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Snowmageddon 2019
Parker woke up on Saturday without a fever! It snowed a little overnight, but we weren’t going out to play in it until Sunday so that we could make sure his fever didn’t come back. We had one more “lazy” day inside to let Parker get completely better. However, when Parker saw that it had snowed he opened up the door to the back deck and picked up a handful of snow to eat! The day was full of playing with toys, playing on tablets, and watching movies. In the evening we blew up the air mattress for Parker and Zac to lay on while we watched Shrek…just something different to do; they loved it. Parker’s fever never came back and he was acting his normal self all day. After the kids went to bed we turned on the UK game. It was a great game to watch and was pretty close until the end…UK won.
Today, Parker was still feeling back to normal so we were able to go out and enjoy the snow! It snowed a little more overnight and it was snowing while we were outside so there was a good amount on the ground. We had a great time building a snowman and sledding. We came came back inside and the kids drank some hot chocolate. Kay and Tony stopped by to drop Amie off. We ordered some Donato’s Pizza for lunch and then relaxed for a while. Zac fell asleep…wore out from sledding 🙂
We spent the rest of the day playing inside and preparing for another week of work/school. And the Spring semester at NKU starts tomorrow! Time to get ready for another full week….
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Sick Day Pt. 2
Happy National Hot Toddy Day!
I stayed home from work today because Parker was still running a fever and not feeling very good. Zac also stayed home with us. Parker took his medicine around 7:00am and that took care of his fever for a while. With no fever he was ready to run around and play like normal. I had to convince him that it was a “sick day” and we needed to relax so that his body could fight off his sickness. This meant movies, video games, board games, and playing with a few toys. We started with some tablet time, then Toaster Strudels for breakfast, then more tablet time. After tablets, the boys went upstairs to change into their outfits for the day. That’s when they decided that they needed to find out where Harley was so they could take a picture of him with the camera on their tablets. This started a “big adventure” to find Harley cat. We spent a little over 5 minutes searching for him until Parker found him sitting on the kitchen table chair. They sneaked up on him like Steve Irwin, with their cameras ready, and got a couple of pictures…mission accomplished. Harley’s always such a good sport!
We spent the rest of the morning playing downstairs in the toy room, eating snacks while sitting inside some ottomans, and playing Zelda/Mario on the Wii. We had some leftover Skyline for lunch, then it was back downstairs to play some more since neither were wanting to lay down for a nap. We spent most of the afternoon watching an Iron Man & Captain America cartoon on Netflix. Zac eventually fell asleep during the movie so he had a 1-hour power nap. Parker never fell asleep, but he was very calm and relaxed the whole afternoon. His fever came back after lunch, but remained low grade which was good.
Nicole came home from work and we made some BLT’s for dinner. After dinner Nicole and Parker played Mario Galaxy while Zac and I played with the Kitchen set in the toy room. We gave Parker his Motrin and he went to bed early tonight…hopefully he gets a great night of extra sleep and maybe his fever will break tomorrow. Zac picked “minion Bob” (Despicable Me 3) for his TV time tonight so we watched that until it was his bedtime. I made a Hot Toddy to sip on this evening to celebrate National Hot Toddy Day today! It’s perfect timing with the cold weather, the impending snowpacalypse that’s being forecast this weekend, and to fight the sickness that is going around. Hopefully we get the 4-6 inches that they are predicting…we don’t have any plans to go anywhere so I don’t mind all the snow. Kenton County has already canceled all school related activities for tomorrow (Saturday). The only bad thing is that Parker is sick and won’t be able to go out into the snow if we do actually get a few inches. Maybe he’ll be well enough by Sunday so that he can at least walk outside in it and eat a snowball 🙂
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Sick Day
This morning on the way to work I stopped at Kroger to get a fruit tray. I also stopped at the Starbucks inside Kroger for a Grande Caramel Macchiato. I saw a sure sign of the coming snowpocalypse while I was a Kroger…they were stocking the bread aisle full! I joked and asked if they were preparing for the snow and one of the workers said that the shelves will be empty by the end of the week. I can only imagine what Kroger is going to be like tomorrow after everyone gets off work. Or how busy the ClickList will be since more people are using that…especially if it’s already going to be cold and snowy. We took inventory of our food tonight and looks like we’re good 🙂
I picked up the fruit tray because the HRIS department moved onto our floor in the building so we had a “Welcome Breakfast” for them. There was so much food! It was hard not to just eat a bunch of donuts and other unhealthy food…I tried to stick to fruits and Jackson’s “world famous” scones. I did go back for a large slice of coffee cake later in the afternoon, but it was worth it. Andy and I walked the steps today so I’m sure I walked it off anyway haha!
