Florida Day 3 & 4

Sunday found us mini-golfing. This is one of Connor’s favorite things to do on vacation. We found a pirate-themed course and ventured out. Instead of robins and an occasional mosquito that you find on Minnesota’s courses, they have lizards and alligators at courses in Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each night is an adventure in dining. Mike had researched some of the top-rated restaurants in the area and we thought we would check one out. When we arrived, it just didn’t look that great. We took a chance on a place down the street called Bonefish Grill. Mike was the only one not loving his meal. They had the best kids meals! Noah had popcorn shrimp and Mike, after sneaking a few, commented it was the best he had ever had. Connor ordered mac-n-cheese and all of us tried it and it was so yummy! I had chicken with spinach and goat cheese and it was very tasty. Mike’s fish was a little on the hot/peppery side for him. All-in-all a good find.

Monday started with a bomb. Huge thunderstorms woke all of us that morning. Noah was sure a bomb had gone off. It poured. This area got almost 3 inches that morning. We had tickets for a Twins game against the Pirates that afternoon and were happy it cleared up mid-morning.

I just have to say that this was the hottest I have been in a long time at this game. It was steamy, and with the stadium facing the wrong direction for any hope at a wisp of a breeze AND no shade from the sun, it was pretty miserable . I actually felt physically sick a couple of times. Finally, I decided to stand in the 4 mile-long line of people waiting for snow cones. Connor came with me and it actually felt nice out of the sun with the wind hitting us while we waited. And waited.

The Twins were behind and we were in the last innings. Scrubs were brought in. We learned our lesson from the last game, however, and never considered leaving early (even though it was so blasted hot). Again, the Twins came back and won it 4-3 in the last inning. Great way to end spring training 2011!

 

That night we checked out the #1 rated Italian place in Cape Coral called Aliani’s. Oh my, this place was amazing. We had the BEST authentic Italian food. We will definitely put this on our list to come back year-after-year.  I thought of my mom the whole time and how she would have loved this place.

We HAD to stop for ice cream on the way home. I passed on ordering anything and then proceeded to eat most of Mike’s scoops of cookie-dough while he ran, in the rain, into Publix for a few more groceries.

Hoping to head to the beach today. Both kids would rather stay at the pool, but it will be good for them to experience the beach again. Hoping the weather holds out. Right now, while everyone sleeps, it’s sunny and nice. Forecast calls for possible showers. The weather forecasters are horrible at telling what parts of Florida the rain will hit and when. They just generalize for the whole state. If we had listened to them, it should have rained all day yesterday and it only rained in the early AM and after 7 in the evening. We will see, might have to hit some cute little stores along the beach if it rains. Oh darn.

Happy Day!

LB

Florida Day 1 and 2

Florida! The week we have been talking about for a year has arrived.

 

We started our vacation with a lesson learned. We thought we would take an early flight out of MN and get there early enough to enjoy the whole day. Sounded great in theory, but we couldn’t get into our hotel until 4. That makes for many hours in the heat in clothes more appropriate for tundra-type weather. Kind-of miserable. Next year we won’t take such an early flight.

The first day was spent swimming, and we went to Carbbara’s for supper. Connor had hit a wall. His stomach hurt, he was miserable and sat on my lap most of dinner. He never does that so you know he wasn’t feeling well. Connor will go all day without food and then become tired, sluggish, and have no energy. It’s like he can’t tell when he’s hungry. He had gone all day with just a snack here and there and was so miserable. He was slightly better after eating some, but he just needed bed. We all did!

Day two was spent at the pool. We played in the water for 4 hours at least. I finished my book and we ate lunch pool-side.

 

 

 

 

That night we had tickets for the Twins vs. Red Sox game. It was at Boston’s stadium, they also train in Ft Myers. We were excited to go to a night game and to see Morneau back in action. He only DHed that game, but it was still good to see him. The game didn’t go so well with the Twins behind by 5 runs. The second-string came in by inning 7 and we decided to leave. Imagine our surprise while watching the news later to find out they pulled out a win with a 6 run come-back in the 9th inning! That’s what we get for leaving early!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have already had to go out and purchase more sun screen. It’s like you can’t put it on enough times. We all got a little burnt even with multiple applications.

Having a blast! Not coming home. Scoping out houses and jobs. Anyone need a 6th grade teaching job in the tundra?

 

 

Sun and Smiles,

LB

8 is Great

Connor is eight! He had a couple of celebrations this weekend, one with family and one with friends. With his friends, he opted to go to House of Bounce in Rochester for his party. We then came back home for supper and cake.

EIGHT things about Connor.

 

 

#1. He loves to snuggle in the morning when he first wakes up. Generally he is not a snuggler so we take advantage of this time every morning.

#2. He still sleeps with his little blue blanket with the silky edge. Once he tried to sleep without it and couldn’t. I like that he likes it still and hope he doesn’t try to give it up again for a very long time. Who doesn’t like comfort when they sleep?

 

 

#3. He still plays soccer, baseball, and basketball and it’s still a toss-up as to which ones he will stick with.

#4. He has zero long term memory. He never remembers our trips to Florida and he’s been 4 times. He lies now and pretends he remembers things when we talk about them.

 

 

 

 

#5. His favorite food is still peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He doesn’t like cake.

#6. He is a great sleeper and will occasionally talk in his sleep. Clearly and loudly. Scares the heck out of Mike. It’s the one time being hard of hearing is a good thing.

 

 

#7. He has a super dry sense of humor and says funny things and doesn’t even realize they are funny. Which makes it more funny!

