Let The Work Begin

We spent our whole morning and a good chunk of the afternoon working on the house today. Here's how we divided up the responsibilities:
#1-shovel the driveway (we got 2 inches last night...not much but still he now has 2 driveways to do), get the screws/molly bolts out of the walls, install the diaper sprayer (this was his idea, not mine)
Me-pull the nails out of the walls, take down unwanted curtains, keep the boys busy, fill nail holes
Snug-play outside in the new backyard, stay out of the way, be nice to Little Monkey Man
Little Monkey Man-run, climb, jump, scream, be nice to Snug
Here are some pictures of Hannah's room aka the nursery. This wall needs some Kilz for sure! While I think the idea of a chalk wall for kids is nice, overall I do believe it would teach my kids to color all over the walls...not just the designated one. Besides that, I think in this room it is ugly.

I forgot to take a picture before I took down numerous Disney posters (tried to save them but they were old and ripped easily), tape stuck to the walls, bright pink curtains, and wall stickers. This is a picture before #1 took down the white shelving you see. We will try to use it in a closet somewhere.

The yellow doesn't look too bad in these pictures, again, the camera is being very generous. Like every other room, this one is cable ready...or at least is now. We'll be taking care of that very soon too. I really wish you could see the paint in this house. EVERYTHING is painted, right down to the actual light switches. I am so so happy they didn't paint the trim in the livingroom/dining room. That is a blessing.

I took some pictures out the back. Here is our deck (the metal rods in the corners are part of a tent thing that goes up in the summer and gives almost the whole deck shade. Nice! You can also see the fire pit (yeah marshmallows!), swing set, and play set they left. Snug played out here for probably 40 minutes today (didn't get pictures, had spackle/putty all over my hands) and decided it was a really good yard.

Another view of the porch. I can just imagine Hannah and I relaxing on the deck as the boys play in the yard with our dogs this summer.

This is the window looking out the front from the living room. Excuse my photographic blunder with balance of color/light here. Anyway, it is HUGE and I think the kids will spend a great deal of time looking outside. I really want to get some kind of a bird feeder out there.

This is how Snug spent part of his day. He was watching Bob the Builder, but when it was over he didn't turn it off and then an episode of Barney came on...and then a couple of other cartoons that I had never even heard of. They looked like something college students had made for a class project, but they were using nice language so I left it on. I had no idea they were at the end of the DVD. #1 and I were laughing though. We are working hard to get the cable lines out of the bedrooms and fill in holes from mounted TVs...and yet Snug spent a chunk of the day watching TV in his new room. Oh well. It kept him occupied.

He and Monkey Man also had puzzles (trying to perk up his interest in this area), books, matchbox cars, and a soft sided ball. They didn't veg out all day. Actually, that was a picture of the probably 5 min. total Little Monkey watched anything.

But Little Monkey Man doesn't believe in playing with toys for long if he can help it. Nope, daddy's drill is the toy for him!

And being daddy's shadow is a full time job. There are several odd features about this house, and we're not really sure how to get rid of them without making a bigger mess. The house used to have a central vacuum system. I guess it was a vacuum that ran in the basement and each room has a hole in the floor you would stick a hose in. Another feature is a speaker system similar to what you'd see at a department store (in the ceiling). We have no idea how to use it/if it works. #1 is taking down a circular apparatus that appeared to be a light, but ended up being a hole to the attic that does who-knows-what.

The kitchen will indeed need to be painted. Poor #1. On closer look in the daylight we discovered there are many many nail holes, and the walls are quite dirty. All the walls are filthy in fact because they burned paper (TONS AND TONS) in their fireplace (perhaps also the flu wasn't all the way open???) and because the chimney needs to be cleaned so bad, it left soot on all the walls, particularly where they took pictures down.

It was fun to be over there working today though because we know everyday it will be a little closer to being ready to be lived in. Today I filled 109 holes in the walls. And I am exhausted.

On a completely different note, Little Monkey Man's diarrhea is not better. We've been doing what the GI told us to do, but we have seen little difference. Please continue to pray for him as it doesn't feel good to him and for us as we continue to make decisions about his health. He has two more medical related appointments this coming week.

Welcome To Our Home

Hello, and welcome to "the new house". We closed on it tonight, and then headed over to look it over. Snug and Little Monkey Man will give you the full tour. Or at least show up in many of the pictures because they were running around the empty house like crazy.

