D's book is done!

The hardest part of my post-TBI life is accepting that I've lost my ability to write professionally. Where my thoughts used to flow so fast, I couldn't help but write, not the process is slow, cumbersome, and usually full of typos. I usually have Niels proof my blog posts to take care of the most obvious errors. And if I have any sort of deadline, my brain just freezes and I can't think of anything.

About three years ago, when D was a baby, I was up in the middle of the night and I had a rare flash of inspiration. I had the idea for a series of books about a little boy who doesn't always want to do what he needs to do. I ran down to my computer to put down my thoughts and the basic text of the first book, "But I Don't Wanna Go To Bed."

In the morning, I read what I wrote, fully expecting that it would be gibberish. Instead I was very pleasantly surprised that it was still the cute story I thought I wrote the night before.

Over the next few days, I made a very simple version of the book using Powerpoint and images from the internet.

You can see it's been read many, many times.

Interior shot

This gives an idea of how old D was when I started this project.

I've wanted to make the project into an actual book, but knew that my brain would not be up for the pitch process. And really, even though I was working on a proposal for a children's book series before my TBI, I really just wanted something to pass on to my son so he could understand a little bit of my old self.

I remembered my talented friend, Dave Butler, who wrote and illustrated a super cute adoption book, what I had bought for a few of my friends.

So we starting talking about working together to illustrate my story.

Originally, we had hoped to have the book ready for Christmas. It's the Christmas gift to D's grandparents. The idea is that they could read the story to him over Skype as a way to stay connected. But between my terrible three-month headache, the energy spent on our new house build, and the realities of working with a brain that doesn't always work the way I want it to, and it took a little longer. Fortunately, Dave was great to work with, and very patient with me!

The page is a great example of how happy I am with his work. Since writing the book, our sweet Bailey dog passed away. Dave added Bailey to each page as a silent tribute to her, and it's fun for D to find her in each page. (It isn't hard, but he's three, so it's fun!). Also, since we're a Dutch family, the tulips are a nice touch. And yellow is D's favorite color.

Yesterday, Dave gave me the good news that the books are in! I ordered a small amount for family, and of course, for D, but we're already had a few requests for copies on Facebook, so I'll soon put in another order so we can sell them to anyone who's interested.

It's a lot less fanfare than my previous book release, but in many ways, I'm even more proud of this book. I can't wait to read D the real thing! And maybe, my brain will get started on the next one, "But I Don't Wanna Eat My Peas."

Jen's birthday interview

In the spirit of our new family tradition, here's my birthday interview.

It's the end of the my 30s...

Today is my last day in my thirties. Happily, 40 doesn't seem to bother me as much as 30 did. Perhaps because, other than sustaining my TBI and the fun that went with it, my thirties were pretty fantastic. I started out in a career I loved, my first book was published, I was under contract for a second, I was a home owner, I had a sweet puppy dog, and best of all, I met and married my best friend, and our lives were blessed with the arrival of our little boy.

As I think ahead to the next twelve months as a forty-year-old, I see a pretty awesome year ahead. I look forward to, in no particular order.

1. Moving into our dream house.
2. Celebrating five years of wedded bliss with the most wonderful husband I could have ever imagined.
3. Believing that my current treatment plan, combined with the brain-injury-friendly plans we incorporated into the new house will mean more good days and less days curled up in fetal position in my bed!
4. Spending a week with my mom in Las Vegas while Niels is attending a conference.
5. Getting back to the Netherlands to see my in-laws.
6. Watching my baby sister, Liz, get married.
7. Catching up with my best friends in April when all five of us are back in the same country, same state and same city!
8. Adding a new four-footed family member this fall. I thought we would wait until D started school, but I don't think we can wait that long!
9. Watching all the fun things my three-year-old will do and say and learn this year.
10. Taking the brain power and energy I've been using for making decisions for the new house and channeling into building deeper friendships with women in town. 

D is three!

I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it would be a fun tradition to start. I did the interview closer to his birthday, and we've played "the question game" almost every day since. These answers are pretty standard.

This picture was taken on January 3, when we finally got a bit of snow. This is the first year that D has had any interest in the snow, but he tires of it as quickly as his mommy does.

New Home build almost done

Since the last post on this blog we've created the new blog we were talking about in the last post detailing the new house we're building, sold the old house, moved to an apartment and are now about 6 weeks away from moving into said dream house.

Please take a gander over at the other blog, at present only 16,000 other 'clicks' were made to have a look... ;-)

The dream house

This section could ultimately - and has now become - a new blog. We've closed on the construction loan for the new house and we are planning to start digging in the next few weeks. The lot is located at 4368 Folkstone Circle, Uniontown, OH 44685 but it is still in the city of Green - where we live now even though with a North Canton mailing address (blame local and school politics for that little gem of clarity...)

Anyway... we are building an ultra energy efficient 2-story full ICF (insulated concrete forms) house (projected HERS score: 40) with dual master suites since we have family and friends from near but mostly far and aging parents that will visit for extended periods of time. Plus, if something happens to us (accident, etc...) we can use it as well.

