House Hunters

Spending my nights watching House Hunters and my days AS a house hunter. Today, I'm loving this tree.

Sometimes it is fun to give in!

I rarely let the kids play at the "germy" mall playland, especially at 8pm! But on this evening I gave in and they were thrilled! I don't think the boys have played in one of these before.

Every now and then it's fun to give in! Last weekend I drove MC to get The Game of Life from the store late one evening. She had enough money and was really wanting it. She was SO happy I gave in :-) Here they are playing it one morning before school.

Have you given in recently, on something you usually wouldn't do?

For some laughs

I'm spending hours a day looking for rental homes online. Tonight I found some interesting photos from the MLS website I thought I'd share. Now these are actually homes for sale, and old homes at that.  But there were so many crazy pictures, I needed to put them on the blog since I have no one here awake to laugh with!

 First we have the sideways photos.  I think that maybe I should look into being a real estate photographer.  There are dozens of photos like this that are cocked to the side.  But the best part here is the giant TV on the dining table!  For all those TV dinners!

Speaking of TV dinners, here we have the TV tray with a meal out and ready for eating!  (Seriously, the first thing I did before taking pictures of rooms in our house was to move all the JUNK to the other side of the room so it wouldn't be in the photo!  I don't want to see your dinner or dirty dishes!)

 There are a lot of things that strike me about this room, one being the chair placement.  But I also like the scarf thing as the window treatment!

And since everyone looking at the MLS listings wants to see all of the clothes and shoes in the closet, plus the portrait of grandma and grandpa, must include that!

I can't see the print above the bed very well, I hope it's not inappropriate for this g-rated blog!  But the mismatched pillows and stacked linens are an interesting touch for this bedroom.

Another frequent issue with realtor photos...the dark rooms where you can't see anything!  It's hard to get a sense of the house when the photos are taken at night with no flash.  This one is interesting because it shows a little indoor jet spa over there.  On the listing they also included a close-up shot so you could see the water jets going!

 Okay, okay.  I'll add the spa photo since I know you were dying to see it!  Don't you just want to jump right in?

 

 Wow,  THIS is a bathroom!  I need a close-up of THAT tub!  I think the wallpaper is even metallic.  So cool.

 

Now this house was so cute because all the rooms look perfectly decorated from the 1970s or so.  I love this one because she even has covers for all the appliances with the matching graphic on each one!  I'd love to see if those small appliances are all originals!

And see here from the same house, the bedding and velvet chair and giant lamp.  It looks like they haven't been touched in ages!

Now this is what you call a RED room!

And finally, from a home that's actually also listed as a rental I'd like to see...the poor, lonely chair.  A bedroom all to himself with only the fake flowers to keep him company.  Poor guy.

 

Well, I think that's enough laughs for tonight.  I've eaten too much Halloween candy, and must get some rest before another big day tomorrow!  So far we've had museum classes, a friend's visit today with her 4 boys (and 1 GIRL in-utero!), then tomorrow is co-op and dance class, and Friday is the homemaking club.  I'm thrilled that we've decided to postpone our garage sale until next weekend.  I've spent way too much time looking at houses instead of cleaning out my own!  Hopefully I can make it there to check some of these beauties out in person very soon!  For now, Steven gets to be the house-hunter!  I'll keep my eyes peeled for some more funny real estate photos soon!  (No one be tempted to start a blog for funny real estate photos, okay?  I'll have to look into this!  Yes, just Googled and it's been done already...too bad!)

In case you were worried...

that our recovering heart patient might be spending his days in bed, missing out on all our fun family activities.  Worry no more, and please...don't have a heart attack!


(Please excuse my annoying voice)  I'm trying my best not to have panic attacks while this kid goes from sleeping, to dancing, to sobbing, to running, to screaming.  My poor dancing girls have had to deal with a moody mama too.  And a traveling daddy.  A few more weeks, and hopefully we'll be moved, and my heart and mind can settle a bit.  Hopefully :)  Hahahaha....

Bee Video from October 1st

It's been a few months...finally time for another bee video!  Narrated by our neighbor and friend Aaron, and hive-action by my beekeeping husband, Steven.  This weekend they also built a small fence for the hive when it moves to Aaron's yard once we move away.  We will miss our honeybees, but our sweet neighbors most of all.  It's been a neat project for all of us.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life~ 
Every Thursday at Like Mother, Like Daughter:

{pretty}

Watching this guy run and play after having open heart surgery a week and a half ago is just beautiful to me :)

 {happy}

first time in a sandbox at the neighbors' house!

{funny}

the boys enjoying some outside time being silly with grass-eating PaPa

{real}

How do you really survive in an exam room with multiple children for multiple hours?  At least the rooms at the heart clinic have toys!

And a really quick update:

Steven Joseph is doing amazingly well.  He was a trooper getting his stitches and steri-strips off on Monday.  Then he had a hard night and a kind of rough morning on Tuesday.  But I took him to the pediatrician and all was well.  Today we got a clean house, thanks to a kind friend, and spent the day at NeNe and PaPa's house.  I even treated us to a yummy cake from the awesome bakery by their house.  We have a lot to celebrate over here!  Daddy went down to his new office this week.  He'll be traveling there more often now, so we're hoping to find some renters here very soon so we can find a home down there and all be together and settle in our new town in another month or two.  Thanks for your continued prayers for our family!

Portraits by MckMama

A couple weeks ago, we found out at the last minute that Jennifer from MckMama.com was going to be in our area for some photo workshops and photo shoots.  We were so excited to get a slot and finally have some real family photos of all six of us!  

