It has been an eventful couple of weeks.  Bill had not even been gone a few hours before things started to fall apart.  I mean that literally.  First, the side door.  The door frame is very old, 123 years old in a couple of weeks, the top hinge came out.  Sounds simple enough to fix.  It should be, except the door frame is secured to brick.  I can’t figure out how to fix it.  So, I locked up the door and put a big chair in front of it.  It is fine as long as no one tries to open it.  Next, the a/c unit in my bedroom, decides it is entirely too hot to continue to work.  So, it stopped working.  Next, the downstairs a/c decided that it only wanted to work occasionally.  Then the next morning, the fridge died. After much drama, a new fridge was to be delivered Wednesday.  It was.  It stopped working sometime Wednesday night.  More Drama and a replacement was to be delivered the following Wednesday.  Bill lost his mind.  After some more drama, they decided that they could in fact deliver a replacement on Sunday.  So, we went to stay with Bill’s parents.  The boys had a wonderful time.  We got to see Bill’s great Uncle which was very nice! The new fridge arrived Sunday, after the Driver got lost.  Apparently, whoever gave him directions neglected to let him know about all of the road closures due to the floods.  He was almost 2 hours late.  I did let him know that he would have to remove the front door and the doors to both of the refrigerators, because otherwise, they would not fit through the doorways.  He didn’t believe me for some reason.  So, when they were trying to get the broken fridge out, they gouged up my kitchen doorway and tore up the fridge.  They did remove the doors to the 2nd fridge and it fit just fine……go figure.  This fridge is working just fine.  There should be someone out to fix the doorway this week.  The last remaining a/c is doing the best it can and we are at least able to maintain a temperature of 80-87 degrees inside the house.  It does get cooler at night and it is better than nothing.  Bill will get replacement a/c units when he gets back to town.  At least the river has gone down a bit and now they are saying it should go down considerably by the end of August.  Which, in theory, would mean that Bill would be able to come home and stay.  We will see.  So, he will be gone for Evan’s Birthday and Aden’s first day of school.  He really wanted to take Aden for his first day.  He also wanted to take him to get enrolled, but, he will be gone then too.  It sucks.  I miss my husband, a lot.  We really haven’t been apart very often.  The only time was right after Aden was born and he was working on the house, but I got to see him every couple of days then.  This every two-week thing is getting old quickly!  I know, lots of people have it worse, but this is my blog so I can complain about whatever I want to:)   So, that is what I am doing!  Since there is no a/c upstairs and it is unbearably hot outside, the boys and I are confined to 2 rooms downstairs.  So far, no one has killed anyone, yet.  But, I think we may be getting close lol.   Not everything is going badly.  The roof is Officially Finished!!!!!! Bill received a wonderful thank you letter from the president of the company, thanking him for going ‘above and beyond’ and outstanding service, etc.  It even had a real signature.  Fancy Dancy.  The laundry is caught up, Mama cat didn’t die from the stress of going to stay with Bill’s folks and being surrounded by 4 dogs and the horribly annoying eye twitch I developed the day after Bill left, seems to be gone.  So I guess it isn’t all doom & gloom.  The fence not getting done doesn’t really seem like such a priority when it is too hot to even go outside:)  But if the river does go down and Bill gets to come home Early September, that will give him plenty of time to get it done.  The painting shouldn’t take that long, we have more brick than wood.  The only thing that may be time consuming will be the porch, which is all wood.  But, the old paint is pretty much all scraped off. I won’t even go into the insulation in the attic and finishing the back bathroom and laundry room.   There is just always so much to be done!  It will get done when it gets done, no sense worrying about things I can’t do anything about.  So, I will go and worry about what I am going to make for lunch:)

Happy Hump Day

Well, it is Wednesday….wooohoo.  I tried to get the yard cut yesterday morning and was only successful with getting the front done and about a 3 foot path up the side and through the back yard, before I ran out of gas & string.  Yeah, string, I had to use the wonderful weed whacker to cut the grass because some idiot stole our lawnmower a few weeks back.  Of course, they had to take it right before Bill had to leave, so it has not been replaced.  Anyway, it is a complete pain in the butt.  When I ran out of gas, I walked all the way back up to the porch, set the thing down and realized I couldn’t feel my arms lol.  It took about 1 1/2 hours just to do the front.  I figured I would wait till this morning to finish, that way I would have some time to regain use of my arms.  Feeling did come back after a couple of hours, but my arms are still sore 🙂  So, finishing up this morning, before Nana & Papa bring the boys back was the plan. However, my bestest Friend, EVER, Mother Nature, seems to think I should not get any yard work done.  It was raining when I got up.  I didn’t hear any thunder, so I was actually considering doing it in the rain.  Then the wind picked up again.  A few sprinkles is one thing.  40-50 mile winds are another.  Fine, I won’t do it.  We did get a bit a rain last night, and it looks like the rain and wind will continue for a couple of days.  Oh joy of joys.  Exactly what we need.  The river is up, the river is down, the river is up again.  North of us, it looked like they were getting pretty heavy rains last night and this morning.  More Rain in the forecast. Oh yay.   Mr. Bill, will get to return this weekend, and then go back north after a wonderful 31 hours home.  Then he will probably be gone a few weeks.  This is really starting to suck.  The roofer has been MIA for almost 2 weeks.  I would like to at least get the roof, completely finished before school starts.  There is just so much that we had planned on getting done this summer.  It is what it is.  Wishing won’t make it so, blah, blah, blah.  What I need is about 20 people to show up and help me build this fence, put in the rest of the insulation, rewire the laundry room and help me paint:)  I would be more than happy to provide beer and food 🙂  unfortunately,  I don’t know 20 people who would help and the ones I do know that might, don’t live anywhere near me. *sign*  All right, enough complaining, on to something else.  Damn, that’s all I have….hmmm, whatever, I am sure I will think of something later:)  Stay out of the water folks, there is all sorts of nasty in the river 😉

 

 

I Think I want a new Dryer!!!!

