Snowtober and Covid Surging.

 Well, my first week working in the main OR is over, and I survived. It was pretty stressful at times, and I really miss the ASC, but overall it was ok. We already got the word that the ASC will be closed until at least November 13th, so we have at least 3 more weeks of this crazy stuff (and probably more than that). 

Our Covid number continue to be insane. Right now, we are averaging 1,000 new cases a day. Which also means that the hospitals are getting very full, and more people are dying from the virus now. It's kind of scary stuff. There are still many people who refuse to wear a mask, and group continue to get together even though there is a pandemic going on. It's really going to be interesting to see how things go in the next few weeks. It would not be out of the question to see us turn the ASC into a Covid unit if things continue this way. I am not looking forward to that, but I guess I will do whatever is asked of me during this time. I really cannot wait until all this crazy Covid stuff is over. But so far, there is really no end in sight. We are 8 months in, and not much better off than we were at the beginning of things. 

The World Series is going on right now, and the Dodgers and Devil Rays are tied at 2 games each. It is nice to have some sports to watch during these crazy times, however that continues to be up in the air too. These sports teams don't know when to start their next seasons, and the empty stadiums are starting to catch up with them financially. It will be very interesting to see what happens with that. 

In other news, we are trying to keep things as normal as possible at home for the kids. They are still in school (thankfully). There have been no cases at the school and we sure hope to keep it that way. We spend our evenings doing homework, piano lessons, and reading books. Usually Leo ends up here right after school, and the kids all play together for a couple hours. The kids know about the virus, and ask questions, but luckily they haven't been too impacted by the Coronavirus yet. 

This past Friday, John arranged the kids to go to Jim and Barb's for a sleepover so John and I could go car shopping. My equinox has really given us headaches for a while now, and we finally hit our limit and decided to trade it in and get something nicer. Well, we were successful and we bought a 2015 GMC Acadia. It's maroon and has the third row of seating, which will be nice when need to haul extra kids around or have family in town. We love it and the kids were really excited about it when we showed up to Jim and Barb's house in the new vehicle. 

Yesterday was a nice relaxing day at home. It started snowing, so we really couldn't do much of anything. We did go to library to exchange some books, and otherwise we just had a quiet evening at home. With the virus everywhere around here, it makes it tough to go out and do anything. 

We woke up today to a couple of inches of snow on the ground. And now throughout the day, it has snowed another couple of inches. I'm so not ready for all this snow so early in the year. I think we will have one more warm up before winter is here for good, so I am going to try to enjoy that. 

Right now, the kids are sledding with Leo and Thomas and John at Spellerberg Park. They were so excited to go sledding. I had to have Elliott wear a pair of Emma's pink gloves because I couldn't find any that fit him. Like I said, I was not ready for all this snow so quickly. 

So, that's pretty much everything that is new around here. Everyone is doing pretty well, we are just tired of all the election stuff and so tired of Covid-19. I cannot wait to resume some kind of normal someday. Until then, we will keep washing hands, socially distancing, and wearing masks. We also have to decide how to handle Halloween next weekend, and all the holidays coming up. It's going to be a weird end to the year. 

Here's to another week of staying healthy!

Elliott's been doing some sewing at Grandma's house!

Sledding 

October 2020 update

 We have been keeping busy in the Nelson household this fall. Two weekends ago we headed to Minnesota to help with Harvest. We went on Friday evening, and basically just ate supper and hung out at home and visited with mom. 

    On Saturday, we spent some time in the fields. Elliott rode in the combine for about 6 hours, and still didn't want to leave. I rode along with dad on a couple trips to town in the grain truck. He even let me drive the grain truck on the way home, which was interesting. I had never driven a stick-shift before. It went okay. I at least stayed on the road. Emma came along on one trip to town, but she wasn't really interested and got bored after awhile. John and I also chopped some stalks, which was fun. 

