From Spring to Winter!

 On Tuesday Garrett had an orthodontist appointment where they did some scans of his teeth. The next time he goes in they will be placing the brackets on his teeth. The very next day Garrett also had a heart doctor appointment where we met his new cardiologist, Dr. Robert Adams. We were forced to get a new heart doctor for him because his previous doctor, Dr. Womack, has decided to change course with his career. He will no longer be seeing patients in outpatient. He had hoped for this to be a gradual change and we were supposed to see him in January but contracting issues with St. Luke's made it not possible. They called us the week before his appointment. I was really disappointed that we didn't get to see him one more time. We really liked him. However, we did meet his new doctor who looks fairly young so I know he'll be around for awhile. So far we like him. Our appointment was out at the new St. Luke's hospital behind Costco. It was nice not to have to drive to Boise like usual. They did an EKG, an ultrasound on his heart and then even though the doctor said everything looked and sounded good he decided he wanted Garrett to wear a heart monitor so he could see what the patterns were on a regular basis. Fortunately technology has come a long way and the heart monitor that he wore was a small device that stuck on over his heart with a sticker. No wires or big boxes to carry around. The doctor also told Garrett that he wanted him to exercise regularly and brush his teeth twice a day. He stressed the importance the benefits of exercising especially for someone with an irregular heart. Basically, if he wants to live a longer better life then he needs to exercise, which could be said for all of us.

The weather was so nice earlier this week that it felt like spring. That very afternoon after coming home from Garrett's heart doctor appointment I decided that we better start exercising while we have this nice weather. So Garrett and I rode scooters while the two little girls rode their bikes and we went on a little ride on the pathway behind our house along the canal. It felt so good being outside. After we were done Charlotte proceeded to be Alice's bicycle teacher. She really wants to teach her how to ride without training wheels. I told her repeatedly that Alice is not ready to go without training wheels yet. She just got her bike for her birthday and she needs to get good at riding with training wheels first. They had so much fun anyway that the girls planned for them to do it again the next day after school. It was a little more chilly that day but we went on a short walk. Charlotte has a long sleeve shirts that she thinks works like a jacket. Well, she found out that it wasn't quite warm enough that day. Alice wanted to keep going and Charlotte wanted to turn around and go home because she was cold. It started to rain after we got back so it was good we kept it short.

Charlotte also wanted to start teaching Alice her ABC's so she got out her old ABC book from Kindergarten.

Little did we know that the colder temperatures that day would be followed by snow on Friday! It snowed most of the day but the roads stayed pretty clear because it just melted as it fell but it did accumulate on the grass. Alice really wanted to go out and play in the snow after we dropped Charlotte off at school. I shoveled the light layer of snow while I was out there. I also pulled her around our yard on the kid's new sled. It works pretty well.

Snow angel! She really was having a good time even though her face doesn't look like it.

Later I decided my toenails needed to be trimmed and repainted. So I asked Alice if she wanted hers done too. Of course she did!

Trying to get a drink of juice while waiting for her nails to dry. She did green on her fingers and pink on her toes. I'm honestly surprised she wanted green at all because she loves pink. I also added a layer of purple sparkles on top of her green.

Charlotte was so excited to get home after school on Friday because she got to bring home Valentines and goodies! She spread them out on the front room floor as soon as she got inside.

Drinking from her juice robot/monster (not really sure).

Not too long after she got home from school I was picked up by Dad, Laverne, and Grandma to go to Texas Roadhouse for our Valentine's day dinner. Curtis drove straight from work and met us there. As I was expecting it was busier than usual even though we got there around 4:15pm but Curtis already had a table for us. The food was very good and even though I had leftovers I ate too much. We decided to watch a movie at Dad's house afterwards but stopped to get ice cream first at Coldstone Creamery. Curtis and I put ours in the freezer until towards the end of the movie. We were planning on watching "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" (Mr. Rogers) but we couldn't find it and Dad realized they must not have bought it like they thought they did. We watched the newer Doolittle  movie instead. 

Well, we knew we were supposed to get a lot of snow over night because of the winter storm warning we received on our phones Friday but it still surprises you when you wake up and see so much snow! And it was still snowing and continued to snow all morning. we had not let Cocoa outside yet without a harness but I decided that maybe now was a good time since he would be surrounded by snow and not want to go far. And I was right. He has calmed down quite a bit and acting less like a kitten. We love our two cats.....except when they tear up our toilet paper! We have to keep the bathroom doors closed at night because of that but sometimes the kids forget and that's been happening quite a bit lately. Grrr and I don't know for sure which cat did it so last time it happened I sprayed them both with water.

It went from spring at the beginning of the week back to winter by the weekend. This is really the first time we've had to shovel snow this winter as we have barely had any snow. We needed this!

Even though Garrett only had to wear his heart monitor for 24 hrs we ended up keeping it on for 3 days since that's what the doctor had on the order. Honestly, I would have taken it off sooner but Garrett didn't seem in a hurry to get it off so I figured might as well keep it on. However, that meant that we didn't take it off until Saturday morning when we had been dumped on with snow. I had to drive to the post office to get it mailed as quickly as possible. I brought a snow shovel in the van just in case I got stuck anywhere but fortunately there was no need.

Curtis had also surprised me Friday night by hiding a bouquet of red roses and a big bag of Hershey chocolates in the truck at the restaurant. He nailed it on the chocolate this time. For my birthday he had bought truffles for me and I don't really like truffles.

I already had this vase from a time he gave me flowers years ago.

I've been sharing with the kids and the only kind they like are the ones without nuts. So, 1 out of 4 different flavors. The other 3 had nuts and I love chocolate with nuts!

It was a good thing we celebrated Valentine's on Friday because the weather was better then and today (Valentine's day) Curtis had to leave right after we got home from church to drive up to Lewiston for a work trip. He'll be gone until Thursday. I hope the weather isn't bad for his drive but at least he's driving his truck.