landscape

Today was an absolutely busy day. Mike got a lot of the boys' room put back together. Just one panel of sheet rock is left, then George will come on Monday and tape it off and finish it. I'll post pictures later of that project, but our big project of the day was to get rid of the bushes and rock!

After trying for quite some time with the truck and chain, we knew that big bush wasn't coming out with some more power. We had already planned to go to the farm to get the skid loader to slope the land away from the house. I thought it was crazy how it would go up on two wheels!
It took 15 minutes to get that first bush out. Mike had to change positions several times with the loader. The kids thought it was really cool to watch.

Then he drove it over to the trailer and dumped it on there to take to the pit here in Volga.

Then the next one was ready to go. We didn't really want to get rid of them at first, but we knew we had to in order to dig under the window to actually fix the boys' room. Plus, the inspector and George told us we really needed to get more slope from the house.

Here's my hard worker coming back to the big root that was left behind.

Then we had to pick up all the rocks. Wow. That is such work! But that's where we had the kids come help. It took several hours to complete.

After the rock and plastic were out, Mike started pulling dirt out. He had to pull the dirt out first before we could bring it back in and level it.

He moved a lot of dirt. Our lawn is definitely a mess now. We'll have to put seed down.

This is not where we left off, but it's where I stopped taking pictures. The dirt is lower than the windows and is sloping away from the house more. We still have work to do tomorrow on it.

After everything was out, I decided I didn't want the rock back in there. We don't really have a plan for the landscaping in the front, yet. Tentatively, we plan to use the rock from the front in the back under the deck. That will be another project!

daymon

I've decided to rename Monday. I'm flipping the first 3 letters with the last 3 letters and calling it Daymon. Why? Well, Monday's are no fun and I don't like saying the word Monday. Today I decided to call it Daymon because today was evil and I think when you say Daymon fast it sounds like demon. Hence the change.

Today was definitely a Daymon.

I went to Walmart and got a key cut, took it back to work, tried to unlock the door with the new key and it didn't work. I went back to Walmart and got the key cut again, took it back to work, tried to unlock the door with the new key and it didn't work. Do you see a pattern? Well Walmart decided they weren't going to try again because they didn't see anything wrong with the key, even though the key wouldn't even go in the door. Walmart failed epically.

So I decide to go to Ace. I'm on the phone venting about my day because it wasn't going well anyhow and I was annoyed and stressed about the stupid key situation. I park at Ace and realize I don't have my purse. Seriously! So my boss tells me I can use a purchase order, thank goodness! But, get this! As I'm walking about 5 feet from the van, I find a $10 bill in the road! That made my Daymon much better. Plus, the key worked!

The rest of the day continued to go downhill. Mike's truck decided it was going to overheat (again), so it took him forever to get home. He had to keep stopping to try to get it to cool down. Then he spent the entire night fixing it, which we believe he did. I'm so glad he's mechanically inclined to do this stuff. It saves us big money in labor!!

Anyhow, Daymon is over and tomorrow is a new day, and hopefully better.....even though it is an 11 hour day for me....

beginning landscaping

What a busy day we had yesterday. If you didn't scroll down to my last post, you'll need to do that to see the boys' room and the progress we made in there. Well, the secret is, Mike made the progress in there, while I made progress outside. So we were both busy! Last summer towards the end, we decided we hated the 3 bushes that were in the corner, so we got rid of them, leaving the roots. Obviously we had to do something about that this summer, so hence, yesterday the kids and I went out and started picking up all the little rocks. And let me tell you, those small landscaping rocks take forever to pick up, plus there are pine needles mixed in, so we all got our share of pokes!

Finally able to rip the plastic up so I can start trying to dig out the roots. The plan is to bring the landscape around the house and put grass where those roots currently are.
We made a special trip to Lowe's (lifesaver) and got a tiling spade and a garden claw and started digging up the bottoms of the roots. Once we got a chunk uncovered, Mike came out and hooked up the chains to the truck and the roots and out they came.

Tada!
We're not sure what's happening here, but we want to take out the wood ties on this side of the house and possibly the trees, although we can't decide. They're kind of nice to have in the summer to offer a bit of privacy since that is our bedroom window, but yet they do scape against the house. The other problem here is the landscaping has settled next to the house, which could be the cause of some of our water problems in the boys' room. We'll start by building up the land next to the house and making it slope away. The front of the house will have to have the bushes taken out in order to do so. I wish landscaping was my forte, but it's not, so we'll see how it goes.
Lots was accomplished this weekend. The weather was gorgeous and we spent almost the entire days outside. I could live in spring weather year round. Not to hot, not to cold, just the way I like it.

boys' room progress

Quite a few weeks ago, Joseph went into his room to get something out of his dresser and his socks got soaked, which led us into some bigger issues with lots of water in their room. We attempted to clean things up, dry things out, and make a mess in our living room while we tried to figure out what our next step would be. Check out this post to see that day.

