All our DIY projects

We've been busy at the house making improvements, some out of necessity, but mostly just to improve the function of things around the house.

This is our project out of necessity. We had a towel bar, but Lincoln tried to hang from it. So it was pulled from the wall not once...not twice....but three separate times, even though I just about BOLTED it to the wall stud. So we had to switch out to hooks. Hopefully it will keep him from pulling this off the wall.
I used an old shelf we white washed, added vinyl letters, painted over the lettering, removed the letters, then sanded. I also taped off the center rectangle before painting it brown.
**Here's my DIY hint: Hide the stud screws behind the hooks. That way the board is secured to the wall but there's no ugly screw heads showing.**

(Hidden Screws)

Here's Lincoln's DIY. While eating his "icy pop", his fingers got too cold. So he ran into the kitchen and came back with my oven mit. Now THAT'S my brilliant boy!!! Who needs cold fingers!!

In the back of the house, we have a giant mound where our septic tank is buried. I am tired of walking up and down the mound to the back porch, so we used some left over slate and concrete to build a stairway to the back porch. We built frames, secured them with rebar, poured and smoothed the concrete in the frames, and adhered the slate to top and rise of the concrete slabs. The only thing we have left to do is grout in between the stones.

Here's the unfinished steps. All the steps are now covered with slate.

Handyman Josh mixing the quickcrete for the last step.

Last but not least, I had to organize under my kitchen sink. It was out of control and I couldn't find anything I needed. We just had a box of mess under the sink so I wanted a pull out drawer, but the pull out drawers at lowe's were $60. I just happened to be at IKEA and found a closet pull out drawer in the AS IS section for $9.99. It was meant to fit a wall closet section.

It was meant to attach to the side walls of the closet section, so I had to drill holes in the bottom of the brackets to fit to the bottom of my cabinet. Then I just attached it.

BEFORE

AFTER

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter! Our local library brings in little bunnies for the kids to hold and pet before Easter. We went and Lincoln loved seeing the bunnies. He had to be reminded to "Be soft" about 100 times, and he grabbed a couple of them a little too hard, but once I put a towel on his lap, he let them sit on his legs with no problems. Sensory kid. You never know what he will like or not like, but he did great.

We just came back from a friend's house for dinner and an egg hunt. He's got so much candy! I'm going to have to send it to Josh's work or something. Ha ha.

Sleep Depreviation

For the past several months we have been having problems with Lincoln waking up in the middle of the night WIDE awake and ready to play, eat, read, and do just about anything other than sleep. Waking up at 1 am, falling asleep again at 4 am, then trying to wake up at 7 am for school is REALLY tough.

So this week I was able to schedule an appointment with a Sleep Institute in Temple, TX (about 2 hrs away) for a sleep study. We went in on Wednesday and met with the Neurologist for a consult then reported to the Institute at 7 pm. He was exhausted to begin with but then having all the wires and monitors attached to his head and body just set him off. He ended up screaming and crying himself to sleep then the Nurse finished attaching the wires. The night was tough for me because I woke up every time the nurse came in to fix one of his wires, but Lincoln basically slept through the night.

(Lincoln just after the last wire and head wrap)

I thought it may have been a waste of time since he slept all night, but the doctor actually had some red flags to discuss the next morning.

The first was the fact that he paused breathing 29 times during the night which is way more than normal, but the most troubling issue was the decrease in his oxygen levels while he paused. It dropped more than 4%, which is more than they prefer.

While reading his monitors, they determined it took him 175.5 minutes to reach his first REM cycle, which is too long. Normal sleep cycles go from beginning to end within 2 hours and then continues. He woke up twice before getting to his REM cycle and then woke up several more times.

So the first step was to check his Iron levels, which when functioning properly produce dopamine to help you sleep. If not the iron levels, we would then have to check his heart and possibly his upper pallette.

We got the blood work results back found that his ferritin levels were almost off the charts too LOW. They suggest an iron supplement for anyone whose levels are below 50...Lincoln's levels were at 13!!! So we are hoping to get his iron levels up as soon as we can get into the pediatrican's office on Monday. Hopefully fixing this will fix the problem.

After all our appointments, we went to the park and played for a little bit and saw a really cool steam engine to play on. I'm glad to be home though.

(Bluebonnet field outside the Sleep Institute)

Glad February is over!! Leap Day sucks!!

Man, February was a tough month for us. We were SUPER busy with theater productions, doctor's appointments, job interviews, school assessments, and church.

Lincoln is doing great in school, but for the past couple of months I've noticed that his speech progress has plateaued. After another informal evaluation by his speech therapist at school, we found that his receptive speech, which measures more academic questioning, is within normal limits. It's on the low side, but still within normal limits.

However, when it comes to his expressive speech, the why, where, how questions, he tests below normal levels, but higher than the required test score to qualify for the school program. It means that if he was formally tested now, he wouldn't qualify for the program he is in now. Thankfully, he will not need to be formally tested for another year.

