THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE BEST

Well today was one of those days. 

You know, the ones where you get to feel all the feels and go to bed emotionally exhausted?

This morning McKenna and I got Brinlee off to school and then decided to head over to the library.  Our stash of books was getting a little old, and an outing to the library is always a favorite.  Plus it was a story-time day with McKenna's favorite story-time guy, Zac.  She thinks he is SO funny!

So we went to story time, then we played with the toys, and read some books, and picked out a nice stack to take home, and McKenna was a darling angel, and we basically had the perfect time!  

Then we got out to the car,

and it wouldn't start.

I don't think it's any big secret that I've been a bit irritated with poor Bertha the Blue Van for quite some time now.  She has been the best van!  Lots of good miles and memories in the books with her.

Buutttt,  it has been LOTS of miles, and she is getting old, and it's definitely starting to show.  Lately she seems to be just one problem after another, and it has became a little annoying, a little inconvenient, and more than a little expensive.  And it's always me that seems to suffer! Every time Tim drives the van it seems to work just fine.  But I've been stranded with a tired and burned-out Bertha more than once now, and today was kind of the last straw.

Luckily we had the stroller in the back of the car, so I loaded up McKenna and all our books, called Tim and left a VERY unhappy "I wash my hands of this, you better deal with it and I never want to drive that car again!" message, and we started the walk home.  

I can think of very few times that I have been that irritated.  I didn't have a mirror on me to check for sure, but I'm pretty positive I had literal smoke coming out my ears.  I was so mad I was on the verge of tears.  I wouldn't say I was walking per say, more like stomping and huffing along, cursing that poor van under my breath and thinking about the chocolate ice cream at home in the freezer that I was going to burry myself in as soon as we got home.  

I decided to take the route that walks us by the duck pond (another favorite outing), and not long into the neighborhood I realized that my mumbling and grumbling had been drowning out McKenna's little voice.  I asked her what she was talking about, and she said "Mom, look!  Doze are such bweefadul cover-fo weaves ev-we-where!"  

(Translation: Mom, look! Those are such beautiful colorful leaves everywhere!)

And she was right, they were popping up everywhere!  Not on every tree yet.  But several of them were definitely starting to dress out of their Fall side of closet.  And it was bweefadul!

 

So we slowed down to a bit more relaxed of a walk, and we collected, leaves, and pine-cones, and said hi to the ducks, and got home to that chocolate ice cream smiling and in a much better mood.

The van is currently being towed to the mechanic.  

And I am still irritated about it.

And I still plan to take over driving the gold car.

But boy am I thankful that it wasn't raining today, 

and for beautiful fall leaves starting to dot the trees, 

and for this amazing, fun, happy, sweet, perfect little partner I have to bring a smile to my face and make even my not-so-perfect days feel just about right.

She's the best!

WHAT'S THIS? COULD IT BE?

Oh you shy little tree out there, 

in the still warm and summery air-

Are you blushing Orange, Yellow and Red?

Oh I hope so! And pray you're not fibbing.
For if you are, (now I'm only half kidding)

when Fall comes it may find us all dead!

Yes I wrote that. Hold your applause please.

Today while the girls and I were out for a walk we passed by that tree on our street,

the one that is always the first to start announcing Fall...

And I can't be sure, but it sure looked like some of her leaves were giving the friendly sign!

And oh, I couldn't be happier to see it!  This summer has been so, SO hot!  And so far, even being 2 weeks into September now, we aren't really getting a break! I keep waiting for those nice cool mornings, and that friendly chill to settle in the air.  But it is taking its sweet time.  And I am getting restless. 
Hot sticky humidity starts to wear you down after a while!

Those leaves look promising though! All day now I've had the stirrings of change tickling my insides,

and I'm just getting so excited!  

Bring on the sweaters,

the apple picking,

the pumpkin desserts, 

the soups simmering,

the beautiful colors, 

the warm socks,

the football games,

the chill in the breeze, 

that smell in the air,

the Charlie Brown specials,

the Halloween festivities,

the piles of leaves,

the steaming hot chocolate...

There you have it September, you can bring on Fall!  We are SO ready!

Nurse's Note: Oh, So That's Croup

There's a tree on our street that always seems to get into the Autumn Spirit early, and I don't blame it.  It's quite the actress (of course it's a girl!) and really puts on quite a show!  Just a couple days into October we saw the first hint of yellow in its leaves, and for the last few weeks we've watched it change from yellow, to orange, to red.  In fact, all of Ohio has become something like a painting.  It's really been just dreamy!

