Mr. Squeamie and the basement woes.

Well hey there, everyone! Another week, more drama. Well, not really drama, but you will see what I mean in a second.

First up in the news department, I got a black eye this week. I got it by opening the passenger side door of my van while Carter was throwing a massive fit. Unfortunately I was paying more attention to what was going on with Carter ( I was giving him a stern talking to) instead of what was going on with the door,  and I hit the corner of the door squarely into my eye.

Yes. Yes it did hurt. Yes. A lot.

The house is moving forward. Logan and I knocked out an old basement window and tried our hand at laying bricks. Guess what? We got mason blood running through us! Haha! Logan took the inside of the basement to clean up the mortar on the inside wall, Sami manned the mortar keeping it stirred and adding a little water here and there, and I figured out how to lay brick, somehow managing to get mortar everywhere. The most important thing though is that one window is bricked up. Yes!

Meanwhile, we are getting the basement knocked out. Trevor tackled the knock-down of all the ceiling and walls down there; and it was no easy task. There were TWO layers of drywall on the ceiling (because these people were just so so so dumb. They were dumb!).  I know it was hard, because that's what I was trying to knock down when "the accident with Logan" occured. The ceiling was riddled with years and years of mouse poop. It was THE. MOST. DISGUSTING. THING. I am not kidding. Ugh. One particular time, Trevor pulled a huge chunk of ceiling down and the dust and mouse poop was just so thick, some of it went into his mouth. He couldn't hold it together, and the vomit spewed forth. Trevor was out for a few minutes, but luckily when I say he "spewed," he made it into a trash can, so Sami and I cleaned it up and a few minutes later we were all back to work.

So now that brings me to my other news: We are still not able to drink our well water. Trevor hooked up a hose bib to the main water line in the house in town last week, and then I had it turned on for the very first time since we bought the house. It was exciting to have water there. We are filling up lots of jugs and whatever containers we have, and they just sit on our kitchen counter all week while we drink out of them. It's actually very annoying to brush your teeth out of a cup.

Oh yeah, and more news: We are flooding out here again. The river is overflowing, and since last night, it was about a half of a mile away from us. I'm hoping that we will be out of its path, since it would have to come up a slight hill. Only morning will tell what happened while we were sleeping. Yesterday the water traveled about a half mile overnight.

Man! I'm ready for a break now. I told ya, a lot of crazy drama out here.

What do you wish the redeemer with a HAMMER to the head

We have this family tradition to say this fun little ditty when giving someone a present.

"Heavy heavy hang-over thy hairy dome,
What do you wish the redeemer with a BUMP on the head".

And then you bump the person on the head with your present, and they wish something nice for you before opening the gift.

It's funny, but that is going through my head today as I type this story up. Maybe because it has to do with wacking people in the head.

In any event, here's the story:

This week the kids and I have been working at the house.

We started by cleaning up the basement in preparation for the hvac guy to come in and have a look. We cleaned up, and then started in on the drywall that is still down there.

Mistake #1: I didn't bring down a light, and we relied on what little window light we had on the other side of the basement.

Then I asked the kids to help me on the section of ceiling I was working on.

Mistake #2: Logan went upstairs and grabbed a stool (the kids were too short to reach the ceiling).

I continued to work on the ceiling; hacking and pulling small pieces down a little at a time.

Mistake # 3: Logan came back downstairs with the stool.

He stood behind me as I again swung the claw of the hammer towards the ceiling, but little did I know that he had walked in front of me to set the stool down. The hammer went up and I pulled with all my might. The hammer came down and suddenly there was a huge commotion.

Logan was on his knees in front of me, holding the back of his head. I didn't fully understand what had happened until he screamed that he had been hit.

I picked him up and brought him to the light at the bottom of the stairs.

Blood. Blood was everywhere.

Samantha was screaming hysterically.

I yelled for everyone to get in the car NOW.

I helped Logan up the stairs and brought him to the car, then ran back and locked the house and grabbed the keys.

