Charlotte and House Addition

It has been so long since I updated the blog...so sorry.  We absolutely love Charlotte so far!  What a great city to live in!  It is big enough to have everything you need; restaurants, shopping, arts/culture, museums, professional sports, etc., but not so big where you have to drive an hour, and in traffic, to get there!  We really like our neighborhood and have met some great people here.  We knew a few people before we moved through the non-profit organization we became involved with, Charlotte Bridge Home, which has been really nice.  Cohen is in preschool three days a week at a local church and he loves it!!  He always tells us how much he loves "Ms. Dana" and "Ms. Ashwee" (Cohen is not saying his "l's" very well yet!).  I am working 3 days a week for a home health pediatric company where I make my own schedule which is awesome because I am still able to work but also able to spend time with Cohen.

Adam is keeping Cohen on the days that I am working, going to some VA appointments, staying on top our house addition and still trying to figure out what he wants to do next in life.  He is not doing anymore therapy with the VA but is going for some specialty appointments such as a vision specialist, audiologist and PM&R physician (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) for his vision and hearing issues and some on-going neck/shoulder pain and headaches.  He also sees a case manager and social worker at two different VA's in North Carolina.  The VA system in North Carolina has done a fantastic job so far with Adam's medical care.  Because Adam's injury was so severe and he was at the Tampa VA Polytrauma Center he is now a part of the Polytrauma team in the VA system and is seen at the Polytrauma clinic at the VA.  The VA sees Veterans on a "tier system", so people highest on the tier get priority medical care which is where Adam has been placed, probably part of the reason his care has been so good thus far.

Onto the house...When we bought our house in Charlotte we planned on doing an addition at some point in time.  We bought in a great location where renovations and additions are very common and people often add on entire stories to the older homes built in the 30's, 40's, 50's.  Adam wanted to do to the addition right away, which is typical of Adam and his personality, and would have done it before we moved in if possible.  Me on the other hand wanted to wait, live in the house for a little while (a few months, year) then add on, which is typical of my personality!  However, after we got moved in and semi-unpacked I decided I was ready to get started with our addition, so of course Adam was on board.  So now we are in the beginning stages of adding on a master suite and a laundry room, about 650 square feet, and are so excited about our new space!!  It is definitely going to be a process and we will be living in chaos for a while but will definitely be worth it in the end.  The entire process is suppose to take 4-5 months depending on weather.

The first step of the addition was to clear out our backyard.  We love having trees in the yard (which is one of the things Charlotte is known for); however, the people who lived here before apparently never did any yard work so the back yard was like a forest.  Cohen and Cooper absolutely love the yard but we had to have a lot of trees cut down in order to clear out enough space for the new part of the house.  It took them two full days to cut down all the trees and Cohen was completely amazed and pretty much stared out the window, watching the men climb up the trees and cut them down for two days.  Great entertainment!  Here are a couple of before and after pictures of the yard.

Before, with the trees:

After the trees are gone:

 Starting to dig the crawl space:

Now that the "working men," as Cohen calls them, are here everyday he is not as interested in watching them, so not as entertaining as it was with cutting down the trees.  They are doing work almost everyday right outside of Cohen's room during his nap time and he goes to sleep and sleeps right through it for 2-3 hours! 


Framing completed:

Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas this year!  I did not do too much decorating at our new house seeing as I barely had boxes unpacked, but I managed to get a few things up.  Here is Cohen with our stockings...

And our newly decorated Christmas tree...

And then the tree a couple of days later after Cohen pulled it over, broke most of the ornaments and a few of the branches!  Luckily the tree did not fall on him but it did leave a huge mess to clean up.  I think it scared him more them anything.  We did not try to salvage the tree since we were going to Georgia for Christmas anyway.

 

Cohen was very "into" Santa this year and was not scared of him at all!  He actually talked to Santa and told him he wanted "presents" for Christmas.

A big tradition in Atlanta is to ride the "Pink Pig" around Christmas time so we took Cohen for the first time this year and he had a great time.  It's not quite as exciting as it was when I was growing up when the Pink Pig was downtown Atlanta on top of the Rich's building overlooking the city and you could see the Rich's tree.  Now it's on top of the Lenox Mall parking deck (??), but it's still exciting for the kiddos!

We went to parents house in Atlanta for Christmas and stayed for about 6 days.  It was great to spend some time with family!  On Christmas morning Cohen came in our room and said "Merry Christmas Mommy and Daddy" (so sweet) then went downstairs and looked to make sure Santa ate his milk and cookies!  Luckily my mom remembered to eat them and left a note from Santa to Cohen. 

Christmas morning...

New jumpy house (thanks Maggie for the idea).  Cohen loves it and it gets rid of so much energy!!

Christmas at my Grandparents house...

Cohen the astronaut...

 

Christmas, round 3, with my mom's side of the family...

 

 

ADORABLE truck my Aunt Gayle and Uncle Jerry gave Cohen for Christmas...

 

Standing on his big new truck....

