The Ever Changing Porch!!

When we bought are house, we really like the front porch.  I would call it then a 3 season porch.  It wasn't really functional in the winter but during the rest of the time it was.  We have used it for so many different things it is hard to count.  I LOVE change and am always rearranging and moving things around in our house.  The porch was always a good sport.  Sometimes, I am afraid it was simply a place to put "stuff".  I hated that though because you had to come in it to get in our house!  When I did daycare, it was a nice big area for the kids to play when it wasn't too cold out!  We have even had a hockey table and big basketball hoop out there!  After the hail storm we were given some money from insurance for the porch. Part for the roof that leaked, but mostly because we had to take everything out of the house that way because are sliding glass door was shattered and boarded up.  This meant there was a lot of glass and other stuff that was tracked through.  Anyway, we decided to try to make it a more useful space and divided the porch up.  We left an over sized hallway coming into the house, and created a room on each side.  One room is a bit larger than the other.  For awhile Michael wanted his bedroom out there, but then he decided he wanted to move back upstairs.  So....to my point.....I decided to take Michael's old room area and create a scrapbook room out there.  So far all my stuff is out there, but not organized yet.  Oh, and when we made the rooms, we raise the floors and insulated them and piped heat out there.  The other side was lacking purpose still.  Today I was bored. It is really boring not being able to talk!!  So I took on a new project.  I created a toy room for Carter.  Our house is only so big, our basement isn't really that finishable and so some (alot) of Carter's toys were in our living room.  Also his playhouse was just in storage because we had run out of room for it.  That extra room on the porch seemed like a perfect area and HE LOVES IT!  The whole time since I got it done today he keeps saying "thank you mommy for giving me my own room!"  He has been out there playing for hours!  He absolutely loves "role playing" best.  So I put the house, kitchen and workbench out there for him.  I still have some ideas for it, and I need to paint it, but for now it is a good thing.  This spring we had already decided we needed to put in new windows out there, so that should help it stay even warmer.  I can honestly say now that I don't think there is hardly one space of this house that we have not utilized!!

WARNING-May fall under the label of graphic and TMI

Okay so I thought it would be appropriate to post these pictures from today!  Before and After of my vocal cord.  You can see the polyp on the left and then it is gone!! That clearness at the bottom with all the bubbles around it is the breathing tube.  I didn't think they would be able to put one in, guess I was wrong!!

Not really sure why the right side cord is so much thicker than the other. Guess I will ask him when I go back in two weeks!  He will take pictures again then! Cannot wait to see what my voice ends up sounding like.  It has been hoarse for so long, I really don't remember.  And also cannot wait to sing in church again!  That is one of my favorite things and I haven't been able to do it because my vocal cords couldn't vibrate well enough to do it. Do be mistaken, I cannot really carry a tune, I just like to sing the songs!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

What I found one day when I walked into the living room!  Poor Lucky he is such a good sport!

Another trip down memory lane!

After we have got all that snow last night I was missing summer a bit!  I decided I would post another -6mos ago today- picture. As you can tell this was all from one vacation! Since where we picked Michael up only an hour or so away from Virginia Beach we had to include a day there before we headed out.  This particular day was gorgeous.  Although it was a little overcast when we got there, the temp was around 90s and we had a blast.  It was even a high tide day, which the kids really enjoyed!  Jason ran across the street and bought them some boogie (?) board and they enjoyed riding the waves on them!  Carter really enjoyed playing in the sand.  One of our other favorite things was looking for seashells. We found quite a few.  I had been to the ocean once when I was young but didn't really remember it.  No one else had seen the ocean before.  We certainly were surprised on how actually salty the water was!  Needless to say we had a great time, stayed hours longer than we had planned, didn't get to Jason's uncles house in KY til 2 in the morning, and had a lot of sand that needed to be cleaned out of the van.  I certainly hope we can get back there someday!

Things Aren't ALWAYS as they appear (or how we were told they were!)

This house......we love it, but ever since we purchased it 8 years ago, we find more things that were not "quite" the truth about it.  Like the giant picture hanging on the landing wall going upstairs.  It was there when we looked at it, and there the day we moved in.  It wasn't til I moved it that we realized it was covering a moldy wall and the water pipes behind the wall were leaking.  Or all the light switches and outlets that seem to go to nothing!!  Anyway, we knew that the house had been added onto in 95 and that the original part of the house had been completely redone at that point to.  We had been told the walls had been gutted down to the studs and then sheetrocked!  Well, we had to get a new furnace in November.  We discovered at that time that we didn't have an adequate cold air return (we had no idea) and needed to put a new one in.  So Jason finally got around to it this weekend.  This is what we found when he cut the sheetrock off

Isn't that wallpaper lovely!!  Guess maybe the walls weren't gutted, huh!  Anyway along the way Jason did aquire is own assistant in the project...

Carter had a lot of fun helping daddy!  Jason held the screwdriver while Carter hit it with a hammer to knock out the lath behind the plaster!  In the end the two of them did a really good job and we now have a correct cold air return!!



Flashback...6 mos ago today

Well it is Sunday afternoon and the big boys are at Cub Scouts.  Olivia, Carter and I are watching cartoons and making choc. chip cookies.  As I was browsing the computer I was reading on the news site about our winter storm that is coming.  It has already hit the west side of the state and it moving toward us.  It is suppose to last up to 3 days and drop anywhere from 5-10" of snow, and wind will be moving in causing drifting.  It is safe to say that Jason will probably be spending Monday night and Tues night at home with us instead of on the road to see clients!  I was also browsing through my pictures, which always makes me smile!  I thought I would post these as a reminder of where we were exactly 6 mos ago today. 

