ABCZ

We should count ourselves lucky that SO FAR the addition has gone smoothly. Now, a few hiccups. Like trying to get the plumbing done. We have a friend of a friend doing most of the plumbing. And, while he is the nicest guy in the world, and really knows his stuff - I think he is WAY overcommitted and it's hard to get him to show up. So, while we are VERY appreciateive of his help...it's also a little frustrating.

Last night, after showing up at 10pm, 2.5 months late (yes, I meant MONTHS), to install the tub 48 hours before it HAD to be done so the drywall can start, and waking up Anna in the process, he determined that there is a problem with the tub, and that we would need to try to return it (5 months after purchase and with NO packagine left) and buy a new one, and install it ourselves sometime the next night after Curtis gets home from work. If we were going to do it ourselves, why did we have to wait FIVE FREAKING MONTHS!!?? *sigh* Oh well....we're getting closer.

On the upside, if we CAN get the tub installed tonight, drywall starts tomorrow morning at 8! Whoo hoo!!!

...or easily embarassed, anyway.

This weekend, Anna was adoring a sweet little baby of a 'friend' of ours (as she does anywhere she sees one now), and happened to see her nursing. Her face went from smiles and soft cooing to shock and alarm, and then she exclaimed,

SHE'S EATING YOUR BOOBIE!!!!

How soon they forget.

The fiberglass dust, that is. Insulation Inspection - PASSED! Wooot!!!

The best part is that someone ELSE did that. It only took one guy half a day, but I SWEAR we'd have been there all weekend with a whole crew, and then Curtis would have had to listen to me bitch about how much I hate the feeling of fiberglass on me for daaaays after that. So - money well spent. It was actually CHEAPER to have them install it, than it would have been for us to buy it and do it ourselves (because their material cost is so much lower).

So - drywall gets loaded into the house on Weds and work starts on Friday. YIPEE!!!

"Thank you God for the lights in our house that make it so bright and beautiful and keep all the scary shadows away."

Soooo cute. The other night Anna couldn't fall back asleep after she came and got in bed with us. She told me that she was just keeping her eyes opened in case there were any scary shadows, so she'd see them. She didn't seem worried or scared, just matter of fact.

I told her that Mommy & Daddy were there to do that for her, and we'd always take care of her. Not buying.

I told her that no matter where she was, God was always watching her and had angels to take care of her every second of every day. Not buying.

Finally, I told her that Rigby was watching. And I reminded her that during the day, he barks at EVERY little sound, motion or movement within 100 yards of our house. (Damned dog.) And I told her that he watches out at night too, but since there are no scary things, he is not barking. To demonstrate my point, I very softly snapped my finger once. Like magic - Rigby appeared from whatever soft spot he was snuggled in sleeping and jumped up on the bed and curled up between us and licked her face.

She giggled and then went to sleep. I guess he's not TOTALLY useless.

One of my favorite things at the end of each day is our good night prayers. It's so sweet to hear the 'evolution' of Anna's prayers as she grows up. We went from 'Now I lay me down to sleep..." to The Lord's Prayer, and now we say individual prayers.

First of all, there is an important order of events. We each get to pray ONCE. Daddy goes first, Mommy goes second and Anna goes third. We know it's our turn when Anna points to us. And the order is because with our hands folded for prayer, Daddy's hands are biggest, Mommy's are medium and Anna's are smallest. I can recite that from memory because Anna RE-explains it to us each night, like we're slow children who need explicit instructions. (Perhaps we are?)

So, when it's Anna's turn, she started off praying "Please help XYZ to feel better." The XYZ of that list included anyone that we had thought of during the day or was sick. And once you were on the list, you STAYED on the list. Just before we moved to our next phase, the list went something like this:

"Please help Mommy, Daddy, Oma, Pa, Grandma, Michael, Riktor, Mariah and Kodi to feeeel better. Is that everyone? Ok, yeah, I guess that's everyone. AAAAmen."

Then, it recently got truncated to, "Please help everyone who is sick to feel better, whenever they need it."

And now, to "Please help everyone who is sick to feel better, whenever you feel like it."

