Our Unbalanced, Melodramatic Life: # 202

Our 202nd blog post. Too bad I didn't realize our number at #200 - I could have had a fun contest or something...

The Mrdutts have been rockin' and rollin' the past month. House building, baby girl growing and our Mrdutt family expanding, it's just so much excitement I'm not sure I can fit it all in one post!

If you don't mind, the first thing I'm going to mention is just totally me bragging (well I guess this whole blog is basically like that). I passed my PHR (Professional in Human Resources) exam in May. I knew this test was coming but what I didn't know when I thought about it was how busy our life would be with so many other things while I was trying to study. Everything possible in our life distracted me from my studying but I took advantage of every lunch break and every evening I could to learn the material. I didn't feel super confident going into the exam but the mini-tests I took throughout the 8 weeks prior proved that I was managing to retain the material. The exam was TOUGH, but thankfully common sense and alot of memory retention got me a passing score. I almost cried when I saw the score. Seriously. I was so happy to get past this milestone so that I could get back to being a baby incubator and a wife and a mommy and a house builder. One more thing to add to my resume to prove I actually do know what I'm talking about. And that means alot to me.

Secondly, house building took off in May! Once all our bank snafoos worked themselves out we were well on our way to some seriously progress. The sewer system is in, the well is in, the frost walls are dug and poured, the in-floor heating is complete and the concrete floor has been completed. Next week, the walls go up. Everytime I walk through the floor plan it looks tiny to me. I've asked Chris to double check the dimensions at least a gazillion times and he uses rooms at my parents house to give me perspective. Seeing the floor on the ground still seems so tiny but I'm hoping that will change once the walls and roof are up.

The well truck viewed from the Farm.

Holes dug for frost walls.

The back-end dug (for our master bedroom)

Heck YES our pond is for swimming!

Best place to be on a hot day.

Couldn't even keep the dogs out.

Sewer!

View from the house towards M&D's farm. Gorgeous. All the dirt area will be lawn.

Frost walls buried and site leveled for in-floor.

View from the nort'.

Sewer finished. Desperately needs some grass seed.

View from the back towards road.

In-floor! It all runs to water heater hook-up in garage.

I need to get a final picture up of the poured cement before walls go up! Next post, maybe?

Katie and I went to the Woodbury Garage Sales in May. If you haven't ever gone, and you have the patience to check out 100's of garage sales in a day, I highly encourage you to check these out! There are over 600 garage sales in this town in one weekend. We were on the hunt for baby clothes, since Chris and I are starting at zilch for Baby #2. We have all the big stuff taken care of but no clothes. I got a ginormous start at these garage sales and brought home a tub full of clothes for a tenth of the cost of new. WIN! Then, a friend of mine had me go through her daughter's old clothes and I doubled my stash. This kid is going to be one fashionable little girl at a reasonable price. :)

Our 1st ultrasound (gender ultrasound) already took place but one thing they didn't mention until my next appt. was how big this baby is. She is measuring at the 90th percentile. This is a strange new world for me, considering Mason struggled to stay on the chart after he was born (less than 2% in many areas). I have a feeling we're going to have an interesting labor/delivery. Her heartrate has been right around 150/160 at each appointment, nice and strong. We have "passed" all the prenatal tests so far for any genetic condition. We are so thankful for that. In case anyone is wondering, Chris and I had a name picked out, shared it with a few, but then decided we weren't set on that name. We still bounce new ideas off eachother and plan to keep it a secret until her birthday.

The biggest news OF ALL in May was the birth of little Caleb. It's quite possible I was more anxious than his mommy or daddy to meet him. He is an absolute angel. Caleb seems like more than a nephew to me. Perhaps its because his genetics are as darn close as you can get to being one of my own. Or it could be my insane prego hormones making me emotional about every darn thing. He's just so dang awesome. Konkols and Mrdutts make awesome babies together. I'm not sure the world can handle much more awesomeness but we'll give it a try in September. Ha!

Proud Papa Jim

Proud Auntie I am!

Proud Daddy!

Proud Papa Randy

The newest Mrdutt ladies-man. :)

Our other little Konkol/Mrdutt wonder just finished up school this week. I think he's really going to miss school - it was so great for him. He is enrolled in summer school in July and we hope to keep therapy every week to keep him on track. He also just had his ENT appointment. I wasn't able to make this appointment but Daddy and Gramma went. First he had a clinical ENT appt. where the doc said that structurally everything internal looked fine. On the outside, its obvious his lower jaw is set farther back than normal which may explain his snoring and drooling. She said an option to correct that is surgery but my understanding is a long recovery with no oral feedings and I'll take snoring and drooling over that any day. He also had a barium study, where they watch him swallow (barium) on an xray to see how he handles it. Well, he wasn't too interested in eating but they were able to tell during his "screaming" that his throat does not move normally. Basically it does not close the way it should. This means he will probably not talk. Ever. Something we've known but it always sucks to hear. They are going to discuss options (the whole team - ENT, speech, feeding, etc.) to see what they would suggest. If they suggest surgery, we would have to weigh benefits over losses. Would it affect his feeding? Better or worse? Would he snore more? less? Can we deal with his feeding the way it is now? Many questions, not many answers. Yet.

You would never know it by looking at our little guy's smile that he faces so many future challenges. He is our little rock star. Everything we ask him to do he either protests fully or works his butt off fully. He's got an opinion about everything. Speech or not, we know what this kid wants and when. Everyday he wakes up with a smile on his face. The saddest part of his day is saying goodbye to anyone of us as he leaves for a new place. He is very close with every family member he sees on a regular basis. He is very apprehensive of people that are new to him. He giggles daily, and so hard you'd swear he was about to lose his stomach. And sometimes he does. Its this kid that makes me so excited about building him an awesome handicap-accessible house that he can be a rock star in everyday. I hope I can love baby #2 as much as I love our Mace-meister.