It could have been worse...

I've been saying over and over in my mind (and out loud) that it could have been much worse.  We could have come home to no house at all, or been robbed, or come home a day later than we planned and that would have been even worse than what we did find when we arrived home on Sunday evening.

First of all, let me just say that my house had never been cleaner upon leaving for a family trip/vacation/weekend.  Every square inch had been vaccuumed and dusted.  All the toys had been put away and it was almost spotloss.  I was looking forward to coming home and only having to do laundry.

Think again.

We pulled into the driveway Sunday evening around 5:30 pm.  Trey always gets in the house first and I follow him a few minutes later with Lauren.  Well, as I was walking into the garage he was coming back down the stairs out of the kitchen with a look of complete shock on his face.  The first thing he said was, "We have a huge, huge problem."

Seriously, I thought we had been robbed.  And then he told me that water was everywhere.  I couldn't comprehend what he meant until I saw it upon entering the house through the kitchen door.

It's extremely hard to photograph water on a floor and get the full effect of how bad it was.  The entire kitchen (except for the breakfast area) and laundry room were flooded with water.  It was coming down the wall into the garage from the laundry room.

And then we turned the corner and saw that it was flooded into the dining room and the hard wood floor was doing a great job at soaking it up.  Thankfully it hadn't gotten to the rug in the dining room or to the table and chairs. 

The water did, however, soak into the living room carpet.  I'd say about 80% of the carpet was sopping wet and squishing water out when walked on.  We moved with lightning speed to get the (BRAND NEW) furniture off the (BRAND NEW) carpet.  I wanted to cry, but there wasn't time.

And we knew it could have been worse.  So we were thankful we got there when we did, but still.  It's no picnic to come home to something like that.  The water heater was the culprit.  At some point (Trey thinks it might have happened earlier on Sunday), the electric line to the water heater sparked, but THANK GOD did not catch on fire.  I guess at that point the water heater started leaking.  I don't really know all the techical details.  All I know is that the water heater busted and flooded the house.

ServPro showed up from Maumelle around 9:00 pm and began sucking the water out of every nook and cranny that they could.  I think they left around 11:00 pm.  We were told it would take 3 to 5 days to dry everything out.  They left us with about 16 air blowers and 4 dehumidifiers in the house.  It sounds like an airplane is about to take off from inside the house.  It's pretty unbearable to be downstairs right now, so we have been spending a lot more time upstairs.  Thank goodness that's an option!

So, today is Thursday and it's been 4 days.  The cleaning crew has been by everyday to check on the progress and it's slow.  They are bringing (it might be there by now) and industrial sized heater to try and dry the carpet out the rest of the way.  They told us to crank our heater up to about 80 degrees.  (I can't even imagine what our gas and electric bill are going to be...)

This is the living room as of this morning.  The big heater isn't in place yet, so I have no idea where it's sitting now.  I sure hope they get it all dried out soon and that it's not ruined.  I'm ready to have my house back to "normal" and stop living in a wind tunnel.

Christmas 2010

Well, it came and went very quickly.  It seems like time is going by much faster than it used to.  It's probably because I'm getting old. 

We had a fast, fun, and furious Christmas in Louisiana this year, although next year there might be some changes as to when we go down for Christmas.  I don't know that I will have the willingness to tote 2 children and 2 sets of Santa presents down there and back for Christmas morning.  So, we might have to re-visit our planning a little.  But this year it worked out fine and we were able to hide all the gifts from Lauren until Christmas morning.  She seemed a lot more into Santa Claus bringing her presents (although she still doesn't like him too much) this year.

The pictures tell most of the story so I'll try to keep the paragraphs to a minimum.

Christmas Eve was spent with my family.  We went to the Christmas Eve service and then came home and let the kids open up presents from family.  They loved it and wrapping paper was everywhere, but it was a ton of fun to watch them get so excited.

Christmas morning Lauren woke up early (7:00 am is early for her...) and the presents from Santa got opened and she was loving it!!!  It's so much fun to watch your kids excitment and anticipation.  She got lots of fun things, but I think one of her favorites was the Little Mermaid umbrella I slide into her stocking. 

(Nina's new nutcracker.  She has gotten one every year for a while now.  I think this one is number 13!)

I guess I didn't take another picture the rest of the day until we went to Papa and Mimi Steiners house that evening for Christmas supper.

Jason and Livy were there and I finally got a picture of them.

Gary and Patience were there too and I was able to bully Gary into smiling. 

We had a great time visiting and playing with pets at the Steiners.  Papa cooked a great meal and we were stuffed to the gills by the time it was over.

All in all Christmas 2010 was a success (until we returned home... )!

Friday makes number 9

UPDATED:

The surgery went great!  No huge blisters or welps this time and we were in and out of there in record time.  We checked in at 9:00 and by 11:30 we were walking out to the parking lot.  Thank you Lord!  Lauren did so good, only a few tears when she went with the nurse to the back.  I think next time we'll up her dosage of the goofy juice... it didn't seem to phase her this time.  She got a good snuggle and calmed down when she saw Daddy in the Recovery room.  We go back in 3 months, so it will be in March.

Friday, December 10th will be Lauren's 9th laser treatment at ACH.  We would love your prayers for her on that day.

Please pray for her doctors - the Vascular Anomalies doctor and the Anesthesiologist - and also the nurses that will be caring for her while we are there.

Pray specifically for the doctor to use the correct and most accurate laser setting for maximum effectiveness, but also the safest setting as well.  Please pray that they are able to see her birthmark clearly while they are using the laser and that they don't miss any portion of it.  Pray that she will not have any adverse reaction to the laser (last time we came home with a large bump on her head and were unsure if it was from the laser pulse or if she hit her head on the bed railing...)

