Another month - another post?

So we're now into March...in like a lion and out like a lamb, right? I sure hope so. Lots of stuff has been going on with us lately - I'll have to elaborate more about that in another post. As for my friend with her twin boys - they are both fighting like champs right now. Both of them have been transferred to another hospital which is connected to a children's hospital with surgeons, specialists, etc. So they are both receiving top-notch care right now, which they need desperately! The bigger one had issues with his small intestine that required the removal of at least 80% of it. So they have some challenges ahead of them in the feeding area and making sure that he can digest food. They would like to put him on a transplant list at some point, but they can't do that until he is at least 2 years old. The smaller one is fighting right along and will soon be undergoing surgery to connect his esophagus to his stomach. So there will be a bit of a battle for him to fight soon too. All in all, the parents have remained very optimistic and are leaning heavily on their faith to get them through all this. Last weekend I dropped off some food and her baby shower gifts since I won't be able to attend her shower in person. And next week will be the last week of her 6-week maternity leave, so she'll be returning to work the week after that. That will make visiting the babies very tough I'm sure.

On to home improvements... The dining room wall has been patched and sanded and is ready for painting, but last weekend we re-painted the ceiling in the kitchen and the dining room and going up the stairs. And since the idiots who built our house didn't bother priming the sheetrock on the ceiling prior to spraying the ceiling, we had to use this nasty oil-based paint to seal the existing junk to the ceiling. I forgot how bad oil-based paint stinks! But now we have a nice flat white ceiling that looks really nice and we can move ahead with the wall painting. Actually we won't be doing the walls right away. My plan there is to install a chair rail that will run the length of the wall and turn to follow the wall up the stairs. And there are several funky angles there so we'll definitely need my dad's help to cut the chair rail correctly. Once we know where on the wall the chair rail will be fastened, we'll start painting. Above the chair rail will be a nice dark red and below will be an almond/cream color. Should look nice once it's all done.

In other news - my mom was in the hospital last week for shortness of breath. Thankfully she was only there for a week, but they had to drain quite a bit of fluid from around her lungs so that she could breath easier. The doctors seem to think that a virus could have caused her system to weaken which would explain the fluid levels since her heart is weak enough as it is. She's home now and the oxygen machine is back so hopefully she will get stronger in the next few weeks.