For Sale!

Wow, it's been a long time since we've updated this blog. We started giving a commentary on how our vacation was going - that never got finished. I promise I'll blog about it soon. But, when we got back from South Carolina, things turned crazy! Just this past Sunday afternoon (at 2:55pm to be exact) we put our house on the market! Woohoo!

Saturday was a busy day of cleaning up around the house and getting things ready. I mowed the yard and did some work on the inside. Mark painted all the exterior windows, he painted the frame of the front exterior door and cleaned up the yard a little. Sunday was a busy day with graduation parties and church but the "For Sale" sign officially went up that afternoon. I'm such a dork but I wish I could have gotten a picture of the sign being put in our yard. It's so fun. We've bought a house before obviously but we've never been through the selling process. It's just kind of exciting.

Monday, Memorial Day, we got a TON done around here. I weeded and then mulched all of my flower gardens with red mulch and it looks great! Mark put in a new stainless steel kitchen sink (which looks amazing, by the way!) and we put together a new wardrobe/closet thing for our room. We also did a few small projects and even went to a cookout next door at our neighbors house. It was a long day! But, we did have 1 showing today!!!

Tuesday we had another showing. Wednesday I had to be gone from 8:30am until 11:30 am so that a caravan of realtors could walk through. Then we had a showing at 2 (the same couple that came to see it Monday night), we had a company come in and do pictures of the house for a virtual tour online, and then we had another showing at 3:45. So, Mady and I spent most of the day at the park! It was a busy day!!!!

We'll see what this weekend holds for us. Hopefully we'll get some more people through here. Please pray that we would be able to sell our house at a good price! We are trusting Him and His timing!

The best wife for life EVER!

Ok gentlemen, listen up. Here's why my wife is better than yours. Here's what Jenn did yesterday: she scrubbed the laundry room floor with bleach, cleaned the bedroom, ironed all my shirts after doing the laundry and then OFFERED to mow the yard for me (I was scrapping and painting the south side windows). I was like SURE! She mows the yard, and then comes in and cooks BBQ ribs! I fill my face and then I didn't even have to do the dishes (I was working on the sink).

That gentlemen, is an act of love and why my wife is better than yours.

Bettinger Family Vacation

Jenn and I decided to go to South Carolina for our family vacation this summer. We are going to spend 3 days with Joe and Sarah (Jenn's friends from college) in Columbia, SC. We will stay with her old ROTC instructor and his wife in Clover, SC and then 3 days in Charleston, SC (including Myrtle Beach), a night with friends in Cincinnati and then home. About 2000 miles driving and 10 days. We are really looking forward to seeing how Mady responds to the ocean...time away from work, cell phones and email. A time to bond, reflect, relax and recover.

Thursday May 8th

We left Thursday morning a little after 6. Jenn and I were pretty nervous about how Mady would do, driving over 500 miles in one day. Let me just say that she did great! She slept a full nap in the morning and took at least a semi-decent one in the afternoon.

The only disappointment so far is that it rained 99% of the drive. It slowed us down a bit and it was hard getting in and out of the vehicle at each stop. I also injured my back earlier in the week, and it was giving me fits, but I was able to drown it in ibuprofen.

The other “incident” was lunch. We brought lunch food with us, so that we would have snacks and eat sandwiches whenever we wanted. Jenn was holding Mady on her lap at an Arby's, and she cried a little, coughed and then gagged a little. Then she did it again, bringing up more lunch, then she let loose, all over the table, floor and Jenn’s lap. It smelled horrible! We think the driving didn’t sit well with her stomach. Actually, it was best case scenario all things considering as we were able to get everyone changed and cleaned up, and she didn’t do it in her car seat. Imagine smelling that for the next 2000 miles and 10 days!