#8. He never stops moving. He is as active as anyone I have ever met. He loves to be outside from the minute I will let him in the morning, until the sun goes down and I am calling him into the house. It took our new neighbors about 3 days to comment on that. Our kids are always outside playing.

Happy Birthday wee one! We are so lucky to have you and are so proud of you.

And so it begins….

So the phone rings around 6:30 last night, just before we are heading out for a shamrock shake. I think nothing of it, someone answers it and it’s for Noah.

 

About 5 minutes later Noah comes up the stairs to announce that it was, “a bunch of girls at a birthday party” calling him. Apparently, he got asked by a girl if he liked her. What happened to the days of the friend asking for the friend?! He told the girl that he liked her only as a friend. Good answer, I thought. Connor claims he also heard Noah say, “calm down, clam down!” I guess there was Justin Beiber-type screaming going on.

 

Well, apparently the girls weren’t done with the conversation because the phone rang again. This time Noah wasn’t going to answer it, except Connor was standing there with the phone to hand to him. Noah answered it and told them not to call again. They didn’t.

 

And so it begins. Noah is in NO WAY ready for girls (poor things). He even told me his stomach dropped every time he thought about those phone calls. He barely drank his shake, and was in general sulky mood about it.

 

That unlisted phone number is looking better and better……

Long Week

 

The week started out innocently enough with Monday coming and going with no issues.

Tuesday was spent seeing Dr. Paparella in Minneapolis to have my ear checked out. We started with a hearing test where I found out I am almost deaf in my right ear. I knew it was bad, but I didn’t realize it was that bad. They also did a pressure test which came out normal.  They  took an x-ray to rule out any tumors. I guess there must not have been any because he never mentioned seeing anything unusual.

I met with the doctor and he confirmed what I already knew, that I have Meneires, that it’s getting worse not better, and then he told me of this surgery he thought I should have. He invented the surgery, even made the instruments used in the surgery. He gave me the percentages of successes for the various issues I have (90% experience no more vertigo, 50% have improved tinnitus and around 20% of the people see improvement in their hearing) He thought I needed it and basically stood in front of me waiting for me to say yes or no!

I was a wee bit shocked, to say the least. This was my first real appointment where my vertigo is concerned and I guess I expected medications, possibly more testing….. not surgery. He gave me an appointment card to stop out at the desk and make appointments for three more tests.

We side swiped that area and left. I knew the testing was in preparation for the surgery and I just wasn’t ready to commit to that. We left and met my parents in Bloomington for lunch. They were buying a new car and we stopped to see it. Little did I know we would be driving a new car home too! Mike has been researching trading in his Impala for something more fuel efficient. We test drove the new Malibu and loved it. We did some haggling and ta-da…a new car for the Budachs. We love it. It’s super comfortable and fun to drive. We take it everywhere, which makes my husband happy as the Yukon is such a gas guzzler.

Tuesday night at around 1:00 AM Noah started throwing up. Can I just state for the record that he is THE WORST puker in history? He never makes it to the toilet, never hits the bowl or garbage can, and is so dramatic through the whole thing. After replacing bedding, throwing in a load of blankets and sheets into the washing machine, and cleaning the carpets (yes, he decided to bolt to the bathroom while spewing everywhere), we went back to bed. Thank God I have a husband that helps with this stuff because it literally took two people to clean up after this event.

2:00 AM round two of the puking. This time he just got the side of his bed. However, Connor decided to join in the fun and proceeded to puke at the same time.

Are you kidding me?

So, both puked every hour on the hour for about 4 hours. I finally got up around 5 and went into work to make lesson plans. I would have gone in earlier but I am too chicken to go into school in the middle of the night. Freaks me out! Plus, it’s out in the middle of nowhere and I am scared someone will be lurking by the back door!

I stayed home with the pukers and bisseled the carpets (which didn’t help and we had to rent a rug doctor to get the smell out of the carpet), did load after load of laundry, and tended to the sick tots. Did I mention Noah puked all over the cloth recliner too? Yeah, that was just wonderful. Like I said, he’s the worst. Connor on the other hand is a rock star at puking. He always hits the bucket and you would never know he’s even doing it. Rock Star.

While home Tuesday I was able to find a couple people to email about the surgery. One person even had it done with the same doctor I saw, Paparella. She highly encouraged me to have it done. She informed me it’s a 4 week recovery, which would not be easy for me. She also said I HAD to quit caffeine. I had cut caffeine out years ago to see if it would help and never noticed a difference so I went back to drinking it. But, following her advice, I will give it another try. To not have my coffee in the morning is the saddest thing ever. I am going to try to trick my body and have decaf tomorrow.

I also found out that everyone ends up having the surgery redone due to clogging. For some it’s not for years (this woman had gone 7 years before noticing symptoms come back) and for some people it’s weeks (that would be me. I have luck like that).So, who knows. I am going to continue to research and see what happens with my ear. I haven’t had an episode in a month. Keep your fingers crossed. And toes.

This weekend we took the new car up to Southdale and saw Rango. I was so excited to see this with the kids as it got great reviews and we hadn’t seen a kid movie in awhile. Unfortunately, we didn’t like it! Connor kept asking when it would be over. I would give it a 4 out of 10. It just wasn’t enough to hold your interest. There were funny parts, but nothing I even laughed out loud at.

Now we are hunkering down for the night. I bought a new steamer so I will make cheeseburger chicken and steamed veggies. I worked a ton on schoolwork this morning so I am done and ready to enjoy a lazy night.

Hope your weekend went well!

LB