Catch UP!

Where to begin...well, first off I have been a HUGE slacker in the blogging department this summer. Do you blame me though after the school year? This is a catch up blog, and hopefully I don't leave anything out.

JUNE 14, 2012

Eric and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. These last four years may not have been easy, but I wouldn't have wanted to share them with anyone else. Love you Eric, and here is to many for years!

Besides the summer activities of going to the pool and the zoo, not much else has happened. I worked over the 4th of July so no celebrating went down! I also for got my camera when we went to the zoo, but don't worry there will be many more!

The kids and I spent the day over at my moms house one day and played in her pool that she bought for the kids. This pool is so cute, and the kids love it. It is a sharks open mouth, complete with teeth and everything.

The boys also begged my mom to plant a pumpkin patch. They begged me first, but I said they had to ask gramma so the dogs wouldn't eat their pumpkins. They succeeded with their begging, and they have at least 2 pumpkins already growing. Mak is so excited about it, and can't wait to see if more grow. I hope more than 2 grow, we planted a lot of seeds.

So proud of my little gardeners! I will keep you posted on the progress of the pumpkins and the rest of our summer. School is starting soon, so hopefully I can get ready for that too!





Remodel in the Works!

Here are the pictures I promised. I have before and after, and can I just say that I LOVE my new floor. It adds something that my house needed. Not to mention it gave it a face lift. Eric and I are very happy with how the color turned out, and that it matched the cabinets so well. I am getting ahead of myself though...lets back up to after the leaking.

We had a disaster clean-up crew come in and help us dry out the entire spill, and spray some anti-bacterial cleaner. So for 4 very long days, my house was left like this...

This was the damage under one of my shelves in the basement (you can see the shelves in the picture with the fans).

They cut out the ceiling that was wet, so here is this hole that is approx. 4' X 8'. Not very flattering when guests come over! 

Here are 2 of the 3 fans that they brought to dry everything out. It was awful! These things are big and so loud! I was lucky that the 2 were in the basement.

This is right in front of my kitchen sink, the main damage was to my floor, but the cabinet under my sink has lots of water damage, and will forever smell like poop I am afraid.

So for 4 very long and loud days I had these fans drying my house. I didn't mind having them on though because they blew the smell of poop out of the house. I could smell the poop every time I turned them off, so they were not turned off at all!! Like I said before, lots of the damage was to my wood floor. It is cheap and I hated the floor, but it looked better without all the water damage. Well after almost 2 months part of the wood floor is put it. I have learned my lesson, and will NEVER pay to have somebody else do it. This has been awful, and so not worth it. I could have had my floor a long time ago had I just done it myself. Oh well though, you live and you learn right! So Before i had the light colored wood in every room of the main floor except, in the laundry room, pantry, and 2 closets. I don't know who thought of the color schemes in the house, but they suck! I will show you. I have to explain all the pictures again otherwise you wont know what they are. I would also point out that you can not see the whole closets cause they are messy, and I didn't want all of that in the pictures for everyone to see!

This is the damage to the floor right in front of the sink. The picture doesn't do it justice. I literally had the hardest time sweeping because the floor was so buckled.

This was off to the side of the sink, more bad buckling...might I add how I hate this color!

A bigger picture of that area.

Here is the NASTY tan carpet that was in my laundry room. It is so gross, and this is after I had cleaned the carpets several times. It is so bad, I haven't vacuumed in this picture but you can still get the idea!

This is my pantry, and another different type of flooring. This is the original floor that they had throughout the whole kitchen...not much better than the light wood floor...

You can't tell from the picture but this carpet is BLUE! Yes I said blue. This is a small closet that the dog food is in, along with my Tupperware!

This is the front coat closet, and more blue carpet! I can't even believe that all of this was in my house!

Another shot of the kitchen...

Before the floor guy came, I thought it would be best to do some painting. I didn't change any of the colors, that would be too much of a project, so we just touched up the walls where the boys had colored with permanent marker, and patched some holes. Just made it all look fresh! The boys of course had to help, so they had a few walls and a small brush and roller. They actually didn't do that bad! The kitchen had wood trim around the top part of the walls, it was the same color as the light floor. I had a decision to make, either stain it the color of my cabinets, or take it down...I took it down. It looks like the walls are taller with it gone!

Mak painting...

So serious!

He got it everywhere!!

This is how Carson painted!!

See...naked! It was so cute!

A shot without the wood trim, looks good!

The other end without trim.

OK OK, so here is what you have been waiting for. My FLOOR!! Like I said they aren't finished. They didn't receive all of their order, so they are coming back...that was what I was told 2 weeks ago!

From the front door looking back. Sorry for the glare, and the pictures aren't very good.

Looking at the front door from the back door!

The laundry room. The floor has a reddish tint to it, which I love!

The pantry!

The small dog closet!

The coat closet!

Looking into the laundry room from the kitchen.

Right in front of the sink! You can see the blue strip, that is where they need to finish, also under the fridge and under the washer and dryer. They also have the round trim to finish. Other than that it is almost done, and we are so excited! I will show more pictures when they are done. The next part is the living room, which is getting carpet!

