The sound of rain pitter-pattering ...

INSIDE MY HOUSE!!!

Today it is rainiing and I have no wall in my bedroom, bathroom or kitchen. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that means: Water. In my house. All over my floors. Soaking my carpet. Splashing my toilet. Flooding my house.

We came home from Sunday dinner with Troy's family. This is what we came home to:As it continued to rain, it only got worse. We put the kids to bed. Their room, the laundry room, pantry and the living room were the only dry rooms. With them asleep, the real adventure began. Troy began using the big push broom to "sweep" the water out of the house. When it began pooling outside the door rather than draining like it used to before we dug up our yard and changed the "water flow paths." Troy took a shovel and created a trench to have the water drain to the back of the yard, while I got out she shop vac and bagan sucking up the huge puddles. We had to move a lot of furnature: my curio cabinet, our bookcase, and most everything out of our room.

After many hours of sweeping, shoveling and sucking water, we decided to call it a night and took a hot shower, and went to bed, anticipating sleeping only a few hours before awaking and repeating the process again.Luckily, we slept until early Monday (Labor Day) morning. We were planning on doing all the cleanup, inside and out, ourselves. But, in answer to many prayers, Troy's family called and announced that they would arrive within the hour to help with whatever we needed. Here is the disaster cleanup crew:

It's hard to tell who's who, but there's Brad the Dad, Emily, Tiffy, Troy (working behind Tiff) Amy, and Patrick, Tiffy's officially serious boyfriend. They all win the Golden Hammer of the Week Award, even though they didn't really build anything.
I was inside feeding the boys breakfast and keeping them out of the mud. Here's a view of Troy and Amy clearing off broken up cinder block, lumber, and concrete from the area we need to build the wall.
This is Troy sweeping rainwater out of the kitchen while the fascinated boys watch. Notice Timmy wearing his galoshes. He is prepared! Future Boy Scout in the making.

More Demolition?

Well, this is the progress we have made on the framing. We have 4 additional walls built that we haven't stood yet because we have to do some demolition first. Yes, I thought we were past that, too. But, I seem to have forgotten that the back wall of my existing home, the one I am living in , sleeping in, cooking in and half-heartedly cleaning, needs to be removed and replaced. So, rather than building this week, we have been installing bracing posts in preparation for the walls to come crashing down around me. (And I don't mean that figuratively.)Before Troy could install the posts in the kitchen, (Yes, they will be permanent fixtures until we move into the new house.) I had to empty the cabinets and drawers. He is being really nice and postponing the installation of the post that will be located behind the kitchen sink until it is absolutely necessary. My friend Tonya gave/loaned me a truckful of plastic storage crates, (you can see some on the counters) to temporarily store my cleaners, medicines, dishes, pots & pans, utensils, spices, Tupperware, cookbooks, baking ingredients, essentially EVERYTHING I normally keep in my kitchen. This is the main cause for the disarray.
To make our house more energy-efficient, we blew insulation into the space between the roof and the ceiling about 4 years ago. When he broke holes in the ceiling to support the roof with the beams, the insulation started falling out. The black garbage bags are for collecting it, and putting it back up in the small cavity around the post. They add such a nice touch to the decor, don't they?
Here is our bedroom. That door used to lead to our walk-in-closet, which has since been torn out. Yes, that is our bed. A saws-all and a shop vac are also present. Notice the nice plastic storage container. That one contains everything that used to fit under my bathroom cabinets before we shrunk the bathroom by 25 square feet.
Here is our first post. Notice the insulation-filled garbage bag? Like I said earlier: Permanent Fixture. *Sigh*
Here is the bedroom on Saturday morning. All 3 posts are installed and the warm, cheery sunshine in shining in through the hole in the wall! Troy spend most of Saturday on the roof, pounding out concrete, and in the bedroom battling with the walls. You can see some of the smaller holes. They grew.
As you can see, he won the battle, but it took a lot of effort. He broke the "Virtually Indestructible" handle of his 16 pound sledgehammer. He enjoyed a brief break while I went to Home Depot to return it. I was pleased that they exchanged it, no questions asked. It is only 5 years old. But, the label said it was indestructible. If you look closely into the gaping hole, you can see the bed we slept in Saturday night. It was so romantic to lie in bed and look up at the stars through the hole in the wall! We are not sure how many of the neighbors can see in. Hmmm...
We all climbed up on the roof yesterday, and although it was nerve-racking for me to have the boys up there, they had a blast. Timmy climbed up the chimney and looked down, and asked me if Santa lived down there. He doesn't.
This is what the back of the house looks like when you are standing in the new part. Every inch of white you see, and some that you can't see, needs to be torn out. We think this will be a fairly lengthy phase. See the two windows? When we build the wall to replace the cinder block one, those windows will not be re-installed. I am so sad about that. I love to look out the window while standing at the sink and admire our accomplishments. The boys love to climb onto the counter, sit next to the microwave and watch Daddy work. It is nice when Troy and I are out working on the house after Spencer is asleep and Timmy is watching a movie to peek in the window to check on him. I will really miss those windows. This was the first thing I saw when I awoke this morning. Did I mention that there are live electrical wires behind those posts that are now exposed?
No, I'm not stressed out. But thanks for asking.

