Time for being outside!

I signed in to write this and realized we haven't written a post in Old Films Reviewed, even though we have watched a couple. 'Doh. Maybe some other time.

So this morning I awoke to a knock at the door. You see, Alice and I got some sort of sneezy sniffly coughy bug over the weekend, and while its not terrible, we have been sleeping extra. So I threw on the first thing i saw and ran downstairs for the door.

It was our neighbor Steve. Steve's landscaping friend works with the Hy-Vee gardening people and they had some sod that was drying out and needed picked up today and installed today or tomorrow. I asked how much it was, and he said free, so lets do it, right? We don't say no to free. Even it involves some hard work.

So I told Daniel "no staying late at work, we were getting 30 rolls of sod." (I wasn't really sure how much that was, but considering we lost half of our grass seed in the heavy rains a couple of weeks ago, I figured we would get a good chunk of the yard covered.)

Daniel had a bad day at work, and we went out to get copious amounts of fried greasy fish, I mean Long John Silvers. It was slow moving, it literally took us 20 minutes from ordering the food to getting it, and when we got back none of the neighbors were around.

Then we got the message to call Steve, and we got a 5 minute warning to unload sod from the truck. So Alice finished off the greasy potatoes and we went and unloaded tons of sod. It was probably about 40 rolls, and it seemed like more than we would need when we were unloading it. Then we went and started levelling some of the lumpier parts of the yard, then inside and Alice took a bit of a nap (she hadn't got an afternoon nap, my bad).

Anyway, long story short, we rolled sod out until just before 9:30 which was pretty dang dark. I think I did a good job patching and staggering the sod, and if we keep watering like crazy, and finish the small area that still sod, we should have an awesome yard.

I gotta say, it was hard work, and I was glad it was only in the 70s. I am fine with manual labor, but my all natural deodorant is not.

So yeah, we stink, and are postponing going to bed and showering because we are a bit hyped up. Well, I am postponing because I don't want to bathe Alice. She made sure to get showered with dirt a few times and whats another 20 minutes.

So yeah. Come sunlight, I shall have to take pictures and post them. That means I have to charge some batteries. (By the way, the 11 year old next door thinks I am a hippie because I use rechargable batteries.) So I am off to be a dirty stinky hippie. Until I bathe, that is.

The Flood

Anyone in Northeast Kansas knows its been rainy lately. We have had inches upon inches of it and no sun since last week. I miss the sun. Its my friend.

The lack of sun wouldn't be so bad, if we didn't have solid clay as our soil (meaning the water doesn't sink in it sits on top once the ground is wet). Oh, and the ground will stay wet for a while because clay is really good at keeping the moisture there. Enough of the science lesson, back to the drama that is our house.

Our house has water issues. We had no idea it had water issues when we bought it. They said the neighbors had an above ground pool that broke and flooded the house. They did not say, if it rains more than a couple of inches you will have a flooded house. Obviously they didn't read the definition of 'sellers disclosure.'

Last year it was rainy in the spring, and we didn't realize our house was flooding until we smelled that horrible smell of wet carpet. And, of course, the smell doesn't happen immediately, the vile stench was noticed about 3 days after it had rained last. Um, yay.

Anyway, last spring (early June I believe) with the help of the local missionaries we dug a French drain 3 feet deep and about 20 feet long. We planted grass, and thought, all was well. It was well. You see, monsoon season is the spring. I mean, the rainy season.

Honestly, if Mother Nature hadn't of dumped 5 extra inches on us last month we would have been fine. Maybe its not 5 extra inches, but we are over 5" above average for the rain around here. I don't know if its accurate, but according to the local newspaper website, we have already had 8.43" of rain this month and the average to date amount is 3.66". I am guessing they are counting April or something because it didn't rain that much overnight. Or who knows, maybe it did, I mean I was asleep, so who knows.

Anyway, part of why we flooded is that the attached neighbor never cleans her gutters. Daniel went and cleaned them out yesterday with next-door Steve's help and sewer snake. You see, hand cleaning wasn't enough, and the broom handle wasn't enough. It took about 15-20 minutes of snaking from the top of the gutter as well as from the bottom to get water to flow down her side. They found a dove in her nest in Steve's attached neighbor's gutter. Daniel grabbed the eggs, but when he showed me they were cracked so he coundn't hatch them.

We are going to have a neighborhood meeting about cleaning gutters. All I gotta say is, you need to clean them! Last year the gutter attached to us was completely full and Daniel cleaned it out. He even found a tennis ball plugging the hole.

