April
The password for March is..... April. That darn, sweet, pregnant giraffe in New York. If you haven't heard of her, then you must be living in a hole somewhere. Oh, that giraffe! So many hours of her on my TV above my fireplace. So many nights leaving her live-stream on my tablet on my nightstand while I dozed to sleep. Good, educational entertainment nonetheless. And I don't know who is in charge of the animal park's social media posts, but they have been handling them so well, using humor and even a little snarky sarcasm from time to time because of the ridiculous things people post. I love their updates!
Back to Work
Early March found me back in the office for 1 day, filling in for Jay's BOA who had a much needed appointment on the calendar. I have also been going into the office a couple days per week, just a few hours each, to help with some phone calls and event/seminar planning. I have been able to get school done in the morning with the boys, then go into the office for a few hours while the boys kick back and relax and then I return home to make dinner. I also had 10 hours of new training to complete because of the DOL changes. Just a couple days a week in the office will be fine.
Twister & Snow
Wow, Minnesota Weather was drunk or off her meds or something. On March 6 a tornado touched down in Zimmerman, just northwest of Jay's office. This was supposedly the earliest tornado touchdown in Minnesota weather history. Thankfully, the office was fine, our friends were fine and clients reported they were fine too. They were lucky! I saw pictures of houses that looked like doll houses, with entire walls ripped off 1 side. Yikes! That was some damage from an F1 tornado! The following morning we woke up to an ice covered driveway and a dusting of snow. Our pond re-froze and frozen into it are several trees (1 large, 1 medium and lots of small ones) that were knocked down by 2 days of high winds. We have a big mess to clean up! Anyone with a chainsaw is welcome to lend a hand! To bring back winter, we got 2 inches of snow the weekend of Daylight Savings but it melted in about 4 days. By the last week of March, the ice was officially out on the pond and we were enjoying 60 degree weather! Strangest weather I have ever seen!
Final Reveal
While Jay was away for a quick overnight trip and Super C was off doing the 30-Hour Famine with his youth group, Super E and I put the final touches on Super C's new teenage bedroom. Well, technically, I do still have to finish the 1 cabinet door to his dresser and his nightstand that will need to be painted outside, so I'll wait another month or so for that. I painted some peg board the same color as the bedroom walls and installed them on both sides of the bed and along 1 other small wall. Then we hung all his equipment. The Nerf themed teenage room is complete! I love putting rooms together for my kids! Now I can officially move onto the bathroom transformations. Look out paint aisles, here I come, because ceilings, walls and cabinetry are all due for a new, updated look! That will be more in the budget than lower level floors or a basement finish!
Missing Ministry?
We have really enjoyed our new church home: Eagle Brook Church. It's a large church with many locations. We attend one that has been meeting in a high school, but this month we opened our brand new campus just 15 minutes from our home in nearby Anoka. They renovated an old, abandoned K-Mart. Our grand opening was this month and the first service was filled to overflow in the lobby! How exciting! This was probably the first time ever, since leaving ministry, that Jay and I both felt a tiny bit of nostalgia, missing all the fun of grand openings after building or expanding church campuses. That was Jay's forte, but we both felt it for sure. No worries though; we aren't going back into ministry ever. Yet we'll play our role as volunteers. With this new change for the church and it's close proximity to our home, we stepped up to be small group leaders. We are starting a community group for families with school-aged children. We hope to get more connected to people in our similar family situation, during this busy thing we call life.
Last Minute
I had an appointment on the calendar for mid-April for Miss Quiet Tiger to see a child psychiatrist. It has been such a struggle just to find her help. Why the struggle? Why? It was so hard to just get her home! Why must we struggle so hard now to get her help? Well, I went with her alone one Tuesday morning when the office had a cancellation and asked if we wanted in earlier than planned. I took a leap of faith and we went. I loved our new doc! We began medicating for her anxiety. Yes, we tried earlier, but that was with our pediatrician who just comfortable with medicating such a young child. Sadly, even in 1 short week, we have had to stop. Five days on a half dose of Prozac and my daughter was manic! I've never seen her so wild and crazy, laughing maniacally all the time, unable to sit still or even speak a complete sentence. I got very perturbed at my once loved doc when she didn't return my calls. I finally heard back and scheduled a follow-up appointment, which I later cancelled too (you have to wait until next month's update to know why). In the end, this new doc saw everything and confirmed the anxiety disorder and Reactive Attachment Disorder. Hopefully, we will see the anxiety diminish. There will be no cure for the RAD. We'll live with it always. We have some big things on the calendar this summer and we need a truly Quiet Tiger, not an anxious, amped up, Wired Tiger. I'll leave you with this: you won't want to miss next month's blog! That's all I'm saying about that.
Orthodontia Revisited
We've been back and forth to 2 different orthodontists for the boys. Two weeks after a visit to orthodontist #1 for a free evaluation, we went to orthodontist #2 much closer to home. They can already see a difference in Super E's teeth and told us to stop the home treatments recommended by Ortho #1. Sadly, Ortho #2 also recommended pulling 4 of Super E's baby teeth; something Ortho #1 never even breathed! The minute I got home from this second evaluation, I called Ortho #1 for the promised free, reevaluation. So, on a Wednesday morning, Super E and I headed back out to Ortho #1 and they loved the change thanks to the home treatments! They disagreed about the tooth pulling, but did say that when Super E is older, he'd likely need braces for a short time, but that really all depends on how his 12-year molars change everything. In the end, Ortho #1 gets my business. We are still talking about when it will be best to get Super C into braces, but it will likely be this summer.
Div Trip
Leaving his Texas office behind and starting fresh here in Minnesota definitely set Jay back in his career. We were told to expect it and it was 100% truth. It has been over 2 years since Jay has earned a trip through work (Jackson Hole was the first trip Jay earned and Rome was the second). This past month he earned another Div Trip and we are anxiously waiting for the day the books are opened so we can see the available destinations. We are so thankful for Edward Jones for awarding exceptional work to the employee and spouse with amazing trips like these. We make some fun "Jones Friends" (and product partner friends too) from around North America and we see some amazing locales and are given the chance to relax and kick back all thanks to Jones. Wish my hard working husband a big congratulations sometime. Stay tuned for the selected destination.