Blog Bugs

I just wanted to gripe a little... These are a few things that "Bug" me wen it comes to blogging.

Automatic Music Players When I read blogs "live" instead of via Google Reader, I don't like when someone's playlist starts blaring. I have had it wake up babies, and sometimes, I am listening to my own music. Other times, it "tattles" on me when I say I'm just going to check my e-mail really fast, and then end up blogging. So, I made my playlist the kind that has to have the "play" button pushed in order to play.

Word Verification on Comment moderated or private blogs It just seems like a double whammy. If you use comment moderation, you don't have to post any comments you don't like. If your blog is private, the only people commenting are those who you've invited. So, why all the security?

Light colored text on light colored or similar colored backgrounds also, very busy patterned backgrounds with text directly over the pattern. These blogs are simply too hard to read.

Happy Camping Birthday to Me

This year, Easter was earlier than most. So, Troy's family's annual camping trip coincided perfectly with my birthday. So, instead of getting a sitter, getting all fancied up and going out, I donned my scrubbiest jeans and a sweatshirt and headed to the desert for a campout. The Easter camping trip has been a tradition of theirs for a long time, so I usually go along, albeit with a moderate amount of whining, griping, moaning, groaning and complaining. It would be an understatement to say that I don't love camping. However, camping and dirt biking are 2 of Troy's favorite things, so we go whenever we have the opportunity.

To their credit: they did make a bigger deal about my birthday than usual because the first day of camp was my birthday. And to Troy's credit: He spent the day in camp with me, instead of out riding. He even promised to celebrate my birthday "my way" when we got home.

I read 4 books on the trip. What a treat! I usually feel guilty when I read 4 books in 4 days, but, there was nothing else to do, so I curled up and read. Troy even gave me a new book for my birthday that I am looking forward to reading: Presidents and Prophets, by Michael Winder. He came and lectured at a Relief Society party, and he even signed my copy, and wished me a happy birthday.

Grandma and Pa don't have and little kids at home anymore, so they were excited to have someone who could hunt for eggs. Tiffy and I colored eggs on Saturday, and then later that day we had an Easter egg hunt. Timmy was so funny to watch. He would often run past 2 or 3 eggs to pick up one he saw first. We had a makeshift Easter basket- a metal mixing bowl, but Timmy didn't care- he filled it up anyway.

After finding most of the eggs, one broke open, and the candy spilled out. That was the end of the hunt. Tim sat down in the dirt and started munching. Someone, we won't mention names, (see photo for identification) fed Spencer a bright blue Whopper egg. You can see the drool coming from his mouth is the same bright blue color. Gross!

I think one reason boys like camping is purely anatomical. Luckily, our trailer has a toilet, shower, sink, oven, stove and microwave, but even so, Timmy and his dad love to pee in nature. I think I will never truly understand the thrill it must be for boys to pee on rocks, holes, trees, sticks, bugs, and all the other things God created for us to enjoy. They would come home from motorcycling and Timmy, among other things would tell me all the interesting places he found (with Daddy) to pee. On the opposite end of the spectrum are us: We women do not enjoy squatting on a bush and dripping dry. Like I said earlier, it has to do with anatomy. Men were created for peeing outdoors.

New subject.

I am spoiled to have such a nice camping trailer when we go out in the wilderness. There are a few pictures of us inside the trailer. When we camp, the floor quickly acquires a thin film of dusty dirt. It was funny to see that when we let Spencer crawl around on the floor, it is cleaner when we pick him up than when we put him down! That can only mean one thing: Spencer was a dusty, dirty baby when we finally came home.

I don't want this post to sound like a complete whine session, but the scenery was lacking. Normally when we camp, there are beautiful vistas, lots of trees, water, flowers, all the things you think of when you hear "camping." But, this campsite was desolate. I have the ugly pictures to prove it. It was also windy and Spencer and I got sunburned, in spite of wearing sunscreen. (sun"scream" as Timmy appropriately calls it- he screams the whole time we apply it to his face.)

Timmy is growing up to be more and more like his Daddy every day. He is falling more and more in love with motorcycles every day. He knows what has to be done before he can go, and he eagerly helps to get it all done: put on socks, shoes, gloves, helmet, goggles, and coat. Make sure Daddy has all of his gear, and his pack with water, and lunch packed. Make sure the bike has gas. Go to the bathroom (preferably on a rock or anthill). Then, we're finally ready to go!

The other thing that boys love is getting dirty. Camping is the perfect opportunity to fulfill this great desire. From the moment we arrived, Tim sat in the dirt and was soooo happy. He made himself a slide out of a dried up river bank. He just sat down at the top and pushed himself to the bottom. He climbed back up and did it over and over and over again. He invited us to join, but we politely declined the offer. Spencer also loved the dirt, especially eating it. Yuck! He somehow filled his mouth with dirt, which quickly turned to mud, and we met with much resistance when we attempted to clean his face and mouth.

We made a big dent in our firewood pile; after loading the bikes, we filled the rest of the truck's bed with wood. This made life easier in camp, we didn't have to hunt for wood. (Which is good, because there weren't any trees to be found.)

Overall, it was a better birthday than I anticipated, so I really can't complain too much.