There are two closets as you walk in the front door, and this one is really neat. Snug is standing in it and you can see how big it is!

To the left of where Snug was standing is MORE storage space.

Here is one of two bathrooms. It isn't surprising Little Monkey is in this picture as he loves bathrooms. L O V E S them. They hold SO many fun things. Water...potties...toilet brushes...yeah, they are so fun. This bathroom won't have anything done to it as the paint and everything are in good condition. The curtains? They gotta go.

Here is the boys' room. It will be the smallest room they have ever been in...even smaller than the rental. That is the one thing I don't really like about the house is the bedroom sizes, but we really couldn't find a 3 bedroom with bigger rooms that we could afford-found lots of houses with bedrooms smaller than these. This room will get a coat of paint, curtains, and it looks like a new set of blinds.

Ignore the white spots all over this picture, something was on my lens. This is our room. It is also pretty small, but the curtains and the paint-oh my. The paint actually looks OK in this picture, but it isn't. Three walls are a dirty off white color and dirty. The fourth wall is yellow. The trim also looks pretty good in this shot, but it has been painted dark brown, and not painted well. I actually made #1 take down the curtains tonight-they were just GAG.

Anyone who had been to our old house will recognize this floor :o) It is the SAME flooring we had at our old house. This room won't have to have any paint. #1 is thankful for that!

Eventually I'd love to replace the cabinets and take out that wall oven, along with converting the "eat in kitchen" (maybe for a family of 2) you see on the right side of the picture into more cabinets/counter tops.

This is me standing in the dining room looking out to the living room. The kitchen is on the left, the bedrooms on the right.

Now I am standing by the fireplace looking at the entrance. You can see Snug in the closet I love, and the coat closet. This room needs to be painted also. You can see the top right part of the picture where they had things hung on the wall and the paint has actually faded. On the top left of the picture you can see where the garage comes in...to the right is the basement stairs, to the left another bathroom (didn't take pictures of it).

And this is looking into the dining room. To the right is the kitchen and straight ahead goes out to the backyard.

This is the basement as seen from the bottom of the stairs. They left this lovely couch for us, but I think if we vacuum, disinfect, and wash it we will use it. The fireplace can be used (the upstairs one must be cleaned and the chimney cleaned) but we think we are going to save for an insert in this one and heat the basement with it. We love a wood burning fireplace, and want the one upstaires to stay that way.

More shots of the basement. It has a great high ceiling so eventually a drop ceiling will be in order.

This is looking at the basement stairs. The wooden part is built in under stair storage. The walls are painted...but won't look like that forever. This area isn't our top priority.

Seriously, the spots are awful on my camera. I even cleaned the lens when I took this one. I hope my camera isn't on the fritz. This is another area of the basement. They were nice enough to leave lots of interesting things and even some garbage for us.

So we have lots of work to do. We have nearly 2 months to do it in before our lease is up on the rental. We want to be in this house by the first of April, but don't have to be. Mostly cleaning and painting. We have a huge list of "we'd like to..." but the down payment on this one pretty much wiped out "we'd like to..." for awhile. Paint, paint paint. That is our goal.

I didn't get any pictures of the backyard because it was dark out and we are in the middle of a snowstorm. The house has a 2 car garage with a garage door opener (we didn't have that before*). The backyard is twice the size of our old one, and they left the swing set and a Little Tykes play set climbing thing. It also has a really nice deck. We spend lots of time outside so that was a trade off for small bedrooms. Really we spend most of our time in the living areas of the house and backyard, not in our rooms.

I hope you enjoyed your tour. I realize I didn't take a picture of Hannah's room, but it needs a lot of work. I'll try to remember to photograph it next time and then you can see how our makeover progresses. We're hoping a good cleaning and coat of paint, along with working on the sockets (all 2 prong, no 3 prong) will get us where we need to be to move in. We plan on being in this house for many many years, so we can slowly do things as we get the money and as we get the dream. Right now we are just tired!

*When we pulled into the garage tonight, something Snug has never had happen before, he said "Oh look at the big room for our van!!!"

32 Weeks...For Real

Tonight I had #1 take a picture for you. So there. Be happy :o)

At 32 weeks I weigh almost as much as I did when I delivered the boys. I'll know technically how much at my appt. next Wednesday...but I think I am within 3 lbs right now. My maternity clothes are starting to get tight.