Please pray that I will be able to keep her calm leading up to the procedure.  That everything will go smoothly during the procedure and also in the recovery room.

And pray that she will get an early surgery time so that she will be able to eat sooner, rather than later.

Things just get out of hand

I promise you I am NOT a scrooge!  I really am not... but sometimes I think that Christmas gets out of hand.  In a secular, materialistic, buying presents sort of way. 

This is going to make me sound like a Scrooge, but I'm going to write it anyway.

I really don't love to spend boatloads of cash in a matter of 30 days.  Trey will be shocked to read this, I'm sure.  But it's completely true!  I start making a list of people I'm going to buy things for and suddenly it starts to grow.  Every year it happens.  Really, we don't buy presents for every member of our immediate families and I couldn't be happier about that.  No one has a real NEED for anything, so we get together and have family meals and let the kids open presents on Christmas and I love it.  In my family I buy gifts for our child (soon to be children) and my sister's two kids.  We stopped buying gifts for each adult years ago and it makes life easier.  We have traditionally drawn names each year and bought one nice gift for our secret person, but this year we forgot to do it.  Once again, this does not bother me one bit.  Trey and I haven't exchanged presents for each other in years and that also makes things easier and less stressful.  After all, the holidays are meant to be enjoyed, not frantic.

Now, I love buying a thoughtful and nice gift for a loved one as much as the next person, but when all of my loved ones are blessed beyond measure I start to have a hard time with seeing the point of doing it.

I'm going to reiterate the fact that I am NOT a Scrooge!

Let me clarify.  I think that Christmas should be Christ centered.  I am trying to make Lauren understand why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.  Because the Christ-child was born!  Oh sure, Santa Claus is fun and whimsical, but it's not the focus and I never want her to think it is.  Yes, I want Lauren (and this new baby) to enjoy Christmas and all the fun things that go along with it, but I don't want Christ to get lost.
As far as gift-giving is concerned I sincerely LOVE watching the kids in our family open gifts at Christmas.  I love it!  It's the best thing about Christmas morning. 

But also, I love that this year our Sunday School class adopted a single mom and her 2 kids to help at Christmas.  I think we are going to be able to overwhelm her basic neccessities and Christmas gifts for her and her kids.  It brings me such happiness knowing that we are able and blessed to help her.  THAT is what Christmas is about.  Giving to those who are less fortunate (not that we shouldn't do that year round).  Not placing the focus on ourselves, but on others.  Showing the love of CHRIST at CHRISTmas.

So when I find my Christmas list of people to buy for growing and growing, it starts to make me wonder if I've lost my priorities in it all.  I start to think that maybe I'm buying gifts out of obligation?  I will always have the kids on my list to buy for and I enjoy doing that, but it's the little things that creep up on me each year that I tend to forget about until now.  Like teacher gifts, co-worker gifts, and boss gifts, etc.  These people are very important in my life, but do we really need to give each other gifts to let them know that?  Are we "gifting" to each other because we feel like we are supposed to do it?  I don't know... but in order not to be the Scrooge I gift-give with all of them.  I don't want anyone to feel unappreciated, so I give the gifts in hopes that the message is conveyed.

I'm not sure if that makes any sense at all.  I just wanted to think it through and get it all out on "paper".

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a quick and fast paced Thanksgiving this year!  It always seems that way.  I wish we could slow it down just a little bit.  But we had a great time with our families and can't wait to see them again at Christmas!

We arrived at Nina and Papa's house on Wednesday night and visited a little bit before it was time to go to bed.  Lauren was excited and READY to be there!  I think she started asking, "Are we there yet?" about 30 minutes into the 4 hour drive.  Then she fell asleep about 15 minutes before we pulled into the driveway.  Bless her heart (bless ALL our hearts, it was a long drive!)  :)

She was snuggling with Daddy on Thursday morning, waiting for her Aunt, Uncle, and cousins to show up and play!  She is a good little snuggler. 

Before it started raining we went outside and tried to get a Christmas card picture, but alas, I didn't like any one of them enough to make into a card.  So, this year, Lauren will get to be the star of the Christmas card.  It's her last year as the "only child", so I think she should get to be center stage.  Next year she'll have to share the spotlight with her little sister!

Here are some runner up family pictures:

The kids played some more outside after lunch.  I guess it didn't rain too hard because the grass was dry by the time we were finished eating!

More family pictures (somehow Nina didn't get her picture made with her girls... :(  )

(There is a whole series of pictures with this one... Jen was helping me get my hands situated!  They didn't want to cooperate at all.)

After lots of lunch and desserts and more pictures and playing, we headed over to Mimi and Papa's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was nice to be able to visit with Papa and get to see Trey's brothers.  His sister was not able to make it this year, but we are hoping to see her at Christmas time!

Papa fixed the entire meal himself!  It was great and we were so stuffed from the entire day of eating.

Lauren is learning to play guitar with Uncle Jason. 

I just realized that I don't have a picture of her with her Aunt Livy!  I will have to remedy that at Christmas.  And also I need to get a picture of Jason and Livy together.  They are a really cute couple, even if Jason robbed the cradle with her!  I don't know how she puts up with that beard though... I thought for SURE he was going to be playing Jesus in the Christmas musical at church or something with that thing.  Ha!

Sitting in the recliner with Papa... I think they were actually looking at a hunting magazine.  And Papa was eyeballing a new truck.  Lauren told him that he should buy that.  :)

We stayed with Mimi and Papa until Saturday afternoon then headed back home.  It was nice to have a full day at home before heading back to work this week.  We had a very good Thanksgiving and were very thankful for all our blessings!