HAVE I MENTIONED WE'RE WANTING TO MOVE?!

You know our story. We've been busy. We've had some good and some bad things happen over the last week. So let me summarize.

Unfortunately, I had to fire another nurse this past Tuesday. Trust me, I didn't want to. Long story short, his attendance and work performance have been crappy since July. He was a no call/no show for his shift on Tuesday. So bye-bye undependable nurse. I'm so disappointed, frustrated and upset. Another one bites the dust. Someone please explain to me why people can't show up for their jobs. I just don't get it.

Thursday we were putting Colby on the bus. Keep in mind, we have been putting Colby on the bus four days a week since August. From 9:15am-9:30am on Mon, Wed, Thurs and Fri, Colby is boarding the bus for school. It's not rocket science. So this jerkoff who has lived here for quite some time tries to back out around the bus. He ends up backing into the bus crossbar on the front, not once, but twice. Didn't even realize he did it. Then starts to pull off. So I run after him and get him to stop. I proceeded to tell him what he did. He then had the balls to say to me that he didn't have time to wait for us, we took up the whole parking lot and he had things he needed to get done. Oh no, you did NOT just say all that to me young man?! Let's just say it got ugly from there, and I'm pretty sure he won't be trying to back out around the bus again. So rude! Seriously, we can't move soon enough.

We (my dad, the nurse and I) took Colby to his ophthalmology appt. Colby wanted no part of any of it. The whole day he had a high heart rate. He wasn't exactly cooperative with the ophthalmologist. “Colby, open your eyes, buddy. Colby, I need you to open your eyes. Hey Colby, look here at the light, ok?” I know it stinks to have your eyes dilated, but seriously? Of ALL the stuff that Colby goes through, he gets a little freaked out about the eye dr? Crazy kid. His prescription was a little worse last year and is a bit worse this year, so we got a prescription and will be getting kid some new glasses soon. Took us a while to get back home, but overall it was a fairly easy day and I'm glad that's over for another year. I'm sure Colby is really glad that's over for a year.

Work is buzzing along on the house. The next two weeks are absolutely CRUNCH TIME! Our priorities for the weekend were first pick up everything off the floors, then sweep and shopvac the floors in preparation for the wood laminate flooring and carpet to be installed. How freaking exciting is that?! Floors!! They installed the teeny tiny floor in the half bathroom upstairs, I guess so the plumbers could go ahead and work in there. Tomorrow is going to be cra-cra busy at the house. The counter top is being delivered and installed. The appliances are being delivered, along with the flooring installation is starting. We're also trying to get the basement painted before we move in. What a difference some scraping and white paint can make! We should be able to finish that up tomorrow night.

I'd better get to bed. Need to get up and get me ready. Then get Colby up and ready for school. Then run a couple errands. Then off to the house to check out the progress throughout the day! We're still hoping to move on the weekend of Nov 7-8. That's our plan, and we're sticking to it. Could it be that two weeks from tonight, we'll be sleeping in our new, beautiful home? Oh my, I certainly hope so.

I went over to the house and took pics and video tonight. Will post some on Facebook and on this blog when I get a chance. Thanks to all you have followed along and supported us during our house journey. Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and man, it sure looks good!

GETTING BETTER AND BETTER AROUND HERE

Hi everyone! In order to keep you in the loop of all things Amy and Colby, here's a wrap up of our week. Oh my, there's lots going on! Most of it ranging from good to down-right freakin' fantastic!

Colby has kept busy. Due to nursing issues, we haven't been able to go swimming lately. This was his first Tuesday getting back in 5 weeks I think. Of course he loved it, and I love taking him. Sometimes I have right shoulder and neck pain, and I swear getting in that therapy temp water helps with it. He also went to school the other 4 days. I think we finally have the school nursing worked out now also. I'm very excited to report that it has been over a year since my sweet boy has been in the hospital, and oh my goodness, am I thankful for that. Our lives are about to get very cra-cra very soon. We don't have time for illnesses! Not that we ever have time for lengthy hospital stays, but we really, really, really don't have time for them currently. We'll be heading up to Colby's ophthalmology appt this Friday. Luckily we are scheduled at the northern Ky location of Cincinnati Children's for this. Cuts about 15-20 minutes off our drive time each way. We'll take it!

I absolutely love this time of year, and this year is particularly special. With any luck, we will be moving soon! Like 21 days from now soon! Holy crap on a cracker, it's finally almost here! I'm thrilled, excited, stressed, worried, elated and overwhelmed all at the same time. We are sooooo close to finally, finally getting out of our apartment and into our beautiful, new, handicap accessible home! Work at the house was moving along. Not at a record fast pace, but things were getting done, so I was happy. Then we got an e-mail from the contractor and apparently he has the rest of this project all lined out. Well alrighty then! The trim carpenter, Charlie, is hustling to get his part done, along with many extra little to-do's that we've noticed need attention. Look at the work he did on our fireplace – it's absolutely beautiful. Everything he has done in our house has been A++, amazing, beautiful work. He's a one-man show and semi-retired, but it absolutely 100% has been worth the wait. Then the painter, Mark, follows behind Charlie and is finishing up the painting and staining. Come on fellas, trim, trim, trim, paint, paint, paint!

