Morning of Glee

Immediately after emerging from the bedrooms that morning, the first thing out of their mouths was, "Glee songs!!!"

So, that's how we started our day.  I started on breakfast while the boys did this:



Not a bad way to get a day off to a good start!

Project Life Tuesday - July Week Three

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday! I am taking a photo every day in 2011 and putting them together in an album to create a unique keepsake of this year for our family.  Be sure to check in on what others are doing with their projects over at The Mom Creative!


Sunday, July 17th - That face just has mischief written all over it, doesn't it?

Monday, July 18th - We've started doing the bedtime routine for both boys at the same time, so now they brush their teeth together.  Micah just loves to grab a stool and copy his big brother.  It's really cute.

Tuesday, July 19th - Temperatures were in the upper 90s today with a heat index of over 100 degrees.  We literally didn't leave the house (or the air conditioning) all day and Isaiah spent most of his time doing this.

Wednesday, July 20th - Micah is on a big coloring kick lately.  It seems like the very first things he wants to do as soon as he's finished a meal is to bust out the crayons.

Thursday, July 21st - I've been having some serious trouble with getting Micah to nap this week.  Instead of sleeping, he is constantly getting out of his bed and getting into trouble....big trouble.  He empties his drawers, knocks over his ladder, dumps out his books, and any other kind of mischief he can find.  It's getting very frustrating.

Friday, July 22nd - All this week we have been working on getting the house as clean and orderly as possible as we prep for our open house on Sunday.  We've been making pretty good progress on the list.

Saturday, July 23rd - Evan's sister watched the boys for us this afternoon while we went to go see the latest Harry Potter.  She took them swimming and then treated them to popsicles.  Micah ended up with red popsicle juice running all over himself, but he sure was happy!

Hard to believe this month is almost over already!  Have a great week.

House Woes

We've been busting our butts for the last month to get our house whipped into shape so it would be ready to show to potential buyers.  We got it on the market at the end of June, but haven't had a single showing yet.  In spite of a slow start, we were hopeful that our Open House yesterday would give us the jump start we needed.

Alas, it was not to be.  Despite the fact that I've spent a ridiculous amount of money on my water bill just to make sure that my flowers stay alive through this insane drought that has suddenly hit our small little blip of Wisconsin, the curb appeal was apparently not enough to get a single person in the door.  Yup, that's right.  Not a single person showed up to the Open House.

Focusing on the positives:

• My house has never looked so good.  I could have a bunch of people over TODAY and not be embarrassed.
• If we can maintain the condition of the house as it is now, it will be pretty easy to whip things together in 24 hours for showings.
• The big stuff is done: lawn work, carpets cleaned, flower bed growing, windows washed, etc.
• Our realtor said the house looked great!

Now for the stuff that's not so great:

• Yes, it only takes ONE buyer (the right buyer) to see the house to make an offer, but that still means we need to get someone in here to see it!
• Not a single house has sold in our town in 2011.  Nada.  Zero.  Zilch.
• If we're unable to sell our house in the time frame allotted by the company, we lose all the incentives included in Evan's promotion offer and he would have a hefty commute until we were finally able to move.
• We can't drop our price too massively our we will end up going upside down on our loan with the bank. 

So, we're kind of in a holding pattern right now.  Our realtor says she's not quite ready to drop the price just yet and that we need to maybe just give it a couple weeks to see if we get more showings.  Obviously, we have until the end of May in 2012 to really complete this whole process, but it certainly would be nice to start seeing some traffic here so that we can move forward on finding a new home in Waukesha. 

I'm doing my best to be positive.  It would be one thing if I just needed to trust that the right person would come see the house, but at this point I need to just get ANYONE through the front door to look at it.  After all, the house will not sell if nobody sees it.  Bottom line.

So, what else can I do to get some traffic through my front door?  Even in a market as difficult as this one, there has got to be some way for me to encourage people to consider our house.  After all, it is a great house that we have made several improvements to, it's located in a quiet neighborhood with a lot of young families, and it's actually priced lower than comparable properties in the area. 

Here's the onine listing for our house:  http://www.firstweber.com/homes/1629818_SCWMLS-113_THOMAS_PLACE-Arena-WI-53503-9660

Check it out, let me know what you think.  If you know of anyone in the area who is looking to purchase a home that's perfect for young families, please send them my way. 

But most importantly, please pray for us.  Pray that we will start seeing some traffic coming through.  Pray that the right buyer will arrive at the right time.  Pray that I won't lose my mind in this process.  Pray that I can trust that God's timing is perfect.  Pray that we continue to be able to keep the flowers alive. 

