A vet perhaps?

Ben says he wants to be a monster truck driver when he grows up. But I wonder if he will be a vet?

Oh and in case you do not know Bootsie's story, he is our 3-legged cat.  His story is included in this post

A flood...

Way back April we started a bathroom renovation that still had not been completed.  Hubby just didn't have the time to do it, so we were going to hire a contractor to complete it as well as replace our kitchen flooring an counter tops.  We were waiting for the estimate and I was going to paint the bathroom before they installed the new shower and vanity.  I was done primer coat and this particular day I was going to paint the final coat, but somehow got distracted - happens alot around here!

Anyway, that night I stayed up a couple hours later than normal.  Just wasn't tired and got into a good show or movie or something.  Well when I finally decided to go to bed I walked into the kitchen and stepped in a big puddle of water.  What in the world?  A bunch of things happened very quickly...

Turn on a light
see a bunch of water
follow it to the laundry
no house or tv noise so now I hear water running - lots of water running!  
Grab towels to throw on the wet floor
Yell at sleeping hubby - "Honey! Honey wake up!  HONEY WAKE UP we have a flood!"
Turn laundry taps to off - still hear water running
Run to bathroom (which is the other side of the wall)
OH MY GOD!  The entire bathroom is flooded - there is a water fall coming out of the side of the wall where the drywall comes down to the shower base...
Hubby runs outside to turn off water, I don't know what to do so I grab camera and follow him...
He take photos and a video of the crawl space, I am too upset and do not take any pictures (but now the blogger in me really wishes I had taken some!)

Notice the short pipe directly to the left of the plastic. It is completely under water.  The plastic was there so when my dad and hubby were crawling around under there they would not have to crawl on the dirt.  It is supposed to be dry under there!  Here is the video...not even the lovely night sounds were calming to me at the moment!

Once the water was shut off, the huge flood in the bathroom mostly drained down the register and the shower drain.  I knew that we were in big trouble when I was mopping up the water at the edges, you could see that the floor under the laminate in the bedroom was wet.  We were able to mop up most of the water in the laundry and kitchen area and that was about all we could do until morning when we would call insurance.

In bed I suddenly realized that I was very thirsty but at that moment I wanted nothing more to do with water. My darling hubby then says "Well, look on the bright side."  To which I snarl "There IS no bright side" and I roll over and go to sleep!

The next morning we were already seeing damage.  The floor in our bedroom was expanding and pushing up the laminate so much that I could no longer close the door.

Hubby called our insurance and within two hours ServPro was there assessing the damage, then started to pull up the floors! What a mess!

They pulled up all the wet areas all the way down to the subfloor and left us with huge dryers and dehumidifiers that were with us for several days.  I hated those noisy things and they made it very very hot in our house.  Did I mention that this was the end of July when it is 50 thousand degrees outside!

Meanwhile, the kids thought it was a brand new adventure and were thrilled to have a big storm in the house...

And me, once I got over the initial shock and realized that I was getting new floors, well,  let's just say I was not quite as upset as I was.  I will never miss that kitchen flooring!  It was not exactly how I pictured a kitchen renovation, but I still got to say Goodbye old ugly floors!

too funny - dirty kids are happy kids

Happy Birthday Firetrucks

Our local fire department celebrated a birthday so we had to go see the firetrucks out on display! Of course,whenever there are people around our kids are incredibly shy.  But they were excited enough (after cake and cookies) to get up in the trucks.

It was about 5 thousand degrees that day and the seats were hot! Carlee wasn't overly impressed, at least not until she got her balloon!

Once we got back home (and they no longer had to be shy) their bikes instantly turned into firetrucks.  They would place an imaginary 911 call and then race to the emergency, sirens blaring! 

 I got the camera when I heard them from inside the house - the opposite end of the house!

Not sure you could handle too much, so I made sure to take a very short video - 12 seconds is more than enough to get the idea.



But if you think you can stand more, here is some more. This one mostly just Ben making the horrible firetruck noise.  It is only 32 seconds long - I had to escape back into the house and considered calling 911 to rescue me from this torture.


I am actually writing this several months later - in January and when I watch these I still cringe. Ever since this day whenever they play firetrucks or police cars (which is alot) they make this ear-piercing noise. Funny thing is that they didn't hear actual sirens that day!

You know, I was never bothered by nails on a chalkboard and would secretly laugh at all the people cringing. Now I know how they felt.

A day at the river

This boat ride was fun until it was suggested we go for a ride in the big boat. That was much more exciting...

All ready to go...

Waiting patiently...

Sam is loving it...Ben not so much.  I think the sound of the motor scared him.

Then we went faster and the frown got bigger LOL

We had a really fun and are grateful to Miss June for inviting us!

VBS 2010

This was the first year that we attended VBS.  Last year we were in Maryland and were not attending a church that had a VBS and the year before they were too young.  So not only was this our first VBS but I was in charge of games - how much fun do you think I had!!

I also was able to take lots of photos and videos, but because there are so many other children in them I just cannot post them here.  If your kids were at VBS then please contact me if you want to see what I have :)

Here are some of the ones I took of my kids...

Snacktime was a big hit for them.  I think they were most excited to tell me what snack and flavor of juice they had that day.

Ben was grumpy about something.  And yes he is sitting on a table.  They could contain them better haha

For some reason my kids are not at all interested in singing.   The look on Sam's face is pretty typical for them.  Except for Carlee at VBS - she loved it - and when VBS was over she hasn't sung in church since.

Do you notice anything strange in this photo?  Here is a hint...look at their feet.  Apparently my preference to be bare foot as much as possible has rubbed off!  They would kick their sandals off the moment they sat down.

And finally, here is a photo that taught me a lesson.  Even though I was in charge of games and was pretty focused on getting prepared every morning before we left the house, I should still take one minute to approve the clothes picked out by the kids.  Although this might be Daddy's favorite, I am not sure it was appropriate for a church event LOL