The Past Month; Update

Yes, I realize it has been a month.

Yes, I am very sorry.

Yes, people have been harping on me for it (they all just want to see that cute little blonde-haired boy)!

No, people probably aren't even checking for updates anymore.

Things have been crazy. 4 weeks... what have we all done?!? Where did they go?!?

My main reason of not updating for 2 weeks was because of this: www.caringbridge.com/visit/Brode. All of you that follow know about Brode's surgery, but that was my main communication. We have many more friends and family that were looking there for the week so it seemed almost pointless to write it all over again here. We spent 4 days down in Milwaukee, then Brode and I were home recovering for 8 days. We had a wedding that weekend for our neighbor and had a lot of fun! On the 9th we went back down to Milwaukee, got his staples out and went to the Milwaukee Zoo. Brode loved the zoo and seeing all the big animals (favorites included the hippo, polar bear, lions and monkeys!)

Everyone went back to work and day care that week. It took a bit to get back into the routine, Brode did the best out of all of us! I was extremely worried after 2 weeks with family, field trips and ice cream shops he would he a terror at day care. The past 2 weeks since he has been back we've gotten nothing but good reports that he has been sharing and using his manners very well!

Sunday the 15th Brode and Matt had lots of play time while I went to Noah's Ark with some friends! Us girls got a beautiful sunny day to ride all the water slides and had a lot of fun. The boys had a good day peeking in on Extreme Home Makeover as it was starting right in Neenah this past week. Our fun weekend was followed with another week of humidity and work.

For our last week of failed blog updates - we were camping! Matt and I left Friday morning to meet his mom, stepdad, cousins, aunt and uncle for their yearly camping trip to Chipewa Falls in the Lake Wissota State Park. Brode stayed with Grandpa and Grandma and we all had fun! Matt and I were given some time to relax and Brode had lots of fun playing. We had good weather camping except for a bit of rain(ok a LOT, all night, puddles to your ankles, and matt's drenched clothes on the clothesline) Friday night but luckily it was all while we were sleeping. We toured the Leinenkugels Brewery, went to the Leine Lodge, sat around the campfire, swam in the lake, hit up the ice cream shop and played lots of horseshoes! After our long 3 hour drive back Matt and I stopped home for 5 minutes then continued on to a family get-together. My aunt and uncle are in town from Houston so we had a good-weathered afternoon to have a cookout at my cousins. The whole family gathered for grilled burgers and horseshoes while the little kids jumped on the trampoline (for HOURS). By the time we were leaving the sun was setting over the lake and we were all exhausted from a fun-filled weekend.

My night didn't end there. This leads me into the other 'excuse' as to why I haven't been updating. My computer sits in my bedroom, but I've got this little roommate for a few weeks that gets to bed around 7 so I'm not able to do much updating on my computer. I'm also busy with a large project, the reason for the roommate. We're re-doing Brode's bedroom! I don't want to post pictures until it's finished but I know a lot of friends want to see how it's looking. It might be a bit until we get it completely put together so I'll just give a bit of a preview. We're still going to move his crib back in and hold onto his toddler bed (not even trying to get out so we're not going to rush it). We're hoping to get the queen bed and rocking chair out to make room for his train table, shelves, and some of his toys. This will clean up the living room, and give him a fun toddler space of his own! My painting scheme has taken a week and a half so i've been busy trying to get it done and not drag it on any more!

(No he doesn't dress like this every day, it was mismatch day at day care!)

I'm hoping to get Brode's room finished so I can work on his surgery scrapbook, his toddler scrapbook (the zoo gave many good pictures that need to get in there!), construct some thank-you cards for our surgery followers and well-wishers, and finish some of the books in the Pretty Little Liars seris before school starts on September 8th. I'm thinking 20 (18 really) credits aren't going to be very nice to me and then they definetaly won't get finished!

Sorry again for the month-late update. Once I'm able to get all the pictures from the last few weeks organized I can give a few more details of what we've been doing.