Day 7: The Big Reveal

In true Wood family fashion, we waited until the last day to do a weeks worth of work. We started around 7:30 this morning and we were just starting to hang pictures on the walls around 6:00pm when Dave's mom called to say they were almost home. It was just like on TV! We went into panic mode. Well, I went into panic mode. Dave was too exhausted to care at that point.

It's finally finished and Lydia is now snuggled into her new bed. To say she was excited was would be an understatement. I squelched a little of her happiness with my "having a room like this is a privilege and you'd better keep it clean and appreciate it" speech.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for.......Lydia's new room.




Here it is from all angles:







There is still one piece of "artwork" that I ordered for the wall. It didn't arrive in time but when it does I'll be sure and post it. It will be the icing on the cake.

That's it for this addition of Extreme Makeover. If anyone's looking for me next week, I'll be at the pool.

Day 6: Hitting the Wall

Painting is done. Too tired for details. We are officially over it.

We have a mountain of work ahead of us today. The good news is that once this project is done I can start cleaning the rest of my house which is a complete disaster.

On a side note, I took a well-deserved break and went to see "Hairspray" with my girls last night. You must go. One of the most entertaining movies I've seen in a long time.

Gotta get to work.

Day 5: Teamwork

We finally started painting yesterday.

Dave did the cut-in work...


I was on roller duty....



Molly was in charge of holding the carpet down


I like the color. It's a very happy yellow. Not too big bird. Kind of a bright sunshine color. We've determined that this room will not be suitable for time-outs. It's much too happy. We got the first coat on and figured one more would do it. We started again at 7:00 this morning only to discover that it's probably going to take 3 coats. I am officially in whiny mode now.

I realized that I forgot to update the injury list yesterday. Here you go:
Dave cut his finger making the valance
Dave knocked his head against the slanted ceiling 3 or 4 times.
I banged the top of my foot against the dresser.

Our main goal for today is finish painting, hang the crown molding and move the furniture in. We'd like to reserve tomorrow for the bathroom. Yes. There is still the bathroom. What in the world were we thinking??

By the way, We spoke to Lydia the other night and the first thing out of her mouth to Dave was "Are you ready to move that bus?!?!?" The pressure is on.

Day 4: Odd Jobs

Day 4 held a lot of distractions for our design team. Dave finished the valance but couldn't get the crown molding transported from his job site to our house because of a rainstorm. We should get it up today and start painting. That's my favorite part. At least for the first 10 minutes. Then I get tired and start whining and look for an excuse to make him finish it. Can't wait!!

I was up at 4:30 yesterday morning with my mind racing about everything I wanted to get done. I had to drop some things off for a consignment sale in the afternoon so I got an early start on my projects. At lunchtime I sat down to eat and was already exhausted when I received a call to come and clean a house. I had already committed to do it earlier in the week for a little extra money but the family postponed it. They, of course, picked yesterday when I had a million other things to do and was already completely worn out. I worked on their house for a few hours and then came home to make dinner and head out to shop for Lydia's window treatments. (I only called them window treatments to impress my friends Robyn and Trisha. In Alabama we call them curtains.)

I haven't had a full day of manual labor in quite a while. I'll be glad when my kid comes home so I can go to the pool and relax. This working stuff is taking up way too much of my leisure time.

Hopefully today we can get one coat of paint on the walls. I'm starting to get a little panicked that we won't make our deadline. Our client will not be very forgiving if that happens. Better get to work.

Day 3: Hannah Montana Free

Sorry I didn't get the update done yesterday. We worked pretty much non-stop from around 7:30 am until 9:00 pm and then collapsed in front of the TV to watch some random edition of Dateline NBC. Not the most romantic anniversary but that's OK.

Dave finally finished painting the bed which I thought would bring us to painting the room. I would be mistaken. He informed me he had bigger plans. He wants to hang crown molding and build a valance. Of course he does. Why am I even surprised? (See #3 in list below).

I spent the majority of the day cleaning out Lydia's massive stockpile of plastic jewelry, dress up clothes, artwork, church craft projects, Happy Meal toys and oddly shaped cut-outs of construction paper.

There were no injuries to report. Dave has never hurt himself painting and that record still holds.

One highlight of our day was listening to the radio. We spent an entire day singing along to music that has never been played on the Disney Channel. Sweet!