Work was busy busy today. I went over to our Main Campus (Base) for a few meetings. I don’t have as many meetings there as I used to so I haven’t been since last October. The building I work in is about 6 blocks from the main hospital and only has business/IS employees, nothing clinical. So it’s nice to walk around the hospital and be reminded of the reason why we’re all working as hard as we do…changing the outcome for the kids!
Unfortunately Parker woke up with a fever this morning so Nicole stayed home with him. Zac also stayed home so that he didn’t bring any germs to Debbie and Doug’s house. It makes sense now why Parker was saying he “had no energies” last night when he went to bed…his cold/virus was just starting. The doctor did some tests and said it’s not the flu and not strep, so sounds like just a virus that he’ll have to fight off. I’m taking a PTO day tomorrow to stay home while he continues to feel better. I hope he fights off this virus quick so that he can enjoy some of the snow this weekend (fingers crossed we get a good amount). I told him if he was still sick we would bring some inside for him…he said thanks and that he would eat all of it. He’s a character even when he’s sick.
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Back To School
Happy hump day!
On my way to work this morning I stopped at Tire Discounters to pick up my friend Mike after he dropped his car off to get new tires. I drove him to his work and then I headed to work. Work was good.
After work I went to NKU for Graduate orientation. I hadn’t really been to campus since I graduated in 2010 and it’s changed a lot since then…new buildings, updated old buildings, less of the concrete jungle feel like it used to be. I’m excited to be back! I started thinking about all the great memories from my undergrad…maybe that will be a separate post.
It was great to meet the director of my graduate program (MS Business Informatics) and network with other Grad students. My classes this semester are online and begin this coming Monday. I’m going to busy busy busy!
After orientation I came home and played with Parker and Zac for a while before they went to bed. They were at Nicole’s parent’s house during the evening and must have had a good time because Parker said he “has zero energies left”. Haha
Now it’s time to relax the rest of the evening….
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Hot Toddy
Today was a good day at work. I’m slowly getting caught up on my backlog of items to work on. Now I just have to avoid getting the sickness that’s going around the office! I’ve done great so far this year with not even getting a cold. My only issues have been sinuses and a cough that lasted a couple weeks…I highly recommend Mucinex Fast-Max Sever Congestion & Cough. After 2 days my cough was pretty much gone and I felt a LOT less congested. I wish I would have taken it as soon as my cough started! So in an attempt to avoid getting sick, I’m using hand sanitizer as often as possible and I drank a Hot Toddy tonight. My Hot Toddy = honey, lemon juice, boiling water, and Jefferson’s small batch Bourbon. I’m not sure if it’ll actually do any good, but at least I got to drink some bourbon! 🙂
After work Parker said he was starving and asked if we could have Skyline for dinner. I never turn down a chance for some Skyline, so we went through the drive-thru on the way home. Nicole had taken Zac to his 3 year old checkup at the doctor this afternoon, and everything looks great according to the doctor…no shots! After dinner Parker opened up his package that came in the mail. We ordered him a “cape” shirt since we gave several to Zac for his, but then realized Parker didn’t have any that fit him. He loved it!
