We had a great vacation down at Cedar Creek Lake this past week. The kids really enjoyed hanging out down there and having undivided attention from Mom and Dad. It was great. We didn’t get as much sleep as we wanted to, but it was a lot of fun. It was great getting out in the country and hanging out without having meetings to go to and places to be. Our schedule was light and we had a lot of fun. Here’s a few pics to give you an idea of our busy schedule.
This weekend we took the kids on a little adventure. Some of our friends have been collecting monarch butterfly eggs and then watching them hatch into caterpillars and eventually, metamorphosize into butterflies. It’s a fun project for the kids and they get to learn some pretty cool stuff in the process. There’s a field not too far from our house that is known to be a good spot to find eggs so we headed on over and traipsed around in there until we did. It was pretty cool.
The eggs are found on Milkweed. The monarch caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed so the butterflies stick their eggs on milkweed plants so that when they hatch the caterpillars can start eating right away. It took a little while but with some help from photos friends sent and a chance meeting with Chrys Mundy out at the field, we found some milkweed plants with eggs and got them home. Paul sat in an antbed and got about a dozen bites, but other than that, it was a great day hanging out with the fam outside.
Hopefully we’ll have pics of our caterpillars and butterflies very soon.
Last week was a little rough around BrownTown. I was down and out with a cold that turned into pneumonia. Drag. I started feeling bad at work on Monday and before I left for home, I already knew I was coming down with a fairly strong cold. After staying home on Tuesday and Wednesday, I wasn’t feeling any better and was even having some trouble getting a breath of air. Desi decided the “no breathing” thing was enough for her and suggested I might want to get a professional opinion on that. She’s smart.
When I got to the Doc in a Box, my pulse oximeter reading (the indication of how much oxygen was in my bloodstream) was 88. That’s about the level that climbers have toward the top of Mount Everest. Not good. After trying what seemed like every pulse oximeter device in the building, the good folks there decided I might be having some trouble breathing. So, they took a picture of my lungs and sure enough, what started as a simple cold had become pneumonia.
One breathing treatment and two massive injections later I was right as rain with a pulse ox of 98 – marathon runner material. They gave me a couple of prescriptions and when I came back the next day passed along a little puffer device to help me breathe a little better.
Four days later, I’m way better, but still a little breathless at times. Desi did a simply incredible job of keeping all the kids occupied so I could rest while I was sick. That made all the difference in the world. She’s an amazing woman, as you all well know.
So far this week is looking to be a lot smoother if nothing else. We’re looking forward to it.
