unexpected remodel

2 weeks ago our master bathroom flooded. AGAIN. This time running water poured under the walls and over 5 ft into our bedroom. Sigh

Of course it was after normal business hours and Hubby was at his teaching job an hour away and couldn't come home. No flash light in the house meant we couldn't find all the parts to the shop vac out in the storage.  I was on the phone with a plumber trying to find out how to stop the flood as the kids bailed water. Thankfully friends drove the almost hour round trip to bring us their shop vac and we cleaned up best we could. Plumbers came the next day and snaked the drain and I started on the washing of every towel in the house that was used in the clean up.

Demo begins!

removing the debris

this used to be a bookcase in Bub's room

view from our bathroom into Bub's room
through his bookcase/window the old owners just drywalled over on our side

ripping out nasty peel-n-stick floor tiles
(same wall as above before we ripped out the drywall and framing)

almost done!

 

BEFORE- badly built bookcase where a window once was

AFTER- bookcase removed. new framing and drywall

We had planned to do our bathroom sometime in the not too near future.  Then we flooded again on Monday. UGH!!!! The plumbers came out and this time could not snake the drain. In looking down a vent pipe in the ground they dropped their flash light. When they dug down to what they thought was the sewer line to retrieve the light they found more issues. Our kitchen sink lines were never tied into the main sewer and were just dumping water and gook into the ground! This made the dirt around our concrete sewer line erode away and the main line shifted busting open spilling sewage into the ground and causing the pipes to back up. Also our main line runs up hill not a good thing for flow. They were able to patch everything into proper working order after 5 hrs of work.

If the plumbers hadn't dropped their light in the line where they did the break nor kitchen sink issues would never have been found. We know God was directing everything that day! No coincidences with Him :)

We have reframed, insullated, sound proofed and drywalled the wall between us and Bub's room. I don't have a pic of that. But it is WARM and QUIET in our bathroom now. We still have 3 walls open for future work. We have to run new shower lines, new electrical wiring/plugs/lighting and install a pocket door. I haven't been able to decide on tile, shower size, faucet placement, vanity style or the hundreds of other things that come with starting from scratch. BUT that is for next year!

Hanukkah night 3 - the kids entertaining us

Candlelight! First night of Hanukkah!

bad bad bad

I have so many things to blog and yet ....

NADA

do you hear the crickets chirping too?

We are down to my daughter's computer that I can load my pics on and she is so behind in school that I am never on it.  I'm on Hubby's school computer now while he is sleeping.... shhhhh

I know I could use it when she is finished when her daily school but I'm forgetful or maybe lazy is more like it. Whatever. Ahem. I'm sticking with the "I'm just too busy to blog" story. Mostly true ;)

14 yrs

Today my Love and I are celebrating 14 yrs of marraige! 

Honestly we never thought we would make it this far. We have had more than our share of experiences that had friends and family telling us to just give up and move on. We thought about calling it quits but we are just too stubborn to walk away. :) I'm glad we didn't.

I hope all of our ups and downs show our children that marriage is worth staying in. Even when it hurts and it gets hard...not IF it does but WHEN.  God doesn't promise us a life free of troubles and heart ache. We have to lean on Him at all times!

does it ever end?!

Decluttering?
House training TWO puppies?
The tummy flu doing its second trip through our home?
The tummy flu that one of the pups got as well!?

Oh Lord I hope so! I am very THANKFUL that we have not redone our floors as I had planned this fall. And I guess another bright side of house training the puppies is I will be getting all new towels because some smells just linger. UGH! And having GIGANTOR pups rampaging through the house,  chewing everything under 4 ft tall, knocking over and breaking things with their whip like tails means the house is staying cleaner.  Today they learned if they stand on hind legs they can eat from the dishes in the sink means that room will now ALWAYS be clean or at least it BETTER BE :-/

The house purging marathon ground to a haul because of all the above and the Thanksgiving Holiday. I managed to fill another car truck with clothes to donate!  I really want to get to the attic soon. It is so stuffed we can't get to the blower to change the filter and that ain't good.

