It’s here!  It’s here! It’s here!  We’ve not turned on our air conditioner in a month!  Wooo hoooo!  And yesterday we even turned the heater on for the first time.  Bust out the hoodies, pumpkin spice lattes, bags and bags candy corn,  catching some Sooner football, and pumpkins appearing on doorsteps all over the neighborhood. Oklahoma has officially reached Fall.

Did someone say candy corn???

Of course, with a true Oklahoma Fall comes lots of coughing,  raking mounds of leaves, the countdown to Christmas (UGH!) and the girls spending lots more time INSIDE the (tiny) house.  Two weeks ago, Trinity developed a fever and by the time we got her to Dr Stephens’ waiting room, her little eyes were drooping, she was lethargic and whining, achy, coughing, and super clingy.  Just like all the other kids in the waiting room–who all were diagnosed with H1N1.  So Dr Stephens gave her a prescription for Tamiflu, and then he wrote a pre-emptive prescription for Gracie as well.  We ended up filling both of them since Gracie also spiked a fever that night, and by the time their Tamiflu was gone, they both felt great.  I, on the other hand, am still suffering!  There’s a Tamiflu shortage in Oklahoma, so even though I was lucky enough to participate in this amazing pandemic, I was not allowed a prescription for it.  Oh well.  I’m not contagious, and I missed a week and a half of work, but now that I’m done with it, I think we’re all immune from getting it again.  Let’s hope so!  That really sucked!

This is what swine flu looks like in our house:

Chris carried Clorox spray around with him like a weapon and wore a mask to protect himself.  Also, he spent a lot of time isolated in his office. The last thing we need is for him to be bringing swine flu all over the metro into clients’ houses.  So far, so good!  He’s feeling great and started his job at Starbucks on the 5th.  He’s been training and yesterday he got his apron.  I know it’s not been easy for him because he’s talked about how humbling it is.  It’s a strange place to be, a business owner with a successfully budding operation in the afternoons, evenings and weekends, then wiping down tables and taking coffee orders in the mornings.  But this is the way we have chosen to stay out of debt.  Small businesses like ours don’t NEED loans, although it would have been nice for some working capital.  But we figure this way, as soon as we are making the kind of money we need to live, we don’t have to share it–plus interest–with the bank!  I’m so proud of him.  I don’t know if he’ll ever know how much.  But when we look back from the successful business he created out of “nothing” I think he will be thrilled to confirm he did it the right way.    It is a strange feeling though, to know he’s working a normal everyday job in the mornings for pennies, and then in the afternoon, he’s going to a clients’ house for hundreds.  What a strange place to be, but humbling and awesome.  My prediction is it won’t be a year before he will be cutting back hours at Starbucks to focus solely on the business.  And when he does this, it will go without saying–we made it!  And we WILL make it! I have so much hope in this and in our future as a family.  We truly feel like this is what we are supposed to be doing and it is a natural fit.  Feels good to be where you’re supposed to be, doing what you’re supposed to be doing, and loving it.  I personally love the fact that he’s less stressed now and he’s home with us more.  And the free Starbucks certainly doesn’t hurt either!

Let’s see… what else?  Oh!  Gracie had her field trip to the pumpkin patch!  Here’s some pics from the crazy day!  I was the parent responsible for Ian, Alexa and Miss Gracie.  The kids really had a great time and they were really good kids!  I loved being “that parent” who gets to come to stuff like that.  Just a few years ago, I couldn’t be the parent that could go to all this stuff  and I’m totally making up for lost time now!  Watch for pics of Trinity’s field trip too–I’ll be going back to Chester’s with her school tomorrow.  That’s a lot of pumpkin patching! And I’m enjoying it so much!

Stay tuned for pics of tomorrow’s trip, and perhaps maybe a pumpkin carving session or two!  I’m taking advantage of the season, life is just way too short!