Such a Big Dude

When did this happen?

He's such a big dude!  He's got those eyes - my eyes - that just melt me. 

He sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating.  Guess who else does that? 

Yup....me.

And then I look at this photo and I see a 13 year old boy.

Isn't it amazing how fast our babies grow up?  Maybe that's why I get the itch for another kid every time I celebrate a 1st birthday!  My oldest will be four years old in just a couple months....and that just blows my mind!  I'm going to blink and he'll be driving. 

Slow down, baby.  Slow down.

Project Life Tuesday - July Week Two

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday! I am taking a photo every day in 2011 and putting them together in an album to create a unique keepsake of this year for our family.  Be sure to check in on what others are doing with their projects over at The Mom Creative!


Sunday, July 10th - Isaiah overcame his fear of the water and ended up leaping into the pool and swimming all by himself.  He was so proud!

Monday, July 11th - I'm defnitely suffering from "Third Kid Syndrome."  I was so good about taking belly photos with the boys and now here's my first one since 14 weeks!  I'm now 32 weeks along.  Just about in the home stretch!  (Yes, I realize how tired I look.) 

Tuesday, July 12th - Fruit is easily one of my favorite things about summer.  The kids love it too, so I just pump 'em full of fruit so that their refusal to eat most vegetables isn't quite as horrific.

Wednesday, July 13th - Good old fashioned boy fun:  Wrestling in the yard!

Thursday, July 14th - Micah took a marathon nap today and he just looked so sweet when I went in to check on him that I couldn't resist risking waking him up to take a photo.  I'm so happy he's starting to feel better!

Friday, July 15th - I was not gifted with a green thumb.  See those beautiful flower boxes?  My mother made those for me to put on my back deck.  See the ugly potted thing in the corner?  That was my attempt to make one.  So not one of my gifts!

Saturday, July 16th - Evan brought the boys up to Sparta to celebrate Kole's first birthday and they had a blast running with Uncle Fran through the sprinkler!

Look at that!  A week with no "Miserable Micah" or hospital photos!  Yay!

Belly Photos

Oh yes....this is definitely my third child.  I was so good about taking photos for my first two pregnancies, but I have completely blown it off this time around.  Bad Mommy.

Here is my last belly photo.  I was 14 weeks along.

In retrospect, I'm looking at this photo and thinking, "Dang!  I still actually looked kind of thin!  I only have one chin and everything!"

Alas, much has changed. 

Here I am at 32 weeks:

Gulp.

The first thing I think is that I understand now why my doctor always says, "My only concern is your weight gain" at every single dang appointment.  I've ballooned something fierce.  I'm definitely going to have my work cut out for me after I have this baby.  Back to my tried and true food rules that helped me dropped the weight to begin with, back to more water, back to actually trying to get my butt moving.

The second thing I notice is that I look tired.  And stressed.  You know what?  I am tired.  And stressed.  A lot has landed on our plates since that first photo was taken and I'm rolling with the the best I can.  Too bad it really shows in the circles under my eyes.

And I need a haircut.  Badly.

I'm a train wreck.

Micah's First Surgery

After suffering though a staph infection for more than a week, we noticed that Micah's leg was still not looking much better, despite the fact that his antibiotics seemed to have taken care of the rest of his owies.

Thursday, July 7th

I called the clinic on Friday morning, July 8th, and got Micah an appointment for 3:00 to get that leg checked out.  It was just still so red, inflamed, and hard to the touch that I was concerned.  Plus, the poor boy was clearly still in substantial pain.  I had to work at 4:00, so I arranged for Evan to meet us at the clinic at 3:40 so we could switch out and I could head off to work while he finished up with the doctor visit.

Ah, the best laid plans.  It didn't take the doctor very long to check out Micah's leg before he recommended that we have a surgeon look at it.  Soon.  Like....now.  He suspected that there was a build-up of pus underneath the skin as a result of the staph infection that hadn't been able to escape.  Micah had a golf ball sized abscess on his thigh, plus another area above it that was causing him trouble. 

At about 3:50, I had to call work to tell them I would be late since we were heading to the hospital to have a surgeon look at Micah's leg.  By 4:30, I had to call back to tell them that I would get there as soon as I could because we were getting ready to take Micah down to the surgery center.  The surgeon had examined Micah's leg and said we needed to drain it immediately.

