Thankful

The last couple of days have been rough and as much as I could sit and dwell on all that has gone wrong...I am reminded that it is not really all that bad. No one died. No one is dying. No one has lost their house, car, job, or whatever.

TJ has had a high fever for the last couple of days and an of and on low grade for about a week, better today thankfully. I worry a lot when the kids are sick and not themselves, I crave them being back to normal quickly. With both TJ and Tay when they have fevers they just stop, which is not normal for my kids. Stop talking as much and just want to lay around. I get worried. When I got home from the gym last night TJ's fever was back up to 101. I gave him more Tylenol, took a shower with him, and gave him a Popsicle. He wanted a hot dog bun. Not a hot dog just the bun. We had the house to ourselves, everyone else was at Aaron's ball game. His fever left and has not been back. Hopefully it is gone for good, I hate when the kids are sick. Here are two things I am thankful for though during that time...one the kids slow down and in some weird way need me more than normal and that gives us quality time of a different kind. Two, it reminds me to sit and pray over my children. I love to pray for my family and do but when they are sick I do so more regularly. I love to place them back in my Father's hands, knowing He ultimately cares for them...and me...and you.

On top of that Sunday we found water soaking our wood floors. Come to find out we have a leak that has come through the floor in the front bathroom. And I guess it just came through there but they are not sure where it is originating from. And our house has all the plumbing under the house and now that is illegal because houses flood. We now have no bathroom sink and are missing floors. It is worse than everyone first thought. So we are waiting to hear from the insurance adjuster to see what they will cover and then everything has to be ran through the home owners who I guess have no money to fix the problem right now. So we wait, in a construction zone. Something will be fixed. And not knowing if we will have water when they do or if they are going to "patch" or fix things and how long it will all take. OMG, a lot. A construction zone with TJ is not fun. Thankful he is feeling better today. Our floors will have to be replaced through the house...all the wood floors. My hope is that they are replaced with wood floors and not some cheap carpet. What am I thankful for in this? I am thankful for the fact that we rent. That my brother has been here to help me "talk" construction with the workers while taking care of the kids. If we have to be put up in a hotel at some point, I am wondering if we can do Avilla Hot Springs or Sea Venture???

We have been working with Taylor on telling us what she is thankful for in the midst of her "complaining" when things aren't exactly like she wants them. So I thought I'd vent and share a few things that in the midst of some craziness I am thankful for:) Here are a few more blessings:

*Our beautiful, supportive, and loving friends and family.

*Our jobs.

*Our house.

*Our gym time.

*Our God, who in the midst of my tunnel vision sees the bigger picture.

What are you thankful for today??

Leaks in the pipes

Sunday morning I walked out into our living room and discovered what appeared to be a water stain coming from under the baseboards. I immediately called the property management and advised them that there was an apparent leak in the wall. They sent out contractors that afternoon who said we definitely had a leak and they needed to get authorization from the owners before they did anything.

They finally got authorization last night so today they came in and ripped out the bathroom counter and sink, ripped up some floorboards and cut a few holes in the wall. Long story short the leak is not at the joint there in the bathroom. Our pipes are in the concrete and the water from the leak (wherever it is) is following the pipes and and coming up there, but that is not the leak.

We are now waiting for the insurance adjuster to come out and determine if they are going to re-pipe the entire house running the new pipes overhead rather than in the concrete or if they are just going to rip up the concrete till they find the leak and plug it. Either way we are going to be inconvenienced for a number of days while they fix this issue.

This is where our bathroom sink/counter used to be


This is the entrance to our bathroom. As you can see the dark spots are where the concrete is wet from the leak.


Looking at our bathroom from the livingroom


This is our living room where they stopped (for now) ripping up our floor


Our sink, counter and floor now sits in a pile out on our front porch


For now we are just very glad to be renting, assuming the owner does the right thing and restores the house to its pre-water damage condition.

Checking In...

Hello blog readers, all how ever many of you there are:) We have not been very diligent at keeping up with things. What can I say? Life is busy!!! And we do a lot on Facebook. So all three of you who are not our Facebook "friends" yet...Mom, Pat, and Holly...not to mention names but get on it would you please:) So I took time in between all my Mommy chores today to upload about 85 million photos for your viewing pleasure:) Everything from pictures of the house, kids, animals, us, school stuff...and so on! The pictures of me alone are from a photo shoot I won through the challenge, it was weird to take pictures alone! The girl who took the pictures was part of the challenge too, her blog is cdyphotography.blogspot.com She is local and does a great job!!!
Here are a few highlights of the past couple months and what we are up to now:
*I won the challenge I was in:) It is weird to say because all the women that were in the challenge really were inspiring. Together we lost close to 350lbs and 23 feet off our bodies!!! My total loss was 27.5 lbs and 18.25 inches....and I am not stopping!
*Aaron got his teaching job! Yeah Aaron, his first solo class starts July 13.
*Taylor finished First Grade with an outstanding report card...she has finished Charlotte's Web and is now doing a summer reading program through the library and is reading Bridge to Terabithia (one of our favorite movies).
*TJ is talking more and more. He is a joy to be around. Most days I just pray I will have the energy to match his! The boy never stops!!
*We are settling more and more into our home and feel blessed that God opened this door for us!
*Aaron and I will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary the end of this month:) So excited!!! We have wrestled with what to do and I think have decided to have the kids stay with my parents for a few days while we enjoy being home alone:)
*The end of August Aaron is going on a two week international work trip, I am not looking forward to this AT ALL!!! I know he has to go so we just make the best of it but we miss him SO much when he is gone!!!
*That is all I can think to share for now...hope you enjoy all the pictures:) I had to make the house pictures separate because the maximum number of pictures is 50 on one slide show and I hit that!!!
Enjoy....and Happy 4th to you all!!!