Blair Family: Soaking Up The Summer!

PHEW! It has been a few minutes since I've posted! We have been so busy!

First things first, WE SOLD THE HOUSE!!!! WOOOHOOOOO! We are no longer home owners :) That is definitely a huge weight off of our shoulders while living out of state from the house. One of the guys that was renting our house asked if he could just buy it. Ummm YES, Yes you can. Paperwork done.

Levi's Grandma Donna had a stroke last weekend (12/13th weekend), she is recovering nicely and now in a therapy rehab up in Cedar Rapids. We were so thankful to hear about her great progress this last week! Levi buzzed up to Iowa City after it happened and stayed for a few days to see her.

On Levi's way home we met at the college I will be going to this fall so I could get my parking pass and student ID taken care of without having to wrangle the kids. After we got all of that accomplished, we drove about 1.5 miles south of the college and found Little Italy of St. Louis in a neighborhood called "The Hill" (and yes, it is on a hill). We tried a restaurant with awesome thin and crispy crust authentic Italian pizza. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it! We will have to do some more exploring in that neighborhood for other restaurants and markets.

At the beginning of the summer we made a list of things we wanted to try out and see in St Louis, and now that we are down to the last 3.5 weeks of summer break, I really don't think we will accomplish much more! We've taken the train to a Cardinal's game, visited the zoo, science center, Grant's Farm, Fitz Rootbeer Company, local splash pads, tried new restaurants, had amazing BBQ at Pappy's Smokehouse, visited family in Iowa, twice, and heading back up again next weekend, we visited Aunt Liz in KC, hit up a Royal's game, and we have had family visit on weekends.

Levi: Levi has be busy with asphalt, digging trenches, fixing pot holes, and running equipment for the world's greatest Air Force. He is really loving the shop here! Levi has also been playing on the squadron softball team twice a week. I have been trying to talk Levi into getting his last 2 classes for his 2nd CCAF degree completed (Community College of the Air Force). He could knock one out this fall, especially with a deployment after the 1st of the year coming up.

Jen: I am holding down the fort here at home for 1 more month until Merik and I are back to school! I've been enjoying making and selling burlap wreaths over the summer. It is a nice craft project to keep me busy. Although, I do have a few other projects that have been sitting in the garage all summer long. I'll get to those in due time, but our guest room is coming together nicely. I've been out of college for 7 years (holy cow, I know!). I'm taking a few pre reqs for the surgical tech program, and hopefully I will be able to start the actual program next fall. The college only offers it once a year, and is a year long program (once I finish the pre reqs). In this area, there are MANY options to choose from on either side of the river. I am looking forward to a challenge with school and this change in career! I have all of my classes planned out so they are in the middle of the day where I won't hit rush hour traffic in the morning, and be home around 1pm each day Monday-Thurs.

Merik: I know most people are really sad about sending their first born to kindergarten, but as you all know MJ, this kid is R-E-A-D-Y. He was ready last fall when he started Pre-K and exceeded the Pre-K requirements by the mid year conferences. All he needs to work on is tying his shoes! He'll tell you he can tie them, but he misses a step here and there. Merik was really looking forward to riding the school bus to school this year, but we only live about 3/4 mile away, so I'll drive him up to the fence and we'll walk through the parking lot together for school each morning.

Pace: I think the last time I left off with Pacen updates, we had just gotten his blood work redone and we were waiting for the results. His white blood count was abnormally low, his thyroid stimulating hormone was exceedingly high, and he had a few other wonky levels that were just a hair low. We had the blood work redone (in a rare 80% healthy window of time) and his levels had improved. Pace also had an allergy scratch panel done for indoor allergies, and he is not allergic to any of the dusts, molds or pet dander. He is only mildly allergic to cockroaches. Pacen has been battling a strong ear infection that took two rounds of antibiotics to knock out the fevers and kick it down a notch, he still has remaining fluid behind his ear 10 after the last dose of antibiotic. We are going back to the pedi mid Aug for the "3 months with an ear infection" status (if it is still there) and getting a referral to the ENT for a possibility of tubes. My thoughts were, why wait so long and just get the process rolling, there is a really slim chance the fluid will be gone by the 2nd week of August and it will take almost a month to get an ENT appt anyways. Such is life. I'll give this pedi another month to get into the swing of things with Pace, we've been here 4 months and we've seen him 4 times plus one urgent care visit and all of the specialist appts. Phew. Ok.