Water! The Good, the Bad and the Dirty!

Wednesday was a good day for me. Noel called me and told me that he was going to be home an entire day early. I was excited and looking forward to spending time with him in the middle of the week.

On Thursday morning Noel and I walked downstairs to find that our kitchen and pantry was flooded. We moved into action, Noel grabbed his Shop Vac and I grabbed my steam vac to start sucking up the water. I had to remove all the items that were on the floor in my pantry. I was just glad that our "safari" was not up. I called to say that I could not watch Colton and then I called my mother to ask her to come and help me with cleaning. Noel went to Lowe's and rented a "snake" for the pipes that was 50ft long. He "snaked" the line a couple times and then had to go to work because this is the busy part of the season and needed to be in the office.

So I blocked up the kitchen so that my "safari" could not get into the kitchen. We had breakfast in the play room and then I took them to McDonald's for lunch. When the "safari" went to lunch my mother and I went into high gear so that we could clean the floor. We went through the items that were on the floor, pulled the washing machine, dryer out to clean the floor and then sanitized the floor. Cleaned up the kitchen and then got the "safari" up from nap time.

When Noel got home we put some liquid plumber down the drain and "snaked" it a few more times. We also called our insurance agency and was told to get in contact with a "drying" team. They came by the house and told us that it would cost us $1700 to dry our house/walls. Noel and I do not have $1700 so Noel asked us what we needed to do. Noel had to take all the base boards off, toe kicks off and drill holes in the walls where the base boards were. Also we had to pull the carpet back and cut the pad that was wet. The next morning the dishwasher was ran and it did well. I then tried the washing machine and found out that our plumbing problem was not fixed.

Noel called his mother to see if she remembered the plumber that she used. Noel called the guy but the guy never called us. On Saturday I was at my parent's to cook for the month. On Sunday we went to church and then Noel went to rent the "snake" again but the rental place was closed at Lowe's so he went the other place. The "snake" that he rented was 75 ft long. We found the clog and cleared it. yeah.

I started our washing machine to clean the inside, well the washing machine was not cleared of the soap from the load that I had to stop so that the water would quit flowing onto my floor. So the machine filled with soap suds. I had to suck the soap suds out of the washing machine. Noel and I have come to the conclusion that we hate WATER.

In the last couple of months we have had some interesting things happen with water. The first thing was that the line from our old shower was capped and the cap did not work and started to pour water into our wall. We fixed that and replaced the cap. Then there were a few seams in our shower that were not sealed and had water dripping out and we had to find that our by trial and error. We cut a hole in our ceiling and in our bedroom to find the leak. And hopefully the final water that we will experience for a while was my flooded kitchen.

Now we are looking at our options for replacement for our floors. With living on one income we have to be wise with our money and decisions. It would be easy to got out and spend money instead of looking at our options and praying to see what God wants us to do. Please pray that we are wise with our decisions. Thank you for all your concern and for all the calls. Our house is not back to "normal" status but we will live with the status that we have right now and make decisions after Noel is done with travel season.

When there is room for ONE!

The "safari" all have their birthdays in the summer. The triplets in June, Hannah in July and Elijah in August. So Noel and I decided that we are going to have one birthday party.

Noel's brother gave him a present for the "safari" early. It is a little red car that fits ONE person. Noel puts in the backyard and the next day Elijah goes outside with Noel to water trees and sees it. The next day we have the entire "safari" outside and everyone wants to be in the red car. So what does my "safari" do? Do they each take a turn and share the car? NO! They figure out a way to fit all of them in this car designed for ONE!



I had to take a picture because they were determined to ride the car at the same time. Of course Jacob is the one on top of the car, because he has NO FEAR! This is not a one time thing. If there is something to climb into they all try to fit in that space. This weekend my parents came down for the 4th of July. My mother packed her things in this plastic box with wheels. So of course the "safari" wanted to play with it.



There are not a lot of things that are made for 5 toddlers, but if you can climb into then the "safari" will try to and they are teaching Hannah to do the same. So they may share the toy, bucket, laundry basket, bathtub just not in the same way that other people share things.

Family, Food and Fireworks! Oh My!

For the fourth Noel and I had my parents and my sister over for the day. For family functions it is easier to come to our house for logistical reasons and because I have more room in my house for our big family.

The menu for the day was grilled chicken, baked beans, cream corn, pasta salad, homemade sourdough bread, watermelon, and dessert. We decided that we would have all that food for dinner and just make sure the kids were fed during the day. I was in charge of dessert and drinks and so I decided that I would make a version of Banana Pudding. Here is a picture of the dessert that I made and it was fabulous.

In the morning we played with the kids and then they ate lunch and took a nap. After nap time we headed to the pool since we had enough adults for the kids that we had, 5 adults and 8 kids. Of course the pool was packed, but the good thing was that the pool had soft life jackets for the kids and that made it easier. We bought Hannah a floating contraption because she is a water bug and wanted to jump into the water with no protection. Now Elijah was not too happy at first and the triplets followed his lead until they figured out that they could touch the bottom of the pool. Jacob has no fear and that was translated into the pool. They have a kids water slide and Jacob went head first every time. Elijah just wanted to go and Esther became brave towards the end. Joshua just wanted to float in Hannah's contraption and was happy after that happened; he is my land kid but he did have a good time. When we were leaving there was a guy from one of the Cedar Park, Leander papers that took a picture of us leaving the pool with the kids holding onto their animals, so he is putting us in the paper.

When we got home from the pool we gave the kids a bath and then finished up dinner so the kids could eat. That is exactly what they did, they were hungry from the pool and ate very well. Here is a picture of Hannah after eating dinner, do you think that she liked dinner?

The kids did not last for fireworks and I knew they would not after the long and eventful day that we had. So my "safari" went to bed and Pam's kids went home before the fireworks started.

When we bought our house we did not know that we were going to live so close to fireworks. Each year our street and the main street into our sub-division is lined with the cars of people going to the park for fireworks. For the past three years Noel and I have sat in our backyard and enjoyed the fireworks without the hassle of parking, crowds, and traffic.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their celebration of Independence and that you remembered the families that are sacrificing out there for that freedom.