Merry Christmas...from the plumber?

Apparently Santa Claus comes in many forms. And this year, he came dressed as middle-aged, slightly cranky, overweight plumber. If you haven't heard, we had the blessing of greeting our local plumber not one, not two, but three times in one week. Ah the joys of home-ownership! Apparently, anytime I would run a load in the washing machine, water would spill out on the floor. Hmmm. Was it coming from the ridiculously old washing machine, or the ridiculously old cast iron pipe in the floor? After many hours spent staring at the back of my washer to catch the water culprit in action (I swore someone was playing a trick on me to see how many times I would stare at the back of my washer) I determined it was coming from the pipe. Hooray for not having to buy a new washer! Boo, for having to call the plumber.


So the plumber comes the first time, fixes it and leaves. The next day, more water. He comes back, fixes it and leaves. And wouldn't you know, I get up the next morning and there's water on the floor in the laundry room again. Only this time it's coming from the drain on the floor where the dehumidifier drains into. It's clogged. Really? I had to call him again. Seriously, this must be a joke.


So he comes a third time. In the middle of augering (yes, that's a new word I'm quite familiar with now), he comes out and says to me, "hey, you think it would be okay if I give the little guy something?" I'm thinking "yeah, sure, if you've got a McDonald's toy in your truck you're dying to give away, you can give it to him." So he goes out to his truck and comes back in with, and I'm not kidding, a 3 ft long Nylint die-cast 18-wheeler. "Do you think he would like this?" the plumber said. My jaw was on the floor. I was like "Uh, he would love this! Are you sure?" "Yeah," he says, "wrap it up for Christmas. It's just been sitting in our truck taking up space and he looks like he would really like it."

So thank you to our plumber Santa. We're going to have one very happy little boy come December 25th. But please, don't ever come back to our house!

Things I'm loving about the new house

1. The windows - I love being able to see outside and get natural light just about anywhere. We went from having a total of 4 windows to 13 windows. Hooray for seeing outside!
2. A real washing machine - okay, so it might be harvest gold (circa 1983 according to the plumber - that story later) but it's a full washing machine. That means I can actually do more than 1 pair of pants at a time. Blissful!
3. Only 2 bathrooms - While one might think that going from 3 to 2 bathrooms is a down-grade, I contend that it only means less time cleaning bathrooms and that's a plus for me.
4. The office - there are so many things that are great about this room - let me count thy ways. First, my cell phone works in the office, which is a victory since I need my phone while encouraging the moms of the world one conference program at a time. Second, the abundance of overhead light. If you were ever at our old place, it was a very dim little office room. And last, my treadmill. It fits! After begrudgingly storing it away when Caleb was born because of lack of space, it's finally made an appearance again so I can use it....but will I, that is the question!
5. The bathtub - one doesn't think about these things when they buy their first house, but in the old place we had shower doors instead of a shower curtain. Giving a kiddo a bath with shower doors stinks. Hooray for movable shower curtains!
6. The garage - this one is a given, of course, but I can't recall how long it has been since I've had the luxury of getting in a semi-warm v. frozen with ice car in the winter. Heaven!
7. Neighbors - yeah, they can be good and bad, but we've had our share of bad (anyone remember Tina and her Tiny Tots?), so I'm ecstatic with normal neighbors (no pun intended). Plus, we had one of our neighbors offer to give us their wooden outdoor playset for free. How awesome was that?! Not so awesome to move (not that I know, it was more of a guy type job and it took about 10 of them), but awesome for us to get for free.
8. A yard - another given, but Caleb just loves it. He even has "his tree".

I'm sure I could find more, but that's all for now! When are you coming to visit me?

Happy 2nd Birthday, Caleb!

What an amazing little boy we think you are! Daddy and I are so proud of the little man you are becoming. You are our little red-headed spitfire that we love having in our lives. I can't imagine a day without you. You are quite the ham and love to get a good laugh out of everyone. Everyday that goes by you are learning so much, putting words together, discovering new things and becoming more independent. You love to play with cars, but more importantly with CARS - anything Lightning McQueen. You've discovered music and love to play "marchin' band" with the trumpet that Daddy made for you. You're also becoming quite good at playing hide 'n' seek (which may haunt us later).

We're excited to see what the upcoming year brings into your little life. We thank God for you and how he put all of the good from your Daddy and I into one little person. We love you!

Hello? Poison Control?

Yeah, that's right. I made our first call to Poison Control yesterday. I want you to know that I handled it with a very cool head, if I do say so myself. Here's how the morning went. We got up, had breakfast and then Caleb watched a little Dinosaur Train on PBS (it's educational, so it must be okay) while I hit the treadmill. We go upstairs afterward so I can take a quick shower. This has never been a problem...ever...until yesterday. I get out of the shower, go into my room and see Caleb holding my little bottle of eye drops. This isn't terribly uncommon, as he likes to pretend to put eye drops in (with the cap on, of course). However, I noticed that he had really done a number on chewing up the bottle this time. When I went to pick it up, it only had about 1/4 of what was originally in there left. I looked at him and said, "Buddy, did you drink some of this?" and he stopped for a moment, looked out to the side like he really had to ponder the question and said "umm....yeah!"
So needless to say, I called Poison Control. She assured me that it was probably a very small amount, but that the active ingredients have the potential to make him vomit. Yeah. So after getting instructions to give him 4 ounces of milk, I hung up and whipped out the sippy cup. I'm happy to report there has been nothing to clean up. Hooray!

The New House!

Okay, so without further ado....here's the new house. We're officially in and we can call it ours, so I feel okay about posting a few pictures (pics have previous owners stuff - hey, we're still living among boxes...how unimpressive would those pictures be?!). Unpacking has been slow as some cold/flu-type symptoms have taken vengance upon our family. However, we're getting there! Moving day went great thanks to the Crusaders Moving Company (i.e. practically every member of our church) and our families. We had beautiful weather - thank goodness! Can't wait for everyone to come and visit!

Officially Homeless

Well, we're officially homeless. We closed on our house last night. Everything went really well, and we're feeling rich for about 4 days. Then we get to take it all to our closing on Friday and cry a little on the inside when we have to hand over that check.
It's kind of weird not owning a house. To literally be floating around in home ownership land for 4 days. But the people who bought our house have graciously allowed us to stay in our current house until we move next weekend (rent free - hallelujah!!!), so it's not too bad!

If you must live among boxes.....

...you might as well build a fort!!