I’m pretty sure that every time I have ever received the flu shot I have felt like crap the following day. Today is no different. My arm feels fine. I just have a sore throat, headache, and nasal congestion. It is a good thing that I do not work today. I do however work tomorrow, five out of the next six days actually, so this had better be a one day thing. We laid low at our apartment. The big kids went with Chad to the library after they finished their school work, but were gone only a short time. I was a slug and laid around drinking airborne. Does laying low really help you get better faster? I wish I knew. I can’t afford to be sick in the world of no PTO and travel nursing contracts. In an attempt to do something productive and process the loss of a dear friend and longtime coworker and the many lessons I have learned from her I drew a small tribute. May my life produce the fruits of the spirit like yours did, may I love those around me in a way that they know that there’s no judgement from me.

I have not drawn much since high school it is quite therapeutic. Recently I started drawing on a few envelopes but this is the second person I have attempted in the last fifteen years.
Heres to feeling like new tomorrow.

This is my life. I have three cousins. I like pink and blue. I go many places and we get patches sometimes (a lot). I want to make a big picture. My favorite part about traveling is seeing all the stuff. My favorite part about homeschooling is getting to do such wonderful art.

After drawing into the evening, my eyes did not want to wake up or focus this morning never the less the kids still got up, early. We had breakfast, walked the dog and then headed north.

Caleb didn’t like the song Hannah made up and was singing to him, so he came up with a creative solution.
We needed to find a pharmacy and get the flu shot (a work requirement) before heading up toward Washington Island. The first stop was Target because I was told they had the best price. When it was my turn to ask at the pharmacy they informed me that they could not give the flu shot yet because they have to take a CPR class first, that really confirmed how I already felt about the health “benefits” of this medical recommendation. The second place, Walgreens, was a win and the pharmacist had a great sense of humor. He came out with the syringe and said, “right this way.”
To which I replied, “Oh, you get the job of torturer.”
He said, “Yes! And we have a special sound proof room, it’s better for business.”
Me: “Awe, I had a scream planned and everything.”
That and teasing him about the “advertising” by using a get your flu shot at Walgreens bandaid made for a pretty fun flu shot experience which, I guess, is the next best thing to not having to get one.

We keep trying to make it over to Desmoines Iowa, however, at an over 6 hour drive each way and a hotel stay not in the budget it keeps getting pushed back. This time instead we headed back up to door county to the tip of the the thumb. We drove through a lot of beautiful country side. The colors were starting to change but it’s still 80% green.

the road at the tip of the thumb is called, “The zig zag road.” It lived up to it’s name and made me instantly green at the gills and that cold sweat we have all felt before.

The ferry to Washington Island looked fun but after discovering the prices $42 for the family minus the car. (Another $26 if we wanted to take the car.) We decided to save that particular adventure for when Mary Beth is here next week because it’s not something you do twice. We checked out the visitor center and a few gift shops.

We then just drove around. We went up dirt roads and around soon discovering a state park and a dog friendly hiking trail.

We explored a few more roads after our hike and a few shops in Sister’s Bay as well as a small farmer’s market, then picked a Mexican restaurant for dinner. I got a text from a friend at dinner that put me in a tailspin. “What!?” That can’t be right. Our Shari? No. Chad was ok with me checking FB during dinner because I felt sick and really just wanted to know what happened. It is true. Our Silverton FBC beloved family member passed away this morning very unexpectedly. Please be in prayer for her family.
The ride home was quiet. I was in my head. Still in disbelief.
Dear Heavenly Father wrap the FBCers in your arms and give them peace. Be with Shari’s family as they grieve this sudden and huge loss…

