Happy Halloween!!!

So this is the only picture I took of Reef tonight...my camera was malfunctioning...ok, it wasn't, the batteries were just dying!

We spent the afternoon with a 2 hour nap and then we went to Joe and Ivy's to watch the gator game. Ivy, Nahla (their golden lab), Reef and I went on a walk around Wesleyan while the game was on and then we went to trick-or-treat at HyVee which is where we found this Penguin Hockey Player! Since Reef was wearing his penguin costume from last year, I thought I'd better take a picture! We got lots of healthy treats along with some candy and that was enough for me.

We grabbed some roast beef sandwiches from Arby's (5 reg for $5) and went back to Joe and Ivy's before making our final stop at Breanna & Pat's. It was a beautiful day and a fun evening!

Fall Break

This past week has been LPS fall break, so since I'm a substitute, I get a break as well. This week was filled with fun, friends, appointments, and just hanging out.

MONDAY:
Reef and I just hung out together at home and visited Karli's montessori. I also had a doctor appointment for myself with our new family doctor, Dr. Bellamy (a friend of Karli's from high school.) After 3 weeks, I finally gave in and went in. Turned out, I have a sinus infection and he prescribed some antibiotics. I am feeling OH, so much better, but the coughing is still hanging on, luckily my nurse friend Jenn, told me her sister had the same thing going and the cough hangs on for awhile, since it's trying to clear all that drainage (4 weeks worth now!) :) Sinuses are also stubborn, so it pretty much takes the full 10 days of meds to have all the yucky symptoms to disappear!

TUESDAY:
More relaxing and hanging out. Reef slept in until 8 o'clock...which meant mommy got to relax and catch up on some DVR shows! Reef also took a 2 1/2 hour nap this afternoon while I was meeting with some financial planners from NORTHWESTERN. They really opened my mind to some options of getting control of our finances and socking some money back into savings after I really didn't work all summer...and the savings helped us to do that! Finally, Rick and Cyndi watched Reef while I went to my lovely annual appointment and got my car's oil changed. We decided to go to BOO at the ZOO tomorrow so Jared could join us.

WEDNESDAY:
I was supposed to hang out with some good friends from high school today, Sara Weibye Roberts and Lindsey Olmsted, but they were both under the weather, so instead I met Breanna and the boys at the mall and we walked about 8 laps and had lunch. I was pretty excited about how frugal we've become...we spent only $7 on lunch for the 5 of us! I had brought 2 hotdogs, 1 string cheese and a pear from home for Reef and the boys to munch on and Breanna had a buy one value meal, get one free for Runza, so we each got a cheese runza meal and ordered an extra fruit cup for the boys (they all 3 love their fruit!) Needless to say, we were all stuffed and happy that lunch was CHEAP! We then went to BOO at the ZOO and went out to Lazlo's after (check out the other blog post!)

THURSDAY:
We headed down to Crete this morning to hang out with My side of the family (mom, dad, g'ma/pa Mundt, g'ma Becwar) and we had a good time. We were just down this past weekend, but really didn't get the chance to really catch up. After lunch and a short nap (45 min) we headed home. I was hoping if I just threw Reef in the car when he woke up, he might sleep the 30 min back home, but nope...he is too interested in looking out the window at the cars, trees, rain, etc. When we got home we had a snack and then it was back out with Grammy Cyndi because we were going to get our hair cut! Reef had his, I believe, 4th haircut today at SuperCuts and I got mine trimmed as well. Then it was off to pick up grampy, have another snack at Culver's...YUMMY! and then finally to Moiser/Timperley Chiropractic for their grand opening at their new office. We hung out for about an hour before heading home and retiring early!

FRIDAY:
We headed up to Omaha at 8:15 to play with Joe, Jackson and Jenn Timperley. We had a good time catching up and the boys had a great time playing together. We then ate lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise (we knew with 2 adults and 3 children it needed to be kid appropriate!) 4 mini cheeseburgers, broccoli and fried pickles seemed to be the perfect lunch until the drive home...I didn't feel so good. I thought I had just eaten too much, but it lasted through the night. Luckily it was only I that didn't feel so well, so who knows what it was, it only lasted until Saturday morning that the aches, stomachache, all around crappy feeling lasted. Saturday was ok, but I still didn't feel like eating too much! That was OK with me, as we had some trick-or-treating to do (check out that blog as well!)

ALL-IN-ALL a good week. I AM ready to go back to work after having 2 weeks off!

BOO at the ZOO

Tonight was Reef's and my first time EVER at BOO at the ZOO. It was a pretty cool experience. Way different than what I expected, but cool all the same. It was neat seeing the zoo at night after a summer full of day trips. Although most of the animals were off in their "winter" homes, we did see the reindeer, a few monkeys, the muntjack, horses, and some birds. Reef was pretty cute in the monster outfit we borrowed from Oscar Prochnow (Breanna & Pat's 11-month-old.)

We walked around and collected our "loot," chatted with a few people we knew, rode the train, and finally picked out a pumpkin from the 2 men and a truck guys!

Here are a few pics from that evening:

Sick BOY

Reef was sick all this week with a viral fever. It wasn't too bad as illnesses go, but I had to take all 5 days off, and next week is fall break! That means 2 full weeks off. It's bittersweet as "vacations" come, since we really couldn't go anywhere this week. His temperature came Sunday morning at about 10 am...YES, he slept until 10 am...this is when I knew something was wrong. I woke up around 9:30 and was SHOCKED! Usually we are up and about around 7:30, and if it's not Reef that wakes me up, it's ENZO!

