Wooden Castle:

Stamps:

Lamer than my other lame post:

Guys, I will feel SO stupid if this is true...but I think I have identified the cause of my illness that lasted over a WEEK!  A week of me feeling totally lethargic, bad sore throat, but nothing other than that.

On Friday of this past week I started sniffling.  And sneezing.  So I took a Claratin...and what do you know???  I stopped feeling sick!!!

ALLERGIES?????  Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!  An entire week wasted to allergies, when all I needed to do was take an allergy pill??  I'm BEYOND annoyed with myself.

But, to give myself a little bit of a break, it didn't present like it normally does for me!  If I had runny nose, sneezing, itchy eyes, watery eyes, etc...any of that?  Then I would have known!  But I've never been totally sapped of energy before, and I rarely have a sore throat...ever...from allergies!  In fact, I would say my seasonal allergies, which used to be VERY bad when I was younger, have almost completely gone away as I've grown up.  I maybe only deal with them 2 weeks a year now, and usually at the normal times:  spring and fall.

This was not the normal time!!! :(

Sigh.

SO much wasted time.  So much.  Grrrrrrr.

Duluth / The Great Power Outage of 2013:

Here is our video diary entry for Duluth fun.  :)  

This video was taken in the cafe area of the Duluth Whole Foods, where we went to get some allergen-friendly food and snacks (thank you Whole Foods for always coming through for us!) and charmed people with Finn's hat and Layla's twirls.  ;)

Playing in the Swanstrom's great yard, and on their deck by the hot tub.  

Checking out just one of the MILLIONS of caterpillars that were crawling around up there.  Yuck.

*Side note:  Finn is scared to death of bugs.  I'm not sure where he gets this.  Layla for sure isn't that scared, although she doesn't like flies for some reason.  In fact, she delights to stomp on bugs after "petting" them.  ;) Anyway, one day when we were up there Finn was on the deck barefoot.  A caterpillar crawled up on his toes.  His blood-curdling SCREAM lasted for about 30 seconds and he wouldn't calm down, even after I brushed it off, for about 30 minutes.  Seriously.  He was freaked.OUT.  Turns out he is equally as scared of black flies and mosquitoes who are biting him.  He sees them, freezes, and SCREAMS while they bite him/suck his blood.  I have to go sprinting across the lawn to smack a mosquito on his arm.  Yeah, we'll see how long I am motivated to do that.  *eye roll*  I keep trying to teach him to brush flies away and smack mosquitoes, but so far, no luck.  So, we used LOTS of natural bug spray from the Honest Company this weekend.  :)  It also doesn't help that both my kids react pretty severely to bug bites--of course, right?  ;)  Massive, big red welts for each and every bite.  Sigh.  Sensitive skin stinks.  :(

Layla splashing her legs in the water, from the dock.  The water was FREEZING, so no actual swimming happened.  Poor girl--it's only her favorite thing in the entire world to do.  :)  

Playing with big sticks that washed up on shore from the storms:

Playing with the Dora and Diego toys in the shade...

This is what "rest time" looked like in Duluth:  Siblings in bed with snacks and a movie in the room with AC.  :)

A few videos of our pontoon ride.  Finn insisted on wearing his hat and bringing "Bucky"--his bucket in the shape of a duck--everywhere with him, so of course they came on the boat.  I wasn't worried if the kids fell off the boat--they had life jackets on.  But I was VERY worried about losing that stupid bucket and his hat! ;)

And one more, playing on the lawn.  I think this is the next day, but you would never know that based on how Layla dresses.  Yes, SHE dresses herself.  I have little to no say in the mater, other than clean underwear.  ;)  Finn also threw a fit this day and had to change his shirts.  Where did my kids get this?? :)  I mean, I know I hated tights as a kid--and what kid doesn't??--but that's about it.  Right Mom?? ;)

The kids playing in our pool:

Jonas took these first three on Friday, when he set up the pool.  I was in bed, sick.  

I took this one on Saturday morning as we were just sitting around, killing time, waiting for our power to come back on:  

There are no words. ;)

Well, actually, there are LOTS of words.  And not all of them are appropriate.  But that's okay, right?  Sometimes the bad words are PERFECT for a situation.  ;)  At least, that's my belief, and I'm sticking with it.

