Interesting weekend for us last weekend. Thursday morning I woke up with a strange stomach ache which turned into quite a mess by evening and by Friday afternoon I figured out that I had food poisoning. I am still not sure what causes it but I've narrowed it down to some rouge roast beef. Yuck. Benjamin was so good dealing with my sickness on our "stay home Mommy day" on Friday. I rented him a couple of movies and while he watched them, I was laid out on our bed trying to calm the abdominal cramps. Every once and a while he'd come skipping into my room and ask me, "Are you all better now Momma?" He even tried to make me better himself with some kind of Benjamin-like voodoo motions over my stomach. He was pretty proud of himself, it was positively adorable.

I was feeling slightly better on Saturday so I decided to keep my plans for a birthday dinner with the sisters-in-law in Minneapolis. Benjamin and Mike stayed behind in Rochester so they could attend a party to celebrate the successful Lace Up Against Breast Cancer race.

The girls and I had an awesome dinner at Cafe Maude. We ordered a bunch of small plates and shared everything, which we like to do since we all seem to mostly have the same tastes. I stayed at Jennifer and Andy's house and the next day I met up with Jen for some shopping and lunch. It was great to get that much girl time, no matter how I was feeling!

Unbeknownst to me, the boys back in Rochester had plans of their own. Mike and Benjamin both got haircuts at a men's only salon here. They were apparently pretty pampered there and both of them now look extremely handsome (not that they were not handsome before)! Then they spent some time at Dunn Brothers, a coffeeshop, where Mike read the paper and Benjamin colored. It was definitely a bonding day for them.

Now that it is March, our spring fever seems to be increasing. Today the weather is supposed to be in the upper 30's and tomorrow it will be somewhere in the mid-40's - a heatwave! I keep hoping to be able to break my bike free of the garage, but there is still so much ice and snow on the ground, so I am not sure if that would be a good idea.

Our good friends, Nate and Jen, who have been trying to adopt a baby for quite some time are expecting a little girl to come home to them sometime soon. The c-section date was just moved up to next week, so we are all going out to celebrate their last bits of freedom tomorrow night. This Friday Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Bert are driving down to Rochester to spend some time with us, but other than that we have no big weekend plans. Next weekend Mom and I are off to Milwaukee for Erin's bridal shower and bachelorette party - both of which we are planning. It is going to be a full weekend, but an exciting and fun one, too!!

By now I am sure all of our avid readers are aware of our little adventure last week. We spent 4 nights at the hospital with Benjamin because he was having difficulty breathing due to a virus which eventually turned into pneumonia. Thankfully, he is doing much better now and really only has a slight cough to show for what he went through. We were lucky that some of Mike's family members were able to come down and visit us, which I know lifted Benjamin's spirits and helped us by letting us get some sleep and keeping us company, too.

Grandma Andrews flew up Wednesday morning to stay with Benjamin during the day on Wednesday and Thursday so that Mike and I could go back to work. It is so great that she can use her days off to spend time with Benjamin even though she has to travel far to be here. I know that they are having a great time!! Grandpa will be coming on Friday, so he will be able to spend some time here as well.

It is hard to believe that it is mid-November already! Thanksgiving is next week and then Christmas is going to slowly creep up on us. Craziness. We already had our first major blizzard here while Benjamin was in the hospital, so we feel mentally prepared for winter. Now I just have to find time to take down my outside Halloween decorations, haha!