so much has happened and is still happening. here are the highlights: our district took the full time kindergarten out of our home school, and for several reasons i won't get into, we felt for our girls would not really benefit from 1/2 day kindy so we challenged them into 1st grade (before you get all up in arms, they turned 6 in october). just like any decision you may make for your child, you wonder, you question yourself, you doubt. in the end, it was the absolute right thing to do. they are flourishing! doing better even than many of the kids that WENT to kindy. we have a great school and great teachers. miss m has the best 3rd grade teacher anyone could ask for and still likes school (yay!). with the house empty for the first time in 9 years, i did a lot of dancing around naked. no, not really, but it was different being home alone; so i became a para-ed sub in our district. technically, i can work at any of the schools in the district, but so far i've only had jobs at our home school. i went into it to earn a few extra dollars (VERY few) from a part-time gig, but it turns out i really enjoy it. don't be looking for me to go back to school to get my teaching certificate however!
what else.....oh, this past winter, miss c started to have what turned out to be seizures (5 so far). lots of testing. lots of stress. but in the end, she is fine, there is nothing physically/organically wrong. they could have been triggered by a myriad of things, and we may never know what. we've decided to take the watch and wait approach.
it's mr. fast lane's turn to be the center of the medical spotlight. this friday he is having open heart surgery. yes, my incredibly healthy 51 year old husband who used to run marathons but now bikes instead (he did the STP last summer btw) has to have heart surgery. 2 things: 1) his is having his mitral valve repaired; he currently has severe regurgitation and his heart has enlarged because of it; this has led to 2) he is experiencing bouts of a fib. they are going to do a 'maze' procedure on him to block the extra electrical pathways causing of the a fib. the worst part for him? he hasn't been able to run or bike since march - and that people, is his stress release. the worst part for the rest of us? he'll be in the hospital for 5 or 6 days - he is my stress release. i'm going to be a single parent for a little bit. yikes, how am i going to do it? i guess it's just like anything else, you just do it and you get through it.
good news this week though. we found out that one of our favorite nieces (who lives in MN) is coming here for college! double yay! another of our nieces (who lives in IA) had her baby! 2 gentle reminders that we need to focus on the good things.
aren't they adorable? there's actually 4 of them in this family, but like any kids, try and get them to pose for a picture. i go to a nearby pond nearly every night (i've been going for almost a year now) to feed and watch the ducks. it's paid off! they're pretty used to me and so feel ok bringing the babes around. the food (cracked corn) doesn't hurt either. there is another family with two ducklings that comes around too. nature's valium. 
