Two Words...

Mold remediation.

Oh yeah.  I said it.  And it is as bad as it looks.

This past year has brought our family quite a bit of sickness.  We just couldn't keep up on it.  I had us all on immune boosting supplements, we eat pretty healthy, for the most part we get plenty of sleep, and I even broke up with Target in an effort to keep us away from germs.  Nothing helped.  In short, our immune systems are trashed.  Trashed because, for years, we've hidden our heads in the sand about the mold in our bathroom.  Until now.

A few weeks ago Pipey was diagnosed with asthma.  That was just after we'd had a 3 week battle with sickness that nobody seemed to be able to shake.  Then we got sick again.  Last week our family racked up four (FOUR) doctor visits in 3 days.  We're talking strep, sinus infections and bronchitis, and evil, wicked colds.  Sounds fun right?  Let me remind you we have no insurance...

Somewhere in the middle of all this I saw my friend Adrienne and she pretty much lit a fire under me about the mold (to put it bluntly).  I went home that morning planning to at least figure out a plan.  I started to search "what to do if your bathroom has mold" and an add popped up for a restoration company.  I considered it a "sign" and called them.  They came two days later and confirmed NEARLY all that I had already thought.  1) Yes, we have a very bad mold problem.  2) Yes, it is making us all sick.  He actually said "it's amazing you guys aren't sick all the time."  I quickly said "We ARE sick all the time".  3) It can be fixed. 

Where it became different than everything I thought I already knew was when it came to cost.  We had always assumed it was going to be zillions of dollars to fix it.  Had I informed myself instead of just assuming my family would not be sick now.  But I've learned you can only go forward in life, not backwards.  Let's put it this way...it's not $15,000.  It's more like $3000.  Not free.  But no where NEAR what we had always assumed. 

Here's another lesson I learned...call your insurance company.  We may very well have had some sort of claim...6 years ago. 

So we currently have huge air scrubbers and guys in white suits and respirators (they won't even walk in my house without those respirators - makes you really think about what we've been living in all these years huh?) tearing the mold in our house a new one.  Woot!  We are staying at Nana's (best mother-in-law ever!) while they do this as we only have the one bathroom and that stuff is obviously not good to be breathing in.

Lessons learned here:  Let's keep you from repeating my mistakes.

- Call your insurance company - it's their job.
- If you know something was done half assed - fix it.
- You know what they say about "assume".  It's (almost) never as bad as you think it is.  It's so much worse just sticking your head underground and pretending while spending twice as much as actually fixing it just in doctor and ER visits.  (just this year!! And don't even get me started on medications!!)

I envision this whole thing to be a bit life changing.  Like every step in the house -post mold removal- will leave flowers blooming in my wake, I'll magically lose 10 pounds, we will feel great, and be able to breathe.  I'll settle for just two of those really.  And bonus!!  I get rid of my "Carolina" blue bath tub.  Be prepared for some "after" pictures of a gorgeous mold free bathroom. 

G.I. Joe was right. Knowing IS half the battle.

JKFP


p.s.  Any locals in need of repair, Restoration King is a fantastic company!  I have nothing but good things to say about them.  If you need their info let me know.

It's Official

Our sweet little Pipey has asthma.  We knew it was probably coming.  Her Dr. has been slowly getting me used to the idea over the last 8 or 9 months.  It's usually brought on by a cold so every time she gets sick (with just a cold) we've been in either the ER or Urgent Care or her Dr's office.  Now, we are just going to try and prevent it from getting that bad with a daily inhaled medicine.  I was initially concerned with giving her something every day but - let me tell ya- that's better than the alternative.  And the Dr says she'd have to take an entire years worth of the daily stuff to get ONE 5 day run of the oral steroid she gets put on when it gets this bad...which she's had at least 3 times since last May. 

Friday at the Dr's office.

Back home.

As my sister (who also has asthma) says...when in doubt, err on the side of breathing.  Duly noted. 

JKFP

For the Birds

Fisher and I started knitting a few months ago.  Most knitters and crocheters know that you end up with lots of little bits and pieces of yarn all the time.  Something about throwing it away just doesn't sit well with me.  (It's only crime is being short.)  So what to do with it all?

Yesterday I sat down with the kids to handle the situation. 

Step one:  Gather up all that yarn, scissors, a suet bird feeder, and tiny helpers.

Step two: Cut all the pieces to 5 - 8 inches or so. 

Step three:  Stuff all those little cut bits into a suet style (or block) bird feeder.  I got mine for $1.97 at Lowe's.

Step four:  Hang it in the yard.

This is for sure our newest springtime tradition.  We'll be collecting yarn all through the year to share with our bird friends.  The birds are supposed to collect the bits for their spring nests.  We'll see if ours want the fluffy goodness.  I hope so.  It'll be really fun to find those colorful nests if they do. 

Fingers crossed.

JKFP

Nature School and the Unicorn

We had what we call "nature school" last Wednesday.  Nature school is just getting out there and exploring then talking about what we see.  It's pretty much our favorite.  We are always on the hunt for something interesting.  This particular day was on the warm side (but really windy) so we let Bob come along and learn with us.  Oh and a little unicorn was in charge of the leash.  I'll let the pictures do most of the story telling.  (and I warn you, there are a bunch.)

I'll take something you don't see everyday for $1000 Alex:
What is a unicorn walking a dog?

Found something cool.

This way!!

 

This is the face we get right before she makes her unicorn sound.

Wonder what's in here?

He's enjoying the adventure.

There is a fine line between adventuring and freaking Mom out.

Can you see how much he loves this?

This picture was intending to show Fisher through the little
keyhole in the rock but it also shows a unicorn horn.

Seriously...you're dancing all over that line here boy.

Hey guys!

Pipes I found something super cool!!

It's another secret hole.

They were able to talk through it.

Adventure is this way!

About this time my little unicorn started getting sleepy.  Fisher was holding
the camera and just couldn't resist snapping a picture.

He continued to snap a few pictures.  He was really into the trees.

I love this picture.  Fisher took it very deliberately.  He wanted
 to get the sun through the tree.  He succeeded and I'm going to frame it.

I had loaded Pipey onto my back at this point so Fisher was
helping out with the camera bag.

But he took a picture of me with a sleepy unicorn on my back.

Heading back to the car.

This is where the pictures stopped.  It's not so easy to take pictures with a 3 year old unicorn on your back.  Nature school was so much fun we went back a couple days later with Ruby.  I'll have to show you those pictures too. 

JKFP & Bob