Dear Max

Dear Max,
I owe you an apology. I took you in for a bath and a haircut and you came out looking like a poodle. I sense that you feel you look a little ridiculous and well, you are right. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

Love,
Mom


Dear Lady who cut Max's hair,
You owe me thirty bucks.

Thank you,
Jamie

Oh, Jake

Sometime last week Jake was playing at Garretts (shocking, I know). The kids have been putting together a very creative fort on the back of the Garrett's property. Late in the afternoon I got a call from Keri that Jake had stepped on a nail. I went over and brought him home and called the pediatrician. The nail had gone through his Crocs and into the arch of his foot. The doctor's office told me he ad just had his tetanus shot and to wash the wound with soap and water. Very uncharacteristic of himself, Jake allowed me to clean it really well and then he crawled from place to place the rest of the evening. I didn't give the incident another thought...until Sunday.

I walked out of the piano room just in time to see Jake thump Justin. I sent Jake to time out and Megan went instead. When I got the right child in the corner, noticed a straight red line, about two inches long headed out of the nail wound. I got on the phone with the pediatrician who told us to get to the ER, Jake had blood poisoning.

Thank heavens for Amber. She was on her way to stay with the other kids before I could even finish telling her the details. Since Jake was feeling just fine, he thought the trip into and visit to the ER was a party. The party ended though when he had to start taking medicine. Oh, how he hates medicine!

We followed up yesterday with the pediatrician and Jake is healing wonderfully and shouldn't have any other complications as long as he keeps his foot clean and takes that darn medicine! Any volunteers to come try and shoot it down his throat? I should warn you, he does vomit on the medicine giver from time to time.

Spring Break

The kids had all last week with no school. We really didn't do much, but on the last day of the break I decided we better do something fun. The whole family went to dinner at Applebees and then we took Annie, Emma, and Jake bowling. I feel incredibly guilty that I did not fill the week with fun Spring projects and other outings, but the kids seemed to enjoy the week nonetheless.

Pretty Eyes

Emma and Meg

We no longer own markers

Emma is making the most out of Spring Break

Both Justin and Megan love to get their grub while sitting ON TOP of the table.

Megan loves her books (even if they are upside down)

Patience is a Virtue

The closing song in family night this week was so cute that I had Annie grab the video and we tried to recreate the song. It did not go well, but we have been laughing so hard to listen and watch as Travis loses his patience at the beginning of the song. Look at the look on his face as he begins to sing those sacred words, "I am a Child of God"....

Polly Pocket Strikes Again

A couple weeks ago we had a toilet in the basement that wasn't working quite right. I called a plumber who after a little hard work and a fancy tool pulled out a polly pocket roof. All toilets and other vessels for sewage were working well, until Thursday. After the kids had fallen asleep and Travis had returned home from the church I went to the downstairs laundry to move some laundry from the washer to the dryer. I opened the door only to find about an inch of standing water on the floor. It was pouring out of the shower in that room. The basin of the shower was full to overflowing. I yelled for Travis and we opened the door to the other bathrooms. Everything with a drain was overflowing. We grabbed the shop vac and all the towels we owned and got to work. Having the strong hunch that we had a septic problem on our hands I called a 24 hour company. They said there was little or nothing we could do until morning.

The septic company came at first light as they had promised and immediately diagnosed our problem as a bad float in our sewage ejection pump. That's right folks. Apparently we have a tank that holds all our downstairs sewage. Then, when the tank is full the pump on the tank shoots the sewage out to our septic tank. All the stuff we had been vacuuming and mopping the night before? Sewage.

Immediately we were on the phone with a disaster clean up service. When they arrived I realized the gravity of our situation. They sent their whole office. As soon as the approval came from our insurance they went to work ridding our home of anything touched by the hazardous water. Just in case you are visualizing hazardous water, let me say that since the girls had just showered and I was working on laundry, the water was clear and blue but it had been in the holding tank which is used for well, other "things" and consequently had contaminated the water and everything the water touched.

By noon we had no carpet in the halls, two feet of sheet rock removed from the halls and bathrooms, the tile was in the process of being removed, and any toys, towels, or clothing touched by the water was photographed and bagged like evidence on Law and Order. Word also came that we needed to get a hotel room. They thought it would be best if we moved out for five or more days. The contaminated water was under our furnace and water heater and had therefore made its was into the ventilation system for the whole house.

So, I started to cry.

But, the tears weren't going to help, so it was onward and upward. Reservations were made, a baby shower scheduled at our home at noon Saturday was relocated, and word began to spread. As word spread, I realized why things like this happen. We felt so loved by everyone was willing to do anything to help. Keri didn't even care that we had a poop truck blocking her driveway just minutes before Kambell's birthday party! Septic pumping and a five year old tea party? Lovely combination.

Later in the day, the repair man arrived to fix the float in our sewage ejection pump. He had me come downstairs to hear how a healthy pump sounds. I looked in our pump room and there on the floor was a lime green polly pocket lounger. Before he could explain the ins and outs of a healthy pump, I had to know from where it had suddenly appeared. Out of the holding tank, and in the path of the float. Polly Pocket had struck again.



Over the weekend, the older kids cycled through Grandma and Grandpas. We weren't all together in the room until Sunday night. Thank you for rescuing us mom and dad! We were able to come home this afternoon and only had to spend two nights with all of us together in one room.

Annie passed the time with a little texting.

I passed the time by taking adorable pictures of the twins.

Justin and Megan had a terrible time sleeping without their cribs. Last night Justin crawled up and fell asleep on top of Emma.

This morning Emma woke up not feeling well. She has been complaining about her ears for a couple of days. She and Justin fell sound asleep on the drive to the pediatrician--Emma has double ear infections.



Ready to see the damage?

This is the hall leading to the laundry and half bath.

The laundry room

The hall to Jake and Emma's rooms, and the full bath

The girls bath.



They tell me in a month we'll never know this happened.

Thank you everyone for helping us through this. Angels!