Ice fishing

The kids and I joined our neighbor Robbie ice fishing this afternoon on our lake. The kids had never been ice fishing and it was a perfect day. The total number of fish that we kept was 4 but as you can see by the size of Kyra's fish, some had to be thrown back so they could grow up. Mark had to stay at home to work on his homework. The kids had fun, until the fish quite biting and they got cold.

Yesterday we went to Bloomington to visit the Bane's. We went swimming at a local hotel and ordered pizza. It was a great visit and the kids had fun. I forgot the camera, it seems to be at the bottom of my list these days.

Valynn had her first basketball game yesterday with me as her coach. She did good and had fun. We had to loan two of our players out to the opposing team because they only had three players show up.

We bottled our first batch of beer on Friday. In two weeks it'll be ready to drink, what we tried was very good flat beer. Brad and Chantel left on Friday. The kids spent most of the day over here playing. Valynn and Mason had a half day so they got to spend time with the Bowdoin's before the left. I watched all 8 kids for about 1 1/2 hours. The new neighbors aren't moving in until April or May.

Son, that'll be coming out of your college fund. We got the bill for Mason's endoscopy yesterday. Any guesses on the amount that a minor 20 minute surgery (yes, it's considered minor) costs? $8500 (that would be the cost without insurance). That's not including the doctor's bill for the surgery, the anesthesiologist, or pathology. Those are separate. After the insurance discount the amount drops down to $3500 of which we have the deductible and the 20% to pay. The gastric emptying test, $1200 (without insurance). The amount drops to $550 with the insurance discount. It's a good thing we got our taxes down, we're going to need the refund to pay for our medical bills.

I hope everyone has a great week. Stay warm!