So here's the plan. This Thursday and Friday the laminate flooring and carpet will be installed, hopefully. Next Monday, Oct 26, the counter top is being delivered and installed in the AM, hopefully. In the PM, appliances are to be delivered, hopefully. You catching my drift on the hopefully stuff? Everything and everybody needs to fall right into place and stay on schedule. Then the next 2 days, the “big dogs” come back in and do their thing to finish up – HVAC, electricians and plumbers. Final inspections on Oct 29 and 30, then bing bang boom, we can start moving. We've given ourselves a few days cushion just in case something doesn't go exactly as planned. We also have to assemble a temporary ramp for Colby, as our deck and ramp aren't going to be done until November.

Now then, who is available the first week of November to help us move?! I'm starting to pack up some things around here as I have time to hopefully prevent insanity and exhaustion from setting in come Nov 1. We shall see. Really don't want to spend the money to to hire movers, so we absolutely are now taking volunteers to help us get moved. Like I said, I'm trying to get busy now and do what I can to prevent cra-craziness in the near future. Is that even possible?

Going to bed now. Good luck to me on getting my brain to shut down. Inhale, exhale. It's all going to be okay. It's all going to work out just fine. And, we're moving soon! There aren't enough exclamation marks to put after that sentence. So excited I can barely stand it. 

Told you it was beautiful. Every time I walk in the front door of that house, I think wow, is this really ours?! Colby is going to love, love, love this fireplace. 

 

 

 

Took Colby to the Halloween parade this past Friday. What can I say, we're adorable. Great parade, we'll definitely go again. We do love us some Halloween, that's for sure. 

HOUSE UPDATE - AMAZING!!

Lately the question(s) for me have been, how's the house coming along? When do you all anticipate moving? Well, these are all really good questions. Usually my answers are, coming along nicely and I'm note sure. We have made tremendous progress on our soon-to-be home. The property is going through a complete transformation. Before and after pics are amazing, and the house is unrecognizable from where we started. The work that has been done so far is amazing. The fact that I've somehow kept my sanity over the last 9 months is amazing. Now if we can just get through this final push, get the house DONE, and get us moved! Once we move, I'm sure it will all be very amazing, haha.

So what's left to do? Another really good question. We're in the final push. Down to the nitty gritty. Everything, inside and outside, is shaping up nicely. Exterior has been pressure washed and painted. We painted the house a cream color to match the brick accents on the front porch. Compatible cream - SW 6387 - as a matter of fact. And I must say, I absolutely love the color. We had landscaping donated, and so far the company has killed the grass. Guess they'll be coming to do more work soon. The interior is where the house is really looking fabulous. I knew this house would turn out “nice” and “pretty” buy Oh My Gosh!! It's absolutely beautiful!! And I'm not saying that because it's mine (ours, you know what I mean). I'm saying it because it really is BEAUTIFUL! Anyone that has seen it lately says the same thing. It has far exceeded any thoughts or visuals I had of how the final product would look. Yes, it looks amazing! All the tile work is done – bathrooms and fireplace. Kitchen cabinets are installed. Bathroom vanities are installed. Basement waterproofing was completed last week. Donated hot water heater installed. Whole house generator delivered and ready to go. Donated shelving has been installed in the closets. I'd say about 80% of the painting is done. The last few weeks have been a picking/choosing frenzy! We've picked out paint colors for all rooms and the exterior, faucets, carpet for my bedroom and the upstairs, lighting, house numbers, pedestal sink, figured out the shelving logistics, and several other details I can't even remember right now. The carpenter is finishing up the trim, then the painter can come back and finish painting and stain the steps going upstairs. Once the faucets come in, the plumbers can come back over and hook them up, along with the toilets. For the love of all that is good and holy, can we just get a working toilet in the house already?! We'll call the lighting company tomorrow and give the final light fixture decisions. Still need to pick out stuff like cabinet hardware, but I'm thinking around 95% of the choosing/coordinating/envisioning is done. Thank goodness, that was super hard on my little brain. I even had tons of help, and it was still taxing on my poor brain.