I will be working on things slowly until the end of the year so we can start the New year CLUTTER FREE! I have been knocking out a few projects late at night when things settle down and I can't wait to post them! Soon.... I hope :)

We are blessed to have my mother-in-law in town for 12 days visiting! We only get to see her maybe once a year and this makes her second trip down this year :) The kids have lots planned for her stay. I bet she goes home ready for a vacation! LOL

We have a mix of sadness and joy in the family. My great uncle passed away 2 days ago and his funeral is next week. He was my Grampa's brother-in-law and loved to tell me about Grampa and his early days of mischief and horseback adventures. It feels like loosing Grampa again to not have Uncle JB here to tell me about him since I barely remember Grampa with his passing 20 yrs ago.  We also lost my cousins' grandmother on Wednesday.  She was the sweetest most godly woman I know. The mother/grandmother we all dream of having...even my mom said that when she called to tell me how the funeral went today. She was well loved by her little town and church and will be sorely missed.

My mother-in-law leaves next week as well. Then we will travel up for Cast Removal Day for Princess on the 5th (woot woot!), 14th wedding anniversary *HUBBA HUBBA*, Hanukkah and having Hubby home for company shut down Dec 24-Jan 1! We don't know what to do with him here so long.... but vacation sounds N-I-C-E! This will be his first time off work in over 2 yrs and boy does he need it!!!

until then...
moving forward even a bit IS progress

just keep cleaning

Been busy cleaning and de-junking the house and storages. Again.
I have been ruthless!  A friend was raising money for her marathon with a garage sale so I called her up asking if she needed donations. Of course she could take it... and should she bring a trailer? OH YEAH! BRING A TRAILER!!! We filled her van and trailer right on up. It felt so GOOD! I had more but she didn't have room :)

Yesterday I cleaned my son's room and I tackled his toy hoard box. Out with the broken and missing part toys. We started with a giant rubbermaid container and a medium size one.  Once he got the idea that toys were going to those less fortunate he was VERY willing to help! I'm very very very proud to say we are down to ONLY the medium size box of toys/matchbox cars/toy guns and his train table I made him for under his bed!  WOOT!

I then hit the girls' rooms for out grown summer clothes. That resulted in another medium size box overflowing in clothes from just my younger daughter!  We were even able to sort winter clothes and get them put her room. HAPPY DANCE! I still need to go through oldest daughter's room for stuff to purge. I just sorted some of her's things as they came out of the laundry.

I am trying to balance my new found love of de-junking with my "what if we need this again?!" and "we've had that forever but never used it and what if the giver of it shows up and asks about it?" fears. I also don't want the house to look sterile or leave nothing sentimental for the kids to enjoy. That is a bit hard for me as I'm not sentimental about things. Yes, it reminds me of that person/time in life but it is either useful or not... and if NOT then it is taking up space and time to clean. And I hate cleaning!

loving this pallet wall make over!

http://realhousewivesofbc.blogspot.com/2011/10/pallet-possibilities-pallet-wall.html

Thankful hearts

Nov 1- I'm thankful for my God who LOVES me so much He sent His Son to die for me so that I can praise Him FOREVER!

Nov 2- I'm thankful to live in a country where I can worship and have many choices in how to worship

Nov 3- I'm thankful for His renewed mercies. Daily. Free!  Don't even have to ask. How awesome is that!?

Nov 4- thankful for all the provision God has given us! through His bounty I am able to bless others and I know if we are ever in need God will return the blessing

Nov 5- thankful for my children and the challenges and blessings they bring me

Nov 6- thankful He is God and I am not

Nov 7- thankful for 2nd, 3rd and 1,000,000th chances

new members of the family

We have wanted a Great Dane pup forever! Well I have at least but after our first Dane was put down 13 yrs ago due to kidney failure Hubby wasn't sure he could love another gentle giant.  We've talked to breeders and it just never fell into place. I gave up.

