Media Frenzy, Aqua Therapy, Swing, and Memorial Garden

We’re Getting a Bit Famous

This is getting to be a bit crazy!

Three weeks ago, there was an article about our bathroom renovation in the Daily Herald newspaper:

https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20150913/entlife/150919731

Two weeks ago, there was a little blurb about it on a local radio station. A sound clip can be found below. You don’t have to listen to the whole 14-minute clip. You can jump to about the 3-minute mark and listen to around the 7-minute mark.

 

 

This past Wednesday, there was an article published in another local newspaper about our remodeled bathroom:

https://patch.com/illinois/hinsdale/remodelers-join-together-donate-services-area-family

This morning Stacy got a Facebook message from a friend telling her that we were in the paper again and sent a picture of the article. It’s a bit of an update about us since we had fundraiser for the van last year, and also talked about our bathroom renovation. The article can be found here:

https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20151004/news/151009980

 

Photo of a printed Daily Herald article with the headline “Be grateful for what you have and who you know,” accompanied by an image of Stacy and Jeff sitting on a red couch with James lying across their laps. Medical tubing is visible as they care for him in a warm living‑room setting with a lamp and framed photos behind them. The article text discusses the family’s challenges and the community support they received.
https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20151004/news/151009980

 

But wait, there’s more to come! That little radio blurb I linked to earlier? Stacy was invited to be on that radio show in a couple of weeks to talk about the bathroom renovation. Stay tuned (pun intended) for a link to that clip.

 

Aqua Therapy

So, what else has been going on with us besides the recent media frenzy? Well, James has been going to aqua therapy. I got a chance last week to leave work early to see him in action. He seems to enjoy it. I think it relaxes him and his muscles.

 

James supported in a swimming pool with a yellow torso float and a blue inflatable neck collar, held closely by Stacy in the water. Clear blue pool water surrounds them, with the pool edge and equipment visible in the background, capturing a calm aquatic‑therapy moment.
Aqua therapy

 

Swing

We’re still trying to figure out a swing for James that we can attach to the pergola over our back patio. Last week we tried this:

 

Blue hammock hanging outdoors with a brown plastic child seat placed inside it, the seat fitted with a gray safety harness. The hammock is suspended near a patio area with concrete flooring and the house wall behind it, capturing an improvised seating setup in an outdoor space.
Rope swing and Special Tomato seat

 

It’s a rope swing that Stacy found at Amazon and a Special Tomato Soft-Touch Sitter that she found at AdaptiveMall.com. It was a bit of a challenge getting him into the swing with me trying to hold it still while Stacy put him in…and both of us praying that she didn’t miss and drop him on the concrete. I’m thinking about getting some rubber or foam tiles to put underneath just in case.

 

James resting in a blue hammock outdoors, wearing a striped shirt and supported by a neck pillow, covered with a green and brown crocheted blanket featuring a monkey design. The hammock hangs over a concrete surface with grass visible behind it, capturing a quiet, relaxed moment outside.
Trying out this new swing “contraption”

 

Memorial Garden

Last year I started to notice that the pine tree we had in front of our house started to have this smell to it. The best way that I can describe it is that it smelled like a distillery. Stacy and I took a tour of the Jack Daniels distillery many years ago, and that’s kind of what it smelled like. I did a bit of research on it, and it sounded like the tree was dying. Not sure what happened to it, but we decided to have it taken down.

Then we had to figure out what to do with that area that was smack dab in the middle of the front yard. Our first thought was to just throw down some grass seed and be done. But then we came up with a better idea. For those of you that don’t know, we lost our first son, Jackson, to Trisomy 18 before he was born. We decided to turn the area into the Jackson Memorial Garden. The majority of my spare time over the past five months was devoted to designing and building this garden, and I am happy to say that it is finally done and ready for planting next spring.

 

Side‑by‑side photos showing a front‑yard transformation: the top image has light snow on the grass with several cut tree logs near the house’s tan siding, stone accents, and red shutters; the bottom image shows the same area after cleanup, with the logs removed and a new red‑brick raised garden bed filled with fresh soil in front of the house, the surrounding grass green and tidy.
Memorial garden for Jackson

 

Family Pictures Postponed

We were planning on having our annual fall family pictures outside today, but decided to cancel because the weather didn’t want to cooperate. It was cloudy and felt it was a bit too chilly for James. Don’t want to risk him getting sick. We may do indoor pictures in a few weeks.