Painful tonsils

When Jon and Mindy first learned about Harvey's rather enlarged tonsils, Cher had told them about Tony's childhood tonsil problems. It looks like those tonsils have decided to pester him again.

It all started later Saturday night. Tony started feeling a little under the weather. His only symptom was a high fever. It started at 101 and peaked on Sunday night at 105. This is when he thought I should take him to the ER. We were seen, had some tests done, and were sent on our way with no answers.

 I stayed home with him on Monday, and we went into his primary care physician Monday afternoon. She did more tests, and we went home to wait for the results. This morning Tony was called with the results. He did not have strep, no respiratory issues, and blood tests looked good. Hmm...now what? The doc said to call her at home if there were any more concerning symptoms that arose.

Well, they arose! A very high fever again, loss of appetite, very painful throat and bright red tonsils. We called the doc. She started him on penicillin because it now sounds like tonsillitis. We hopped in the car and drove to Walgreens. We waited for 15 minutes, and Tony drank a big jug of Gatoraid to try and get some electrolytes back in his system. He took his first dose on the car ride home.

Now he's very wiped from the trip, and his mother-in-law is on her way to bring him some chicken noodle soup! What a lady!

Tony's tonsil issues just so happened to fall on the big day for the T and A for Harvey. This morning he had his tonsils and adenoids removed. He was such a big boy going into the operating room, according to Mindy! I stopped by to see him after work tonight. He was very very sleepy and in some pain, but I just got a report that he is happily watching Dora and eating mac and cheese! Let's hope he can go home tomorrow!

I'm sending in some big prayers for Tony's large tonsils and Harvey's recovery!

Change of plans

Yesterday afternoon some of my closest college friends came to visit, Kelly, Jenna, Liv and Becky. Our plan was to eat a nice dinner at our house, drink some wine and work on some craft projects and help Jenna plan her wedding (she just got engaged after Christmas). However, those plans changed quickly!

It started with a text from my mother. She said if we all wanted to meet her and my dad at the DU, the local watering hole, they would buy us a drink! So, we headed down there and had a good time visiting with my parents.

When we got back to our house, I got a text from my brother Will's girlfriend Amanda. She said there was a free country concert at the Wicked Moose at 8pm. It was Hitchville, whom we all had seen at Country Fest last summer. We decided plans needed to change. We got all cuted up, and Tony drove us up there. We had a blast with Will, Amanda, Tony and some of Amanda's friends.

This morning, we all slept in and gradually made it to the kitchen for some chocolate chip muffins and socializing. Becky and Liv worked on some lesson plans for work, and we all chatted. Liv, Jenna and Becky tried out Fruit Ninja on the kinect. And Liv and Jenna tried Wipeout and Just Dance(demo). They just left to make the drives back home.

Even though plans changed, it was a fantastic weekend!

Jenna, Becky and I getting ready to leave for the Wicked Moose.

Will, Amanda and I. It was great to see my baby brother!

The girls. 

One of my longest college friends, Becky. I hate that we live so far apart!

Here begins a little photo shoot. I just had to include it in the blog post. Pretty funny...
Normal Happy Faces

Tony-mad face
Tricia-happy

Excited!

Sad

Scared

Really?! Angry

Yeah, we're married. No big deal!

Connor's 8!

Tomorrow is my cousin Connor's 8th birthday!

 I remember his birth so vividly. I was attending a regional competition for Business Professionals of America. I was in high school and did not have a cell phone. So, I gave my mom my friend Amy's cell phone number so she could call me with any news. I kept calling her however because I never heard anything. She would get mad at me because she was wanting the phone line clear for Rob to call. Finally, he was born that late afternoon. I was SO incredibly excited! Connor has always had a special place in my heart!

I might not make it to his birthday party on Sunday because I have some friends in town visiting. I brought his present to him last night. He invited me to stay for dinner and then to watch Wipeout afterwards. We had a pretty great night!

I went with an outer space theme this year. He has really been into astronomy, and knows way more than I do. I got him this outer space science kit. You can turn your room into a planetarium. It's pretty cool. I also got him binoculars for star gazing, glow in the dark stars for his ceiling and these online codes to look through the Shooh telescope.

