Extreme Makeover Home Edition

On Monday, Feb 23rd, I volunteered for Extreme Makeover Home Edition here in Tallahassee. My shift started at 12:30 and I was sent to the workers food tent to clean off tables and restock drinks. The first picture is the view of the house from the food tent. As of 8:00am that morning all that was there was the concrete slab. When I arrived there was no roof and no plywood(the green stuff) on the walls.


After about an hour of cleaning tables, I was sent across the street to the production area to... pick up sticks! My understanding is that a lot was cleared by ABC for trailers, the carpentry area, and other tents, and it was not cleaned up very well. I guess ABC thought since they had volunteers around they could use us. There were 6 volunteers that picked up 10 piles like this one and hauled them to a dumpster. It was not much fun, but at least I was helping someone.


Finally, my group of 6 volunteers was asked to go to the construction site and pick up trash. We started in the back of the house and made our way to the front in no time. As we were all standing at the front of the house, we thought our job was done, but one of the Middleton Parker people pointed out that we missed the inside of the house. We did not know we could go inside until then so off we went.

The Garage


Kids rooms to the right and the front door in the middle.

The living room from the back door

The kitchen and dining room

The roof going on the garage (from the front)

The upper walls of the "special room." I am not allowed to tell you what that is yet.

After we had completed our duties, we asked someone what room we were standing in and he generously handed us plans for the house and he told us to look around. We saw every inch of that house and that was cool.

It was a long day, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I obviously had a great time even though my jobs were not glamorous. I was so glad to be a part of this process and I suggest everyone sign up for it!

For more information about the family and the project go to http://www.extrememyddletonparker.com/

Mary Poppins

One of my favorite movies is Mary Poppins. I bought it on DVD last week and Saturday morning Jake and Caroline watched it. Caroline liked it, but really enjoyed one particular part: When Burt, Jane, Michael and Mary Poppins jump into the picture Burt has drawn this is the face she makes...watch the video

She has seen this part so many times. I love how surprised she gets every time she sees it!

See Jake at work

Click on this link to see a picture of Jake at work. This was last April in Argentina.

http://viewer.zmags.com/showmag.php?magid=131697#/page144/

Caroline's trip to the hospital Sunday night

Here is the short version of the story:

We went over to my sister’s house for the weekend and I noticed Saturday evening that she was breathing harder thank normal and wheezing. I did not think much of it. She did not sleep well that night, but felt ok in the morning. She was still breathing heavy, but not as often. We left and drove home about 2:00pm Sunday and by the time we got home she was wheezing, breathing really hard and had a fever of 100.1. I watched her closely for the next couple of hours and she just got worse. I took her to urgent care at 6:00pm at TMH and we were seen right away. They gave her a breathing treatment and took her pulse and oxygen levels. The were both good, but they were worried that she had a 104 fever now. They transported us to the main ER in an ambulance so she could continue her breathing treatment. They took 2 x-rays, 1 of her throat to check for narrowing of her epiglottis and 1 of her chest to check for pneumonia. They also gave her Tylenol for her fever. The x-rays showed that her throat was narrowed at the top therefore causing this therefore they diagnosed it as croup. They thought about keeping her overnight for observation, but they said the pediatric ward was full of sick kids and they did not want her to catch anything else since her immune system was low anyway. We were there until midnight and then had to get up and go to our regular doctor at 7:00am Monday. The doctor gave her a steroid to take for the next 5 days, but said she is not contagious unless she has a fever. She is fine now, but as a precaution I have kept her out of daycare. Jake was in Australia, but my mother-in-law went to the hospital with me and stayed the whole time we were there.

Here is a link to anything and everything about Croup. I have also included the definition in this email just in case you don’t have time to look at the link. This was a very scary thing that we went through so I want you all to know the signs of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croup

Croup is a group of respiratory diseases that often affect infants and children[1] under age 6. It is characterized by a barking cough; a whistling, obstructive sound (stridor) as the child breathes in; and hoarseness due to obstruction in the region of the larynx. It may be mild, moderate or severe, and severe cases, with breathing difficulty, can be fatal if not treated in a hospital.[2]