Beating the Heat

It has been pure miserable around here lately.  When all else fails, swim naked!

Pool Playdates!

We have had several pool playdates this summer, but I never seem to take any pictures.  

One mama + 3 boys = no camera

Maverick wasn't much in a swimming mood today, so I was able to sit out with him on the side and snap a few shots.  Thanks for coming over to swim with us, Liza, Gabe & Hayley!

Letters from Heaven

We got a letter in the mail either Friday or Saturday addressed to our family.  I've always enjoyed getting "real" mail and was eager to open up this letter.  There was no return address, only a PO box listed at the top left corner.  You know how when you see certain handwriting, you automatically know who the letter is from?  Well this was one of those cases.  Except the handwriting looked like my grandmother's.  Could this be a letter from heaven?

Although the letter wasn't from heaven, it was from a very special family.  A family that we have not known personally, but one who has touched our lives, not once, but now twice.  This family had a twelve year old son that lost his life to neurofibromatosis in 2006.  This was the same disease that Derek's brother, Sean had.  At the time, this family was attending our church and we felt compelled to make a donation in their son's memory.  Now, six years later, their daughter is fighting for her life and will need a liver transplant in order to survive.  I immediately mailed them a check.  It wasn't much, but I wanted them to know I was praying for them, and that we cared.  The family had a fundraiser this past Saturday to raise money for the liver transplant operation.  They surpassed their goal of $10,000.  I know that God took my family's gift and the many, many more gifts from the community and multiplied them.  God is the great provider.

Here is a link to the WRAL news story about this family.

Even though this letter wasn't from heaven, it served as a reminder for me to always think of others first and do what you can to help.  I'm sure my grandmother would be proud.

15 Months & First Haircut!

Maverick is 15 months old!  Wow!  Where did the time go.  My little man is still a peanut, but has finally crested the 20 lb mark.  He came in at 21 lbs, 12 oz (15 %) and was 30.5" (35%) and has a big head at 47.5 cm (65%)  His curls in the back are getting quite long and I'm having to detangle them on a daily basis.  I guess this means it's finally time for a haircut!

Before (if they were stretched out they'd reach below his collar)

During.  He wasn't too sure about the process, but didn't cry.  

After.  He really doesn't look too drastically different.  I just wanted to trim the front so it would be out of his eyes, and the back a little bit.  He still has the curls, but just not as long.

Maverick had his check up and got a few booster shots on Monday.  The pediatrician said he hoped to see four words (currently only da-da) by 18 months.  This doesn't mean he is a quiet little boy at all.  he scream-talks in his own language and does make a barking sound for dogs....if that counts.  He has taken a few steps here and there, but isn't walking independently yet.  We are up to about 9 steps.  Maverick is definitely a good eater and can eat, eat, eat.  He hasn't developed a taste for pasta, pizza, and other "normal" things yet.  He LOVES cut up fruit, green beans, and most cereal.  I will probably finish weaning him soon, but for now, he nurses once a day and drinks whole milk at meals.  He takes one afternoon nap (when he's in his own crib!) and sleeps from about 7:30-7:30.  Maverick, I love you so much and it's so much fun watching you develop into a little boy.  What a blessing you are!

Another House Update

Finally the roof is complete on our house.  I thought they would never finish!  They started over one week ago, and it was supposed to take THREE days!  On Friday I stepped on a roofing nail and luckily I had on shoes and reacted quickly so it barely went into my foot.  It was still sore for a few days though.  Also, my tetanus is up-to-date, so hopefully I'm good.

The final plumbing inspection is tomorrow, so my new bathtub sits full of water tonight. I can't wait to use it for real!

If you are wondering why blogging has been few and far between, it's that I'm having trouble finding time.  Especially when my normal time for blogging is naptime and that has been few and far between as well.  Here's hoping we return to normal soon :)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best Daddy in the World!

We had a wonderful Father's Day even though we spent most of it putting all our stuff back in the attic. It felt good to reclaim most of our living space.  We had a treat by going to Five Guys for lunch and then to some free yogurt at Yogurt Mountain.  The best part of the day was having dinner that our neighbor, Gerry, made for us.  We had BBQ chicken, ribs, potatoes, and bread.  Yum, yum!

The Spider

Here is the giant spider that lives in the attic of our new addition.  This is actually the HVAC unit that was installed yesterday.  Seeing this picture reminded me why I wanted yesterday to be over.  It was just C-R-A-Z-Y.  The roofers were here.  The plumbers were here.  The HVAC guys were here.  The electrician was here.  The contractor was here.  Everybody was bombarding me with questions that I didn't know the answers to.  At one point I called our architect to ask his advice on bathroom fan placement and vent placement.  He was having a hard time explaining it to me on the phone, so he drove down here to help out.

