November 22, 2008

Progress

Well, today was a day of progress.
Greg returned from his 3-day trip and I survived ok.
This morning, I left and went grocery shopping. Two friends (the two he went on that trip with actually) came over and helped him. They did copper pipe stuff and flux stuff. Then when they had to leave, another friend came over. They continued doing all the pipe things that needed to be done.
I took the kids to Torah club and after that was over, 4 of the guys in that group headed over to our house to help. Now the bathtub is sitting up ready to be put into place. It is very humbling to see friends helping us. These dads have 4 or 5 children each and the moms had to put them to bed tonight by themselves. It makes me very thankful to them all.
Now I'm wondering when this all worked out, how we might thank them....
I guess it would be a bad idea to give them all gift cards since I've been hearing about how all these business are folding after the holidays. I wonder what we can do????

November 15, 2008

so much going on

Things can sure pile up.
We finally got a guy to come and look at our shower and estimate a price to tile it for us. We went to buy the tile and materials for that. They are sitting out in my folk's Suburban right now.
Why do we have my folk's Suburban? Our van's transmission doesn't seem to be working right. We have been looking at getting a new vehicle that will hold our family. Why do we want a new one? Well, my sister in California is getting married and we need to get out there and see her. So, here's the price run-up so far: New tiling and materials about $1200 (give or take a few dollars); a new vehicle that sits at least 6 and has room for a 3 week trip to CA about $25,000 (give or take a few dollars); and a trip to CA and all that involves for 3 weeks about $4,000 (give or take a few dollars).
Well, then guess what just happens to happen to me? The faucet in the tub comes off. No big-gy, right? Well, Greg was going to fix it when he saw that the problem might be too big for the tools he has and so he called the plumber. The plumber said that the pipe is loose in the wall and we'll need to get back in there to fix it. He quoted us $1300. Nevermind the fact that we'll have to destroy the tub to get to it. So now we have to get a tub. Here's the great part: tub's are only about $399 (give or take a few dollars). That's the cheapest thing we'll have to get. All this has to be done right away though b/c the kids can't take a bath. We can't have our shower getting worked on now b/c then we'll not have anywhere to take a bath.
This is absolutely crazy. Oh, and Greg goes on a trip tomorrow night for 3 days. Lovely.

November 1, 2008


here are camo/invisible man, child bride, and the blond with a Brazilian stars.

our cute little giraffe last night at the fall party.
Yes, he was quite sticky :)