So, here's the run down on the past few days for us:

Friday night:
8:30 = Power goes out.  The white noise machines turn off, but the kids don't really "need" them to sleep anymore--they are just a luxury to prevent any noise we want to make in the house from waking them up.  The kids didn't make a peep and slept just fine, but I wanted the white noise back!  I prefer to sleep that way for sure.  :(

Saturday morning:

12:30 = I finally fell asleep, after tossing and turning for several hours (worrying about all the food in my fridges and freezers...one of the downsides to buying in bulk, I guess..., worrying about not hearing the kids over the monitors if they did start to cry, wanting the soothing white noise back, etc...).

1:30 = we wake up to the power going back on, and Layla starting to cry/cough in a telltale croup way.

1:35 = I head to the hospital with Layla.  I miss our old neighborhood for being only 5 minutes away from 4 hospitals!

1:50 = Check in at hospital, get drugs, etc.  By the time we got there her breathing was actually much better, it's just when they did anything to her she started coughing again, etc.  So she got the oral drug without the adrenaline mask.  I love how quick the adrenaline mask works--10 minutes flat and she's totally better, you'd never know she was sick.  The oral drug only takes 6 hours to fully work.  :(  But, she was doing just fine by the time we left the hospital.

3:40 = Get home, put Layla back in bed, she falls asleep quickly.

4:00-ish =  I head back to bed.

7:30 = I wake up to a crazy loud BOOM outside, and the power instantly goes off again.  Bad feeling that this is not a good sign for us.

I don't really remember the rest of the morning, really, other than it being hot and a little stressful.  Maybe we were outside?  The electronic message at our power company said it would take 3 hours for our power to come back on.  My fingers were crossed my food could survive that.

12:30 = still no power.  Jonas calls again and gives me the bad news:  It's not going to be back on until Wednesday, June 26th!!!!!  Double whammy:  Jonas was leaving in 5 hours for Amsterdam for a week.  Triple whammy:  Layla, Finn and I were all sick.

I immediately went into my "zone" and crazy fast packed up all the food I really cared about from the fridges/freezers into the car, then packed up some stuff for the night for the kids and myself--we would end up at a hotel maybe?  I wasn't sure because I didn't feel like I could impose on any of my friends with two sick kids!--Jonas threw his stuff in a suitcase, and we headed out to the Horsmans.  Thankfully Renee hadn't gone grocery shopping in a while, so I was able to fit almost EVERYTHING I cared about in her fridge and freezer!  It was awesome.  She was headed to church to help with a wedding, so she took just a few bags of frozen veggies to store at the church freezer, and we were saved!  That worked out really well.

4:30 = The kids and I drop Jonas off at the airport then head home to the Horsmans.  We decided to stay there for the night, then head up to Duluth the next morning.  Friends of ours up there have a house on a lake with plenty of room, AC, a change of scenery for the kids, etc.  I thought it sounded like a good idea...then... ;)

7:30 = I realize it's 7:30, and Layla is DYING she is so tired, since she lost a lot of sleep the night before at the hospital and never made it up.  Renee and Jon gave us their room, so I took her up there and put her on the floor.  She fell asleep almost immediately, but it was a bit warm in there, so she didn't sleep very deeply, I think.  Very "restless," etc.

8:00 = I take Finn up to the room.  He SCREAMS bloody murder.  This from the kid who goes down beautifully almost every night!  I realize the critical mistake I made by putting the easiest kid to bed first, but really...she was so tired!

8:15 = I take Finn back downstairs, thinking I'll just let him "crash" while watching TV tonight.  After all, it is a strange place, not his normal routine, etc.

10:45 p.m. = Finn finally crashes.  I wanted to kill something, or someone, by this time!  I was SO tired!  4 hours total of sleep the night before, and I was sick on top of it!  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, Finn!!!!  :(  I take him upstairs, and we crash in bed together.

Sunday:

3:00 a.m. = Finn wakes up screaming.  I try to hold him.  Nothing.  I try to rock and "shush" him.  Nothing.  I try to bounce him, or wake him up.  Nothing.  He is TIRED and MAD and coughing up a lung.  I know this cough.  It's the cough that comes before the croup cough.  Now I'm worried I'll be going to the hospital two nights in a row, or the following night...when we're in Duluth, with no one to watch Layla while I take him in at 2:00 a.m....to a hospital that I don't know, is 30 min away, and out of network.  Yes, my brain DID go there that fast.  ;)

3:30 a.m. = Layla is awake by now, of course, and still very tired.  I try to keep them all quiet in the room since the rest of the house is totally full of people trying to sleep!  Renee woke up with all of Finn's crying, and bless her heart she tried to help.  My kids were not in a "helping" mood.