After talking to lots of people about what could be wrong and what the best way is to fix it, we became slightly overwhelmed and decided to contact a relative of mine, who owns Houtman Construction to guide is in a general direction, not to mention we have outside work that we want them to take care of.

So after George left our house yesterday, we knew we had our work cut out for us, except we thought it would be a bit simpler than how it turned out. We started by tearing out the baseboards and finding black mold. Not sure if it's actual black mold or just dirty mold or what, but either way, what we found wasn't good. We thought we could get away with cutting into the corner and seeing what the blocks look like.

The board that is along the entire bottom of the wall was rotten and literally crumbling in our hands.
Mike measured about 3 feet high and that's where he began cutting until he could cut the drywall out and pull out the styrofoam insulation.

The next portion showed the wooden boards rotten on the bottoms from soaking up the water over periods of time.

Lots of stinky, black crap covered the base of the floor. The blocks are damp. And all the boards are rotten on the back side.

Mike knew he had to keep going until he found the beginning of good wood, or the end of the rotten wood, so he kept cutting away more wall.

In the meantime, the carpet from their room hangs over our deck in hopes of saving it. George advised us not to throw out the carpet that many times letting it be out in the fresh air can get rid of the smell. Since we just laid that carpet down last summer, we thought it was worth a try. After the repairs are done in the room and we bring that carpet in, if it still stinks, we'll replace it at that point.

We also found hairline cracks running under the window in the grout. We're not sure if this is the partial cause of why there was so much water coming in or if there are other reasons. The landscaping outside settled in towards the window, so we'll have to tackle that next. The darker gray areas are where the blocks are damp and towards the left is where it finally dries out.

At this point, we had to remove the entire south wall and half of the west wall. And now we just wait for George to stop by and figure out if we can fix this from the inside or if we need to excavate on the outside. George had mentioned we could "paint" this stuff on from the inside which would lock out the moisture, so we're hoping that's what we can do, but until he sees this much, we wait.

We're really hoping this can be fixed from the inside, as we don't want to dig down outside.

love my lens

I love my new lens. Love it, love it. I have so much fun taking pictures. The backgrounds blur depending on where the subject is in the depth of field. I can make the background really blurry or just slightly blurry.

And the crispness of the photos amazes me. I have many more pictures to share, but those will go with other posts soon.

hearing eval

Updated:
Jayden did great for his hearing check. It's amazing how they can do things even when a child isn't completely cooperative. They did several tests. They watch his reactions to things and that's how they can tell how well he is hearing. The bell tone headphones he should have wore, he could hear the beeping through it. Then they hid it behind my back and moved it around.

The other test was done with the tester in one room and Jayden and I in the original booth. There were boxes with animals in each corner of the room. The tester had the room set up so it was like we were wearing headphones, but we weren't. Then he asked Jayden to point to the pig, to the monkey, and to the bear, except he changed the decibel levels.

I'm happy to say that Jayden did well. They reported his hearing is good. I will receive a formal type up report in a week or so. I'm just glad things went well and we got good news for once!

Original:

Jayden will be having a hearing evaluation done by an audiologist at the South Dakota School for the Deaf this afternoon. It was supposed to be done in February, but had to be cancelled by them and rescheduled. So today we will hopefully get an answer as to how well he hears. I will update later.

wordless wednesday with water

a tween

This girl is a tween. Have you ever wondered why they call it a tween? Well according to Wiki, it's the ages between 10-14, or the tween stage before becoming a teen. Ok, I added that last part. It's also a stage where the said tween begins to exhibit huge independence if they hadn't already shown signs of that earlier. They may also be more lippy, mouth back, voice their opinion, scream, shout, and demand things.

But during this tween stage, they can be caring and motherly, looking out for younger siblings, and also trying to do good in order to gain things. Or maybe it's the privileges they are trying to gain back that were taken away during said independence stage. Aw, heck, who am I kidding. I can't keep track of this tween from one minute to the next.
But I can tell you this much. I love her. She's my first born. She's a big sister. She's an auntie, a good grade getter, a volleyball player, a sporty softball teammate, and my oldest daughter. And she's pretty special, even in this tween stage.

dams and water play

I love this weather that has finally blessed us. The kids are outside running, playing, throwing balls, taking the dog for a walk, riding bikes, and playing in the water. Every spring, I think the kids find something to do with the water. Last year it was rolling a ball through it and today it is building dams with rocks and using natural items from trees as boats, that really did float.

