Bathroom "progress"

Been wondering why there are no posts lately? Well, it's certainly not because we've been putting so much time into the bathroom...

One of the next steps that Matt wants to tackle is opening up the old bathroom to the new one so we have a large enough opening to move supplies in as we work on finishing the new one (which is currently just the open studs.) The final roof membrane was finally installed two weeks ago, and is working great, except for one leak around the scupper, which was the wrong size, so we're not surprised that it leaks there - with a correct one in there, it should be fine.

So, pretty much all that's happened on the bathroom in the last two weeks is this:

Before:

The window on the left is where the new door into the new bathroom will be.

After:

What? You can't tell the difference? Look a little closer - see, that shelf has to be removed before Matt can cut the new opening in the wall. I worked on cleaning it off the other night!!! (You have to look really closely, but there are fewer things on the shelf in the "after" photo.)

Many hands makes light work

There's no way we would have attempted a trip to the Zoo without some extra help. With my mom still in town, we decided to get out last week, and asked Rose if she could adjust her hours to come along with us, too. My sister gave us a "family membership plus one" for Christmas, so this was perfect. Owen decided to stay home this time around, which in meant that he was able to help Matt's mom with her diabetes medication at lunch time, so everyone was covered.

Right inside the gates are the Japanese snow monkeys. You could almost make the argument that it's worth a trip to the Zoo even if all you do is watch the monkeys and then go home. We had a Zoo membership for a few years when Owen and Leah were younger, but I don't think Evania had ever been here before, and certainly not Gloria. Bobbi had been to the zoo in Sofia, but that was quite a few years ago. There were shrieks of delight coming from both our youngest and oldest daughters. ;)

At the center of the Zoo is a large water feature. We ended our day here (photos coming later in the post), but Krassi took a quick ride through with Rose both to cool off, and for something fun because looking at stuff just isn't his thing.

Mira did quite well. I often wondered what people thought as they walked past us and the poor girl was often far from the exhibits...and often facing in the wrong direction to even see any animals! But is it right to, for appearances sake, move my blind and deaf daughter to where it looks like she's actively engaged?

It was hot. The bears were sleeping.

This summer there was an Australian exhibit.

Rinnah and Evania

Bobbi and Leah

Grandma F and Gloria

The camel was WAY cool!! He was not actually there for petting, for was giving rides for $5 a piece. We don't do $5 each rides with ten kids, even if not all of them are interested in riding! But since no one was in line, we got to spend some good time petting the camel.

He was a very personable camel. (Not that I've known a lot of camels!)

A distant moment of Leah soothingly scratching the back of Bobbi's head.

There was a new l-a-r-g-e climbing area since the last time we'd been at the Zoo. Leah single-handedly helped Reuben (green shirt at the very top), Evania (can't see her), Rinnah, and Gloria (who she's carrying) get all the way up.

Rose and Krassi had skipped the Australian animals because Krassi really isn't all that into looking at...anything...but he did really enjoy getting out of his chair and crawling around in the sand for a while!

Reuben making music:

This was part of the play area - a pile of logs! "Look mom, we're just like the monkeys!"

Time for picnic lunch. Five sisters eating together:

Eben wasn't too interested in the zoo, either, and slept through most of it!

Here's Leah trying to get Krassi interested in some cotton candy.

We have taken many photos on these tiger statues!

Four girls today

And ten years ago - Leah at just over a year old!

The seals were really neat to watch. We did not go up to the top observation arena, but did enjoy watching him playing with his baited ball from below.

Love this one of the two girls together - they look so much like they're enjoying the moment together.

On the way out, we caught some photos with the wolf statues, too.

Tiny porky Eben with Dad.

All of the big kids are able to help us out making the day work. Here Rinnah's got Mira. When everyone does what they can do, we can make a fun day like this work out pleasantly for everyone!

Our first-born daughter

There is no "middle child" syndrome in a crazy family like ours. (Either that, or all we've got is middle children!!) It's all in how you count - middle child by age? By family order? By developmental age equivalence? But there are definitely some places in the family that are important - both Owen and Leah know that although their place as "oldest child" and "oldest daughter" have been taken over by others (Krassi and Bobbi are both older than Owen, and Mira and Bobbi are both sisters older than Leah), they are still our first born and first daughter, and those are special places that won't ever be taken away.

