Karwoski Life

Well, it's official...we are LAND OWNERS!! Matt and I signed the closing documents for the sale of our new lot and construction loan on Friday afternoon!! It is a HUGE step forward in our homebuilding process and we are SO excited to finally be underway. I still have to touch base with our builder, but it sounds like it will likely be another few weeks before physical work starts happening on the site, but he keeps assuring me that once it does start...it'll fly. LET'S HOPE SO!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!!! We missed not being there to celebrate on this day, but were glad we could celebrate together when they were back for a visit in June. We had a cake and homemade ice cream…Meghan kept calling Mom the Birthday Girl…priceless! I hope that today Mom gets to do something fun with Dad…or at least enjoy a nice dinner out. We’ve had a couple of busy weeks around here and I just haven’t had much time to write an update. Things are going pretty well for the most part, just really starting to ramp up the house plans. We decided shortly after Matt’s surgery that we were going to replace the cabinets and countertops in our kitchen and bathroom in preparation for listing the house. They were the last things that really stood out as old and needing to be updated to us. So we worked out a deal with Matt’s dad for some nice maple cabinets which have a finish similar to the woodwork in our house…they totally fit the era of the home. Well, last weekend was our big project weekend...

Today was a much better day for me. Wednesday I was just in a funk…and I just couldn’t shake it. So yesterday, after a quiet morning at work, I decided to take the afternoon off and just spend some time with Matt. We talked through the afternoon, trying to get to the bottom of my funk. I think it was partly the fact that everything is so different now…the holiday was weird, and just the unfairness of our situation in general. Sometimes that unfairness seems unbearable, like there’s no getting around it. It can consume me, if I let it. We watched a documentary on HBO Tuesday night about people with traumatic brain injuries and it followed them through their recoveries…or lack there of. It was a very sad, but moving, documentary. Parts of it were so familiar to me, watching the families struggle with the unknown outcomes, hoping for a miracle and living in disbelief that their lives have changed so drastically. There was one couple in particular who touched me. They had only recently bec...

Happy Independence Day Well, for me this Fourth of July was kind of a bust. All day I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was off…that I was missing something…that I should be DOING something. We hadn’t planned on doing much, just spending time together at home and catching some fireworks in the evening. As many of you know, I am nuts about fireworks. I love them…and tend to get very excited while watching them. But all day today I just didn’t feel much in the mood for the typical July Fourth festivities. And then it sort of hit me this afternoon what it was that was missing…our usual holiday traditions. In years past we have always spent the holiday with family. We’d go boating (or at least try to…if we could manage to get the boat in the water without breaking it or something), or we’d cook out and make ice cream…and we’d always end the day with sparklers and fireworks together with family. This year was the first year that we didn’t plan anything with anyone. O...

Yesterday was a beautiful day…just beautiful. The weather cooled off some and we were able to open the windows up and enjoy the evening. We grabbed sandwiches from our favorite sub place (Jimmy Johns) on our way home from therapy and ate them out on the patio. The dogs were happy to just run around the yard, sniffing the fresh air, chasing critters, and hunting for crumbs underneath the table. We sat outside together most of the evening, watering the yard and talking. After a while we finally went inside and sat down for a bowl of homemade ice cream (leftover from the visit with my parents last weekend). It was the perfect end to a perfect evening. The weather wasn’t too hot, the neighborhood was quiet, the birds were happily dancing around in the wet grass, there was nothing on our ‘to do’ list needing attention…we just sat back and let the afternoon drift lazily into evening…perfect.

Well, we had our first follow up visit with the eye surgeons yesterday in Iowa City…and the results look good, promising, and encouraging…to quote the doctors. This first visit they are mostly looking for infection and just making sure that the eyes are healing up…which they are. Matt’s right eye is still pretty swollen and red, but it’s coming along nicely and they weren’t concerned with that aspect at all. They talked a bit about how Matt’s vision is now, a week after surgery…and surprisingly, it’s not too bad! Matt still sees double when he’s looking straight ahead, but the images are much closer together now, and when he looks just to the left of center and holds his head just right, he can make the two images come together!!!! Something he hasn’t been able to do at all previously! (On the way to Iowa City he kept turning to look at me as we talked, saying how nice it was to look and just see one of me, and still have peripheral vision etc.) The doctors were very excited to he...

It’s the day after Matt’s second eye surgery and he is taking it easy on the couch. He has to lay with an ice pack on his eyes for these first 24-48 hours to help with the swelling. I won’t subject you to up close pictures like I did after his first surgery…but he actually looks a little better this time around. So far, the results are good. The doctor used an adjustable suture this time on one muscle of his right eye. They actually left the suture in there with the string hanging out the corner of Matt’s eye. After Matt was awake and recovering, they came in to test and measure his eyes and make the final adjustments. They made 3 final tweaks after which the doctor was very pleased with the results. He said that they got everything that they could have hoped for out of the surgery, now the rest it up to Matt’s body and brain. It will be a matter of healing and time. The alignment of Matt’s eyes looks great, both vertically and horizontally…which in theory should alleviate the ...