This one is for you Kristin :)

Kristin, Kk, or auntie kk are all words for my delightful sister in law, sister to my hubby and auntie to Alana and Collin :) She is a lovable girl and we all miss her dearly. She recently asked for me to write on here because she enjoys reading about all of us :)

Ok, let's see...I have been bad about updating on here!

After I dropped Joe off at the airport on Oct. 5th, the kids and I drove 10 hours to my family's house in New Mexico. Wow, that was a REALLY long drive, but the kids were good! I don't mind driving out west as much because I probably only saw like 10-20 cars the whole way :) I love open road driving with the music up, singing along and being with two of my favorite three people. I sure do wish Joe could have came, because I just feel so much more safe with him around and I just miss him.

We had a good visit, we only stayed a week. My mom is always happy to see us and everyone else is usually happy the first day or two ha ha ha, then the kids start to bug everyone :) My mom hooked me up with getting my hair and nails done, which is always a treat! My younger siblings did a wonderful job keeping my little ones entertained and I even had an afternoon to hike with David :) It was a good trip, and time went quickly, but we needed to get home for the kids school and other activities. They were perfect on the ride home, too! They are such good little travelers.

The next event that stands out was the night my friend Andrea, watched the kid while me and Alex went out to do some haunted houses! Alex and I go all the way back to my junior year, her senior year of high school! We have kept in touch and visited for the last 10 year, man we are getting old! Anyway, we went downtown San Antonio to go to a haunted house, but it was still daylight so we passed and went to dinner at Longhorn's...yummy!!! I got a margarita and thank goodness she was driving because that was MORE than enough for me lol. We had steak and reminisced about the good ole times and talked about the new. We then went to Sea World and did two of their haunted houses, a roller coaster (which scared the crap out of Alex mwhahaha), and caught the last bit of the Shamu show before I needed to get my kids home to bed! Thanks, Andrea for watching them!!

The next weekend, Alex and I took the kids to the pumpkin patch out here...wow, a let down from the previous pumpkin farm we went with my family in New Mexico :( Since it was such a dry summer here, everything died. They imported pumpkins out of cardboard boxes. Not quite the same as going out into the patch and picking your pumpkin off the vine. It was a super hot day and that did make the apple ice cream seem worth it! It was my first and best apple ice cream ever! That was probably the highlight of the day. Oh, the kids got to ride ponies, which they always find amazing :) It was a good day overall, I just had high expectations.

On Oct. 30th, we had tickets to our first San Antonio Rampage hockey game! Joe was suppose to be home on the 29th, but since I want him home for Christmas and New Years, he won't be home until Dec. 7th :( We were really bummed out that he wasn't able to attend with us, but we were in good company! Alot of the wives from work were there with their families and Alex came along too! It was nothing like a Caps game, even the price ;) $15 got you a good seat and a meal. Not too shabby. We had a good time, but by the 3rd period with 8 mins to go, Collin started to lose it. Instead of making it a miserable end, we ended up leaving a little early. On the way home, we stopped by Panera bread for dinner and a Halloween store and got me a vampire costume and Alex a beer maid outfit.

Oct. 31 we celebrated Halloween with mummy pizza, mac and cheese nuggets and monster punch :) I love this holiday. We got all dressed up and Alex came over after work. After eating dinner, we passed out some candy to trick or treaters and then went out to a few houses ourselves. The kids were satisfied with about 10 houses. Then, we went and just all passed out candy. It was fun! We turned on Halloween town after coming in until it was bed time.

The kids have been sick for awhile now. Before Joe left in early October, they all had a bad cough and chest congestion. Joe said his cleared out pretty quickly once he got out of here, so I was thinking it was just allergies for all of them. We went to my moms and it kept getting worse. After I came back it seemed to settle down a little bit. A week or two later, Collin's teacher tells me he was complaining about a bee buzzing in his ear all day long. That night was AWFUL. He screamed most of the night that his ear hurt and the moment the doctor's office opened in the morning I called to get him in!

He had an ear infection in both ears and bronchitis. They put him on antibiotics, steroids, and albuterol nebulizer treatments. While there, I asked the doctor to listen to Alana's lungs too, and she said she sounded worse! So she went on all of the above as well :( A week later, today, I take them back for a check up and Collin's ears still aren't clear, so still has to take his antibiotic and keep up with the breathing treatments until his cough is gone, slowing weaning him. Alana on the other hand seemed to only get worse so the doctor sent me to another hospital to get chest x-rays.

It was a walk-in type place, so I was thankful it didn't take long before they could see us. That didn't stop Collin from throwing a fit and trying to jump from chair to chair, scaring all the elderly people there :/ The x-ray technician was male and I didn't think Alana would be very good, so for the first round, I left Collin outside with the iphone to keep him company. He did good and Alana did really good with the x-ray tech! That is a miracle since she is usually painfully shy of men. She even let him take her to do another one while I stayed outside with Collin.

We then went to Walmart to fill prescriptions and went to lunch with a friend. While at lunch, the doctor called to tell us she has walking pneumonia and need to start a different antibiotic and a something else for the nebulizer. Ugh, that meant another trip to wally world :( Thankfully, my friend Andrea offered to take them home with her while I went and fought the dreaded Walmart for my meds :) So much easier without two cranky, tired kids. We did take her to dance class and she did fine. The funny part is neither one of them (except that first night with Collin's ears) seems very sick. They still have their appetite and most of their energy, so it makes it painful to try and stay home and rest for many days. The doctor said they could keep going to school and activities as long as they seemed to be up for it and no fevers. All of this is allergy induced, so I am hoping whatever is bothering them ends REALLY soon.

I am so ready for Joe to be home and he is so ready to be home. It will be so nice to have him home for Christmas and New years. It will be his longest period of time home since we moved here...pathetic. Oh well, suck it up and be thankful he has a job and I don't have to work for now :) I'd probably have to quit even if I had a job with how sick these kids have been since moving here!