These are my favorites, although we're going to need to cut and paste a different head in for Mary Clare in the family shot since she is back in a shadow.  Can't wait to get some of these in frames to hang in our new home!  We are officially readying our house and have a rental sign in the front yard!  Hopefully by Thanksgiving, we'll be enjoying a new city!  May God continue to guide our steps as we seek his will for our family in all these big decisions.

TomTom's First Birthday Celebration!

Our sweet Tommy boy had to share his birthday week with his big brother's surgery adventure.  But he didn't know any better and enjoyed himself regardless!  

The day started with all Steven Joseph's pre-op appointments.  We were in the clinic/hospital from about 8am-2pm!  We got to tell the nurses that it was his birthday and he got lots of attention.  A couple people even mentioned that he looked like a storybook illustration from the books of Eloise Wilkin, one of my favorite illustrators!  I agree!

 

After Steven's appointments we headed over to Grampatti and BopBop's house to visit and celebrate his birthday with the family.  Grampatti took care of most of the details with the preparations and food (THANK YOU!), and the girls helped with the decorations, but I went out and got a few things to make his party nice and colorful!  The girls wanted it to be a "crayon" theme, but it ended up being just a theme-less birthday with rainbow decorations.  Not much time for thematics, games, or party favors this time around, maybe next year :-)

Family members flowed in and out over the course of the evening, because the cousins all had various evening sports and activities going on.  But it was nice to see everyone and have some fun family time before our big hospital trip over the next few days.

 

Apparently this "Look Who's" banner has been around for several birthdays, starting with Uncle Thomas' 30th, which was the first family event I attended when Steven and I first started dating!

 

Thomas started to get fussy, so Steven took him on a little walk to let him have a brief siesta in his stroller.  He needed to save up some energy for cake and presents!

 

Pizza time!

At first I tried to give him a plate with cut-up bits of pizza, but he wanted the whole slice! Why not, birthday boy?

Kids getting ready for cake time!

My four sweet kiddos ready to sing to their brother!

Love this photo!

Present time!

It was a fun birthday evening, and it ended up being nice to go home and rest that night instead of immediately to the hospital the next morning, since the surgery was moved back a day.  We also got to celebrate Thomas' birthday and have cake again on Thursday with NeNe and PaPa.

Thanks to all who made Thomas' birthday special even amidst the anticipation of his brother's big weekend.  I can hardly believe that our little guy is already a year old!  We are so blessed to have our sweet Thomas William in our family and can't wait to see what fun his 2nd year brings!

Recovering

Not much to say this week.  Just joy that we're looking at this sweet smile every day.  This is one of the pictures from our portrait session with Jennifer from Mckmama.com.  More to come!  I am continually amazed that we made it through this past week so smoothly.  It is really over!  After over 2 years of anticipation, we have crossed this hurdle and I am so, so glad.

Steven Joseph is doing great.  We are trying to keep him home away from germs (they say the bypass machine really wiped out his immune system), and trying to keep him calm and resting, but it is proving to be quite difficult!  I've found him on top of the washing machine and balancing on the arm of the couch.  I am constantly telling him to stop running.  We have all sorts of electronics, books, arts and crafts, and quiet things for him to do, but it's hard to keep a 3yr old still!

He's rather sore and is still on one daily medication until at least Monday, when we go for our post-op appointment where he'll also get his stitches out.  It's quite a scar!  But I imagine when the steri-strips are off and we stop doing daily iodine wipes, it will look just like a little thin line down his chest.  We're working on getting him eating more; his appetite is not quite back and he's lost a few pounds.  Today he ate so much better.  He has a little hunchback, I imagine it hurts to stand straight.  Today I asked him about the hospital...he remembers some of his experiences, but thankfully doesn't remember the morning of surgery or his time in the CVICU.

In a few days, I'll start writing out the story of his surgery.  It was quite an intense few days, and I feel the need to just rest and recuperate this week.  It's like we ran a marathon, physically and emotionally.  We've had family and friends helping out and taking the girls to their activities, so I've had lots of time with my sweet boys.  I'm just soaking in the love and praising God for a healed heart! 

Home.

We are home!  He is doing amazingly well for having just undergone open heart surgery 3 days ago.  I can't believe it and just praise God that through the amazing doctors and nurses at Texas Children's Hospital, he has healed Steven Joseph's little heart. 

Thanks to all of my amazing friends, family, and online buddies for your prayers, support, gifts, and encouragement.  We felt so lifted up through this whole experience through your tangible gifts of online messages, texts, meals, helping with children, and even house cleaning fairies!

We are so very blessed.  Thanks be to God!  Please pray for a continued recovery, and that he will slow down a little bit!  We can't have him injuring himself after such a big operation!  We are so happy to see his smiles though, and his little boyish antics coming back.  We love you, Steven Joseph!

Our boy is back!

We had a rough night and long morning...needing a new IV placed, soiling the bed, Thomas falling on his head, early wakeup for vitals, lab work with a finger prick, and about 6 hours of fasting before and after they pulled the drain tube from his chest.

But a visit to the heart ward playroom perked him up. He started painting a picture of the aquarium in there, and immediately his face just lit up! After that he started walking, playing with his sisters and cousins, eating, and I even had to tell him to stop running twice! Our friends brought communion and a sweet book of prayer letters, and grandparents came to visit too.

My favorite statement of the day was, "I can do everything now!" Hopefully he has a good night and we'll be heading home tomorrow.

God is good and has answered all our prayers.

A good day!

He slept most of the day (will probably be up all night), got most of his lines removed, moved to the recovery floor, had a few visitors, ate a Happy Meal, and started to play with toys. He's doing great, my little superhero!