I don't fear the snow!  I am parked in the garage for the first time in two years.  Plus I have no where to go until tomorrow evening.  I am actually kind of excited about the snow to be honest.

I take back my post about the house winning.  I am actually winning.  It is just little messes like dishes and toys that seem to make it look messy, but in reality, the house is getting significantly cleaner and neater.

Ava was hysterical today. It was a fun day being home.  She now has pretend conversations with her babies.  She will be watching tv and get up and say oh! my babies crying! and go get her doll.  She plays with her dolls 90% of the time she is playing.  Good thing she got a ton for Christmas.  We have a doll in almost every room.  Tonight she insisted on wearing her winter hat, holding her baby while sitting in the laundry basket.  She would just get in and out and put her hat on and take it off all while having lots of conversations.  She now is over emphasizing her mouth movements which makes her even harder to understand. It is interesting.  She was also doing some sort of dance move in the hallway that went into downward facing dog yoga move (look it up!).  I blame feeling good with jo jo today, since they showed them that stretch to make yourself feel better. It was really cute.

Here is the prayer request I sent out to our church today.  It sums up where we are at with Ava's eyes.

"
Ava is being treated for glaucoma. Her pressures were good for the
first year.  2 months ago, the pressures in her eyes went up so the
doctor added a second eye drop.  Last week, her test showed that her
one eye still isn't responding to either medication and the structure
of the eye is starting to change (not good) so he added a third
medication.  This is the last available treatment in the form of
drops.  There is one oral medication we can try but it hasn't been
tested that much in children and can have more side effects.  That will
be our last option before surgery.  Surgery for this type of glaucoma
isn't very effective, so we really want to keep her eye pressure
controlled with medication.  If her glaucoma cannot be controlled, the
end result will be she will lose all vision in that eye.   Sturge-Weber type glaucoma is very rare, and there aren't a lot of
effective treatment options.

Please pray for Ava's eyes, that they respond to the new medication
and that her vision is not effected.  Pray for us that we are
disciplined with her drops.  Pray that Ava stops fighting us when we
give her the drops so we can be sure they get in her eyes.  Please pray
that the doctor remain diligent in her treatment and that he make wise
decisions."

Drum roll please!!  I just hung up stuff in our house.  It might be a little off center or crooked, but it is up.  (reasons why I didn't do it in the first place).  I have two more things to get hung up this week and then I will be content.  I have some frames I need to get pictures in and will hang them up too.  I still need to get some frames for some wedding pictures.  We honestly have some wedding gifts that I either just hung up for the first time or still haven't been hung up.  Our walls are pretty naked. 

Off to work!

the house is slowly winning

I feel like the house is winning the battle.  I see improvements in some areas but the other seem to be slowly coming undone.  Part of it is and will always be we stuff too much stuff in a little space and we dont' have a lot of organizational stuff.  I feel like I didn't get a whole lot done today because the dishes still definitely need to be done.  I did, however, go to the bank, library, and grocery store.  Cleaned out the fridge, rearranged the freezer and put everything away.  I did laundry and fed myself and Ava.  I put clothes back in Ava's drawers after she decided to do her own laundry.  I got hte dishwasher partly emptied.  Now I stop because I need to start getting ready for work and leave in half an hour.  My crocheting and knitting projects are going extremely slow.  I don't really know if I will finish any of them in the near future.  I need to make some coffee to bring with me to work.  I do fine until about 10 o'clock and then the tired hits, especially when I am there by myself.

the guantlet

My knitting project is coming along...slowly.  I am 7 rows in.  It is going to take a very long time to finish.  I have two other crochet projects in the works right now too.  I guess Miss Ava has bought herself a little more bo bo time.

I just have to say that even though reality tv has gotten crazy, I have been in love with the "original" from the beginning.  I have seen every episode of every season of the Real World. I started watching it when I was either 11 or 12.  Real World/Road Rule Challenge started back up today!  Yay!  It is more interesting than the regular Real World because there are challenges and it has some of the same people.  I love that show.  I can't help it.

the kid is out of control

Out of control with intelligence that is!  (Just kidding, I do think the following story is probably a fluke of sorts)  Last night Justin wrote Ava's name on the magnadoodle.  I asked what it said and she said, "Aya!"  He tried it again a few times and each time she said "aya!"  He did it again this morning and she once again said "aya!"  Then he wrote "daddy" and she said, "Aya?"  It is like she knew it didn't say Ava but she wasn't sure what it said. 

Went to the doctor for her pre-op physical this morning.  She is healthy.  22nd and 23rd percentile for weight and height respectively.   I think I am going to Old Navy later to hit up their clearance section, so I am going to check the growth chart and see what size she will be wearing next year.  She has stayed pretty consistent percentile wise, so I think this will be a safe plan.

The doctor suggested replacing the evil bobo with something else.  She has been very into "blankies" lately so we are going for that.  I am going to attempt knitting project #1 (I do know how to do the basics, so I feel confident that I can follow a very, very basic pattern) and making her a fun colored blanket to be "the" blanket. 

busted!

They are both busted.  No wonder we have a hard time getting Dori to not take Ava's food.  Ava feeds her.  This is Ava feeding Dori pieces of apples.

And this is Ava helping with laundry in her "uniform" last week.

rolling down the sand hill

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  I have been busy.  Two nights of work under my belt.  Last night I pretty much ran the show at the shelter ( I really was the only caseworker there) and it was a crazy night...full of actual crazy.  I am now tired but ok.  Ava seems to be doing much better this week. We haven't done a whole lot but it sure seems like it. I am making banana bread right now (to kill the diet,  down 2 pounds by the way) and the timer is about to go off and I am being begged to play legos.