ER

Jacob had his first (and hopefully only ever) trip to the ER on Monday night. Sunday he was running a fever but it was gone Monday morning. Monday night he was coughing (croup cough) and went to bed - only to wake up around 10:30 to go to the bathroom with a really high fever and wheezing enough to make Brian and I nervous. We tried the steam room plan, but when we went out of the bathroom, it only seemed to get worse. Since breathing difficulties really weird me out - Jacob and I were off to the ER. A dose of steroids and a few hours later - we were on our way back home. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get back into the house because the garage door was broken. Ah - fun night.

1st day of spring?

I have this drilled into my head (thanks Mom) that the weather is always nice by my birthday at the end of March. To back up the theory, there are photo-documented outdoor birthday parties beginning at age 5. I still can't seem to shake the disappointment of living where spring doesn't really show up until late April at best. This and I LOVE winter. But now I'm ready for a new season.

Today started off exciting with a potential gas leak in the garage (turned out to be nothing, but something sure was stinky) that Brian stayed home in the morning to deal with. Then there was the 2nd half of Allison's IEP meeting - which went from 12:30pm to 3:15pm. That's probably a whole post in and of itself.

It's officially spring break and I'm looking forward to getting caught up (if not necessarily getting a whole week off). Tomorrow morning we are going out to the CSA farm because we bought a hog from them, which is going to be processed on Monday, and we wanted to see the operation before that. I think Brian might want to pick out a hog - but I don't know if it works that way. Anyway, it'll be fun and I think the kids will like to see the animals. We probably won't tell them that the pig will be dinners for the next year. Also, given the omnivorous diets of hogs - I don't know exactly what the advantages of "organicly grown and fed" pigs are. Hopefully it means they eat more than corn. It seems a more apparent distinction in cattle that are grass-fed.

In like a lion...

Hard to believe it's March. A few notes from up north (and no, the snow hasn't melted yet):

My accelerated hybrid class started last Tuesday. So that adds 20 more students and we cover 3 weeks of material in one 3 hour class period. One bonus - we're already 2/5 of the way done! But seriously, the students do seem to actually read the book, look at the notes, and do the assignments. I'm just getting way behind on grading my other classes stuff.

Allison was admitted to Appleton's public Montessori school (lottery process - "admission" is probably not the right word). We need to make a decision by next Friday, and we're probably collecting people's thoughts and opinions. We have a massive IEP meeting next Monday and I'm not sure how it will go. We're not sure they'll give her the same support in the Montessori classroom, but then perhaps she won't need as much support either. Today I went and observed her class - but I thought she was doing great (paying attention, on task for a full 1/2 hour). Slower than most of the other students, but she didn't quit even when she couldn't get the fastener through her papers correctly. But, I suppose, the problems are not her "on" days but her "off" days.

Jacob has another play date tomorrow that he's super excited about. He has these two friends at school - Kaden and Dominic - and he knows what days each one will be there. Wednesdays are apparently the best because both are there. And they all LOVE 'Cars.' There is even a picture of them (Jacob and Dominic) on the Children's Center website now (but it's hard to see them). The other funny thing I've realized is that while Jacob has a good sense of future timing (as in, Saturday, we get to do ____, or the honest first thing out of his half-awake self this morning was "it's Friday.") But past events are all "Last night." So anything began with last night doesn't actually mean last night, but means sometime prior to today. And occasionally it'll get qualified by "last night and 2 days" = two days ago.

Brian is not too likely to advertise - so I'll share for him (cause he should be happy about it). He was promoted to a managerial role a few weeks ago. He still works on Heinz projects but also other stuff on frozen and condiments and he now has people reporting directly to him. So that's pretty cool.

And that's news from up here. I'm off to go swimming and work on my defunct triathlon training (meaning I've done very little training so far).