CrAzY mAy!!

So I just realized that I have not blogged at all in over a month. Give me a break, a lot has happened in the past month. First thing, school is finally over for the summer. It has been a long time since I had gone to school for Spring semester, so I forgot how long it tends to be. I am so glad it is over though and so are my kids. I think they really needed a mother. The hardest thing is trying to juggle everything. With work, house work, being a mom and school, things get tough. My grades were OK, but not as good as I had hoped in a particular class. (Life goes on though right). 

Also during Finals week we had the misfortune of having a little disaster in the home. Back in March our kitchen sink flooded. Long story short we had our main line flushed and thought the problem was fixed. Well during Finals, it happened again only this time it was not just water. This time it was gross sewage that backed up into our kitchen sink. I know, I know those pipes are not supposed to cross...well it did! It was probably the worst thing I have seen for a while. Oh and don't get me started on the smell! At this point Eric was ready to give up. Despite all our problems with this house I decided that it was not the time to leave. The damage went through the floor and into the basement ceiling. 

The insurance is covering everything...Thankfully, and things are now in the process of getting fixed. The basement ceiling is all repaired and looking like nothing happened. The floor is still the same though. I am hoping that it will soon be fixed so I can have my house back. I have looked at it as I am now getting a new kitchen floor that I so desperately wanted.

The last thing that happened just in the past week was Carson having to go to the ER. Wednesday the 16th I noticed a little pimple looking thing on his leg. Thinking that it was just a pimple I left it alone. A few hours later I noticed that he was babying it a little, and when he would bump it he would say ouch. I looked at it and it had gotten bigger. Still thinking it was a pimple I tried to pop it, but nothing happened. I decided just to watch it, and passed it on to my Mother-in-law who was watching them while I went to work. She called me that night a little worried because the bump had gotten red, warm to the touch, and he was limping. I took him to the doctor on Thursday and they said it looked like cellulitis, and to watch it. They gave him an antibiotic which I later learned was just a general one and wouldn't treat the lump. Anyways Thursday night I had to work again, and had my mom watch it and to call me if the redness got worse. About 8:15 pm my mom and Carson show up, and sure enough it had gotten a lot worse within 2 1/2 hours. I took him to PCMC, and waited in the ER there for about 3 -4 hours. They admitted him and had him start IV antibiotics for 24 hours. Let me just tell you the IV process was so not fun. They had 2 Nurses come in, one to start the IV and the other to hold his arm. I was the other hand to help hold his body...lucky me! He is a strong boy, and he kept looking at me like I was the worst person in the world! I was so glad they didn't blow the IV, I couldn't have held him down any longer. It was awful! After that he was like a rich little boy in a hotel. He was able to watch movies, and had his own bed. He was in heaven the next morning with this TV on Nemo and a hot plate of pancakes in front of him. He was all smiles! 

He had his follow up today, and he is doing better. The antibiotics he is on helped a lot, and he is still in good spirits. When Eric came to see him the night we were discharged Carson kept telling him that he wanted to go for a walk. Eric quickly learned that meant he was going to escape! He was very happy when we were able to leave. 

(I will post pictures soon of the house [before and afters] and of Carson!)

Easter!

This year for Easter we had a lot more fun. The boys were older, and understood a little bit more about what to do. We decided to have an Easter Egg Hunt at my mom's house on Saturday. Rose came down for the week, so we had all the cousins there: Mak, Carson, Nhala and Issac. They all had fun playing together. Mak and Nhala collected the most. Carson just ran around and picked up a few, but ate the candy out of them. Issac was a little too young to understand, but he liked playing with the eggs and sitting outside next to mom. The hunts never seem to last very long.

Miss Nhala Mae getting some eggs with daddy's help. She is my little brother's baby. She is a little over 1 year old.

Here is her basket...this was only a few minutes into the hunt. Daniel would tell her what to pick up, and she just did it. She was so cute!

Here is Issac, he belongs to my older brother Ben and Rose. He will be one in June. He is quite content just sitting on the ground hearing the 6 eggs he gathered rattle. He was having so much!

He really can't wait to start walking. he wanted so badly to go run with the kids. Your almost there Issac!

Now here is trouble...

He actually didn't get very much more than that!

This is Mak's basket. It is quite full! He had so much fun!

He kept asking me when he was going to hunt for more eggs.

Later that day he gathered all the eggs from the baskets that were left outside, and put them in the toy wheel barrel. He hauled them around in there for a few days!

All the kiddos and their baskets. This was the best picture we got of them.

We didn't really plan it this way, but the boys got a dog for Easter! Like I said it was not planned. The puppies just happened to be ready to go the day before Easter. It worked out just fine in the end, and the boys were so excited! We named her Boston. She is a cute 8 week old Pit Bull. So far it has not been that bad. She is very mellow and loves to cuddle. Mak loves her!

Mak wanted a picture of her in the Easter Basket.

I have done this every year with my, so I thought I would keep up the tradition. Here they are in their Sunday Best! They are so Handsome in their little outfits.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!