We also (impulse buy) got a sump pump. After opening it, we learned the details and it totally needs at least 2" of water and a hard surface to do any good. So, we are going to return that. I will go find a less hard core pump that won't need as much standing water sometime today. Maybe even a fountain pump that we can attach to some hosing. You know, sometime after Alice wakes up from her "why are we driving Daddy to work at 6:30am" nap. Its sort of like extended sleep really. Thank goodness I gave our couch and loveseat away. Now, I can move the living room into the dining room and have space to set up the room in there until we fix the water problem and clean the carpets. Who knew cleaning the carpets would be required so often? Oh, and the front water problem is on hold until the roof stops leaking. The part where Daniel patched it is holding great, but we have a leak in our bedroom, and Daniel thinks its from a cracked plastic casing for a vent tube. He noticed they were looking bad when he was up there last time. We just need a sunny day to warm the roof now, and wham bam thank you ma'am he can fix the roof. I have confidence in his ability.

Friday Night Date Night!

So the ward has started something freaking awesome in my opinion. The service committee got people to sign up to sit the kiddos while the parents can go out for an evening. Like from 6pm-10pm. As in, if we wanted to we could have gone to dinner somewhere nice, AND seen a movie.

So we looked to see what was going on in town. And I found out some odd info. Our movie theater doesn't post show times online. Now granted we probably wouldn't have actually gone, but I wanted to see whats in theaters. You know just in case there was some amazing movie that we would want to see. So that idea went out the window.

Daniel told me about "Get Downtown." You know musicians, shutting a street down. Promoting people to wander the 6 block strip that is our old style down town. We looked up the musician line up.

Um lets see there was a guy whose music was described as rock and roll that moved you below the belt. What the heck does that mean? Upon further investigation that means hard rock. I honestly don't get that at all.

The second guy is some amazing trombone/trumpet/something brass player. Sounds better than getting moved below my belt, but I don't know if it would really be enjoyable.

We also had a gift card for Chili's. Its the gift card I won by winning a chili cook off back in January. Yeah, we don't get out much. Partly cause Daniel is really not excited to eat at Chili's. He feels that most restaurants are rip offs and after looking up the menu online he didn't see anything he wanted. Even a little. So we are saving that for Christmas (which is in like 7 days people, so get pumped!).

Yeah we ate Wendy's. The justification? We never eat out, so even eating at Wendy's is a sort of big deal. Yeah for less than $5 we got dinner. Instead of getting dinner for free with the gift card. (Feel free to snot laugh here.)

Then we wandered around World Market followed by Hobby Lobby. FYI anyone that sews, or wants to sew, or knows people that sew: Hobby Lobby has McCalls patters for 99 cents right now! Considering most of their patterns are in the $15 range, this is a streal. I got a pattern to sew my own diaper bag. The free one from the hospital isn't cutting it. And I want a bigger one. One that will actually hold all the cloth diapering junk I have for the day of planes in T - 4 Days, followed by a second day a week later. And speaking of diapering stuff, there is someone stinky trying to climb into my lap.

Daniel has an interview

So there was a job posting at work and Daniel told me about it. I told him that he should apply. Not necessarily because he will get it, cause who knows, but from things he was told after his last application makes it sound like its good to get your name out there.

So after stressing some he got his resume updated and completed a dreaded cover letter.

He doesn't like cover letters. Its complicated. (those are his words)

And he has an interview Tuesday at 11am. Scary, scary!

Rachel and Jesse are coming to visit this weekend. Yay! We are gonna be kitchen-ing it up and cooking all morning. As in, we are gonna make lots of food you can pull from the freezer and skillet or microwave. I don't think skillet is ever a verb, but I used it that way.

The plan is: french toast sticks, burritos, roast, fajitas, um and I think maybe something else, but I can't be sure. I have a notebook all prepped with recipes as well as things I want taken care of before Saturday. That includes making a pile of tortillas. Homemade tortillas are Muy Bueno, plus if I make like 50 of them toward the end they might look all perfect. Maybe. Before they skillet themselves. (Thats twice, one more time and I have made that word mine...even though its not recognized by Miriam Webster or Wikipedia as you Panheads all know)

Um, so I am at a loss for what to write. Maybe I should just go get the clippers and cut Daniel's hair. Gotta look good for the panel of supervisors...you know so he can't hide behond his hair in shame. Face them with shame boy! Do it!

*Note* All referances for shameful facing are not going to be true! Hopefully. Unless its shamefacedness. Then totally.