Thursday, December 25, 2008

Kids big present this year

I gave the kids 14 clues to try and put it together. The clues were all over the house. I did make some rather obscure and tried to throw them off the "scent". It worked - they had no idea until clue #14. Can you guess what their gift is?

1. On the Wii - It's something we all have to share.

2. On the dryer - We have to get a dog sitter.

3. On the piano - We will be flying.

4. On the fireplace - It will last 8 days.

5. In the linen closet - Pack your swimsuit, our hotel is in the tropics.

6. In the office - It's gonna be tight - all in one room.

7. In the pantry - But don't worry. There's lots of space all day long.

8. Near the DVDs - We will leave in 26 days!

9. In the coat closet - Our days will start early and end late.

10. On the china cabinet - We can watch the fireworks on the beach.

11. On my stereo - We will visit old friends and make new ones.

12. By the front door - We can visit Tom and Becky.

13. In the garage - We can visit Alice and Mary.

14. In Dad's pocket - for us this is the gimme clue if they didn't know it by now - We don't go to have fun. We go to spend lots and lots of money.

Did you guess? K had an idea and then got thrown off by a few clues. She knew we were going somewhere and she didn't care where! At one point dh said that he thought he knew where we were going but now he wasn't so sure.

Let me explain a few clues in case you are lost.
5. Hotel in the tropics - not really but the setting is tropical. We are staying at the Polynesian.
9. Start early, end late - the kids don't really have bedtimes there.
10. You cans ee the fireworks on the beach at the hotel. They pipe in the music. This is important as K is sensitive to noise.
11. Old friends and new - when you know where we are going it makes sense.
12. Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher
13. Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins.
14. This is what dh says all the time we are there.

Give up? Or do you know? We are taking the kids to Disney World!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas 2008! 


For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
– Luke 2:11 (KJV)

This year feels like it has flown by! And with the economy in the state that it’s in, it almost can’t end soon enough… Yet, there’s still much to be thankful for!

Here at Casa K, the kids are growing like weeds. K is now taller than C, and H’s not far behind. M is a fairly distant third, but then, he’s only eight. I’m still the tallest, but I don’t imagine that’ll last long.

K’s just turned 14, and is in 8th grade this year. H’s 11, and in 5th grade. M is 8, and in 3rd. C is homeschooling all three, and all still seem to be enjoying the process. C and the kids participate in the SEEK homeschool co‐op at Colonial once a week, to break things up a bit. The kids are all in music lessons, as well (K on guitar; H and M on piano), and are sounding pretty good, if you ask me. Of course, I’m biased. And if that weren’t enough, all three are taking tennis lessons now, too. Oh, and playing soccer. And football. And basketball. Some of them. Whew.

In our copious spare time, we do quite a bit of volunteer work. C is still active in the children’s ministry at church, and also in the sports ministry at Colonial Baptist. She’s been a soccer coach there for a number of years, and plans to continue in that capacity. I still run sound and play the trumpet at church. In addition, I play guitar for the kids in the Cubbies program at Colonial’s Awana program. K and H volunteer there as well, as regular leaders. Volunteering at Colonial is becoming a family affair!

On a professional level, I’m still at Cisco. In August, I crossed the nine year mark.

On the fun side, we took two big family vacations this year. We spent a week in Williamsburg, mostly at Busch Gardens. It was cold (really cold), but it made for short lines… In the summer, we took a week‐long trip to Hatteras with our friends the Rs. We shared a rental home, and generally had a blast. C and the kids then spent another week with C’s folks, without me, right as fall was kicking in, for the annual Camp NaPa (Nana/Papa).

Well, those are the highlights… We hope you and yours have had a great year! Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

With love,
The K Clan

(Written by dh, simply copied here)

(I think that's the right picture way up there!)

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Another injury

I go through 37 years without stitches and now in 13 months, I get 6! Last year it was the dogs fault. This year it's mine.

I was cutting bread. I thought I could get one more slice. I did, but I also just about sliced off some pinkie finger as well. There is a nice 1/2 moon shape on my finger pad. DH came home and took me took my doctor, no ER this year. She cleaned it and then decided it needed stitches - 3 to be exact. When I go in to have the stitches removed, she will see if all the skin is ok. At this point she thinks I'll lose about 25% of what I cut. She'll remove that next week when she removes th stitches. Joy.

