Good Timing

 I'm pretty sure Austin and Kade are recovering from the flu. Austin woke last Saturday to a fever. It got up to almost 103.7 that day. He looked awful. It was the day after we spent time on that frozen pond. I couldn't believe how fast it came! I quickly realized throughout the day that he would not be going on our ski trip, in two days, on MLK Jr day. The next day, Sunday, we decided we had to make a plan. Since Caberfae ski resort is 3 hours away, we had decided to stay at a hotel there for the night so we didn't have to drive 3 hours at the crack of dawn like I did 2 years ago when I took Austin and Erik. That was the year Austin broke his arm on the second run down and I had to turn around and take him to the ER. This time, Austin wasn't going to make the trip at all. What's up with Caberfae and Austin?? Anyhow, since we had planned for all of us to go this time, I decided that Jason should still take Kade and Erik and I would stay back with Austin and then take him to a local ski resort over the break for President's Day. Jason will have work that day, but I will not and there will be no school for the kids. Plus, since the trip to Caberfae was with friends from church, Jason would have others to ski with. I'm more likely to stay with Austin and follow him on more challenging runs. 

Things started to shift as the departure time drew closer. Kade said he wasn't feeling well and wanted to wait for the next trip when I was to take Austin. So Erik and Jason started packing up and I got their food ready. As I was prepping the food and noticing that Austin's fever was low-grade by that point, I began to think that maybe I should go and take advantage of the group rate we would be getting ($40 for a lift ticket and rental) and leave Austin and Kade to care for each other. Kade never had a fever, otherwise I probably wouldn't have left. If Austin's fever was still high I wouldn't have left either. That's the part that made me nervous. 

At the last second, I decided that I would just go. I knew I would be bored out of my mind with my 2 sick kids who would probably be sleeping most of the day, or watching movies. I really wanted to ski again, and I hadn't gotten to experience much of Caberfae last time. I figured if I didn't want to go over the next break, Kade and Austin could go alone. 

I was excited to spend some time with Jason and only Erik. It was almost like a date! Erik felt pretty special too. The biggest worry I had was the weather. That big arctic blast was due to come in just in time for the day. 

We awoke to a real feel of -18, the temperature was -2 degrees. The sun was shining, so that was a plus. It wasn't supposed to get much warmer the entire day. Luckily, we had gone skiing 3 weeks earlier and I knew that I felt pretty good then, with temps in the high 20s/ low 30s. So I brought a few extra layers and made sure I layered everything in the right order with no cotton on my body! Just wool and polyester. I had my fleece sweater under my jacket as my extra barrier against the wind. I even put the hand and foot warmers in at the right time (which was before getting out of the car!) I usually can't stand the ski goggles, especially with my face covered with a buff, but Jason got me athletic sunglasses that work for skiing and they were much more comfortable, especially since I had to cover my face. 

I can now say that my body was at a very good temperature- not too cold, but my fingertips and toes took turns on the verge of frostbite, even with 2 layers of wool socks on and those warmers. When going up a lift, I could feel it in my toes and I could sit on my hands and keep my fingers warmer. When skiing down and holding the poles, my toes were working, but my fingers weren't as much. We decided my gloves aren't as good as Jason's. That will be our next purchase. The other thing that got cold was my brain. Yes, my brain. Every time I went down a run and the wind picked up at a certain area (always the same area on the same run and then at other times on different runs) I suddenly got a headache. It would last just for that brief time, then go away. Jason said it sounded like a brain freeze, and I think that's what it was. I literally got a brain freeze from those freezing temps! 

It was so much fun, though! Erik had a lot of friends there and was off with them. I got tired of the easy slope and went off on my own a bit, so that meant Jason was on his own a bit because some of those young kids were more daring, but we did get to ride the lift together a bunch and we skied down together a few times. Erik took me to the harder slopes after our last warm-up break so I could try them before we left. I really didn't want to venture over there by myself and there weren't any other moms there from our group without young kids. That really made the time go fast and made me forget my frozen fingers and toes because I was focused on getting down the slope. It was then that we discovered that school would be canceled for the next 2 days due to the extreme cold! 

When we returned, Austin and Kade were still surviving and had slept a lot, as I imagined. Kade slept 14 hours that Sunday night! They were pretty happy about school being canceled, especially because they were still sick. With real feels the next two mornings of -20 and -23, plus regular temps being -2 both mornings, it was a good call and the best timing ever to have sick kids. The new semester hadn't even started and they were sick, but didn't have to go to school or even make up any work! I was so happy I went skiing so I could get out of the house on Monday, but really enjoyed relaxing the next 2 days with no worries about school! 

Everyone is finally getting their energy back, now that it has been a week. 

I have hardly any pics to show because there was no way I was taking my hand out to take pics any more than I did!

This was the temp just before we started skiing. 

Spencer and Erik

Erik finishing up a run. 

The temperature on Tuesday that school was canceled for.

Our cats have decided that laying on the heating vents is the best way to stay warm. Leia is covering the entire thing!

Snow Fun

 After not having much snow last year, I mean like hardly any all season, I'd say our winter snowfall this year has been pretty ideal. Not too much has fallen at one time, just enough to keep the ground covered and the roads decent the past week. We patiently waited until our half day at the end of the semester on Friday to go sledding. I wanted to make sure Austin got his study time in and planned to take him and some of his friends, as well as Erik and some of his friends sledding. It turned out that Kade was planning on going with his friends after we returned so he could use the sleds.