Here's Connor and his really cool Pirates of the Caribbean ship he got in the mail from his grandma and grandpa Myhrvold. He had to explain every part to me in detail!

They're putting the planetarium together. What a ham!

This one's for Harvey. I haven't had any Luna pictures up for him in a while. We have found Luna resting on the planter right when you walk into our house on many occasions. The heat run underneath it makes it a nice toasty resting spot. I thought she just missed Tony and wanted to sleep on his work gloves. 

The Big 27!

Today is Tony's 27th birthday! He'll be spending the day lounging around while his wife is working hard, then he'll be working until the wee morning hours while she is lounging around!

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!

Where are my blog posts?

Some of you may have noticed my lack of posting recently. I just thought  I should give an update.

My hard drive has decided to crash on my laptop. This means that I have to use Tony's laptop or my Nook if I want to use the Internet. I can't upload my pictures to them either. After my computer is fixed, I will update you all on our comings and goings, and hopefully all of my pictures and documents are not erased....

I can give a brief written update:

A week ago Friday, Tony and I went on a double date with Adam and Emily for Adam's birthday. We went to the Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls. I forgot to take pictures.... We had quite a fun time tasting wine and then going to the Mill Street Tavern for supper afterwards.

Tony and I were asked to be the official directors of Celebrant Singers at Bethel as well as help to plan a contemporary church service that could possibly be starting next fall. They want us to organize a praise band/team to lead those worship services.

I have been working on my homework...I am taking 4 classes this trimester, so I am quite busy! I had class in the cities today, and my professor showed up! He brought doughnuts as a peace offering.

Tony works evenings this weekend and week, so we won't see each other for more than a few minutes here and there until next weekend. It just so happens that my college friends are coming to visit for a girls weekend!

I may not even get to see him on his birthday Wednesday unless he wakes up early or I stay up late!

Oh well, the life of overbooked people :)

Hopefully I can give photo updates soon!

Award Winning.

I have a confession to make. I have a lot of clothes. When I say a lot, I mean enough fill 2 rather large closets in our house and 1/2 of a large walk in closet at my parent's house. I tackled the closets at our house today. 6 hours later, we have some nice storage space in one of our spare rooms, and my closet is neat and tidy.

I didn't think to take a before picture of my full closets, but here are some shots of them empty. Try to imagine them jammed full of clothes!

Here's the finished product in our bedroom. Luckily there are 2 of these closets in our room. One for me, and one for Tony.

I decided to fold all of my hoodies (on the right) instead of hanging them. It saved A LOT of space. I have over 50 t-shirts folded there on the left. I have 2 totes full of shirts in storage as well. High school and college sure give out a lot of free shirts!

We found these cool hanger thingies in our basement. They came in handy. I might have to invest in some more. I can hang 5 shirts on 1 of them!

Here's the middle of the closet.

 Here's the bottom.

Don't forget our dresser. I have 1/2 to myself and Tony has the other half. 

I will be making a donation to Salvation Army or Goodwill in the near future. These are the clothes that just don't fit right anymore.



Now it's Tony's turn to clean his closet! Can you spot Luna in this picture? She just can't belive how Tony has more clothes than me....

Night with the Niece and Nephew

Last night Tony and I babysat Harvey and Natalie so John and Mindy could go out to dinner and run some errands. It's been a LONG time since we did that. I believe last June....

Our night consisted of wrestling around with Uncle Tony, eating a delicious supper, singing silly songs, reading books, showing off Christmas toys, playing Don't Break the Ice, french braiding hair and going to bed. It was a great night! Here are just a few photos to highlight the night:

Natalie and me.

We were playing airplane.

Uncle Tony read a lot to Harvey.

Unfortunately, those are really the only pictures that captured our night. Tony took several videos of me singing silly songs with the kiddos, but I think I'll pass on posting those to the public.....

The Big 56

Today is my mom's 56th birthday! My aunt Amy had my parents and I over for dinner tonight to help her celebrate. Tony had to work...story of our lives.

Here's a picture of me with the birthday girl.

I was on cake duty. It's not as fancy as Mindy's cakes, but I gave it my best shot.