So right now, my pinkie finger is about 3 times it's normal size due to the bandage she put on it. I'm supposed to leave the bandage on for 3 days and then put a different bandage on it - really just a new one, but it doesn't need to be so big.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Calendar troubles

DD2 just asked me, "Are you going to put (ds)'s birthday party on the calendar?"

"Yeah, I guess I need to do that."

"It would be pretty bad for (ds) to miss his own birthday party."

Much laughter. "Can you imagine? All these boys show up and (ds) isn't there!"

More laughter ensues...

BTW, his party is on the calendar now.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Family Funny

While traveling from church to lunch today, I was relating a stoy to dh about a friend:

"So they got in a police car from A to B, new police car B to C, and so on until they got home."

Silence.

DS age 8: "How many letters did they get to?"

Rolling laughter from the rest of us, a little bit of laughter from ds.

DD age 14: "I don't think he gets it, but he's still laughing."

More laughter from all. Silence.

DS, 8: "I don't get it."

Rolling laughter again. DH starts to explain that A and B are not specific places.

DS, 8: "Ok, but what letter did they get to?"

We explained again, in more length this time. Dh: "Do you understand?"

DS: "Yes"

Me: "Are you sure? Do you really understand?"

DS: "How could I not understand with all that explanation?"

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Family Funny

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home from music and bought 2 rotisserie chickens. I was talking about how we would have 4 legs, wings, thighs.

From the back seat I hear "How can there be 4 when we only bought 2 chickens?"

"Well, each chicken has 2 of each..."

If this was from a young child, I could understand it. But this was from my 11 yo. We love her. We also love to pick on her.

Monday, October 27, 2008

She says the sweetest things!

As I sit here on the computer looking at running shirts, I see one that I like here. It says "The older I get, the faster I was". My oldest, now 14, says "Mom, you're not that old!" As I'm basking in not being that old, she modifies it "You're not that old for someone who has a 14 yo. Look at (friend's) mom, she's turning 50 this year! Look at (other friend's) mom she's turning 45 and (other friend) is only 13!" Well, it was nice while it lasted. For the record, I'm only 38.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

8 yeras ago today I became the mother of a boy!

Life with a boy has never been the same. It is sweet and wonderful and crazy and dirty and everything life should be with a boy in the house.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Almost wordless Wednesday





This is my boy with the football, running for a touchdown!

14 years ago today

God put my first child in my arms. We didn't have a digital camera back then so I can't post birth pictures, but I can show you what she looks like now. :-)


She doesn't like this picture, btw. But it shows who I see, not who she shows to the world.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Disney Characters

So we've been discussing favorite Disney characters lately. Before I forget, I need to write them down.

dh - Grumpy (but I think he's just saying that!)

Oldest dd - Tinkerbell

Middle dd - Cinderella, Snow White, Minnie Mouse and Tigger

ds - Lightning McQueen, Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Pluto (he just kept adding and adding....)

Me - Pooh

I tried getting the conversation to favorite villans, but oldest dd was fixated on Ian from National Treasure. I just don't think of that as a Disney movie even though it was made by Disney so we skipped it.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Things that make you go hmmmm

Our old dog, Tawny, peed in the house last night while she was sleeping. Then this morning she pooped in the house. We have a prescription from the vet from a while ago that should help with the pee problem. It's called Propalin. It's actually phenylpropanolamine. That sounded familiar so I looked it up. According to Wikipedia, it's a decongestant and an appetite supressant and "it is used to control urinary incontinence in dogs." Hmmmm

I certainly hope it does not suppress her appetite. She can't afford to lose more weight. She's been around 50 lbs her entire adult life. I'm sure she's down closer to 40 or 45 now.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Wordless Wednesday


I went on a retreat with the women from my church this past weekend to Emerald Isle, NC. This is the sunrise Sunday morning.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Family Funny

This morning ds was complaining that he couldn't start school: "I don't have my check-off sheet."

So dh asked "Do you have you Sulu sheet?"

DS just didn't get it.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Funny from a book

I was sitting reading science to my 2 youngers. They need to classify leaves. So the book is telling them all about collecting leaves and it's ok and all that and then we come to this sentence:
If you cannot find many leaves outside, go to the grocery store and buy a mixed salad package.


We all had to laugh. Now before anyone gets upset, I know that for some this would be a necessary thing. I can completely understand the need in the inner city for example. But here in the 'burbs where we do still have a decent number of trees, it hit all of us as funny!

Wordless Wednesday

Age doesn't matter when sand is involved. :-) (Do you see the kite string?)