13 Reasons

There will be 2 posts today. Our room update will come later but this one is dedicated to my husband. Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. It feels like we've shared more life than 13 years can hold, some of it really great and some of it really horrible. The fact remains that we've shared it. God knew exactly the kind of husband I needed and had him almost completely ready by the time we met. (There were a few things left to do, of course. I'm still working on them.)

In honor of our life together I compiled a list. It's not all-inclusive since I limited myself on the number but I think you'll get a pretty good idea of why I love him.

Here are 13 reasons I know my husband loves me:

1. He always calls me sweetie.
2. He builds stuff for me.
3. He never just builds something. If he’s going to do it, it’s going to be awesome.
4. After a bad epidural experience, he held a bedpan while I threw up in it.
5. He never complains when I spend time with my girlfriends.
6. He bought us a Chiweenie.
7. He returned the rollerblades. (Private joke…sorry)
8. He always tries to be the best daddy on the planet. He almost always succeeds.
9. He’s taken me to Los Angeles, Disneyworld & Helen, GA. 2 out of 3 trips were amazing.
10. He let me throw myself a birthday party which included a limo, a luxury hotel and a very expensive dinner for me and 7 of my best friends. He was not invited.
11. He encourages me like no one else ever has.
12. He makes me laugh every day. It’s not always intentional but he eventually sees the humor in it.
13. He promised to never leave me and he always keeps his promises.

Day 2: Painting & Puns

It's Day 2 of our extreme makeover and we're exhausted. It's not that we've gotten that much done. Actually, we did very little on the room today. Dave finished the bed and got it primed for painting. We also purchased a small bookshelf to house all of Lydia's "sleep buddies" a/k/a stuffed animals. That was the extent of our progress. We had other stuff going on like church and some previously scheduled engagements with friends. We're just spiritual and social like that. I've spent the last few hours putting the final coat of paint on her old bathroom. It was decorated with princesses and was a very nauseating color of pink. Now it's beige and my arthritic hand is swollen.

Speaking of arthritis, there are no injuries to report unless you count Dave's broken-down back or my aforementioned swollen hand. Dave's in some pain right now but that is not altogether unusual. I'm sure once we start moving furniture things will pick up. No pun intended.

Extreme Makeover: Lydia's Room Edition

Today is the beginning of our latest home renovation project. I thought it might be fun to document it on the blog and keep all of you informed of our progress and Dave's injuries on a daily basis. Much like the show, we are attempting to completely renovate Lydia's bedroom in just 7 days. She's actually in a different, smaller room right now. We're moving her down the hall into the "luxury suite". Now, I will confess that we have already cheated since Dave began working on her built-in bed a couple of days ago. Of course, a couple of days in Dave time is like a few hours to Ty Pennington so I figure it all evens out in the end.

Here is the picture for day 1.


Here is the injury list:
Burned finger on screw.
Dropped bed on toe.

Just like the show, Lydia will be leaving in a few minutes for a week long all-expenses paid vacation to Florida. For those of you counting, you are correct. It is her third trip to the beach in as many months. Dave's parents have to take their turn.

Today we hope to have the bed finished and primed. The next step will be painting and decorating. Wish us luck!

Do you think they swim in heaven?

We spent this morning at the pool with friends. It was hot and loud the way neighborhood pools are supposed to be. Lydia was swimming and I was chatting with my girlfriends about the usual stuff. It was all very familiar. Very ordinary. Then it happened. A little boy caught my eye. I sat mesmerized by his every move for what felt like an eternity. He was having a grand time toddling around with his swimmies and his broad smile. I watched him laughing and playing with his brother. Then I saw him taking a giant leap of faith from the side of the pool into his mother's outstretched arms. I saw her cradle him as he cried. I took notice of every detail. How tall he was. How much hair he had. How he pronounced certain words. He looked so big. So sweet and full of energy. And so I wept. Actually, I weep every time I see him.

His mom and I are friends from church. We were pregnant at the same time and used to have lively conversations about how miserably big we were or how many Tums we had taken that day. Our due dates were pretty close together so as time got shorter we would look for each other at church, determined not to let the other one go first. She beat me by about a week and I remember being so excited that I wouldn't be far behind. The next time I saw her was at Rebekah's memorial service. I remember the tears falling down her cheeks and the strong hug she gave me. I remember telling her not to keep her sweet baby from me. I told her I could handle it. I was really, really wrong.