Before I knew it, Evan had taken Isaiah off to get some supper and I sat with Micah in his little hospital gown while he was prepped for his very first surgery.



I know it was about as minor of a procedure as they come, but it was still difficult to try to keep him calm and to hold him down while he was jabbed with a needle of anesthesia.  As he faded into "loopy land," they rolled him away from me into the OR and the tears just started falling. 

He came out of his procedure with flying colors.  They drained a LOT of gunk out of that abscess and he recovered well from the anesthesia.  The hardest thing was trying to explain to Isaiah that his brother would be a little "goofy" when they brought him out, but that he was going to get better real soon.

Our little patient ate a Popsicle and a graham cracker and was really coming around well.  Evan took him home at about 6:15 and I finally went to work.  Micah went right to sleep (with the help of some pain killers) and is healing well! 

Hopefully the poor kid gets to stay away from the doctor's office for a while now!

Finding His Inner Nemo

Isaiah hasn't really taken to the water like we had hoped.  We had hoped to get him in to take swimming lessons this summer, but our work schedules combined with suddenly having to put the house on the market stopped that idea dead in its tracks.  So, we just try to get the boys in the water as often as we can. 

They love to play in shallow "kiddie pools," as you can see by this little gem here:

It's when we get to an actual pool that Isaiah's fear starts to come out.  Even with floaties on, he's refused to let go of his adult swimming buddy or to do anything other than float on a lounge chair. 

Even on our little visit to his Aunt Ashley's pool last weekend, he started off by clutching me around the neck and waist like a crab.  Slowly, we encouraged him to get more and more daring.  Before too long, he was doing this:


Not exactly swimming, but it was a good start!  Suddenly, Isaiah asked Ashley to jump into the pool from the concrete and she replied, "I will if you will."  He thought about this for a moment and then agreed that was fair.  At first, he was still too scared to actually jump, but all it took was some magic words from his aunt to get him to take the leap:

"I'll give you a popsicle if you jump."

Before we knew it, we had this kid on our hands:


He was so proud of himself and I couldn't stop smiling.

And he actually got two popsicles.

Project Life Tuesday - July Week One

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday! I am taking a photo every day in 2011 and putting them together in an album to create a unique keepsake of this year for our family.  Be sure to check in on what others are doing with their projects over at The Mom Creative!

Sunday, July 3rd - Our day started off early when Micah spiked a 102.6 fever at 2:00 am.  I took him to the emergency room and they treated him for his fever and for what they suspected to be a staph infection.  We got home around 5:30 am, just enough time for me to sleep for about 30 minutes before I had to get up for work!  After work, I took Isaiah back to our hometown for our family's 4th of July festivities.  He had a blast, but missed his brother.  Oh, and it was also our 7th wedding anniversary!  Quite a day....

Monday, July 4th - Isaiah's grandparents set up this crazy pool in their backyard and Isaiah was in it practically all day long!  It's looking like Grandma enjoyed it too.

Tuesday, July 5th - It's official!  They put the sign in our yard today, so our house is really up for sale now.  Now we just hope and pray someone actually buys it!

Wednesday, July 6th - The antibiotics are starting to help Micah's owies heal, but his leg is still looking nasty.  We're keeping an eye on it to see if he might need to go back in to see a doctor again.  Poor baby is really sick of being sick!

Thursday, July 7th - Micah and his brother plowed through a pint and a half of blueberries before supper.  Looks like there will be some fun diapers in our future!

Friday, July 8th - I brought Micah in to the clinic at 3:00 to get his leg looked at because it was still so red, swollen, tender, and actually hard to the touch.  Micah was clearly still in pain despite the fact that most of his owies from the staph infection had all but cleared up.  It didn't take the doctor long to look at his leg and tell us a surgeon would need to see it.  Next thing we know, a surgeon is telling me he needs to cut my baby's leg open to drain out the pus and other infection byproducts that had built up inside his leg.  When?  NOW.  So, I had to call in to work to tell them I'd get there when I could because Micah was having some unexpected minor surgery!  He was scared and cried quite a bit until he got to watch some cartoons in his little surgery cubicle.  They gave him some anesthesia and made a small incision to drain out a lot of gunk from his poor leg.  Watching him go through it was tough, but we're hoping this will be the final thing that helps him get truly better for a while!

Saturday, July 9th - I snapped photos like crazy while the boys were coloring and these two were a couple of my favorites of my goofy guys. 

Poor Sick Boy

Micah has been very, very sick the last few days.  It went fast and before I knew it, my sweet boy went from playing like this:

to barely moving because he was in so much pain.