Littlest Pet Shop toys were found among the water, rocks and dams. People out walking their dogs and pushing their kids all commented on how neat it looked and what fun it must be. We also took our share of taking fun photographs with silly faces. I'm sure I'll post those this week.
For now, I have to say, I love spring. I love having the kids outside screaming and playing instead of fighting inside. It brings such happiness to see them using the outdoors for fun. And of course, it helps keep my sanity level in tact.

this boy

Have I mentioned lately how much joy this boy brings to my life? Have I mentioned what kind of miracle he is to me? I look at him so many times each day and thank God for his life.

This boy has the most contagious laugh that makes my heart warm. This boy has a love for the outdoors, cars, airplanes, trains, and water.
I love this boy beyond the justice of any words.

good bye

Good bye Stewie poop that has accrued through the winter.

Good bye Humpty Dumpty Snowman, now that we found you under 2 1/2 feet of snow.

It's time for you to get washed down, deflated, and put away for 8-9 months.

it just sucks

The bedroom in the basement has water again. Not as much as before. The smell is still there. The carpet is ruined. And we don't have answers. We tried contacting insurance, but I guess we can't use that because we don't have flood insurance. Who would have thought having a little bit of water in one room that comes in from the wall would need flood insurance. I mean the sump hole is dry. Ugh. So I guess we're on our own to get it fixed.

Some guys at work said we need to cut the drywall out and bleach the wall and floor, but that's after we dig down at least 42 inches to fix the wall. They said since the house was built in 1977 it was probably tarred and after this much time, it could be shot, or something like that.

All I know is my basement is in shambles, my boys don't have a bedroom. Their furniture is all over the living room. It just sucks. I'm sure it could be worse, but right now, I have 5 kids on antibiotics and a stinky, wet basement, and honestly...it just sucks.

bedroom and garage day

We are still working on the boys' room, but have made huge progress, although we might have a set back coming up. The room is now dry, which is great. But the smell that I call "cat piss" and that my husband calls "mildew" has become quite apparent since the water came in. It's the same smell we had when we bought the house and had the carpets shampooed. And at that point, the smell was so awful (in that one room) that we recarpeted it. Now the new carpet smells that way. I febreezed the heck out of the carpet, so we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Today we tackled the garage and made a huge improvement in the organization of it and purged tons of garbage. I'm sure the garbage collectors in town are not going to be impressed by our pile in April when we can start setting our junk out again! That's the one thing I love about living in Volga. The first Tuesday of every month is considered spring clean up. So it's not just once a year, but every month, except Dec-March. Anyhow, we've got a driveway full of stuff that will be piled out there.

I imagine I will have to work on cleaning my house tomorrow, which I hate doing. Having six kids, the house never seems clean. I'm not a clean freak so to speak, but I do like my house to look decent! I guess I'll see how that works tomorrow.

water in the basement

I never thought I would come home to water in the basement. I had a phone call to warn me, but it happened. Water has come into the boys' room and soaked it. Mike pulled all the furniture out of the room and then I started sucking water out. Next up was shampooing the carpet. And finally pulling the carpet up to attempt to dry the floor and carpet.

The floor is a slimy, wet mess. Right now we're blowing a fan at the corner to try to dry the water as it still comes in. We can't see it coming in, but we know it still will as the ground is saturated in that corner from the drain outside. We've also got the dehumidifier going in hopes to help dry things out. Everything is a mess.
Of course all the stuff that was in the bedroom had to go out of the bedroom. So the living room downstairs is full of crap. This is not the first time we've had problems in this bedroom. We're probably going to be forced to look for a permanent fix soon.

To top it off, Shaylee has bronchitis and a very red throat. I need a break. A big break. Housework is hard enough to keep up on when things are "normal" and now the normalcy is gone.

one more birthday celebration

One last celebration for the 3 year old.

Except he really didn't know it was a party.
Or that people were there to see him.

Instead, it was a "get together" with cake and ice cream.

And no singing, no candles, no making a big deal out of it.

Just family over enjoying some time together.

Because Jayden hated his last party two weeks ago.

Which is why we made it short, sweet, and fun, just how Jayden would and did like it.

