We are out of our misery, questions have been answered, things have been said… positive solution to the meeting! Yup yup finally things are REALLY looking up for the Reinsch-Johnsons in a bigger way. This does not mean easy street by any means but it DOES mean a lifting of some of the stress for the senior most members of the family (shh don’t tell Ken he is old… he isn’t yet, but OLDER than me at least!).

Now comes the question as to why I didn’t write all this Friday when it was fresh and new… well we spent the entire day back home at my mom’s. Not only did I go to the doctor (more about that later) but we also did a wee bit of shopping, stopped in at mom’s work AND had a playdate with a new little friend!

Let’s start with the doctor. A full physical is NEVER fun, but this one was not a massive trial simply for that fact that my doctor is one I have seen for over a decade. Personable and kind she not only sees me but my mom and comes across as very genuine and willing to answer my questions. I have to wait for the lab results for two weeks – if I don’t hear anything I am fine, if I do we deal. I have never had any problems and feel fit so I refuse to worry. I DO have to schedule my lab work as it is a 12 hr fast for the entire work up, but at least that will check for my anemia and thyroid which is a problem my paternal grandma and all 4 of her sisters suffer from. There is a slight concern about my weight. I am now down to 111.8 lbs which is quite a bit under my ideal, my bmi was only 19 which is not where the doctor wants me to be. Apparently I should shoot for a bmi of around 20. My concern with with my iron issues, the magic number seems  to be 114 lbs for me to NOT have any dizzy spells. I was rather sure my weight was down when I had two this past week. Luckily not the full out unconscious on the floor (haven’t had one of those since high school) but I did get nervous when I got tunnel vision and a numbness of tongue and fingers during the last one. One of the reasons I really appreciate Ken’s working from home. Every thing else seemed to be fine, and she did NOT say I was pregnant. I was not worried about that but it seems like even when you are SURE you are not the back of your mind goes – what if. We were driving to the appointment when I said to Ken – wouldn’t it suck if right now she said I was pregnant – I swear he almost drove off the road… well not really, more hacked a lung a little and said – you better not be! Man do I love to tweak him a little.

What surprised me was the level of hand cleaning. You couldn’t even come into the office until  you sanitized your hands. Since we needed mom’s phone (our cells are still off) and were a tiny bit behind schedule Ken dropped me off and went to get the phone at her work. The office was basically empty! Two older couples and myself at first and that was about as full as it got. They had even removed the toys for the time being to leave a corner for people who had influenza. I guess there is a higher level of cases in the city or something. It is a very senior heavy population there. Ken showed up later and had to sanitize each of the kids’ hands… I guess Trinity was less than impressed. Luckily the phone call he was waiting on came soon after so he took all the kids back to the van to watch a movie (thank goodness for the built in dvd player!) and called the number back. I did have to wait a while to get in but not too badly. I figure they are not scheduling as tightly to keep the waiting rooms emptier and thus safer for people at risk for getting seriously ill. The kids were just REALLY peeved about the lack of toys!

I have to share her business card sans her info of course. They are just too cute. So I got Ken to fuzz out the info and leave the cuteness!

Cuteness!

After my appointment we headed over to Superstore for a minor bit of shopping. To save costs I made a fresh loaf of bread the night before and packed some of our yummy fruit. So all we needed to pick up was luncheon meat and we were set for lunch. I took a bit of money I had set aside for special things and managed to get Trinity a much needed pair of shoes (she had a growth spurt and at Superstore they range from 8-12.00 in her size. We went for the 10.00 pair) and a box of Borax – we are going to make ornaments. I had the boys help me find the box of Borax by looking in the area for the letter “B.” Which they thought was the best fun. I was surprised at how much you get for around 7.00! It will be interesting to see how much we need for our craft and what other uses we can find for it.

We checked out prices on some objects we usually buy in the city and figured out that Superstore has the better price on flour – 8.00 instead of the 12.00 or so we HAVE been spending, so there cuts another cost! After all we LIVE on bread around here. The boys did marvelously with NOT asking for things and I was able to pick up my pictures I ordered for the minor bit of scrapbooking I budgeted for for this month. 15 pictures for 2.99.

After that we headed over to the thrift style store my mom manages. This for the boys is the most fun of all. Not only do they get to see Grandma Anna but there are TOYS there! I was amazed at how well behaved they were and how they CLEANED UP on their own! We managed to be there at the exact time my new stepsister was there. Which was neat as she does not live with mom and Mike. So not only did the boys get to see the new Aunty but she got to get a better look at the boys and Trinity, apparently even with their being a wee bit naughty she figured they were very cute. I get that a lot, I figure it is a combination of novelty, cuteness and the fact that they go home with ME and NOT them. Actually I really appreciate the compliment. I do love that other people see the joy and miracle that I see in my kids. I managed to get some nice sized jars (sans lids) for 1.75 for a dozen! Perfect for the Borax craft!