Elena and Rachel also came out for the day. It was nice to see everyone, and Emma and Elena had fun playing together. And the weather was absolutely beautiful. We had a 70 degree day and it was just a perfect fall day. We headed back home late Saturday night because I had to teach Sunday school on Sunday morning and then work at the call center from 11-6pm. It was a heck of a weekend. But I was glad we went when we did, because they finished harvesting last Wednesday. So, we just made it. 

Last week we kept busy with meetings and an archery class for Emma and a Ninja class for Elliott. Parks and Rec does a pretty good job of putting on classes and activities to keep kids busy. Emma really like archery, and there was a free class at the Kuehn community center on Wednesday evening. Then, on Thursday evening, Elliott had a Ninja class at the same building. The kids just loved their classes and had a really good time. 

School continues to go well. Elliott loves it, and he is doing really well. I think everything comes pretty easily to him so far, and as far as I know he is pretty well behaved in class. Emma is also doing well, but she tends to rush her work and not complete everything when she turns in a paper, so we are trying to work on that. She just doesn't really care about her work, so we are trying to change her attitude a little bit. But overall, both kids are doing really well, and I am just glad that the kids are still in school. 

This past weekend we went out to Jim and Barb's to bring some stuff to the camper and bring out our plants that we were throwing in the pit. We also ate supper out there and then Jim and Barb bought the kids some pumpkins at one of the farm places by their house. Yesterday, after church, we painted pumpkins in the garage while watching Hocus Pocus. It was such a good day! It was freezing cold outside (it even snowed a little), but we had the best little pumpkin celebration in the garage. John had football on his computer while we watched Halloween movies on the projector. What a great day. 

I do think it is time for another Covid-19 update. Things are pretty rough right now. Our numbers are crazy high right now. We are averaging about 800 new cases a day, and have about 8000 positive cases right now. Our hospitals are full of sick, covid patients. We shut the ASC down again. We moved all of our cases to the main OR, and we are still doing our own cases in the Main OR in 3 rooms. So, some of our staff went to the Main OR and some were deployed throughout the hospital. It's been pretty crazy. 

Today was my first day in the Main OR. It went ok. It was stressful and information overload, but everyone was really nice and helpful. We survived our first day, and hopefully tomorrow will be a little better and smoother. But I do fear that before too long, we will shut down more surgeries and have to staff other parts of the hospital. I hope not, but that's the way things are looking. People are still pretty bad at wearing masks and they are still gathering in crowds, so it's hard to get ahead of the virus. The election is in two weeks, so hopefully things can start improving once that is over. 

So, work is crazy and different, we can't go anywhere without a mask, and we just keep hoping that the kids can stay in school. These are crazy times. 

Our Trip to Omaha 2020

 This past weekend was a crazy one. We made plans about a month ago with our neighbors Brittany and Thomas to go to Omaha to Vala's Pumpkin Patch and the Omaha Zoo. So, on Saturday morning we packed up and headed to Omaha. 

We got to Vala's right at 11:00 am and met the Dodds there. Vala's Pumpkin Patch was insanely large. Like huge! We spent 5.5 hours there, and we still didn't see everything. There was so much to do. We went through a couple haunted houses, saw some live music, ate some pie, went through a corn maze and obstacle course, saw a dragon show, and many, many more things. The kids all had so much fun, and the adults also had a good time. 

I love all things fall, so I really enjoyed the pumpkin patch. It was pretty expensive to get into the pumpkin patch, but there were a lot of things to do. And everyone really enjoyed themselves. I think we will be back again someday. 

At around 4:30pm we decided it was time to head out and spend some time at the hotel. We checked in and then got the kids ready for swimming. The Holiday Inn Express had a pretty nice little waterpark area, and the kids had a lot of fun swimming. I think they were all a little wore out though, because they didn't last very long swimming. They swam for maybe an hour, before everyone was done and just ready to be in the hotel room. 

We ordered some pizza for supper, hung out for a while, and then got some very tired kids to bed. It did not take long for the kids (or myself) to fall asleep. 

