VBS, kid stuff, remodel and a hit and run

How do you like the dent in my car? I couldn't even open the driver side door. Thanks hit and run driver...whoever you are!
In this picture the house is almost done with paint. Concrete gets poured in the front and back next week.

Finished paint in the back. They are still rebuilding our small balcony off of the top window...our master bedroom.

Well, we made it through VBS week. I taught the kindergarden class. They were a busy bunch, but overall great. I worked with some fabulous volunteers this year, which is always a blessing. Evan was in a 3 year old class, and Grace was with the 4 year old Preschool class. She suffered a little anxiety being away from me, so the last 2 days she spent in my kindergarden class with me. She did just fine with them, as she is just as tall or taller than most of them. I am not sure what the problem was exactly, and it may be that she was just overtired.

This week, painting started on the outside of our home. For those of you who are interested, I did go with my first color choices, and we really love it. The colors looks beautiful together. They are finishing the trim on the inside, which will be great, so we can get our blinds back up, and keep it darker in the house. As I am writing this, paint is being finished on the outside. In the meantime this weekend we have to move rose bushes that we have in our front yard. I am not sure that they will transplant well, since they are really established where they are. We are pouring concrete steps in the front, and we are pouring our cement pad in the back next week. It is starting to look like a new house on the outside, which is very exciting.

My Monday did not start off well this week. The kids and I all have colds from VBS, and the Camry that I drive was sitting across the street from our house since we are unable to access our driveway most of the time. Well, someone decided that it would be neat to run into our car and drive away. So now it is in the shop for the next 2 weeks. It actually was only $1800 in damage, which was surprising. I am thankful for a low deductible. The good news is we got a fun rental car to drive; a 2008 Toyota 4-Runner.

All is going well with Evan. We did a barium swallow test this week. They actually did most of the barium up in his nose. (they took a video of him talking and crying) He screamed and cried and it is not easy to watch, but his speech pathologist thinks that they got enough information about what his palate is doing. She seemed to indicate that it was too short, so they would make it longer in a surgery. I am not sure what this entails, but I hope to learn more at his appointment next week. I will be thrilled if we can do his surgery sooner than later. He also went to his Physical therapist. She said that she had never seen as much improvement in her life with the range of motion in Evans legs in this short of time. We are to keep up our stretching, and incorporate some new stuff at home too. If it does not help, then we will consider Botox shots in a few months, to help relax the muscles in his legs and help keep him flat on his feet.

We had a bit of a crazy week, but it has ended well with the good news about Evan, and David also received the promotion at work he was hoping for. Tomorrow we will be heading to the beach for some much needed family time. We are looking forward to some downtime with the kids. Until next time.....

Zappos

When David was in China, one of the women he was traveling with was over six feet tall. People stopped to look at her all the time and even took pictures of her and with her, since it is so rare to see a woman that tall in China. Somehow the subject of finding clothes and shoes that fit a woman that tall came up. In China, she was able to get a ton of suits and shirts tailor made for less than the cost of buying cheap clothes here. Anyway, she told David about a great website that I was so excited about www.zappos.com For those of you with big feet, or just a hard time finding shoes that fit, this is the answer. The shipping is FREE both ways. They have every size you can imagine. I was even able to find some Striderite shoes on there for Evan in the color I want. I am pretty limited to what I can buy him with his extra wide feet and his foot braces. We have to go up one full size when we buy for him, and if I get any kind of velcro, I have to take it to a shoe repair place to get longer velcro. So far, I think the tie is our best option. I was looking for a brown shoe for the fall, and I found a pair, which is the same price as what I pay in the store, but Zappos has it in stock. For me, I am thrilled because I know what brands fit me usually, but sometimes shoe shopping is not an easy task since my feet are over size 10, there is not as much of a selection out there, even at Nordstrom. (which is where I usually have the best luck) So Zappos it is...my new favorite online store for shoes. Check it out!