Shower Redew

Yeah, I know it's spelled wrong. But it's in honor of the mold and milDEW problems we've had in our master shower since we moved into this house just over 4 years ago. We built the house so it's our own fault but we really never had any idea what a pain the shower would be. It's a large walk-in shower and we had it tiled in slate. Looked gorgeous for a few months. But then we realized that wet slate and Oklahoma humidity just don't mix. We just couldn't keep the mold from loving it in there! Add in the fact that it was next to impossible to clean and that the slate kept chipping off and the decision was made to replace the slate from mid shower down to the floor.

Here's what it looked like "before" the remodel. It was always pretty dark in the shower but the flash on my camera sure did over emphasize the soap buildup and problems we were faced with!









Hubby and Elliot spent the better part of a weekend in the bathroom with the jackhammer tearing out the old tile. What a loud and incredibly dusty project that was! I knew it would make a mess but I never imagined that I would need to take everything out of the bathroom unless I wanted it covered in dust. That was quite a clean up job!





We have a guy who has done the tilework for Hubby's houses for years and years now but he wasn't able to get to this job quickly. So we found someone else to get the job done. He did a nice job but I would have preferred the tile under the halfway border be done on the diagonal. He was willing to do it that way but when he started it was obvious that it was a little difficult for him. We also decided to go with granite on the two window area's as well as the seat in the shower so it would match the vanity countertops.





So today he finished up, laying the remaining floor tiles and doing the grout. I'm not just in love with it but I think it will grow on me. I do think it lightens the bathroom up a bit. And I know it will be a lot easier to maintain. Thank goodness!











You know, looking at the photos I think part of what I don't care for is that the grout on the bottom half really stands out. It was still wet when I took these photos so as it dries and lightens up I think I'll like it a bit better.

Whaddyathink?

First Day Photos

As promised, here are some photos of each kiddo on the first day of school. This working full time thing is still taking some getting used to. I was so busy that first morning that I really rushed taking pics so I got some out-of-focus shots. Oh well, what can you do, right?

Marleigh on her first day of 7th grade...






Elliot on his last first day of elementary school, 5th grade...






Selah on her first day of 1st grade...






And little Tess, my Kindergartener...

Fairies Don't Like Cats

Who knew?!



Here's a story worth sharing. The players are Me, Hubby, Elliot, and Orville the Cat.


NIGHT 1 - Elliot yells down the stairs...

"Dad!"

"Yeah!"

"Hey, I'm gonna put this tooth under my pillow."

"All right. Night!"



NIGHT 2 - Elliot yells down the stairs again...

"Hey Dad!"

"What?"

"The tooth fairy didn't come last night so I'm going to leave my tooth under my pillow again. OK?"

Looking at me with a guilty face Hubby replies, "Um yeah. I bet she'll come tonight."



NIGHT 3 - Elliot yells down the stairs AGAIN...

"Um, Dad?"

Horror comes to both hubbies face and mine as we realize Elliot has been stood up by the tooth fairy yet again.

"Yeah buddy? What is it?"

"She didn't come again. I'm going to leave my tooth under my pillow, ok?!"

"Hey, is Orville in your room?"

Silence.

"Elliot, did you hear me? Is Orville in your room?"

"Well yeah. He always sleeps with me. Why?"

"Fairies don't like cats. That's why the tooth fairy hasn't shown up."

I'm not sure how he did it but hubby said this in such a convincing tone that a look as if to say, "Seriously?!" came to my face.

"Dad, quit it! That's not true."

"I'm serious. She won't come if he's in there. Fairies don't like cats."

"Whatever Dad!"



NIGHT 4 - Yep, how awful is it that it went on this long? I think the kids' tooth fairy needs to be fired!

This time I was laying in bed, hubby was taking a shower, and Elliot came into my room with his tooth in a baggy.

"Mom?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, I'm going to leave my tooth under Daddy's pillow since fairies don't like cats. OK?"

"Oh good idea. I bet she'll find it there."

Hubby got out of the shower and I filled him in on the tooth under his pillow. I said, "He left it here since fairies don't like cats."

"Yeah, weird huh? You know Tinkerbell? She can't stand felines."

How's my husband know Tinkerbell?



You know, I think it might be stairs that Fairies don't like.

Some help, maybe

Elliot has hearing issues.

We realized it when he was in Kindergarten. I received a note in the mail saying that he'd failed the hearing screening at school. I sort of shrugged it off, figured it was nothing. He failed the screening again next year and I figured I should probably take him to a doctor. So off we went.

The audiologist in town said that he had a severe hearing loss and required a hearing aid. We were dumbfounded. How could our kid have such a severe loss that he needed a hearing aid and we didn't even know it. Nice attentive parents, huh?

At the time of that testing Elliot happened to also have an ear infection. We were told that we needed to clear that up for the proper fitting of his new appliance but that taking care of the infection would not change the fact that he needed an aid.

Hubby was beside himself. I wasn't quite as upset, I just wanted Elliot to be able to hear. But we both had reservations of our kid having to go through life with this handicap. We know how cruel kids can be. It scared us to death.