I was really excited to share the kids oral presentations today. The kids were excited to do them as it has been so long. They picked their own subjects practiced once and then recorded, but after sitting outside of Starbucks (yes we got a drink, but it was with a free drink voucher we had been given earlier) for an hour trying to upload them onto YouTube so that the the link could be placed on here we gave up. With no luck at McDonald’s or a hotel parking lot either. We will try again tomorrow somewhere as we drive around.
The adventures of today mostly entailed an “treasure hunt” at Goodwill to replace the girls stained and warn shirts. The bonus was we even found slim non-skinny jeans pants that fit Caleb, it was only one pair but it just might get us through. Hannah took FOREVER trying on all the clothes that she had liked. It was a muzzling though to watch her dance around in the mirror so pleased with her selections. When we got home Eve promptly went up stairs and pushed her clothing tub down the stairs so we could remove the stained clothes and put in the new ones. She tried them all on and instructed me one by one to cut off the tags. Needless to say I think she was pleased with her purchases. Chad and I each also found a shirt spending a whole $45 to nearly replace at least half of the girls shirts, a pair of pants for Caleb as well as the shirts for Chad and myself.

The rest of the evening was spent on abstract art and coloring envelopes to mail to our friends.

I had one random 0930-2200 shift scheduled. I had seen it on the schedule and knew it was coming up, but for some reason I didn’t realize it was today. So my alarm went off at 0415 I showered, dressed, ate breakfast and made my way to work. Upon arrival we double checked the schedule and it dawned on me that I was not supposed to be there until 0930…..shoot. I missed out on an hour and a half of sleep just to find out I wasn’t working until later. I returned home and tried with only minimal success to catch some more Z’s. At 0840 I redressed, downed some coffee and headed back out for round two. Chad packed a lunch for me as he always does, he takes such good care of me. Both of us were unsure how much food should be taken for this odd hour shift, and when do you take your lunch break?How much food do I normal eat in that time frame? Lunch, dinner, an evening snack? Do I eat a second breakfast before I go since the last one was at 4:45 AM? When I arrived I was told to report to the newborn coordinators office and when I was done talk to the lead, was I in trouble, what could I be in trouble for?
The little meeting was just to attempt to get me into MyHR to use the online time clock to punch in and out, with no success as of yet, I wasn’t in trouble. It is amazing how your brain always goes to the bad things first. The lead didn’t have an assignment for me since we were at core staffing so I watched patients so permanent staff could go to the staff meeting. Soon though I had picked up a couple post partums and got an antepartum admit that were keeping me on my toes. All was ok until 1730 when the night shifters arrived. They changed up my assignment again. I did keep my antepartum though and she wasn’t behaving…. “Come on contractions come on baby take a chill pill. You don’t really want to come this soon.” I think the baby took my advise. I won’t know until I go back this weekend. We did however make it to the end of the shift and I just hope I never make a habit of these endless into the evening day shifts. If I do, I better not be getting up at 0415. Good night all…..I hope your day was better than mine.

Up for church, we loaded up on new books and movies from the church library.
Missing family Sunday dinners Chad made Swiss steak from a family recipe for a special treat after church.
Caleb has been looking forward to a book sale at the city library for a week so we headed there after lunch for the $5 bag special only to discover it isn’t until next week. The kids checked out their books and movies from the public library for the week while we were there. Eve made friends with a little boy named Jude and his mother asked us if we were a part of CC as she had heard us discussing what week we were on in history. We talked a bit about it and about our kids and the classical model. All though she believes on the classical model there is not any family support for that and her husband prefer the kids go to charter school so they do but the mommy supplements their education. She said that she had been to CC information meetings and had friends that were a part of it. She also talked about a few other homeschool groups in the area. It was fun to get to know her, I hope we run into them again at the library As I think they might visit it as much as we do. After the library we headed to McDonalds for internet (the library has oober poor slow internet we’ve tried it before). Chad was able to help Suzanne with a computer problem and I could check my thirty min. of Facebook as well as watch a few YouTube videos. We got home in time for a fend for yourself dinner. We watched our church library moves as we ate. Answers in Genesis 2 and a movie about North Korea. Now for an early bed time. But I can’t sleep, the weather is starting to turn colder. I hate to concede but we may need to get a few more blankets to get us through November here.

