Last night we took the first step to improving our kitchen.

Now I know some of you out there are aware that we’ve been talking about projects to do around our house and we’ve listed projects such as recessed lighting downstairs or putting pass through in the kitchen wall.  Well, let’s just say our focus has changed.  That wall has got to go, assuming an engineer confirms that it is not load bearing.  Damion is pretty confident it isn’t but we’d rather be safe than need a new roof.  So the current plan is the wall is out, more cabinets, an island and filling in part of the wall between the dining area and lower living room…..that was as of last night and I’m sure there will be several variations between now and the final result, but not much.

I’m sure some of you are also thinking that this renovation (project seems more smaller scale than what we’re doing) seems pretty extreme to jump into feet first with not much of a plan, so let us travel back to the weekend of November 4, 2005.  I came back to Illinois for my sister’s play and found Damion had done this –

Before - White space was cabinets

During

After

The final kitchen was wonderful.  Unfortunately we only lived in that townhouse with its wonderful kitchen for about 2 months before we moved back to IL.  This time we’ll get to spend a lot more of time with this completed kitchen, once we get there.  So join us on this fun journey and enjoy the pics.

This morning Damion went to run errands and took Anna with him. After I got ready for the day I decided I should pick up toys that the kids had played with during their short time awake. While doing so I realized that I wasn't sure what was doing. On the way up the steps I noticed the gate to the kitchen was open and Jack was laughing. Off to the kitchen I went. And this is what I saw:

Yup. Yet another picture of my perfect parenting. Jack was standing there all smiles saying “BALLS!” Well, the “balls” were from a new carton of a dozen eggs. Two of the eggs survived and will see tomorrow. Seven eggs were injured and used in dinner and a spontaneous batch of brownies. The remaining three eggs perished :(

As you can see Jack was pretty pleased with himself and what you can't see in the picture is that even after washing his hands he still had eggshell on his hands.

Thank you for your patience.  I'm happy to report that pictures from Christmas weekend have put up in the gallery.

Let me start this post by saying I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and had fun ringing in the new year.

We spent Christmas morning and lunch with Adam and Nicole, spent the afternoon driving towards my parents, saw a truck flipped over due to awful weather, slowed down making the last 20 miles of the trip last 35 minutes. But we got there safely despite the icy roads and snow and precipitation and high winds. Christmas evening and the next two days were spent with my parents, siblings and their significant others. Much fun was had by all. Yes we took pictures and yes we will share but now is it is time to share the big deal that has slowed down getting the pictures to you.

On Saturday December 26^th, Anna started to show a sign of getting sick. The following Monday she was slightly fevery and just wanted to be held. At some point during the afternoon she started to have retracted breathing (stomach & throat sucked in to breathe). Since she seems to have breathing problems whenever she is sick we just kept watching her. At 11 pm when she woke again her breathing wasn't right and I took her downstairs and said to Damion and Dawn that we were taking her to the ER. No call to the doctor, straight to the ER. In the ER the second person we saw within 5 minutes of getting to the room was Jill, a respiratory specialist whom we liked and was our advocate that night. Fast forward to 2:30 am. We are told Anna would be admitted for observation and were taken to her room, which happened to be the same room Jack was in a couple of years ago with RSV.

At 7:30 am on Tuesday, Anna's doctor did his rounds and I decided that he is much too chipper that early in the morning. He said tests were negative for RSV and 60-80% of influenza strains, a radiologist would review the x-rays again to rule out pneumonia, and specimens were being sent to the state for H1N1 testing, and that we'd be in again overnight because she needed to not be dependent on oxygen through the night.

Wednesday morning the doctor confirmed it wasn't pneumonia and he thought it might be viral and due to her age could not diagnosis her with asthma but that word was sure used a lot and that based on the fact she was still dependent on oxygen she'd be in the hospital another night. After an afternoon of running around attached to her oxygen sensor but not her oxygen tubes we were optimistic about going home the next day. However the night did not start at all as planned (had to be put back on oxygen for several hours) but got better thanks to Nurse Amanda answering our bagillion questions and helping wean Anna off the oxygen.

Thursday morning when we met with the doctor we were a little unsure if Anna would be going home or not due to her numbers throughout the night. Fortunately after a bagillion questions and answers between us and the doctor we brought her home by lunch time! She is still on a couple of medicines and receiving nubulizer treatments. We have a follow up appointment on Tuesday and will learn then if she is an H1N1 statistic and also have even more questions for our favorite pediatrician.

And what about Jack? Well as you read, Dawn was visiting and being the super duper best friend that she is, she took care of Jack for us most of those three days. Damion & I took turns staying with Anna but we still tried to spend as much time as we could with Jack. I don't know if we spent enough time with him but I am soooooo grateful that Dawn was here to play trains, watch Einsteins, be told “no” several times, feed and nap Jack for us. Not having to find a new “home” for a day or hour blocks was a blessing.