Friday, September 19, 2008

I had a scare on my bike this morning

I was riding instead of running to do something different. I was almost finished with my ride and was going as fast as I could and I was going down hill. It was really cool. The speed limit right there is 35 and the cars passing me weren't "out of here" like normal. It was actually taking them some time to get past. Like I said really cool. It's a residential area btw.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw something grey dart out of the woods. (Think someone's wooded back yard.) It hit my front wheel and then my foot on the down stroke. I was waiting to fall over and flip head over heals on the road. AND for the car behind me (you know the one you can't hear but just has to be back there) to hit me. I stopped all pedaling and just held on for dear life. Thankfully, the squirrel (I think it was a squirrel) didn't have enough force behind him to knock me over. I just rode on as if nothing had happened. Not even a bobble. Just terrified.

I get the feeling that my wheel was going so fast, he didn't see the spokes and thought he could go straight through. If that's the case, he has a great sense of timing.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Family funny

Last night oldest dd and I were sitting watching TV. My feet got cold so I put on my black slippers. DD must not have noticed because a few minutes later she looked down and thought that Koty's ears had grown a lot suddenly. (Koty is the black dog in some of my pictures.) Then she noticed that there was some pink on the "ears" and then that they weren't ears at all, just mom's slippers.

Friday, September 12, 2008

My van was almost towed last week!

I was visiting my folks and parked in the driveway, but left my keys downstairs in case they needed to move my van. One morning mom did. She parked it down the street, right where a curve starts but clearly visible from both sides.

There is a street that runs actually on their property that they have tried to close, but it's the whole "they've used it for so long that they are the ones that have to close it" thing. Well, for once, the people who use the road actually had to stop at the main road to be able to see down the road, they couldn't just pull out (because of my van). So they called the police and complained! Now the good thing about it being a small town is that the police actually came out to investigate the complaint. The bad thing is what they tried to do.

Mom parked the mini-van with two tires up on the sidewalk, so illegally. Since there was a complaint and the car was park illegally, they were thiscloseto towing my car! Their next door neighbor came home from work in the middle of the whole thing and went and begged the police not to tow the car. "I'm sure they are out with their grandkids. Please please don't tow the car. I will try to get in touch with them as soon as possible." So the police left me a parking ticket and put cones behind my car (because of the curve I am sure).

Dad and I went down to city hall to pay the ticket - $5. The rest of the week Dad parked his truck right there - sort of. The property line is really odd over there. They actually own a very small piece of grass on the other side of this road. The piece is big enough for dad's truck. So now they can't complain and they still have to stop. I guess they can complain but since it's parked on their property and not on the sidewalk at all, nothing can be done.

Friday, August 29, 2008

My children are strange


This is what they do while they are supposed to be doing school. I could save it for Wordless Wednesday, but I don't want to wait...

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Wordles Wednesday




How Jockey's Ridge got it's name: The horses got here from shipwrecks off shore. Jockey's Ridge is where people wold sit to watch the horse races go by.

Nag's Head is a tad more eery: Pirates would tie lamps to the horse's heads - nags - and then walk them around. The ships out at sea would see the lights and think it was a harbor. They'd turn in, run aground and then be robbed by the pirates with the lights.

(As seen on plaques at Jockey's Ridge in Nag's Head, NC.)

Monday, August 25, 2008

Back from the beach!






We spent a week at the beach, Hatteras Island in NC, last week with friends. We all had a great time. We drove out last Saturday and spent the afternoon at the Wright Brother's Memorial.

Then we drove down to Waves and checked in to our house. It was great for our needs. Enough bedrooms for everyone and only 5 minute walk to the beach itself. We walked down the first night and the kids tried to only get their feet wet. But the boys were wet up to their necks and the girls were wet to their waists.

Sunday was the only morning I actually made it up before the sun. I didn't make it to the beach to see the sun over the horizon, but I did get a decent picture of it low in the sky. The rest of the day was spent hanging out at the beach and in the house. I think I may have driven down to Avon and found the Food Lion. Note to all, Sunday Morning everyone in the area is at Food Lion. The lines are long!

Monday the morning was at the beach and then we went to Manteo and found the Festival Park with a recreation of the Elizabeth II and a small settlement. Then we saw the Lost Colony play that evening. Tuesday was again spent at the beach and house.