We raced to the ER, all the while the girls screaming and crying that Logan was going to die.

We raced inside the ER. Logan was very brave. He kept apologizing to me. I kept telling him it was my fault, not his.

We were seen right away. The doctor was very kind. Logan freaked out when the doctor mentioned staples or stitches, so we opted for the super glue method.

The next day, Logan had to update his tetanus shot.

Since the accident,  I must admit, I'm kind of defeated.  I feel tired. I feel worn out. This house is exhausting and I'm tired of raising my family working on it.

Logan is doing well. His head hurts, obviously. He cannot handle anyone even so much as softly brushing by his hair. Everything at the back of his head hurts. He can't raise his eyebrows without it hurting. It just hurts.

My Dyebrick is coming. I'm super excited!!! I think I'm going to go dark on the house color. Something like this:

I guess it's not terribly dark. I love it whatever it is! By the way, Dyebrick is exactly what it sounds like: dye for your brick, or stone in our instance. I can't wait to say bye bye to our pink stone. Dyebrick is different than normal brick or stone products because it seeps into the stone and literally lasts for forever. It's from England, and you know they have a lot of old brick there. They use it in repairing old structures to dye the new brick to match the old. This is not a commercial by the way. I wish they were paying me or giving it to me for free. I've just done a lot of research, and this seems to be the answer.

A photo from Samantha's birthday. Forgot to add it to my last post. 

Howdy, all! Guess what we've been up to? Oh, just putting in electrical boxes and lights and dismantling the old electrical panel and demolishing a cast iron bathtub and cutting up old flooring panels and cleaning up. Oh yeah, and getting bids from plumbers and dealing with the power company and a super rad electrician.

It's finally warm. Finally. FINALLY!!!!

I couldn't stand it any longer.

Sami had a birthday on Saturday. It was a busy day. We worked at the house until sundown, and then came home and frantically made her birthday dinner of Cafe Rio. What is this obsession we have? I mean, it is just the most delicious food in the world!

Guys, Sami is 9 years old now. 9. NINE!!!

YIKERS.

I checked Logan's grades today, and I am in total amazement. That boy is getting straight A's. It is crazy that he could go from F's to A's. I'm never putting him back in school.

Carter tells me he still loves me when he gets in trouble. Isn't that the sweetest? That boy... He likes to kiss my dimple too. The girls went to a birthday party this weekend and made bracelets for their friend. Carter saw, and insisted that he needed to make a bracelet for his friend Carly from church. So he made her a bracelet with "all the colors. So it can go with anything." Hahaha!

Will isn't walking yet. We haven't pushed him to walk. We haven't done much of anything, because quite frankly we just don't have time. We are barely keeping our heads above water with everything going on here. It's alot. So I've learned to let go of the expectations I have held myself to in the past. I'm lucky to have a semi-clean house and laundry done and the kids bathed and fed.

Our water test came back dirty. Our water is infected with coliform. For now we are hauling water from a friend's house in town. We can bathe in our water, and that is about it. Do you know what a pain it is to not have running water to brush your teeth? All dishes have to be rinsed in bleach. It's just alot.

Everything is alot.

Trevor still likes the job at the new office. I believe the six month probation period is up this week or next. That will be good, because he can take some time off now to work on the plumbing at the house.

I'm anxious for the plumbing to be done, because once that is done I understand what comes next and can take it to the next step.

I didn't say anything about Phoebe. She is a funny girl. She's quite the opposite of Samantha. Kinda like Alysa and me, those two. I'm proud of what Phoebe can do when she puts her mind to it. She's quite determined and proud when she beats Samantha at anything. It's a challenge to not compare, yet I realize the importance of not doing it. I've got to find something different for those girls to do that will give them a feeling of importance and pride in themselves.

Momentum

We did it!!! We upgraded the electrical panel to 200 amps!!! Surprisingly we got an unexpected hole in the roof too. Our very first hole. Trevor was not happy,  but is there any other way they could have put it up? I think it looks nice.