The whole week I wasn't able to take my students outside because, with the real feel, it felt below 15 degrees, which is the cut-off. On Friday, we were finally able to go out for recess and the sun was shining! It was going to be a perfect day for sledding! 

Well, the temperature got above 32, and somehow, by the time we got all the kids picked up and into the cars (Kade had to drive Erik and his friends because we had so many kids going!), when we got to the sledding hill, there was hardly any snow on it. The sun was shining bright and I'm sure the kids who got there earlier helped wear down the snow. Everything else was covered, just not the hill. They made some pretty good runs down on the patchy areas, none of which I took pictures of before they found the frozen pond and we played there the longest. I really wish I owned iced skates! We did check to make sure it was frozen enough, and it was more than 6 inches thick through most of it, just not the edges. Of course, Austin decided at the end to get some of the big ice chunks from an edge and break them. Otherwise, everyone stayed out of mischief and remained unharmed. I tried not to be in the way, so I only took a picture of Austin when he asked me to with his ice chunk. I was the mode of transportation and supervisor of safety issues. Erik had fewer friends with him and I somehow trusted him more to not do anything too stupid, so I didn't see him as much as he and his friends were wandering around finding adventures in the snow. Needless to say, I didn't get any pictures of him. However, the day before when it was way too cold, he was at a friend's house who took a picture of those boys in the snow in her yard.

Now we have to brace ourselves for the extreme cold coming our way!

Erik and his buddies on Thursday.

Austin throwing ice on Friday.

You can hardly even see the pond here because of all the snow on top. Who would have thought the snow on the sledding hill would have melted??

Some Accomplishments

 Not many accomplishments occur during the winter months, at least in our family, but we had a couple of accomplishments. 

The first one was getting a treadmill down into our basement, before Christmas, and up and running just recently. Our friends had given it to us and we had Victoria help us move it out of their basement at the very end of the summer before she went back to school. She's a strong girl! That thing was so big and awkward though, it took way too long and about did us in! We got it to the garage and left it there. First, we had to decide where we were going to put it. Our house isn't very big, though we do have a decent-sized basement. The problem with the basement is that the ceilings are extremely low. It works just fine for our not-very-tall family, however, when we sat back and thought about Austin running on a treadmill, we realized it would be difficult for him in a year or two when he gets a little taller. His head would be hitting the ceiling! The treadmill is mostly for him to do some runs when the weather is bad. I'm not a fan of treadmills, though I have gotten used to using them a tad from stays at hotels. Now that my kids sleep in more, I've been utilizing the treadmills in the hotel fitness centers.

After lots of measuring and a few months of thinking and deciding, we finally went with putting the treadmill in the laundry room, where my bike on the trainer was. The ceiling is slightly higher there, plus it hasn't been redone yet and is completely disgusting, so when Austin gets too tall for the treadmill, we can just take out the ceiling and he can run with his head in a space in the rafters. Seriously. I think it will work. If not, Erik can use it until he's too tall. I have run on it twice now and Jason's been walking on it, so I think it turned out!

We can fold it up like this if we want more space to do laundry.

Though it's not too crowded if we keep it down.

Here's the ceiling. You can see the hole to the right that is already there and we haven't done anything to it. We'll probably just take it all out when we need to.

I plan on printing up a poster of a road scene to hang on the lower part here and we can look at it instead of all my old photo albums!

Here's my bike now, right next to the weights. It's nice to have it out in the main area of the basement for a change. I do ride it a lot during the winter.

The other accomplishment is that Erik was sustained as a Teacher today and Austin as a Priest. Since Austin was ordained first, he was able to join the group as Erik was sustained. It was a sweet and spiritual moment! 

18th Birthday!

 Another milestone birthday- Kade is 18! For a little while now, at all his appointments, all the doctors and specialists have been reminding me that Kade will be in charge of his appointments and healthcare business. It feels kind of abrupt to me. I still hope to be involved in his healthcare, but at least I don't have to go to all the appointments or make them. He is in charge of his schedule now!

Since Kade isn't in color guard this year, he's been able to focus more on orchestra and his viola as well as have some time for playing around on his guitar and electric bass. He has a few art classes in school and really loves his honors zoology class. He enjoys spending time with friends. 

On his birthday, I made a full breakfast, per his request, of waffles, bacon, hash browns, and orange juice. It was the first and only time he was up by 9 over the break, except Christmas. That's when he wanted breakfast, but it was a backward day because his siblings were still in bed, even though Austin and sometimes Erik or Victoria are usually up by then.

Cool whip on the waffle!

He opened presents after breakfast, got to have leftover PR food for lunch, and 3 of his best friends over by 2:00 to hang out and watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Another friend joined them for dinner at Applebes's before they came back here to play some games and have cake with everyone. It was the quietest birthday "party" we've had here in a while! The family went to dinner with him for his birthday celebration a few days before so he could enjoy his friends at Applebee's. He told us we could join them there and sit at another table nearby, but I didn't want to go out twice (dinner out is so expensive with teens now!), nor not sit at the same table as him!! 

It's all wrapped up in foam here, but this is his skateboard rail. 

TMNT comic book.

Socks

Skateboard ramp

Erik got him a Splinter Funko Pop.

Kade opened Isa's gift earlier because she didn't wrap the TMNT cars.

Friend dinner!

Red velvet cake!

Friend gifts!

When we went out to celebrate as a family we went to The Burger Spot and had such a great time laughing together, eating good food, and playing games together when we returned home. 

Jason and I got our own table!

Happy 18th Birthday Kade!!