When are we moving? That seems to be the $64,000,000 question. Technically our apartment lease is up October 31. So that means a big crapload of work has to happen in the next couple of weeks, along with getting Colby's huge shelving unit moved from the apartment to the house, getting the duct work cleaned, AND packing us and actually moving. We currently have 2 big hold-ups. The counter tops are going to take longer to get in than we had hoped. Actually, if that's the only thing stopping us from moving, I say let's go for it and we'll go counter topless for a couple of weeks. However, we're also waiting on the deck and ramp to be built, and that's the biggie we of course can't be without. The time line for this was originally mid-August to mid-September. Now the company is saying sometime in November is the earliest they can get to it. Hmmmm, not exactly what I wanted to hear, especially since we need a ramp to oh, I don't know, get Colby into the house! The deck and ramp are being generously donated, so beggars can't be choosers, right? We're looking into renting a portable ramp for November in the hopes that if the deck and ramp are the only items we're waiting on the last week of October, we could still move. But honestly, I just don't know right now. The stars are going to have to align perfectly and some major work needs to be coordinated and finished to get us moved by October 31. I can rent month-to-month, so if we're stuck in this horrible, dingy, stupid ass apartment for a couple weeks longer, so be it. Not what I want of course, but it's not exactly something I can control either. I'm very grateful and we're incredibly blessed to be having somewhere to go soon, and I try to keep that perspective. But you can't blame me for wanting to hurry up and move into our new, larger, more functional, beautiful house. It's going to be what it's going to be, and I've had to talk myself into being able to accept the outcome. Bottom line, Colby and I have a beautiful new house waiting for us, soon. I didn't think this dream would ever come true, but it has, and it's been a wonderful, although stressful at times, experience I wouldn't trade for anything.

That's the scoop on the house. More updates soon. Can't wait to blog and say we're packing!

 Looking from the kitchen into the dining room, living room, hallway - February

Looking from the kitchen into the house now - October

February.

October. Is this even the same house?!

KID UPDATE

Overall Colby is great - freaking fabulous really. I never take Colby's health for granted, NEVER. I'm very grateful he is doing as well as he is. However, everything around Colby had been a bit of a mess over the last month, but is now getting better. I know this will shock you, but we've had some nursing issues. Can you believe it?! (Insert long sigh and eye roll.) We've been short 56 home nursing hours/week for 3 weeks. Now listen, I'm NOT complaining. I love taking care of sweet boy all by myself. And he might not admit it, but I think Colby prefers it, too. I'm simply stating the facts here. And it has been rather bad timing with as much stuff as we've had going on at the house recently. Yes, I'll be blogging about the house in another blog very soon. Our one full-time nurse went on paternity leave. Now he wants to move his schedule around, working longer shifts and being here fewer days. Ok, we can accommodate that I think. Another home nurse who worked 4 nights/week went down to 2 nights/week. And I went to school with Colby and another new nurse through the school system's agency for several days to get her trained to ride the bus and attend school with Colby. She is very good, and I think she'll do just fine with Colby and the school gig. She reminds me of the awesome nurse Alli we had a couple years ago. I'm just thankful nursing is getting back to normal. For how long, who knows, but it's looking pretty good right now.

Then there is the never-ending bullshit problems with ordering Colby's respiratory supplies. We are in the process of transitioning to another DME company. It's not as easy as you might think. You can't just pick up the phone, call and say hey, we'd like you to get all Colby's equipment and supplies now. It takes time. I had to sign release forms. Then the new company, James Medical, has to get orders, i.e. settings and pressures from the doctors. They also have to get the template form from Cincinnati ENT to order Colby's custom trachs. All kinds of stuff like that. They ordered an IPV machine for Colby, and lo and behold, it was the wrong one. SMH. They ordered the big honkin' green monster machine instead of the smaller, more portable IPV-HC model. We're slowly but surely getting there though. So far they've been a wonderful company to work with. Just hoping that trend continues.

Colby is out of school this week to get his Zometa infusion. He gets this medication 2x yearly to help with his low bone density. We're lucky that he tolerates the infusion well enough that we can do it at home instead of having to go to Cincy. I kept him home from school Monday so Walgreen's Infusion could come out and draw his pre-infusion labs. Tuesday the infusion nurse came out and gave kid the Zometa, along with a large saline bolus. Then it's best to keep him home for a couple of days and keep a close eye on him. There is a possibility the infusion would cause flu-like side effects. Colby has had a few episodes of high heart rate, but ibuprofen tackles it nicely. Friday starts his Fall break, so basically he's out of school all this week. He's really bummed about it, NOT.

Here is a recently pic of my sweet boy. As you can see, the last time I cut his hair we went back to a faux hawk style. He got his school pictures taken a couple weeks ago, but we decided to do more of a mature, laid-down hairdo. He looked incredibly handsome in his button down shirt. Can't wait to see the school pics proofs. 

Ok, I need to wrap this up. No nurse until 5:30 tonight. The infusion nurse will be here in 1.5 hours to draw Colby's labs. I'm still in my nightgown and haven't started Colby's morning routine yet. More blog updates soon. Be watching.