On a less dreamy note, I guess Fall decided it didn't want to come without a buddy.  That's kind of lonely.  So along with all the dazzling colors, this year the first week of October brought us some Croup!

It was terrible.

Tim actually diagnosed the girls.  The smarty pants.  He had just finished learning about croup.  And I actually remembered a few random things about it and had seen some croupy kids during my crash-course in pediatrics way back in nursing school. So we kind of had an idea of what was coming. We knew it was viral, knew it was miserable, knew a few basic treatment tips that might help a little, but knew that we were mostly going to have to tough it out.  Sometimes it does help to know a little, so I thought we were pretty prepared.  Bring on the bad nights, high fevers, and sick, sad babies, we are ready! Right?

Wrong!   

I sure did not realize that croup could be so bad!  It was rough!

Both girls got it, but McKenna got it first and had it the worst.  On her Croup night #2 she spiked some pretty scary fevers and ended up spending some time in the emergency room.  Well two emergency rooms actually.  She didn't turn around like they thought she would at the first hospital, so the little sweetie got an ambulance ride to the Children's hospital and spent a few hours there too.  Poor thing.  Not our best night.

Brinlee started in with her round of it the very next night.  And from there, they spent a good solid week in and out of fevers, coughing like crazy, sitting up at night next to open windows, trying to choke down fluids over a raw, scratchy throat, soaking in hot baths, and crying... a lot.  It's enough to break a poor mama's heart! 

These babies really were troopers though.  They both completely lost their little voices, and were obviously about as miserable and exhausted as two little people can be.  But they stayed just as sweet as ever and toughed it out like champions.  They are so awesome.

Once things had settled some, I did feel a little sheepish for getting so frazzled.  A hospital visit?  Hmm.  I mean, we do have a decent medical background, and it was "just croup"... but I didn't feel sheepish for long.  As it turns out Croup is a bummer of a bug! And apparently not as textbook as we thought.  We were glad we decided to go with our gut on this one.  I just hope that we can say this was our lesson in Croup, and we can now log it away for safe keeping and never re-visit it again, ever.  I don't think that's too much to ask, do you?

Here's hoping!

Fall Is In The Air

Last night there was a bit of a rain storm that blew through for a while, and this morning we woke up to that old familiar blessed chill in the air!  You know the one I mean. The one that feels inspiring, and tells you to pull out the sweaters and make some caramel corn.  The one that gives you that little tickle in your tummy that says "change is coming, and it's going to be gorgeous!"

Yes my friends, today felt like Fall!  And I can't be happier to see it coming!!!

We are all about Fall.  And why not be??  The colors are amazing, the smells are divine, the weather is wonderful, the clothes are cuter, the food is funner (yes I know that's not a word), the holidays are more magical, and Fall just kind of makes the family feel a little cozier and cuddlier, don't you think?  I feel the most motivated and productive in the Fall.  It's just such a happy time.

Speaking of happy times.  This morning we sent our little Miss Brin off to her first day of "school"!
Brinlee has several little friends she knows from Nursery and a few weeks ago a couple of the other moms asked me if I would be interested in Joy School.  I of course said yes.  I happen to be a Joy School graduate myself. My awesome mom did it for us as kids and I have some very fond memories of it.  So we got the program and got started today!  She was beyond excited. She picked out her own clothes, and had them all laid out the night before. Such a kid thing to do.

She came home all smiles telling me all about the rules they have, and the songs they sing, and the things they learned.  She did tell me that she's a doctor now, like daddy, since she's been to school... guess we'll have to clarify a few things. 

McKenna got into the "First Day of School" spirit too, of course.  Doesn't a new pair of shoes just scream "Fall"?  I drug her all over running errands for the 2 and 1/2 hours Brinlee was gone.  She's a fun, goofy little buddy  :)

In a couple weeks it will be our turn in the rotation to host Joy School at our house.  We'll see if Brinlee handles that as well.  But so far, she loves it!

"Oh Boy!  I've got Joy!"

Totally Feeling Fall

We are tickled pink to have Fall finally here.  It is totally the best time of year!  We've already eaten two batches of caramel corn (not tough for a 34 week pregnant woman to do), and have officially broken into the sweater side of the closet.  That's the best part!
(Mom here's your belly update.  Baby Sister is doing swell.  And getting big!)

