Are we done yet?

This is generally a question asked by someone undergoing construction.  I, however, am not referring to construction.  I am referring to the plagues that have struck our family.  Mom and I both have experienced some excruciating pain in our lower backs.  And, starting with Emma, then Russell, then Mom and I - a cold.  A vicious one.  With a sore throat so bad you have to take a deep breath before every swallow just to endure it.

So here I am at home with Emma.  She's bored and coughing up some gross stuff.  I'm hurting, and I may drink coffee all day to soothe my throat (better switch to decaf at some point).  But we're together...and that's better than most days I have to work, to be honest with you.

Here are the most recent construction developments...

Day 7:

Day 8: a sign and lumber

Our beautiful amaryllis out front.  I'm so grateful to the former owners for planting perennials.  It really takes a lot of pressure off of me.

And now a bored Emma would like to blog:

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Ok, it's time for us to tend to Lola, barking at the builders.  I'm not sure she'll survive this construction without giving herself a heart attack.

A new reason to visit the library

Emma made her debut at the main library here in Greenville as part of an exhibition of kids who may be a little different in one way or another.  Some differences are pretty obvious...others, not so much.  Family Connection is a statewide organization that provides support and opportunities for the families of these kids who need it - whenever, whatever, however they need it.  We are honored to be part of this Family Connection expo - if it shows even one person, only one, that kids with special needs live, laugh, and love just like the rest of us, then all their hard work will be totally worth it.

If you ever want to see Emma in a state of pure joy, give me a call, and we'll go to Legacy Park and send her flying down this slide together.  It's priceless.

The View From My Camera

Bathed in the light that I see God shining down on our miracle

One of the two wonderfully amazing ladies whom I trust to care for Emma at school....so sad that the school year will be over soon...and not because Emma will be home more in the typical parent-dreading-summer type of way...but because Emma's very favorite thing to do is go to school, and her teachers and classmates are some of her very favorite people

So it begins...

I came home one day and everything looked completely normal at the front of the house...so I'm thinking, no equipment, no debris in sight, they must not have started today.  And then I walk out the back door to find this:

And then this was propped up in the yard...not sure what it was until I realized that it looked like all that sidewalk scaffolding that you continuously encounter in Manhattan.  Our construction pales in comparison to the renovation of a skyscraper, but it's plenty of excitement for me!

Emma said, "The back of your house is a mess!"  She enjoyed looking at all the rubble, and I have a feeling that when we happen to be home during the construction, they will see a little face with blond hair plastered against the sliding glass door watching.  Oh, and there will be a furry little gray face next to her, barking up a storm. 

So that was Day 1.  Day 2 looked like this:

(Notice that my beloved dogwood is still in the picture below.)

And Day 3:

A toilet.  In front of our house.  And that's all for Day 3.  But it's enough...because it's a toilet in front of our house.  On one of the main roads in our neighborhood - hilarious!

Day 4:

I know it doesn't look like much, but A LOT of work and coordination has gone into moving the fuel lines and the gas meter under/behind our house.  More on that on Day 5...

That's not even our yard that they're digging in to move the gas meter.  I hope the neighbors don't hate us after all this...anyway, while Piedmont Natural Gas spent hours and hours and hours moving our gas lines, the framers dug some trenches:

(And now notice that the dogwood is gone...sniff, sniff)

And Day 6, poured footings and passed the city inspection:

So that's what's been going on with our house.  Very exciting and very fast-moving!  Emma loves seeing what is new each day.  As for what's going on with her, her right foot and right leg are turning in, but it's a little more complicated than it sounds.  Some orthopedic surgery might be in her future, but we'll find out more on that later in May.

And for the first time ever, I dressed my child in boys' clothing:

Clearly, it's not the polo shirt with piped sleeves and ruffled collar or the polka dotted pink skirt, but it's the socks.  I'm sick and tired of everyone assuming that girls only wear pink.  We have socks (and only one kind will do for her AFO's) in 5 million shades of pink, and I finally got fed up and went on a hunt for vibrant socks...and wound up in the little boys department.  Fine.  I'm not afraid.  And look how much cuter Emma is for it.  I can't decide if she looks like a soccer player, a softball player, or a golfer in this getup with the eccentrically bright socks.

We have been enjoying the heck out of the beautiful spring weather lately, and I've been amazed (once again) at the beauty God has blessed us with in our yard...not to mention the fact that no maintenance is required on my part to produce this beauty.  Another blessing!

As many of you know, pleasant springtime weather in Greenville is hard to come by, so you have to take advantage of it...so we braved the zoo last Saturday, along with about 30,000 other people.

