A new beginning...

I have been promising pictures of my new apartment but wanted to make sure that I could get some somewhat

decent pictures of it halfway organized. I am sure that I will not be organized for a few weeks and my

room seems to still be lacking something, but I’ll figure it out.

 

I apologize for the mess and the crappy pictures and color quality! I left my

digital camera at Mama and Daddy’s house so I used my my phone. :( boo.

 

 

Our laundry room. Still need to clean the washer and dryer where smart boy, Zack, rode down the dirt road with my stuff on the trailer.

View of our dining area/living room area from the front door.

 

Dining area(junk on the floor needs to go back home because I don’t have room. That’s just where I piled it)

 

View of kitchen from dining area. Range and microwave.

 

Kitchen from same view opposite side.

 

Living room/balcony

Living room from hallway to bedrooms

 

Bathroom. It’s zebra and red even though it looks PINK and zebra. Thanks lovely phone pictures.

 

More bathroom(red and zebra)

 

My room IS pink and zebra. view of bed from my door.

a little farther over. Not too pleased with the TV situation but I’ll get it worked out.

 

My desk and TV(still cluttered)

Closed closet

 

Open closet

 

Sign on my door to my room

My getting ready station. Since our bathroom is so tiny we have agreed to do our hair

and makeup in our rooms so we don’t have to leave our straighteners, make up, hair dryers, etc. in the

bathroom.

 

My bed with matching laptop on my night stand. The green book bag has school books in it until I can

find a more appropriate place for them.

 

 

Here is an inside look of my apartment. Has anyone else moved into a new apartment recently?

Nate

Nate is the wonderful child that I got to spend all of my time with last summer. I fell head over heels in love with this 13 month old bundle of joy!Nate was born premature to the point he was on a feeding tube for almost 6 months of his life. He had several developmental problems related to eating, talking, crawling, walking, and most of all hearing. But physically he was a normal child. He is truly one of the most beautiful children I know!

With all of his developmental delays comes therapy. We did therapy 5 times a week. Feeding therapy to help him learn how to eat, audio-visual therapy to helpfully teach him to talk through working with hearing aids and visual aids, physical therapy to help him walk and crawl and use his arms and legs more, and we did sensory therapy to help him tolerate different textures. It was a lot of work, but nothing that we couldn’t handle. I enjoyed experiencing all of these things and getting to help him learn to eat real food rather than a bottle, and watch him learn to crawl and stand, and trying to help him talk.

Unfortunately, my time with Nate was short-lived. The summer break from school came to an end WAY to fast. I soon had to leave him after 4 short months. It was the most emotional time of my life. I had grown so close to him and his family and new that I wouldn’t be able to spend time from 8-5 five days a week with him. I visited on Fridays when I was headed home from school and enjoyed being able to see him for a little bit on those days but a few months after school started back Nate moved to Marietta where his mom is from. There are many opportunities and programs for Nate offered there that aren’t offered here in South Georgia. This was best for him. I think that has made it easier for me to think about not seeing him anymore.

 

I still keep up with him via Julia’s(his mom) facebook and get to see my booger growing! I really wish I could have quit college and become his full-time nanny all the time but I am halfway done with school and can’t do it. I hope to make a trip up there to visit him sometime soon!

 

Julia and Scott have been looking into cochlear implants for Nate. They are surgically implanted hearing aids that could potentially help Nate hear which will eventually help him learn to talk. He had his left implant done in early July. Yesterday, the activated the implant for the first time. Here is a video of his AMAZING response. I cannot wait for updates from Julia about Nate’s progress in the days, months, weeks, and years to come!

On the road again…

Mama, Daddy, and I had to make our trek to Valdosta to sign the lease on my new apartment. We left yesterday afternoon as soon as we finished up lunch at Zaxby’s(YUM!). We got a little over halfway there when I hit a tire that someone had lost in the MIDDLE OF I-75! There was no avoiding it because I had a vehicle beside me and one behind them and a car behind me. The Ford F-150 in front of me had just enough room to change lanes and avoid it. I unfortunately, did not. I got off of the interstate on the next exit and checked out my car. Fortunately, it only took a little bit of paint off of my bumper and put a dent in my rear quarter panel(which Daddy popped out) because I was able to move over a little as to not hit the tire head on. When I realized my car was still drivable and not very damaged I headed up the exit ramp to merge back onto the interstate. When I got to the stop sign on top of the bridge I saw a car with flashers on at the top. There was a younger looking girl taking pictures of the front of her car with her camera phone. I don’t usually stop for ANYONE because you just don’t know with the crazies out there today, but she looked harmless. I mean she was about 5’ with heels on and maybe weighed 100 pounds soaking wet. So I stopped and asked if everything was okay. She said no and that she hit a tire(THE SAME ONE I DID) on the interstate and that she was 5 1/2 hours from home. Mama and Daddy were wayyy behind me so I called them to see if they could help. They finally answered the phone right after they passed the exit we were at. See Daddy used to have an auto body shop when we lived in New Jersey and he works on cars a lot. He could at least tell her if the car was drivable or maybe rig it up so she could get it home. They got off the next exit only to find that due to construction they could not re-enter the interstate from that point. They found an alternate route and made it back to help this poor girl. He ripped her bumper off(which was barely hanging on and would have to be replaced anyways) and checked out the underside of her car to make sure there was no major damage. She busted up her air conditioning condenser and jammed a fan that cools the motor so he advised her to ride the rest of the way with no air conditioning and keep a check on her temperature gauge. Bless her dear little heart for having to make that ride with no AC in the blazing hot summer.

(See told ya it was minimal! Thank you, Jesus!)

We headed onto Valdosta and were almost late for our 2PM appointment to sign our lease. We got there signed the MILLIONS of pages of paperwork(okay, maybe I’m embellishing a bit!) and got our KEYS! I didn’t take pictures of the apartment because we were so eager to get our stuff in there but after I get all of our furniture in and get it like we want it I will be sure to post some pictures. On the way home I stopped by Tropical Smoothie and got a Strawberry Beach smoothie!Oh, how I’ve missed Valdosta!

 

Be on the lookout for apartment pictures next week!