Family Fun with the Nelsons

I need to take time to document the past couple of weeks before I forget things- since everything has been super busy and with some pretty big stuff. Started off last week with Noah having a consult with the Orthodontist on March 22nd. I have no photo proof, but we had a consult with Dr Peters and it looks like Noah has an Expander and some brackets in his short-term future for "Phase 1" treatment. He is actually very excited! He thinks braces look really cool, and nowadays you can pick your rubber band colors each time you go in, so you can color coordinate your teeth to your activities...back when I had them, there was grey, or GREY - or if you were really special...Grey. ;-) So next appointment is April 21st for Xrays, pictures, molds and possibly spacers....we're moving forward. Noah's good friend Sophia just got the exact same treatment a couple of months ago, so he will be in good company with a friend that can empathize. It is amazing how fast things move at this age, we can see big changes to Sophia's smile already, so hopefully things will move quickly for Noah too. A whole different school of thought now in the Ortho industry - start young when things can move easier, and be PROACTIVE. Love that - maybe it will mean less work later on when things finish growing in, once he has the needed room put into his mouth.

That same afternoon, I had a recheck with Dr Haberman for 1 year with my Baha (hearing device), and my hearing tests actually greatly improved since last May, so everyone was happy - proof that I CAN HEAR. ;-) Don't have to go back for another 6 months - CHECK. ;-)

Noah also had a great dental cleaning appointment with Dr Moeller that week too - good brushing pays off - no cavities...great way to end our health check up week...just in time to be packing up for our Circuit Assembly that we were leaving for that evening. However, one chink in the great health week is our kitty cat Delia was not doing well, and since I had Friday off, it was the first time in a while I had time to spend with her to look her over and see how dire things were looking. for whatever reason she has stopped eating much and filling her box, and she had lost quite a bit of weight. She is a super fluffy white kitty, so not until you pick her up do you really notice such things...wow. She was sort of jaundice too- good grief. So called the vet and Brent was able to get her in that afternoon before we were supposed to leave for the assembly. Divide and conquer. I would take Noah to the dentist appointment, and Brent would run Delia to the vet. Can you say Complications? she is sicker than we thought, so they kept her for a few hours for tests etc, so that kept pushing us later and later for schedule. We were supposed to get the dog down to Rochester by 6 p.m. to the boarding place, and I had to call to make arrangements for a late drop off for him due to the new kitty circumstances. The vet was really nervous to have the kitty home alone all weekend with out anyone to do meds or anything and actually wanted us to take her to like the U or someplace that could keep her all weekend for tests. Well, back up plan was for us to switch some plans, Brent would stay back Friday night to do meds etc that night and early morning Saturday and me, Noah, my mom and Baxter would head down to Rochester late Friday to drop off and check in.

Here is our beloved Delia when she was feeling better in all her fluffiness:

Other than our dramatic start to the weekend and Brent having to catch a ride down early Saturday morning the weekend was great! Wonderful spiritual information - definately "food at the proper time". And seeing all our great friends is always a fun treat. We had 2400 there on Sunday - it was packed! Here are a couple of cute pics of the kids. It is so nice to have such a great group of young ones that are all good friends:

Group shot! They are all getting so tall!

3 amigos

Pool time in the evening!

(self portrait taken to show my friend my new assembly duds

go with the great new necklace she got me)

On sunday night we had dinner at our fav restaurant in Rochester (Chester's) on the way out and picked up Baxter from his first Boarding experience. He was so excited that we came back for him...I think he thought that was his new home. He did really well and made some doggy friends they said - sort of a spa/hotel for the dog world I guess...anyway, drove home and started back on kitty duty including having to IV her to get fluids under her skin and give her antibiotics etc. We feel like Vet Techs here...wow...hope she can recover.

Monday back to work for me (Brent was off one more day). Hard to come back to reality after an assembly weekend. Tuesday I got to pick up my new glasses (that I was hoping to have before we left for assembly, but slow shipping or whatever back to the Target store).

(not a great self-portrait, but you get the idea of the new glasses, and now I can see!)

And then back to the vet in the afternoon for another check and further treatments to try to figure out kitty health issues. She had to stay a few hours again for an enima and some other not fun test/treatments. Picking her up got super late since they were still making some decisions on treatment options (and trying to balance dollars with options to explore what could be wrong with her) so it got VERY LATE for getting to meeting. Zoom, zoom...Brent went ahead and me and N showed up just in time for the school. Oh my! (Noah helps our School Overseer time the talks, so he sits front and center for that part of the meeting. )

Noah has also been working on a Science Fair entry this month. This week was the fair, so everything was needing to be completed in these last few days on top of the rest of the Nelson chaos (not our way to be done with such things in advance you know...). But after prodding and much creative brainstorming, Noah and I got his board and research all together in time -yay! He had picked an Animal Studies project, and did get inspired earlier in the month while on vacation on a trip to the MN Zoo with grandparents. He did research on the similarities and differences between Sea Horses and Sea Dragons (both Leafy and Weedy). Who knew there were differences? not I! Well we all learned about these fun little critters Jehovah created, and had some fun in the process. Tonight was the science fair, and his teachers noted that he got special notice from the judge that came to the school from 3M, he really liked his creativity of his subject and his board. Yay! He got a certificate and a patch for participating, and we all went to the crazy-busy school for the fair tonight. Here are a few shots of his end product. Yay Noah - we were all super proud of you!

So off to bed I go for another big Friday work day tomorrow, and then we are all Aux. Pioneering in April (both Grammy's too), so can you say more busy days ahead? This will be an exciting history-making month though, so it will be fun to be part of all the special activity during this Memorial Season commemorating Christ's death and sacrafice for us. Glad to be part of the activity!! More later!

Jen

How does time speed faster and faster? Today our boy is 9 years old! The last year of single digits! Time for a time warp to remember all the changes. In some ways it does seem like 9 years, and in some ways it seems much shorter since I can still clearly remember the events of my pregnancy and his birth and baby times.

It has been fun getting to know this person that is a combination of me and Brent and yet very much his own person. We are very grateful that we have many good friends and family and that he has a great group of young friends to grow up with. He is becoming more of a spiritual person and getting more active within the congregation which warms our hearts as he builds his relationship with Jehovah God. He does well in school and loves music and all sorts of creativity. We can't wait to see what the next 9 years brings us - hard to project that far out when he would be 18 and "all grown up". Life is an adventure...that is for sure, and we are all along for the ride. Enjoy the time warp in picture memories...hard to pick out a sampling to share- we have so many great photo memories on the computer...helps remember all the little details of his growing up.

Noah a few minutes after he was born: