SPLISH SPLASH I WAS TAKING A???????

Ok we knew that things were going to be tough, but I think that I have surpassed tough these last three days. Here is a quick update. Friday we signed papers and we spent the weekend, with my wonderful family, moving out of our old home. We worked until the wee morning hours of Saturday morning, most of Saturday, took time off to see the pathetic BYU game, came back worked until the wee hours of Sunday morning, and then worked all day Sunday. We finally got out at 11:30 Sunday night. Allen, my sweet husband, got on an airplane headed for Canada Monday morning for a week. My wonderful mother stayed until today, Wednesday, to help. She worked her tail off!!! Anyway, Monday night I decided to head to bed about 11:30 and walked downstairs, because that is where we are sleeping, and ran into a flooded basement. My mom and I investigated and discovered that the line was plugged and coming up through the toilet hole in the 1/2 bath, but nothing from the other toilet in the main bathroom downstairs. The water that came up was from the kitchen sink from the dishes that I had just finished doing. I called my Father-in-law and he came early the next morning to look at it. We had several conversations with Allen and the decision was made to call a plumber the plumber couldn't come until he next day at 4. They also wanted me to run a load of laundry to see if that line was connect and would back up, sure enough water again out of the half bath. A few hours later, my mom went into a back bedroom in the basement to start painting and was overwhelmed by a nice aroma. The back bathroom had also flooded, but this wasn't simply water, but was a nice think layer of raw sewage. I called the plumber back and said it was now an emergency I had raw sewage. The plumber came about 7, but didn't have the proper equipment to check the lines. So we sparingly used the bathroom and waited until this morning when he returned. He augered the line and found what looked to be a full container of baby wipes that had been in the line clogging it. He removed it and after a hefty bill, we now can bath and flush the toilet--oh and do the laundry to wash the yucky towels we used to clean up the water. It has been very emotional and to have Allen gone hasn't helped. I was standing on the back porch crying and yelling at him asking him what he wanted me to do, I was swimming in raw sewage. He was patient knowing that I had reached my end. Our living situation is less than desirable, but I hope this will change soon. We have had the first owners of the house come and tell us that they are so happy that we have their home and they know we will take care of it. Some positives, I have cable, Internet, power, natural gas, and my front lights work. My boys have been so patient and so good and it has been fun to watch them run around the back yard and climb the trees. My mother was a painting fool and painted so much so that we can put the carpet back in and move upstairs--hopefully this next week. My dear friends (Shirley and Margaret) have been so willing to help with anything and my co-workers have been so patient! Thanks to all who have helped over the last few days, physically, emotional, and spiritually. I do have some pictures of the move and how things look now, but I can't upload them until Allen sets up our other computer.

OUR NEW ADVENTURE....

It is official Allen and I have gone off the deep end!!!! The end of July we made an offer on a bankowned home around the corner from us. It is the childhood home of Allen's friend Steve. It had been bought by a gentlemen who flipped it and couldn't sell it. Because he knew he was going to lose the home, he sold everything he could out of the house to recoup his money. I mean everything, cabinets, counters, toilets, sinks, bathtubs, light switches, plugs, moldings, doors, everything basically gutted. Well the good news..... we won the bid on the home. So for the last 2 months, we have been trying to close on this house. We have hit every bump possible and then some. We have a closing scheduled for Friday and we are praying that nothing else comes up to cancel this one. With all of this fun, we have to now finish a house and fix a yard, we are also finding that we are going to have to redo sheetrock due to water damage, electrical due to poor and wrong wiring, rip out subfloors due to flooding...... so my blog is going to become my update and journal of our journey. I will try and keep it updated as we accomplish things. The photos attached now are of it in its "gutted" state. Some of the photos don't really give the magnitude of the task at hand. If you talk to our family members who have walked through it, they can back up that there is ALOT of work ahead,but we are hoping that the payoff of having a bigger home and a bigger yard for our boys will make it worth it! Pray for us!!!

AND SO IT BEGINS.........

"It's the most wonderful time of the year......." This is it! I LOVE fall, the smells, the sounds, the BYU games. AWWWWWW yes, beating OU, ranked #9 (hoepfully they can hang onto it and not peak too soon). On Saturday we had our annual flag raising ceremony and sang the fight song, yes me and my 2 boys, Allen was slightly embarassed, singing around the flag. Jayson got a BYU shirt from Sara for his birthday. He didn't like the feeling of the fabric on his skin so we put and orange, yes orange, NOT red shirt under it. He can say BYU Cougars and loves to sIng and is starting to catch on to the tune. Ohhhh my heart sings. Anyway, we had a great time on Satuday and hey I'm building memories...right??