Wednesday we drove down to Buxton to see the Hatteras Lighthouse. This picture of the Hatteras Light is from the old location and shows the path used to move it to where it is now. Then we drove into Hatteras Village and saw our pastor's daughter who lives there. We took her recommendation on where to have lunch then hopped the ferry to Ocracoke to see the light house there. Thursday was spent at the beach and in the house. The adults had an evening out while the kids stayed in and at pizza.




Friday we drove up to Jockey's Ridge. I made the kids all climb a tree, trying to recreate a picture my mom has of me, my brother and 2 friends on a vacation where we saw all these same lighthouses and the kids climbed a tree.

Saturday we packed up to leave. My klan drove to Bodie Island lighthouse and then to a store where we bought souvenirs for all. We were using time to go have lunch at the Weeping Radish for lunch. But once we got there, we found it closed. Not for lunch but complete with a for sale or lease sign out front. We ended up eating at Big Al's, good food, but not he German fare we were expecting to have. Then the 4 hour drive home began.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Wordless Wednesday

I have to give the website for this place!







Friday, July 25, 2008

No move necessary

DH did not get an offer from the Seattle people. DH was bummed and relieved. Bummed that they didn't think him good enough. Relieved that we don't need to move. In the last few days dh has realized that oldest dd will only be home for 5 more years. He doesn't want to lose her out west.

Monday, July 21, 2008

John's birthday

Ok, really the whole week.

Last Saturday, July 12, we went to Hillary Bang and Abbott Tunstall's wedding. We all had fun and enjoyed ourselves. Sunday, John ran the Triangle Triathlon. He enjoyed i, but showed up at church sans glasses - he couldn't find them. It turns out he took them off in the closet when he took off his suit the night before. Men are so silly. :-)

Monday and Wednesday he met with someone at the local company he's interviewing with. Thursday he flew out to Seattle, WA, interviewed on Friday and took the red eye home arriving about 9 am Saturday morning. He said the people in Seattle were scary smart and he doesn't expect an offer. We'll find out by Tuesday. I was talking to someone. This Seattle deal has gone fast! He sent in his resume on July 1. Here he is home from the interview and waiting to hear about an offer on July 21. That's 20 days!

His party went great! Two people called first thinking that since it was raining, we would cancel. They must not know John very well. A party outside in July? I don't think so! We have everything left over from food to drinks to dessert.

A few people brought gifts. I had sent a note saying that gifts were not necessary, but if they wanted to bring something, this party was brought to you by the letter J and the number 40. So please bring something starting with J or 40 in number. John got 40 lollypops, 40 jellybeans. But the best one was 40 jewels or wisdom - bits of wisdom typed out and placed one each into 40 jewel cd cases.

Yesterday we went to target to look at TVs and came home instead with a Wii.

It was a good week!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

VBS and musings

Everyone had a good time at VBS. There was one father who didn't understand the concept of time and was late the middle 3 days to pick up his son. The mom doesn't drive yet so it had to be the dad. I can understand Tuesday when he was 20 minutes. Maybe even Wednesday when he was 45 minutes late. But Thursday when he was 2 hours late and I had a doctors appointment that I barely made it to, that was the last straw! If he had called to let us know that would be one thing. But no calls, any of the days. I called him Wednesday and Thursday when he was late. I was always told that someone was on the way.

But other than this one dad, VBS was fun like always. I love the kids and interacting with them. I direct and had good teachers. I actually had to do the teacher devotions this year. (In the past we had a very gifted mom do them for us.) While they weren't as good as hers, I do think they were more than adequate. (If I do say so myself!)

This week we have been bored. Maybe I should have gone with a thought to go ahead and start school this week. But too late now. We will start next week. I have workbooks for the kids made up. We'll see how they go first quarter before I make ones for the rest of the year. I m looking forward to having some sort of routine to our days again.

I'm running again. It's hard with some reconstruction going on with the path I run. I can only go 1/2 way around the lake and then I have to turn around and come back. Going out, I can just run. But on the way back in, I really have to pay attention to the roots. I know this, but they are soo different coming at them from a different angle.

We're having a party for John's birthday this year. So far we have 27 people coming! Thankfully I'm not cooking! Speaking f John, he is interviewing again. Two different companies. One would allow us to stay here. The other would probably move us to the West Coast. It makes for an interesting July.

