January Update

January is sure working on flying by. We have been staying pretty busy in the Nelson household. I made the decision to try to obtain my nursing certification, so I have been studying some surgery nursing books in my spare time (which I don't have a lot of).

Our weekends have also stayed pretty busy. Last weekend there was a giant snowstorm. Emma had school cancelled on Friday, so she spent part of the day with the Hinners while Elliott went to daycare. We all made it safely home on Friday evening, and then we were pretty much stuck at home all day on Saturday. The winds blew 40mph and blew all the snow around, making the visibility pretty terrible. We also were dog-sitting Chase last weekend, which made things a little more interesting. It was absolutely freezing outside, so Chase wouldn't stay outside long enough to go to the bathroom and he pooped in our house 3 times. I was a little irritated to say the least.

However, all the dog poop made us do some carpet shampooing, and rearranging of furniture. We decided to move the guest bedroom upstairs and give Elliott his own room back downstairs. It was quite a mess for while, but it was a job well done. Finally, in the evening we braved the weather to go to a Stampede Game. It was nice to get out of the house, and watch some hockey. The Stampede ended up winning the game in overtime, so it was a pretty good game. And I picked the tickets up for free at Juice Stop, which was even better.

This past week was a pretty normal week. We stayed busy with piano lessons, spelling words, reading book, and all the normal evening things.

I had Friday off, and spent a lot of the day at the library studying for my certification test. After picking the kids up from school and daycare, John and I took them to Great Bear to go tubing. It was Elliott's first time tubing, and he was a little nervous at first, but then he absolutely loved it. He went down at least 10 times, which is pretty good considering how busy they were. We stayed there tubing for 2 hours, and then we were all hungry and a little chilly. We went to Tailgators for supper, and then we finally got home at 8:30 pm. It was a long day. We put 2 very tired kids to bed when we got home.

On Saturday, my parents came to town for a visit. We spent some time catching up and relaxing, and then we decided to go bowling. Everyone had a really fun time bowling. We got two games in, and it seemed like everyone enjoyed it. Nobody bowled especially well, but it was all in good fun. And we all enjoyed a couple beers while we bowled, which helped.

After bowling, we went to Texas Road House for supper. It was so delicious! But so much food!! Everyone ate until they were pretty miserable, and then we headed home. The kids enjoyed a shower, jammies, and then a movie, while the adults played some cards and relaxed.

Today was a normal church morning with church, Sunday School, Bible Study, Emma sang in church, and a Voter's Meeting, which John is at right now. It was a busy morning. My parents left about a half hour ago, and we are just enjoying some quiet time in the house without any company. We have plans to go grocery shopping in a while, otherwise we are just having a Sunday, getting ready for another crazy week to begin.

Emma's 4-h Bowling Party 

Chase at our house 

Emma reading to Elliott 

Tubing!!

Emma being Emma 

Frosty Frolics 2020

We've been busy during our first weekend of 2020. We had a couple normal days of school and work, and then we cruised into another weekend and a couple more days off.

We were offered free Stampede Tickets from the the Knuths for Friday night. We didn't have anything else going on, so we decided to go. We had really nice seats and the kids actually watched a lot of the game. They got on the big screen a couple times during the evening, and they were super pumped about that. We also ran into Kristina and Johnny and their kids. We spent some of the game with them, which the kids really enjoyed. The kids all danced to Cotten Eyed Joe, and everybody had a really good time. The Stampede won 7-2, and it was a great (free) night.

Today was a really nice Saturday. We spent the morning just vegging at home, watching cartoons, taking down Christmas decorations, and just relaxing. At 10:30 we went to the Library for Frosty Frolics which included Story time and crafts. The kids had a lot of fun. We made snowmen, snowflakes, made snowman poppers, and spent a good 2 hours at the library. Emma completed enough of her winter reading program to get a prize, which was a brand new water bottle, She was pretty proud of that.