The forecast for today was overcast and a balmy 75 degrees. What better way to spend a day like that than at the park. We headed toward Oshkosh to revisit the park on Lake Winnebago with the large castle like play structures. Driving through Oshkosh we kept having to take detours because of a large street fair. After two we decided we were being presented with an opportunity here that we might as well take advantage of. Chad parked the car and we got out. It turned out to be a large Saturday market. There were such beautiful selections of all kids of produce mixed maybe half and half with tables of baked goods and crafts.

We stopped at one booth that was handing our free balloons and they asked if we were from Oshkosh. We answered no, we are from Salem Oregon. They asked how long we were going to be in the area, we said until Thanksgiving. They said, “oh, you must homeschool, we homeschool. What curriculum do you use?” We said that we had been in a Classical Conversations homeschool group for the last five years so we were continuing to use the same curriculum as we traveled. She said, “Oh we did CC last year and when we traveled we searched and found another CC group in the area and they let us join in their group for the month we were gone.” We were surprised by that. That idea had crossed our mind but we hadn’t really pursued it this first year. It was nice to know that someone else had done it so it can be done. She also told us that there was a rather large CC community in this area. Another good thing to know. The noon whistle rang and the shops started packing up. We stopped at a booth that was selling Gluten Free sweet potato, purple potato, and spinach noodles. They were trying to give free samples to everyone so they wouldn’t have to pack them back up so each of us had one. They were soo good. They gave a second one to Eve and she devoured them. It was $6.00 for a whole styrofoam to-go box full of the yummy noodles and they put in five forks so we could share.

we were walking a little slower and Chad had disappeared into the crowd but soon he reappeared carrying another food box. It turns out that after twelve you can get quite the deal on egg rolls and crab ragoons. I had to snap a picture of Eve with her ballon before we headed out to the park to enjoy our Saturday market finds.

At the park it was trying to rain, but for the first several hours it was only a few rain drops here and then a few rain drops there. The kids played for a while at the actual playground, but before too long we found ourselves instead playing on the shores of Lake Winnebago. It was a lot less green (the water) than on our last visit and actually looked inviting.

The kids found all kinds of shells and fish bones as well as rocks, and a plastic spoon and fork that worked perfectly for digging in the sand.

Eve got soaking wet of course, it’s just how she rolls. No worries though as soon as we were getting cold and ready to go it started full on raining so we headed back to our apartment. The kids played a bit more outside then we settled in and watched “Planes” together as a family since Chad got it free from redbox. It was really cute. When it was done we headed to McDonald’s not for food really but for internet. A few dollar cones and the play structure for the kids made it a win-win situation.

adjusting to this no internet at home thing is very different after having it for so long. We don’t want to hotspot with our phones as we are already having trouble with using too much data, so why not make a family date out of it.

Ok, my family would probably say I am addicted to my phone so in an effort to curb my usage and be a better example to those little ones watching me I have written up a cell phone usage contract. You all can help me be accountable.

7:30 felt like sleeping in after the previous three days of 4:15am wake up calls. Eve came and crawled in bed with us and in her normal way was not still. Soon we were both wide awake with no hope of a little more shut eye. We all got dressed and ready for the day and had our breakfast. On Myra’s walk this morning we ran into an older couple with a miniature husky malamute who asked if the Portland on my shirt was for Portland Maine or Portland Oregon. I answered, it was for Portland Oregon and that we were from Salem. That prompted them to tell me that they go to Bend every winter kind of snow birding. They enjoyed the 40-50 degree winter weather in Bend while their family here sends hate emails complaining about the -30 degree weather in Wisconsin. They enjoy the “warm” weather and still are able to ski with Bachelor so close. It really is the best of both worlds. Do you hear that Oregonians…we snow bird to Arizona or Southern California and Wisconsinites feel like it is snow birding when they come and spend the winter in Bend. They were a very nice couple and I enjoyed our it’s-a-small-world connection.