4:45 a.m. = I lose it in sleep deprivation and annoyance and grab the kids, in PJs and with no shoes, pull them down the stairs and out the door, pack them into the car, and drive home.  I had slight hopes that the power would be on again.  NO.  No power.  So we sat in our driveway at 5:00 a.m. watching a DVD in the car--because at least they can cry there without waking anyone up, right?  When I thought it was light enough to see without having any lights on in the house we went it.  Layla was a zombie and just SAT on the chair in our living room, doing nothing.  Finn was crying and crying about anything and everything.  I thought maybe, just maybe, I could get Layla back to sleep on my bed, so I took her upstairs (locking Finn downstairs with the baby gates so he couldn't follow and run it all!), plopped her down on my bed, and I SWEAR within 3 minutes she was out cold.  It was 6:00 when she fell asleep.

6:00 = Encouraged by Layla falling back to sleep, and with the sweet dream of getting more than 8 total hours of sleep in 48 hours, I brought Finn into his room, shut the curtains, and rocked him.  He was crying and crying, "Mama!  Mama!" in a sad, whiny voice, until finally he just conked.  It was 6:30 when he fell asleep.  I had his window shut because it started to storm again and I didn't want the noise and thunder to wake him.

6:30 = I crawl into my bed, oooooooooh so slowly, next to Layla, and put my head on the pillow.  My house is TOTALLY silent at this point...a very odd thing for me when sleeping.

8:20 = I wake up.  Shocked.  I got almost 2 hours of sleep!!! I feel like there is hope for the world again.  I do not currently feel like harming my children.  This is a good first step.

8:30 = Layla wakes up, all cheery and happy, smiles and giggles.  Thank you JESUS.

We go downstairs to play for a while.  I empty out everything in my fridge so it doesn't smell when I return from Duluth.  3 garbage bags late I have come to two conclusions:
1.  We own an amazing amount of condiments, which are going to suck to replace.
2.  I save and freeze things that I never remember about late.  Must stop doing this.

We continued to clean up, pack for Duluth, and all the while I'm listening for Finn upstairs (I'm not used to doing this because we have monitors on the first floor...)

10:00 = Finn finally wakes up.  I am SHOCKED and so happy that he recovered some of that lost sleep!  I'm also a little bitter that "I" did not get to sleep for 3.5 more hours, but whatever, I got over it relatively soon and just got to packing.

While my kids were much happier now, they were still both incredibly emotional.  SO EMOTIONAL!!!  I can't write that in all caps enough!!  It took me 2 more full hours to pack because I literally had to stop every 3 minutes to hold a crying child.  Renee, I used the word literally intentionally there.  :)

11: 45 = We head over to a friend's house to borrow a double stroller for Duluth.  I own two very nice double strollers, BOTH of which were in my garage.  Stuck.  Because you can only open the door with electricity.  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  I normally always keep one in my van, so I was kicking myself for taking the easy way out last walk and just shoving it in the garage.  :(
*  The Plus Side = I got to borrow Maren's Phil and Ted stroller, and very FANCY stroller which I shall never be able to afford.  ;)

12:00 = Back to Renee and Jon's house, all of us still in our PJs, to grab everything we had left there at 5:00 a.m. and head up to Duluth.

1:00 = Stop in some random town for lunch at McDonalds.  Feel bad that I take my kids to McDonalds.  ;) Get annoyed with the McDonalds teller that the 20 piece McNuggets from the value menu are as expensive as a 6 piece McNuggets from the regular menu, so I order the 20 piece, feed the kids 6, and then throw the rest away...just to show THEM.  ;)  Yes, I was sleep deprived.  But it felt good.

2:30 = Almost fall asleep at the wheel.  Evidently those extra 2 hours of sleep weren't enough.  Scared shitless.  Much more alert for the rest of the drive.

3:30 = Arrive at the home of Jim and Barb Swanstrom, Lauren Mitchell's parents.  They live on a beautiful lake 30 minutes outside of Duluth and graciously agreed to let us stay there.

The kids snapped out of their funk and have been perfect angels ever since we arrived here!!

They were happy and polite all afternoon.  They went to bed at a normal time.  They did not wake up ONE SINGLE TIME all night!  They slept until 8:30 a.m., almost a record for my kids!  And, no one had to go to the hospital, so they both get bonus points for that.

All in all, a crazy, cray 24 hours in the life of this middle-class-white-girl-mother-of-two.  ;)

Up next...videos from our first day here.

