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!

17 months

Kyleigh turned 17 months a couple of days ago (yes I forgot). She's doing good, loves to climb and still not talking. As must as I want her to talk in true Kyleigh style when she starts talking it'll be in sentences and I'll wish for the days when she was quieter. I think she's entering her 2's with her tantrums and I do think a lot of the frustration comes from not talking but she does get her point across when she needs to. She also hasn't been sleeping very well and is up 2-3 times a night.

Things were pretty quiet around here this week. Which is always a nice reprieve. Valynn has basketball tomorrow and I am her coach. We are then going to visit our friends in Bloomington. It should be a quiet weekend as well, enough for Mark to get a couple of paper written.

Progress

Here is where the closet stand right now. It's been a busy week but will definitely add much needed space when it's done. Mark's parents left this morning, I think we wore them out. I have some painting that I need to do before Mark can get anymore done on the closet. That will have to wait until the kids are napping or in bed because I had help painting from a 1 year old yesterday, the proof was the white paint on my back. The kids got a snow day yesterday due to power outages around the district. Our driveway has been very slick and even the roads around our house were icy because they weren't salted. Tomorrow Valynn has her first reconciliation (first confession for the non-Catholics). We have the Bowdoin's going away party tomorrow and next Friday there will no longer be two Chantels living on the street. I have a new tutoring job. I'll be working one hour a week with a student prepping her for her ACT.

Mark finished one of his classes this week and started another one. He'll be home one more night a week now but that time will be spent studying so we still won't see as much of him as we would like, but we understand it's only temporary.

My favorite quote of the week.
Grandpa: Kyra do you talk a lot?
Kyra: I surely do.

How many three year olds say surely? I talked with her teacher this week, Kyra is doing wonderful in class. The teacher loves how much she talks (you don't hear a teacher say that very often). She said Kyra is just as smart as the other two only more talkative.

Kyleigh is a busy as ever. She must be going through a growth spurt, she's back to taking two naps. This morning she fell asleep on the living room floor.

Mason is still feeling good and he can't seem to get enough to eat. He is getting a second snack at school now which seems to help.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. Go VIKINGS!!

A hole in the wall...

I hope everyone is having a good weekend. Valynn started basketball yesterday. She says it's her favorite sports. I did sign up to be a coach. Today was a hectic morning. We attended the Catholic church and then I headed to the Lutheran church for the annual meeting. I walked into St. Timothy 40 minutes after the service had started. The assistant pastor whispered to the Pastor that mass must be over (they knew it was a Catholic Sunday). At the meeting I was voted in as the Church Council secretary for a three year term. As soon as the meeting was over I headed home to watch the Vikings. What a great game! A couple of us neighbors got together to go over the final details for the going away party next weekend for Brad and Chantel. We will have new neighbors in a few weeks. Mark and his dad are tackling a remodeling project, they are going to expand a bathroom and add a linen closet to it. Have a good week.

Follow up

Finally, the pictures I promised of the kids sledding. We went sledding on Wednesday after school before all the snow melted.

Mason has been diagnosed with gastroparesis. His stomach doesn't propel the food into the small intestine with the force that it needs to empty. He will be going on a low fiber diet to see if it will help and then undergo the gastric emptying test in 2-3 months. If at any time he has more stomach pains he will need to under go another endoscopy. The doctor has never seen this in someone this young and is hoping Mason will outgrow it.

The food that was found in his stomach is called a bezoar. It was about 7 cm long and bigger than a golf ball. His appetite has really improved and hopefully he will now put on some weight. I can tell he is feeling so much better.

I am done with tutoring now. I was let go because of a state law that states a special ed student needs a special ed tutor. Because of some changes the hours were going to drop drastically anyway so it's for the best especially with Mark gone four nights a week with class.

Valynn and Mason started swim lessons again last night. They both enjoy swimming and had fun. Basketball starts tomorrow, I'm debating on signing up to coach, we'll see if they need more coaches tomorrow. Mark's parents are coming for the weekend so we'll be busy with them and we have the annual church meeting at the Lutheran Church on Sunday. And who can forget the Vikings game! Mark and the kids have Monday off so we're going to enjoy a long weekend.

