesn't know any different and as long as he gets to carry a car or Bakugan wherever we go, he's game.

This weekend we spent relaxing, sharing a Monsters vs. Aliens movie night, and celebrating Uncle Steve's 30th Birthday. It was hard to tell who was more excited, the boys or Steve during the opening of all 30 gifts! (Oh wait, it was definitely the boys).

Through it all...we've tried to have as much fun as possible along the way, whether it's dance parties, building giant blanket forts in the living room, or playing race cars in the basement... we're all trying to take pleasure in the little things.

Colin's latest belt ceremony...

Bowing to Coach (Sensei)

New belt!

Yellow/White