He was only gone for two weeks with Mom and Ed on the boat, but to the rest of us it really seemed like a lifetime.  Jack was so sad without Michael.  I snapped these pictures right after we pulled up and the kids took off running across the parking lot at the Dismal Swap when they spotted Michael! He had a great time, but we sure were happy to have him back!

The Sky Is The Limit!

We are going to my niece's 2nd birthday today and that got me thinking about Carter's 4th birthday that was just 2 months ago!  He amazes me every single day.  How far he has come, how hard he works at it.  It was just a year and a half ago that the Dr. in Iowa City told us about his speech disorder, and only a little over a year since it was "officially" diagnosed!  18 months ago he was labeled as "nonverbal", he was 2 1/2 and had less than 10 word and several of those were made up words that only we knew.  Such as he called all food "nana".  I truly believe that fall that the Lord had a hand in us finding Denise, Carter's angel!  She is his private speech therapist and they have an amazing relationship.  He is always excited to see here and she gets him to work so hard and try so many new things!  Before I "accidentally" found out about her, the only place I could find that had openings was Childserve in Ankeny. I remember getting off the phone a crying thinking how hard it was going to be to drive him to Ankeny 2x a week, for a half hour session each time, and try to manage the other 3 kids, their schedules and a husband who works 18 hrs a day 5 days a week. I cried when I was battling BC/BS to help us get his speech covered! I prayed for something better and then there was Denise.  I also have to thank the wonderful teachers and aid at his preschool.  Miss Deb, Miss Dee and Miss Marilyn have been so wonderful, patient and encouraging to him the last year!  I know there could be much worse things than him not being able to talk, but at the moment I found out what was wrong, my heart was breaking for my child.  My child who couldn't tell me when he was sad, or happy, or if he was hurting!  Fast forward to today and he is my little miracle.  I couldn't even begin to tell you how many words he knows.  He can put together sentences and for the most part most people can figure out what he is saying.  He is so eager to try to learn new words, something he wouldn't even attempt 18 mos ago.  Although he is still over a year behind other kids his age, I have complete faith that he will eventually catch up.  He is an amazing, bright little boy who brings so much joy and laughter into our lives! Thank you God for helping us help Carter and getting him to where he is! And here's to our baby boy, who was the greatest unexpected blessing we ever could have received!

I'm a big boy, right mommy!

Ever since Carter got out of his crib (which he learned to climb out of at 18 mos old) he had thought that my bed was a good place to sleep.  He would come down almost every night, and sometimes he would wake up when we put him to bed and cry.  Other times we would just put him in our bed with us to save getting woke up by him later!  Well....all of a sudden a few months ago, Carter decided that he is a big boy now.  He decided to start sleeping in his own bed!  There are occassional time when he wakes up early (5is) that he will go crawl into bed with Michael, but he hasn't come downstairs to sleep for atleast 3 mos.  Although I do enjoy not getting woke up at night by a foot in my face, it makes me a little sad.  Just one more sign that my "baby" is not a baby anymore. Every day he will do something and then look at me and say, "Mommy. I a big boy, right! Good thing is he still doesn't have to sleep alone! 

The Adventures of Lucky and Lily

 So back the end of October or beginning of Nov we got the kids a cat. We got her for several reasons. We had been talking about it for a little while but then Carter and I stopped at the Vet in Iowa Falls one day and there in the cage was one little kitten. While I was talking to the receptionist Carter was looking at the kitten. The receptionist then took the kitty out so Carter could hold her. Well it was LOVE at first hold. We put her back in the cage and were getting ready to go and she started crying. Carter ran over to the cage and she stuck her paw out to him. He looked at me with those big blue eyes so serious and and said "Mommy kitty say she want to go to our house in mommy van!" Well I called Jason thinking he would talk me out of it but......I drove home with a new kitten instead! The other reason we liked the idea though was because Michael had found a stray kitten outside our house some time before that and had gotten attached. At that time I asked some friends of ours that lived on a farm to take her and they we happy too. Michael named her Shadow and he was able to go visit her. Unfortunately one day in October my friend accidentally ran over Shadow in the driveway and she had to be put down. Michael was devastated! However, there was one person who was not so happy about the arrival of Lily in our house-our dog Lucky. For the last two months Lily has been perfectly happy living upstairs in the boys room and Lucky stays downstairs. He has never been allowed upstairs so he doesn't venture up anyway. I decided yesterday that it was about time to get the two to get along. I don't like the thought of Lily always being alone up there during the day. I snapped some picture of how things went during "friend time" today. We obviously still have some work to do!!

Wordless Wednesday!!

Christmas 2010

Snacks ready for Santa!

Stocking were hung by the chimney stairs with care!

This was the first year I put the presents under the tree BEFORE Xmas Eve and I am happy to report that no one got into them.  In fact I also put candy canes on the tree this year and no one ate one with out asking!  Yay for progress!

Even fish food is exciting on Christmas!  Thanks Aunt Melissa for the Christmas presents for the pets!

Praying? 

Wow, look at those faces!  Maybe they should have slept past 6 in the morning!

Officer Carter at your service!

Everybody with their presents from Great Grandpa Jack and Great Grandma Bertha!