Sunday was another crazy day. We decided to tackle the Omaha Zoo. I love the Omaha Zoo, so it was really fun to see it all again, and the weather was absolutely perfect. It was 65 degrees and sunny, and just a great day. We saw the Desert Dome, the indoor Rainforest, the Aquarium (with the penguins!!), the new Asia Exhibit, the new Sea Lion Exhibit, and many, many other animals. Elliott was so tired, he kept needing breaks and staring into space, so we rented a stroller and hauled him around in that so we could keep  moving through the zoo. He was a little embarrassed to sit in the stroller, but it was necessary, he would have never made it through the entire zoo walking. 

We spent a solid 5 hours at the zoo. Everyone really enjoyed themselves, and I really liked seeing all the new things that they have built since the last time I was there. My favorite was the penguins, Elliott's favorite was also the penguins and also the Tiger, and Emma's favorite was the Sea Lions. We had such a good day at the zoo. 

By the time we left, we were all ready to go home. The drive home was kind of long, but we made it. We were home by 6:00pm and got unpacked, laundry done, and even got to relax a little bit before starting another week. 

Whew. It was kind of a tough Monday today. I could have used a recovery day. This weekend, we have plans to go to Minnesota for harvest season and let the kids ride in the combine and tractors and just see that side of the family again. But we have to come back Saturday night because I teach Sunday School and work at the call center on Sunday. It kind of sounds like another crazy weekend coming up. 

Oh, and the Twins made the playoffs again, and then lost both their playoff games (making it 18 playoff losses IN. A. ROW!!). It's totally frustrating and kind of unbelievable. And the Vikings suck this year too. Another tough year for Minnesota sports. 

And on the Covid side of things, things are not going well. Currently, President Trump has Covid-19 which has been in the news a lot. Also, our numbers here in South Dakota are a little crazy right now. There are about 400 people every day that are testing positive, and we have set records for number of active cases and hospitalizations. I'm not sure what will happen in the next few weeks, but I hope we can get a handle on the numbers and not have to shut down surgeries and more businesses again. I am so over this Covid stuff. I just really want to go back to normal. Luckily, the kids are still in school, and everything is going well there for the time being. I pray it stays that way. 

I'll leave you with some pictures from our amazing weekend!

Camping at Lake Poinsett

 I guess September is over, and we are 5 days into October. How did that happen? This fall is just flying by like crazy. 

The kids finished up Cross Country during September. They both had fun running and improved their running times each week. Emma didn't always enjoy running, but she ran every week and had a good attitude. Grandma and Grandpa Nelson came every week to cheer the kids on and eat some supper after the meets. 

I also brought Elliott to a Ninja Class in the middle of September. Elliott thought it was amazing and loved every second. He got to go with his neighbor-friend, Leo, so that made it even better. He even got to break a piece of wood and got a certificate. It was a great day for Elliott. 

We took our last camping trip of the year two weekends ago. We went to Lake Poinsett with the Hinners and Heather's brother and family. It was a really fun weekend. The weather was nice the first day. It was sunny, about 65 degrees, and the leaves were beautiful and changing color. 

The kids all had fun playing Pokemon and bey blades and running around together. We barely saw our kids the entire weekend because they were so busy playing with the other kids. They also had fun kayaking, hiking, and just playing in general. 

The adults enjoyed visiting, kayaking, sitting around the campfire and just enjoying the beautiful weather. We also played some bean bags and just enjoyed some non-kid time. It was really nice. 

Saturday afternoon got really windy, so we ended up inside the campers playing cards for a while, which was also a nice way to visit and hang out. By the evening, it was nice enough to have a fire and be outside again. 

Sunday was also incredibly windy and just kind of miserable, so we packed up after breakfast and headed home. It was a long, windy drive home but we made it. The kids are already asking when they can go camping with the Hinners again. I'd say it was a pretty successful trip! But, I am definitely ready to be done camping for the year and enjoy some weekends at home for a while.