At one point the architect and the HVAC guy and the contractor were all debating the bathroom fan placement and looking for me to have the final say.  I had no idea.  I was thinking, "isn't this what I'm paying you for?!?"  As a compromise they agreed to place two since they couldn't agree on one final spot.

I'm ready for a do-over!

I'm writing this in retrospect and amazingly, less than a week later, I'm having trouble remembering all the bad things that happened on this day.  Maverick does not like to nap when he is not in his own room and own crib.  Today of all days, he napped about 45 minutes.  To an already stressed out mama, this was just the icing on the cake.  I decided to head home (we nap at Mimi's when we can't at the house) early and came in to find that the contractor had fallen through the ceiling in Maverick's room.

I thought he was kidding since I had told him that I had fallen through the ceiling when I was pregnant

Unfortunately, he was not kidding and there is a man-size hole above Maverick's door.  The picture doesn't look too bad since he tacked up most of the fallen down part until he can fix it for real.

Maverick was playing on our neighbor's driveway and fell and got his first real goose-egg.  He's still mainly crawling and will only take 3-4 steps.

Let's just say I'm glad this day is long gone.

Please don't call Hoarders on me!

The roof is starting to get shingles!  Not sure how well you can see in the picture, but we are slowly, but surely getting shingles on the roof.  It seems to be taking much longer than I think it needs to, but as long as my roof doesn't leak in the process I guess that's okay.

As part of our loan requirements we have to bring our current home up to HUD standards.  Unfortunately for us that meant getting EVERYTHING out of our HUGE attic.  I think the pile actually looks smaller in the picture than it feels in real life.  Derek jokes that we are living in 500 sq feet!  Don't be fooled into thinking this is all we have.  My parent's garage has quite a bit, as does our shed.  They WILL have the attic done this week and I can get all this stuff organized and back up there stat!

Overwhelmed!

This post is mainly to show Derek the updates while he's away.  Yesterday I was overwhelmed with selecting the plumbing fixtures by myself.  Luckily I was able to find some that I like that aren't too pricey.  I think it was a learning experience for all involved that we need more "lead time" to make decisions.  They've started the porch roof.  It would have been finished today, except for the rain this morning.  They decided to work inside instead.

It's hard to understand these pictures, but I'm standing in the Master bedroom and the window you see is the 1/2 bath.

This is somewhat in the playroom.  The first window (left) is the 1/2 bath.  Look at the floor and you can see the bottom of the closet.

The trip to Ferguson's yesterday wasn't a bust.  I did find a cool chandelier that this picture doesn't do justice.  I want Derek to see it in person this weekend.

Hooray for cheeseburgers at Granddaddy Bob's and Mimi's tonight.  

I'm ready for my sweetie to be home :)

Decisions, Decisions....

AHHhhhh!  There are so many decisions to be made about the house and I don't even know where to begin.  Here's a view of the back of the house on Saturday.  Notice the big bush.

And here's the view today.  Derek and I (mainly Derek) took the bush out Saturday just to help the guys along.  Today, they walled in the sides and finished the roof.  Wow!  It's really coming together.

We plan to keep the exterior of the house the same (color-wise) but we are planning on re-roofing the entire house.  Here were our color choices for shingles.  SO MANY CHOICES!!  Derek and I finally decided on slate (3rd column, 4th row).

Derek is gone this week as well, so I'm trying to manage all of this and keep my sanity.  I had attempted to enroll the boys (yes, all THREE) in a summer camp this week to help me do this.  Too bad that Brighton ran a fever last night and today, so he had to stay home with me.  In order to afford this camp, I had planned to work M-W-F (the days M is in camp) so Brighton went to "camp" with me at work.  He lasted about 2 hours, which was pretty good.  After I picked up Maverick and Chandler from camp it was time for naps.  I was hoping that Maverick would settle down like this:

Unfortunately, they got finished with the back of the house sooner than nap-time was over and started on the front.  They finished the front wall of the dining room (which is near Maverick's room) and the noise level was too loud so nap-time ended all too soon.  

Luckily, Mimi and Granddaddy brought over dinner since our dinner plans & playdate had to be cancelled due to Brighton's fever today.  I'm hoping tomorrow goes better.  If Brighton stays fever free tonight, I'll let him go to camp.  We'll definitely be napping at Mimi's house tomorrow since they'll be doing the new porch roof, connected currently to M's room.

Also, we are trying to get ahead on paint colors.  This picture doesn't show very well, but we are picking out a blue for the "play room", red for the 1/2 bath, and a green, tan, & brown for the dinning room and rest of the house.  No idea about the colors for our bedroom and bathroom yet!