Holiday Flood and a break in

This weekend Joe, Seth and his dad decided to go ice-fishing. It had been pretty warm here the past few days, so they went to Vernal. I had choir practice in the morning and then Makenna and Maddie and I decided to go to Sandy to visit Grandma Helen and Anna's kids. Anna and Cody had gone to Memory Grove for a Wedding luncheon and so Helen had her kids. When they got back from the luncheon, Anna said that someone had shattered her side window and stolen her purse from the car. It had everything in it, of course. Even her social security card and temple recommend etc... She was supposed to go the wedding later that afternoon, but couldn't. Well not an hour after Anna had her incident, I got a call from my mother telling me that a water pipe had broken at my house. I was in a panic. I was a half an hour away from home and Joe was out of town. I jumped in my car and while I was on the way, my dad called and told me that the storage room window had broken and there was about 2 inches of water throughout the entire basement. I was not a happy camper. Here I am 9 months pregnant and pretty emotional anyway, so it was not good news to get.

I have wonderful neighbors that showed up and turned off the water before my dad got there and were over with their shop vacs when I got home. They are seriously so great. I think I would have had a nervous breakdown if I had been all alone. There were toys, clothes and crap from hell to breakfast, and it was all swimming. It was so bewildering. Thats the best word to use to describe it. I just started picking up what I could and we were vacuuming up what we could. Lucky for me Anna had the 2 girls for me. Makenna would have had a heart attack seeing all her stuff wet. It was hard for me and it wasn't even my stuff.

I have been thinking for the past few days that I needed to get rental insurance because of that family in Orem that lost everything in a fire a few days ago. My agent was out of town and so I thought I would wait until Monday. Well isn't it always how it works? We get the idea and then when we need it the most, we don't have it? I have to say that we were really lucky. Most of the stuff was just toys and crap that weren't all that important. I am so grateful that it wasn't worse. It can always be worse. Thank you neighbors and family for all your help. The disaster cleanup crew is here now and that is good. Anna also has the kids for the night so that takes a ton of stress off my shoulders. All I can say is that I am glad that my dad has insurance. It would totally suck for him. He just finished remodeling the entire house. What a pain. His famous line is that if is worth doing, its worth doing twice. I guess thats what we have here...

All Tuckered Out

So as most of you know, those that read a few blog posts ago, we have been doing a wee bit of moving in the past year or so. My sister and her family moved about 1 month and a half before we did and we got to be major players in the move. WE helped with their move and then turned around and did our own. This gets better... My parents decided after 19 1/2 years that they needed to move to a smaller place where they take care of the yard for them etc... Then we find out that Mark (my brother) is going to be moving in to my parents home. The best part is that my mom had major back surgery 3 weeks before she was scheduled to move, so she couldn't do any boxing or lifting or really much helping. So lets just say that I got to be a major player in that move too. My sister from New York was here for 10 days visiting, and needless to say most of her vacation was boxing up crap. Mark and Kristen were tons of help too.

So I had my house only 3/4 unpacked and I am packing up their house. Then I got to help them move and then unpack. WE still have tons and tons to unpack but none of us are in any real hurry. I got to help with Mark's too but he had Kristen and her family to do lots of helping.

All I have to say is that moving is for the BIRDS. Not recommended if not necessary. Don't do it!! Take my advice and stay away from it. I am really glad that my brother and his family live so close to me now and my parents are only about 1/2 mile away from where they used to live. It is really great. The process, not so great. All I have to say is that I am sick and tired of moving and if I see another moving box anytime soon, I may lose it!!

Last week Joe went hunting up in the Vernal mountains and we decided to join him on the weekend. We had a great time. The kids love it up there and camping in a tent!

New House, New School Year, New School...

So as most of you know, we moved into a new house (in Orem) on the 15th of August. My parents bought my sisters old house and they wanted us to live in it. We were living in Lehi (renting) so it seemed like a good idea. Better to rent from your parents then someone else, right? I wasn't thrilled to have to move AGAIN, but it all worked out. It was just a few days before school started and a little bit crazy. We were seriously lucky to have anything to wear the first few days of school. Makenna and Maddie had to go to another new school (different ones at that) and I was kind of sad about that. This is the 3rd school in 3 years, but they seem to be doing pretty well. They both adjust really well, I guess. I wish I had some pictures of what the house looks like, but I have a dead battery on my camera. My dad remodeled the whole entire house, so it looks totally different. He is even building a salon in the basement for me to do HAIR. I am so thrilled. I have never had a place of my own to do hair. It will be so great. Anyone that wants to get their hair done, let me know.

We also found out that we are having a BOY baby due at the beginning of January. We are so excited!! Seth is 5 and so we are going to have to learn all the baby things again. Maddie and Seth call him baby Albert so I need some ideas on how we can convince them that Albert is just NOT a good name. They are so funny. I have been a major slacker with my blogging, but I will post pictures of the house soon.

I took the kids to Canada to visit my Grandparents the last week of July. It was so much fun getting to see the family and the kids had a great time. Here are a few pictures.

Princess Festival

Maddie got invited to a Princess Tea Party and I thought that's just what it was going to be. Little did I know that they have a princess festival and that's where we were going. All I know is that someone sponsored 25 of our girls with Down Syndrome to and have fun at the princess festival. Isn't that so neat? It was such a blast. There was a hunt to help the princesses and then a ball at the end. It was great. Maddie loved it. I will have to start saving up now to take her again next year. I took my niece Lizzy with me because she thinks that she is Cinderella. She was thrilled. Here are a few pictures of the fun day.

Seth's Broken Arm

Last night at the park (while Makenna was playing softball) Maddie ran away. We aren't just talking wandered, she really was gone. Joe and I were looking everywhere while Seth was playing on the toys and Makenna was playing softball. We finally found Maddie in the neighborhood on the other side of the baseball park, 30 minutes later, but it was really far away. She was really lost. I could kill her. Just as we found her, Seth fell a long way down from sone slider thingy and hurt his arm. I called my dad and he said that we should wait until morning so it wouldn't be an emergency, so we did. He cried and cried and finally fell asleep. We had his arm wrapped up and in a sling. What a sad little dude. We felt so bad. Then this morning we had his graduation and then had to go and watch Makenna do her end of the year dance thingy and so we waited until almost 2 o'clock to see grandpa. He sent us over to Orem Community hopital and found out that he had broken both the bones in his wrist. The poor little dude. He now has a blue cast and at least it doesn't hurt so bad. He is so sweet. I was so worried about finding Maddie that I neglected my boy. Actually it was the teenage girl that was helping him to play on that dangerous toy thingy that I should blame, right? Just teasing. It was an accident. I don't think that I can go back to the park with that rascal girl anymore. She is such trouble. It is so funny that most of the traumatic things that I post about all have a little bit to do with Maddie.