Kelly in NC

~I will be off-line for at least the next week. We are in the process of moving houses and I will be packing up the computer…so to those blogs I often visit, I will be back soon! Check back sometime next week for an update.
~So, yes. That’s right. Our house is finally finished…or at least finished enough that we can move in. We modify our construction loan on Friday and then all of our most favorite friends and family members are volunteering to move our belongings to the new house on Saturday. There’s lots to do between now and this weekend…but it is worth all the stress!
~We close on the selling of our current house tomorrow! I am so excited to get this behind us. The guy who is purchasing our house has given us permission to stay as long as we need to move out. We couldn’t ask for a nicer buyer!
~Today I took Grayson for his 18 month well visit. He weighs 26.2 pounds & measures 32 inches tall. The doctor said he is doing well. He is on target for all developmental milestones. The tube in his left ear is on its way out. Hopefully the shape of his ear canals have changed enough that he won’t get any ear infections once it officially falls out. He got two shots today- 1 immunization and a flue shot. Poor thing cried his head off!
~On Saturday, Tim and I took Grayson to the local pumpkin farm. We enjoyed a hayride, petting the farm animals, and of course looking at tractors. Grayson had a ball and was constantly in motion. We had a difficult time getting photos of him this year…I guess that is the tune of an 18 month old!

Grayson,
You are now one and a half years old. It’s funny to think of how much you have changed since this time last year. Last October, you had just mastered sitting unassisted and was just learning how to get up on your hands and knees. Now you are running all over the place, getting better at jumping, and on one occasion this month climbing onto the couch completely by yourself. One year ago, you were amazed by your feet and had just started to babble. Now, you know many of your body parts (although belly button is your absolute favorite) and you seem to increase your vocabulary every day. This month you added down, truck, tractor, all done, moo, and Joe to your list of commonly used words. Twelve months ago, you only had 2 bottom teeth. Now your mouth is full; you finally got in those 6 teeth that were surfacing last month. You now successfully drink from a cup without a lid, and love to eat using forks and spoons.
My favorite milestone this month is without a doubt when you learned how to kiss! Real kisses too! Complete with a pucker and a “smack” at the end. See Daddy and I have been trying to teach you to kiss us for months. Sometimes if we first kissed each other, then you would mimic the kiss, but for the most part you would usually just lean your cheek toward us. Then the most amazing thing happened this past week. As I was holding your hand leaving school, you pulled my fingers to your precious little lips and kissed them! Complete with a “smack” noise. I stopped walking and looked down at you and said “did you kiss me?” You responded by puckering up and smacking your lips. I bent down and said, “Grayson give mommy a kiss.” You then puckered up, leaned in, and planted a wet one right on my lips. Since that day, you will now kiss on command. I ask for them all the time and love each and everyone! Who knew how excited I would get about baby slobber on my face!
At the begining of October, I went away for my annual Girl’s Weekend. I missed you tons and couldn’t wait to get home and see you. You and Daddy stayed home and had a guys weekend. Unfortunately, you were both sick. You caught Crytospoidiosis the week before and then on top of that caught Hand, Foot, and Mouth Virus the day before I left. As usual, being sick didn’t get you down. From what I understand, you still had a great time hanging out with Daddy… especially since Daddy has been so busy lately.
See Daddy has been working very hard the past 6 months to build us a brand new house. It has been very stressful on all of us, but especially Daddy who often complains about how sad he feels about not having as much time to spend with you. But the new house will be finished in only a few more days, and then you will have your old Daddy back. I told Daddy that sometimes it’s ok to show your love by doing something wonderful for the people who mean the most to you and pretty soon we will look back on the last 6months and appreciate all of his hard work and sacrifices. Grayson, I think you already know this, but it’s worth reiterating. In my opinion, you have the most wonderful daddy in the entire world!
The building of our new home is only one example of the many ways he demonstrates his love for you. I know that you may not remember this in a few years, but your Daddy is the one who gets you up in the morning, picks out your clothes (that do not always match), feeds you breakfast, and drives you to school each day. You have two specific books that you like him to read- the Truck book and the Bug book; and anytime he sits down, you bring those over to him. You love to touch his stubbly beard and enjoy even more touching his chin on the days when he has shaved. When we go outside to play, you always run to his workshop, knocking on the door, looking for him. You mimc the things he does and says and it is obvious to me how much your look up to and admire your dad.
So on your 18 month birthday, I want you to know that Daddy and I admire you too. Each day with you reminds us of how lucky we are and we count each moment as an amazing and special gift. There are many days that I wish that I could slow down time and freeze the moments; keeping our other obigations from interrupting our time together. Watching you grow up reminds us that our days are numbered and pretty soon you will no longer be our little baby. I pray that we make the most of the days when Daddy and Mommy are your “whole world” and that we build a stong and happy family that learns to depend on and appreciate each other.
I love you more each and everyday.
Love-
Mama

Who knew that such a tiny slip of paper would make our hearts burst with joy? It was such a relief to pass our final inspection on the house today. Now we can have the power and water officially turned on at the house! No more county hoops to jump through; just a few more touch-up details and it will be time to move in!