We are so grateful every day for this precious girl. She has, from a very young age, shown a very generous heart and a natural ability to anticipate and meet the needs of those around her. For years I've considered her my "right-hand woman" and she's only eleven years old now!

She's not even two and a half in this photo with her newborn brother Reuben, and you can tell she's very much in her element.

Leah and Reuben

Not to pick on Gloria (too much), but here's a photo of Gloria holding Eben for comparison. Gloria absolutely loves holding Eben ("Mine baby! Only mine, mine, mine! Me hold Eben?") but there's a definite difference in quality.

Gloria and Eben (and mom)

Here is Leah at age seven with Evania.

And a few days ago with Eben. She is so much in her element - it's second nature to her. So much so that if Matt's having a hard time getting Eb to sleep, he will pass him over to Leah, because she's just got a knack for it!

And it's not only the baby thing, either. She is the little matriarch of the stair-step of little girls that follow her around every single day.

She can handle so many things with a beautifully calm presence of mind. I remember one day when she was five, Reuben was three, and Rinnah was a year old that I had her sit with the younger two while I ran down to take a shower. She came down as soon as she heard the water turn off to let me know that Reuben had had a seizure while I was in the shower (and this was back when day time seizures were not a common thing for him), and she calmly explained to me how she'd seen his arm coming up (the tonic phase) so she'd grabbed him before he could fall off his chair, and had moved him to a safe place on the floor, and stayed with him until it was over, but didn't want to interrupt my shower, so waited until I had finished to let me know. She has taken so much of this life in stride. To honor her incredible responsibility in this area, we have given her the gift of a babysitter's training class next weekend, telling her that she will be a great babysitter for other families - and that the course should fill in the gaps between the basic "play with little kids" skills and the "seizure management and g-tube care" skills that she's learned in our family. :)

We don't get to do it as often as we would like, but I love it when she and I have the chance to spend time together just enjoying each other's company - letting her just be a little girl! One of our favorite things to do together is play Boggle. She enjoys words and writing, and has loved the game since we started playing it together when she was seven or eight years old. She has shown admirable tenacity, requesting the game herself and playing with determination despite losing to me over and over and over again. I told her right away that I wasn't going to "go easy" on her, but was going to play the game the same way I would play if I were playing it against other grownups. That way she would know that when she DID beat me, she had done it fair and square. Well, after years of toughing it out and getting beaten time after time, she got me good just a few weeks before Eben was born. I was so proud of her, not only for winning that game, but for the years of toughing it out to get there!

Well, as it turns out, she's not only a great help with the kids, but she's getting big and strong enough that she's able to be of help to Dad, too, when Owen's gone. This morning Matt's goal for the day was to get the siding boards onto the bathroom in anticipation of the roof membrane getting installed Monday or Tuesday. (That membrane has to wrap over the siding up at the parapet edge.)

Carrying the pre-drilled 4'x10' board...

...around the other side of the new bathroom (you can see two of the sheets already up on the east side facing us).

Daddy can lift these things on his own, it's just much easier to do the distance carrying with help from Leah.

However, when he inadvertently kicked over the box of screws and the impact driver, she, without being asked, stooped down (Gloria in hand), to pick it back up...

...gather all the screws that had fallen...

...and have it all ready for Dad to get the sheet secured up there.

By the end of the day, Matt had all three sides done minus one skinny strip on each that will need to be ripped, and on two sides, scribed around the profile of the existing house. Not too bad. We are sure proud of the young woman our first-born daughter is growing up to be.

18 years and 1 day...

...since Matt and I were married!

Our annual anniversary family photo happened the day after our anniversary...and was taken at the county fair...but here we all are!

I will have more to post on Eben's adventures, but for now its sufficient to say that they're sufficiently boring, and we don't mind boring! Hoping to share more about our day at the fair, too, but not tonight!

Bed, here we come.