There is something about today that has felt a bit like I am floating in a dream world. Nothing was ordinary and nothing was extraordinary. But my feelings today are different and I can't seem to put a finger on it.
Today I started back in with physical therapy on my knee, except this time I've started with a new place and a new therapist. I wasn't totally impressed with my previous therapist and heard some good recommendations for the place I am at now. My first impressions of her were high. She took a different approach than I experienced previously. Instead of just looking at my knee and giving me a few stretches, she was actually taking measurements of my knee to look for external swelling. Of course my right knee measured bigger than my left knee, so she could see there was swelling there. She figures there is swelling internally as well.
Next she made marks on my knee and took more extensive measurements. This way she can measure the progress we make and can see if the swelling is going down based on the measurements too, not just on my words on how I feel. She gave me one stretch to work on twice a day and then proceeded to ultrasound and E-Stim, which my orthopedic surgeon had wanted done all along. That's a whole different story. But this is where things got weird.
As she's ultrasounding my knee, we're talking and all is good, but then she started coughing. I'm not really noticing she's coughing other than the fact that she is apologizing. The coughing continued and then she apologizes for choking on her peanuts. At this point, I stepped outside of my body and floated above her like I was oblivious to what she just said. I remember thinking how can one choke on their peanuts when they've been in the room with me for over 20 minutes and she hasn't eaten anything. The coughing gets so bad she's now got tears running down her face. I told her I thought she should get a drink to which she said she was almost done with the ultrasound. It was really weird. And it kept going. Finally the ultrasound finished and she left to get a drink, and then came back in and started coughing, and left to get a drink, and came back in and started coughing, and left to get a drink, and finally came back in with her water.
Finally, she hooked up the E-Stim and left the room. I relaxed and floated around, basically bored out of my mind wondering about her choking. When she came back in at the end, she was no longer coughing. She told me she was surprised at the delayed reaction to the choking. Like I said, it was odd.
The day progressed as it usually does. I went to pick up Jayden from preschool and decided I wanted to take him to the Children's Museum again instead of going back to work. So that's what I did. The weather was beautiful and the museum was quiet. We went outside, took off his shoes, and let him play in the water. I loved watching him and being with him. Typically on Tuesday's this isn't an option because I am at work until at least 5:30. By taking advantage of this, I realized something....a dream I have.
I wish I could be here for my kids. I wish I didn't have student loans, car payments, or other big bills. I think in my own dream world today I was living where money grew on trees and things were perfect. Like I said, there was something about today that was different. I want to be home with my kids and be a stay at home mom. But at this point, I just pinch myself to wake up because that isn't going to happen in my near future.
So we surprised her with an ice cream cake! She loved it. But more so, she loved getting a big group picture of her and all her grandchildren. 
After all, I'm an only child, so my children are her only grandchildren!
This guy was just hanging out enjoying the beauty of mother nature.
I could have watched the falls more intently had I not had a 3 year old with me, but I was always watching him. Motherly instincts were heightened near the water.
So I went up in the tower, took a few picture, walked around the exterior and told my husband I was going back down. I do not like heights and it spooked me and made me feel very dizzy.
The grocery store is really fun. The kids pushed carts around and filled them with groceries. they then took them to the register where they could place them on the belt and ring them up. Shawndra was funny with her potatoes.
And Shaylee was showing off her carrots!
Joseph made sure he rang up everything that was on the counter and if he couldn't get it to ring up, he set it aside, just like a cashier would do in a real store.
Oh my, this next area is called Kids Live (I think). Joseph absolutely loved this one, although he doesn't say it was his favorite. He spent 15 minutes getting dressed up in his suit so he would look like a real professional newsman on tv. This is the green room, so as the kids are standing there they can see themselves on the tv.
Joseph took the job seriously and Dalton stood in the background laughing. I believe at this moment they were talking about the weather and it looked like they were in front of a tornado on the tv.
This is what we saw when we looked above them. It was so fun to watch. Kids would run up there and say things like, "There is a bad tornado outside and you might not survive!" and then walk off camera. It was hysterical, yet interesting to see how children think about scary situations like tornadoes.
Oofta, the water room could amuse any kids for well over an hour. In fact, any of the rooms could. Balls would drop from the ceiling and go down a plinko type wall and splash into the pool of water below.
Devin is shooting water at different toys to make them move and spin.
In the big room, there was this really neat climbing feature. It is full of surfboards and nets and kids can crawl all the way to the ceiling. Shaylee is sitting in the middle.
We finally went outside to see another main attraction to the museum. If you live in Brookings, you can guess why Devin looks this way.
Can you guess what they are looking at?
A life size, interactive, dinosaur is outside. It roars, moves it's mouth, tail and feet. It's amazing to say the least.
Dalton and Joseph worked together to move big fossils from the sand to the table in order to inspect them closer. It was neat to see them work so well to help each other.
Jayden liked climbing on the logs and checked out the water outside, too.
Today was awesome. We actually purchased a family membership. I can't wait to burn off time on those cold winter days. What a great thing to have in our town, so close to home for once!
The other thing we have noticed with Miss Devin is she is likely going to be left hand. When she's writing she will start in the right hand and then switch to the left hand. Same goes with eating, she might start in one hand, but switches to the other hand. We have noticed she writes more clearly when using her left hand. However, we aren't forcing the left hand, we're just waiting it out to see which one dominates.
I also did the same thing while we were investigating milkweed that same day. The wind was blowing and making for all kinds of challenging shots, but this was one I liked. Again, the milkweed is in focus and the rest of the background is blurred. That's the beauty of the 50mm lens!
If the subject you're shooting isn't really far away from the background (depth of field), then the picture won't be as blurry. In fact, the closer your subject is to the background, the less blurry. I also like to shoot in AV mode where I can control the F-Stop. Depending on how much light there is, I like to move the F-Stop all the way down to 1.8. If it's too light, then I have to move it up higher to maybe 2.5. 
So now that I have started mastering my camera, the next thing I really, really want is Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. But those are anywhere from $125-300. It sure would be fun to have something like that though to edit these pictures in. I've been lucky enough to play with Adobe CS4 and Lightroom on some free versions. They are both fairly tricky, but so fun to play around with.
