Thanks for Praying

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Callie. She is doing much better. On Friday we were extremely close to taking Callie to the hospital to be admitted, but after a long nap she seemed to be perking up a little. She has continued to improve and seems to be doing quite well now. So far she is tolerating her feedings really well. We have stepped back a little in regards to her feedings. We were blending her formula from "real food" but for the past month she had really been struggling with keeping her food down. We have gone back to store bought formula but it seems to be working for her. She is wearing her feeding pump in a backpack and is getting small feedings all throughout the day. Our goal is to keep the food down and see if we can get her weight back up. In the few days she was sick, she lost one pound. That's not much for the average person but it is a lot if you only weigh 23 pounds to begin with.

So thanks for praying. The little girl is on the mend.

Almost Finished!

We are (finally) almost finished with our wood floor refinishing project. It hasn't been particularly difficult, but we have had a hard time finding time to work on it. Once I was ready for the last step of sealing the wood, the weather turned ridiculously southern. We have had 90 degree weather with unusually high humidity levels and heat indexes in the 110's. I figured the drying time might be a little too long with that kind of work conditions. So last night it finally started cooling down and drying off, so Jason and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to seal the floor. I am thrilled with how it looks. I still have to wait to replace furniture and replace the baseboards, but I thought I could give you a look at some before and after pictures.

This is the surprise I found under the carpet. I had already sanded off the stenciled red rocking horses. Jason just knew I needed to sand it as best as I could and seal it with the rest of the floor. I was stubborn, and with the help of my dad, pulled up the boards while Jason was at work.

I found another surprise when the white board came up, there was no subflooring in that one area. I got to create my own. Yippee!
And because I had plenty of flooring leftover, I thought I should tackled this eyesore as well. Who doesn't like a cracked piece of plywood patched with plaster for a floor? Jason was equally irritated that I removed this board.
Here is my patchwork. I really had fun doing it and was quite pleased with how it turned out.

This it the other hole I tackled. I think it is more aesthetically pleasing.

And here are pictures mid-sealing the floor. I am still happy with my choice to replace the boards.

I think the flooring looks better here.

And finally... the (almost) finished product.

A floor I am completely thrilled with. And would you believe, the husband now understands why I wanted the carpet gone and now sees what I saw all along!

And now for my two other random thoughts for the night.

1. I really thought I had blogged about Miss Sadie on my last post. I had an entire write up about her but, unfortunately, as a few people pointed about, the words must have just stayed in my head. Oops. I am trying to get a few more pictures together of my little Norwegian beauty and then I will write about her.

2. It is a good thing we finished the floor early this morning because my day was consumed with Callie.

She came down with a GI bug and is one sick little girl. We were able to see her GI doctor today (I called yesterday. If we didn't take this appointment, he could see her the end of August. I do believe God was involved in that). Jason and I believe she was very close to needing to be hospitalized for dehydration but this afternoon she finally started keeping fluids in. Between the fluids and sleeping all day, she was a totally different little girl this evening, which was a huge relief. Thanks to my mom for keeping the kids for a while, Jason and I were even able to go on a date tonight just to have a bit of a break. Callie's GI issues have become very time-consuming and frustrating. Add a virus to "normal" vomiting, and a mommy can very easily be worn out. So please pray for Callie to quickly rebound so we can move ahead with plans to figure out how to help her keep food down and grow.

I might win the award most inconsistent blogger ever.

Summer is in full swing. Wyatt is handling his time at home relatively well. He would much rather be at school than home with his mom. We are trying to work on some schoolwork this summer, so he will be ready when school is back in session. We can both only handle it in small amounts, though. The poor boy has a mental block when it comes to numbers and it is driving this mother crazy. I didn't know the "teens" could be so hard. Wyatt is playing t-ball this summer and loves it. It is my first experience with any kind of organized sport, so it is new for me as well. Wyatt most enjoys batting and is working on being more proficient with catching the ball.

Callie is still...Callie. We have started running into more issues with feeding and sleeping so we had an appointment to talk it over with the doctor. Callie is getting taller - she is now in the 5th percentile for her age! Her weight is still lagging behind. She is stuck at 23 pounds. Rather than using formula, we are blending "real" food to put in her tube. She gets over 335 calories per cup (that's a lot) but we are having a difficult time keeping all of her food down. She is back to only tolerating small feedings which is very frustrating.