And it literally happened within a couple of days.  Around Wednesday or so, we noticed there were some red bumps that looks like bites on Micah's leg, but we honestly didn't think much of it.  By Thursday, Micah was starting to show he was in pain.  We tried to eat supper at a restaurant, but Micah refused to sit in the highchair because he was hurting.  I decided that if the "owies" got worse by the next day, I would take him in to the clinic.

Come Friday, the owies on Micah's leg looked like this:

They had gone from looking like little bites to puss-filled pustules surrounded by swollen red areas.  Micah would limp when he walked and whined when he was carried because he didn't want you to get near his owies.  The nurse practioner we saw suspected it was some kind of infection and she took a culture from one of them, which of course had Micah screaming bloody murder.  She prescribed an antibiotic and sent us on our way to await the culture results on Tuesday.  Micah barely slept at all Friday night.

On Saturday, we were supposed to attend a little neighborhood block party, but Evan and I ended up having to switch off between playing with Isaiah at the neighbors and sitting with the sick boy in the house.  Micah woke up with a 101.4 fever and the redness, swelling, and pain had increased.  A couple of his worse owies were even hard and hot to the touch.

He spent the whole day sitting on the couch.  He barely wanted to move, let alone eat or play.  The poor boy was miserable.  We put him to bed that night, just praying he would improve.  I went to bed around 11:00 (after our town's fireworks), but was up with Micah around 12:00, again around 1:00, and then again at 2:00.

When I went into his room at 2:00 am, I realized that Micah felt like he was on fire.  I took his temperature and it read 102.6.  At that point, we were off to the emergency room.  I was honestly scared.  We sat in the ER from 2:30 am until about 5:15 am. 

They were able to bring his fever down and get his pain under control.  The ER doctor suspected a staph infection, so he prescribed another antibiotic along with some pain medication.  Micah was an absolute angel in the ER.  He sat there and just paged through his book over and over.  We finally made it back home around 5:30 am and he went right to sleep.  I mangaged to doze for about 45 minutes before I had to get up for work! 

Obviously, Micah's prospects of getting to attend our family festivities for the 4th of July were fading fast.  While Isaiah and I took off for two days of family, feasting, fireworks and fun, Evan stayed home with Micah and kept him on his regime of medications and rest.  He stayed pretty stationary, barely ate anything, and struggled to sleep soundly.  Meanwhile, there were many people praying for that little boy. 

He slowly started to show initiative to get up off the couch and play a bit and even starting taking a few bites of food.  Thankfully, he continued to drink plenty of fluids through this whole ordeal.  On Tuesday, we got the results from the culture taken on Friday.  As it turns out, Micah did indeed have a staph infection.  We're continuing his antibiotics and giving him the pain meds as needed. 

Thank you to all of you, family, friends, and even on Facebook and Twitter, who have been praying and thinking of him.  I'm really grateful!

Project Life Tuesday - June Week Five

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday! I am taking a photo every day in 2011 and putting them together in an album to create a unique keepsake of this year for our family.  Be sure to check in on what others are doing with their projects over at The Mom Creative!

Sunday, June 26th - Simply throwing some water in a 5 gallon bucket and tossing in some squirt toys was enough to keep the boys enthralled with their outdoor play for quite some time!

Monday, June 27th - Isaiah was rough-housing with his Daddy and somehow he bashed his head on something (knee? couch arm? floor?), giving himself a bloody nose. Goofball.

Tuesday, June 28th - The work continues on getting the house in show condition.  We officially put the house on the market this week, so I'm finishing up getting the photos taken for our Internet listing.  This is Isaiah's room.

Wednesday, June 29th - Isaiah is on a big costume kick.  Every day that I get home from teaching summer school it seems like he is wearing a different costume.  Today was Day 3 of being a pirate!

Thursday, June 30th - Another house listing photo.  I went back and forth with trying to decide whether or not to repaint the blue wall, but eventually decided to leave it alone.

Friday, July 1st - I had to shovel a ton of crap off the counter, but I managed to finally get the photo of the kitchen finished!

Saturday, July 2nd - Micah's condition worsened today when he woke up with a fever.  His "owies" are hurting him to an excruciating degree and the poor boy is just miserable.  He spent the entire day on the couch, barely wanting to move and not wanting to eat at all. 

Sorry for the delay in getting my photos up this week.  Between working on the house, Micah being sick, and the 4th of July weekend....things just got nuts!  Hope you had a great week!