When we were remodeling the kitchen and getting all new appliances, of course, that week we had to get a new washer and dryer, because the old washer decided to shock me several times.  Maybe it was tired.  I abuse appliances.  I admit it.  My washer and dryer run every single day.  But, I have boys. Going without a washer and dryer, while we drove from store to store, for weeks searching for a deal,  wasn’t an option.   We really did not get much time to shop around and with the kitchen being remodeled, we had to get what available.  I did go ahead and get a decent pair, but they weren’t top of the line, they will wash and dry your clothes and buzz when it is done, but don’t expect much more than that.  My mother in law, always gets the top of the line appliances and I will admit, her washer and dryer are smarter than I am.  I wish that when we needed one, I would have hopped on the computer and found something like this dryer
I found online today.   How much simpler, things would have been.  We were already stressed out enough.  Simple is good.

After looking at this site, for a few minutes, I have decided that I can’t live with my little 2 dial dryer.  Oh, it has dial that will allow you to select energy saver, more or less dry and on and off.  The energy saver feature is really big with me!  But these new dryers, are amazing!  Most of them, at least on this site, have steam features!  If I had one with that, I wouldn’t have to wet a towel and throw it into the dryer to try and get out of ironing a shirt:)

I have found myself more and more drawn to price comparison sites.  But, I am pretty picky about the ones I will use.  I like sites that are easy to navigate. Sites that offer convenient shipping are important. Ethical companies that are involved in their communities and continue to strive to meet customer needs are hard to find, so when I find one, I just have to share 🙂

And yet, More water…..

I am not very good at uploading pictures or figuring out how to do many things that I am sure my computer is capable of doing.  I am also running out of words to use to describe what this flooding is doing to everyone.  Yeah, I know, everyone has problems.  I do occasionally watch the news.  And I really do feel for those people displaced by the fires. It has been quite a year so far for Mother Nature, and I am getting the impression, she is ticked.  Half of the state I live in, is suffering from drought, the other half is flooded.  I have seen some really great videos that people, more talented than me, have put together, that really seem to sum up the situation.         And here is another one.  I love the choice of music!   I have heard that there are families camped out across the river, on an old hwy, surrounded by water.  With no utilities and few supplies.  They didn’t have anywhere to go.   Bill will get to come home again this weekend.  But, he has to leave again.  To bad no one can whip up a pipeline real quick and get some of this water to people who need it.  We certainly do not.  Let’s just hope it doesn’t rain.

The Flooding Continues

So we are now in July and the flooding continues.  Bill should be home sometime today, but he will have to leave again, Saturday or Sunday, and this time, he isn’t going to Nebraska, he is going to Wisconsin.  Oh Joy.  Long story, but they need him there.  So, I will still be here, with the kids and the cats and the dog, who has become super protective in Bills absence.  Not that I am complaining, but she is going to great lengths to make sure she protects us.  Thursday, we needed to pick up a couple of things from the store.  It is only took us 22 minutes.  I don’t like shopping so, I go with a list, get in, get it, and leave.  Anyway, we were walking home and I see Animal control parked out front.  I could hear Sam crying.  I looked in the direction of the crying and this is what I saw.Yep, that is Sam on the ledge over the bay Window.  Pictures are courtesy of our amazing Animal Control Officer.  here are a few more.Anyway, she was trying to follow us and broke through a window.  I guess she didn’t truly comprehend how high she was and how small the ledge was.  I got her back in the house safely with only minor cuts and scratches.  The lesson here is, we can’t leave her alone.  This isn’t the first time she has gone through a window to follow us.  Last week, I took the boys to a play downtown and as we were walking back, she met us about a block from the playhouse.  I discovered then that my purse strap makes a very functionable leash in a pinch:)  So, what can we do with Super Dog?  I hate to crate her when we leave.  I think it is mean.  She has the run of the house.  But, now she is a danger to herself.  If she would have fallen and survived the fall, she would have broken bones at least.  With Bill being gone, the fence isn’t getting built.  Which would solve about 10 issues for me.  But, I can’t do it by myself.  The boys like to go in different directions when we are outside and they are too young to take your eyes off them even for a second, even if I were to leave them in the house.  I don’t even want to go into what kind of trouble Evan can get into in the house by himself.  The river seems to be holding steady for now, but it isn’t projected to make any significant drops anytime this summer, so Bill will have to keep traveling.  Now is one of those times, I really wish I had about 10 good male friends who would be willing to work for food & beer:)  several guys could get the fence built in no time at all.  I just don’t think I can afford to hire anyone.  I had it when remodeling projects get put on hold!  They are still working on the roof, just the little things but still……. It is what it is.  We will survive lol.  I also am worried for all the local people who have been put out of their homes.  I heard that there are several families that are camping out on the old hwy, because that was as far as they could get when the water came up so fast.  There are alot of people on this side of the river that need someplace to stay, it makes me wish I had room to put someone or that I could do something to help.  We did gather up some pots, pans, canned food and soaps to donate.  Just wish I could do more 🙂  So that is that for now.  Here is a picture of what the river looked like earlier this week.