She had an upper GI last week just to make sure that everything is functioning as it should. I don't know the results from that yet. In addition to not keeping all of her food down, Callie is not sleeping well. This is a problem because when she doesn't sleep well, she is highly emotional. When she is highly emotional, she doesn't keep her food down. For her, crying usually involves vomiting. So it is a cyclical pattern we get into that stinks. Right now we don't have any answers so we keep working on sleep and cleaning up puke.

Speaking of cleaning up puke, I was tired of having carpet in our preschool room/office. Between three kids, a dog, lots of puke and french doors that lead to a backyard filled with jet black dirt, it was next to impossible to keep white carpet clean. So while Jason was at work, I pulled it up. I had done a little research to know that there was hardwood underneath so I just helped expose the old floor. I should have figured there would be a surprise underneath.

It wasn't too terrible, but a section 5" x 92" that had plywood (part of it stenciled with rocking horses) rather than oak slats like the rest of the room, was not exactly what I had in mind for my hardwood floor. So in all my free time (when I am not blogging, ha!) I have been sanding the floor (with the help of my dad and father-in-law) and now I am working on replacing the offending boards. I'm having fun doing it but I am getting to the point where I am ready for it to be over so I can put my house back together. Since my husband thinks I am crazy for tackling this project (and a few more I have not mentioned), I am just playing the "nesting" card. I figure since all we can do in regards to the adoption is wait and pray, I might as well start nesting. And since in my previous nesting experiences, I was quite large, I could not accomplish such large tasks.

So that's about all I have time for tonight. I need to go sand a floor!

Last Day of School and Garage Sale

May 26 was Wyatt's last day of kindergarten. He LOVED everything about school this year - his classroom, his classmates, his teacher - everything. He was actually sad that it was over. With no prompting from us, he made his teacher a thank you note. On cardboard. With a magic marker. It's cute because it's heartfelt.

Here he is with Mrs. Pederson, his teacher this year, on his last day.
On Saturday of last week, we had a garage sale as a fundraiser for our upcoming adoption. (And no, right now there are no big updates about the adoption process. We have finished our home study and have our family profile books out at several locations. For now, we're just waiting to be matched with a child.)

To say that God had his hand in the garage sale would be an understatement. I have NEVER experienced anything like it!

Due to the generosity of several friends and coworkers, we had a plethora of quality items to offer. (A sincere thanks to Bill, Rian, Karla, Shirley, Becky, Casey, Gretchen, and Mary) We also cleaned out a lot of items from our own home, and had collected a large number of items curbside during Fargo's recent Clean Up Week. We put a LOT of work into organizing, pricing appropriately, setting up, etc. We worked several hours at night for several days in preparation.

On Saturday, we were scheduled to start at 8:00 AM. Our first customers started coming just before 7:00. Until after 1:30, there was never a time that we were without visitors, and even late in the afternoon, we still had a steady stream. Early on in the day, I even had people waiting in line to check out.

There's a lot of "testimony" that could be shared, and lots of great stories about those who stopped by, but allow me to sum it up this way:

We set a low-end profit goal that we thought would be great to meet.

We set a high-end goal that we would've been quite happy to meet.

We set a "hallelujah" goal that would have only been possible with divine intervention.

When we tallied at the end of the day, our hallelujah goal was exceeded by 20%.

God is good!

Thank you SO MUCH for those of you who supported us in our garage sale! We still have a LONG way to go to secure all the funding needed for adoption, but Saturday's sale DEFINITELY helped us get closer.

Below is a photo taken partway into the morning, when several things had already been paid for and carried off. We had planned to take several photos throughout the day, but were so busy that we didn't have much time to take snapshots. It was a good problem to have, for sure.

Park Rapids and Fargo Marathon

A few weekends ago, we went with Papa and Granna to Park Rapids. They were going for the whole week (time share), but we just went to hang out for the weekend. Park Rapids is a lakes region community a few miles east of Fargo/Moorhead. They have a quaint little historic downtown area, where we had milkshakes at the local soda fountain. It was Sadie's first chocolate shake, and as you can see, she thought it was fantastic.

We spent an afternoon in Itasca State Park. Itasca is home to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Behind us in the picture below is Lake Itasca, from which the mighty Mississippi begins its flow toward the Gulf of Mexico.