Yay Jars!

Our afternoon/evening was spent at mom’s. The weather was totally NOT in synch with my plans of splash park and swan perusing. The boys didn’t seem to mind. Mike stopped by on his way out to see the bike of his dreams which had us let Harley in for a minute or two before putting her back our for sitting on Emanuel.

Supper was a yummy slow cooker roast and then to make up for the lack of our Thursday park date mom had a friend/co-worker of hers over with her little boy Matt who is a year younger than Emanuel. He fit right in with the kids.

I got a few pictures of the sewing my mom has done in the past. She tends to do hers on linen and goes for the more difficult and time consuming pieces. I wish I could have gotten a clearer picture of the Mona Lisa which is one of my favourites. She has a few others she has done based on classical paintings that I will have to take photos of on my next visit! Sorry they are so fuzzy, for some reason the camera didn’t like the room combined with the glass in the frames.

Mona Lisa

Somewhat Sampler Style

3 Wolves

Snuggly Wolves

We headed home relatively late leaving mom’s at past 9pm. Thankfully the kids slept the whole way home and were pretty easy to get into bed once we got there. Trinity spent some time after dinner asleep in the highchair! (result of skipped nap)

Sleepy Baby

Today started out slow with the phone ringing at 8am (which is normally not a problem except for the late night and the tired kids it woke up! Gotta love people trying to sell you something over the phone that you REALLY don’t want). We had everyone up and motivated and out of the house by 10:30 to head over to Michaels for the Free Family Craft. This one was a back to school one where the boys got to decorate tin pencil cases. Even Emanuel got in on the fun though it was listed as a 5-12 yr event. There were car stickers which of course the boys loved, hearts and stars and little gems you could glue on as well as foam letter stickers. The lady who is in charge of these sessions has been there since we started going last year so it is rather neat to have the boys go back to someone they know who remembers them. I am going to keep an eye on the Michaels website and watch for more activities. The price is certainly right as long as we have gas!

I had my mini shopping spree at the dollar store with my 5.00 and got a Frisbee, two baby girl scrapbook pages (they have the best vintage feel stuff), a nice sized packet of gems to glue to craft things (I am thinking maybe paper plate picture frames? I just need to get some more bits and bobs to glue to them) and a tiny cross stitch kit that I figure I will make up for our god-daughter. I figure I can do it up and attach it to the mesh bag it comes with and put part of her Christmas present in it for this year!

The boys have a daily chore to clean up the apples that have blown off the tree… sometimes there are some complaints but Zander is always interested in doing it. With the bit of a storm yesterday we had quite a few fall off the tree. I am thinking starting this week I will start picking them with the intention to make applesauce. Neither tree is very sweet but I have brown sugar and time to experiment.

A direct result of the meeting Ken was at ending in our favour is Ken being gone for 3 days this upcoming week. I am going to be flying solo from Wednesday to Friday night. It has been quite a long time since I have been home alone with the kids for more than a whole day and since I don’t drive there is a lot of planning to be done – meals to be sorted, back up plans to be made, supplies to be double checked. Hopefully my sanity will remain by the end of the 3 days. I do feel a little bad that this means we can’t make the homeschool park date (it is too far for the kids to walk), but Ken has promised to mow both lawns and refill the pool so if the warm weather that has been predicted manages to make it we will be ready. The next time he heads the 3+ hours south for meetings I am hoping to make plans with my brother and his family so we all can go and have a visit. I haven’t seen their new place yet, actually we haven’t been down there since before our trip to Minnesota!

So our day was quite productive really. Ken cut out more dead wood and weeds around the raspberries as well as started getting the backyard ready to mow. Tonight was a special treat to celebrate – McDonalds! Such a treat now that we no longer eat out and much much MUCH more appreciated by all. I have to say that is one of the definite positives of our tough 3 months – we ALL appreciate our little treats and what we have so much more! Who would have thought that our whole family could walk into a Toys R Us, buy ONE item for ONE kid and get out without tears and tantrums? But it did happen – true story. Tonight was our weekly D&D with Chris and Chris. They brought celebratory banana cream pie. Ken is in heaven… homemade no less!

With tomorrow’s plans to head over to the splash park near Nathan and Ada’s the boys are very excited and then finally tonight Emanuel pooped in the potty again so Ken has to follow through with his promise and take us out to buy popsicles! If he can keep it up the next treat is to buy big boys undies! Oh the adventures we have here!