Quick update on Mr. Van's kidneys

We had two appointments this week. On Tuesday, Sullivan had an ultra sound performed on his kidneys (rough trip to Mayo, in light of our aforementioned state of sickness!).

On Wednesday, Scott went to meet with Dr. Kramer to get the results. Van's kidney's are not worse and no better than before. This means that we will just continue to have them checked in on by ultra sound every 6 months. In the meantime, we will be on the look-out for UTIs - fevers and smelly pee - which he is prone to have. No biggy! So, the response will continue to be NO SURGERY as long as the scans show no worsening signs.

Yey!

We are happy. Of course, we kind of retain that hope that the problem will eventually correct itself - the narrowed uriter, that is, will grow to become un-narrow - (the BEST case scenereo) but we're happy with keeping a close eye on it too!

Under the Weather

The title could be taken in two senses: We literally have been under the influence of snow and the cold temperatures in the past week here in Rochester. We figuratively have all been infected by a yucky bug which swept through our house starting Friday night.

Starting to resurface.

Slowly.

As a result:
*Christmas Cards NOT happening before Christmas
*Our whole family might be packing DIRTY clothes to take to Florida next week, since there are no clean ones in this house at the moment (MAJOR BACK UP)
*Our voice mail machine was so filled with unanswered voice mails that it ran out of tape (sorry, friends!)
*The friends we have lined up for dinner Sat and Sun night may have to forgive the dust balls and massive stacks of random stuff that have cropped up EVERYWHERE.
*** ON A SERIOUS NOTE*** I am reminded of just how grateful we should all be for the basic expectation of feeling "well." Wow, that's a good thing. Right?

Thanks for laughing with me. I promise, this isn't a "woe is us" entry. Just having fun.

Squeezed in under a month

I just realized that I almost let a whole month pass between entries. Geez. I'm slacking as a blogger recently. Wanna know why? Starts with S... ends in ULLIVAN.

Not that Sullivan himself is a tough kiddo... just that two is tougher than one (why didn't someone tell me this when I signed up for a second? ha!). We're having a blast as a family of four, and I am not stressed one bit (ok, in rare moments I am)... it is just that I have let some things go [read: I have had to let some things go.] Blogging is one of them. Bummer.

Now that I've analyzed my blogging negligence... let's move onto the newest news in MN. If you have had your pulse AT ALL on the national weather, you know that our first blizzard of the winter hit Tuesday into Wednesday. There are several things I have learned about blizzards in Minnesota:

~On the night when the majority of snow and wind is predicted to hit, it's a good idea to close the garage door (note: The Arthurs are morons)

~No matter how well one's peppy front rear drive car operates in normal conditions, no amount of "pep" can get one over the huge mound of compacted snow at the end of the driveway left by plows dutifully charged with clearing our street (note: the two kiddos had to wonder why Mommy was using all those four letter words while red-faced and digging away around the tires as we attempted to set out for a routine doctor's appointment) (we did get there) (eventually)

~ Despite how accustomed one might assume native Minnesotans have become to snow, even THEY are giddy and wooed by the first BIG snowfall of the season (the couple in October do NOT count... I don't even want to talk about them. Hmph! Bitter about those). At work Tuesday, the ones born and raised here were just as (if not more) thrilled about the impending dump we were scheduled to get as the newbies to the area (oh, that's right. i work at a school. could it be that they just were excited about sleeping in on Wed? we DID get a day off, by the way!).

~ When it falls like it did this week (around 12 inches total), you can pretty well expect NOT to see the grass until March. This is good if you completed the task of raking your Autumn leaves. This is not good if you kept procrastinating on that last pile and never quite bagged it up before the white stuff became the new landscape (this happened to us winter #1, resulting in big brown spot the first half of summer... we learned our lesson and were in tip top shape this year)
~ Post blizzard temperatures are typically more frigid than middle-of-blizzard temps. Today my car read 0 degrees - IN - THE - SUN. Yikes.

~ The coming days of snow and cold (read: TIME SPENT INDOORS) might mean my blogging regiment improves????

Love to all!

Our playdoh creation today (did I mention going outside is not an entertainment option? gotta get creative)

the artist

Not the most flattering pic of Sullivan, but I just love that he his gripping onto this copy of The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagel. This copy was given to me years ago by my Uncle Glenn, and I have become a devoted fan of Pagel ever since. The book, among others, was sitting out because I had recently returned from a meeting with a local pastor where we had one VERY stimulating spritual conversation (that's MY form of worship, sistas and brothas, HALLELUIAH!) Sullivan looks like he might be my sophisticated spiritual thinker!