recap. pictures. enjoy.

Hello world.  I'm back.  sorry for the long absence.  It has been an unpredictable few months...(ALMOST TWO since I last posted).  

At the gentle urging of my dear father, I am back.  carving out time in my evening to write.  You might think that it shouldn't be that hard.  And it isn't.  

But my school year is full of ups and downs, and most of my evenings these days are spent recovering and spending much needed time with Ben or being with friends/family. 

Since it isn't fair to write about things without updates and photos, I shall give you those first. 

Updates: 

Not much is new.  Except our dog has Lyme's disease, I am getting over a very small case of ringworm and the weather is getting colder. 

To answer your questions:

No, the dog is not dying.  Although her medication is making her lose her appetite. and if we give her her pills on an empty stomach, she vomits.  lose, lose.  

And she became a Houdini and has escaped her latched crate multiple times now and we can't figure out how.  So she has become an unkenneled dog.  And is doing quite well.   We were hesitant, given how she did last time (not well).  She DID sleep on the couch the other day, but my coworker recommended tinfoil as a deterrent.  And it works.  

My ringworm.  I was delighed to find out it is only a fungal infection, and not an actual worm.  You'd think they'd change the name.  It is equivelant to athlete's foot...just on my arm.  

No one could figure out how I got it on my upper arm, as it needs skin-to-skin contact (most likely from one of my students) and I have been wearing long sleeves.  

I had thought it was a spider bite because it started out looking like that. Come to find out, it most likely WAS a spider bite which I scratched with fingers that probably held the hand of a kid who had ringworm.  As you can imagine, I have become a hand-washing fiend. 

Sorry, you probably didn't need to know all of that... but I thought I'd share it anyway. 

As for the weather...I don't need to say much more besides that it is getting colder by the day and I am learning to find other things I'm grateful for, since walking outside is ceasing to be one of them...

Anyway...on to pictures!! 

We went to my friend Tanya's family's berry farm, like we do pretty much every year.  

Karlina and Ender finally got to ride the ponies.  They were so delighted.

oops. Out of order picture.  My friend Andrea (dark hair in the middle) moved to Texas at the end of September.  As one of our fun last outings, we went to Valley Fair (the Knott's or Six Flags of MN).  It was so much fun!!  And I discovered (don't know how this didn't come up sooner)  that my husband LOVES roller coasters!  so we had a blast!

Back to Ender riding the pony.  

Loved this moment from our Sunday School Picnic.  

One of our favorite things to do is walk through the cemetary across the road from our house.  It is fenced, and we let the dog off the leash and she runs and we enjoy the peace and the interesting names and old dates.  It has beautiful monuments that mark generations of families. 

We found this near the very back of the cemetary...under this large monument were smaller gravestones marked with each soldier, their title and the date they died.  

Speaking of our home...this is it.  It is a duplex, and the other tenant lives upstairs.  She has her own entrance in the back of the house, and we have our own portions of yard, garage and driveway too.  It has worked out really well. 

This little lady is such a sweetheart.  Entering the fun stage where she makes faces and smiles and coos and giggles. 

This was when she was still pretty young... We got to babysit and Ben fed her.  He's a natural

He is so good with kids in general. 

It was a gorgeous evening 

This one gets her grumpy face every once in a while...gotta tickle her and get her to snap out of it.  

ISN'T SHE SO CUTE!?  

This picture so makes my heart happy.  I love down town pictures.  Especially on gorgeous, crystal-clear days. 

Ok, this is totally weird to me, but supposedly its a thing.  Carved animals out of old trees?  I find it so strange and kind of creepy that there is a giant wooden rabbit on somebody's front lawn.  

This is one of the students I've been working with the most.  He is so funny. 

At a Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra performance

We felt so grown up...decided we are going to keep going to encourage ourselves to be mature and classy.  It seems like something mature and classy people do. 

Little sweetie.

FINALLY got to meet our other nieces and nephew!  My brother John and his wife, Amy are fostering several kiddos.   L is the same age as Karlina and J is pretty much the same age as Ender.  And boy are they swell kids. 

They LOVE Uncle Ben.  

It is so cute to see Little J look up to John.  And John is an amazing daddy.  

Shout out to Amy too for her fantastic mothering skills.  They both are a really good team and provide a loving home with lots of boundaries and hugs and laughs for these kids who come from a home with lots of instability.  

It is really great to watch their little (not-so-little) family interact.  

Since it was near their birthdays when we went, we had birthday night and everyone got presents.  Super fun to be the Auntie to even more cute kiddos! 

Such a buddy 

And there they are...waving us off.  Miss them lots! 

So there is some of what has been going on the past few weeks/months.  I will work on keeping things updated...and maybe even write an inspirational post now and then ;)  

Until then...au revoir.  And if you live anywhere near me...keep warm!