We made it all the way to Knoxville, Tennessee. We checked into the Marriott and relaxed. Went to a really nice place for dinner. Went back, put her to bed and Jenn and I watched TV in bed until we fell asleep on a dream mattress…

Friday May 9th We woke up this morning, got all packed up, ate some cereal, made coffee and hit the road again. The Smokie mountains were fantastic. Beautiful green, blue sky and perfect weather. It was a joy weaving in and out of the mountains. We drove to Asheville, NC and we had a few hours to kill, so we decided to see Biltmore estates. It's referred to as the nation's largest home. It sits in the middle of beautiful gardens. We only had a couple of hours, so we thought it would make a nice stop...the only issue was it was $47.00 a person to get in. We decided against visiting Beltmore Estates.

We finally arrived in Columbia, SC a little after 4pm. Sarah met us and we hung out until her husband, Joe got home. They have a palm tree in their front yard! (technically, it's a palmetto, but who cares) We went to bed pretty early as we were all pretty beat. Little over 800 miles driven so far.

Saturday May 10th We decided to drive to Hilton Head Island today. It was a little farther than I expected (160 miles one way) but the drive was fun with our friends in tow. I love the beach and I love real estate, both are abundant at HHI. I love the old architecture and the sea side villas. We stopped off to see the "green home" that HGTV is giving away and that Jenn and I have entered to win multiple times (so have Joe and Sarah). Come to find out, it costs $20 a person, and we only had a few minutes to spare before we were to meet some other friends of Jenn's from college, Jeff and Jenni. We decided not to tour the "green home"...do you see a theme? We went to Jeff and Jenni's place on HHI. We ended up going to an AWESOME BBQ restaurant for lunch. I had this huge baked potato that was filled with pulled pork bbq and covered with sour cream, butter and bbq sauce. Sounds crazy, but it was simply heaven.

We drove around the island for a bit, found a place to park and then did a little shopping. Found a neat palm tree charm for Jenn's bracelet. We ended up after a while walking out on the beach with Mady. She LOVED the water! She fell in, so we took off her pants, and just let her run around in her diaper and shirt. (No one knows us here, right?) We got some really good picts. Needless to say, she was not happy when it was time to go. We'll have fun this week in Charleston when we get there. After we left the beach, we drove around looking at the awesome ocean front homes...a little out of our price range to say the least. We did notice a lot of smug people that turned up their noses at us...

Got home about 8pm, exhausted, but satisfied and hit the hay. Total mileage so far, almost 1200 miles.

Sunday May 11th We decided to go to the late service this morning so that Mady could take a nap in the morning and we could enjoy ourselves in the afternoon. We went to SeaCoast church with Joe and Sarah. They have a great worship band, and the ministry on not judging was very convicting. It was a good service overall.

We came ready to church to go out directly afterwards, and we decided to go to the zoo. Joe and Sarah had only been once, but it was at Christmas time, so they enjoyed themselves too. Mady's new favorite animal (besides "puppy") were the turtles. She learned how to speak most of the animal's names that we taught her, and she really hooked on to "tur-tul." The weather was perfect, and we thoroughly enjoyed the relaxing stroll through the zoo.

Afterwards, we stopped at "5 Brothers" a famous burger shop that's been named in national magazines as "best bang for your buck." The burger, come to find out, is actually a double burger. To get a single patty, you have to order a "little burger." The fries are the kicker though, they have these huge cups of fries that they fill, then they "POUR" fries into your bag...so it's a paper bag with a burger and a ton of fries in it. It even filled me up. I think Joe and Sarah were surprised how much a CF patient can eat...

When we got home, we relaxed for a bit and then they offered to watch Mads for us so that Jenn and I could have some down time. We took them up on the offer and headed out. We stopped at a couple of places to find a new pair of shoes for Mads (we lost one of her sandals at the beach...it must have fallen out of our bag), not finding anything we liked, we drove down to the river walk that weaves through downtown Columbia. It was quite romantic, as it sprawls down each side of the river and runs under fantastic old bridges. It was a nice quiet time for Jenn and I just to enjoy ourselves. Got home and again hit the hay pretty quick as we were pretty tired.

An Update on the Mad-ster...

