Zoo

While Nate was in Kentucky for a boys' weekend motorcycle ride, Ben and I met up with Doug, Amanda and Elyse at the Peoria Zoo. We had a lot of fun even though Ben was kind of cranky. We finished with a picnic at the park. The day before, Ben and I met with them and went to the Children's Discovery Museum in Bloomington, which the kids loved and had a blast! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera for that outing.

Our Home

I thought I should give a brief update since I haven't updated the blog since we moved. We have been busy, busy, busy!!! We have been working on our house quite a bit and Nate and Doug have been busy brewing beer for Doug and Amanda's wedding this coming Saturday, May 7. So far, we have painted the downstairs half bath and Ben's bedroom. We spent an entire weekend, with the help of Cary, Brenda, Doug and Amanda, tearing out carpet and flooring in our living room, hallway, master bedroom, kitchen, dining room and stairs and had new flooring put in. The existing flooring was pretty stained and dirty and we are super pleased with our new flooring! It is awesome! We have a ton left to do but we will get there slowly but surely! I started a new job at Children's Home of Illinois as a therapist working with children and families in crisis and I really enjoy it so far. I started work full-time 2 weeks after we moved, so it has been an adjustment to say the least! Nate loves his new job at Caterpillar too! Ben is now in an in-home daycare and loves it so much!!! They have two dogs and there are some kids that are older than him and some are younger than him and he is always happy there! Ben has changed quite a bit in the past few months. He now says so many words that I lost count and he will count 1,2,3 and say A,B,C. He will repeat anything we say and he talks in sentences. He is very independent, smart, funny, loving, and headstrong. He has been sleeping through the night since we moved to our new home and I am forever grateful to sleep all night long! We love our new home and the fact that we are close to so many family and friends!!! We have been busy and had company almost every weekend since we moved here and wouldn't have it any other way!

Good News

I am happy to report that after Nathan made several phone calls yesterday, it sounds very promising and likely that they will get the work completed on our house in time for closing! This is a huge relief! The mortgage lender said that the work can be done the same day as closing even if necessary, which is awesome. We previously thought it had to be completed 5 days prior to closing. The company that will be repairing the septic system said that they are confident that they will be able to get it done before the 18th. I can't believe we close in 10 days and move in a little over 2 weeks! Time is going so quickly! It is a little overwhelming to think that I am going to be unemployed two weeks from today! Meanwhile, we have been working on cleaning the house in preparation for the big move! So exciting!

Sickly Winter

It has been a sickly winter in the DeVore household. Between traveling, stress, moving, and a toddler, we have all been sick a lot this winter! And we are tired of it! This week I took Ben to the doctor because he has been sick again with a bad cough, fever, restlessness when sleeping, fussy, wheezing, etc. It turns out he has a virus, ear infection and mild asthmatic symptoms. The doctor said that they are reluctant to call it asthma in children Ben's age but he wheezes quite a bit when he is sick or if he runs around for any length of time. So, he got put on amoxicillan for his ear infection and prednizone and albuterol for his cough and wheezing. The albuterol is administered using a nebulizer, which blows the medicine out as a mist. Benjamin was definitely not a fan of the nebulizer at first and he screamed almost the whole time it was going. We have a very intense child and let's just say he is a little over the top dramatic when he is unhappy just like his momma. I tell ya, parents really need to stop wishing that their children have children just like them! It's really not nice at all! Anyway, he is getting used to the nebulizer now and I think he is starting to realize that it helps him feel better. He sat on his beanbag chair this morning and did the treatment with not a lot of protest. I don't think we will ever get him to wear the mask because he is scared of it, but I know when to choose my battles! I am hoping that the meds and nebulizer treatments will help Ben feel better and sleep better! He slept great from 12 to 7 this morning, which I am taking as a good sign and he woke up in a fantastic mood! As of today, we are feeling well and hoping that we stay well until after our move!

Moving!!!

I know this post is way behind and all of our friends and family already know that we are moving but I haven't posted in forever and thought I would put a brief update about our move on here. We are supposed to close on our house in two weeks from today (Feb 18) and we are super excited to become homeowners!!! We are having a slight problem though that might delay the closing on our house and our ability to move in to our house: SNOW and cold temperatures! Seriously, does the Midwest really need that much snow, especially so close to our move in? I am very annoyed by snow right now and we don't even have any here in Kentucky at the moment. The reason that the snow might delay closing/move in is that there is an issue with the septic system of the house we are buying and our mortgage lender will not let us close until the work on the septic is completed. Alas, the company that is going to fix the septic system has told us that they will not be able to do the work with this much snow on the ground and it seems that more snow is in the forecast. :( I really, really want to move in to our new house when we are supposed to, but with closing only two weeks away and the temperatures and weather that are currently forecasted, it looks as though our closing and move in might be delayed. This also means that we are going to be homeless nomads for a brief period of time as the movers are coming to pack and load our stuff on Feb 21-23 and our move out day is officially on Feb 24. Fortunately, the moving company will store our stuff in a semi trailer for up to 30 days, so that isn't a problem, but in the meantime, we will be homeless. We would greatly appreciate prayers that the folks who are going to fix the septic system are able to do their work prior to our scheduled closing date or shortly thereafter!

Christmas Card 2010

Oh What Fun Christmas Card

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50 Free Christmas Cards from Shutterfly

Shutterfly is having an amazing promotion in which they give away 50 free Christmas photo cards this holiday season! That’s right folks, I said FREE! I’m glad that I hadn’t already ordered Christmas cards yet! After checking out their website, we have narrowed down the design for our Christmas cards this year to two designs. We like the Pop Art Ornaments design and the Polka Dot Wishes design. I guess you will just have to wait to see which one we order! I know, I know the suspense is killing you! This is an awesome deal and I am pretty excited about it!

After perusing the rest of their website, I am considering getting Nathan a desk photo calendar for when we move back to Peoria and he starts his new job. It will be practical and remind him of family at the same time! I really think he would like it, but shhhh, don’t tell him, it’s a secret. Since I’m not sure how often he actually reads the blog, we will see if he finds out before I actually do it! I was really impressed at all of the different designs they offer, even for desk calendars! I will probably go with something simple and understated for Nathan but if I order other ones for family or myself, I can do something more bold and fun!

Also, Shutterfly seems to have good prices on photo cards, so depending on how pleased we are with our Christmas cards when they arrive, we will likely order the invitations for Ben’s birthday party in June from their website as well! I really wanted to order photo card invitations for his 1st birthday party but got busy and I ran out of time, so unfortunately, I didn’t get to, so I plan to get them this year. They are more personal and fun! I haven't taken the time to really look at all of the designs for the birthday cards and we haven't chosen a theme for his party yet, since it will be in June, but I am sure I will find a design I really like!

I have some other photo projects to work on as well, so hopefully Shutterfly will be able to facilitate these projects as well! I don’t want to give away too many details though because some of them may be gifts. I will likely order some prints to check out their quality. I know that this blog is somewhat out unorthodox for me but it is supposed to be promoting their products and website, so I am doing my best to do just that! And did I mention that I get 50 free cards just for blogging about it! I am blogging from Nathan's laptop and all of our pictures are on the desktop computer, so I'm not able to include a photo in this post. I guess you will have to wait for my next blog post or Christmas card to arrive in the mail for a new photo of Ben!