I am 2 weeks from when I had Snug and 5 weeks from when I had Little Monkey Man. I have conflicting feelings about when I deliver. I do not want a preemie and all the potential complications...however I am so tired and feel so stretched out I don't know how I can get any bigger. I also know if I go to 40 weeks I am very likely to have a well over 9 lb baby. Ugh. Lets aim for 37 weeks. I think I can do anything for 5 more weeks. I think.

For the past few weeks I have craved anything sugary. I'm not a big sweets eater normally. Don't get me wrong, I love a good chocolate chip cookie or an ice cream, but not daily...or hourly. I seriously think about foods like that ALL the time. I also crave ice water. I am drinking tons of it, which is great.

I have braxton hicks contractions on and off throughout the day, but in the evenings will get several contractions that start very low and go up so high it is hard to breath and last about 45 seconds or longer. If I get more than 4 of these in an hour my OB wants me at the hospital. I also have quite a bit of low cramping if I lift anything. I have not been lifting Little Monkey for quite some time unless absolutely necessary, and now I don't even do it if it is necessary-I just make sure it never is. He'll have to be bleeding and needing medical attention at this point for me to pick him up. He does climb up on the couch and sit on my lap on his own power, and most of the time that is ok as long as he sits still (ha ha). I've actually found the more I can't hold him the more he wants it. It is kind of nice to be wanted!

So that is me at 32 weeks. I hate hate hate belly pictures of me, but thought Hannah might want to know someday what I looked like when I was having her...you know when she is feeling the same way. Not that this blog will exist in 20 some years, but I'll still have the actual picture. I don't think the boys will care a hoot what I looked like when I was prego with them, but I have a couple of pictures anyway.

It's Black Friday, It's A Rock Concert, It's...Preschool?

Ever since Mother Hen's* first day of preschool I knew exactly where I wanted Snug to go. Here in the great state of Ohio if your child does not attend preschool, it is like they are jumping directly into first grade when they enter kindergarten. Gone are the days of milk and cookies, games and rhymes, recess and socialization. Not that NONE of that is EVER included, but most of it, on a daily basis, has been removed. In fact, when I taught kindergarten a few years ago, I got reprimanded for taking my class out for 15 minutes each morning to the playground. Seriously? Yes. There are many many great kindergarten teachers out there who strive to keep kindergarten a "simple" and a positive experience, but the state pushes kids level hard. It also depends on if the school runs a half day or whole day program how much "traditional kindergarten" is still present.

Anyway, I took Mother Hen for her first day of school and from the moment I walked in I knew it was a good school. I guess having an early childhood education degree would help in knowing what practices are good and what are not, but almost everything I experienced with her that year was very positive.
Can you believe this boy is going to preschool? More specifically he will be in pre-kindergarten. Monday was "In-house" registration. We know several families who have their children there/have had their children there and knew that most of the openings for pre-kindergarten and preschool (3 year olds) would be filled in-house (students or families currently attending this year). We also had the heads up that if we wanted a spot, any spot for next year I would need to be there at least 2 hours before registration opened today.

You heard me. Two hours. I was at the school at 6:00am to make sure that Snug got in. I was the first one there, but only by 5 minutes. By 6:30 am everyone who was going to get their child into the pre-k program was already there. This morning there were only 6 spots left to be filled, and only for 2 day, no 3 day programs. We only wanted 2 days a week as preschool is not cheap and I do lots with the kids at home and plan to continue that. Both Snug and Little M (who is part of Draycare) will be in the same class/same day. Whew! I don't think I wanted to be driving there 5 days a week.

It seriously reminded me of people standing in line outside of Target on black Friday for electronics deals, or waiting in massive long lines to get tickets to a concert (I've never actually done that though). But nope, it was preschool! Luckily people were very honest about when they arrived and we all sat in our cars until 15 min. before registration opened. I think that is a benefit of a Christian preschool.

I also wanted to share this picture from last night. The boys were being very lovey on each other, and it was so sweet. You know, until one tipped the other one over. Any guesses who has that power?

*Mother Hen was a little girl I used to have at Draycare. She is in school full time now and we all miss her a lot.

Wordless Wednesday

Seemingly Simple Solution

We visited our Gastrointerology department at our local children's hospital today...again. I can't tell you how agitated I was stepping off of the elevator on the fourth floor getting ready to face this all again.

