Time for lots of good news!

We're so excited to be posting (mainly) all good news today!! So in no specific order, here are some updates:

1. We tested the camper to see if it had a mold problem, and it came back great! No mold in the camper, so that is a huge relief. We also went ahead and tested my parents house, since we are in there a lot, and those test results also came back with good numbers!!

2. We got the ok to list our house for sale!!!! Stephen was able to list it on Zillow a week and a half ago, and we already have a few interested families! One of the families in particular seems really interested, so we are praying that it may be a good fit for everyone involved. There are quite a few things that need still need to be lined up, but it would be wonderful if it all works out.

3. Stephen is starting week two of hyperbaric treatments this week! He goes in every day (Monday through Friday) each week for about 45 minutes. It takes about 15 minutes to get up to pressure, and then he's at pressure for about an hour. Then it is another 15 minutes to come back up to normal pressure. He says the only weird thing about being in the chamber is that his joints always feel super loose while he's in there, and if he moves around even the slightest bit, everything starts popping. It's a little too early to see any huge changes yet, but we did actually see some slight changes this past weekend. (more about that down below) He is expected to go through some rough days right about this point in the treatment, due to the detox process that happens with hyperbarics. The normal protocol for mold is 40 dives, but some may need more. So it's possible that Stephen could be 80-90% by early October!

Stephen is also taking the mycotoxins test again, at the recommendation of his doctor. It's a little early for the normal time to re-take that test, but we need to know if he is actually detoxing the mycotoxins, or if we need to have him take a genetics test to find out if he carries the gene that makes it hard for his body to detox mold specifically. We're praying that we will see a change in the test results from the last time, especially since he's already gotten a week of hyperbarics under his belt. Since the first time he took the test, all the results were either zero or average, which is normal due to the fact that we were still in the moldy environment at the time and the body is just trying to cope with everything, so any change would be great, indicating that what we are doing is working!!!

4. Biggest news of all, WE'VE STARTED THE PROCESS OF BUILDING THE TINY HOUSE!!!

It's all becoming real, the dirt work has begun, lines for water and sewer are almost done, and the trailer frame was actually in the exact spot we will be building. It's so great to actually see progress being made, instead of it just being paperwork and behind the scenes stuff. Stephen has also been working hard at drawing everything out with our modifications, and getting everything to scale. Here are a few pictures to show all the changes that are happening!!

Grass is gone, dirt is ready to smooth out!

Dirt is somewhat leveled, and trailer base is in it's spot!

Digging the water lines! Ruth loved watching and thought all of that dirt was just for her to play with ;)

House plans drawn to scale

And finally, the most recent news. This past weekend was a hot one, as many of you know. Stephen got out on Saturday morning and worked on our car (also, we're still working on remediating our car... After running the ozone, we tested it and still didn't get great results. It was better than the last test, but still too high to be considered safe. We fogged it one more time with the Haven fog and tested it over the weekend, so we should see results by Thursday or Friday! Fingers crossed this will do the trick, because we're running out of options). He got overheated and really itchy, but no hives were popping up. I asked him what he thought about trying to just push through it and not go inside and rinse off. I suggested that he just go sit on the trampoline with Ruth and cool off in the shade. He did that, and while he still didn't feel great, he never had any hives pop up!!! Just a few weeks ago, he would get hives if he just sat outside if it was too warm. He took a short break over lunch, and then in the afternoon he took a lawn mower out to our house to take care of the yard. He did end up breaking out in hives here, but it was only on his arms. We're considering this a big step forward! This was the first time he was able to mow our yard in over two years.

He was definitely wiped by the end of the day, but he recovered a lot better and wasn't bedridden on Sunday like he could've been last year after doing so much exertion.