No trip to the lakes would be complete without a stop at Zorbaz. A pizza and Mexican place, Zorbaz has a few locations throughout the region. We stopped at Zhateau Zorbaz for some fried pickles and macho nachos. The sign outside this one makes it look as though it's a bit upscale, but anyone who has ever eaten at Zorbaz can assure you it's anything but.

The next weekend was the Fargo Marathon. On Thursday night, Wyatt and I ran the one mile kids run. One mile is a long way for a newly-turned six year old. He got a shirt and a medal for participating, and overall did a good job. Unlike many of his peers, he did a pretty good job pacing himself. There were a lot of six years olds who took off like jackrabbits for the first two hundred yards, only to crash and burn after the first half mile or so.
On Friday night was the 5K, which was pretty fun, too. I ran (jogged) that one alone. Kelli was going to do it with me, but the race filled up before we got her registered. Maybe next year.

Saturday was the marathon. By no means did I set any land speed records, but it sure was fun. More like a 26.2 mile fun run than a competition, I ate brownies and other treats along the way, stopped to visit with folks, and even carried Callie with me for a short jaunt. It made for a good time.

Plan for the Day

Callie: "Mom, what are we going to do today?"

Me: "Well, we are going to wash some clothes, clean your room, blend you some food and eat lunch."

Callie: "Then what are we going to do? Adopt a baby?"

Well, sweet girl, it is not quite that easy. We are not able to adopt a baby today. For now we wait.

What a Fantastic Weekend!

We've had an absolutely wonderful weekend! Actually, we've had a great week and a half or so, with Jason's parents in town for Sadie's birthday, Wyatt's birthday, and Easter. It's been one full day after another, and the kids are sure to sleep for hours on end now that Moms and Pops are back in Alabama. (The kids tend to stay up late and wake up early while they're here. Wonder why?)

Wyatt's birthday was on Saturday, so we celebrated all day long. It started with a trip to Sandy's Donuts. The grownups chose rather sophisiticated fried dough, such as dark-chocolate glazed ones or crullers, but Wyatt selected a giant Easter basket monstrosity. An enormous creme filled, frosted thing, with grass, a Peep, chocolate eggs, and a licorice handle made a highly non-nutritious breakfast for the boy. Good thing birthdays only come once per year. Here he is posing with his breakfast delicacy.

We went to Papa and Grannas for the afternoon and grilled out. Wyatt asked for a lemon birthday cake with Peeps on top. Kelli obliged. When he saw it late that afternoon, he was rather pleased.

Like Sadie's birthday, we as parents didn't really go overboard with gifts. Although we didn't recycle gifts like we did with Sadie, we did get him a set of Nerf dart guns that he (and his father!) like a lot. By the time grandparents, aunts, uncles, and an assortment of other family members added their wrapped items, he made quite a haul. Thankfully, they're mostly educational toys (except for the one from his parents - go figure). Here is he concentrating on trying out his new art kit. He couldn't decide whether to wear a traditional birthday party hat or his birthday "crown" he got at school, so he went for both.

Later that afternoon, we also spent some time dying eggs for Easter. If you've not tried to dye eggs with a six year old, a three year old, a one year old, and a dog, all wanting to help at once, you should give it a try some time.

This morning we got up and, although we don't typically dress up for church, we got a little extra spiffy. Wyatt and Jason received matching homemade bowties, so they dressed alike this morning. The sun was quite bright this morning, so it was difficult for the kids to look toward the camera. Right behind us is a new Ohio Buckeye that was set out on our boulevard to replace the Elm that had to be cut down last year. We thought it would be fun to get a family picture in front of the tree each year to see how it and our family grow. Here's the first. Stay tuned over the next several years to see the rest. :)

Wyatt was pretty happy to have a tie like his dad typically wears. It took a little while to get it tied this morning, but we're not a clip-on tie kind of family, you know.

Callie, Sadie, and Wyatt at Papa and Granna's this afternoon.

Callie in her Easter dress.

This afternoon may have been the prettiest day we've had so far this spring. One week ago, this was the scene in our back yard as Jason and Pops pulled up a hedge row.

Compare that to today, with Papa and Wyatt having a Nerf gun war in Papa and Granna's back yard. It was a beautiful, beautiful day!