Water!!!

Well, last Friday night we went to the Make-a-Wish trick or treat party and picked up Courtney's pictures @ JC Penny's. Our plan was to come home, have a quick dinner and get kids in bed since I had a 24-hr shift the next morning and was exhausted. When we got home Courtney said she had to go potty so Brady backed up from her and stepped in some liquid and totally thought it was from Courtney. She denied it and I looked and said I didn't think that's what it was. So Brock and I (after a lot of struggle - our fridge was super heavy and packed full from the previous Costco run earlier that morning) finally pulled out the fridge and shut the water to the fridge off. It had just made it's way to the front of the fridge so damage didn't seem too bad initially. I went to the basement to see if any leaking had occurred and of course there was a large water bubble in our ceiling and our speaker was discolored too. So we grabbed some towels and punctured a hole to drain the ceiling. Then we decided to just go thru insurance since we didn't have the time, know-how to fix it all by ourselves, and boy are we glad we did! So while I was making calls, kids were running around, Brock was trying to make sure the floor was dry, Courtney pooped all over the toilet and proceeded to wipe her hands all over the shower curtain. So needless to say things definitely did not go anyway close to how we had planned the night. I finally got some quick dinner made and got kids in bed. Brock was exhausted and fell right asleep while I waited for the clean up/mitigation crew to come. They showed up at 10:30 PM and left around 1:30 AM, then I got to sleep for a couple hours before my long 24-hr shift, so needless to say I felt like crap! I got sick on my birthday, and still have not gotten over my cold/sinus issues and still feel and sound terrible. Of course I took pictures of the water damage, but like a dummy I cleared my camera card so I could take pictures at Jenny and Greg's family Halloween party Sunday night, so now there are no photos of the actual damage.The cause for the water leak was from our fridge ice/water maker line. It was almost completely severed. They figured it probably only leaked for 10-15 min. Thank goodness we weren't gone any longer seeing as it is quite a lot worse damage then we previously thought. The floor was 100% saturated around the fridge in the kitchen and extended behind the kitchen into the living room (you couldn't visually see that living room floor damage, but moisture testing revealed quite a large area/most of the room).

We have had 2 giant dehumidifiers and 6 large industrial strength fans running 24-7 since Friday 10/26 night. They said the dry out process should be 3-5 days. but because of the weekend things were delayed some (such as cutting a giant hole in our ceiling downstairs). Our house is older then 1981 so it needed lead and asbestos testing (which they did Monday and got the results back Tuesday. So the hole in our ceiling (4 x 6 foot) was cut then, and the wet insulation was removed (we insulated the ceiling to cut down on noise). We have been living in an 88 degree house that is so loud you can hardly hear yourself think let alone a person a foot away from you. Will be nice to have less noise hopefully today/tomorrow??? We finally got the OK to run the AC Monday, so it's pretty much been running nonstop and the lowest we could get the house was 84 degrees (those dang fans and dehumidifiers put out a ton of heat. Probably going to be one expensive electric bill this month). It's been a frustrating, expensive year, with one thing happening after the next. I figure we have spent well over $10,000 in unexpected expenses, so needless to say things are tight financially right now too. Plumbing main, water heater, car, etc, etc, etc. Hopefully this will be the last of the expenses (well, baby/birth too. .. but Courtney's broken arm and ER visit, plus Lauren's scans pretty much took care of out out of pocket healthcare max-almost).

Right now I am downstairs eating some lunch since there pretty much is nothing I can do upstairs right now. They are tearing out our entire hard wood floor! It is so loud, dusty, and I don't want to watch them rip our house apart. It is going to be quite the headache (well it already has been so far. . .). And to think all I wanted was to have a mellow relaxing time for once welcoming one of our kids (our last). I guess I shouldn't have wished for such a luxury. I am not even ready for her to come, let alone deal with all this crap going on at our house. I just hope it can all be put back together and look as close to what it looked like before as it can. Hopefully it will be weeks and not months, but I am sure time will tell. Only 3 weeks and 2 days until Alexa arrives, we'll probably be out of our house at that time, since our hardwood floor is the only entrance/exit to our house, plus our kitchen will be pretty non-functioning once they rip everything else out. Anyways, sorry for the long post, but it's been one heck of a weekend and we are only getting started! And to think this is the condensed version.

Halloween Decorations

We have had fun making some new Halloween decorations this year, thanks to some ideas I saw on blogs. I think they turned out pretty cute. The kids LOVE to plug in the lights, in fact it's one of the first thing they do if ANYone happens to come over:) Next will have to make Halloween sugar cookies (our yearly tradition), and other fun food ideas I found on blogs too! Should be a fun fall for the kids. They already have decided what to be and can hardly wait for Halloween! I want to make a count down wood block set next, that way they can see how many days instead of asking all the time. I like this one I saw online. .. now to go to the wood store everyone talks about (can't remember the name) and see what kind of stuff they have!

Here's Courtney in her new Halloween leggings I made. . . one of the easiest projects EVER! Took maybe 3 min. to make, made from a pair of knee high socks.  She was all dressed in Halloween attire for dance. That's one of the 5 Halloween pillow covers (envelope style) in the background that I made last year. I really like them too! It's rewarding to see everything come together and it's now looking quite festive around here:)

Here are the cool ghosts we made from cheesecloth and starch. The kids had fun with this one! And I loved another idea I saw on one blog to hang ghosts from a light! Notice the vinyl bats on the lights (another online blog idea which I thought was super fun and easy).

Here they are with the lights on, the kids think they look like they are floating!

 

 

The monster jars we made. Just had to empty a few food jars to make these:) The kids loved making them though. They took a few days because of drying tome. We made a ghost, pumpkin, Frankenstein, mummy (Brady made that one. . .we used crayon to color the edge of the tissue paper before we mod-podged it on. . .think it made it look more like a mummy then the one we saw online), and a vampire! Courtney HAS to plug them in everyday. She LOVES them!

There is a small piece of the candy corn banner I made last year for a boutique. I love it still! Our new Halloween bobble head and Halloween tree.

Courtney and her ghost hair clip form last years boutique. She loves it and wears it EVERY day since we got it out. Now to make one for Lauren, since Courtney has pretty much taken this one over:)

The Countdown block idea I NEED to do next. Would be good for birthdays and Christmas too (pretty much any Holiday the kids can hardly wait for!!).