The Konings come home this month. I think they land on July 25. Surprisingly, it's not on my calendar. I'm hoping I can get a few people from church to met them at the airport like we did when they left.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

General Update

I haven't updated in a while. The water found in April was the last of the water. there were more days of drying and then installing floor. They ran out of floor and had to order more. Then we re-papered the bathroom before we had the toilet installed. Dh had bought a $300 toilet at Lowes. They installed it on a Monday. By Tuesday night it was leaking. They came to fix it Wednesday morning. As they were tightening something, the whole thing broke. DH was home and asked them what they recommend. Now we have 3 brand new toilets in the house. :-) We also re-papered the kitchen. It looks so much better!

We finished school in May and have been on break ever since. I've enjoyed the time off school even though I feel like I've been planning for next year ever since. I think I'm all ready to start the week after July 4.

Everyone went to the homeschool conference in NC this year. We all very much enjoyed listening to Jeff Meyers. We bought a lot, learned a lot and even saw Prince Caspian while we were there. We found a new restaurant that has a local counterpart as well.

We went to Carrabba's for our anniversary. DH was down on restaurants in W-S because of the poor service we had received but our waiter here was excellent. The biggest thing was he remembered something from the beginning of the meal without is ever saying anything about it again. I cannot have fish and dairy at the same meal. They had a fish dish that looked good but before I ordered it, I asked if they had cheesecake for dessert, knowing I would order it. So I decided to get chicken instead. DH explained in few words why Iasked the question. At some point, we mentioned the poor service we had received and how this fellow was soo much better and that it was our anniversary so it was even better to have great service. At the end of the meal, he brought out not one but 2 desserts, free for our anniversary. One of them was dairy free! I didn't have the fish so I didn't need dairy free, but he remembered. The manager also came out and spoke to us for a while. He shared that they were out of cheesecake that night anyway and told us who had the best cheesecake in town!

VBS is next week. I look forward to being tired at the end of the week and sleeping very well!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

The "more water"

Is next to the dryer. The thing is that when we found the water in the bathroom initially, they checked the floor next to the dryer. Then when we found the water in the storage area, I had them specifically check the floor next to the dryer. Now the floor is wet. (Things that make you go hmmm....) I haven't talked to the water guy, I'm letting J take care of it. So I'm wondering if I will lose my washer and dryer for a week while it dries.

Just talked to J - sounds like I will not lose the washer and dryer. I guess they will move them outside, rip up the floor, put them back in.

I just want this over!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

As I expected

The floor guy is still here. I'm sure it's harder to try and match up with the floor that is already here and has stayed here the whole time. Well, not the whole time but the part that is still here from the first time.

I came home to interesting news - more water! It's in the laundry room. J already called the water guys . As I've said and will say again : I just want this over!

On a better note, the girls played a great game today. It's hot - 83 outside and they did play like it was hot. I tried to rotate them well on and off the field. I heard today that one of my girls is on medication that can make her heart race. She is one that didn't deal with the heat well last fall. I did email this mom this week and asked if I needed to be on the lookout and mom said that she noticed the same thing. Mom was sitting right near the girl today and saw what I saw. I think that made a difference.

I've got great bunch of girls. I definitely have stars. I definitely have girls with no clue but overall its a good bunch. I try to balance the better girls with the ones who are not as good. Then I had one of my power players ask to play goal! And she's good at goal as well.

The floor is getting put in as I type :-)

They came this moring to finish the floor. (LOOK at the day of the week!) I expected the grinding to be loud, long and very dusty. Nope. It's not bad at all. Well, it was loud. But I was downstairs for all of it and it wasn't headache producing.

Now the fellow is actually putting in the floor. OH! The bouncy spot in the kitchen was subfloor that needed another nail so that is fixed. Hopefully this will be the end of it.

Funny thing (not really) - they said they would start about 7:30 and be finished by 11. Well, it's 11:05 and he hasn't really made to much progress on the floor. I'll have to take the girls to their game about noon. I bet he's still here when we leave. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he's still here when we return. But if it is finished today I will be sooo happy!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Now they have to grind the floor

So the floor guy came out today. There were 2 places where J is unhappy with the floor because it bounces. The one place he said was because of what was underneath the floor.

When we moved into the house, there was hardwood in the front hall, which the dog promptly scratched beyond acceptable. There was vinyl in the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room; carpet in the back hall. About 6 years ago, we replaced all these spaces with laminate. They put the laminate over what was already there. No problems with a bouncy floor.

So the floor guy was telling me and the project manager that the floor is uneven so of course it will bounce. We need to grind down the hardwood so it is at a slight incline. The grinding blade is a special order. It may be in tomorrow, it may not. But either way, the floor guy doesn't think there is enough laminate in the garage to put back on the floor. He also says that we will need to remove the washer and dryer, again. The grinding will be loud and dusty. He will hang plastic and use vacuums to contain the dust though.

