R.I.P. Sump Pump ?- 2007

I have been delinquent in blogging, yes. I do have an excellent reason. Two Mondays ago, our sump pump passed away. I went downstairs to see if I could determine why our phones were not working, and as I opened the door to the finished basement, I immediately understood why: the bottom step was completely covered in water and it had worked its way up to the very crest of the second stair. All told, we had 14" of water in our basement. Our cable modem was swimming. That's why the phones were out. And the internet. And just about everything else.

Sooooo, now we have a naked basement and I'm typing this on Dada's poor work laptop. Phones are back up and so is the internet. The tuner in our TV is dead, but that happened from the electrical "surge" we had in June when something very, very close to our house was hit by lightning and fried a lot of our stuff. Now we had two dead computers. Haven't tested the printer yet. Dada's holding out hope for his stereo system. I'm not so optomistic. It was submerged. As were all our electrical outlets. At some point when we have the soft and hardware we'll be needing, I'll post the pictures I took of everything floating. And then of the garbage at the curb. Bless the trashmen. A little beer goes a long way...

Anyway, now we get to re-do the basement the way we want it. We plan on doing tile this time. And we'll need new drywall for the bottom 2' of the walls. And some more insulation. And more appliances. Hehe. How convenient that there is a Best Buy opening up near our home!

And for those of you who were wondering, yes, the poker table survived intact. Smart move to put metal legs on it. We lost both couches... I keep teasing Dada that it was an expensive way to get a futon- I'd been campaigning for one for quite awhile. We needed to dispose of those couches anyway. Wendy, one of them was the one we bought out there for $20 while you guys were in Alaska and we had your truck! Served us well. No shame in any of the stuff we lost, that's for sure. Cleanup continues and we are having fun planning the "new" room.

Blogging will be incredibly sporadic for awhile and I apologize. We're going to be picking out a new laptop for ourselves instead of a desktop, so anyone who loves their laptop, feel free to send us tips/ suggestions as to what to buy.

Also R.I.P. to Dada's guitar which has a funny shape to it now but he's thinking about trying to have restored, all his climbing gear, most of our photo albums, tons of children's books, and many art supplies. Discouragingly, most of that stuff was in plastic Rubbermaid bins, but the water was so high that it popped the lids and invaded anyway. Please learn from our mistake and don't store anything of value on the bottom shelves of bookcases if you have even a hint of possible water damage! Our wedding album was also down here. The restoration people dried out the pictures but the album itself was ruined. The pictures smell funky, but it's wonderful they turned out as well as they did!

Just wanted to let you all know that we're hanging in there and what we were up to. Dada also got his wisdom teeth out yesterday morning, so we are staying busy. We love you all and hope things settle down sooner rather than later! Hehe! Happy end of August! Be well and know we're thinking about all y'all even if you don't hear from/ about us for awhile!

Hats and Hair

Having a good time with Grandmama. The kids are watching Nemo with her right now after blowing bubbles and running around like crazy fools outside this morning. Dada got home safe, finally, from California. He got stuck in Las Vegas for awhile and made it to Cincinatti around 3 AM last night, poor Dada. He's having a nap and then we'll all go to the buffet at Pizza Hut and he'll go off to work while we take naps ;) Have a great weekend!

Liam is obsessed with hats. And with seeing the pictures on the digital camera. He wants to see it even before we take it!

Carrie before her haircut.

And after. With lollipop, of course.

Liam in a sequined hat from aunt Lainie. Who knew I'd have a son who wants to look like a flapper? Hehe!

Typical Carrie, sticking out her tongue for a picture =P

Mishmash

Today was kinda overcast and it turned out to be a great day for playgroup. We went to a playground, (pictures below) and the kids got to run around all morning and not end up overheated. It was a nice change. I think the pictures came out better too. You can decide for yourself.

PaPa got out our Wienermobile placemats while he was here. Tonight Carrie asked if people slept in there and I gave Dino's standard answer: it's not a Wienie-bago. She says, "it's not a wiggy bagel?" So Dino, wherever you are, I tried. I really, really tried. I wish you were here to talk about it with her. She then informed me, "we have one, downstairs. It's squishy!" And she's right. She's talking about the Beanie Baby Weinermobile, also from Dino, that we have in the basement. Wish I knew where I put my Weinerwhistles. And darn it, is it i-e or e-i in weiner? They both look funny! =/

It gets better. PaPa has also taught her that eating crusts give you curly hair. That leads to a lot of musings about Grandmama's squiggly hair, as you can imagine. Tonight while tucking her in, some of my hair escaped from my ponytail and curled around by my ears. She starts to smile and says, " you have a twisty!" I give her a few seconds and sure enough, "you must be eating your crusts!" I said that I sure am. A few more seconds of smiles goes by and she laughs & says, "you're going to look just like Grandmama!" We had a good laugh about that one. I told her how smart she is and that she's probably right...

And Grandmama gets to come play with us tomorrow! We're very excited. I also promised Carrie a haircut in a real haircutting place. She keeps begging me to cut her hair like I buzz Liam and Dada's. So here's hoping that whoever does her can figure out a cute, supershort cut for Care Bear! I'll try to remember to get before and after shots.

Enjoy the pictures and have a great rest of the week!

The best part about this playground is:
a) the twisty slides
b) the stepping stones
c) the shelter from which to watch while chatting with other moms

Now what do you think?

Notice where my kid is. *sigh* All that stuff to play on, and she's in the dirt.

the other side of the playground...

Robert Fulghum says, "when you go out into the world, hold hands and stick together." This is what that looks like. Course, it doesn't hurt to have a Mama Rita and a Pink Duckie along to help out, too...

Girls just wanna have fun.

My fearless one. He was way up over my head. He ended up in a tower to a high spiral slide and I had to climb up and fetch him. Such a boy!

Car-rie in the sky-yyyy with diiiiiiii-amonds =D

Liam's future bride, practicing to be a trick rider in a circus ;)

Three little monkeys and one Pink Duckie.

These guys want to climb the slide. Naturally.

Care Bear in a cozy den.

Liam making friends. Or coveting the iPod. You choose ;)

Because they know kids want to climb the slides. What a great idea!

Up close with Carrie pretending to be a honeybee in the comb.

How close can we get to those geese, d'you think?

And away they went.

Visitors!

It's been a revolving door around here lately =) Grandma Barb and Pap spent a few days here and we worked on 4 tables. I'm serious. They almost finished the poker table that has been taking shape in the garage, we removed an old kitchen table from the basement, took apart and stored our current dining room table, and "installed" a 6 foot (that is, half of a 12 foot) converence table as our new dining room table. See pictures below. We also goofed off a lot. Now PaPa is here and he took us out to lunch after church. Naptime now. This week Grandmama comes too, or "Nanama" as Liam calls her. Here's some updated shots of what we've been up to. The rain's finally stopped. Have a great week! =D

Right before Dada had to leave last week for St. Louis.

Nina, little Pink Duckie, and Liam. Can you say, "arranged marriage"? I want a picture of them on a porch swing, say, 14 years from now posing just like this. <3 <3 <3

Kurth men and corn on the cob. Pap just put his down... I just missed a shot of all 3 of them chompin' away. Hehe!

Out of the blue, while he's reading, he just starts pulling his shirt up over his nose and laughing. Check out that belly!