Adventures in Black Mold Removal!

These last few months I have been sick, REALLY sick. As in I have to have once to twice a week fluids and I have a semi permanent iv, called a picc line, in my arm. More about that later though. THIS post is about our epic adventures in mold removal.

A few weeks ago I found some mold in Will's room. We moved him into our room and called the landlord. He sent a plumber out and they said that they couldn't really do anything unless the wall was open so he could find the leak. So our landlord was just going to come over and treat the mold himself. Then on Friday we found WAY more mold and called our landlord again to say we would be willing to do the demo and recreation of the walls if he paid for the materials. He said sure and so our epic adventure began. Luckily it only took 2 tries to find the leak. It was our upstairs neighbor's TOILET....Yeah, gross. Unfortunately Stephen was right under the pipe when we found it out and he got dumped with toilet water, albeit "clean" toilet water. The more we demo the more mold we find.

The first of the black mold revealed!

 We are SO excited to begin demo!

 Slightly more yuck...

 We found the problem, sewage, yummy, yummy.

 The offending pipe. My DSLR sure does show the poop and pee residue in perfect detail, don't you think?

Day 2 Progress. We just keep finding MORE and MORE mold. Also the plaster is just crumbling in our hands.

Stephen has been doing most of the work because, frankly, I just don't have any energy. But we are having a great time!

More pictures to come!

A LONG Overdue Update!

I know, it's been a while, like a LONG while, sorry. Once I got behind the enormity of the catch up has had me paralyzed with fear and so I put it off some more, which made it worse and so it became a viscous cycle of fear and palatalization. It's time, though, for an update.

We're alive, there, updated! No, no, there's more to the story than that.

I guess I'll start with this past week. Will started preschool at the Provo Baby Bulldogs. I have some super cute pictures, maybe I'll be extra special and make another post with those, maybe, stay tuned.

For the the past few weeks my health has gone down hill, way down hill. So far down hill I sleep for more than 15 hours a day and can't stand for longer than 5 minutes without help. I'm shaky and sweaty. I feel like I've been hit by a bus. So, naturally, we've been visiting the doctor a lot too.

The doctor hasn't quite figured out the exact problem but they have found the most likely cause. I have 3 tumors on my thyroid. A little scary, I know. On Wednesday I went in to get an ultrasound and biopsy done. On Friday, we found out they aren't cancerous, Hallelujah! 

Next week we are meeting with an endocrinologist to try and figure out what in the world is wrong. 

We've been super stressed at our house. Poor Stephen, I feel so bad that he has to deal with all this. 

This has been a super depressing update so to end on a happy note, here is a picture of the cutest Mario EVER! 

 

A Child's Prayer

Tonight Will said his first unassisted prayer. This is what he said...

"Dear Heavly Fater,

thank you for today,

thank you for the food,

please bless that I can watch bob the builder a-morrow,

please bless the food...to make us healthy and strong,

to make us healthy and strong,

to make us healthy and strong,

in the name of Jesus Christ,

Oman."

I love my little man!

The World Accoding to Will

It is amazing how much growing and changing goes on in just a few months, or even a few weeks!

Will has always been really communicative but lately he's just caught the conversation bug! He just chats and chat and chats! Here are some of my favorite "Will-isms"...

He still is in love with Thomas and randomly exclaims, "bust my buffers, mommy!" or "you have a funny funnel, mommy!"

He loves "paintening."

We read many books over and over again every day. One of his favorites is My Little Book About Jesus one day Stephen was reading to Will and he opened to this page and Will said, "hey everybody, I'm Jesus Christ."

Will LOVES to help me cook, bake, really do anything in the kitchen. Usually, however, he ends up looking like this.

He loves it when Stephen plays trains with him. The first thing Will says when Stephen gets home is, "Sit the bum, Dad! Play trains with Will!" Stephen loves to play trains with Will too.

Who needs people when you have trains?

He loves letters and numbers and can count up to 20!

One of his new favorite things is being a "back-pack" on Stephen's back. He gives Stephen his train whistle and makes Stephen blow it as he carries Will around on his back, all the while Will is yelling, "All aboard the dad train!"

He is such a joy to our lives!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year for Valentine's Day, we were mostly low key. I made breakfast for Stephen and we made dinner together. We also only got each other only one gift that was less then $30. Stephen also got me some beautiful roses.

I made Stephen a heart shaped Pannekoeken, it's a German thing. If you haven't made them, DO IT! It will change our life!

 I'm not the biggest fan of this picture but I am trying to get over me aversion to pictures of myself.

 I got Stephen Just Dance 4 for a Valentine's present. It was so hard waiting until Valentine's Day to give it to him. I was so excited to play it with him!!

 If you don't know what I am holding, it's ok. It is a set of tools to make Bias Tape. It may not seem too exciting to you but I LOVE them!

 Our dinner. It's steak with rice pilaf and a yummy salad.

 Will loved his dinner too!

I Put Myself in Timeout....

So another month has gone by and another period has started. More friends have announced that they are pregnant with their first, second, third, etc. Friends with babies younger then mine. I am so happy for them, you, that are pregnant. I am excited to see pictures, hear pregnancy woes and birth stories. I just wish that was the only emotion that I felt when I hear your exciting news. A small part of me feels so deeply sad for myself that I can hardly breath. Part of me feels like I did something to thoroughly anger Heavenly Father before I came to Earth and this is my punishment. I know myself, I can be pretty annoying and extremely perturbing. I also know that it doesn't work like that. I know the Lord is ever forgiving and that this trial is not a result of anything I've done in the past. It's for my betterment and experience. I know that but sometimes it's hard to believe it. It's hard to believe that I'm not getting pregnant because it's not the right time and so much easier to believe Satan's lie that I am not good enough to have more babies, I'm not a good enough mother, wife, or woman to be trusted with more precious spirits. 

It is so hard because it is a constant battle, every moment of every day I have to almost physically push away the despair that is in constant threat of engulfing me and taking over. Part of the problem is the crazy hormones I'm taking to help me ovulate and also the hormones I naturally have coursing through my body, those lovely woman hormones that make all women a little bit crazy. Part of it is that fact my heart is not fully healed from the the two miscarriages I had last year. I still hurt and miss those babies every day. I miss what could have been. I'm not sure I will fully stop missing them but I know it'll get easier in time and when less hormones are making me nutty.

Until then I'll just count my blessings, push Satan away and enjoy my little miracle boy. Continue to pray for patience and strength, try to learn for this experience, and enjoy everyone elses' babies.

A Quick Pitstop That Wasn't Long Enough

On our way home from San Diego we stopped at Stephen's sister, Christina's, house. His other sister, Johanna, was visiting from Texas and we couldn't pass up a chance to see either of them! We played lots and lots of Just Dance 4 and can I say that I have tons of blackmail pictures and video :) We also played tons of Dominion.
We only got to stay for a few days before Stephen had to get back to school and work but it was definitely worth it!

I know this picture is blurry but I LOVE the view of all the boys dancing away!

 Will really loves his cousin Cooper! They such a great time playing together!

We had such a fun time! Hopefully next time we will be able to stay longer.