Weight was down, but he was in the 23rd %, which for Monkey Man is still good considering he used to be in the negative. After answering tons of questions and the nurse practitioner looking through all of his old files...the diagnosis seems simple. They think that he has had some viruses that have destroyed the good bacteria in his gut. Due to this, he is having diarrhea. When we put him on the BRAT diet, it aggravated it even more as he needs a high fat, high protein diet to combat the issue and bring his levels back to normal. Then going on a liquid diet (jell-o, Gatorade, and chicken broth) it got even worse because sugar would continue to destroy the bacteria. My kids don't get hardly any sugar so the huge dose all at once sent him into his tailspin.

So now he is back on dairy (they think the dairy omission this past winter was a fluke and want to see how he does on it) and lots of lean meat. What I had on hand wasn't top notch, but as you'll see in the picture before he was very satisfied with daddy's lunch meat and cheese.

I think he was just thrilled to EAT again. We also have to limit how much liquid he gets in a day. She wanted us to omit fruit juice (not a problem, my kids don't drink it...Monkey Man has had it two times in his life), sugar (also, I am so ok with this), and water. Really? Yeah, he is limited to 8 oz of water a day on top of 24 oz of milk. I had no idea a kid could drink too much water (he wasn't getting any on the liquid diet) but when she heard he drinks as much as 30 oz of water a day she almost fell off her little swivel stool.

She was worried about it that amount of water interfering with his calorie intake, but I assured her when he was eating "normally" he can pack away an entire cereal bowl (adult, not kids sized) serving of chicken and noodles or stir fry, 2-3 slices of pizza, 2-3 waffles, a full cup of quinoa plus as much ham as I will give him and veggies, serving after serving of fruits and veggies as snacks or with meals, and whole peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Please do not insult him with 1/2 a sandwich. Obviously he wouldn't eat all of that in one sitting, but those are just the serving sizes he will eat. HUGE for a 20 month old.

20 month old? Yes. *sigh* Monkey Man will be 20 months old on Saturday. Where does the time go?

I think his favorite part of the hospital trip was getting blood drawn. Because of his SPD getting his finger pricked and then blood squeezed out into three vials was downright relaxing. The phlebotomist was amazed that he didn't even flinch when the prick was done...and that he almost fell asleep as she coaxed the blood out (she had to squeeze hard and it took about 5 minutes). Sometimes Monkey Man's quirks are to his advantage!

Thanks for your prayers, we are relieved that there is a seemingly simple solution to something that was looking very scary. We have one week to see if he improves.

Monday Memes

AND "Mama Guilt Monday"
A Combo Deal

First things first, I am well aware this is the old "Not Me" button. I like it better thankyouverymuch.

Mama Guilt Monday gets first priority today. This is my first Mama Guilt Monday. Welcome to my misery...er..guilt. Cop Mama runs this meme...click over to see what others are guilty about.

I struggle quite a bit with guilt over Little Monkey's health. Should I take him to the dr? Should I not because I am being paranoid? Did I wait too long to go? I struggle with this constantly.

As I mentioned earlier, we are having trouble with his digestive system again. We totally thought we were out of the dark with him after his final GI appointment some months ago. However, four days of the BRAT diet (banana, rice, and toast sans toast in case of a wheat allergy) he was continuing to have diarrhea. We took him off the anti-diarrheal medicine prescribed to him because it was not helping and turning his BM an awful black and green color. Besides that it contained quite a bit of aluminum which isn't great for him and was expected to work after just a couple of doses. Nope.

We then switched to a clear liquid diet that he has been on now for 24 hours. He is still having diarrhea. I contacted our family practitioner to get the results of his labs from Friday (took in a stool sample) and they are completely clean. No parasites, not sick, no worms etc. They directed me to contact the GI dr. immediately and they would also to get us in as soon as possible. We are going tomorrow at 1:45. Our family practitioner is afraid it might be crones disease or something along those lines. We are still holding out that it is something easy we have missed. Keeping the allergist appt. for (hopefully) a full run of food allergies that is on March 1.

So I feel guilty. Am I doing what is right for him? Did I wait too long? Is it something simple I am just missing?

Ok, now for "Not Me" Monday hosted by MckMama. Click there (on the word "MckMama" to read other people's) I've done lots of these, but don't do them like I used to.

