Latest from the Kramers

We’ve had an interesting week around here. I thought I’d share some highlights.

Thursday the stars aligned and the childcare parents all picked up early. I had time so I drove down to the vintage sale I typically go to. As I was going I drove past our local event center one of the area caterers in town put on an appreciation meal for the veterans from our area. There was a line of cars turning in to go. When I came past later the parking lot was packed. I love living in our small town. There are so many kind people.

I ended up buying two quilts at the sale- I’ll tell you more about them at another time.

A friend stopped by to visit and that was so nice. I don’t get out much or am so busy with the kids that it’s hard to catch me unless it’s during childcare hours. She was sweet to stop and brought treats with the kiddos. I always feel bad she comes here and I don’t get to her house. I appreciate that she still comes as I do appreciate the visits.

That same evening, on her way to work, Kalissa hit a deer. The thought is that her car will be considered totaled. It has been rainy here and Craig wasn’t able to be in the field harvesting so he was home with the boys. The boys ended up at my house and Craig drove to bring Kalissa back home and deal with the car.

Kalissa was totally okay. Mostly she was just frustrated. It’s such a hassle to be without a car.

So Friday they borrowed my van, left the boys with me and went car shopping. You can read more about Kalissa’s car HERE on her blog.

Now Kalissa and I sharing my van. I don’t mind but it’s a little bit of juggling once either of us needs it.

She worked Friday night so she had my van. Saturday they didn’t have a sitter for the boys so they stayed with me. Kalissa looked at a car on her way home from work. She got here at noon.

Then I needed the van so I took them all home because I had to go to town to pick up meds. I ended up taking longer than normal as I was looking for some no salt foods that I could eat on my upcoming low iodine diet.

Earlier in the week, Kelli took Eli into urgent care. He wasn’t doing well. He still has an ear infection. He has had it for about six weeks now. He goes through a cycle of meds and then a couple of days later after it’s done, his ears flare up again. They decided to give him shots. He had to take them three days in a row.

The next day Emmett started acting up. He had an ear infection and was on his last day of meds. He was not sleeping and fussy so I told Kelli to take him in when she took Eli in for his shots and sure enough, Emmett’s ear infection wasn’t clearing. UGH. He got put on some other meds.

Eli is scheduled …to see the ENT. Typically they don’t put tubes in at this young of an age. They are seven months now but they can’t get the ear infection to completely clear for Eli so they might make an exception. I hope Emmett doesn’t go down the same road.

After hearing about this Buck said to me, “Mom, you and Dad raised some pretty good kids but you sure can’t make decent ears.” It’s true. Of the nine grandchildren, four haven’t had tubes in their ears yet. Carver has had three sets. The twins and Lilly both are heading down the road to getting tubes. UGH.

Speaking of Buck’s kids, they had a run of the flu through their house and Lilly ended up with an ear infection too.

As you know Kayla had covid in early October. She is well over the stage of being contagious but Kayla is not better. She has been to the doctor several times and they are starting to believe she might have long haul covid. She goes back to the doctor in a week and will know more then. If anyone has any experience with this, we’d love to know more about your experience. So little is known about it. The main problem at this point is extreme fatigue.

Sunday was our day to paint at Karl’s. He has two upstairs bedrooms that need attention. Karl ended up staying overnight at Kayla’s. He was at a friend’s house in Dubuque, started driving home at midnight, and hit black ice. He decided to stay the night at Kayla’s.

Kalissa, Craig, the boys, and I snuck into his house and started painting. The weekend before I had spackled the holes and painted a ceiling. This week it was time to do more. Carver really wanted to paint but we told him we needed him to take pictures. These are the pictures he took…

Craig nailed down the trim as there was carpet in this room and Karl previously pulled it out.

I did the trim work. I never tape things off when I paint. I just use a special brush.

Here is the brush…

You can find it HERE on Amazon. With this brush, there is no need to tape things off first.

You can see were HIGH FASHION in our painting clothes.

Here is Craig all buggy-eyed. Yes, this was the purple color in this bedroom. You can see why we needed to paint it!

We finished the purple room. It looks great. The little room…we couldn’t finish that as the paint from the ceiling wasn’t dry. This was the ceiling paint that I told you about earlier. It goes on pink but dries white.

I love it when we all team up and tackle a job. This is likely one of my proudest moments as a mom…working together always makes my heart happy. I love when the kids willingly help each other out. Thanks, Craig and Kalissa…and Carver and Gannon too!

We all ended up coming back to my house and we ordered our lunch from the bar. It was half-priced wings so most of us got wings.

While they were all at my house, Karl opened his mail. This certificate came. It’s official. Karl won a spot on the Waucoma city council. You can call him councilman now. (or call him with your complaints) HA!!

We are so small town here. Karl didn’t actually file papers. We told a few people in town he would take the position if he won on write-in votes. Apparently, enough people were told as he was the winner of the write-in campaign. Our family teased him because he wasn’t even town for the election and couldn’t even vote for himself.

That’s the latest on the Kramer family. There is always something going on here…be it medical, city council, remodeling, babysitting-never a dull moment.