October review

This month has been such a blur. It doesn't seem like that long ago when we were gearing up for the start of school for us and the kiddos.

Here's some of the highlights:

• I had a great week out west in late September - early October. My brother Chris and I had a fun couple days before my other bro Corey and his friend Tex joined us in the middle of the week. We worked and worked and worked. But we had a fun time doing it. I haven't physically worked that hard in years! Our only outing was a trip into Montana to the little town we all graduated from high school from - Bainville. Saw some kids I used to babysit in the bar...yeah, that has a way of making you feel old.
• Trav, the kids, Hilary and Jack had an uneventful trip west. We were happy to see them!
• The sale went very well. It was fun to see some neighbors.
• We took a ton of pics and I also brought back a bunch of rocks to put in the backyard. My brothers loved helping me pick rock!
• The trip back was full of spotting cows, horses and tractors for Grace. She adores each of these things - she was quite the little farm girl out west!
• Carson enjoyed his ipod both directions - it is loaded with games and music (we can plug in the ipod directly into his hearing aids).
• October has been cold and rainy. We've only had a few very nice fall days in October.
• We enjoyed the Buffalo River Pumpkin Patch last Sunday. It was a beautiful day and we saw some animals in the farm area, we played in the straw bale maze, the kids went on barrel train rides and Grace and I went on a carriage ride. And of course, we picked out some pumpkins!
• Grace has started potty training! She told her caregiver one day about a week and a half ago that she needed to go potty (out of the blue). The caregiver took her and voila! She went! Grace promptly said "M&M". The caregiver didn't know where we kept the M&M's so as soon as her hands were washed, Grace was a bullet upstairs to show the caregiver!
• She's had quite a few pee-pee successes and has pooped three times since then! WOO HOO!
• Grace has one more week of horse therapy for the fall. She loves riding and is quite the little cowgirl.
• Carson is very excited for Halloween. He wasn't sure what he would be for quite a while. It was a toss-up between a vampire and a cowboy (???). He decided on a cowboy, much to my delight. One more year without gore is fine with me.
• Grace will be an NDSU Bison Cheerleader. Mama still gets to pick hers but I have a feeling it'll be girly for a long time with the little Miss.
• Carson had four days off from school a little over a week ago - first it was two days off due to teacher's conferences and the next two days due to MEA (Minnesota Education Association). He enjoyed the break - he had some sniffles before and was able to shake them.
• My birthday was this past Thursday. I got the best presents EVER! :-)
• First, Bon Jovi announced they are returning to Fargo in March 2010 (they were last here in April 2008 and it was an incredible concert).
• Second (and most importantly), both the kids got H1N1 vaccines on Thursday night. We are so very thankful, as we know of how critically low the supply is. This flu is so dangerous for many, but Carson is at particular risk as an immune-suppressed kid. Just a few more days and they should have some immunity. They'll both need a second shot around November 22. Haven't told the kids yet about that...
• We took a trip to Perham this weekend. This summer at the Dreams for Kids event, we bid on and won a night's stay at their newest hotel - Crossings. We left yesterday after horse therapy. We did a bit of shopping, checked into the hotel, the kiddos swam, we ate at a great supper club, went bowling, swam some more and then bed. We were all sleeping by 9:15 p.m.! We slept until a little after 7 - it was heavenly. Swam some more, had breakfast and went home. It was so relaxing. We didn't have anywhere we needed to be or anything specific to do. The perfect get-away. And, I beat the pants off of Travis in bowling (152 to 94). Love you, Honey!
• Will be a busy week ahead - Travis starts teaching his online course through MSCTC tomorrow. I have a conference Wednesday - Friday. It's a regional conference, but is held here in Fargo-Moorhead. I am one of the local arrangement co-chairs, so taking care of a lot of organizing and details. I enjoy it, but will be happy when the conference is over too! :)
• Looking forward to Halloween next week - we'll have two cute goblins to take out and about.

Those are the biggies from Moorhead for tonight!