Having only one car has only felt inconvenient on occasion, but it does mean that sometimes we have to strategically plan our week so that errands, especially those with deadlines, get run on days when the car is available. Today we had quite a list of errands mixed with a few fun things that we needed to be out of the house for. We started at the outdoor store to get some pepper spray for running (Myra can only go so far with me). We found it at an outdoor/active wear/sports store at the mall. Then we decided to take a slow stroll around the mall. It is fun to people watch and we did have a few clothing items on the need-soon list. We were super happy to find a very clearance swimming suit for Hannah for $3.50 at Crazy8 her old one was so stretched out that it no longer covered her properly. We found a few items on the clearance rack at Sears that were on our list. Two shirts for Chad $5 each and one for me at the same price. Two of the major things on our list we didn’t really find, well we did find shirts for Eve to replace her amazingly stained set at home but I don’t really feel like $8 is a true clearance price so we passed on the ones we found and as for jeans for Caleb even slim jeans are so big around his legs that only skinnies will do. At a very hard to find size of boys 14s we have come up empty handed every time. Children’s stores stop at size 12 and we have been unable to find skinny jeans in his size at department stores. We are not desperate yet he does well with what he has but it is crazy how difficult it is to find nice clothes in this middle size(between child and teen) for boys.

We had a late lunch but it was worth the wait. Chad has been craving Chinese food in all shapes and sizes this last six months so I had asked some of my patients what their favorite Chinese restaurants in the area were and now we get a chance to try them out. The food was quite good.

After lunch we headed to Starbucks parking lot. We went in and bought a lemonade ice tea to share then sat in our car watching a Les Stroud video of building a home in the Canadian wilderness that is completely off the grid. It was over an hour long but for the most part all five of us were completely transfixed with brain wheels turning as the whole family kids included worked on this project together.

After our “drive in movie” (hey we were in the car). We headed grocery shopping. The kids did well and it was actually fairly relaxing. Hannah manned the cart and as she was putting the groceries on the conveyer belt at the cash register (the other two were helping as well) she announced in a nonchalant manner that she felt like a grown up. Sometimes I look at the kids seeing how much of little rag-a-muffins they can be and get all worried about them not looking put together or at least well cared for and not homeless. The truth is they pick out their own clothes and comb and do their own hair most of the time. It looks like an amateur messy job to most but, hey, they are learning and feeling confident and independent, they are taking the initiative and striving to grow in their new life skills. By lovingly guiding, helping when they ask instead of taking over and doing it for them we are allowing them to mature and be responsible it doesn’t matter if other people think they are little ragamuffins.

We all made it home in one piece. Hannah tried on her new swim suit for us. She is so pleased with it. Then the kids ran out and played with the neighbor kids until dinner. Chad made some of the most beautiful margarita pizza ever and believe me it tastes better than it looks.

It definitely hit the spot. We are truly blessed.

On a more somber note (being away from home we were totally oblivious the the extent the disease had progressed) one of the beautiful young couples in our home church with two of the most gentlemanly boys both in early elementary school have been on the prayer list for years for a brain tumor that the wife has suffered with. She was in my BSF group although we have never been close I taught her boys in Sunday school. The progression has seemed slow and surgeries and treatment seemed effective, I hadn’t really heard much about it until today when her prayer page on Facebook had an update stating that she had been moved to hospice and they are preparing for her time on this side of heaven to be over soon. Please be with me in prayer for her, her sweet family especially those young big hearted boys, and for peace for all involved.

For the second morning in a row I got the “you’re needed at AMC” call, this time with no anxiety attached, only excitement. I’m so glad to live in the day and age of GPSs because I have a lot less worries about how to get to new hospitals. My seemingly normal assignment quickly turned to crazy assignment. Needless to say I was so thankful for how helpful all my fellow nurses were. Team work is one thing that makes nursing the very best profession ever. By 3:45pm (the shift ends at 6:00pm) I was able to grab a few bites of lunch, catch up on charting and be mostly ready for the oncoming shift.
The kids were all waiting for me in the backyard playing with the neighbor kids and came running when I pulled in. They filled me in on the events of the day. Hannah has decided that the star wars theme song will be her wedding march, Caleb has been working hard to save up money for a tablet, and Eve has been pointing out every Capitol E and V that she can find. Dinner was good. We took advantage of the short time between dinner and bed to make some phone calls and catch up with family.