While I Was Gone

Approaching the airport to pick me up after Grandmas funeral Ben said, “We must be getting close to the erport because it’s starting to get airplaney.” As if airplaney was a sort of weather. I gave Maddie a hug in her carseat when I got to the car. She was asleep and sort of stirred. After we started to go, she told me, “I can’t give you a snuggle mom, because we’re BAD piewat (pirate).” While I was gone Maddie told the neighbor that I wasn’t coming home because “Mommy doesn’t like us.” At least each time she said it, she had a sneaky smile. When Brian would tease and probe, she would giggle and play along like it was a really funny joke. Several times in the next few days she told me I would have to “walk the plank” in her scariest voice. Brian finished a bunch of the baseboards in the basement. He’s getting so close to completing the living room. Since our basement flooding started last May (that is May of 2008) we have cleaned up four floods (sucked water out, dried carpets and pad, moved all our belongings to the living room and back down). Knowing the floods would get worse, not better, we bit the bullet and paid through the nose to install a sump pump along the three exterior walls and moved everything upstairs for two weeks. When the new concrete finally dried, we put lots of things back and cleaned up the concrete dust that covered every surface of all three stories of our house. Then ripped out the wood paneling wall they had damaged beyond repair. From here on out, it was pretty much a one man show. Brian installed insulation in the walls, added a few more electrical outlets, sheetrocked, mudded and taped, sanded, mudded again, sanded, primed and painted. Then painted baseboards and upper trim, cut and install, putty the nail holes, sand, touch up paint again. Brian is amazing. We’ve learned that all home projects take infinitely larger amounts of time since we have three kids. I have high hopes that eventually that will not be the case. We’re training them to be helpers in our work projects, but today, they remain more distraction than help. Of course they always want to participate and Brian does a particularly good job of finding ways to include them, even if it means the paint job will take two hours instead of one. Most of the time though, Brian works after the kids are all in bed which makes for a short work session or a very late night. Like I said, he’s amazing.

Scared of Heights

We've lived in this house three years, this is our fourth summer here and I've never been on the roof. Of course, two of those summer's I've been pregnant, but still Brian has half a dozen or more times, but not me. It freaks me out to tell the truth. It's all about having to climb the ladder. If the ladder was bolted in place, no problem. I climbed the derrick of the coker tower a bunch of times, pregnant with Ben up about 300 verticle feet on nothing more than a caged ladder to a 4'x4' grating platform. I held on tight, but I did it without much trouble. So I can't go up 20 feet on a rickety old extention ladder. Chicken. I think it's the fact that for Brian to climb the ladder, I have to hold it still, freaks me out. It just isn't safe enough for me. Bolt that baby down and I'll clean the gutters next year.

That being said, what do you do if you're scared of heights, but you know you have a roof/gutter problem? You wait. And wait. You notice the water eating away at the dirt on the side of your house. And wait some more. Then you hope it will magically, just go away. Then you wait again, trying to get up the courage to borrow the neighbor's ladder and check it out. Finally, you suck it up and tell your husband you think we have a roof or gutter problem. Then your hero, your knight in shining armor gets up on the roof and models for you a bit when you tell him to pose for the camera, then he cleans the gutters so you can rest comfortably next time there is a gi-normous rain storm.

P.S. - I could totally get on the short roof in the picture, no problem. It's the top of the house that has me totally wigged out. Guess that totally rules out a fancy-smancy house for us. 'Cause roof sitting was important to me growing up. How else you gonna watch fireworks on the 4th of July and Pioneer Day (If you don't know what that is, you just gotta be a Utahn, sorry. I was horrified when we moved to Texas and I asked my co-workers what state holiday they all got off work so I could plan my vacation schedule. They looked at me like I was an idiot.) Anyway, I enjoyed roof sitting with my family for fireworks with ice cream or candy bars or some fun treat.

Work Day

We spent the day at home listening to General Conference on the internet. Between sessions we headed to the local baptist church for an Easter egg hunt. Apparently it had been rescheduled and we didn't know. Since the kids were counting on the egg hunt, we improvised one at home. We rounded up all the eggs from the play kitchen in the basement and put chocolate inside. Each kid got five eggs and were instructed to hide them for each other. I figured they would find each other's eggs. Ben's idea was that he would hide all his eggs and if he waited long enough, he would forget where he hid them, then he could search for them. He hid his all over the basement family room. Maddie also hid hers by herself. Can you tell? They were all in the shopping cart right in the middle of the room.

Brian's task for the day was putting primer on the walls in the basement. He had two anxious helpers. Ben was first, then Maddie. They LOVE helping Brian or I with our work projects.

Mind Games

We've lived in our house for almost three years now. We have a few lights with multiple switches that you can turn on or off from different locations. Whoever installed them put some sets so to have the light off, one switch is up and one switch is down. It has always bothered me but I don't touch wires or electricity. It scares me. Thus I have never attempted to change them. At the end of the day Friday Brian asked something about if I noticed the light switches. The entire day I had been switching one light switch at a time, trying to get them all "properly aligned" in my own particular way as I walked up and down the stairs. I couldn't seem to get everything in place, but figured the kids were moving them around between my trips up and down the stairs. It was really starting to bother me that I couldn't get them all right. Turns out the night before Brian had changed them all so down means "off" on every floor of the house. It could have made me loose my mind if it had gone on long enough, but now that I know, I LOVE it. I think I sleep better at night now.

Kid Friendly Bathroom

About a month ago we bought a new faucet for the sink in our main floor bathroom. It was on my "to-do" list to install it but I didn't quite get to it before the baby came. Post-baby I just can't bend and move well enough to climb under the sink and install it. I was pleasantly surprised one day when I found out that Brian had installed it for me. Maddie can now wash her own hands because she can work the handle to turn the water on by herself. It makes me happy and it makes her happy. She likes to say "I did it by myself!" after she washes. What a great gift for our family!