She has been so kind to us since we lost our daughter. Shortly after returning home from the hospital, she sent me a beautiful card and a very generous gift. She's been nothing but sensitive and compassionate towards me so I shouldn't avoid her but I'll admit that I do. Mostly because seeing her with her son takes me back every time. It doesn't take much. Just a glimpse and I am shaken by how much he's growing and changing. It makes me sad and angry and the pity party seems to last a while.

I'm tired of believing the whole "it will get better with time" thing because it doesn't seem to be true. For me, it seems to get worse. Watching her with her son today at the pool, I couldn't stop staring and thinking "that's how big she would be. She'd be talking and laughing and playing with her sister. She'd be jumping into my arms." Then it occurs to me that she wouldn't. That's why He took her home.

I always have to remind myself that Rebekah was born with so many disabilities she would have never had the chance to walk or run or swim. She wouldn't be the child that I envision in my mind. Not on this earth anyway.

These days, I don't talk or sing about Heaven without thinking of her. It's a humbling, remarkable thing to imagine the little baby I held in my arms at the throne of Christ. But as beautiful as that assurance is, sometimes I just want her for myself.

I know it's not theologically correct, but I don't care. If heaven has a pool, the first thing I want to do is catch her when she jumps.

Too Much Happiness

I'm sitting here listening to my daughter sing. She's downstairs with Hannah Montana in my portable CD player. The earphones are in and she has no idea that she's filling the entire house with her sweet, somewhat off key rendition of "Make Some Noise". Love it.

I know it's been awhile since I've written anything. It's not that I don't have any blog worthy material. Quite the contrary. Since we last "spoke" I've worked our church's VBS, been to a rocking July 4th pool party, spent the weekend on my friend's houseboat, been told by my husband that I need to get a full-time job, had "the chief" over for dinner (how's that for a shout-out Gena!) and I got to sing back-up for Travis Cottrell. OK. Me and about 80 other people. But still. I'll find time to get to all that later, but right now I want to talk about today.

We just returned home from a wedding. I haven't been to a wedding in years. This one was Lydia's first and she was beside herself with excitement. It was sweet to see it through her eyes. She was grinning from ear to ear almost the entire time. Except when the bride & groom kissed. Then she made that "this is icky" face. Afterwards, there was the reception with food, punch & dancing. We had a blast. The three of us on the dance floor grooving to "Ain't to Proud to Beg". Life doesn't get any better than that. As a matter of fact, this wedding was all about how life can get better, by the grace of God.

The bride is a good friend of ours who also happens to be the realtor that handles all of Dave's houses. We've known her for many years and have come to love her and her 2 beautiful daughters. A few years ago, her world collapsed around her when she discovered her husband was having an affair. Their divorce dealt a cruel blow to her entire family and left her with pain that only Christ could soothe. I don't think she had any intention of ever seeking love out again.

Around the same time there was a minister who was dealt an even bigger blow. A "Job" sized blow. He was traveling home from a vacation with his wife and 3 children when someone ran a stop sign and struck their van. His wife was killed and his youngest son hospitalized. Five days later he was notified that the hospital had given an adult-sized dose of medication to his 17 month old son and he was dead. This man was left with 2 children to raise alone and a calling to fulfill.

By God's grace Lisa & Ridley found each other and today joined their families together. There couldn't be two people who deserve this happiness more. Ridley said something today that I know I'll never forget. "The wedding was a necessity. It's the marriage we're looking forward to."

The sights and sounds of today had me near tears almost every 5 minutes. Lisa & Ridley standing in front of the church with their children was enough to get me started. Then came the reception. Someone pointed out an older lady and told me she was the mom of Ridley's first wife. Then they pointed out her sister. She was smiling and taking pictures of Lisa and her girls. That kind of love and acceptance after all they have been through was too much to handle. Then came the "married couples" dance. The DJ would call out a number and if you had been married less years you had to leave the dance floor. The last couple left shouted out their number - 62 years! Praise God! Then there was the toast by Ridley's best friend. He acknowledged the heartache they had both faced and had us raise our glasses halfway for the happy couple. Then we raised them overhead to salute our Heavenly Father.

That's when we hit the dance floor. There was too much happiness to sit still. Just when you think life can't get any worse, you're reminded it could. Then you're reminded it can also get much better than you ever imagined.