I guess that I cannot completly explain how relieved we were about today’s inspection until I first explain the ordeal we went through in the past week. Starting last week, we began battling with the county about a mistake that THEY made when we were first issued our permit. In a nutshell, back in April they tried to count attic space (which we could one day finish into a bonus room, two bedrooms, and a bathroom) as unheated living space. I spoke to the guy (in May) who issued our permit who said that the attic space would be counted that way because we would need to insulate it. He also said that if that did not turn out to be the case, then to just call and he would issue a reimbursement for the additional permitting cost and changed the square footage. So last week, I called to have the change made. Of course the guy I originally spoke to has now retired. I explained to his boss the situation, who told me we had two options. 1) In order to get a reimbursement on the extra permitting fees ($250), I would have to apply for a new permit (which of course would include some processing fees). or 2) He could manually change the square footage numbers in the computer, but no reimbursement would be given. Tim & I discussed it and decided to just have them change the numbers on our original permit. Apparently this then threw up “red flags”. The county put a hold on our permit and sent out an inspector to measure our square footage. (I guess they were afraid that we might be trying to cheat the government.) This inspection on square footage prevented us from requesting our final inspection until yesterday.

Then yesterday, our normal building inspector did not show up. Instead we had a substitute. The sub inspector was nice, but “by the code book” and pointed out a few things that if he did the inspection, he would fail us on. We decided to cancel the inspection and request one for the next day, in hopes that our normal inspector would be back at work. See our normal inspector has been very accommodating and a few of the big things that were out of code were situations that the inspector had agreed to “work with us on”. (Translation- agreed to overlook when it came to getting our Final Inspection.) When we found out today that our normal building inspector was going to be out of town ALL week, Tim and I (especially Tim) felt a bit stressed. So today, I ended up leaving work in order to help Tim get the house in “code”. We had to put railing up on the back porch, caulk a few holes in the garage, and insulate our attick stairs. The hard work paid off and we passed the inspection.

On a funny note, I guess the county is still concerned that we are going to finish those attic spaces with out pulling a permit. As you can see on the inspection notice at the top, the inspector did mention those spaces.

Last but not least, Grayson did the most heart melting, wonderful thing today. I was holding his hand as we were leaving his school, when he pulled my fingers to his precious little lips and kissed them! Kissed Them! Complete with a “smack” noise. I stopped walking and looked down at him and said “did you kiss me?” He responded by puckering up and smacking his lips. I bent down and said, “Grayson give mommy a kiss.” He then puckered up, leaned in, and planted a wet one right on my lips. Now how many of you can remember the day when your kid kissed you for the first time? I mean a real kiss? See we’ve been asking for kisses for as long as I can remember and usually Grayson will turn his head- leaving his cheek for you to kiss. Not once has he ever realized that he should be the one giving the kisses. That is until today.

I swear that kid knows just how to melt my heart!

Bare with me here. Only 2.5 weeks until the house is finished….
Since last week, the hard wood floors are now finished and the front door is hung. We passed our plumbing inspection and our well water passed the county test. Today they are putting in the carpet and we are suppose to have our fireplace inspection. This is our last inspection before we have the Final Inspection and try to get our Certificate of Occupancy (CO). We are trying to schecule the final inspection for later this week. There are still a few last details that are necessary to pass the inspection (screening on the back porch, hand rails on the back steps, and the built in shelves under the staircase. Now that is not to say that the house is completely finished. After we get the CO there will still be a list of things to be finished before we move in. Most of them are things that Tim is building himself (the front porch columns, the kitchen island, the mantel), but there is also paint touch-up, landscaping, and the installation of a few light fixtures that have been on back order.
It has finally dawned on me that my days are numbered at my current house. I ought to be packing boxes instead of writing this blog right now!
~Speaking of my current house, I forgot to mention that we have a contract on it. The closing is scheduled for October 30 and we are planning to rent the house back for 1 week in order to give us time to move out. We a relief to not be worried about that!
~Grayson is now free of the Cryptosporidiosis and the HFM virus he had last week. Whew!
~I caught a cold this week and have been scared to death that I had cuaght Tim’s mono. I haven’t had any of the other Mono symptoms though and now my cold is finally going away, so I guess that I am in the clear. It sucks having a spouse that you can’t kiss!
~This weekend we had a blast visiting with lots of family who traveled up to NC for the NASCAR race. My mom, sister, and grandmother drove up from Florida. Tim’s dad, mom, brother, and sister-in-law also came in from Florida, although they flew. And then we also got to hang out with Tim’s Aunt and Uncle from Ohio- who came down with two of their daughters and four of their grandchildren. It was awesome to see everyone, although the time passed way to quickly and I wish that I could have spent more time with each of them.

You can view photos of the house and this weekend by clicking HERE.