 

Thanksgiving

These past few weeks have been a little crazy and busy, and so was our Thanksgiving, but we are finally moved and somewhat settled in our new house :)  We closed on the house in Clarksville on Tuesday the 15th of November, drove to GA to parents house late that night and spent about 5 days with them.  Then Adam and I drove to Charlotte (we left Cohen and Cooper with my parents) on Sunday the 20th and closed on the new house on Monday.  Our goods were delivered on Tuesday and the movers were at our house until 1:30 AM!  We did very minimal unpacking then left to go to Atlanta on Wednesday for Thanksgiving.  Adam's mother flew into Atlanta from Colorado Springs to join us for Thanksgiving at my parent's house and we all had a great time!  This was the first year my mother cooked Thanksgiving dinner instead of my Grandmother since my Grandmother had broken her hip twice last year and is not able to cook a large meal anymore.  My mom did a great job and we all ate way too much!!  We stayed in Atlanta until Saturday then Adam, Cohen, Cooper, Adam's mom and I drove to Charlotte.  Adam's mom then flew back home home out of Charlotte on Sunday and Adam and I started the unpacking process.  So NOT fun!  Especially because the new is about 500 square feet smaller than the old house and does not have a garage (only a carport with a small shed).  The "new" house is actually an older house built in the 1950's but we like it so much because of it's character, great school district and location close to the city.

Here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving:

Adam, his mom and Olsen

Benjamin and Cohen

My mom and Granddaddy

The Jones family and Cohen

The Stead family--Cohen never looks at the camera!

Nana and Cohen

While we were in Atlanta we also visited our friends, the Muschara's, who had a get-together for several families including the Cox's, Moore's and Basham's.  We all had a great time, especially the kiddos!  Here are a few pictures from the day.

Not sure what he is trying to do??

Marley and Cohen obviously mesmerized by something!

The kiddos making turkey cookies--Maggie's creative idea!

Marley enjoying her turkey cookie!

Collin and Cohen

 

Sam and Colt with their cookies

House SOLD!!!

We have had quite a lot going on lately and will be even busier in the weeks to come.  For starters our house in Clarksville finally SOLD!!  It has been a few weeks now since we got a contract on the house.  We were so excited that we did not have to end up renting out the house, which we were about to do because we had already put a contract on a house in Charlotte, NC and were planning on moving there regardless.  We were just at a point where it was time to move on with our lives.  Since Adam is retired now and has absolutely nothing to do, he was getting bored out of his mind.  He is not the kind of guy to sit around and play video games all day--thankfully!  Because Clarksville is a military town and is so transient, a lot of our friends have long since moved on.  We were just ready for the next phase and tired of our lives being on hold.  So, the plan is to move in about a week and a half; we close on the house in Clarksville on a Friday and then the house in Charlotte the following Monday.

So now, in the midst of all of this moving, Adam is in Israel for 10 days!  He is on a trip with the Wounded Warrior Project on what they call a "Soldier Ride".  The WWP does soldier rides in cities all across the country.  It is an adaptive cycling event for warriors and the community and is typically a 3-4 day event.  Adam is now in Israel on his first Soldier Ride with about 10-15 other wounded warriors for a 10 day trip.  They are riding their bikes about 6 of the 10 days and are doing a lot of sight-seeing.  I am so excited for him and cannot wait to hear about his trip!  We have been communicating by email but no phone calls.

Right before Adam left for his Israel trip, we returned from a trip to Tampa.  Went traveled down to Atlanta to leave Cohen and Cooper with my parents and then flew out of Atlanta to go to Tampa for a conference.  It was a mentor conference so Adam and I can become mentors for other wounded warriors and their families.  We have been getting involved with this over the past few months and are at a place in our lives now where we are ready to give back and help others who will be going through similar circumstances and life changing events.  Not that we are experts by any means, but maybe we can at least offer an open ear or some words of encouragement.  We were in Tampa for 5 days and had a great time!  The conference was a 2 full days and was very informative and interesting.  We also got to visit the VA hospital where Adam was an inpatient for so many months.  We saw a few of his therapists, nurses, his physician and also got to spend some time with great friends!  Everyone was thrilled to see us, especially Adam, and to see how well he was doing and how much he had recovered since leaving Tampa in April of 2009.  Of course, they were all bummed that we did not have Cohen with us; I think he was the highlight of everyone's day when we were down there ;)  After the conference we flew back to Atlanta then drove to Charlotte that same day because I had two job interviews the next day.  Both jobs were great opportunities and I now have a new part-time job in Charlotte!  Everything seems to be falling into place just at the right time :)

Happy Halloween!

Cohen had a blast this Halloween!  Adam is out of town right now so my mom came to visit for a week and got to do all the Halloween activities with us.  Over the weekend went to a pumpkin patch with some friends and had a great time.  The kids rode a barrel train, played in the corn, fed the animals and we all went on a hay ride.  We carved a pumpkin over the weekend and Cohen loves his "punkin".  On Halloween, Cohen got to dress up for preschool then we went to the place I previously worked to visit and get some yummy treats.  I was not sure how well he would get the concept of trick-or-treating last night but it did not take long at all for him to catch on.  After we left every house he said, "I want some more trick-or-treating"!  He did great walking from house to house, knocked on the doors and usually said "trick-or-treat" and then "thank you" at the end.  Although the "thank you" part is still a little hard and has to be prompted ;)  Here are a few pictures from our Halloween weekend.