Call Home!

Yay for Spring! I've been loving the weather. . .warm, snow, warm, cold, rain, sun, etc!!! It's made it very interesting for Rachel, Irene, and I trying to figure out where and when to workout each day, but we've been able to go to the park a few times, and we've really enjoyed that! I've been pregnant for 27 weeks now (87 days left as of today--hee hee) and have still been running, OK, so I've been getting slower and slower, but nonetheless I'm pretty proud of myself. :) We found out we're having a boy. I really can't believe it. Kyra and I were both so sure he was a girl!! But, I'm very excited to have another little boy--I can't wait to see what he looks like. Well, we made it through our remodeling projects (not that we had to do much but move furniture--which Hobie and Irene did lots of-- and stand by and watch, and be without stuff here and there, but it still seemed like a long time and a lot to deal with!) and our house is beautiful! I almost feel like we moved into a new home. We got new flooring throughout upstairs, new bathroom counters, a wood fireplace mantle, painted the bedrooms and bathrooms, and got new couches. Very fun!

Last month Dave and I went snowmobiling for Valentine's and Dave ended up in the ER for stitches. We had a great time until then! :) This set him back in his training enough that he won't be able to compete in April afterall, but he'll still go to the tournament to coach his team.

We got to have Megan and Jacob stay with us for a week while Kim and Jon went to Hawaii. We had a really fun time with them. Dave still mimics Jacob and asks the kids who he's being. Having Megan here made me realize how much my kids are dropped off at their cousins and how routine it has become for them. I'll ask them to get in the van, drive them to Rachel's, drop them off and drive away, all with no explanation and they don't even blink or think twice, they just run into her house and continue whatever they were doing the day before! Or I'll tell them to run to Irene's and they'll just go without wondering why or for how long! Until I tried to do the same with Megan who wanted to know why, where I was going, and when I'd be back, etc. I didn't realize how common and comfortable it had become! :) We loved having them here, and miss them already.

We took Mark to an ear specialist to see if surgery or a hearing aid could help his hearing. They ended up finding a cyst on his ear drum that must be removed. It'll take two surgeries--a year apart--to remove it, and he won't be able to go in water for 3 months after the surgery, so we're thinking of scheduling the first one at the end of this summer. But we also found out that there is a kind of hearing aid that would help him hear!! It's called a BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid). It sits behind his ear and hooks onto a screw that is anchored to his skull. We're looking into that now. It's very expensive and we've been told that insurance does not cover the procedure, so we'll see what we can do. . . !

We're looking forward to our vacation coming up. Mark and I are going to Catalina Island with his school for a few days, then meeting up with dad for a couple days, and then meeting up with Dave and the girls to go to Sea World and Disneyland for a week. Can't wait. :) I guess that's it for now.