After the library, John took the kids ice skating so I could clean the house and go to the gym. The kids really loved the ice skating. They are still learning, and have a ways to go, but they really enjoyed it. Elliott was even going without the walker towards the end of their skating.

Now we are finally settling down, and relaxing for the day. The kids have a movie going downstairs, and we are watching some playoff football. It's a great Saturday evening.

Tomorrow we have our 4-H Christmas Party at Eastway Bowl, and supper at Pizza Ranch. It should be a fun time. Then, we go back to normal work weeks. I'm sad to see that the holidays are over, but I am ready to go back to some normalcy around here.

We had a great start to 2020!

Stampede Game!

Ice skating 

New Year's Day

Hello 2020. How did that happen? I can remember thinking 2020 was so far away once, and now here it is.

John and I actually had no kids last night for New Year's Eve. And we really lived it up by going to church, then out to eat at TC Referees, and then to top it off we went grocery shopping. I know, we are party animals. We watched a movie, barely made it to midnight, and then called it a night.

With another year, comes another set of goals. I try to not get too into the resolutions thing, because I think it's hard to keep them if you just thing of them as a New Year's resolution. I think it's easier to try to make lifestyle changes and try to look at them that way. But anyway, here are my goals for 2020.

1. Keep moving. I have actually been pretty dedicated to the gym since I set the goal last year. I usually go at least 3 times a week (not ALL the time, but most weeks). And I actually enjoy going to the gym. I am lucky enough to have a job that keeps me moving every day as well, So getting my steps and workout in, is actually pretty doable for me. I just need to keep it up!!

2. Work on my diet. Now that I have the exercise part mostly figured out, I need to be more conscious of what I am eating. I'm getting a little better, but I still have my weak moments where I slip up during the day, and it pretty much wrecks my whole day diet wise. So, here's to more fruit and veggies, and less chips and snackies. And even more home cooked meals at home.

3. Get my certification at work. I want to get my CNOR, which means I am a certified nurse in the operating room. There is an online study program I am going to sign up for, and then I hope to take the test this spring. This has been on my work goal list for the last couple years, and this year I am doing it!!

4. Organize the house. I have gotten a good start on this, but now since Christmas is over, I want to go through all the kids toys and clothes, and get rid of what we are not using. We have too much stuff. The closets are my main focus. Clean and organize all the closets in the house.

5. Try to blog more. I finally caught up on my scrapbooking after being over a year behind. So, I need to stay up to date on that, as well as my blogging. The blogging as taken a serious hit this last year, and I hope I can be a little more frequent with it.

6. More activities with the kids. We are actually pretty good at keeping our kids busy doing things, but we could be better about getting out of the house in the winter time to do things. My ideas for this are bowling, swimming, sledding, tubing at Great Bear, Sky Zone, and allowing Emma to have more sleepovers with her friends.

Overall, 2019 was a decent year. The end of it was really tough, losing both Grandma and Grandpa, and John's aunt Judie. But, there were also many good things that happened throughout the year. Here's to a happy, healthy 2020. Cheers!!

Christmas in Minnesota 2019.

Just like that, in a blink of an eye, Christmas is over. And this Christmas was especially crazy.

My grandma Elaine ended up passing away on Saturday, December 21st. Just 10 days after finding out Grandma had pancreatic cancer. It went so fast! So, between the funeral and Christmas celebrations, we had to be pretty creative in our travel plans.

John and I figured out pretty quickly that we had to drive separate since he had to come back and work the Thursday and Friday after Christmas, and I had them off for bereavement leave. So, on Christmas Eve, John and the kids headed to Minnesota in the morning. I had to work until noon on Christmas Eve, so I headed out after work and met everyone at Tim and Janel's house at around 3:00pm.

We had a really nice Christmas Eve. There was a lot of good food, lots of wine and beer, a Christmas program, and games. The kids got some gifts and had a blast running around and being crazy. Mom happily took the kids home around 10:00pm, and the rest of us stayed until about 1:00am. Yikes. That was a long day. It was nice to see everyone having a good time and trying to have a normal Christmas celebration.