New lame post:

1.  I am still "sick."  Blah.  That's enough about that.

2.  Layla had a horrible night last night.  I almost got to the point of taking her in, thinking her appendix had burst or something, but as she would calm down for periods of time I thought that unlikely.  However, we slept in the guest room bed together for at least half the night, and this did give me the opportunity to learn that the new guest room bed mattress is a wonderful upgrade from the one we had before.  Come one, come all, for a (maybe) restful night of sleep at our house.

3.  I have few things I am obsessed with, but one of them is strollers.  I am OBSESSED with them!  I am constantly stopping people on the street and asking what they have, how they like it, etc.  I keep a running wish list of strollers on Amazon, the most expensive of which is $700.  Stupid, I know--SO stupid, but true.  I am obsessed with strollers.  I want them all, it seems.  If we have a baby #3 (and no, I am not pregnant, this illness is really an illness...), then I might use it as an excuse to get another stroller.  Maybe.  Ha!  :)  AND a video monitor.  I can't believe we don't have one already.  ;)

The End.

Lisa

Sick?

I feel "sick."

I'm weak, super lethargic, and have a sore throat.  That's it.

It's the lamest sickness ever.

Just sick enough to sap all energy to do anything, but not sick enough to rid me of all of the GUILT I feel for not doing anything all day today, and most of yesterday.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I'm trying to remember when I was sick last...maybe I should go back through the blog.  I'm sure I mentioned it, right?  Because why not?  It makes for amazing reading material.  ;)

L

Tamarack Nature Center today:

Layla had a slight fever this morning, and was super cranky, so we didn't end up going to Mom's Coffee Hour like we normally do on Tuesdays.  A slight fever isn't normally a big deal to me, but Henry had been sick on Sunday with a fever/throwing up when we were together for Father's Day, AND I am supposed to be watching Layla for things like "fevers and changes in personality/emotion" because of her leg infection.  SO.  I thought it best to stay home.  But then they were going crazy, so we headed up to Centerville to pick up some free things I got from the Moms FB Group (cha-ching!).  

On our way home I realized how close we were to Tamarack Nature Center, so we stopped in for a visit.  We had the great luck of running into Maren and her kids too!  The kids had a great time for a while, then we headed home.  Here are a few videos from our visit.  As you can see, Layla plans to wear only this pink dress for the month of June, or so it seems...

Father's Day 2013, Part 2: Berube Dinner

After Finn woke up from his nap we headed over to my parent's house for a dinner of grilled steaks, salad, and the best whiskey cream bread pudding you've ever had (thank you to Renee, and Pioneer Woman).  

Here's a little after dinner video entertainment.  

A birthday dinner for Lisa and Lauren:

My birthday was May 17th, Lauren's birthday was May 28th, and we celebrated on June 15th.  TOTALLY a Berube thing to do.  ;)  

Photo proof that I am still alive.  

A cherry bomb dessert.  Fantastic.  So light.  So Summer!  

Layla had to get in on the candle-blowing action, of course.  

How cool is Aunt Lauren with her red hair?  Too cook for skool, that's for sure! ;)

Father's Day 2013, Part 1: The Schaefers

The father of my children loves surprises.  I do not.  ;)  So three years ago I shocked Jonas by telling him on Father's day (Sunday morning) that we were going to skip church that day (which we neeeeeever do, unless ill...) and go on a little family outing.  We headed over to the Wabun Splash Pad in Highland Park/Minnehaha area, along the Mississippi River.  Ever since then, this has been our Father's Day tradition, so today was no exception of course.  Three years!  It's a firm tradition now! ;)

The first gift the kids gave to Jonas was allowing him (and ME!) to sleep until 8:15, when Layla woke up and came into our room, and 8:30 when Finn woke up.  A-MAZE-ING.  Then we packed and headed out on our little yearly family adventure.  

This year the kids both were NOT into the water, which was just fine.  The park was calling, and I had purchased a new picnic basket (from my Moms FB group...$7!) as a gift for Jonas.  He is always WAY into the idea of a picnic, while it holds a little less draw for me--at least the idea of a picnic with 2 small kids.  ;)  

Here are a few pictures of us in the swimming area.  On our way there we stopped at CVS first for an antibiotic prescription for Layla (she's got a slightly serious leg infection...we took her in to Urgent Care on Saturday), then went to Sweed Hollow Cafe for some coffee for Jonas, then to Trader Joe's to fill our picnic basket (I am always so thankful for the amount of dairy free treats I can buy there for my kids), and THEN on to the park.  

Odd camera setting, which I liked.  She really IS this white.  ;)

Eating chocolate covered cranberries...

Finn was SO CRANKY.  Crying and crying and crying.  