Ok, so aparently, I am back to only posting once a week. With the final preperations of the new house underway, I am struggling to find the time to write about all of my daily happenings.
~As for the house, we passed our electrical and mechanical inspections and are waiting to get the other two (plumbing and fireplace) inspections completed. The kitchen backsplash, fireplace surround, door hardware, driveways/sidewalks, closet shelving, and staircase trim are complete. Today they will start the finishing process of the hardwood floors and will hang our front door. I get so excited everytime I walk into the house. It looks almost ready to move in!
~We are waiting to get back the results of the Grayson’s last Cryptosporidium test. We sent it in on Thursday and should get the results anyday. I am hoping that it is gone and I can quit being so crazy with the peroxide. On the same note, Grayson also caught Hand, Foot, and Mouth virus at daycare last week. Tim was especially happy since he had to babysit Grayson all weekend. Since Grayson caught the virus they were required to stay home, just the two of them the entire time. Small house + Tim= Insanity. poor thing!
~In my last post, I mentioned that Tim had not been feeling well for almost a month. After numerous office visits and blood test, he was finally diagnosed as having Mono. That’s just awesome since Mono is very contagious and since he had it for almost a month undiagnosed, I am pretty sure my chances of catching it are great. As of right now, I am feeling ok. Between Tim and Grayson I am considering wearing a SARs mask around here!
~This weekend I went on my Girls Weekend to Helen Georgia. I finally get to mark Oktoberfest off my list of “Life To Dos”. I had an awesome time and couldn’t have picked a better group to spend the weekend with. We had a great mix of hard-core partiers and laid back drinkers. I laughed alot and made lots of great memories. I am already thinking about Girls Weekend 2008. ANy suggestions on where to go?

So what’s been going on in the last week????
~I am off on my fall break for the week and am so excited! Too bad Tim has planned all kinds of things for me to do while I am off from work.
~Yesterday, we recieved a call from the health department telling us that Grayson tested positive for the water-born illness Cryptodporidiosis Apparently a little girl in Grayson’s class got it while swimming in a pool. Beacuse it is very contagious, the health department took a stool sample from every kid in the class (and the teachers) in order to prevent an outbreak. Grayson and one other kid have tested positive. This is a surprise since he has not had any diarrhea-which is suppose to be horrendous with this illness. I am very thankful about that; especially since there is no treatment for the parasite. You just have to let it run its course (usually 2 weeks) and try not to reinfect yourself. Now, since the parasite is resistent to chlorine and most other sanitzers- I have had to clean down all surfaces with peroxide. I also have to be very consciencoius about washing my hands after diaper changes. I guess they will take another stool sample at the end of the week and every week thereafter until the organizim no longer shows up in his BM. Having children can be such fun! Anyone else out there ever catch Crypto? I had never heard of it until now.
~Grading was done around the new house this past weekend and will be finished up by the end of this week. They are pouring our driveway and sidewalks today. The electrical, mechanical, and plumbing final inspections should occur by Friday, and if those pass, we will apply for our Certificate of Occupancy (CO) around the first of next week. Installation of the door hardware, fireplace mantle and surround, and kitchen backsplash are on the calendar for this week too. The house is coming together!
~Tim has not been feeling well for the past three weeks. His symptoms change every few days- nausea, sleeplessness, low grade temperature, indegestion, achiness, chest cold, snot. He has been to the doctor 3 times in the past two weeks and they have still not figured out what is wrong with him. They are thinking that he has just caught a long-term virus- but we are still waiting on the blood work to confirm that assumption. I think that all the stress from the house is finally getting to him. He has started to feel better within the last couple of days, so hopefully the sickness is behind him. I can tell that he is back to his old self, since he is becoming very picky about the house again…
~On Friday, I leave to go to Oktoberfest in Helen, Ga on a girls only weekend. I am very excited and cannot wait to leave. Usually in the fall I go on a Girls Weekend to Savannah Ga. Unfortunately the group of friends from Florida who I usually meet there decided to plan their trip for Ft. Lauderdale this year. Since that was too far for me, I decided to plan my own Girls Weekend. Viola-GWE2007 was born. We have 21 ladies reserved to go and I am certain that we are going to have a great time. I wish that I could have seen my Florida friends too- but oh well. Maybe next year, they will move thier trip back further north!
~My friend Katie sent me this survey to take which tells you which presidential candiate your values most closely align. Apparently, I should vote for former Senator Fred Thompson from Tennessee (R). I’d never heard of him until now. So according to the Candidate Calculator- who should you watch???
~ Last but not least, I thought that I would share two of my top purchases this week:
1. I just bought these jeans from Old Navy. I believe that they have revamped thier sizes because for some unknown reason I no longer wear a size 10 (which I have worn for 9 years) but now wear a size 8! How genius of thier designers to make thier clothes run bigger! Of course, I will now have to purchase all pants from them. I mean who doesn’t like to fit into a size smaller than you normally wear!!!
2. I LOVE dark chocolate and I LOVE peanut M&Ms- so it is no wonder that I double LOVE Dark Chocolate Peanut M&Ms! Why did it take them so long to make this product??? Has anyone else out there tried these yet? They are delicious!