Holla

I have to get 2 quick shout outs.
1) Many people have helped us, and keep helping us out and we are ever, ever grateful!!! Thank you. Support comes in many shades. Thank you mom & dad :).
2) My friend from college days and soul sister, Stephenie Meyer, has gone and become wildly successful. I'm so proud of her and say, "You go, girl" (with a head bob in there). Stephenie has written "Twilight" and from that, 3 more books and a movie coming out. Who knew, maybe we all knew she'd do something big someday from seeing her creative mind. Way to go, Steph!

La, La, La Luke, I am your Father

This past week has been hairy, stressful and exhausting. Not that it was all bad, no. Eric has been working very hard on getting the floors ready so we can move in this week. We have had many people help (Dave, Stewarts, Jeppesens...and many more) us out on all the un-fun stuff at the house, and we say a huge "THANK YOU"!!! We're not near done yet, but moving forward. I'm such the type of person who likes to finish, complete something. I love to check things off my mental "to-do" list. Sooooo, when I look around and see a long list of things to do and no end in sight, I get discouraged and stressed. I feel bad because when I mentioned to Eric how stressed out I was, I knew he has been working like a dog this whole week (assuming you're thinking of a hardworking, relentless type of dog- no dainty poodles here). :)I said to Eric that our next house would be in move-in condition. ;)

Something I've learned about myself through all this house stuff is that I tend to not like something until I've worked on it, or helped someone. This includes my dear children. I come to love them more as I care for them, ect., and not a love at first sight kind of a gal.

Three positive things for this entry:
1) Avery went back to liking her pacifier - yay, and is a happy baby.
2) Zachery is saying his prayers all by himself!
3) I love that Eric is hard working and diligent.

Home Owners

We did it!!!!!!!!!! We met with some folks downtown, signed our names a bunch of times and then they handed us keys to our first home!!! Wah-hoo. Eric is very excited to get in there and get crackin at our updates (painting, ripping out carpet). I am excited in a blurred kind of way. It will hit me later. :) We did grab a pizza and ate on our dining room floor tonight. Then went and checked everything out again. Amidst the running around, Zachery says, "Mom, I got another pizza." We walked into the room he was in and he had a slice on the floor and sauce all over his shirt, shorts, shoes. Fun, fun, fun and it's a good thing the carpet is going.

Avery and I left the hospital this morning about 9:00. She is okay and overall it went well for her heart catheterization. They tried to get a veinous line in, for an hour (her leg looks so beat up), but were unsuccessful and managed to get the needed measurements through the arterial line in her other leg. Avery was out before they started trying to get these lines in, no worries there. When I first saw her afterwards, she was red hot from being under heat lamps and puffy all over from i.v. fluids, and screaming (I was in the hallway wondering where/when she was coming up and I heard her crying). You so want to pick em up and you can't. Anyhoo, it all got better. Avery was tired today and still is trooper #1. I didn't sleep too well at the hospital and was tired anyway from getting ready the night before, thus explaining my blurred feeling today. Let me sleep already. :) j/k

The Beginning

Well, here it is July 18th and the good news is, that even though we didn't close today on our house, it will be Tuesday at 2:00!! Wa-hooo. We had to wait on some papers from the government to pay for our closing costs (well worth the wait), and now it' s almost here. I'm pretty excited about it now. :)

Today, Avery had some pre-op stuff to complete at the hospital here for Monday. I didn't realize it meant paper work, but tudo bem (it's all good). After that, Avery just needed blood drawn. That's all. That's enough. I've done this two times before and know that a) it's hard to get a good vein, b) they end up calling someone in from pediatrics to do it, and c) they lay her on the bed there to do all this. I told the nurse all of this, and she promptly asked me to hold her on their blood-drawing-chairs. Of course it all panned out how I knew it would, but not before having Avery scream til she's blue before they called in for the ped nurse. I am upset at myself for not insisting on doing it my way first. I'm thankful that Avery is little and forgot all about this (I think anyway) by this afternoon, even if I don't. She is all smiles tonight and was happily blowing her bubbles. Time is a wonderful thing.