If you come to my house, bring chocolate. In fact since I'm asking, make it Dove dark Chocolate. And do I really have to share? Or pie - a chocolate pie would be nice too. I'll just get out forks. We don't need plates do we?

I noticed the other day that I'm marking these as kitchen. It's not a kitchen issue anymore. But I'll leave them marked as kitchen so they all come up together.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Another Dry Floor

Yeah everything is dry again! The floor in the storage under the stairs is dry, now I can start putting stuff back in there and get the living room picked up. It amazes me to see how much stuff we have when none of it is put away.

Funny - when the guys went under the house to get the last remaining d-hu, the kids started making lots of noise. I told them that the fellas under the house could hear us. K became obsessive about not making any noise while M tried making a lot. Then they all wanted me to take them "down" and tickle them. I wouldn't do that but I did run around in the house.

Quiet reins in the house once a again.

Friday, April 18, 2008

The floor is dry but wait... there's more!

So the floor is dry. They removed the fans yesterday. Yeah! Quiet in the house again. Someone came out today to put the subfloor back in. In the process of cutting the wood, termites came out of nowhere! Yuck. DH called a termite place. The termite guy is checking the house right now. Then dh needed a sleeping bag. It's in the storage space under the stairs with all the other camping equipment. It was wet, well damp. I climbed under there (had sent a girlie to fetch the sleeping bag). I found the carpet pieces we threw down in there wet to the touch and the subfloor wet to look at. DH called the water guys. He actually talked to someone so I assume that someone will be out today. Joy, more fans! So still no toilet downstairs, we have termites and more water on the floor.

I'm beginning to hate this! I just want it over!!!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Vacation - Busch Gardens

DH told me a few weeks ago that he needed a vacation. I asked if he could wait until we finished school - no. So I was off and planning. He really wanted to go to Disney but the money just isn't there. We went to Busch instead. We left on Monday morning. It was raining in Williamsburg when we got there - misting really. We went to Yankee Candle factory, did a couple things there that they had going for spring break. Checked into the hotel and then off the Busch in the cold.

We did have fun. I bought a pair of knit gloves - for only $5! We left before dinner. We found New Town and ate there at the Mexican place. I can't remember the name of it now.

Then on Tuesday, I mentioned to dh maybe we could stop at the Kmart and find a scarf for me. We did and the girls both got a tshirt out of the deal. (shaking head) Off to Busch. Lots of rides. There were no lines. We got there as it opened and parked right up front. It was still cold. I was very glad I had gloves and a scarf. I think the gloves came off in the afternoon. DH, middle dd and I all rode Apollo's Chariot. We went to a beer tasting. The poor guy working with us tried so hard to find a beer I liked. No luck. I just don't like beer.

Wednesday off to the park again at opening. We seemed to ride Loch Ness right away every day. Wednesday we got my scaredy cat dd on Big Bad Wolf. Then ds followed. Lies were longer but still amazingly short. Middle dd and I rode Alpengiest. And talked dh into it as well. It was middle dd's birthday and she chose to eat dinner at the Smokehouse. Wonderful food! I was tired of the park. I did not want to come back the next day.

Thursday we got up and middle dd announced she wanted to ride Griffon. So back we went. DH and middle dd rode it and then made me. We rode twice in a row. I do not open my eyes at the top! Once you get over that first bit, it's a fine roller coaster. No problems at all. We got oldest dd on Alpengiest. She enjoyed it. Then we got ds on Apollo's Chariot. They all wanted to ride Roman Rapids (the big raft get really wet ride). I did not want to get that wet. DS came off looking like a drowned cat - including the look on his face. I told dh to take him on Apollo to dry off. It did help. We ended up staying most of the day and left about 4.

Friday we met IL for lunch, did some shopping and then to my folks house for the weekend. DS had a play to go to with my folks. We came home Sunday night t0 find the leaky toilet. (See below.)

More flooring update

I had realized how long it had been since I posted! It took until April 3 (!) to get the new floor in and until that Friday to get everything hooked up again. It looked wonderful! They had to come back an fix something in the bathroom and put the door to the laundry room back on, but it was done except for those 2 little things.

We went on vacation to Busch Gardens. (Will post about that separately.) We came home last night. As we pulled into the garage, I noticed the door into the house was open. Strange! I walk in and notice nothing. My mind was on "where is the cat?" DH walks in and notices the floor is starting to warp, already! Then we notice that the floor is wet. DH opens the door into the bathroom right there at the door to the garage and there s water on the floor!

