2021 is off with a bang...

Well, it hasn't been a smooth start to 2021 for us.  We started by ringing in the new year up north at Nana and Pops' cottage to a puppy with diarrhea.  It started NYE in the evening while we were playing cards and she woke me up several times that night to go out.  This kicked off a week of sleepless nights, accidents in the house, and many portions of boiled plain chicken and white rice for meals.  We finally took her into the vet after a week and after several tests they found nothing.  So, she was put on a prescription to help calm down her intestines and a prescription dog food.

She's on the mend now, has finished her medication, and we are transitioning her to a new food.  On a positive note, she finally likes walks!  She's lost 3 teeth that we've found and we've discovered she loves pig ears.  She's back to sleeping through the night and we've allowed her in our bed now and ditched the nighttime crate.  

In addition to her upset stomach, we've had several issues with our house too since the new year.  We started with the hot water heater dying on us right before we went up north.  Luckily we were home and I was in the basement just getting off the treadmill to find water all over the basement floor.  We had our air ducts cleaned the next day and it was well worth it.  The before and after pictures they shared with us were incredible.  It's safe to say that no other owner of this house has had this done before.

In case that's not enough, the furnace started acting up.  It sounded like it would turn out and try to start blowing heat and the pilot light wouldn't light so it would keep revving up to have room temperature air blowing out.  Luckily this could be resolved by shutting it off and turning it back on to jump start the system, but we knew that wasn't a long term fix.  We had the same company come out that put in our new AC a few years ago and it was a quick and inexpensive fix.  Phew!

I'm knocking on wood that we are good now with all major appliances in our house...

In addition to various companies coming to fix things in our house, we also had to work on finding a new vehicle since the lease on my van was up.  We knew we wanted to get a pick-up truck this time so we were getting Rams priced out.  We hit the jackpot with a great deal with a dealership we've had really bad experiences with in the past.  We were nervous to do business with this dealership again, but so far, so good!  We are now leasing a Ram Laramie for the next 3+ years and it's beautiful!

All of these things have kept us busy, but the kids have been bored and have had to be real creative with how to pass the time.  We haven't had any major snow, which they're bummed about.  So, they've tried out Sean's new RC car.  They've had sleepovers in the living room and built a fort in Sean's room to sleep in.  They've tried "tricks" like knocking over Solo cups with cards and popping balloons with cards and nerf bullets.  Thankfully, they're going back to school this week for half days to get them out of the house and around other kids!  Praying they stay safe and healthy.

I took Sean and Adelaide skiing on a weeknight to get some exercise and to get out of the house.  While it was manmade snow, it was a fun night!  The kids enjoyed skiing under the lights and getting hot chocolate.

We also ventured out yesterday to go bowling for the first time.  We felt safe as they had us several lanes apart from others.  The kids were sore losers by the second game so that was unfortunate, but it was nice to get out of the house!

Things are going to change yet again this upcoming week with the kids going back to school for half days.  My district has me starting back the week after that and then on February 1st with kids.  I'm praying we all stay safe and healthy.  Scott hasn't heard his school's plan yet and we haven't been able to get our vaccine with Wayne County being behind.  I'm at least hoping that our bad luck is over...at least for a while.  We definitely need some positive things to come our way!