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.

House things, and stuff.

I just bought a pretty blue enamel covered cast iron dutch oven. It is totally a splurge. But its pretty. You see, I found out that Pyrex baking dishes are 1.99 at World Kitchen (an online store based in PA) and I wanted some. If you are a new customer you get a 20% discount. Thats fine and well, but whats the fun in saving a dollar when you can save $13. So I got myself one of these bad boys. The discount meant I paid like 20 cents for shipping. I am ok with that.

My kitchen will be colored! Now I have a pink hello kitty toaster, pink orange green and yellow sun catcher resin squares on the french doors and now a blue dutch oven and amythest bakeware. I already have some clear glass bakeware, but yay for colors.

We also acquired some new to us, and for the fabulous price of 'from the curb' furniture last night. We got a shag maroon rug that actually is the right color to go in our living room, and a giant desk with a three shelf hutch and built in lamp and drawers. Sigh. The desk I have had forever had no drawers and was the main downfall of it. That and it was super deep. The neighbor's desk was wider, but half as deep. I just have to get everything off the bed in there and put things away. so It looks less disastrous.

Now we just need to find someone that knows roofing to help Daniel repair the roof before we end up with rotting and mold everywhere (not that we haven't experienced that before, just not in roof form). So if there is anyone in the vicinity that can be bribed to climb onto my roof and replace some shingles, let me know.

Things that I have Eaten, ramblings of a sick woman

Rebecca here. Daniel's account was logged in, and I am lazy enough to not sign into my own account. Is that slothful or what?

I only thought to write this when I went into the kitchen to find something to make for lunch and was reminded we have shrimp thawed. How do we have $4/lb shrimp thawed? Well, last night Daniel was looking for the hotdogs and didn't see any in the fridge. He pulled out the shrimp to get the hot dogs out, and didn't put the shrimp back. Of course the missing hot dogs were in the fridge, unopened because I had not been eating them because I had leftovers.

I also have determined I caught some strange foreign virus from 1st ward. No symptoms, just swollen lymph glands and excess sleeping. Even if you envy the fact that at 3:30 yesterday me and the baby passed out in bed...and woke up at 6...you can't envy the achy yucky feeling I have had. Or the fabulous red mark where I took off a couple of layers of Alice's face while removing a BandAid. That thing was impressively sticky. I think it was even the Walmart brand to boot. I yanked it last night, and you can still see a faint red mark today...over 12 hours later. *snicker* No wonder she wailed when it was removed.

Anyway back to things I have eaten. It shall be a day of reminicing and mild horror.

1. Hot Dogs and sour cream. Don't ask how I thought of this as a kid, but I would dip the hot dog in the sour cream. It is still good today, but I never have sour cream, so it never happens.
2. Hot Dog Burrito. This is probably the cheapest burrito you can make. OR at least the easiest. Microwave the hotdog, put in a tortilla, add lettuce and whatever else you have. Roll and eat. It sounds gross, but it is no worse than a hotdog on a bun. In fact it might be better since I don't eat it with ketchup.
3. Peanutbutter Sandwich Cookies. You know, the el cheapo store brand that has the strange flavors. PB is a good one. Alice also loves it, and since I am sure there isn't even peanut butter in it (well trace amounts maybe) she gets to snack on them as well.

Ok, I am stumped as to what else to add. Thats probably because I have some sort of lymp fighting fatigue. Or brain freeze. I think I eat horrible food when I don't feel well. Mostly because its easier. And even though I could easily saute some shrimp (and it is the food of gods), I would have to load the dishwasher, and wash the pans. And I have done that every day for the last week or so. Ok, maybe not everyday, but I don't feel like it, and its my choice to live in sloth, so there. Oh and I have to find out what sort of handwritten Thank You note is appropriate for a job interview. Cosmo says to do it, so Daniel is going to. Heh, heh, heh. Thats funny.

Things and Stuff

So yesterday I was sitting with Alice in the living room, and watching something and feeding her and I see this guy walking up the front walk. Huh, ok. So I think, I wonder what this is. He comes up and does NOT knock, but starts peering in the window. He looked in the dining room first, then started looking at the living room and saw me staring at him. He jump, startled, and walked quite quickly away.

I snickered.

But, it was strange. I think he was a guy that was working on the remodel next door, but I dunno. I was just glad that Alice was eating bread and not boobs.

Last night we had Schlectness. It was pretty enjoyable. The giant Ho turned out. I made a chocolate sauce and tried adding oil to make it harden. We ate the saucy ho before it was hard. It was chocolately delight. I also busted out the pink depression glass dishes. I was given a bunch from Daniel's grandmother and we have used them like twice in the last year. I also got a cute pink depression glass pitcher and 4 juice glasses. They are so tiny, its very cute. We used them as well. For milk. Cause milk should be drunk from tiny pink glasses.

Oh, and the poetry. Man the poetry was funny. We combined a poem by some old drunk guy (can't remember his name, sorry guys) with the back of a movie case. Best line: "DRUNK! I AM DRUNK!" "Check" Laughter, laughter. Yeah, and the baby went to bed at like midnight, which means I have free time! (Hence, the post, ja).

On a sad note, I cleaned out under the sink, and all the cabinets in bleach soaking joy yesterday. I also finished wasing all, all, ALL of the pots and pans under the cabinets. This morning Daniel saw freaking mouse poo under the sink. AGAIN! I JUST FREAKING CLEANED THAT! (i must yell because out loud yelling would wake my spawn.) The mouse traps were sitting under the sink, untriggered.

Tonight, we will be putting trim up. FOrget relief society hanging out with cookies. Forget choir. Daniel will be climbing inside the cabinets looking for holes. The trim will finish getting up (we had dome some potential hole covering, but no actual trim). The cabinets will get cleaned again and we will stop the freaking poo machine that is the mouse in our house. I am so freaking sick of him, I am Mormon swearing up a storm. I put thefood processor under there. I put all my clean pots and pans in that cabinet. I Just ate breakfast.

Don't get between a woman and her food. You will be crushed tiny little creature.

Alice rolled over cause she was mad

I left her on the floor until, plop she was on her back. Nice going little lady. Here is a video of her when I first put her on the floor...she was still happy. And there's no sound, my camera is ghetto like me. :-)

Yeah we hope she crawls by her 6 mo shots...that would be funny. To go from not rolling over to crawling in 2 months...Masterful!