DH called the same guys who did the whole floor and within 2 hours they were at the house pulling up my pretty floor! I had 2 dehu-s and 2 fans in the hallway/bathroom/laundry room area. The leaky toilet was outside.

So far today I have had the plumber back out - the seals in the tank were bad, that's where it leaked. The main water guy so I could sign forms. And now the water crew pulling up the "underlayment" to get the rest of the floor dry. They put plastic over the doorway to where I am so the dust doesn't carry into the whole house. The smoke alarm has gone off 3 times. They are vacuuming now so either it's to get up the dust or there is standing water. There was standing water last night. There are 4 guys working in a space where 4 guys barely have room to stand.

It's never ending.

Monday, February 25, 2008

A smaller tent!

The floor guys were just here. The floor for the most part is dry! They even pulled out the dishwasher (for the first time!) and the floor under there is dry as well. There is one spot on the opposite side of the stove as the dishwasher. Weird. So now the tent is only about 4 square feet. We are also a go for the new dishwasher to come tomorrow. Yeah!

Friday, February 22, 2008

Update on the floors

They came out today to check the floors. They are dry! But for some reason in this one spot when they push the meter into the floor, it comes up wet. But nothing wet on the surface. They go under the house to see what it's like down there. DRY! So they cut out a square where the meter shows wet. The very bottom layer of plywood is wet - visibly wet. No need to sick the meter in to see. There was a sheet of something that they cut out. The second layer of plywood is wet to the touch as well. :-(

So now I have a "tent" in my kitchen "hooked" up to a dehu. They are in the process of building a tent in the crawlspace with another dehu down there. I think they said something about forcing hot air in the space as well. Another 5 days of this. At least this is much quieter! The dehu makes about as much noise as a dishwasher (not one of the really quiet ones!).

I should have taken pictures of all the fans and dehus before they took them out.

Update on my knee/running

I haven't run this week do to lack of time and it's cold. I have found that once I shower, I do not go back out and run (or exercise really). The time issue is meetings - Children's Ministry meeting one day and co-op the next. When you have to be out of the house by 8:30 in the morning and the sun isn't really up until 7, well time to run is almost non-existent.

That aside, there are still issues. I have shin splints for one thing. If I run more than 2 days in a row, they hurt while I run. Then last night, in bed, having not run for 2 or is it 3 days, my knee hurt. The way it hurt in bed is the way it hurts when I've bent it too long. I still notice the extra bump sometimes too. There are times it feels just, well, numb for no apparent reason as well.

I'll try running next week. I need to do something about the shins. This is getting old!
On Friday(2/15), dh noticed the wood laminate in the kitchen was swelling at the joints. Saturday we found out why. A hose from the dishwasher wasn't connected/broke something. There was water standing under the dishwasher. Then as dh watched, water started pouring out under there somewhere.

He called several friends who are DIY-ers or work in the biz. Get a new dishwasher and call the insurance company. Yep, the floor is covered.

So on Tuesday (2/19)they tore out the wood laminate, the pad under the laminate, the old nasty linoleum. We're down to sub floor in the kitchen. And the subfloor was actually wet in one place. I have 4 (count them! 4!) heavy duty fans and 2 heavy duty dehumidifiers. It is loud. I had to go upstairs to make a phone call. And the joy! I get to have these things until Friday!

We bought a new dishwasher on Sunday. It was supposed to be delivered Friday. But since they will be back to get the equipment on Friday, dh said let's move the install. So now the dishwasher will come on Tuesday. But hey, look at the bright side - my dishes should dry on the counter in record time, right?

Day two of air movers in the house
The fans have been here overnight and well into the next day. UGH! They are loud. But at least I had a meeting this morning that I could take the kids to and Thursday is co-op. They did come this afternoon to check the floor. It's drier. Parts are still quite wet, not visibly so. They have a meter. Parts are still in the red. Most of it is in the green.

On a side note, dh called someone to look at the dishwasher since insurance wanted us to. The guy was a piece of work as dh says. He turned on the dishwasher, making the floor more wet! He did fix it but he also said "I wouldn't use it." I guess a hose actually fell off. Even though he re-attached it, it could easily fall off again.
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Thursday: I took the kids to co-op. Someone came to fix the sink in the afternoon. It looks much better now. All the gaps are closed. They reinforced under the sink as well to actually hold the sink up in place. I thought it couldn't get any louder in the hose. Then the sink guys turned on an air compressor! OY! We can't use the sink for 24 hours! The pain!
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Friday: The floor guys are supposed to come today to remove the fans and "dehu-s". I am so looking forward to things being quieter around here!