Next, I was asked to participate in our church's Stake Relief Society play production. I would need to play a woman that has struggled with infertility for seven years. I think they type cast me...but they promised they didn't know about my personal struggles before asking me. At the same time, I was asked to audition for a role in our local community theater production, a musical comedy called "Funny, You Don't Look Like A Grandmother." Thankfully, that role was not a lead one, so the practice nights required were cut in half.

But that still meant that my weeks looked like this for the past month and a half:

Monday: Play practice

Tuesday: Play practice

Wednesday: Mutual at church

Thursday: RS Play practice

Friday-Sunday off

Poor Josh was mister-mom most of the week. And he was studying for a certification exam which is scheduled for tomorrow. While all this was happening, Josh got head-hunted by a search firm to apply for a position with the City of Round Rock as the Human Resources Director.

He had actually applied for the job before they called him. So, the search firm sent him a list of questions he had to answer and send back. Almost every question required a 1-3 page answer.

He finished the list, made it to a face to face interview, was put up in a hotel for two nights and made it to the TOP TWO! But we found out Wednesday they hired the other person. It was kind of devastating, only because he hadn't gotten his hopes up until he made it to the top two. When he didn't get it, we let ourselves realize how much we both WANTED him to get it.

Now that we've had a few days to think about it, we both know that there is a reason we are here. Maybe that reason is Lincoln staying in school. I mean, if we moved and he was formally tested elsewhere to qualify for his special services, he wouldn't make it. And he desperately needs the help. His teachers are amazing and I was sad to think we would have to leave if Josh got the job. So, we're okay where we are.

As part of his interview, the City held a meet and greet for the candidates and their spouses, so a friend watched Lincoln for us while I drove the 75 minutes to the hotel. Before I left for the reception, I was having a hard time with Lincoln not listening. He was repeating movie quotes over and over again. I tried to get him to tell me anything except a movie quote. He hugged me and said, "Mommy", and then out came another quote. I just broke down crying. I just couldn't understand why he fixates on movies but can't come up with his own sentences. Plus, he keeps waking up in the middle of the night, two or three times, and won't go back to sleep. Wednesday morning, he was up at 1:30 am, then 3:30 am. He stayed up until 7:00 PM!!!! I was exhausted!! I don't know how he wasn't!!!

I'm still struggling with it, but hopefully we can find a way to help him. We are trying to make an appointment with a Neurologist to have him assessed for Autism and possibly a sleep disorder. We probably can't get an appointment until May or June, which is seriously ridiculous. We'll see...

Lincoln's T & A...it's not what you think.

Lincoln had his tonsils and adenoids removed today at the Texan Surgery Center by Dr. Steven Fyfe. We had to be there very early this morning at 6:30 am, but that meant we had to leave our house at 5:15 am in order to get there on time. So leaving at 5:15 am meant waking up at 4:45 am. Josh and I are exhausted.

We did all of the above and got to the surgery center on time. They brought us back, got him dressed for the O.R. and took his vitals, weight (39 lbs) and talked to us about the post-op things we should do for him, how would feel and what he could eat afterward. Not long after the Anesthesiologist and Doctor came to talk with us and come get him. While we were waiting, we found a play room with one of those little tyke red cars. He was driving around the room when it was time to go, so they let him drive the car into the O.R. He took Leonard, his leopard, with him and gave me kisses bye.

About 30 minutes later, he was done. The Dr. said he was great and that both his tonsils and adenoids were extremely large. He cleared out his sinuses and told us he should sleep MUCH better now. The nurses came back in to get us when he was waking up from surgery. I climbed in bed with him and he just snuggled and fell back asleep. As I was laying with him, Josh and I noticed how quiet his breathing was compared to his breathing before the surgery. We were amazed.

It took him quite awhile to wake up fully. He was in and out the whole time and we tried to get him up to drink some juice or cough. Finally after a full 2 hrs he woke up enough for the nurse to discharge him.
He's home now and has been sleeping most of the day. We're going to try for bed a little later than usual, since he sleep until about 2:00 pm. We'll see how tonight goes. Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully a new life for this kiddo. Breathe a little easier tonight baby!

Then and Now Photo Shoot

The year Lincoln was born, we were living in Waxahachie, TX. In Spring 2008, I took Lincoln out to the playground to take pictures for Father's Day to surprise Josh. Ironically enough, Josh found the photos and framed them for me for Mother's Day the month before.

Not long ago, I found a shirt that was made of the same material as the shirt Lincoln wore in that 2008 photo shoot. So yesterday he wanted to wear his green shirt, so I thought it was a great opportunity to do another photo shoot. Our little boy is no longer little. He's growing up so fast. It's fun to watch him grow. Love you Linc!

Here is kiddo in April 2008...

Here is November 2011...