Updates

A while back, when we had Brinks at our house to install a security system, one of the workmen told us our back doorframe was rotten. When he went under the house to pull some wires, he said it looked like the floor in our bedroom was rotten too. This summer, we'd been trying to find someone to come look at it, and finally got a recommendation from a neighbor about a good home repairman. He came to give us an estimate before we went to the beach, and he's been here all week working. Hoooo-boy, what a mess! A large section of the floor/subfloor had rotted by the door, which leads out of our bedroom and onto the back deck. Turns out, whoever built the deck did do the flashing correctly, so water has been seeping in around the door and floor. He had to tear out part of the wall to be sure the water hadn't crept up into the studs (thankfully, not), and had to rip up 1/3 of our deck to get to the problem areas. (did I mention it's been a mess around here?!). Anyway, he's done the bulk of the work, and is now mudding the walls. He'll be back to sand tomorrow and put another layer of mud on the walls. We haven't slept in our bedroom all week, and have a lot of cleanup to do in there. We'll need to stain the deck in the spring to get it all uniform again, and paint 2 walls in our bedroom as well as the new door. Hopefully, most of the carpet stains will shampoo out. It poured rain on Tueday, and there's mud, spackling, and junk all over the carpets!

My leg is still pretty sore and bruised. My foot swells if I do a lot of walking or standing, and it's so sore that wearing a shoe is difficult. I try to prop it up as much as possible, and am sleeping with it on a pillow at night. It usually looks pretty good in the morning! I haven't been able to work with my trainer for 2 weeks, and am feeling the effects. I seriously doubt I could put on a tennis shoe now anyway, but it's still a bummer!

Emmy has started using 2 word sentences, and counts to 2 as well. (All this started in the past week!) I came to pick her up today, and she greeted me at the door shouting "Baby crying!", and pointed to the room where the baby had just woken up. Last night she surprised me when I held two tigers from her Noah's ark puzzle and said "one...", and before I could continue, she yelled "TWO!". She talks nonstop, all the time, and has such exuberance when she's telling you something.

I found out today that starting in October, I will be able to go down to 4 days a week (32 hrs, not four 10 hrs). I think I will end up having Tuesdays off...no email, no voicemail, no pager. Just Emmy and Mom, hanging out, having fun. I am really excited about it, and look forward to having more time with Em.

Blog Highlight

I want to share a blog that I've followed for more than a year...Anna Wight is a talented photographer, stamper, designer and farm-girl. Her blog, Sassy and Sweet, is a treat for the eyes. She has photo galleries of her farm animals, always tells the sweetest stories of life on the farm with her hubby, and shares loads of her artistic creations. I love her photos of cats & dogs especially, and it's always a treat to see what they name their new animals (very clever people!). You'll be delighted to see what she's been up to in her craft room. Check out her blog, you won't be sorry you did!

Whatta Week!

The week after you get back from vacation is never a good one, and this past week topped the charts. The Wednesday we were at the beach, I got clobbered by a monster wave, and injured my leg. My shin was swollen larger than anything I've seen before...totally freaky! By Monday, my entire right leg was purple down to my toes, and my leg began to swell and hurt. I tried elevation, but the swelling wouldn't budge. Keith left Tuesday for a conference in DC, and didn't get home until Friday evening. I had an enormous amount of work email to sort through, which literally took me two days. I told myself if the swelling got worse, I would go see someone about it Wednesday, since I have clinic on Thursday and Friday. Well, during work Weds, my thigh starting aching, and I was really getting concerned about the possibility of a blood clot in my leg. Our family MD left the practice, and so we are currently without a primary MD. I had a ton of work to do Weds, so couldn't go anywhere during the daytime anyway. So, after work, I picked up Emmy and went to the urgent care to be seen. Of course, the MD who saw me said he was concerned I had a clot, and had to go to the ER. So, since Keith was out of town, I called our daycare provider and asked if she could watch Emmy. By this time, it was creeping close to her bedtime, and I didn't know how many hours I'd be waiting in the ER. Thankfully, she agreed to watch Em, and I was in the ER by 7 pm. Emmy ended up spending the night with the sitter, as I didn't leave the ER until 2 am! The place was packed, and nothing happens fast in the ER. Turns out I have no broken fibula, and no blood clot. Final diagnosis after 7 hrs in the ER was "a contusion!". My leg is, sadly, still bright purple, swollen and hurts like the dickens if anything touches it. Needless to say, I've been vegging today, and trying to do very little. We were so happy to have Keith/Daddy back home Friday night!

Back from the Beach

We've been at the Outer Banks all week, and tropical storm Hanna cut our stay a day short. We had a glorious time in the sun, sand and surf! Emmy is a total beach bum, and loves the water. We rented a beachfront house with 11 other adults, and had a lot of fun with them. Keith's sister & her family, as well as his brother, were there. Emmy got to play with her cousin all week, and was just delighted! I'll share some photos, and update with more details this weekend.