Right now Ave is okay and I am okay. Life is good. I'm fine when people ask how Avery is doing. Yet, when someone asks me how I am doing, I get all emotional. Today I was holding it together fine, but when a nurse asked me if I was okay, I nodded and cried. Another lady getting her blood drawn said as she left, "It's okay for mom to cry too". :)

Zachery is surviving the heat here by taking his "swimming baths" as we call it. At bath time, we fill the tub with cool water (per his request) and he proceeds to do laps in his "pool". :) Lots of splashing, but all smiles.

I can hardly believe it, come Tuesday, Eric and I will be all grown up being homeowners! We sign, rip out carpet, paint, move, unpack and live happily ever after, the end.

Brown Bagging It

From 12:15 to 1:15 every Wednesday during the summer, the lawn beside the downtown library bustles with children playing, local artists performing, and there is a captivating aroma coming from a shiny silver cart.

Renae and the kids met me for lunch last week during the Lucas County Library's Brown Bag Concert Series. Last week's concert was a kid oriented show filled with whimsical renditions of "The wheels on the bus go...," "If You're Happy and You Know It...," and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."

Zach had a blast running around and singing. Avery was content with being held, and she enjoyed getting out for some fresh air. Renae packed a nice, healthy lunch, with turkey sandwiches, carrots, and cheese, so we ate out health conscious lunch while sitting right next to the hot dog cart.....

Toledo has some wonderful community programs year round, but people do not always hear about them or attend them. There was a young man downtown that day collecting signatures to get an issue on the ballot this fall, and he was not from this area. His reaction was "what a great idea, I wish our city had something like this."

Sometimes I think the locals are their own worst critics. I would be nice to see the community rally behind its strengths and not dwell on its weaknesses. The city has a rich past, many unique qualities and resources; it just needs some good leadership to steer it in the right direction for the future.

Here's a link to the library's website with concert details for the rest of the summer.

Brown Bag Series

Beautiful Summer

What a great day! I took the kids to the downtown library, met my husband and we ate our lunch listening to some kid music. We got a nice shady area and Zach would stand up and sing (quietly) along. It was such a nice day.

We are happy to say that starting from yesterday, Avery has not spit up, well once only a little bit, but it seems the mess is over!! She is a happy baby again. Perhaps it was a viral thing (don't know, don't care-just glad it's over).

Independence

We celebrated our 4th of July festivities on the 3rd (I'm sure our founding fathers were excited on the 3rd too). We were invited to a bbq by some friends,and then walk to see the Maumee fireworks. It was a perfect setting to be at Fort Meigs (from the War of 1812), sitting on a grassy knoll, overlooking the Maumee River. Darkness settled in and the fireworks began. We wondered what Avery would do when it all started, and after looking startled, she just sat and watched the whole thing quietly. Zach's first time watching, he cried, but this time he barely paid any attention to it, like it was no big deal. Despite our attempts to inform him that all this spectacular happens once a year (except baseball games and New Year), he watched for a few minutes, then just ran around. Eric and I loved it and the setting was perfect. I LOVE fireworks, they're so spectacular! I'm sure glad we won the war.

On a different note, Avery has been spitting up, a lot. All babies spit up, I know, but her feeding tube comes out too. Each time I think it chips away at my sanity. Only because I wonder how much a kid can take of that (mostly putting the tube back in). Tonight though, we tried a special formula for fussy babies and so far, no spitting up. We're crossing our fingers that this works. If you have any tips, please let us know.

It'll Be Ours!

July is proving to be a busy one! Mostly great, too. We found out that, after negotiations we do have the house on Oxbridge and we will close on the 18th! Hoo-rah!
We also have to get a few things fixed before we move in, but we're hopeful that it will all work out (ever the optimist). Zachery hasn't seen the inside yet, but I've driven by there often and pointed it out to him, saying "do you want to live there?". ;)

As we are happy with all of this, it is a big job as well. Moving mainly, but fixing the basement and some electrical stuff. I can hardly believe we've been here 6 years in our lil' apartment! Buying our first home is making me feel all grown up.

Also looming ahead is Avery's next surgery. She has a lot of appointments this month and I am so grateful for all those who have so graciously agreed to watch Zach for me. Thank you! Avery had an appt. today with the cardiologist and Avery has a leaky aortic valve (all valves leak a bit), but hers is mild to moderate and she needs it to work well, having one ventricle. It just means her heart has to work harder. If it looks like it needs to be stretched during her heart cath, then they'll do that on the 21st. Onward to Aug. 7th!