If you read my previous post, we chalked her symptoms up to teething. Unfortunately I don't think that teething is the main culprit of her sickness.

Last night Mark was grilling burgers out on the grill. He had a folding chair set up and Mady was sitting in it. I'm serious when I say she didn't move the entire time they were out there (probably a good 30 minutes.) I went out to check on them and Mark mentioned her breathing. I paid close attention and noticed that she looked like she was having some labored breathing... it was faster than normal. It kind of reminded me of the way Mark breathes when he's sick - when it just takes a lot of effort to make each breath. That worried both of us a little so we called the Peds department to see if we could bring her by.

Let me make a side note by saying that all day yesterday she was completely lethargic... I mean no energy AT ALL. Then when we get to the doctors office she's running around, pulling open cabinets, swinging the chair around in circles. I thought "this dr is going to think I'm nuts and making all this up!" Little silly goose!

While at the appt, Mady had a temp of 103.2. We also noticed a rash on her stomach. Then, of course, there were her other symptoms of congestion, runny nose, cough, lethargy, the fact that she hasn't eaten since Saturday, and it's really hard to get her to drink anything.

The Dr looked in her ears to see about a possible ear infection. The left ear was clear. The right ear had an excess build up of wax so they decided to clean it out... first by a q-tip thingy and then they had to resort to the irrigation method (neither of which madalyn liked by any means!) But after cleaning it out, they said that ear was clear of infection too - praise God!

So, we left with them telling us that she just had something viral and that we just would have to wait it out. Blah. They gave her some IBuprofen for the ride home and she asleep before we left the parking lot. She was feeling so bad that I cradle-carried her all the way from the clinic to the parking garage and she didn't move a wink!! Poor baby!

This morning she woke up and I think she's doing a little bit better. Her nose isn't as "snotty" and she isn't having as hard of a time breathing.

Please pray for her.. and for us that we don't come down with it during this time. We're supposed to be leaving for vacation this week and I hope that we can all be healthy by then :)


I still think teething played a part in this though - Her fingers have been in her mouth constantly and she's drooling like she did when she got her first 2 teeth in! We'll see. She's got so many teeth that are poking through in the back that it's hard to keep track of what's new and what's been there for a while!

Another bout with teething...

We're having another round of good ole teething fun! Yesterday Madalyn started to get a slight fever. We could tell she wasn't feeling well and gave her some Ibuprofen. Since fevers always tend to get worse at night, I (the paranoid mom that I am) checked on her at least 3 times during the night. We woke up this morning and started getting ready for church. Right before I started to get her dressed, she had a meltdown. She started sobbing and wouldn't quit. Mark looked at me and said "ok, you both are staying here." Since we are leaving for South Carolina for vacation this week, we didn't want to take her to church if (a) she wasn't feeling well and (b) just in case that someone else who might be sick was to be around her.. we just don't want her sick over vacation.

She only slept about an hour during the morning. The rest of the time she wanted to be held, resting her head against my chest. Sometimes she wanted to read books. Nevertheless, I could tell that she was not, at all, feeling well. The interesting thing is that she hasn't been "whine-y" like I might expect. She is just cuddly.

Finally at 11am, I layed her down. Mark went outside and worked in the yard. At 1pm I went and ran some errands. I got home at 3:15 and she had apparently just woken up... she took a 4 hour nap! Mark said that she probably would have still be sleeping except that he got worried so he went in to check on her and it woke her up. She was relaxing with daddy in the rocking chair under mommy's warm blanket when I got home!

Later this afternoon we went outside. Now, most of you know that my daughter likes to be moving. She's always moving. We were outside for almost an hour and she never once wanted off my lap. She laid against me the entire time.

She definitely still has a fever but we're almost positive that it's related to teething. The big give-away is that she's massively drooling all the time. She also has a runny nose. She's gotten some new teeth in the back already but I think she might be working on more molars or something! I feel so bad for her because I know that she doesn't feel well. I just hope she gets better before we leave. I want her to be able to have fun :)