After dinner the boys got their baths and then we played with their toys for a while. The UK game started at 7:00 so I put that on the TV while we played. Parker said he wanted to watch basketball for a while so we sat on the couch and watched the game. Nicole made some popcorn so we had some snacks during the game. The boys went back upstairs during one of the timeouts and played on their tablets before going to bed. After they went to bed we finished doing some chores around the house and watched the end of the UK game…UK won, C-A-T-S!!
Zac giving thumbs down to UK’s poor performance the first part of the game!
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Pie Face!
It was back to work today to start another week. Work was good, a typical Monday.
After work it started to rain so although it was 60 degrees outside, we had to stay inside for the evening. We had dinner and then played board games the rest of the evening. Pie Face was a hit! Parker picked Guess Who and then built a marble track with Nicole. Zac and I played a couple games of Guess Who and then played with his dinosaurs that he got for his birthday. Zoey just watched from the comfort of the couch 🙂
It was a nice relaxing evening at home. After the boys went to bed we watched some of the Alabama/Clemson game to end the night.
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TGIF!
This will probably be a short post.
It was a productive day at work again today…still very busy. Fortunately I’m part of a great team and have a really good Director who is always willing to help us out. And it’s still kind of unreal that my best friend works 100 feet away from me! It’s great to be able to take a 10-15 minute break from work every once in a while and go for a walk/chat with Andy or to be able to grab lunch together. We joke around that this is good practice for when we eventually own our own company together…..company still TBD 😉
After work Nicole picked up Parker and Zac and took them to her parent’s so that they could spend some time with them this evening and also so that Nicole and I could run some errands to get ready for Zac’s birthday this weekend. Nicole went to Kohl’s and Sam’s while I did a few things around the house. The main thing I wanted to get done was to anchor some furniture to the wall so that it wouldn’t accidentally tip over onto Parker, Zac, or any other kids. I’ve seen some videos and read news stories about toddlers climbing dressers and bookcases and the furniture tipping over onto them…definitely a very dangerous scenario. Hopefully these anchors will prevent anything like that happening here. They were easy to install and I was able to pull the strap pretty tight so it won’t actually fall very far from the wall if it does start to tip over…I definitely recommend these!
Nicole and I went to Kroger to pick up the food for Zac’s birthday. We’re going to have a sort of make-your-own sandwich “deli” station. Zac loves lunch meat so he should be pretty excited about his birthday meal!
After we finished shopping at Kroger Nicole left to pick up the kids from her Parent’s house and I finished anchoring the furniture. Parker fell asleep on the ride home and transferred to his bed. He was holding onto an airplane so it looks like pawpaw built more planes with the boys…I bet they had a blast. I’ll have to ask Parker about it in the morning. Zac was still awake and took a little while to fall asleep. I asked if he was excited about his birthday weekend and he said “YES me am!!” haha.
After the kids went to bed we wrapped Zac’s presents. We also got Parker a present that he can open tomorrow. I wonder how many other parents do that…get a little present for their kid(s) to open when one of their brothers/sisters has a birthday. I remember my parents doing that when my brother or I had a birthday…they’d give the other a small present to open. I always thought that was a great idea!
Time to get some rest and then start the weekend!!
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Guess Who?!
It was another busy, but productive day at work. I stayed a little later working with my director on some month end reports that had variances. Then I drove home and Nicole was making some spaghetti for dinner. We had regular spaghetti noodles, but she also made some “squash noddles” as a substitute to the regular noodles. I stuck with the regular noodles, spaghetti sauce, meatballs, and garlic bread. Nicole said she wasn’t very impressed with the squash noodles, but thought they tasted better after she baked them a little more. Zac loved his spaghetti and of course Parker ate great. (I think he might have eaten more than I did!)