Reducing Power Can Save $100 Each Month

This one goes out to Heather Gillespie...yes, we're cheap. She and others were laughing the other night about how cheap I am. It's just sort of a fact of life to me. It doesn't really bother me much at all. Anyway, my girlfriends were wondering what we would do when tv went digital and we couldn't get tv anymore. We already purchased the digital converters for all our old tvs, but the signal just bleeps in and out and rolls or looses sound, etc. Ben asked the other day why grown up tv didn't do that like his kid channel. I told him it would do that when our analog tv went away and we had to use digital like his channels. Brian has even broken down to check some of the prices on cable or satellite or whatever normal people have. You know, poor people watch tv without DVR...right Heather? :) Watching one of our favorite shows last night, the analog picture was SOOOO bad with shadow remnants of other stations we could barely see what we were trying to watch. Brian finally got frusterated and went to mess with the cables. He had installed a signal amplifier in the attic and then another one right next to the tv to boost the signal enough that we could see it. Well, he took out the extra amplifier and PRESTO!!! He just reduced the power on the system and now the signal is amazing. Granted, our opinion is a bit skewed. Amazing to me is not amazing to people with HDTV I'd assume, but heck, I could watch my show. I was totally giddy with excitement. I told him in that two seconds of work he saved us $50 to $100 every month for years!! Yippee!! Power to the cheap people, baby!!!

We Busy Wight Now. Later Mommy.

So my kids are such amazingly good workers that when I asked them to look at me to take a picture of them working hard together cleaning up the basement, they refused to look. Maddie would only say, "We're busy wight now. Later, Mommy." Ben told me, "Yeah, Mom, we're working." Think that will last into their teenage years?

Weekly Cleaning of the Trusses in the Basement

What?!?! You don't sweep off the trusses in the basement ceiling every week? You're house must be filthy! What better way to celebrate your birthday!?!?! In my attempts to make some progress in cleaning up the basement cement dust I realized that if I didn't want dust to fall continuously for the next 10 years, I had better dust off each and every beam in the ceiling. Depressing, huh? I brought down the ladder and changed into my work clothes. Ben changed into his. (I figured a pedicure outfit shouldn't be the same as a dirty clean up job outfit.) I held the ladder while Ben swept the beams he could reach until his favorite show started, at which time he ran away to watch TV. Then I really got to work. I got everything I could reach without unloading and moving the shelves. I finally had to come up and get some fresh air when I couldn't breath anymore. I'm also going grey today and get black snot when I blow my nose. I really need a shower.

Friday Night Date Night - Sump Pump Prep

What is the value of having a dry basement??? We've been debating that the last few weeks since our last basement flood. We finally decided that it was getting worse not better and maybe it was the quantity of rain, but it was A LOT worse during the last flood than it was in the spring. So we are getting a sump pump installed next week and feel like we're paying through the nose for it. But, we can't sell the house later without disclosing that our basement floods now, so we feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. If we'll have to fix it eventually, why not fix and enjoy the benefits rather than do it right before we move for someone else to enjoy? Friday night date night therefore was a fun game of "Empty the Basement to Upstairs." We worked for a few hours and got most everything up. Ben was our cute little helper again. Only a little bit remains to take care of before the work crew comes on Tuesday morning. Our main floor looks like a mess again, but I realized it's been that way so much lately it doesn't bother me like it used to. Between May and September (5 months) it's all been up here for two months anyway. Sad. I hope this ends it and the basement will forever stay where it belongs...in the basement!

Anything Else I Can Do?

Ben has the purest heart of any kid I've ever met. When we were trying to reassemble our basement after the latest flood, Brian and I got Maddie down in bed and were directing Ben to change, brush, etc. He finished and came down to the basement where we were working. He put his hands on his hips in the most grown up of ways, sighed and said, "Well guys, is there anything else I can help with before I head off to bed tonight?" It was the cutest thing we had ever heard. I know I'm a softie sometimes, but I could even see Brian's heart melt right in front of my eyes. How can you deny a kid like that? We decided to let him help until he showed signs of being too tired, so we got him some super cool projects like taking the screws out of the monster size fan so we could get it back in the box to store for the next water event, arranging the toys in a way he though was great and stacking the movies so he can see them when he wants them. He was in heaven to feel like such a grown up to be given assignments he could do alone. He did a good job too. He has the most pleasant conversations with me sometimes while we work together. I love working with Ben. When his work pace slowed to a crawl and he was too distracted to do much more, we both thanked him for all he had done to help our family and gave him huge hugs and sent him to bed. We love Ben! He's such a great kid.

Helping Dad Finish Up the Kitchen

Maddie loves to be in the middle of everything. Since Brian has decided, rightly so, that remodeling the kitchen should take less than one year, he's back on the job. As much as I try to help, I do the most good to get totally engaged with the kids, and well, just keep them away from the work zone. I figure in approximately 8 years, we'll be able to work together again on projects.

Maddie measuring the board for Dad.

Just about right? Maddie helps Dad decide what to do next.

Dad isn't so sure Maddie has good input.

Zufco Remodeling Agency

We're remodeling our kitchen. This weekend (Oct 20) we took down our kitchen cabinets and ripped out the soffit above them. By 'we' I mean Brian did all the actual work. Ben walked around on the counter top and swept up the sheet rock mess. Maddie napped and I did a service project at the church. I sure was exhausted by all Brian's hard work though. The cabinets should arrive in 2 weeks, so the plumbing needs to be moved by then and ideally the sheet rock fixed up. Everyone cross your fingers that we have a functioning kitchen when you arrive in December...