The night before Elliot's next checkup Hubby prayed and prayed. In fact, he fasted the day before. He prayed that God would heal him and make it known that He had taken care of it. We went in the next day for the screening and the audiologist called us back with a dumbfounded look on her face. Elliot can hear, she told us. Not great, but not so bad now that he was even a candidate for amplification. She had no medical reason as to why this happened. Couldn't explain it. Wow.

The next year Elliot passed the hearing screening at school. However, last year he failed again. When I took him back to see the audiologist here in town she got such a completely different result that she referred us to a specialist in another town.

So that's where we've gone for a little over a year now. I should mention that Elliot has also had some fainting spells and often suffers from nausea for no apparent reason. In an attempt to find some sort of correlation between all these ailments poor little Elliot has been put through the ringer with tests. ABR's, MRI's, CT Scan's, EEG's, EKG's, 3 hour glucose tests, etc, etc, etc. Everything is always normal.

In the last several months we've been treating his progressive hearing loss with a diuretic and low sodium diet because the doctor thought he had Cochlear Hydrops. However, it hasn't seemed to help and at his checkup today his hearing in his right ear was down once again. Thankfully, his left ear is in the normal range. It's the low end of the normal range but normal nonetheless. At the rate his right ear is going though, he'll likely be completely deaf by the time he reaches high school.

So all this background information on his condition is just to say that it looks like we might now have a "fix". It's so obvious to us now that he can't hear. We'll say something and he'll repeat something back to us that isn't even close to what we said. He struggles with hearing us and it's painful to watch. He needs a hearing aid. However, because of the type of hearing loss he has a normal hearing aid will only amplify the mumbled words he hears. Like he needs louder nonsense going in his head. What this means is that he needs one of two things.

One is a cross reference hearing aid. That means an aid in each ear. One acts as a speaker that throws the right sounds over to the good ear. It's not always very clear though and many patients with this type of loss have had complaints about it.

The other option is BAHA, or bone anchored hearing aid. This is what we think we'll do. It's a small titanium implant that is put into his head behind his ear. Sound is transferred through the bone of the skull, stimulating the cochlea in the hearing ear. Then the brain can distinguish between the sound that it receives from the deaf side via the BAHA system, from the sound that it receives directly from the hearing ear. Apparently, the end result is the sensation of hearing from the deaf side.

Wow. Kind of a big deal huh. But wouldn't it be great if he could hear. And he didn't feel like he was always being a pain saying, "What did you say?"

One of these days...

...I'm going to do an entry in here that isn't just me whining and complaining. Promise.

Today though I'm stressed. Really stressed. It's hard being a mom. At least it is for me. I wonder if it's just me and everyone else is just sailing through.

Marleigh's birthday party is tomorrow. I waited too long to order the party favors and craft stuff. So when I finally got around to doing it on Monday I had to pay an extra $20 to have it shipped quickly. So yesterday a box arrives, but it's only one of the many things I ordered. I got online to look at the tracking and I see that it's coming in two boxes. Box number 2 was to arrive last night at 7:00. When it never came I got on to track it again and find that it's now scheduled to be delivered on the 11th. The party is the 8th.

Um, not gonna work.

Also not in the time frame of what I paid for in shipping. I just got on to look again. It seems it went from Kansas this morning to Texas now. Why they didn't just leave it in Oklahoma is beyond me.

So I'm doing the last minute scramble trying to figure out how to make things work. As well as trying to figure out how to get a bunch of junk made for our entire family to wear to a stupid Elvis party on Sunday. If I could get out of it I would. But I can't. So I shant. I spent $60 this morning on Elvis accessories for Hubby and Elliot. And I still don't have stuff made for the rest of us.

Stress I tell you. Complete stress.

So all of that will work out. I'm sure it will, it always does. I stress about it all and freak out and then afterwards I look back and think "what was the big deal?". That's how it works.

But tell me what to do about my poor 9 year old son who has a crush on someone. I guess Hubby heard him crying last night so he went to check on him. It turns out that the girl Elliot likes now likes someone else. His poor little heart was broken. I'm sure this is the first of many broken hearts but it sucks. He's just 9 for crying out loud! How's he going to react when he's a teenager and some girl decides she likes someone else? And the kicker is I didn't even KNOW he liked someone. He hasn't really expressed any interest in girls. He's just a really happy go lucky kid who loves to make people laugh. He's got a big following of girls but until now it's been fairly obvious that he's kind of clueless about it. His teacher even mentioned at his last conference that the other kids fight over who gets stand/sit/partner with him and the great thing is it doesn't go to his head and he doesn't seem to notice how popular he is. So he went from that to just laying in bed sobbing about a girl. How does that happen?

And Marleigh wants to shave her legs. She's wanted to for a couple years now and of course I haven't let her. But she has friends who have started. And more than the pressure of wanting to do it because others are, I think she's now actually feeling embarassed about her appearance because of her hair. She's blonde, so it's not as noticable as some girls might be. But it's pretty thick. I can't remember how old I was when I started shaving. I do remember my mom going on and on about how once I started I wouldn't be able to stop. I didn't care, I just wanted to shave. And now she's going through the same thing.

As I've said many time before...it sure would be nice if they came out of your belly holding some sort of manual. A manual specific to that individual child and their own personality. Wouldn't that be nice?

Ugh.

Where'd I put those bon bons?...