We even got some Fall and Halloween stuff up.!
I know, I know, I'm going against everything "me" and attempting to do Halloween this year... not my forte.  But Brinlee has been in heaven, and it's dang cute to watch!  She's a true kid already, loves anything Halloween.  We still need to get some bats and ghosties up in our twig tree, but she has watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown probably 500 times and cannot wait for costume candy night to come.  Kids do make this holiday better, so bring it on I guess!

We did some painting the other day.  She points out the "cover-foe weaves" (that would be colorful leaves) every time we leave the house, so I drew her a tree with falling leaves and set up some Fall-time paint colors and let her go to town.  Best entertainment ever!  For both of us  :)

 We hope you are all welcoming fall as happily as we are!  :)  Here's to a splendid October!

Ch-Ch-Changes

Did I mention that I really love Fall?

I love the little nip in the air, love the colors, love bundling up in blankets and sweaters, love making soup, and LOVE the leaves changing.  In fact, we've been getting into the spirit of season a bit and have been enjoying a few home-makeover changes.  We re-arranged our living room and kitchen, revamped all of our wall decor, and a couple weeks ago I found some fall crafty ideas and just couldn't help myself.  

Last week we treated ourselves to a fall time classic favorite.  Tim really perfected the process, they turned out way better than they have in the past.  I still managed to make a huge mess of myself though.  How are you supposed to eat caramel apples anyway?

And what post would be complete without some pictures of Brin?  

She is, after all, the cutest!

We have been trying to build up her cold weather repertoire and found a super good deal on a pair of little suede boots.  She is in love with them!  She pulls them out of her drawer and asks for them all the time.  Sometimes, the boots are all she will wear.  At least she already loves shoes... such a girl.

Here Comes Fall

The last couple of weeks it has been raining... a lot!  And I mean real rain.  With thunder and lightening and everything.  It's been awesome, I love big storms!  And as it turns out, so does the Little Miss.  As soon as the drops start coming, she has to be out playing.  

The rain play is quickly coming to an end though.  We watched the rain fall all morning yesterday, and when we finally ventured out for the day we had to put on jackets.  The "4th quarter of the year" chill is starting to poke its head around the corner.  The weather is still teasing us some - cool one day, hot the next. But we've officially opened up the sweater boxes, and Brin has latched on to our first official Fall home decor, lovingly referred to as "baby pumpkin".

I'm a little anxious to see Fall actually, I love Fall!!!  I really need to get our house looking a bit more festive.  

The real priority for now though: What should our little doll be for Halloween??

Any suggestions?

The Four Seasons

As far as I know, the elementary school curriculum is still teaching that the four seasons of the year are Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.  However, those receiving the Borup family education learn that the four seasons of the year are

Spring,

Summer,

Soup,

and Christmas Music

It is no secret that (understatement alert) I am not the biggest fan of cold weather.  But I am however a huge fan of the things that cold weather brings and absolutely love this time of year!  It's just magical, don't you think?

We sadly have not seen much snow yet. But we have enjoyed several pots of tummy-friendly soup and have been playing/singing (/dancing to, but wouldn't admit it) Christmas music as much as we can.  It's the recipe for insta-happy home, I recommend it to everyone.

Happy Soup and Christmas Music season from our happy family to yours.  We hope it brings you as many smiles as it has for us!

Corn Maze

Yesterday for family home evening we went out to the corn maze and had a blast!  We successfully completed all three of the mazes (one without using the map, thank you very much), and even splurged for a few corn-inspired treats.

Flat Stanley came along and loved it of course.  And Brinlee did awesome!  She was first confused, then content, and finally asleep.  It did get a little chilly for her, but she never did whine!  Sweet angel.

We had our first taste of Mexican corn and surprisingly really liked it!  It's corn on the cob with mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, and a bit of pico de gio... I know it sounds like it should be gross, but tis not so.  I would have it again.

Yay for family outings!

It's Official

This morning when I left the hospital to head home it was officially chilly and "that smell" (you know the one) was hanging in the air...

which makes me afraid that we have officially seen the end of summer, and fall is for sure on its way...

I actually don't mind fall, it's a great time of year.  It's the snow that usually follows not long after fall that has me worried.  Is it really already that time again?  Time to unpack the sweaters I guess.  Cold weather here we come.