She has also stared adding a few original thoughts, which Curtis and I always peek through our closed eyes at eachother to smile about how sweet she is. Some of my recent favorites:

"Please help our flowers that we planted to grow just a littttttle bit faster."
"Thank you for letting me win my fish."
"Thank you for cute lovies so that I can take good care of them."
"Thank you for Rigby because I love him soooo much."
"Thank you, God, for watering our flowers with the rain today. But we *were* watering them ourselves."

I love that she prays. One of the things that *I* pray for is that she will have a good relationship with God. I am thankful that my parents taught me that God is a friend, not some far removed "being" to be only feared. I hope that for her too.

DECORATING!!! Anna's room is the priority, so that we can get her moved in ASAP. So, today we picked the bed spread for her room, to match her exacting specifications. Keep in mind, I knew enough to narrow the field to things that I could work with before I showed her the choices, though. See - I'm slow, but I'm learning. So...this is what she picked.

And, it gets better. I cringed when I saw the place that sells it, because it's expensive. But I told myself it's just "one" thing and that it would be worth it to base the room from. When I went online to buy it - it was in the clearance section - 50% off! Whoo hoo!!! Score! Now there are some things that we CAN'T avoid, and some we can. So, the bed spread, at least, will be adorable. And as for the battles that I have NOT picked...Pink Walls...here we come!

I'm so damned happy I can't even tell you. I'm doing a HAPPY DANCE!!! (Be glad you're not here. It's not pretty. My husband and I are both afflicted with a severe case of white boy disease and have NO rhythm. We hope that Anna will escape unscathed.... but I digress.....)

HAPPY DANCE!!!!

So, we passed our close-in inspection. That was the framing, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, fire sprinkler, structural issues, etc., etc., etc. "The BIG One." DONE. So, now, we have the go ahead to install the insulation. We were going to do that ourselves, because the money is all but gone. But our drywall guy (a great find, thank you, Marci) suggested that we get a bid from a place in town that does a huge volume. So, we thought, what the heck. Their bid for materials and installation is less than we had budgeted for materials ONLY. SOLD! Then, after that, the drywall guys come. There are two (rare) peices that someone else is doing, so I am SO excited!!!! We're going to have the HOUSE back soon! Like....in a matter of WEEKS probably. WHOOPEE!!!!!

Last night I had Bunko, so Anna and Curtis had a daddy/daughter date. He made salmon (also known as "pink beef" - because Anna will eat anything if you call it a steak) and potato pancakes for them. She had never had potato pancakes before. She tasted them and then said,

"These are delicious. Daddy - YOU ARE A GENIUS!!!"

How can you resist that. Oh - did I mention that they were Mickey Mouse shaped potato pancakes? What a great Daddy.

This is the third day in a row I dragged my ass to the gym. Surely that means the end of the world is near?

My baby boy Kodi has been having a ROUGH time lately. First, he got au aural hematoma (which is a fancy word for a broken blood vessel in her ear flap). It made his whole ear blow up like a big puffy pillow the size of a softball. It was awful We tried to wait it out, but it was getting worse, so they had to do surgery to repair it.

Well - the surgery involves making an incision from top to bottom on the underside of his ear to drain the fluid, then they shave both sides of his ear and suture it together like a quilt, to keep the sides together so it doesn't "blow up" again. Ugh. They were unable to keep a dressing on it, so I had to bring him home half drugged and bleeding like a stuck pig. They wanted to keep him there for the afternoon, so it wouldn't be messy, but there was no WAY I was leaving him to sit in a kennel by himself all day. So, we came home and he slept with his head in my lap for the next 9 hours. It took about 24 hours, but the bleeding stopped, and that is doing better.

Then...this weekend, he began having seizures. In hind sight, we realize that he had the first one on Friday night (we thought he was having a dream). Then on Saturday morning, he had two within about 10 minutes. We took him in, and were lucky enough to get in with our regular vet (who ROCKS). The vet hopes that this is just due to stress and is a temporary thing, so he is on anti-seizure meds for 20 days, then we'll see.

It's funny, we were joking about the seizures causing brain damage and wondering how you would even TELL if a mastiff had brain damage. :) They act like they do most of the time anyway. But now, on these drugs, he really DOES act out of it. It's funny and sad at the same time. My big lug.....we've been doing lots of snuggling lately. I hope he feels better soon. I bought him a new monkey to suck on, so that has been maing him happy. He's worth it.