Gastric emptying test

Mason had his gastric emptying test today. It didn't go as well as we would have liked. After two hours his stomach was only 49% empty. The radiologist didn't know how much it should be empty but said if it was 50% empty at 1 hour we could go home. At one hour she didn't even bother calculating it because she knew it wasn't 50%. He was fed radioactive eggs and then a picture was taken every 15 minutes for the first hour and then at the 2 hour mark. I have a piece of paper stating he is radioactive in case he sets off any alarms in the next three days. Right before the picture at the 2 hour mark he told me he was hungry even though half his lunch was still in his stomach. We have the follow up appointment on Thursday and will know what our next step is.

We had a nice weekend around here. The kids went sledding down the big hill by the dam Saturday and Sunday. I'll post pictures tomorrow. The kids had a blast and on one run Valynn went a little too far and ended up in the creek at the bottom. Mark said there was water running over the sled and Valynn was standing on the bank laughing.

On Saturday we had a couple over for supper, the wife grew up about 20 miles from me. We had a great visit. Kyra was happy to be back in school today, she loves school. Kyleigh has been a busy body. Tonight I went to put her plate in the dishwasher and she started throwing a tantrum, I handed her the plate and she put it in the dishwasher. She is really starting to grow up. She has really become a jabberbox. Valynn is happy to be back in school. Swimming starts this week for Valynn and Mason. On Sunday there was a house fire in Princeville, everyone got out safely. One little boy was in Mason's class, it was two years ago that we had this with Valynn's class.

Have a good week, I'll update on Thursday.

Exhausting...

That how we are describing the phase that Kyleigh is in right now. The only time we get to relax is when she's sleeping. She likes to stand on the chairs in the dining room and while up there will climb on the table. The other day she figured out how to pull the stool out from under the buffet, where we stored to keep her from playing with things on the counter, set it upright and push it to the counter to play with the computer. The stool is now stored in the sunroom. This morning she figured out how to open the sunroom door and was able to pull the stool into the kitchen, pushed it next to the stove and was going to help me make breakfast. After breakfast my goal was to clean out the freezer because water dispenser for the ice maker had become frozen. Kyleigh was a big help emptying the freezer and then she has spent the last 30 minutes putting things back in the freezer, taking them out and putting them back in the cooler. As you can see, she found my chocolate candy stash and proceeded to help herself to some chocolate but she was also nice enough to share with her siblings. Her favorite chore is to help unload the dishwasher, she hands me the silverware. The problem is she likes to do that whether the dishes are clean or dirty.

The last couple of days Kyleigh has really started jabbering. She seems like she is picking up a few new words but we'll see if she keeps using them or choses to forget them like in the past.

Valynn and Mason had a snow day on Thursday, close to 8 inches on new stuff, they did a little sledding and played around most of the day. Mason has his gastric emptying test on Monday. He had a fever on Thursday so he got to miss school on Friday. He seems to have lost his appetite again which worries us but he says his stomach still feels great. Valynn had a sleep over last night at the neighbors, she was invited to two so she had to turn one down.

We hope everyone stays warm and have a great weekend. You will be able to find me chasing after Kyleigh with a weary look on my face while I try to clean house and get ready for company coming for supper tonight.

Mason update

Mason did a great job today at his endoscopy. The doctor found some undigested food decomposing in his stomach. This is the likely culprit for his stomach pains. The doctor said the food has been in there for months and he removed the rotting food from the stomach. He doesn't know why the food didn't exit the stomach and he will undergo a gastric emptying test in the next few weeks. We go back next week for a follow up on the biopsies. We are thankful it is something minor and that they were able to find what was causing his stomach problems.

Kyra's Knock Knock Joke

K: Knock knock

C: Who's there?

K: Kyra

C: Kyra who?

K: Kyra who loves her family!

Here's hoping to a wonderful 2010

We rang in the New Year in Indiana with Rick and Cindy. Here is a picture of Ethan and Kyleigh. Ethan is my cousin Derrick's boy, he is about 4 months older than Kyleigh. We had a wonderful visit as always. Sunday Mark took the kids out on the ice. It's been a whirlwind since we have gotten back. Mark started school last night, I consider myself a single mom during the week now. I only worked Monday and Tuesday this week so that was nice. Tomorrow afternoon Mason has his endoscopy and we hope to find out the reason for his stomach problems.

One down two to go.....

Valynn got her ears pierced today as part of her Christmas present. She didn't flinch at all when they pierced it, she did very well. After some shopping we went out to eat and then came home. It's snowing again today, probably another couple of inches. We're enjoying it and it helps when it's the mid 20's or warmer with little wind. Yesterday we didn't get Kyleigh down for her nap in time that she decided to fall asleep on her own under the desk.

We've been enjoying the time at home this week, but we haven't accomplished everything we set out to do over break. We had the Johnson's over for supper last night but didn't get together with anyone else that we had planned. Tomorrow morning we're headed to Indiana to ring in the New Year with Rick, Cindy, and gang.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year....stay safe.

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas in Illinois and are thankful that we weren't traveling this year in the Christmas Blizzard.

Christmas Eve we lounged around most of the day, watched the Polar Express, and did some prep work for supper. We had a snack of smoked salmon and shrimp before going to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at St. Timothy. After a beautiful service we came home and had a candlelight meal of oyster stew, cornish game hens, and rice pilaf on our China (the kids didn't break any). Followed by dessert of Norwegian goodies. Kyra very impatiently waited to open her gifts. Kyleigh could care less about opening gifts, she just wanted to play with everyone else's or sit on the boxes. We all got spoiled this year with gifts.

Christmas Day we opened gifts from Santa and then spent a lazy morning playing with all our new toys. No one got dressed until it was time to go to the Padilla's for our Christmas Day meals. We had a great meal and a great visit and then came home and lounged some more.

Today it's back to the grindstone. I'm going to tackle one of the kids' room and Mark is going to start staining doors. He has finished staining and varnishing all the trim work.

Have a great weekend.

Sledding

The kids went sledding before Christmas with the neighbor kids. We only had one bloody nose, Mason, he hit a tree. We got close to 2" of rain which melted all the snow. Today we woke up to over 2" of snow and we could possibly get 2 more inches. The kids will be back outside playing again today I'm sure.

Update

Kyra's culture came back negative so we are going to take the wait and see approach. If she continues complaining we'll take her back in.

Mason has an endoscopy scheduled for January 6th. He will be checked for H. Pylori, celiac disease, acid reflux, and food allergy, along with a couple of other things. The doctor said 12 out of 13 times he finds something, the other 1 time it's a pain that is unexplained.

Valynn is at a sleep over tonight. It's a bittersweet one as Allie is moving the end of January so it'll be her last one at Allie's. Kyleigh is busy being Kyleigh and having fun with her new "trick", turning the TV on and off.

Mark has been home in the afternoons all week. Kids and I are enjoying him being home. Work is going good and we see and end in sight for the semester. We are ready for Christmas, the kids can't wait to open their gifts (I'm excited about mine as well).

We wish every one a Merry Christmas!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

I was hoping to get pictures posted sooner but it was a crazy week.

Tuesday Valynn and Mason had their school Christmas program. Kyra and Kyleigh got to stay home with the babysitter. They did great and the program was wonderful. Mason got to sit with us during the program, while Valynn sat in the stands.

Wednesday was Kyra's Christmas program. We've been going to the preschool for five years now and it's been almost the same every year. Kyra did a wonderful job and only showed the audience her underwear once. Mason came with me to Kyra's program while Mark took Valynn to CCD and had Kyleigh.

Thursday was crazy as I dealt with a work related problem most of the day and then ended up spending an extra hour at the school dealing with the issue. My dryer also quit drying so I hauled three loads of laundry across the street to dry. I broke my ricer when trying to make the lefse as well (that is a picture of Kyra helping me mix the lefse). We took the kids to the Festival of Lights and once again it was wonderful. Kyleigh screeched the whole time in delight. After was walked along the light at the riverfront we went to Steak and Shake for shakes and french fries.

Friday I took Kyra back to the doctor because I didn't think her UTI was cleared up, the infection was mostly cleared up but there were some other issues with her sample so I have to call later today to get the results and decided what our next step will be. I was home for 15 minutes before the sitter came and I headed to work. After working for an hour I stopped by the school to finish discussing the issue which was finally cleared up and then headed over to Valynn's classroom for her Christmas party. Mark took half a day off of work and helped in Mason's classroom. When we got home from the parties I started rolling and frying lefse. Valynn helped me fry while Mark and Mason worked on the dryer. After the lefse was done I did flatbrod.

Saturday after a breakfast of buttermilk pancakes I made krumkake (the previous batch was already gone), and buttermilk donuts. I then cleaned house while Mark fixed the dishwasher. I got my rice pilaf done for supper and started Christmas cards until our company arrived. Brad and Chantel came over for supper and we watched the Johnson kids, that makes four adults and 11 kids. We had a great visit, the kids played nicely, and we watched the Christmas Story.

Sunday we went to church, did some grocery shopping, and then I went with Tonya to a local winery to pick up a bottle of wine for her parents. This week Mason has a follow up with the GI so I will keep you posted.

Sunday School Christmas Program

We are definitely getting into the Christmas spirit in the Rinkel household. We enjoyed having the neighbor girl with us all week. We didn't get the snow that was expected here so no snow days for the kids but we did get the house decorated and on Friday and Saturday Mark finished putting up the lights outside. The kids helped me make Rosettes and Krumkake and managed not to eat it all. Saturday night Mark had his work Christmas party at a local dinner theater. This morning the kids had their Sunday School Christmas program. Valynn was an angel, Mason a shepherd, and Kyra a sheep, they did a great job. Kyra fell asleep Saturday afternoon around 4:00 on our way home from Christmas program practice, she slept until 4:00 Sunday morning and then took a nap at 9:00 Sunday morning. I think she was a little tired. This afternoon we had the babysitter come back so Mark and I could finish our Christmas shopping for the kids and each other. Our wallets are now lighter but we are done with our shopping.

This week the kids have Christmas programs on Tuesday and Wednesday and their classroom parties. I'm supposed to work everyday. Tomorrow I'm meeting someone from back home that now lives down here. The kids are done with school for Christmas break on Friday. Have a great week all!

wedding (101 photos), by Chantel Rinkel

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Brady and Jodi's wedding

We left Thursday afternoon for Minnesota. We hit icy roads in Iowa which prompted a call as to who has a wedding in Minnesota in December. We left the farm Friday morning and headed towards Fargo. The rehearsal went well, it was nice visiting with everyone. The wedding was beautiful and we have a wonderful new sister in law. Kyra did a good job as flower girl. She made it down the aisle, almost hit the bride once with her flower ball while standing up front and then went to sit with Grandma and Grandpa. Kyra went 110% from the time she got her hair done until 30 minutes into the reception and then she crashed hard. Our smartest move was bringing our niece Cindy with us to babysit. Valynn and Mason danced the night away. Kyleigh spent most of the night dancing as well. On Sunday we stayed for the gift opening and then met our friend Donn for lunch. We then went back to the farm for the night to watch the Vikings loss. On Monday we made it back to Illinois.

I was hoping to get pictures posted yesterday but it was crazy here. Kyra had gymnastics, I got home and had a friend call asking if I could pick her son up from the neighbor's in home daycare, so I had him for 2 hours. Then Chantel called and asked if I could take Allie a night early so I had to get things ready for her arrival. Allie is staying with us until Friday while her parents are in Texas house hunting. The brunt of the storm missed us, it's cold and windy but we didn't get the snow they predicted.

