Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Tuesday, September 14, 2021 -- Mattie died 624 weeks ago today. 

Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2006. Mattie was in his preschool classroom, and because it was his line leader day, I was able to volunteer to help the teachers, assist the children, and be able to participate in Mattie's antics. Mattie LOVED the loft in his classroom and as you can see he was busy working on a plan with his best buddy Zachary. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 41,351,744
• Number of people who died from the virus: 663,884

Today was a show! The last person just left now, and it is after 8pm. My day started at 6am! We had someone over to evaluate the chimneys and the stonework outside. Then later in the day we had a structural engineer here to evaluate whether a broken beam that was found within our walls was load bearing. I was expecting the worst! Thankfully it is NOT load bearing and we can begin moving ahead on closing up the walls, dry walling, and eventually painting! It is close to impossible finding a reputable structural engineering company that does home evaluations. I would highly recommend Deska Services, they were easy to work with, coordinate with, and the engineer was lovely. He answered all my questions and even gave me his cell phone number in case Fairfax County inspectors need to talk with him! 

Then at 6pm, the oven and refrigerator repairperson came. He was with us for over two hours. Also a delightful person, who has worked in this industry for 40 years. He was very informative and got the job done. He gave me some instruction on the freezer and oven and we shall see if any of this helps. But the freezer doesn't like making ice and the oven (to me) cooks at a lower temperature than what the gauge indicates! LOVELY!

I wish this was the end of it for this week.... but NO! Tomorrow we have Fairfax County coming to do an electrical inspection, we have the electricians coming back, we have the tile person correcting the laundry room tiles, and HVAC person are also coming back to deal with faulty issues. That's just tomorrow! Thursday, the roofing people will be here the entire day! NO PEACE in Oakton!

The highlight of my day was receiving a surprise package in the mail.... two light up sunflowers for the garden. I absolutely LOVE them, but have no idea who they are from. I would love to thank the giver!

Sunflowers are special to me as they symbolize community...... as Team Mattie gave me countless bunches of sunflowers whenever we were home between hospital admissions. To me they remind me of Team Mattie and their incredible care, support, and compassion.