So back to my dogwood tree...here's the tragedy I came home to on Day 5:

The only thing that prevented the tears was the surprise you see peeking out of the lower left-hand corner of that same picture...here's a better shot of them:

We got flocked.  By Relay for Life, basically.  Great fundraising idea and a really great addition to the port-a-john and dumpster in our front yard.  The flock was only here for 24 hours, but they were greatly admired while they were here.

What's harder than taking care of a child with special needs?

Taking care of a dog with special skills, that's what.  At only 14 pounds, Lola can scale gates and fences with the greatest of ease, so jumping up on a kitchen table (straight from the floor, no assistance from chairs needed) presents quite a challenge for us sometimes.  It seems that while at Nan's house, Lola and Emma both were up to no good...

Say goodbye...

...to the bruises, cuts, scrapes, bumps, and short tempers.  Because we're finally getting more room to move around in our house!

Also, say goodbye (sniff, sniff) to some gorgeous plants.  This giant dogwood tree has to go because we're too cheap to transplant this monster - if any of you environmentalists out there would like to move it for us, or perhaps as part of a horticulture class at a career center or college, you are WELCOME to move it!

This sweet little azalea will meet its end soon, too...but I'm not quite as upset - the rest of the year, it just looks like a weedy plant.

There's another azalea that has the really pretty big blossoms on it, and it's ENORMOUS - the second biggest shrub that we have - but it hasn't bloomed yet this year.  I AM a little sad to see it go, but azaleas are a dime a dozen in our yard (see this post).

As for the construction itself, we have A LOT less money now and only a dumpster to show for it.  Excuse me, Steve Carter, a container.  And thanks for the container :)  Now we wait for the city permits...

So here are some before shots, nothing too exciting.  The window in the shower will have to go because the wall to our new bedroom will be behind it (who puts a window in a shower anyway?), and we're going to do a somewhere-between-short-term-and-long-term tile job on it.  We have some plans to make this bathroom wheelchair-accessible, but it will be a complete ceiling-to-floor, taking-out-walls-and-closets, moving-cabinets-and-sink process, and we're not prepared to do that at this point.

Our new bedroom, bathroom, and walk-in closet will be here, on the back of the house, where those two windows on the right are.

And this is one of the two bedrooms that Russell and I use - the one we sleep in, the one that houses Russell's clothes, and the one in which our dressers are...soon to be the hallway to our new bedroom and a laundry room.  Why aren't laundry rooms near bedrooms in most houses?  I'm campaigning for some type of laundry chute through the wall, and I'm pretty sure Ryan (our builder) and Russell think I'm crazy.  We'll just see about that.  Imagine what you see here with a wall where the end of our bed is, and that's the laundry room/the storage that we don't have anywhere else in the house.

Again, put a wall up along the end of our bed, take out the window and wall, and you have the hallway to our new room.

It's springtime - things are a-changin', inside and out!

Springtime fun

Just a few pics from a fairy princess party Emma went to for one of her classmates...

This is Miller (not the birthday girl), who greeted me at the party by saying, "Hey, Emma's mommy!"  And then last week, she practically jumped out of her car to give my mom a hug, saying, "Hey, Emma's Nan!" 

GREAT party favors: fairy wings and a butterfly wand that matched Emma's princess dress:

Don't Quit Your Day Job

Many of you know that my mother-in-law, Mary Jane, sings like an angel.  I mean, absolutely amazing.  This ability to sing did not get passed along to her boys.  I was really hoping that this natural talent was passed on to Emma, especially since there's not a lot of chance for athletic success in her future.

I don't think it's in the cards.  Emma has a new Sofia the First doll that my dad got her in Disneyland, and she sings a song that Emma has memorized.  Well, she has memorized the words...not so much the key....

PS - If you don't know who Sofia the First is and you have a child under the age of 7 (and that DOES include boys), you better learn.  She is taking the world by storm.

Winter Break

I choose to entitle this post "Winter Break."  There was nothing spring-like about it.  We went to the beach with Russell's family...but only in geographic location, not in specific terms of walking onto the beach.  Neither Emma nor Russell saw any sand during this trip (well, Russell says he walked in the sand on the golf course...).  I took one walk and one jog on the beach and got my fill.  It was windy and cold and a little rainy but still a fun trip!

The springiest thing about our trip was the indoor pool.  We started swimming without Daddy while he was walking through sand traps on the golf course.

Anndie and Emma both seem to be thinking, "Ya big weirdo - WHAT is on your face??!!"

And then there was the sheer joy of realizing Daddy was here to swim!

Russell cannonballing with Mason:

Mason appears to have been the only one who survived: