Our Growing Family.

Dreier [Soon to Be] Party of 4.

A handful of my favorite pictures.
I feel so blessed.

   

      

    

The "Not So Dry" Dreiers

Tony was finished for the semester on the 16th and was beginning his long awaited 10 WEEKS OF VACATION....

(well, technically, 2 weeks for Christmas, 4 weeks of a self-guided research reading type class he can do at home, and then 4 weeks of vacation time after the baby comes = 10 weeks total).

So, we decided to take a few days and go to Nashville. After he left the hospital on Friday afternoon we went to ATT and got ourselves new iPhones (much needed for both of us) and then went to Tulsa to drop off the dogs and left for Nashville Saturday morning. With a 2 year old and a 33 week pregnant woman the drive takes a little longer than normal and, unbeknownst to us, there were awful storms going across the country that night that we had to drive through. It was some of the heaviest rain we've driven through and we were actually in a tornado watch as we drove... It was crazy but we made it safely! 

We really had a great time in Nashville. Elliott loved playing with his cousin Asher! It was a short trip but we enjoyed lots of visiting, good food, went to the Ice! exhibit at the Opryland hotel, and even got to go up to Nana's office and get an awesome 4D ultrasound of both Baby Dreier and Baby Babb!

The pics below are Baby D2... who has big chubby cheeks and a head full of lots of hair just like his big brother had in his ultrasounds! Watching him move on the screen in such a life-like picture made it all so much more real and made me even more excited (and impatient) to meet him!!! I can't wait!!!! 

         

   

  

On Tuesday morning (20th) we got this text message.

I mean... what a text!! We didn't even know our neighbor had Tony's number (her kids borrowed the phone one time to call her) but thank God she did! The neighbors were able to turn off our water at the curb, but we had no idea what the inside of the house & garage looked like. We gave the garage code to some friends who went over right away to take a look and found out it was pretty bad, so my mom and brother rushed over to Norman to start getting things taken care of while we made the 12 hour drive back home. Honestly, I really don't know what we would have done without my mom and brother; they took lots of pics for documentation and really started getting the ball rolling for clean up. ALL day I was on the phone with insurance, plumbers, mitigation companies, contractors, etc.  Needless to say, it was a realllllly long drive back... but we were SO glad to have our new phones so we have batteries that last and tons and tons of storage space for all the pics and videos that we will need to save of the house and contents! 

We had one company who started the "dry out" and actually made things a whole lot worse. They were understaffed, undertrained, and were doing more harm than good. I was very unhappy with the fact that they only sent one college aged kid out to start drying, and even at that, he wasn't pulling up the carpet to get the padding dry, he confirmed the dry wall was wet and they didn't start cutting it or poking holes to get air in to dry it, AND once he did get some help they started packing up stuff in such a careless manner. Wet things were mixed with dry things. Wet clothes were thrown in cardboard boxes, drawers of breakable things were dumped in boxes without any packing tissue or bubble wrap, they didn't even have packing tape so they were just folding boxes at the bottom... and they looked surprised to learn that if you set a heavy cardboard box on wet carpet, the bottom will get wet and fall out when you lift the box! I'm not good at confrontation, but they got fired. 

It was quite a headache the first couple of days, and I'm sure it's going to be a long process that won't be the easiest, but I feel like we now have good and knowledgable people in the house taking over to dry it out and do all the renovations that will need to be done. 

Here's where we stand now:

- The kitchen and laundry room are fine!

- All the carpet and padding in the house had to be taken out. Thank goodness because even after a couple days of having fans and dehumidifiers in the house it was starting to get SUPER stinky and was still completely saturated.

- Dry wall had to be cut about 18in along all the walls in master bedroom/bath/closet, hallway/closet, entry/closet, and both front bedrooms/closets, and then above the main bath shower bc installation got wet in that wall. 

- Both bathroom vanities have water damage; master vanity will need to be replaced for sure, main vanity was a custom build by builders (we added the counter top and vessel sink) will either need to be repaired or replaced. 

- We just bought new couches and only one of them had water on it, but we think it dried okay. It needs to be checked.

- Most wood furniture was okay and dried. A lot of particle board furniture like shelves and the dresser in E's room just sucked up too much water and ruined them on the bottoms. 

- A lot of things that were on the floor (including the mattress against the wall in the murphy bed) in the office were completely soaked because that's where most of the water started flowing from; I'm a little embarrassed at how messy that room was. I was in the middle of sorting everything, and trying to transition that room from an office/guest room to an extra room with some baby stuff, even though we aren't really setting it up to be a full "nursery" because baby will be in our room for the first few months. So, a lot of electronics, papers, and random stuff were all over the floor in there... it was a mess before water entered the picture, so then it just turned into a huge soggy mess! There were also things in other rooms on the floor that got really wet and will need to be replaced. 

- The garage had water running out of it, but as far as we know, everything is okay. The nursery furniture I just bought was in the garage under moving blankets and so much stuff was taken out of the house and stacked all around it that we really haven't had a chance to get back there to it and look at it yet. (Fingers crossed!!)

- So far insurance has been good to us and they've reserved/paid of a hotel room for us in Norman through 1/19 (E and I will probably be spending a lot of time in Tulsa since it's difficult to keep a 2 year old cooped up in a hotel room). We will be able to extend it if we need to, but I'm thinking being able to be back in the house would be a great birthday present for me on 1/20! 