Amy's lighting the candles. The blue thing around her neck is an aromatherapy neck warmer she gave my mom for her birthday present. We all tried it out.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Babysitting

Last night, Tony and I had the honor of babysitting Connor and Megan. Amy and Rob had a little neighborhood get together to attend, so we were more than willing to spend some quality cousin time with the kiddos. Here are the highlights of our evening together:

While I cooked supper Meg, Connor and Tony played on the Kinect. Meg loves fruit ninja! 

Connor had some quality Luna time.

We had a delicious supper: cheddar wursts, mac and cheese, baked beans and chips! Yummo!

Connor is VERY knowledgeable about the stars and constellations. Tony had the great idea to set up his telescope and head outdoors to look at the stars. Connor really gave a good educational talk about them. He even got to see the moons around Jupiter!



When Meg was taking a turn on the big telescope, Connor used his little one.

We came in doors, and I started doing the dishes. While I did that, Meg and Tony played several games of tic tac toe.

and Connor played Angry Birds on my Nook.

After I did all the dishes, we decided to dirty some more! We brought out the stove top popcorn maker that Dad got us for Christmas. The kids thought it was pretty cool to make popcorn like that!

I made the first batch...

delicious!

and Tony made the second batch.

Luna tried the popcorn too. She LOVED it! It was very difficult to keep her out of the bowl....

Yummy goodness!

Brian and Kate gave me a roaster and the ingredients to Cher's Crispix Mix as a Christmas gift. They got the idea from my obsession with the yummy goodness last summer on vacation.

Here it is cooling....

I have to sit at the table and shoo Luna away until it cools. She's very interested. She's not licking it as this angle makes it appear. 

Another shot of Luna admiring it.

This is funny. She noticed that I was taking pictures of her, so she decided to give me a good close-up! 

Some of you may be wondering how I was able to make this yummy goodness when I am supposed to be in Minneapolis for my class. Well, since you asked.....

My first alarm went off at 3:30am, and I finally rolled out of bed at 4:00am. My class started at 8:00am, but I had never been to campus. I wanted to get there nice and early to figure out parking and all that jazz.

I hit the road by 5:00. I stopped at Kwik Trip to pick up some caffeine and made it to Augsburg by 6:45am. I drove around campus and figured out where I needed to be. I then went to Bruegger's Bagels to pinterest for a while and eat a delicious onion bagel.

Around 7:30 I headed back to campus and proceeded to find my classroom. One of my classmates from Rochester campus was already in the classroom, and we visited for a while. Slowly, more and more students arrived.

By 8:03 I was getting a little nervous. There were about 20 students, but there was no instructor. We waited until about 8:15, then one of my classmates called the Augsburg weekend program office. They said they would investigate and call her back.

At 8:35 they called back and told us to sit tight. At 8:45 a lady walks in and informs us that our instructor thought class started NEXT week! So, he wasn't prepared and we were all to leave!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? This is the first time this has EVER happened to me in the 7 years that I have been attending college of some sort. I hopped in my car and drove back home. I grumbled a little here and there on my drive home.

 The positive in all of this: I got to listen to KTIS for 4 whole hours! It's my favorite radio station that cuts out around Oronoco, so I don't get it in my car.... Another positive: I made Cher's Crispix mix!

Happy Saturday everyone!

The not so friendly furnace...

Ever since we had gotten back from our honeymoon, I complained and complained and complained some more about how cold it was in our house! Tony called me a baby and threw me another blanket. Before I left for work on Wednesday, I asked him to check our furnace out. Guess what, it was shot and we needed a new one!

Luckily my dad works in the plumbing and heating business and gave us the number to a great business to call for help. It's a good thing we called when we did because he said it was very dangerous to be using this old furnace. It was emitting a lot of CO2. SCARY! They are currently at our house working away on it now. I took a half day off to let them in, and my father in law Alan will be covering the afternoon shift, so I can go back to work.

Thanks to Jon and Mindy for loaning us their space heater, and thanks to my dad for giving us some wood for our fireplace! Everything works out in the end....and now we won't have this problem for another 20 years!

Here's our corroded and gross furnace from the inside.

Here's the outside pipe. It should not be black! That's what tells us it's dangerous apparently. Good job house inspector who failed to see this! 

Luna has been enjoying lounging around by the fireplace since it has been burning night and day.



I learned how to work the fireplace....

She crawled under the ledge in front of the fireplace and fell fast asleep.