The loaded basket...I really do like that it has the built in glasses, silver wear, and plates.  

A Trader Joe's cheek...

Funny faces.  This was HER idea.  ;)

I just loves these cute hand-me-down suites from Aunt Renee.  :)

At our picnic spot, eating some great TJ's popcorn.  

THE Papa.  

She wasn't brave enough to go by herself, so Papa took her for moral support.  

She has always loved the Mokey Bars.  

I don't so much love them because it requires adult help.  ;)

She's loving it.  

The splash pad, where no swimming happened today.  

The view from our blanket, looking up.  

Feeding Papa popcorn.  

Mama's cool hat made the rounds too.  

Dancing by the tree.  

Twirling by the tree.  

"Ta-DA!"

Finn got in on the action too.  

Using spoons to eat the popcorn.  

On our way home BOTH kids fell asleep!  Finn was asleep within 5 minutes of the car moving, and Layla closer to home.  We each grabbed a kid when we got home, brought them up to their rooms, and they both stayed asleep!  I would call this the second miracle of Father's Day, after the late sleep-in by both kids.  ;)  Layla only slept until about 2:00, but Finn is still out as I write this, which is good since we're headed back over to my parent's house tonight for our Berube Father's Day annual grill-out.  The weather is simply perfect today--and the whole state rejoiced.  :)

Jonas is golfing right now with my Dad, Jon, and Greg.  It's "The old golfing gang," back together again.  I'm glad they have such a perfect day to celebrate!

Just another post about an amazing walk by the lake in perfect MN Summer weather.

After errands and rest time on Thursday, we headed back out.  Jonas was working late, so we went for a walk by the lake rather than eating dinner.  Obviously.

If you can't tell from those videos, it was absolutely PERFECT weather.  Perfection.  I wasn't sure how much we would really get down to the lake this summer, but man do the kids and I love walking there.  We go (when the weather is nice...) probably 4 times a week at least.  Jackpot of a house location, guys!! :)

After errands today:

Layla is a little obsessed with hitting balls (baseball/T-ball), kicking balls, and throwing balls.  She's actually not half bad, which sort of shocked me.  She doesn't exactly get that skill from me, although maybe from Grandpa?  He put in enough time playing baseball with all 3 of his boys...

I say "a little obsessed" because it's not on the princess obsession level.  Yet.  :)

Finn is still very interested in "our car," as he calls it.  He likes to just hang out in the driver's seat.  Check it out.

Two cute kid sayings:

1.  Layla = "pack pack" for backpack.  

2.  Finn = "Oooooh, not again!!!"  He says this all the time, and 95% of the time it's in a totally appropriate place.  Like when he falls.  Or doesn't get his way.  ;)

Mr. Dandy

Finn got a haircut today, and then we headed over to The Children's Place to exchange some of their 4th of July clothes.  As we were in the checkout line he spotted this hat and fell in love.  I did too, so of course we got it.  :)  

Why is he not wearing pants?  I'll give you one guess.  It should involve lots of poop.  Then you would be right. 

So, here he is, looking all fine and dandy, riding his favorite toy:

Ah, a MN Summer Saturday: friends, food, water, and great weather! :)

I've gotta be honest.  We've had horrible weather for what seems like FOR.EV.ER now, but this Saturday was pretty nice!  We took full advantage of it--Jonas got a lot of yard work / gardening prep work done, and then we went out to boat on the St. Croix river with our friends the Roquets (who graciously didn't mind me inviting us along on their adventure...)  ;)

The weather was perfect that day:  breezy, slightly sunny, warm-ish, no bugs...sigh.  Love it.  I also love living so close to so MUCH water, and so many different kinds of water (i.e. rivers, streams, small lakes, medium lakes, ocean-like lake Superior, etc.).  This is going to be a fun summer with a swimming area 1 block away, I can feel it!  

But, on this day, the river was king!  Finn LOVED going fast, Layla did NOT.  So, that was fun.  ;)

We boated up-river for a while and then stopped at one of the many islands for the kids to play, and for dinner on the boat.  Here is a bit of play:

And some of dinner:

Check out her WHITE legs.  :)

Jump!

The view from the boat, down-river...

(And hey, check this out!  Do you see the floating outhouses down river there??  I didn't know that was a "thing," but I guess it is.  All the boaters have convenient restrooms available to them on a large stretch of the river, every mile or so.  Ah, love seeing my tax dollars doing stuff like this.  Seriously.  :)  

The ever present mode for Finn:  about to fall off.