Summer!

I haven't had time or motivation to write lately. With Finn no longer in school, I have scant opportunities to sit in a chair and listen to silence. But when I do, I like to shut my brain off and veg for a minute. Summer is here, and most of you would probably find it to be perfect weather. Duluth, however, was the air-conditioned city so these mid to high 70 degree days feel a bit sweltering. And our apartment hovers right around 85 degrees, so I won't be sad to see fall arrive. The days are starting to get shorter (seriously, am I old?! I went from complaining about being too warm when the temperature has barely tipped 80, to complaining about the days being too long. What is wrong with me?), but kids are still playing out on the play ground until 11pm most nights. Its surprising how many toddlers are out there that late! Crazy.

We've been frequenting the beach about once a week, much to Finn's delight. There are 37 beaches all along the river throughout the city, but only three of them allow swimming. Despite the no swimming signs posted, someone is always swimming anyway. Russian beach culture is, uhh, interesting. There are the young skeletons, old beached whales, banana hammocks, and cheeks galore. Use your imagination, if you must.

There isn't much new to report about our registration status. Our landlord is thoroughly convinced we cannot register at a private residence on a tourist visa (even though we did it the last three times we registered), but he said he would read through the instructions Matt printed for him. We've been told by many locals not to worry about it, so that's what we are trying to do. It would be easier not to worry if we didn't already have one strike against us! Anyway, we aren't being chased out of the country yet so here we stay. The apartment really is lovely. Still no couch, so we often move a kid's mattress into the living room for some comfortable lounging. Maybe after we get back from Almaty I can talk Matt into poking around on the garage sale sites for a decent couch of sorts.

Finn's health continues to be a mystery, but he seems to be back to almost normal? It's so hard to tell with him; he hasn't had any nighttime episodes, but he frequently says his tummy hurts or that he doesn't feel well throughout the day, which typically correlates heavily with not getting what he wants. Its pretty much impossible to get a straight answer out of him in regards to how he is feeling, but we do know his nighttime episodes are real, so seeing as those have subsided I suppose that means we are making progress. His labs did show a little infection which the gastroenterologist said was likely pancreatitis, or potentially tuberculosis. She didn't order any tuberculosis-related tests yet, so I'm pretty sure that is just a back-burner thought to keep in mind at this point. Pancreatitis can be treated with diet so we are back on an even more ridiculous diet than before; no wheat, eggs, dairy, corn, and about two dozen more seemingly random foods that are supposed to be hard on the pancreas. I am not enthused, to say the least. And today we got one more lab back that suggests he might have giardiasis? So anyway, we have yet another follow-up with the gastro on Thursday. It sure would be nice to get to the bottom of this, because most days we go to bed thinking he is just a defiant little redhead. The medical care continues to impress us and for just a few dollars here and there!