Pizza Ranch review: Part 2

After having a previous few thoughts on our local Pizza Ranch, after today, I had some more thoughts which I vocalized to the owner. At least this time it wasn't so much about things happening to me, per say, but to the entire experience. Are you ready for this?

My husband and I went out to eat today for lunch. We really like the salad bar, so we were excited. Thankfully, we didn't have any issues with that. In fact, my husband was quite excited to see they had cottage cheese on the salad bar. He eats cottage cheese on his salad. I think he's strange for that, but that's not what this is about.

I watched two small girls who were probably about 6 years old wander through the restaurant and up to the buffet many times helping themselves to food. I wasn't paying attention to what they were getting until I seen the one little girl bring a plate back that was heaping full of chicken. There had to be at least 6 big pieces of chicken on her plate. And she was sure excited to show her mom. I joked that she must be eating the skin only and not the meat. So we started paying attention to the empty plates coming out, except nothing out of the ordinary was noted.

That was until my husband says, "she has chicken on her plate" as he carefully told me the mom was coming out of the back room with several pieces of chicken. So I watched her. She walked right up to the buffet and dumped the chicken back into the tub of chicken. I was appalled! I think I had a thousand thoughts going through my head. What do I do? Should I tell someone? Should I talk to her?

I decided to go tell the people in the kitchen. I first explained my story to a kitchen helper, who then had me tell my story to the owner. She was appalled. I explained several times the story, how the little girl kept getting chicken and then the mom brought chicken back up to the buffet 10 minutes later and dumped it back in. The owner immediately told the kitchen helper to pull the chicken and make new. The tub of chicken was heaping full and it was 11:50am....just in time for the lunch rush.

Then the owner decides she's going to go talk to this lady and walks back there. I proceed through the buffet. Soon the owner comes back and tells me she talked to her and thanks me (again) for making her aware of what happened. I asked her what the lady said. The owner then tells me what she said. "I thought it was ok to do that!" So the owner tells her it's never ok to take food onto your plate, back to your table and return it to the buffet. Wow.

I was speechless. And I couldn't make eye contact with the lady again. I was floored. It could have been someone injecting drugs into it or something and then returning it to the buffet. It actually can bring many scary thoughts into my head.

endings and beginnings

Today was the last day I drove to Madison. It was also the last time I drove home from Madison. At least in my personal vehicle, for work that is. Who knows, maybe someday I'll travel to Madison "just because". Nah, I doubt it.

For the last 1 1/2 years I have called Madison my home away from home. My place to earn a living, to pay the bills, and to have a job. But as today, I no longer travel to Madison. It was a bitter sweet ending. Saying good bye to families the last couple of weeks was hard, plus not being able to say good bye to families for various reasons left a feeling of no closure. But...

knowing I was coming to Brookings to work was a whole new beginning, something I have longed for since the day I was hired. I took the job in Madison in hopes that it would get me to Brookings at some point. Kind of like putting my foot in the door.

And here I am. I can now take my kids to daycare, pick them up, go out to lunch with my husband or friends, run errands on my breaks, plus just be home. I mean Brookings is my home. It's where I was born and raised. So it's great to be home.

So here's to bitter sweet endings and refreshing new beginnings.

Wal-Mart

My quick trip to Wal-Mart tonight was nothing short of frustrating. All I needed was cat litter. One simple item. I parked at the garden center doors, ran in...well walked in...grabbed my cart, picked up the litter and returned to see 5 people in line, a CSM helping the cashier (the only cashier) and a quick 4 people behind me. Wow. The front of the store never gets lines like that.

I refused to walk all the way to the front. I parked over there, went in over there, for the very reason I did not want to go to the front of the store. So I waited. And tweeted a few.

Then I seen it. A customer was using WIC, which was why the CSM was there. By the way, CSM is Customer Service Manager. I know this because I used to be one. Anyhow. It's very rare for WIC to go through garden center. WIC takes longer because it's separate transactions.

The CSM scurries away and we all wait while the cashier slowly takes the WIC order. Not that it was her fault. She rarely does WIC, so she has a valid reason to be slow. I wait and wait. Then I see the CSM scurrying back with infant cereal. Yep, she had gone all the way from one corner of the store to the other end of the store to get the "correct" items for the customer's WIC order.

I was frustrated. I can imagine the CSM's level of frustration or anger. Wow. Finally, like 10 minutes later or an hour or however long it was, another lovely cashier showed up and said she would have been there sooner, but she had to catch a fish.

Ugh. Remind me to never go to garden center at Wal-Mart when I want to make a quick trip into the store. I got my cat litter and left.