Today's Not Me has to do with a trip to the grocery. Hang on, it is weird.

I did not discover I was completely out of Jell-O, only had one bottle of emergency Gatorade, and no chicken stock in the freezer right after #1 left for work. Liquid diets are a little hard without these staples I think.

I did not pack up both kids into the van (Little Monkey has to use the bathroom stool to climb himself up into the van these days, I'm not allowed to pick him up) without any help.

Once at the grocery, I did not tell Snug that Kroger doesn't do cookies on Sunday. I know I lied and that could go up under "mama guilt", but seriously he couldn't eat that in front of his brother, that would not have been nice. They give a free cookie to each kid who comes through the door. We didn't go by the bakery.

I did not make Snug carry a basket through the store because I couldn't push a cart and drag Little Monkey by the hand (remember, no lifting into a cart). Instead I did not drag Little Monkey by his hand through the store getting essential items. He did not go to his knees or lay on the floor about every 100 ft. I was not forced to convince him to stand up and KEEP WALKING. Meanwhile, Snug was not dragging a Gatorade and Jell-O laden basket behind him.

Our little parade did not catch the attention of the store manager who is most definitely not married to our tax guy. She was so sweet, she picked up Monkey Man, took the basket, and escorted us to the U-scan, instructing the girl (who is just there to make sure no one steals) to get me checked out ASAP and a bag boy to carry my stuff to the car and put Monkey Man IN the car.

I did not then attempt to go to the evening service at church (hey, we were already in the van and about 1 min. from the building) only to discover that there was a gas leak and they were evacuating the building and the fire dept. was rolling up. Think I might be bad luck? Not Me!

Basketball Game

We try to catch at least one Cedarville University basketball game a year. This year we ended up at the last home game of the season. Thursday night (#1's nights off currently are Wed/Thurs. so our social and event calendar is very limited) they had a home game, which is unusual, but we took the opportunity to attend.
Snug has been attending games here since he was probably four or five months old. We wonder why he loves the sport so much! He is shaking daddy's keys (with daddy hanging on too so we didn't lose them and could get home) for the tip off. That is a Cedarville tradition.

Cedarville was playing local rival Wilberforce University. The first half of the game both boys watched pretty well. The second half they got very squirrely and Monkey Man started having HUGE tantrums all over. This was due to the fact that the game started at bedtime and also because everyone around us was eating yummy things and being that he is having intestinal troubles, popcorn and hot dogs are not on his "to eat" list! We left with about eight minutes left in the game.

I realize this is another key shaking picture, but I thought both boys needed some face time here. I only ended up taking 3 pictures I guess! I wanted a picture of the boys with "the bee" but he was only there about 20 minutes and then we no longer saw him. Evidentally he had bigger plans that night.

I looked up the final score 97-63 in favor of Cedarville. I guess we didn't miss a super exciting ending.

31 Weeks Pregnant-Belly Shots

Many of you like belly shots. You have asked for belly shots. I gave one back here but thought it was high time you saw another one...or two.
So this is what I look like! Nice, huh?

Here is another belly shot. This belly so SO much cuter than mine. Trust me on that.

Yep, love those belly shots!

Ice, Ice, Baby!

We didn't have an ice storm, but it sure looks like it around our house. We have massive icicles hanging everywhere. I think it is a testament to the condition of the roof/gutters here, but no matter, it is a rental :o)
So during the first snowstorm, the one where we only got 3 inches and I was so disappointed, I built a small snowman to put on our front porch. Between the 15 or so MORE inches we have received, and the constant dripping from the gutters, all that is recognizable as "snowman" is his stick arms.

This is what the landscaping *cough cough* looks like. All the plants weeds under the gutters are ice covered.

These icicles are easily 5 feet long. Because my snowpants no longer go on, and my winter "play" coat no longer zips, I haven't been able to be out in the snow much. Today I put on a pair of my husband's sweatpants and my good coat to get these pictures. The snow was up to my knees, and I wasn't going all the way to the ground.

These ones are not only around 6 feet long, they are also a good 6-8 inches across in places. I'm not a great photographer, so my pictures really are not doing them justice.

Today I have Draycare kids back. As their moms are teachers, their snow days are my snow days. Last week I had kids Monday and half a day on Thursday. Today is the first day I've had kids this week. If they have any more snow days, they are going to have to make up days in June...but I won't have kids in June :o) However, March's budget is going to be a bit...slim.