I came to the computer and tooled around on facebook and email for a bit and at 10 I went into his room because there was still NOTHING...I could just hear him breathing through the door. He was sitting up in his crib and just looking at me when I walked in. When I picked him up, he was BURNING up. I could tell it was a high temp just by holding him. Yup, 103.8...not good. I gave him some tylenol and changed his sweaty jammies and just snuggled with him. In less than an hour he was his normal self, playing and having a good time.

This continued until Tuesday night when 2 hours after I put him to bed, he woke up and was completely drenched in sweat! I was excited...I ASSuMEd this meant his fever had "broke" and this was the last that we saw of it. I was WRONG! We went to the mall and hung out with Breanna and Steph and all 3 boys, and everything was fine until 5 o'clock that night and BAM...104 fever again. Strange. Again this continued until Thursday night when his temp was around 101 for the last time. This of course meant he couldn't go to daycare on Friday, so I embraced it and realized that I would be home again.

I did also realize that I should probably go to the doctor myself and make myself well again...

Happy BDAY Dad & Unca Joe

Yesterday my dear ol' dad turned 54 and today Unca Joe celebrated # 29!

We didn't get to celebrate with Dad as he had planned on being out at the cabin bringing the boat back from getting winterized and such, but he didn't end up going...they had delivered it for him! We could've gotten together Friday night and celebrated! We just ended up hanging out at home and having a quiet night.

Saturday was busy as Jared went to the game with Rick and Cyndi and Reef and I stayed home and baked! Ivy came over and we watched the game and played with Reef, Enzo and Nahla, their puppy! The dogs had a good time and Reef enjoyed watching them play, although since Nahla is a Lab, she's a little bigger...and she's in the lovely puppy-I wanna chew on everything-stage so that frightened Reef a few times! Erica and Claire came over for a bit and we walked around the neighborhood a couple times because it was better than watching the game! Kim came over after the game (she was babysitting for a couple who went to the game) and Joe came over after work. A good time!

I had baked chocolate chip cookies and chex mix yesterday and I tried out a new sugar cookie recipe today (it didn't set up so well...so instead of halloween cookies, I made a fruit pizza.)

SLACKER

I know I've been a blogging slacker lately...I've also been a photo slacker. It's just amazing when you are working 4-5 days a week and you have to take care of a child, dog and husband...you really don't have too much time!

I'm going to try to be better...but enjoy the few updates!

HAPPY STALKING! (re: my friend Erica)

THE FALL...

Yes, I know it is fall and I love this time of year, but that's not the kind of fall I'm talking about. This is the scary kind of fall...down a whole flight of stairs! I knew since Reef is an adventurous boy, we would have all kinds of bumps and bruises, but I didn't think we would have the tumble down the stairs end over end...YET!

We were over at Joe and Ivy's house for a jewelry party and then get together and Jared and Ivy were at the top of the stairs and I was talking to Kim downstairs when all of a sudden, the rubber sole of Reef's shoe must have clung to the stairs while he was taking a step down and thump...thump....thump...he was at the bottom. I'm sure all of the adults said something like..."OH S*** or F***" But I ran to him and looked him over before moving him (myself having fallen down the stairs and an ambulance ride.) He was crying, but not hysterically...and he calmed down within a few minutes. A little momma's milk goes a long way for treating injuries! While he was nursing I ran my hands over his head and there wasn't even a goose egg forming! How crazy are kids and their malleable bodies!! We watched him the next couple of days and he was same ol' Reef...sleeping through the nights and playing through the days.

Let this be a lesson to us all...Even if you have 2 adults within arms reach of a child, they move quickly and the smallest thing (darn shoe!) can turn your world upside down (literally) in an instant! :) Thank the Lord he was FINE!

Busy day!

First the snowfall, then a wedding, finally a football game...

You've read about the snowfall...so here is the rest!

My good friend Susan Buchanan got married to her long time (about 9 years) beau Dustin Wollenburg today! My date (Lindsay Wittstruck Eisenmenger) and I witnessed their wedding (just barely...we were the last people in the church!) and their fall themed reception! Rick and Cyndi wanted to take Reef off our hands during the wedding so I said YES, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES!!! You see, I wasn't too sure how he would act in a church near his dinner time! Jared and Lindsay's hubby, Pat, were at our house watching football until the main event of Florida V. LSU!

Lindsay and I got back to our house for the 2nd Q and we enjoyed visiting while Reef went night night. It was tense for Jared toward the end because LSU was in scoring range, but the Gators persisted and won the game!

I almost forgot to mention...today is also Lindsay and Pat's 1st anniversary!!! Way to go! You might find it funny that they were apart a lot of the day on their big anniversary, but they had planned it out and celebrated last night as well as today!

A BUSY DAY FOR ALL!

SNOW!

Reef enjoyed playing in his first snowfall of the year. It was his first time actually getting to walk in the snow and feel it with his hands. Last year he was just a bitty guy, so we really didn't stay out in the snow or cold for long. Plus, he was just barely walking when the snow went away in March/April.

I think it took longer to bundle him up than we let him play in the snow. We also realized we need to get him some kind of snow boots and a hat/glove set that fits! I had bought the green camo set he's wearing for $.99 at the end of last season, but I think it's more like a 3/4T~he could get away with a 2T...

Oh the adventures we will have this winter!

Last day at Belmont

Today marks my last day teaching my 3rd grade class at Belmont. Boy did things change while I was there! I took a class that had NO discipline/class management to a well oiled machine! Well, there could have been some more improvements, but my time was up and it was Jill Haas' turn to take control of her class.

I will miss them...even the naughty boys! I am going to take Reef in tomorrow to see them and have all the other teachers see him as well! That should be fun!