Disaster Zone

Here's what welcomed us when we returned from Texas. What you can't see really well is the standing water on the floor, but trust me, it's there. There also isn't a whole lot of damage to "see" in the bathroom or basement, but again, it's there. We're spending night #2 at the Drury Inn, and are here for sure until Friday...then we'll see how things are going. The girls think it's great, and so far it hasn't been too bad. No cooking, cleaning, indoor pool and hot tub...what's not to love? Well, I guess I can think of a few things, but I'm trying to stay positive! Enjoy.

Vacation and Horrible Welcome Home

So we're back from an awesome vacation at the Flying L Ranch in Bandera, Texas. My sister Stacy and her husband saved up their timeshare there so we, my brother and his wife, and my sister Betsy could all come hang out with them there for a week. It's nice when the only worry of the day is "Will it get warm enough to swim today?". The crazy thing was it is usually in the 90s this time of year there, and it rained for 2 or 3 days and was barely even 60 degrees. Good thing I packed lots of shorts and tank tops to wear! Let's just say the one pair of jeans I packed for everyone ended up getting worn most of the week. It was hot on Monday when we got there, and got hot again for Friday and Saturday, so we were able to play at the water park on those days.

The four cousins got along great and had a fun time playing together. All the adults also had a fun time hanging out and playing Settlers of Catan at night. All of us girls got to go out one night and see The Time Traveler's Wife too. We had a few mishaps with an inkpen--Ansley decorated the leather couch one day with it, and then the next day Sidney decorated the coffee table with it. We're hoping we got them out enough that they wouldn't be noticable! I'm waiting any day for a call from my sister saying we have to replace the couch...which would be just our luck considering what we came home too...

Apparently our toilet in the girl's bathroom (you know the one that I just re-did the floor 2 weeks ago) somehow got a leak and water came through our living room ceiling, causing a huge hole in the ceiling, on top of our TV and Wii, and making a lake in our living room. It also caused water to soak through the living room floor into our basement as well. So it turns out the floor that I have been hoping Jeremy would finish since April, and the ceiling which I had been hoping he would finish since January (we had a shower leak then) will both be ripped apart and replaced professionally...as well as the floor that I finished a few weeks ago!

Right now we're hanging out at the Drury Inn indefinitely. It's about 2 miles from our house, and has an indoor pool, so the girls are happy. Thank goodness for insurance is all I can say! We have to pay our $1000 deductible, but then they will pay for everything to be fixed (ceilings, living room floor, bathroom floor, possibly basement carpet, new rugs, etc). Oh, and Jeremy is hoping our TV needs to be replaced, and it's possible they will have to pay for a new Wii too. They are also paying for our suite at the hotel and our meals while we can't be home. Not exactly how we planned to spend our week though. We only booked the room for 2 nights (wishful thinking) but they said it could be at least 4 just to clean up the mess. Then everything has to be replaced.

I'll post pictures of our disaster area later, but for now you can enjoy our vacation pictures by clicking here:

Flying L Ranch

Things That Go!

Today we spent the morning up at Kennedy's school for an event called "Things that go!" Basically they had trucks, tractors, busses, etc. in the parking lot and the kids could get in them and play around. The girls had a great time, and we had fun watching them. Speaking of things that go, I hope they remember how much fun cars can be during our 15 hour drive to San Antonio. We leave tomorrow for vacation and are so excited!

Home Improvement Project

I usually leave the home improvement projects up to Jeremy. However, he's so busy that I know he doesn't have time to get projects done in what I consider a "timely fashion". I may struggle with patience a little bit! I'm the type of person that would rather stay up all night long to get a big project done, just so I don't have to worry about it the next day. Or like when we got home from a trip, it doesn't matter what time of night it is, I have to unpack and put away everything...I can't stand to leave it and wake up to it the next day! Jeremy, well, I don't think the word "worry" is even in his vocabulary. We are just a little different in that aspect. Take our beautiful living room floor that he worked so hard on...in April. It's still not quite done yet, but I'm sure it will be someday...and he did a really great job, so I'm trying not to complain...too much. :)

I've known that our bathroom floors were disgusting since we moved into this house over a year ago, but it wasn't a priority to change. The other night though, I was giving the girls a bath and suddenly I realized again how awful their bathroom floor looked. It was a white linoleum, but many parts of it were gray, there were some holes in parts of it, and it was just nasty!!!

I had "assisted" Jeremy in replacing one of our bathroom floors in our old house with peel and stick laminate tiles, and decided that I could tackle the bathroom floor all by myself. I didn't want to ask Jeremy to do it, I just wanted to get it done so he didn't have to think about it. So the next day while Kennedy was at preschool, Ansley and I ventured out to Lowe's (woo-hoo!) and bought a $25 box of 30 laminate tiles. We also managed to visit Target and hit some great clearance racks while we were out, which helped make the trip even more worthwhile.

Today, while Jeremy had the day off, I got to work. I finally had to ask for his help to remove the toilet so I could finish the tiles underneath it, and to assist me in one that I really messed up, but other than that, I did it all by myself! Add a few bucks in for a new wax ring for the toilet and that brings our newly improved bathroom total to about $30, and only took about 4 hours of my time! Jeremy told me he'd even let me do our master bathroom floor too...isn't he so nice? :) I think I'll wait a little while to tackle that project though...it involves 2 closets and is about 3 times the size of the girl's bathroom. I need to let my back recover a little too.

We forgot to take a before picture, but this is the same type of linoleum that was in the bathroom (it's also in the master--and much worse looking in person!)

The finished product

Labor Day Weekend

Last weekend we spent some time up in Peoria. Not only did we get to see lots of family, but we got to hang out with some of our best friends that we miss dearly, the Campbells. Kennedy cries at least once a month about how much she misses their girls. Anna is a little older than Kennedy and Emily is just a little younger, but these girls have such a great time playing together. We went over to their house Friday night for dinner and other than eating dinner and dessert, we pretty much didn't see the older girls. We heard their squeals of delight, but they kept themselves entertained until after 10:00 when we had to cause tears to come in our announcing that it was time to go. Their youngest daughter Jenna is about two weeks older than Ansley, and although they were a little shy around each other, I'm sure someday they'll be great friends too. (Sidenote--Jenna had to spent last night in the hospital with pneumonia, so keep her in your prayers!) Here are some pictures from our fun times.