Monday, February 18, 2008

The Perils of Home Ownership

In a nut shell you are responsible for everything!

The outside needed to be painted again - the last time I was pregnant with M. So we hired someone to do it. He did a good job and just finished a week ago. While trying to change out light fixtures for us, he ran into a wiring problem. J called an electrician who came out last Monday morning, first thing and fix everything on the deck. Then the painter came back to pick up his ladders and touch up a few places. While he was here, we got an estimate for painting the foyer and re-papering the kitchen. Yeah! I get to choose new paper. Oh My! What am I thinking - I only have a month to decide, and buy, new wallpaper!

Then this weekend, J really started to look at the floor in the kitchen. Every seam on the laminate is swollen. He thought it was the sink as there is a seam on the sink that is not closed any longer. He took pictures of the floor and the sink and into Home Depot we went. (We got new counter tops and an under-mount sink from them almost a year ago.) But the person we needed to talk to wasn't there. That night, for reasons unknown to me, J pulls the kick-plate off the dishwasher. (I don't know if that is what it is actually called, but that's what I'm calling it!) First he sees water standing on the floor under there! Then as he continues to look, water starts pouring out of a hose onto the floor. This must be why the floor is swelling.

So J calls several friends who know this kind of stuff. They recommend getting a new dishwasher and calling the insurance company - it should be covered just like a leaky pipe. After church we went to Sears and bought a new dishwasher, this time they are installing it. (I'm still waiting for the call.)

Then this morning J called the insurance company - they will be sending an adjuster out. Our deductible is $500 and then they should pay the rest to replace the floor. Then he called Home Depot - yep, the seam should be closed and the work is guaranteed for a year so again, it's covered.

On a lighter note, we discovered a new way to cut the dog's nails. Make him stand up on his hind feet! K held him up while I clipped nails. It worked wonderfully for the front paws! His back paws, K held him, I put my back to him and clipped his back paws. One dog down, one to go!

Friday, February 15, 2008

Kid pictures Feb 2008







K does not like this picture of her. I think it is beautiful!

















I think this captures who H is.


















M laughs a lot. They got him to laugh!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Wordless Wednesday


No, it's not this warm here. But this is what the kids and I did this morning. Portrait Innovations is great!

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Christmas "presents" I could have done without

Mice!

I went into the garage for something December 24 and came *right* back in. DH looked at me and I said there is a either a VERY large roach out there or a mouse. He went out and didn't find anything. Then about an hour later, ds went out and comes back in a casually says "There's a mouse!" We use the 45 gal buckets from wheat for our recycling. It was in a soda can in the bucket. Dh got the mouse out of the bucket and then threw it off the deck. (Our deck is about 15 feet off the ground.) An hour or so later DS went out through the garage again and came back in "Mice. Three of them." In the recycling bucket again. DH took care of it again. This is soo not want I wanted for Christmas!

I got another not so wonderful thing for Christmas as well...

Soon after opening presents, my dog bit me. The one who is nice and calm. The one who is 15 years old and has never hurt a fly. The one whom I have always felt perfectly safe with infants! That one bit me!

In her defense, she was eating a bone. In my defense, I've taken food from her before. In her defense, ever since we got the younger dog, she has learned to defend her stuff.

I gave her a Christmas present of a edible nylabone, which both dogs love. She wasn't chewing hers so I was wondering if it was too hard for her teeth - she *is* 15 yo. Then she was finally eating it. But we noticed that hers was red. Then I took the bone out of the younger dog's mouth to check his. No, his is not red. So obviously, the old dog is bleeding. I was trying to check her mouth. She turned and bit me.

We got my finger under the cold water. But that hurt so we put water in a mug, with ice as well. DH put the old dog out. DD13 put her bone out with her. Then suddenly I was overwhelming nauseous. I asked dd for a rubber band in my hair. My mom ended up getting my hair up. Then mom put a cold wet wash cloth on my neck and I was better. All better!

My finger throbbed quite a bit. Good news though, my "I want to help cook" dd 10 helped cook Christmas day!

On a better note I did get an ipod for Christmas, a beautiful sweater from my brother and a gift card to Kohl's from my folks!