Bad Day

Can you believe that I ran over this on the freeway?  Can you believe that it wasn't even my car that I ran over it with?  Yes, that was the way my day went a few weeks ago.  My friend Vanessa and I had to swap cars so that she could take the boys somewhere.  I was on my way back to her house when I heard something funny.  I wasn't sure what had happened but I said a little prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help make sure that I got off the freeway safely if something had happened to her car.  Luckily I was already almost to her exit so I got off the freeway.  Sure enough, once the front tire hit the round-about off the freeway I knew then that something had happened to the tire.  Jared came to my rescue to help change the tire and Vanessa came to our rescue with a flashlight so that we could see.  When Jared saw what had happend all he could do was laugh and say that he has never seen anything like that before.  I am so thankful that Heavenly Father heard my prayer and helped me out.  The tire situation could have been so much worse had I still been on the freeway driving 70 MPH.  I am also so grateful that I have such a good friend that still loves me and made me feel so much better about what had happened.   

Science Project

Jocelyn worked with a couple other girls to do a science project.  The main purpose of the project was for them to all work together and learn how to do the scientific method (ask a question, construct a hypothesis, test hypothesis, analyze data, and communicate results).  The project that the girls decided on was how many drops of red food coloring would it take to change different kinds of orange drinks.  They had a good time working together and got a great grade for their project. 

Halloween 2010

How I've Missed You!

The winter grass is finally coming in!  It is so nice to look outside and see beautiful green grass again! 

Progress!

The floors are now done and baseboards are the next thing on the agenda.  We love the new floor.  It is completely different than what we had before so it is taking a little bit to get used to it. 

UPDATE: Water Water Everywhere!

Here is a glimpse into what has been happening at our house the last few weeks.  I am hoping to start seeing some flooring laid down by the end of the day. 

Got to love the outfit.  He had to be right in the room with the drywall guy the entire time.  At one point I heard him ask the guy if he had measured.  The guy said yes, and Jacob replied that he thought that it was 38 inches.  Hahaha.  I guess that it is always good to have a 2nd opinion, even if it is a 3 year old's! 

Hmmm...What was it my dad taught me about cutting?  Was it measure once or twice before starting the cut? 

Goodbye medicine cabinet.  One day soon you will be a pretty little shelf. 

Hmmmm....what color should we paint the wall in the kitchen? 

We have the closet all repainted and the shelves all reinforced for the food storage.  

This was our house as of yesterday morning. 

Now our family room is the holding cell for all the food storage, kitchen table and whatever else we can fit in!  I had to tell the boys that the t.v. is broken because they just don't understand why they can't watch t.v. right now.  :)

Sneak peak for the new floor.  More pics to follow once it starts getting laid. 

After only a day I am tired of walking on dirty concrete.  I can't wait for the floor to be laid.   

Water Water Everywhere!

Here's what we have been up to since Sunday, October 3rd after we got down watching General Conference.  Our 4 year old water heater malfunctioned so we got water in the garage, bathroom, den, laundry room, and hallway.  This project of cleaning up the water has turned out to be bigger than we anticipated.  The flooring in the den was totalled and the flooring in the hallway was totalled.  Because our hallway connects the front entryway and kitchen we are now needing to get new flooring for the entire area.  Our color and kind of flooring is now longer being manufactured.  We have our insurance now involved because the project just kept growing.  We will hear next week what compensation we will get for the home repairs.  As for the water heater we were lucky enough to still have a warranty on it.  It had a 6 year warranty on it so that they just traded us straight across for a new water heater. 

Jared and the plumber taking out the old water heater. 

Jared had to empty his shop vac 2 times to get all the water that was under the platform that the water heater and air handler sit on out in the garage. 

The wall where this closet is on is the other side of the wall where the water heater is.  You can imagine how wet the wall was. 

A couple pictures of what the water did to the flooring. 

Bathroom vanity also soaked up quite a bit of water.  That will also have to go. 

Bathroom wall.  The other side of the wall is the garage. 

Den floor ripped up so that we can start drying out the floor.  There was water under the pad. 

Starting out the airing out the walls project.  Several sections of the rooms affected had holes cut out in them so that we could put heavy duty fans to start drying out the walls. 

This is the closet in the den.  The hole is now cut so we can see directly out into the garage. 

The living room is full of all the stuff from the den.  I still don't know where the fridge, stove, dishwasher, table and of course, Jared's 150 gallon aquarium are going to go. 

I think that we counted 9 fans going in our house for a couple days.  The house was very loud. 

Because there were so many fans going in our house it was blowing the breaker all the time.  To fix the problem we had to drape extension cords all over the house so that we could keep the fans running. 

As of right now (Friday) we only have 2 fans going in the house.  Hopefully today I can get the new vanity, paint and flooring picked out.  We have had a few days to digest all this that has gone on so now I can see some of the things that we were so blessed with. 

1. We were so lucky that we were home when this all happened so that we could catch the leak relatively fast.  We had just returned a few days before from our trip to Boston. 
2. We are SOOOO lucky that we didn't have any mold to worry about. 
3. We feel blessed that a friend told us a second company to come out and give us a quote for water restoration and re-construction.  The 2nd company was much cheaper and much less intrusive for our family. 
4. I am so glad that this didn't happen during Christmas while I had the Christmas tree up and all the decorations because we wouldn't have had as much room to put all the den furniture. 
5. I've decided that if there is a silver linking in all of this that it is I get to replace the vanity in the bathroom.  I have been wanting to replace since we moved in 5 years ago but have never been able to justify it.  Now I get my wish.