Time for Hot Cocoa

We were all feeling a bit chilly and under the weather this weekend so we decided to have a weekend of cuddling, movie-watching, napping, and of course, sipping hot cocoa.


This was Marie's first cup of Gramma K's homemade mix - a milestone in my side of the family.
Marie loved stirring her "coffee" and was certain that it needed to be stirred as often as possible.
I am sure we will be mixing up another batch soon!

First Snow

So at 5:00 this morning I scared awake and looked at our alarm clock to see that it was not working. We had been of power for who knows how long and we had a nice layer of white sloppy snow on the ground.

Marie loved using the flashlight to eat her cereal and insisted that she be the one to hold it for everyone.

Andy thought 6:00 a.m. was the perfect time to get out and play in the snow so he and Marie built the first snowman of of the season. I am sure Marie will be sad to see it melting away today as the temp is supposed to rise above 40.

**Charlie News**
I picked up Charlie from the vet yesterday afternoon. His surgery was on Monday and went very well. Now we have to keep him very still as much as possible so the healing can begin. He can only go outside to the bathroom for short trips and always on a leash. Eventually we can increase the walks to 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then finally at 8 weeks he can be at normal activity.

It will be interesting, but I can tell that he is still in some pain so he is pretty low key at this point. Marie was so excited to have him back home. When she got home from school she just laid down by him and gave him kisses.

**Andy News**
Monday was also Andy's interview at a hospital in Des Moines. Once again it was more of a recruiting session to get Andy to pick them. The interview went very well which will just make our decision even more difficult. We are so thankful for the way the interviews are going and are looking forward to our next one in Sioux City.

Jumping in the Leaves

With the chilly wind came a leaf-covered lawn.

It only made sense to rake a big pile and jump in! Marie was loving it and it inspired our poor Charlie to get a little more frisky as well resulting in me being tackled while Andy tried to take pictures of it all. The kids got him back by tackling him as well while I got to snap the picture.

Charlie Update

For those of you interested in our other child, Charlie, we had our consult with the surgeon on Wednesday. We have scheduled the surgery for Monday, November 7th. All of us were concerned with the amount of pressure he is applying to his left leg which has already had 2 surgeries so we agreed we needed the surgery to occur as soon as possible.

It looks like we will be doing the more invasive procedure because of the faster recovery time. It will allow Charlie to apply more pressure to both hind legs faster, thus, relieving his back left leg from all that weight.

We will have to keep him on very short leash walks once he is able to use his back right leg which won't be easy. We are also going to look into water therapy at our boarding facility where they have a therapy pool and underwater treadmill available to use in the winter. Charlie is being so good even though we know he is frustrated and in pain. Marie keeps giving him extra kisses and always warns us to be careful around his leg.
***
Also, Andy had his first interview yesterday in Mason City. He was pleasantly surprised with the package they were offering including housing for a much reduced rate that is within walking distance to the hospital. The town was busy and full of fun activities as well.

We were very thankful for some information and it actually made us feel more secure in our future...they even mentioned finding me a job!

More Halloween Advenutures

Thursday night we attended Night Eyes at the zoo in Des Moines. Marie got to trick-or-treat around the zoo in the dark as we followed a path lit by all kinds of spooky lighting and figurines. The best part of the night was being right by the lion as he roared at all the trick-or-treaters walking by.
We continued celebrating Halloween this weekend with a trip to NW Iowa to visit our families. First we stopped in Spencer to spend some time with Grammy and Papa. Marie loved helping Grammy make pumpkin cookies for Daddy and Papa while they were gone hunting. It was a welcomed warm treat for them when they returned.
On Saturday night we headed to Granville to attend the annual Halloween Party. Chris & Mindy were in charge this year so we were there to help run the games and contests. Marie absolutely loved running around with her cousins Abby, Alissa, Whitnee, and Brandon. They were all helping her do the fish pond and bean bag toss games over and over again.
Marie even won a prize for her costume!
In other news....poor Charlie had a rough weekend. While enjoying his first weekend of hunting this fall, he injured his ACL in his back right leg which will require surgery. This will be his 3rd surgery: 2 on his back left leg and now this one on his back right leg. He is in quite a bit of pain right now so he in on meds and we will be consulting with a specialist this week to find out which type of surgery is necessary and how soon...keep our bud in your thoughts this week please.

Pumpkin Time

This is one of those weeks where we can barely get through one day's activities before we are thinking of the next day's to-do list.

Andy started an ER rotation with alternating weeks of working days and nights, I am prepping for conferences and holding several meetings, Marie has decided to amp up her independence and toddler-isms this week with some tense mornings, the daycare had to unexpectedly close for the day due to a gas leak of some sort, and Charlie is soooo ready to go hunting on Saturday he can hardly sit still anymore.

That being said, we did find some time to enjoy our pumpkins.


Marie insisted on putting on her cat costume to do this. Like I said, she is VERY into expressing her independence this week. She will get to wear her costume 2 more times, too. On Thursday night we are planning to attend Des Moines Blank Park Zoo for Night Eyes. She can hardly wait. Plus, we are going back to NW IA this weekend to visit family so she will get to wear her cat costume again at the Granville Halloween party with Alissa & Abby.

A small discovery

A few nights ago I was getting Marie's bed put together when I noticed something lying under the covers. I picked it up and realized it was one of her ear tubes!

We had been expecting them to fall out for quite some time but never found one...figuring we had vacuumed it up or something.

I couldn't believe how small it was. Something that small provided such great relief to her for a long time.

We just had an appointment with her ENT in September and he said that her ears were looking great and we had no reason to expect another tube surgery in the future - great news!