The Down and Dirty

There was this long, detailed in depth post that I started last night.  But that's clearly not gonna happen.

So here it is...the down and dirty.

Since I last gave a decent update here's what's happened.  I think.  At least what I can remember.

We've moved, twice.

We started renovating and building onto our house.  Huge.  Awesome.  Overwhelmingly wonderful.

We lived with my parents for 6 weeks...all of us.  Including Mabel.  The first day guess who was in his own yard cleaning up "pooty poo" (as Freddie now calls it)??  Yep...Papa.  They never did want an inside dog (or an outside dog for that matter), much less when it was accompanied by their adult daughter, her husband and their two kids...WITH ALL OF THEIR GEAR!  But they moved furniture, adjusted cabinets in the kitchen, took on Mabel duty and made room for us.

At the end of the 6 weeks we moved 3 doors down from them into a rental house that we will be in until mid-next year.  And, they are still speaking to us.

Just after we moved in with my parents, Freddie had a little (big if you talk to him about it) bike wreck. Quick trip to the local ER and 5 stitches later and we have a cool scar on his chin to talk about.  Funny - everyone we talk to about it seems to have the same scar.

Our rental house is great.  Such a blessing.  But we have no signal for our phones.  And we lose our Wi-Fi signal often.  BUT...if you stand near the kitchen window, lean over a little and hold your head just right without moving, you can have almost a full phone conversation.

We have not yet moved our TV into the rental house.  Actually a blessing so far.  And because we live near Nana and Papa and their TV, Freddie has not yet missed a new episode of Call of the Wildman on Animal Planet.  It's all about the Turtle Man.  You have no idea.  Just watch it.  I have no idea what this precious child of ours will grow up to be between Turtle Man and Nascar, his desire to be a train engineer and rehabilitate animals.  I can't even pretend to keep up.

We have watched Logan either sleep most of the day, lay around pretty out of it, have just a few good hours a day or seize.  Seizures STINK.  Nothing good I can really say about them and although the meds probably keep him from seizing more than he does, I don't much like the side effects of those either.

We've had a quick long weekend at the beach, my 20th high school reunion, an amazing July 4th parade (with a guest appearance from the Super Noosa Bug Man for the 3rd year in a row) and an awesome July 4th ski show (with a guest appearance from Corky the clown).

Freddie also decided during this time that he loves his dad as the Super Noosa Bug Man, but would be fine not to see him in a clown suit ever again.  "It's so embarrassing" he said.  I have a feeling Corky is here to stay.

Mabel currently has a double eye infection requiring drops, which are SUPER easy to give to a dog.  But she is still the sweetest dog on the planet.  Love, love, love her.

We had to give Logan Diastat twice in less than 48 hours, which we've never had to do. And then watch him sleep off the rest of it all...day...long.

Sweet Nana is here tonight because she said I look super tired, so she is sleeping with Logan.  I thought I was doing pretty well masking it with caffeine.  Maybe I just forgot my mascara today.  Either way, I'm grateful.

We head to UVA tomorrow to see our favorite Dr. Bailey.  Now that I have built him up to standards which no one could possibly live up to, we'll see how it goes.  I'm only kidding.  If anything these days, I am living in reality.  Believe me, I've tried to escape more than once, but the re-entry is way too traumatic.

Noosa is moving along at warp speed.  Blessed.  For sure.  Stressed a little too, but blessed beyond anything imaginable.

My friend Catherine in CA is knocking down barriers left and right and bringing to fruition a pharmaceutical grade form of something she has been working on for a while.  It could mean big, major, earth shattering things for our babies.  And not just our babies, people worldwide.  Everyone should have a friend like Catherine.  But at this point, I'm not willing to share mine, so you'll have to find your own Catherine.

Logan had a little upper respiratory infection that we treated with breathing treatments.  It just takes a day or so of it to figure out we're giving him too much because his whole body is shaking and he's crying.  On the bright side, his lungs sound great.

I have two friends, in different circles, who are living through some insanely horrendous and very similar circumstances.  They are circumstances that are not necessarily unique to families unfortunately, but to watch these two precious, GOD LOVING women shoulder the weight of all that is theirs right now???  I am learning what true strength, courage and faith really is.  And you know I'm not the only one seeing it.  Love, love them.

I was able to help with our church's VBS again this year and I tell ya, it is just food for my soul.  It's like girls night out for me, only during the day...with kids screaming everywhere...and it's at church.  But you get the idea.  Seriously love it.  And it just reinforces how wonderful the people are in our church.  And they are human, they are real and they are beautiful.  It's a good place to be...physically and figuratively.

We have said goodbye and are still saying goodbye to too many friends.  I am learning day by day that just because you don't see those you love, knowing they are close by means more than is sometimes realized...until they are no longer close by.  I miss those of you who have moved and are moving, but you have truly taken pieces of us with you.  True bonds just don't break.

And my flowers.  My precious, lifeline of blue bouquets are still arriving in my mailbox each week.  And now, I look for them.  I almost cling to them sometimes.  They are always right on the money, even when they are general prayers.  There are simply no words to explain what that simple gesture has meant and continues to mean to me.  Every...week.  Since the beginning of this year.  I can only hope and pray that I will one day learn the identity of the angel who sends them to me.  You just have no idea.  Not only do you soothe my soul, you teach me so much.  God bless you with every stroke of your pen.

I was in a bit of a tailspin last night when Fred finally got home and I think he might have been as well. Within 5 minutes there was laughter, hugs, acknowledgement and reassurance.  We can do this, whatever THIS is.

In addition to the big stuff, we're still doing the every day stuff.  Speech and OT for Freddie each week and an attempt (often a very poor one) at feeding his little sensory system.  I really don't like saying he gets the short end of the stick, but there are days that I just want to crawl in a hole because of what I haven't done for him. But we'll keep trying.

And Logan still has appointments almost every day of the week - Early Intervention, his precious preschool teacher, PT, Speech and OT if I can ever get that rolling again.

Throw a few doctor's appointments, haircuts, house selection appointments and all of the other day to day stuff in there and my gratitude for hair color just continues to grow.

Hair color and coffee from my Keurig.  And Karen Kingsbury if I ever have time to read again.

So now, I sleep.  In my bed...the big one.  The king size, all by myself.  Although I guess I should wake Fred up from Freddie's room. And I'll have to make room for the dog. But at least Logan will be good with Nana and it will only be the three of us in the king bed.

Until Freddie wakes up.

What a circus.