Hey all! I am still here. I am just CONSTANTLY busy!!! I keep wanting to find my camera and USB cord and post some pictures, but..... I barely have time to sit here and type, I'll have to postpone the pictures.
Jesse is healing nicely. Two days after stitches he ended up falling outside and smacked the front of his face. He came up the sidewalk crying, once again with a bloodied face. His stitches were bleeding again, his nose was bleeding, and he had bit his lip, so it was bleeding too. We were both crying!
His nose swelled up as wide as his nostrils. It isn't broken, but try doing errands with a kids whose nose is swollen and black and blue..... It honestly looked like I had punched him!
The McCallum rescue squad rolled into town Tuesday night. Don's mom and dad are here for a week. It has helped soooo much! As I mentioned, there has been too much going on, and when you add to it the fact that every "normal mom job" (dishes, laundry, meals) currently take about 5 more steps, I was swamped!!
Dad has been busy with Don until all hours of the late night/ early morning, and mom has been buffering things around here. She has once again undertaken the dishes, which involves using a dishpan filled with water from the bathroom sink and setting up on the dining room table. She has also been a huge help just being here with the kids when I have to be gone. Menards and grocery runs and buying a vehicle go much faster and are less stressful when I am not responsible for 1-5 kiddos.
Oh, and I've had my first Christmas miracle for this Christmas. Don sold
3 vehicles on Saturday!!!! If you don't know Don well, here's a glimpse: It is SUPER hard for Don to sell anything that may/ may not be useful later and especially a vehicle if he knows he could get more $ for it if he fixed it up a bit. We were needing to find a vehicle that didn't need work, and had 4 wheel drive before Christmas. We already owned 5 vehicles, each needing some TLC. Long story short, we traded in our
- "Old Friend" (the 96 Suburban which has been the best vehicle Don has ever had, it just also does not have 4 wheel drive, it does have over 270,000 miles on it, and it is showing signs of age like things just quit working)
- "The Demon" ( the 98 minivan we bought to get us through all the commuting this fall. We thought of selling it to family who needed a vehicle, but I swear the thing is possessed. It keeps having new issues, and we decided it would be better not to sell it to anyone we plan to have an ongoing relationship with.
In exchange the dealership gave us a credit toward our 02' Suburban. It is nice. Rides well, has 4 wheel drive and a remote starter!!!!!
The same day, Saturday, a guy from work made an offer on the 97' Suburban that needs a new engine, AND another guy stopped by and was interested in Don's old pickup that is parked here at the property! We may be a 2 car family soon! I love it!!!
The best part for me is that the vehicles are no longer sitting around as reminders of 1, or 5, more things demanding Don's time and our $. There is already more to do than Don has time for, and I'd dream of the Don can settle in, free from the demands of inanimate objects.
As far as the house goes, last Sunday, the day Jesse smacked his face, we had over 6 tons of drywall to get off a trailer and get it inside. Don and I started on the first pile, and pastor came to help part way thru. (Thanks!!!!) I made a 911 call for help to my brothers Marc, Micah and Aaron. They were on their way when Don discovered the drywall was the wrong size and would have to go back to the lumber yard. It was a relief to not have to "move that mountain", but I felt REALLY badly because I had woke Marc up from his 3-4 hours of sleep and he was most of the way here already. Sorry bubbs!!
Thankfully some friends allowed us to pull the trailer into their machine shed, unloaded it with their skid loader and let the lumber co. leave the other load there.
We have been trying to get the upstairs and 1/2 the basement cleaned out because they insulation is getting blown in today. They are currently working on the upstairs.
One of Don and his dad's first orders of business was to get the fuel burner up and running on the wood stove. (it is duel fuel) With no insulation Don was constantly fueling the fire and we don't have a good wood supply built up yet. We also needed to have it hooked up so we can leave it when we go to Michigan for Christmas.
I think we have sorted thru most of the stuff moved in down here. It's all really piled up right now due to leaving room for the insulation guys.
3 big deals:
- I have a stove/oven hooked up. (you can only do so much in the microwave)
- I have a washing machine hooked up HERE!!!
- The water line to the refrigerator is hooked up, thus I am enjoying ice water again!
Once the insulation is in place we can get our drywaller rolling upstairs!!! Hopefully he will be much quieter! I pretty much have a constant headache due to all the noise upstairs. It can get really noisy down here!!
B and Me
Us
Don got a sweater and carried on the "clothes for Christmas pout"
Jessica DID like the sweater she received
Soup lunch. Yum!! Samuel hamming it up. That is a smile.... REALLY!
Don and Princess 2 (with her princess blanket)
Kaylee and Samuel trying out the sled Aaron made
More Benjamin...
