More on life

A couple of questions were brought up and I thought that I would just continue my previous post!
Our roommate DID move out. She did not stay here much in August, (she does home health care), she was gone on vacation for a good bit of September and she had all of her stuff moved out by the end of September. (She did pay rent through November, though) The original agreement would have had her here through January, then we changed it to May/June 09. With student teaching coming up, we were talking about asking her to stay even longer, though. I think that this house was a pretty stressful place to be last summer and I know I was certainly no jewel to live with, plus a friend of hers offered free rent in exchange for helping to clean out and organize the entire house. It was an offer she couldn't refuse. We are having a challenge dealing without the extra income, but we are doing o.k. The extra room is much needed, appreciated and being enjoyed.
The kids have been sharing a room since we moved in and Gavin is moving into the smaller, front bedroom. We (um.. actually.. Andy) painted the trim and replaced the handles on doors, and we have installed a closet system in there too! This weekend, Andy is going to paint the walls and then we are going to order a loft bed (like a bunk, but with nothing underneath). We will be moving the carpet from the shared bedroom into there and then we will decorate and get him settled in. Most of his stuff is already in there and he does his homework in that room, but he is sleeping in the old room. The kids are really excited for all of this to "really" happen, with the holidays, we really did not work on that project much at all. Another question was about the cake for Ella, the doll? That IS the cake. It was really fun to make, Andy's mom and I did it together and it was more fun that usual because I wasn't worried about the outcome. It was just for us and I knew Ella would love it anyway that it came out! I would make that again, if anyone ever needs a doll cake!

Another question was about baseball. Gavin is going to be in his 3rd year at Murphy Ranch and he loves it (so do we...it is a legacy thing now since my brothers and Andy and his brother all played up there). Gavin started out with YMCA ball, it was very fun and the kids really learned the rules and how to play. Each child has a parent with him/her while playing each position so that they have help and support. Ella asked to play and the scheduling seemed to work out well for us, so we are going for it! I have NO idea if she will like it, we will wait and see.

Lastly, the water heater... it was NOT the water heater, it was the main hot water pipe coming out of the hot water heater and supplying the rest of the house. It had several pinhole leaks for an undetermined amount of time (I am guessing for the last month or two) and then it blew 2 big holes in it the other night. There is a considerable amount of mud under the house (brave husband went under and looked) but no standing water. The wall is soaked and very damaged as is the cupboard and all of the subflooring. The plumber couldn't do anything today, except tear a big hole in the wall and figure out what supplies he needs to do the job.

The plumbing work IS covered by our Home Warranty insurance and we made a claim to our Home Owners insurance to cover the other damages. We can't do anything until the insurance adjuster assesses the damage. We are hoping that he/she will be here tomorrow. We are also getting an estimate for a tankless water heater, but it may be way beyond our price range. Relocating the hot water heater to outside might be another option, but right now.. we know nothing, have no estimates and are thankful that water boils quickly on our stove. Andy also made sure that the motorhome is hooked up to water and that the propane tank is full, so that we can get a quick rinse off in there if we need it.

Tomorrow, Ella has her 4 year check up and will get FOUR shots...pray that she remains calm and that the promise of an ice cream cone afterwards will keep her in good spirits!

Until later....

Me? Busy? What would make you say that?

Noramally, I would have put text between the photos, but blogger decided to display only the html for the pics and not the pics themselves and I couldn't figure out where to type. Well, I COULD have figured it out, but didn't feel like it!
We had a busy week! I realized that I STILL have not posted about our camping trip two weeks ago...and....the kitchen IS done. Andy finished it while I was gone scrapbooking... I will post about that this weekend!

Gavin played his last baseball game on Tuesday and not only got on base EVERY time he went up to bat but he also tagged two kids out in one play (is that called a double play?) What a dunce I am sometimes! Unfortunately, I did not get to see all of this, because in the middle of the game, Ella had to go potty and it was not good. She has had tummy troubles this week and we have not ventured to far from a potty. I left work early yesterday so that Andy and I could split the child care duties for the day, he took the a.m. and I took the p.m.

I got to go with Gavin on a special field trip on Wednesday (while Andy stayed home with Ella). Gavin participated in a special program called, "Reflections" at school. It is an art program and he did a drawing to represent the theme, "I can make a difference..." His work was done in crayon and was a scene about recycling and taking care of the earth. Anyway, the lower graders who participated got to go on a special field trip to the Norton Simon museum of art! It is a place that I have been wanting to take him, so I jumped at the chance to chaperone! I did not have to drive, but got to ride with my friend Martha and 6 kids. We split off from the group, (there we 26 kids all together) and toured the museum and talked with the kids about what we were looking at. It was a really fun day, and I think that all of the children got a lot out of it!

Last night was Open House at Macy school and we got to see all of the work that Gavin has been doing. The focus for the last few months has been on science; frogs, toads and plants in particular. It was fun to have him show us around his classroom. We also visited the 2nd grade classrooms to check out what is in store for next year!

We had visitors last night too! Our friends, Rachel and Mike were in town for Whittier College graduation and they came by to show off their 10 week old baby, Izzy. She is a bundle of cuddly, cooing joy and it was delightful to get to hold her. Izzy talked to me and told me all about her exciting life and her big sister, then she got a little fussy and after she ate, she crashed out on Andy's chest. He really is magical with babies. I am now saying, "Let's have another" and he is saying, "No". We keep going back and forth...but niether of us has been in the "yes" camp at the same time (this is most likely, a blessing). Rachel is the incoming Alumni Board President, so she had some "official" business to do Thursday night and Friday morning. It was so great to see them and re-connect. I really do wish that we had more time to cultivate our friendships...

Tonight will be a family night with a treasure hunt and a movie complete with popcorn and candy. A perfect night when the weather has decided to get cold and rainy. Off to enjoy....

Another week over

Another busy week is over and I am into another! Last week we had baseball games, dance classes, tumbling, scrapbooking and a trip to Dream Dinners. I have still not blogged about Dream Dinners, but they have really saved my life! I go and make 13 meals for the month in about an hour! It is incredible...but I will post on that another time!

During the weekend we, went to a Pancake Breakfast at Ella's school, headed to the local nursery to pick up plants for a project, stopped at Target for some supplies, watched Gavin play baseball (he hit a home run and a triple!) and later, Andy took Ella to a Father/Daughter Ball. He made a great slide show and I am going to try to upload it later!

Sunday, I taught Sunday School and then we came home and worked around the house. We set up our new garden fountain (an anniversary gift to ourselves), but we still need to have power run for it. The electrician is coming out later today, I hope that we can have this done before June! We also planted some pots for our front porch, I will post pics when that project is done. Andy did filing and I did laundry and later we had dinner with Andy's parents. We paid bills and had our beginning of the week "touch base" meeting. A busy but productive weekend.

Two weeks ago, our oven died. The electrical panel burned out and no buttons worked, at all. Luckily, we have a home owners warranty plan that pays for things like this to be fixed. The oven beeped like crazy, so Andy pulled the unit out and unplugged it. They sent out a guy, he wrote up stupid stuff like "They tampered with the machine and tried to fix it themselves" and got our claim denied! I was sooooo mad!!! I went around and around with the insurance on Friday and finally handed it over to Andy. He got them to send someone else out today and he said, no problem...they will order the part. So, I may have an oven again by the end of the week. Thank goodness! We are truckin along and going to have loads of fun this week...especially because we are going camping over the weekend!