Not A Wordless Wednesday

I originally took this picture for a Wordless Wednesday quick post, but have too much to share about this little guy.

I have really great news, and really bad news.

Lets start with the bad and then move to the good so as to end on a high note, shall we?

Bad news: We've been battling diarrhea for a few months now (like since Oct/Nov), and thought we had it under control when we took him off of all dairy products. It did clear up for the most part. We switched to soy milk and life seemed good. After our move (it has been nearly a month now, can you believe it?) it started up again, and has been awful the past few days. His little bottom is blistered and bleeding and he is in lots of pain quite often. We are thinking he has either developed a soy allergy, there is something that doesn't agree with him in the water here, or he is allergic to something else. A year ago when he was hospitalized, they ran an array of food allergy tests, but found nothing. However, we know that kids can develop allergies, and even though it looks as if milk is an intolerance, soy may be a real allergy. He didn't do well on soy formula (bad reaction) when he was in the hospital.

I am making phone calls to doctors today, and have put him on a rice/water/banana diet. He is just loving that (um, no). We weighed him today because he looked a bit thin in the tub and he's lost 2.5 lbs since he was last weighed.

Great News: Our IFSP needed to be updated (like an IEP, but for younger than school age children) and he has met SO SO many of the old goals. He is no longer seeing a physical therapist for large or small motor skills. He is down to speech therapy and a sign language specialist. We are so happy! He has come so so so so so far in the last year.

He continues to learn more and more signs, and is not as resistant to using them. He says (out loud) something that sounds to us like "up" and "look" and "ought-oh" with meaning. He does say "mamamamama" and sometimes "daddadadada" but they are not with meaning, just babbling that this point. His sound system is developing and that is so important.

Because he is signing with much more meaning than any of his speech, that is the avenue all professionals he sees think is his best bet. He won't sign forever, but needs to be signing and gesturing instead of screaming and tantruming (yes, that is still about 50% of his communication on a typical day). He actually does better in public with not having meltdowns because he loves new stimulation due to his sensory processing. It is a blessing that most of his huge meltdowns are not in public :o)


Yeah for you little man!

A Cousin Filled Weekend

This past weekend was another whirlwind trip to Michigan for my final CILT* meeting before this summer. There is another meeting scheduled, but after this weekend I am no longer traveling more than maybe an hour from home. I had some signs of pre-term labor (did fine this weekend and today) last week and don't feel like pushing it or not being local if I need to be. I am resting A LOT and my dear husband has picked up lots of the slack I am leaving. Trust me, there is lots to take up and he is great.

While I was meeting with the girls, my aunt captured this sweet moment. I think it is one of my favorite pictures of them together. See, Snug doesn't love Little Monkey being on top of him, and Little Monkey doesn't usually like to sit for a story...but here was a priceless brother moment.

I don't believe either of these two (my cousin Melissa's youngest is on the left) were supposed to be playing with a Wii remote...but they were sharing nicely.

I must apologize for my awful red eye pictures. I really don't have a good indoor pictures camera, and I don't have any near plans to buy a new camera. I promise that Jayce (Melissa's oldest) and Snug were not in some kind of an alien movie during the reading of this story.

Even though Snug doesn't see these cousins very often he warmed right up to them and made himself at home.

Jayce is possibly one of the best puzzle-doing kid I've ever met. He just does them quickly and without hesitation. Snug is not...mathematically minded. Puzzles that don't have little pegs in them and don't fit in specific pre-painted positions are not his forte. However, Jayce inspired him. He really got interested in puzzles and tried his best. I saw huge improvement in his skills over the weekend.

And with a little teamwork...

...they got this puzzle done (several times).

Grayson and Little Monkey Man also made some masterpieces on the Magnadoodle together. It was so fun to be with cousins! Thanks Aunt Kim and Uncle "Brick" for letting us crash at your house again.

Just FYI, Snug is a little over 3 months older than Jayce. Little Monkey Man is almost exactly 2 months older than Grayson. GREAT playmates! Their mom Melissa and I are 7 months apart, and also were good friends growing up (and still are today, in case that statement would lead you to believe otherwise!).

*CILT=Campers In Leadership Training. To find out more about the camp I love and work for, go to: http://www.campcedarridge.org/