Blackmail pictures of the boys

A very funny sequence of photos: When the house gets quiet, every mom knows there is trouble brewing... after a few moments of silence I found the boys in the bathroom with my "Girl stuff." They will probably grow up to hate these pictures...
Spencer applying lipstick
The boys after putting on the lipstick. Very nice!

Do I have any lipstick on my teeth?
No, this is not in preparation for Halloween, this is our everyday wear.
Makeup isn't the only thing I keep in my makeup bag. I also have a disposable razor for when we travel. I was absolutely shocked to see that Spencer knew what a razor was for. He never showers with us. Interesting...
Don't we all feel like smiling when we know we look good? Lookin' good Spencer!

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.