Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Her Birthday

     Yesterday was my wife's birthday and to celebrate it I could say I didn't do a thing - sort of.  One of her girl friends invited her to go with to Grand Forks to shop and go to a Mongolian restaurant.  She went and I stayed behind since I didn't work and ran the kids around to their various activities.

     Tracy took charge of making meals and some cup cakes that we put candles on latter in the day and Jason took charge of making some cookies so we didn't go hungry

     She was ver tired when she got home but enjoyed the day.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Cooled Down

     Things have cooled down finally Today it's supposed to rain almost all day with a high in the upper 60's - I think I can handle that.

     I'd say nothing more crazy has happened this week like kidney stone attacks or slicing my wrist open for about 10 stitches but I decided to go blueberry picking in the heat on Friday and Saturday.  One has to be crazy to put on long sleeves when it's in the 80's but it's that or a ton of bug spray.  Any way, it was very slim picking on the berries both days.  We'll have to try a few more spots while I'm still on my five days off. 

     I'm also working at cleaning up my desk - I couldn't find it the other day.

Monday, July 18, 2011

A New Way To Keep Cool

     At home today one thermometer read 99 while the other 101. It was and still is hot here in Northern Minnesota just like everywhere else - but we're not built for heat we're built for cold - like 20 below zero.

     At work the only AC  is in the offices and meeting rooms so there isn't very many places to go to keep cool - so how about a trip to the clinic for stitches after all they have AC.  Well, that's what happened but not intentionally..  I was working on repairs when the putty knife I was using slipped and sliced my wrist open - It took about 10 stitches and my fingers are still numb.  On top of it all, because it happened during work they require a drug test which meant getting poked again for more blood - they got me the first time this time.

     Maybe I'll just stay in bed the rest of the week :)

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Changed Plans

     My plans for this weekend were to go blueberry picking not to the emergency room in pain.

     It was sometime around 11:00 PM Friday evening when the pain hit in the lower right of my abdomen or there about. Taking Tylenol didn't help and the pain got worse so got dressed and my wife took me yo the ER 35 miles away through the fog.

      One there and checked in. the tests began.  It took three tries to get a needle in to draw blood it didn't take me three tries to hit the cup for the urine sample.  They gave me a shpt in the butt of pain medication which pnly helped a little.  Shortly after that they did a scan and said we would have to wait an hour for the results.  While we waited they decided to put an I V in. and that took them another 3 or 4 pokes.  Once it was in they gave me some morphine for the pain - that stuff worked.

      It didn't seem to be too much longer after that when the results from the scan came back - I had a kidney stone which appeared to be close to coming out and an-infection. I was put on meds for the infection and I was given something stronger for the pain if needed for for the pain and told to drink lots of water to finish forcing the stone out and was told they would like the stone when it comes out so I have to filter for it.

     In the mean time I've been trying to catch up on sleep and being driven crazy by David.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

HOT!

     Anyone who would stand outside in 90+ heat has got to be crazy.

     This year for the 4th of July weekend we headed to town as a family 3 days in a row.

     On July 2nd a hot day - we loaded our trailer with bikes and headed to town to do some biking on the bike trail. Afterwards we ended up at the outdoor pool and I even put on my swimming trunks and got wet.\

     On the 3rd - again hot - we loaded up and went to town to take in some of the 4th of July festivities.  I hit the chili cook off to sample 7 different kinds of chili, the kids played at the park for a while, we went and watched a lumberjack show and than we chased paper plates, or at least the kids did.  Each year Warroad sponsers a paper plate drop from an airplane down by the lake.  The plates have different "prizes" on them and this year we got a  50% of any size tornado (like a blizzard for DQ) and a $5.00 off newspaper subscription for the local paper.  The kids also caught a couple other plates but gave them away.

     On the 4th itself we arrived in town about noon and stopped to fill up a 64 oz jug with pop at the local Holiday Station and than headed to the point down by the lake to participate in the activities.  Starting at noon was the nickel registration and ice cream cones for 12 and under sponsored by Marvin Windows.  That was followed at 1:00 by races for the kids and adults sponsored by a local church with the winners getting a dollar, 2nd getting $.75, 3rd getting $.50 and everyone else a quarter.  4 of our kids raced in three different events, running, sack race, and 3-legged race.  In the 3-legged race they had a father/daughter race and I decided I would go with Tracy (the oldest) and we took 1st place in our heat.  I surprised myself.  My wife had told the kids earlier they had to race to earn money to by cotton candy.

     After the races it was time for the kids to go on the big blow up mazes/climbing things/jumpy things.  4 of the kids got arm bands so they could go on them over and over and over again.  It was suppose to go till 8 but a storm brought it to a close 2 hours early.  While the kids were doing this I took the youngest and went and claimed our spot for the parade with hopes of getting him to sleep - It worked.  An hour and a half later the parade got under way and the kids loaded up with candy.  Even David the 19 month old figured out what to do and was having a blast - he'd get a piece - bring it to mom to unwrap - shove it in his mouth and go get more.

     After the parade we went and filled out jug up again with pop, went and bought sparklers and than headed back to the point.  On the way we drove by the bank and the sign in front of it said the temp was 90.  Earlier it had read 91 at hear at home our thermometer said it reached 94. Twenty to thirty degrees cooler would have been much better.  We did have one year we needed coats on the fourth.  Anyways, back at the point we bummed around until fireworks time, dodged a storm with quite a bit of lightening. and listened to the local band.

     Finally, at about 10:30 the fireworks got underway. - they had to wait that long for it to get dark - I put the 2 little girls on top of the van and we watched away.  Once the final barrage went off, I got the kids down and we did sparklers while we were waiting for the traffic to thin out. Once we got done with those we headed home and headed to bed - It was probably 11:30 when we got home and midnight before I got to sleep only to awake by 4:00 to get ready to go to work.

     Yes, I 'd do it all again and more than likely will next year. I just hope it's cooler so I don't end up sunburned again.  By the way - did I say it was hot over the weekend?

Friday, July 1, 2011

GF Trip

     I must be crazy - I got out of bed this morning at 2:45 so we could make a trip to Grand Forks.  We had to be at the hospital at 6:15 to get checked in for David's dental restoration.  Once we arrived everything seemed to go like clock work and it wasn't long before they took David back to put him under and fix his teeth.  Nurse said he did well when they took him away from us and put him under.  It took about an hour and a half to do the work which included removing one tooth,caps, crowns, x-rays, cleaning or something like that.

     After they brought him back too it took about 45 minutes before he was ready to leave. A trip to Menards - where my wife had fun filling the shopping cart - gas and McDonalds and we were on our way home.  Both David and my wife slept coming home - I couldn't - so I laughed at my wife - she fell asleep with her finger on the radio trying to find a station to listen too.

     It must be nap time now.