Mason had his gastroentonologist appointment today. He is on Prevacid for two weeks to see if acid reflux is causing the stomach discomfort if it doesn't improve the next step is an endoscopy to see if the problem can be determined.

Kyra fell off the top bunk last night and might have broken her nose. We talked to the neighbor who is a PA and he said to just have her nose checked at her next appointment. It's looking better today but it was swollen and bleeding last night.

Kyleigh is at a really cute age when she's not throwing a tantrum. She is using a couple of words on a consistent basis now, I wish one of them wasn't uh-oh but I'll talk what we get. She know to wash and dry her hands after I go to the bathroom. Now if I could only get her to use the bathroom I'd be set.

Valynn is getting impatient with me and not decorating for Christmas. She wants to set up her Christmas town.

I had best move on to another task before the three kids get home from school and Kyleigh wakes up from her nap. Have a good week and keep warm.

We are home but soon will be gone

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a great time in Indiana. We left Wednesday morning. Thursday Aunt Cindy and Uncle Rick cooked a wonderful meal. On Friday they took the older three kids to the circus. The kids thought it was great and got to ride an elephant, except for Kyra, she didn't want to. They saw horses, bears, tigers, lions, acrobats, clowns, etc. While the kids were at the circus, Mark, Brandon, Grandma, Kyleigh, and I met Tyler for lunch. Saturday we checked out the Evansville zoo, very nice zoo and we got to see the handy work of Sprinklers Plus (aka Uncle Rick and cousin Derrick).

We got home on Sunday in time to watch the Vikings beat the Bears! Today I took Kyra and Kyleigh to the doctor. Kyra has a UTI. Kyleigh has what might be the beginning of an ear infection. She tipped the scales at 19# 15 oz (10%) (she would have weighed 20 lbs. had she not pooped right before we weighed her). She is also 30 1/4 in. long (45%). We will be keeping a close eye on her since she isn't saying very many words but as the doctor explained he tends to see extremes in 3rd and 4th kids. They either talk ALOT (Kyra) or the don't need to talk because everyone knows what they want (Kyleigh). She gets her point across by grunting so why should she learn to talk.

Tomorrow Mason has Pajama day at school. I will be helping out. Thursday afternoon we are leaving for Minnesota. We will be staying at the farm Thursday night, picking up a niece and heading to Hawley for Brady and Jodi's wedding. We will head back to the farm on Sunday and back to Illinois on Monday.

Have a great week. Sorry no pictures but I forgot to take my camera to Indiana. I'm waiting for Aunt Cindy to send some but we won't have any of the circus.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving!!

We had a great weekend here. The weather was beautiful. We worked outside and got some spring bulbs planted and cleaned the garages. We even started hanging Christmas lights. Sunday we did some shopping in town. After church we went to Bob Evans for brunch. The kids were wonderful and we got compliments because of their behavior. We then went to Kohl's and finished shopping for the wedding, the kids should now have everything they need. While there a lady gave us Kohl's cash for $30 off our purchase. We then went to Sam's and picked up a few items before heading home.

Tomorrow we're heading to Indiana for Thanksgiving, Mark and the kids have the day off. The kids are excited to see Rick, Cindy, the cousins, and great grandma. We are also hoping to visit a high school classmate of mine and meet their new baby.

Funny Kyleigh story. Why is it one of the first words a child learns is "uh-oh"? The other night while sitting in her high chair after struggling for a couple of minutes to push her sippy cup under the high chair table and over her legs when it finally falls to the floor she says "uh-oh" like it was an accident that she dropped her cup. And when I say "Kyleigh", she looks at me and smiles like "that was a fun game and I know you love me mom". Kyleigh got moved to Mason's room this weekend. She has been doing great in her new room. It's a little bittersweet having her out of our room because it means she's growing up. Mason is loving having a roommate even if it's only for a couple of years.

Take care.