Ahh, 2018. A year of no new baby ('10,12,14 & 16), no attempting to sell a house (failed in 15, success in 17), no new jobs or other major life changes, just a nice calm year enjoying life!
Quick review of 2018:
Ugh, uploading pictures is the worst. It is taking FOREVER! I give up!
January:
We got a condo in the Dells from some friends for the week. We had so much fun - it was the perfect winter getaway. Not too far of a drive, a very spacious condo giving us lots of room to spread out, a full kitchen, and mostly empty waterparks! We stayed Sunday -Wed (arriving just in time for us all to witness the Vikings "Minneapolis Miracle").
February
A little master bath remodel - new paint, light fixture above mirror & mirror. (we replaced the beautiful sea shell shaped counter top & faucet earlier). Very cheap remodel that made a big difference.
Spring break/Easter....big kids went to the farm for a couple of days and went to the Harlem Globetrotters. Waylon stayed home and helped with the semi-annual clothing switch, which seems to be a multi day project now.
We were sick all of April. Charlie and I each had strep twice back to back, Waylon had it, Levi had strep AND influenza at the same time....finally by the end of the month when Charlie got strep the 2nd time (immediately after finishing antibiotics) we ended up having Nora & Erik tested. Nora was the Strep A carrier....Erik was also positive for a different strain of strep so he got antibiotics, too. So, that was 8 cases of strep in April. Not fun. We also had a major weekend snow storm that brought so much snow.
End of the year school stuff. 2nd grade concert (Charlie didn't think it was a big deal that he had a lengthy speaking part), Kindy graduation. We also got broilers & decided to get egg layers. When the chicks were a couple of weeks old they were playing in the yard and Daisy got all 8 of them :( We replaced them and learned our lesson. Thankfully she mostly left them alone after that. She did get one again randomly in the fall.
June
Summer rec, summer enrichment, swimming lessons....lots of driving, lots of picnics, finishing out the broilers
July
Butchered the chickens just in time to jump on a plane - this year to FLorida! (took time to TRIPLE check that there were no frozen chickens hiding in the car before leaving it at the airport this year). This was Nora & Levi's first time flying. You might have low expectations if you say "the flight was good - only one person threw up!" Nora got a bit motion sick I think but she was fine the rest of the time. We didn't do much in Florida, went to the beach one day, but otherwise just hung around at Alicia's in their pool. Our kids got along really well.
As soon as we got home we made a trip to the farm to work with the calves and then soon it was fair time!
August
Charlie & Erik went with grandma, grandpa, & sue to Vikings training camp. we enjoyed a slower paced month since summer rec was done.
Oh I almost forgot until I looked at the pictures - we also were obsessed with catching caterpillars. We saw one make it's chrysalis one night while we were processing sweet corn and it was so cool! The kids also watched one come out as a butterfly. We can't wait to catch more next summer!
September
Back to school for everyone. Charlie in 3rd grade (new school), Levi in 1st, Nora is doing PreK 3 mornings a week & I am teaching 3K 2 mornings a week in addition to ECFE. I missed having Fridays off but enjoy teaching preschool. Charlie also did flag football for the first time. Our fall was pretty terrible weather wise. It was cold/rainy/windy at almost every game he had so that was a bummer.
Another little weekend remodel. Painting the cabinets in the entry way. I chose gray, which then meant we also had to paint the walls. Finding hinges was impossible so we ended up spray painting the old ones and reinstalling. But it's amazing what a difference it made. I also ended up pulling out the bottom shelf on the open cabinet to make room for a shoe rack and then we recut doors for the top part to hide the junk :)
This lovely before photo is from when we first looked at the house. Since our washer/dryer is also right here it's a lot of stuff going on. At first we considered moving the laundry to the basement but after about 1 day I decided I love having it so handy. But it really limits our entry space. We also considered taking out all of the cabinets and counter but it's nice storage space & I do like the counter space....we'll see how this space evolves as our needs change. But this was a cheap little update that makes me happy.
October
Nora turns 4! We went to the Children's museum in Mankato to celebrate and had pizza in Spring Valley over MEA weekend. We also go our first eggs from the chickens! We started keeping a calendar and we're getting about 5 eggs a day (we have 7 chickens).
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| I was surprised to find 2 eggs in the coop one night! |
November
Waylon turned 2! Erik built a bigger coop for the birds. Thanksgiving & baking cookies with great grandma.
December
Daisy got hit by a car. We miss her (especially letting us know when someone's here). But I don't miss her hair, laying/refusing to move in front of the steps, barking at nothing, and harassing the chickens. It was a rough week - the fish also died a few days before that.
Then it was Christmas & my birthday! We decided to make our Christmas a priority this year and stayed home all day. It was great letting the kids open their things and then have all day to play with them instead of rushing out the door, or having them open stuff when they're tired & Christmas-ed out.
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