Christmas Day was a little quieter. It was just my immediate family at mom and dad's house. We had a nice Christmas Dinner, and then let the kids open gifts and go crazy. The rest of the afternoon consisted of playing with some of the new toys, snacking, and just taking it easy. Rachel and Carlos, and John left in the afternoon, and then it was just the kids, my parents, and me. We had a good rest of the holiday, and got everybody to bed a little earlier since the night before was so crazy.

The next day, Thursday, Mom and I went to Mankato with the kids. We spent some time at Rachel's house and let the kids play with toys and burn off some energy. We went to Applebee's for lunch, and then brought the kids to the Children's Museum in Mankato. They had so much fun playing at the museum. We were there for about 3 hours, and they still didn't want to leave. Elliott was being adorable with Elena, he was playing with her and trying to watch out for her. It was so sweet. After the museum, mom watched the kids at Rachel's house while her and I ran to the mall to grab a few things. Finally, we made it back and headed back to the farm with two very tired kids.

Friday was another day at the farm. We stayed busy playing with some of the new Christmas toys and playing some games with the kids. John actually found a way to catch a flight (on a 4 seater plane) to the Redwood Falls Airport. So, at 3:00pm dad took over kids duties to give me and mom a break, so we could go to Redwood Falls and pick up John. We picked him up, and then we headed to Jackpot for a couple beers. It was an interesting choice, but it was pretty fun. It was nice to go out with just mom, without the kids, it just doesn't happen very often. We made it back home in time for supper. Then Ryan came over later, and we played sheephead until 12:30 am. It was a pretty special evening with everyone just enjoying each others company and visiting while playing the card game our grandparents had helped us to learn to play. It was pretty memorable.

On Saturday, things got a little harder. We had Grandma's wake at the funeral home from 4-7pm. It was definitely hard to see her like that, and to basically go through the same thing we had just done 6 weeks earlier with grandpa. This time felt different though. It was a little less sudden, and it was easier to see the positives. Grandma go to be back with Grandpa for Christmas. And she was no longer in pain. It was still hard to see her go, especially for her children, but it was also a little bit of relief for everyone. After the wake, Rachel, Ryan, John, and I spent some time at Ryan's house to have a couple drinks and visit.

Sunday was the funeral. We had it in the afternoon, and it was cold, rainy, and wet. We had an hour wake before the funeral, and then the funeral started at 3:00pm. It was hard, but a beautiful service. We even sang Silent Night Holy Night, which was pretty emotional. The grandchildren were casket bearers again, so that was another hard moment. It was hard to say goodbye, but I am glad she is in a better place. By the time we were done with supper after the funeral, it was dark, and icy, and snow was blowing around, so we decided to wait and leave the next dat. After the funeral, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house to open cards, and just share memories in their old house for a while. It was a nice time, and maybe the last time I will ever be in that house, which is hard to believe.

On Monday, we finally packed up and hit the road. I had spent 5 nights at mom and dad's house with the kids. I don't know the last time I spent that much time at their house. It was really nice to have that time together, but I was definitely ready to head home. We had the car packed tight, there was not much room to spare, but we made it. We had a pretty crappy drive home. It took 4 hours, and we drove about 35-40 mph for about half the drive. It sucked. But we were super happy to be home. The kids enjoyed finally being home for a few hours, before Grandma and Grandpa Nelson came and picked them up to bring them to their house. Those kids have had the craziest Christmas break.

It was back to work and normal for John and I yesterday, which was kind of nice. The Christmas Holiday just flew by in all the craziness, and I can't wait for some normal to come back into our lives for a while.

Here are some pictures of our crazy week in Minnesota.

Opening present at our house before we left for Minnesota 

Matching Jammies 

Cousin bonding 

Merry Christmas!

Cousins

Gingerbread Houses