So, that's basically the house in a nutshell. Since all the walls and floors will have to be redone we have to take EVERYTHING off the wall and out of the house. We have a POD in the driveway where almost everything can be stored. 

It's definitely going to be a long process and we're really hoping that it will be done in 4 weeks before the baby gets here. I'm hopeful, but not holding my breath! We'll just have to take it one day at a time. Life is crazy but there's nobody else I'd rather go through all of this with than Tony & Elliott, and we have tons of great support, so we're just going to make the best of a rough situation.

At least our house will be as good as new when this is all over!

... For now, here are some pictures of the mess over the past week:


        
  

WHAT A NIGHTMARE!

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas in Tulsa with family.

It was nice to be able to take a little time and spend it with family. Although, we did get a couple texts from workers at our house on Christmas eve and even day (...go home and be with your family! haha)... but at least we were able to be in Tulsa with family and enjoy ourselves. Elliott and I have been staying in Tulsa and Tony has been in Norman so much that it was really good seeing him. 

Here are a few pictures. I wish I had taken more... but we were busy enjoying the moments. 

Elliott's aunts and uncles love to buy him LOUD instruments and toys. 

Santa was up all night getting ready for the big day.
Elliott got a battery operated tractor, a train table, and so many other fun toys!! 

  

  

And Grandpop soooo proud of his new shirt that says "Never Underestimate an Old Man that Listens to Pink Floyd" in preparation for his big Rogers Water concert coming up. 

Happy Christmas Season

The Note With Our Christmas Cards This Year:

Hi, family and friends! We pray you’re having a happy Christmas and continue to have a very happy and blessed new year. 2016 was a great year for our family and we are excited for all that 2017 has in store! We celebrated our big 10 year wedding anniversary this past June. Tony has been working hard to finish medical school and has chosen a career in Family Medicine. We find out in March where he will be matched for residency, he graduates in May (5/21- everyone is invited!) and begins residency in July. We plan on moving after we get our residency placement. Melissa loves staying home with Elliott and is especially enjoying this time with him before the new baby comes. Elliott turned 2 on 11/29. He makes us laugh and keeps us on our toes; he is so sweet, has a BIG personality, and is often too smart for his own good! We are expecting “little brother” towards the end of January. We are so excited (and a bit impatient) to meet him and introduce him to the world! We end our 2016 feeling so happy and blessed! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We love you all!

(Obviously, the note with our Christmas cards was written prior to our house flooding! More about that later... but 2016 is definitely ending a little more interesting than what we initially thought. Ha.)

It has been such a happy and busy Christmas season. Some of the highlights:

On 12/3 my mom and I went to the Amy Grant Christmas concert with Michael W. Smith and Jordan Smith. It was AMAZING; all 3 of them have such phenomenal voices. It was the best night to kick off the Christmas spirit for the month.

  

We had a mini Christmas photo session in a gorgeous barn. Really, my intent was for these to just be simple maternity pictures with the couch in the barn and the chandelier overhead, because I had already booked Christmas pictures with another photographer at a Christmas tree farm, BUT the barn happened to be decorated so pretty from a big Christmas party the night before and the other session at the Christmas tree farm was cancelled due to weather, so these turned into our Christmas pictures and the other session turned out be more of just a general family/maternity session... it all worked out great!

      

  


We've finally had some cold days, which means I've been cooking more and am so happy to use my new stove and oven (we got a new refrigerator, too, and I LOVE it)! We generally aren't big soup people... but the Pioneer Woman really knows what she's doing. I made her potato soup and it was glorious! The chicken soup I made on my own and it was probably the best chicken noodle I've ever had in my life. Tony loves when I make my own creations; he says the only problem is that it's always so good but we never get to have the same exact thing twice because I make it from scratch and I don't measure things out or write down how I made it! Haha! 

  

We had a fun day at a Christmas parade and then came home and put on Christmas music and decorated the house and put up the tree. BTW, E really did enjoy the parade. It was cold so he was bundled up... but he couldn't take his eyes off the candy that was being thrown on the ground! Haha. I think that concerned him a little bit! My belly is so big that I'm having a hard time zipping up my own coat! 

    

We had a little get away to Nashville. Then our house flooded. (That's another post.) 

Elliott was able to go to The Christmas Train with my family. Our tickets were for the day after we got back from Nashville so Tony and I were stuck in Norman taking care of stuff at the house, but E had a really great time! I woke up at 4:30am the day tickets went on sale and got tickets for everyone because I really wanted E to be able to experience it, especially since it's the last year. I know he won't remember it, but it's still a fun/special thing to do for families.  

We saw Santa!! He was actually really excited to see Santa, he just looked a little confused with the elves started ringing bells and yelling at him to smile for the picture! Haha! Elliott is older this year and has been so enamored with everything Christmas- Santa, the lights, the trees, the songs, the fun decorations (see pic below of the cute light-up snowman that he insisted he needed at Hobby Lobby... it has "snow" inside him and changes colors!), his baby Jesus and the toy nativity we have, and all the fun time we've had with family.

It's truly been a happy Christmas season!