Health Update

I thought since I’ve posted quite a few times about health issues that I should give an update.

Weight Loss Attempt

The goal continues. Since we started really working on my parents place we stopped the morning veggie drink in the interest of time; and I’ve only been mediocre on the self control after 8pm.

As such, I haven’t lost a ton of weight. But I have lost some. Depending on how I stand on a notoriously unreliable scale it is possible that I’m under 300lbs. Lean a little one way and I’m under, lean a little the other and I’m not. But I think I am down at least a few pounds from the 310 I was a few months ago.

I think that loss is almost exclusively to the pool time almost every afternoon AND spending 4-6 hours a day in a 100F room building walls and such. Together the sweat box and the swimming hole have done me a little good!

Numb Hand

The numbness in my hand is still there unfortunately. The medical info that I read about says it should take a few weeks to go away if I take care of it. And since I still spend too much time at the computer (the activity I think is responsible because of how I rest my arm on the edge of the desk) I’m not sure when it will go away.

The numbness is one of the reasons I haven’t been posting as much lately. I’ve been trying to not sit here too often.

Mental Health

I’m still a nutcase! That might always be true, but I’m trying to deal with it better than I have in the past. I’m still going to my weekly VA appointments and meeting with the counsellor.

I’ve also started the Canines With A Cause classes. Those are once a week and in the primary stage that I’m in now it is mostly learning how to train your dog; basic canine psychology and such. They will hopefully be able to find me a good dog to adopt. If not then I’ll have to find one myself at some point. (If any of you would like to donate a dog to me, I’d be thrilled and highly appreciative!).

Back/Headaches

I hurt like crazy all the time. I’m sure I’m taking more Ibuprofren than is good for me, but since I need a home to live in permanently I need to keep going. There have been a few mornings where the headaches were so bad that I was vomiting, but only a few.

My back is holding out okay. It hurts, and I’m only able to do about 30 minutes of real labor each day. Thankfully I’m able to use Julie, Caitlin, and Joshua to largely do the things that need to be done by just being near by and directing them. There aren’t really too many things that need someone big and strong to do. So it’s slow, but it’s coming along. And my back does what it must in order to keep going.

Hopefully we can get through this without a complete physical (or mental) breakdown again.

4 July 2017

We’ve Finished Framing

Well, it took even a few days longer than I thought, but we finally finished framing in the Great Room. It is now no longer one “Great Room” but rather 6 smaller but more functional rooms.

Getting Framing Done

I’ve mentioned how Julie is our best worker, right?

Joshua helped out a lot, but I think he tried even more not to.

Steven and others were helpful bringing tools to us when needed. Yes, the pool table in the background has morphed into our work table.

Putting the finishing touches on the sheetrock backing in the ceiling.

I know it is hard to tell what you are seeing when you can see through the walls, but that last picture is with all the walls complete. After this pic we also added all of the headers that you might notice are missing (if you know what they are).

Upcoming Work

The HVAC guys said they “might” be in this week to put in the venting, most likely next week though because of the holiday. We can then do the electrical and finish plumbing for the shower/tub. We also need to add the insulation in the outside walls. By the end of next week we might be ready for sheetrock.

The kids have been quite helpful in small spurts. We’ve found they are most helpful when we only take 2 of them. If we have them all then they ALL want to be the one in charge of JR. If we leave some at home and rotate 2 different helpers each day than they work harder, learn more (I think), and have better attitudes. Even when we have them all though, they are all quite good.

With only 49 days to go until school starts we better work quick or we aren’t going to be done in time.

29 June 2017

Oh What Changes In a Year!

Our youngest, JR, has reached a new milestone… 1 YEAR OLD! Kids change a lot in the course of a year.

JR

JR this morning with his siblings. A great family!

28 June 2017

Insurance Update:

I promised an insurance update last week and never got to it. I can’t say I’m much more prepared this week to do it either. My mental state just isn’t good I’m afraid.

Insurance Update:

But just so you don’t feel like I’ve left you hanging, we have officially been denied coverage for the fire. Maybe later this week or next I’ll be able to write about what this means and what we plan to do. Thanks for understanding the lack of info at this time.

27 June 2017

Penrod Family Reunion

Yesterday was the Penrod family reunion (Julie’s family). The desired location was Payson Lakes in southern Utah County. We had five out of six families show up and had a great time.

Highlights

With 26 people it was tough to catch them all on video or camera without making it a dedicated goal, which I didn’t. I’m not sure even all of my own kids made it on here, so my apologies to anyone who feels like they got shorted or left out.

This was just a one day event at the lake. We enjoyed the day just relaxing and playing water sports. The paddle board and kayaks were a great hit and even the little kids loved the water. I think all but three people got in and got wet.

Three of the families actually decided to do some camping the night before, and so they all got together for a pre-reunion campout. The other two families (including us) arrived around 11 am and stayed until approximately 5pm. It was about as much sun as I could take.

The sun burns were surprisingly mild and I was only worried about one child getting heat stroke/exhaustion (mostly because of the ride home with grandparents when the AC stopped working).

Lots of water, lots of fun, and lots of laughter. It was a fantastic way to spend the day. I hope that everyone else felt the same way. We’ll look forward to the Penrod family reunion again next year.