A few weeks ago I mentioned on Facebook that we were trying again to work with a breeder but the chances were low that the mating would take. It didn't. We were sad. A friend read my post and said she would keep her ears open as she is in the puppy rescue circles.

Last night I got an urgent FB message that pups had been found! A friend of a friend's knew someone yada yada yada... some Craigslist photos... some story changing...  from "free" to "rehoming fee"...

We ran over this morning and picked up the 2 females from the litter.

Justice

Patriot

born on the 10th of July

season ending injury

My soccer playing baby broke her wrist last Tuesday during soccer practice. She was jogging backwards when she hit an uneven spot and fell trying to catch herself with her hands behind her. She snapped her radious and pulled the ulna growth plate apart.

She is currently in a long cast up past her elbow for 2 weeks then we'll have her rechecked and x-rayed. IF she is healing the ortho will remove the long cast and put on a short cast. If she is not healing she'll stay in the long cast.

Waiting to be cast.

40 hrs post break

Sadly she is missing the last 4 games of her first soccer season. She was team captain for last week so she attended the game and cheered the team on from the bench. It is so hard on her to not be out there playing and helping her teammates. :(

chair reveal!

a sneak peak of sorts

Remember THIS?

I had dug her out of an closing down upholstery store's trash pile.

The owner didn't want to spend the $$$ to get it fixed up.

At first I was all "I can do this!"

I even bought a staple gun and borrowed an air compressor.

UH NO.

Way way way over my head.

And so she sat in the corner piled deep in all that gathers in my bedroom.

Then my birthday came and Hubby said to get it done professionally!

GLEE!

I love that man!

I grabbed some stain and did the prettied wood up real nice

(hey it was another $200 saved DIY'ing it!)

3 months later she still sat in the corner.

Neglected.

Sad.

WELL NO MORE!

No one puts Baby in the corner!

She got a little structural reconstruction to stablize her back

some charcoal suede fabric

satin poly on the wood

She is still at the "spa" getting made over.

We are waiting on her BLING to come in and be installed...

PEWTER NAILHEAD TRIM!

POW!

She'll come home Friday or Saturday!

I've linked to some parties I'm sharing this make over with over there----->

Texas State Fair

My girls surprised me with being Thrill Riders!

If they could have had enough tokens to ride all the rides (minus the bungee ones)they would have!

My Love road his first ride and had some sort of episode.

SCARED me to death!

He came off the ride dizzy, ice cold and sweating buckets.

He recovered thanks to advice from my midwife but he was left wiped out.

It took him 3 days to get over the headache and tiredness.

uh MOM this is NOT near the train set

Crystal flower light tree

Bub is bouncing up and down over the model trains in the arboritum

Hubby took the girls on the Texas Star.

Tallest ferris wheel in the western hemisphere!

Bub and I stayed on the ground and had cotton candy ;)

View from the top

With Hubby down for the count for the most part this was the only ride Bub got to be on

besides the carousel

The FLASH of Hubby and Bub was all I could get as the zoomed past!

This was our FIRST state fair.

We liked it.

Wished we could have seen more.

REALLY WISH Hubby had felt better and had been able to enjoy the day :(

Next time we are getting the "homeschool tickets" to save money.

$17 per person just to get in hurts a wee bit

and

then you add the rides at $5 (in tokens) per person per ride

DOUBLE OUCH

We've decided to just save up and go to Six Flags if we want to ride rides.

Bit more for tickets but the rides are all free and more little boy friendly.

I'm a soccer mom :)

Princess joined the local soccer league this year. It is her first time to play a team sport and she really likes it. Finding team sports that let home schoolers in has been difficult. We can do "Upwards" sports until she is out of 6th grade (next year) but she isn't interested in basketball, volleyball or touch football. Since Texas doesn't offer soccer as a public school sport she can stay with her team until she graduates high school.  Happy happy joy joy!

Warning tons of  craptastic Iphone pics from a  few of her games ahead! Enjoy :)

Lady Indians #15!

GO BIG PURPLE!