Our week in recap

For those of you who we didn't update, we have started our search for our first home. We figured that since we'll be living in this area for the next 9 years at minimum (between my residency and service obligation for tuition reimbursement) and because it's a great time to buy, we should start looking. After being pre-approved, which was nothing short of a miracle, considering my income to debt ratio is somewhere around 1:7, we started looking at the map of the KC metro and considering cities within a reasonable commutable distance. Our search for a particular home had been exclusively through pictures online until Wednesday evening, when we met up with our realtor and went to actually tour some homes. We brought Marshall along, and for the most part he did a great job (especially in pointing out the child-unfriendly features of some of the homes), but I think next time we'll find a sitter since we ran over bedtime. We're going out again this week to look at some more homes, including one that we've pretty much fallen in love with online... hopefully it's just as impressive in person!

On Thursday evening, I came home from the urgent care clinic where I'm rotating this month. Stewie (our cat) was sitting on the front porch (he's become an indoor-outdoor cat since we moved to Shawnee), and I noticed the hair on his back was ruffled up. I got closer and was shocked to see he had a huge patch of hair missing and a big lump on his back with pus coming out of it. Gross to some of you, I'm sure, but let's face it, I've seen grosser. :) I left Marshall with Jordan to handle dinner and bathtime and took Stewie to the animal hospital. They shaved his back and drained the abscess and sent us home with some opioids and antibiotics. He has to wear a cone for a while, much to our amusement... he hates it.


Meanwhile, Marshall was brewing up a cold this week and had become much more fussy than usual and eating less, which as anyone who spends time with Marshall would know, is VERY unlike him. So, his amazing father brought him into my urgent care and it turns out he had another ear infection, so now we've got another being in our house on antibiotics for 10 days. We were also given a referral to ENT for evaluation for ear tube placement. It's so strange- I understand when it's recommended, and I have no problems counseling families as to why their child would benefit from the procedure... but, suddenly, when it's my kid, I'm totally apprehensive about the whole thing. Appropriately so, I suppose, I'm just nervous about him undergoing anesthesia. He's my little baby, after all!

On Friday night our besties from college came to visit and, of course, they brought along their son, who we've deemed Marshall's best friend. They always get along great. We dragged them along to the Fort Leavenworth Garage Sale Extravaganza on Saturday morning. Maybe it was because we had two sleep-deprived crazy toddlers with us and we were looking for less baby stuff and more preschool-aged items, but it was kind of a let-down this time around. We did make it home with a few good finds but it just wasn't the big success it has been for us in the past. After the garage sale we took the boys to the T-Rex restaurant with our other good friends and their new baby. I still can't decide who has more fun there- the kids or me?


After spending the morning relaxing and reminiscing with our friends, Marshall and I took a much-needed nap while Jordan studied for some of his final tests before starting PT school. We're so proud of him. In an effort to keep him studying, Marshall and I went alone to do the grocery shopping. I only forgot one thing we needed but managed to come home with about 10 things we didn't need. :) Afterwards Marshall and I went on a great run through the neighborhoods around our house. It was a little chilly but the sun was out and I pushed him for 30 minutes. I was pretty impressed considering the kid weighs over 25 lbs at this point. He has his 18 month check up later this month, so we'll have some new statistics soon.

Marshall even surprised me with a May Day flower (with a little help from his dad). Jordan wasn't familiar with this tradition, but I remember as a kid making construction paper flowers at school to bring home for my mom on May Day (May 1st). The fun part was putting them on the porch, ringing the doorbell, running away and hiding while my mom pretended to look for me. I've never forgotten a May Day and I know how special that is for my mom, so I was so touched when Jordan remembered and helped Marshall continue this tradition in our family. What a sweet wrap-up to a wonderful weekend!