*$%*%@

While the kids were off of school for presidents day today, they were not off of swim. It was up and out early this morning to get Otto to his class on time and then home for some playing. We packed up later this afternoon for Nora's evening swim lesson. Her Monday/Wednesday lessons are a bit of a pain because it leaves us crunched at dinner time. I was exhausted and out of ideas so on the way back we stopped at the grocery store to get a chicken and some sides as well as some milk since we were out. Now, I was tired and feeling gross, the kids were hungry and ready to be home and there weren't any chickens packaged up yet. They were done cooking but still not put out so we waited patiently and then finally I just asked if I could have any chicken at all. We were all done and needed to get home. I got to the line with my ducklings waddling at various speeds behind me cutting off shoppers and just being generally oblivious to their surroundings and there, staring at me was the magazine that never fails to make me swear in my head. There was a Christmas run in with some other "uplifting" mindfulness reminder and today was this one...as I'm begging Otto to stop slamming the cart into my legs and just begging for all of them to stand still for just 2 more minutes the last thing I needed staring back at me in all of my bumped out parenting glory was some zenned out lady telling me to breathe love. Anyway, we got out, got home, ate and put everyone to bed and now I'm just ready to breathe a sigh of relief that today is in the books and then breathe rhythmically as I sleep! Goodnight all!

Safety First!

Closet demo went into full effect today and Kyle assembled quite the crew to assist. Everyone in official PPE of course hahahaha! The shelves and shoe spots are out along with the carpet, nail strips and one set of upper shelf supports. Kyle and Nora also went to Lowes to get some of the supplies we need to do the necessary patching and what we need for the accent wall. Kyle even started working on said wall! I love progress!!

Love Day

I got some Valentine snuggles today and a day off from Cortland! All signs point to that he's fine, as he usually ends up being when he does dumb stuff. Cort stayed at the vet today with Jessica for observation and from the looks of his last X-ray whatever is in there should pass in time, we're just supposed to keep an eye out for it. I told Kyle, not having him hear for the day was like I got to turn off a channel in my brain. Ya know the channel where I constantly have to be monitoring for stolen dishes out of the sink, laundry from rooms, baskets & hampers, food from the counter or pantry or kids' hands or whatever else he finds his way into in a day. It was downright wonderful! The kids lived it up too...meals were eaten away from the table, snacks enjoyed at a leisurely pace - such a difference! Anyway, we went and picked him and his special soft smelly food he has to eat for a few days up from the vet early this evening and now it's back to reality, only with a dog who is convinced - despite getting 4 cans of food a day, that he is starving because he isn't being fed his typical kibble. I swear he's more work than 2/3 of the kids! Hope you had a happy Valentine's Day and have a good weekend!

Could it Be the End?

Something wasn't right with Cort this morning...namely, he threw up a couple times overnight and and this morning and he was refusing to eat. It was only that last part that was concerning. Cort eating things he shouldn't and trying to expel them from his body is nothing new - the not eating, that's always a red flag with him. We had places to go and things to do this morning so I left him out in the house with the back door open so he could go out if he needed to and texted Jessica to see what her thoughts were. After watching him some more this afternoon and even trying to feed him favorites like peaches, bananas, mac & cheese and still having him turn it all down and act a little lazy I decided to load him up and take him to the vet. We left him there so they could do X-rays and blood work and see what was floating around inside him. This is the most we've ever really looked into Cort in anyway so we were entirely unsure what would be discovered. When we were called back with little info on what was going on I picked up Kyle early and we all went not knowing if we'd be saying goodbye to our furry foe friend. Jessica had dinner and activities set out for the kids and I was going in with all of us prepared to say our goodbyes.

Ling story short, there's something somewhere between his stomach and intestines and it's starting to move but we aren't totally sure what it is and if it'll get stuck or clear so he goes back in the morning for another X-ray and to come up with a plan of action from there. Good news is, by the time he got home it was clear whatever was filling his entire stomach was now moving on because...

He's back to his old self. Only now he's completely fixated on getting to eat since he fasted all day - but of course he's now not allowed eat incase they have to go in and fish something out tomorrow morning. (I have a hunch if we've made it this far it won't be necessary though) Tough life dogger!

Why so High!?

Someone needs to tell the weather it's February. Florida or not, this is ridiculous. I feel like a constantly melting snow person and it is making me super cranky - especially since the A/C in my car isn't working right! Between me being hot and the kids whining about how hot they are when we drive to the Y 100 times a day, I'm over it! While I'm no fan of snow and cold some 70's would be much appreciated because I wasn't planning on seeing these temps for another month or so.

Swim Smiles for Miles

Otto was back at swim bright and early this morning. I have to say my favorite part - which I have failed to get a picture of every time, is the HUGE smile he gets on his face right before he pushes off and swims to the wall. The anticipation and excitement to get to swim is written all over his face every single time he's about to go under, it's so fun to watch! Speaking of watching, shortly after we got home I called out to see where he'd wandered off to in the house and found this scene:

Make yourself comfy bub. At least he wasn't destroying anything!

Year of the Rat

A few weeks ago Lincoln learned about Chinese New Year at school. It was on the 25th but the Dragon Parade to celebrate in Orlando wasn't until this weekend and he really wanted to go to it. I put it on the calendar and had no idea what we'd be heading into in terms of crowds, etc. We had Kyle drop us off and plan to pick us up just in case parking was a mess. Turns out since the first time I came across the parade, on a super busy road with huge chaos they've moved it back onto a side street. It was much more of a neighborhood event than I was expecting. While I'm certain it was nowhere near the celebration that they have in places like San Francisco and New York, it was a fun cultural outing in a city that while very diverse doesn't always have a ton available as far as festivals and celebrations surrounding all the different populations here. Definitely not like summer in Cleveland where every weekend there's a different cultural festival to check out. Hopefully I'll get better about keeping track of upcoming events and we can start going to more when there are opportunities because the kids really liked it - the candy didn't hurt either!