After dinner we played Guess Who?!, which was one of the new board games we got the boys for Christmas. I wish I would have taken video of the boys playing against each other and asking questions…”Does your guy have glasses”/”Is your guy bald” haha. Zac was especially funny to listen to the way he asked the questions. I think I’ve been caught off guard by how well Parker understands how to play the game…he can play without any of our help. He knows that if I say my person is wearing a hat, he should close all of his characters that aren’t wearing a hat, and so on. I’m sure that’s normal for a 4 and a half year old to be able to do, but sometimes it feels like the transition of him being able to do more and more on his own is happening so fast. It seems like it was not long ago at all when he was still asking if he was putting his shoes on the right feet (haha), or struggling to put together a puzzle (now he’s a pro!). Zac won’t be far behind…even in just the past few months his sentences have gotten much better/advanced (with the exception of continuing to say “me” instead of “I”, but that’s still cute for now).
Time goes by twice as fast once you have kids…
After our games of Guess Who?! we watched a little TV (Happy Feet) before taking the boys up to bed to read a couple books. Not a very eventful day today, but still a great day!!
I didn’t take any pictures today, but here’s an old one of Parker eating a Skyline 3-way to help give an idea of how much he enjoys spaghetti 🙂
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New Year, New Chair
Back to work today! I worked Monday and most of last week, but there were a lot of other people that have been out of the office and returned to work today. It was nice to have the office a little more quiet and very few meetings which allowed me to catch up on work over the past week. Work is the busiest it’s ever been for me right now and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down anytime soon…but that’s OK with me. Today was another busy day with “month end” in full swing.
Today was Nicole’s last day of Christmas break and she watched Logan during the day for Michael and Megan while they were at work. Nicole sent me pictures throughout the day and it looked like they had a fun last day of break. Parker, Zac, and Nicole had haircut appointments at 4:45 so I came home in time for them to leave to go to the appointments and watch Logan until Megan came to pick him up. He just slept in his rocker, but I’m always thankful for any time I get to spend with my nephew.
Megan picked up Logan and then I left to go pick up our new chair that we bought to put where our rocking chair used to be before we got our new floors. The chair is more of an “accent” chair and it ended up fitting perfectly where we put it. Of course the boys, fresh from getting their haircut, had to try it out as soon as they got home..they both approve! Their shirts were “itchy” from haircuts and just had to come off haha
Nicole and I had a late dinner while the boys relaxed and watched their tablets, since they already ate earlier. They were already tired from another full day of playing so it was an early bed time tonight. Probably best since it’s back to school tomorrow!
Not a bad second day of 2019 🙂
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Happy New Year!
 The first post of 2019!
The first day of 2019 was a great one! Silas spent the night with us on New Year’s Eve and all the kids were up pretty early this morning. I think they were all ready to get back to playing a little more before Silas left. I know they all had fun together the last day of 2018.
We invited my parents, Michael, Megan, and Logan over for lunch to have our traditional German New Year’s Day “good luck” meal. The food that is supposed to bring good luck for the new year is sausage, sauerkraut, and potatoes (mashed). My family has had this meal for as long as I can remember and we used to go to my grandma’s house every New Year’s Day for this lunch. Hopefully we’re making our German Kottmyer ancestors proud by keeping this tradition going! It was a great lunch, and a great way to start the new year with family.
Later in the afternoon we went over to Melissa and John’s house to celebrate Melissa’s birthday. Nicole’s parents also came on their way back from their quad trip. Parker, Zac, and JJ all played with JJ’s new toys from Christmas and I tried to catch as much of the UK football game as I could. UK was playing Penn State in the Citrus Bowl and won by 3! Benny Snell Jr also broke the school’s rushing yards record. C-A-T-S!
John spent the past day cooking a brisket in the smoker for us to have for dinner. This was by far the best smoked brisket I’ve ever had! I tried to eat as much as I could and was stuffed. There were still a lot of leftovers so we took some home with us…lunch tomorrow! It was a great evening celebrating Melissa’s birthday. Parker was so worn out from playing all day that he fell asleep on the ride home. Zac took a nap on the drive there so he stayed up until his normal bed time…I think he enjoyed the extra attention.
And now that Zac’s gone to bed we’ve just been relaxing, watching a few episodes of Frasier. Tomorrow it’s back to work for me, and Nicole is watching Logan during the day…her last day of Christmas break.
One blog entry in the books, hopefully 364 to go!