Below are two links to the house plans; the first link is the full set of plans from February and since then we've made a large change in the front elevation (second link). Changes made post the second link version are:
- Extending the stone left of the garage to about 3ft
- Replacing the screened-in back porch with an open porch
- Extending the now open back porch past the in-law suite
This should be the last major alteration and we are now full on in details mode looking at siding options, exterior and interior colors, faucets, etc...

Stay tuned for more on our latest project... Have fun clicking on the links (open in a browser, no special software needed).

Link 1 - February full set (8 pages)
Link 2 - Latest elevation (2 pages)
Link 3 - Link to our builder, the fabulous Charis Homes

March in Review

de Jong Family, March 5, 2011

If you've been to our house, you may have seen a sheet of paper we have hanging on our frig. We hang up a new sheet each month to jot down important dates, highlights, decisions made, projects completed and cute things that Daniel is doing and saying. Since my brain's ability to make and retain memories is a bit shoddy, this is the way I "remember" our life (plus lots of photos!).

I haven't been very good about updating the blog, so I thought I could use my month memory sheet to make at least a monthly blog report, so here's March.

One of my all time favorite pictures of Bailey, circa 2005

Of course, the biggest news of March is that we lost our sweet Bailey girl to liver failure on March 5. It's been much harder than I thought it would be and it's still hard to think of ourselves as a pet-free family.

The other major theme of the month is that we've been quite busy with preparing the house for sale. We started almost a year ago, but we knew that with me, it would take a while, with lots of starts and stops as my brain needed rest. This month we replaced all the carpet upstairs and are in the process of putting a hood in the island above our stove. We've also done some deep cleaning projects: the fireplace, the frig, the pantry. And we finally got the septic tanks cleaned after flooding caused some friends' basement to be flooded with two feet of sewage. Blech! We bought new bedding for our room and the third bedroom, and we bought some new tables and art for the front living room.

Daniel's Room with New Carpet

Along the housing theme, we signed our contract with the builder on the 29th! We were approved for our construction loan on the 25th, and it looks like we'll break ground in May. (We may push off til June, but right now we're thinking May!) Even though we first started talking about building our dream house "someday" four years ago, I can't believe it's happening already! We're hoping everything will be ready by next Friday so we can list our house on April 9. Feel free to start praying for a quick sale!

It has definitely been an expensive month. In addition to the house repairs and improvements, we've had higher than average medical expenses. I had minor surgery on the 22nd for an ongoing issue, which can hopefully be resolved without a major surgery. I have a follow-up appointment with my doctor next week, so we're doing a bit of praying about that. I've been really tired for quite a while so hopefully that can get resolved.

I've also been struggling with vertigo and vision issues for several months, and finally realized that I gave myself another concussion when I hit my head on the sloped ceiling at Niels' parents house on New Year's Eve. The neuro who manages my headaches referred me to a neuro-opthalmologist and I've started vision therapy with her this month. So far, I have new contacts, and I have new glasses to wear when I drive or exercise to help with the vertigo and double vision. The official diagnosis is post-traumatic vision syndrome. I had it with my original TBI, but it's definitely more pronounced now. In a nutshell, my eyes are fine, but my brain is not communicating well with my optic nerve, so what I see is slightly distorted, and my vision field is smaller than it should be. Hopefully, my expensive new glasses will help remind my brain how to place nice with my eyes.

Watching the cars go by.

Daniel continues to be a joy. We are so blessed by this curious, serious, happy boy. Thomas the Train continues to be his obsession and we're looking forward to surprising him next month with A Day Out With Thomas. He also still loves Elmo, airplanes--he's always on the lookout for planes in the air, letters, books, beads, clocks, coloring, cooking with Mommy and helping around the house. He loves to put his clothes in the hamper, put clothes in and out of the dryer, empty the dishwasher, sweep and wipe the table. His big accomplishment this month is that he has given up the pacifier. I was starting to wonder if he would take it to college with him! We started to wean him when everything happened with Bailey, so we put it off a couple weeks and after a couple of rough sleep-less days, we did it!

We are amazed every day at how quickly his language skills--both Dutch and English!--continue to grow. He repeats everything we say and frequently uses 4 and even 5 word sentences. He's very polite and regularly says "please," "thank you," and "help" without prompting. He has thoroughly mastered his letters and has moved on to learning numbers, colors and opposites. He's pretty shy around groups, but is super chatty when he plays by himself or is in his crib. We love to listen to him on the monitor as he recites all the words he knows and practices conversations.

When he isn't playing with his trains, lego or colors, he LOVES to help me in the kitchen. I cook most meals at home each night, so after his nap, he's quick to get us in the kitchen to start dinner. He has an impressive knowledge of whole ingredients. How many 2 year olds do you know that can identify bay leaves and chick peas and basil and couscous? He's amazing.

***cute story alert: I think one of my favorite memories of Daniel and Bailey will be this...when Bailey first got sick, she was home and sitting on my lap. Daniel was playing with his train in his own world. I was talking softly to Bailey, petting her and saying soothing things like, "It's okay, Bailey. I love you, Bailey." Daniel stopped, walked into the kitchen, opened the pantry, found the bay leaves, and brought them over to us. He put the bag of bay leaves right up to Bailey's face and said, "Bay leaves for Bailey." ***

Love that kid.