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Icy nightmare & thank you J & H

Posted on December 20, 2007 9:53 pm by TheAngelForever

The following picture was going to be my Wordless Wednesday. Unfortunately, a stomach bug that has been passed through everyone in our house finally hit me yesterday afternoon/evening. Here is the photo:

This is the side of our house. As you can see it is a HUGE mess thanks to recent storms. Since we bought our house we have had trouble with ice damns forming and at least two times backing up into the house. I now hear water dripping and am paranoid. The mess pictured above was a new spot that we had never had problems with in the past. The cause – leaving the AC unit in the window.Why did we leave said AC unit in? Well, because we have had a really hard time year in and year out getting that sucker back in to cool the room. We never figured it would be an issue.

The issues that caused the horror shown stem from something that occurred when we bought the house. One of JL’s coworkers removed a tile in our ceiling because it was bulging. Much to our dismay we had a leak in that section of the rubber roofing. That part of the roof had to be replaced. $1000 later it was done just in time for the new carpet to be installed. So for over three years we have left the hole in the ceiling with NO insulation. Can you see where this is going?

Yes, the lack of insulation, along with the heat escaping from the AC unit in the window gave the ice the perfect opportunity to have this occur. The AC unit itself allowed a wonderful spot for the obscene amount of ice to collect.

Tuesday evening JL went up to try to chip away at the ice and put some stuff up there to melt it. That did little or nothing. Here is all he was able to remove next to his hand as a size reference:

Fast forward to me pitching a FIT to dear hubby about this and fearing that the AC unit was going to fall and put a hole in our roof and land in a room below. I blew a gasket (I admit it). Luckily JL talked with our friend J. J had some ideas on what to do and said he would come over. So J and his wife (who I have grown up with) H came over last night. By the time they got here I was not feeling so well. I was in denial and thought I was feeling better. Thank goodness H came – she watched the boys while I tried to keep stomach contents in.

JL and J went upstairs so they could see what was going on. They brought up something to hack at the ice from the tiny crack in the window. Here are two views from the window upstairs:

The guys came downstairs and told us they were going up the ladder to see what else they could do. JL called soon after (via cell phone) to tell me there was good news and bad news. The good news – the ice was gone! The bad news – the AC cover came with it. JL and J came back in and were going to head to Home Depot for insulation and a tarp to put the AC on in the attic. I asked if they could use our old shower curtain instead. I really did not want them going since I was feeling worse again. They said they would. So they went upstairs and removed the AC, took away more ice and then came down.

At this point I was GREEN — I will spare you the details.

The end result is the following was removed from the house (here with some fresh snow on it) and the house as it is now:

So now you can see why I "love" this house so much (long story goes with that) and why I want to move to Florida.

A big thank you to J & H for being so wonderful and helping us with this. I seriously was going insane from worry about this ice formation on the outside of the house. Also sorry that you were exposed to whatever I had – the good news is 24 hours later I feel human again!

Oh and even our rose bush wants the spring to come . . . *sigh*

Categories:
friends house jl losing my mind photos sickness vent weather winter

Storm 1 over . . . storm 2 in progress

Posted on December 16, 2007 12:39 pm by TheAngelForever

The storm from Thursday has come and gone and dumped about 10 inches of snow here. My poor aching back still has not recovered. Why? Well, Thursday night JL was up sick hugging our toilet (they certainly were not friends – that’s for sure). This meant that I was the lucky winner of taking care of all 3 boys and digging us out. Tons of fun since we were not able to get the snow blower from my aunt and uncle fixed and here in time (note to self – get that DONE quickly).

Here are some pictures from the last storm Thursday night as it was at the worst. These were taken when JL was coming home. His commute home is normally a 30 minute drive in BAD traffic. Well, it took much longer than that. He finally arrived home about an hour and forty minutes after he put his car into drive. Even my poor mother had her fun. She typically goes 5-10 minutes to get home. It took her over 40 minutes to get out of the parking garage at work and an hour and a half total just to go partially across the city. There were NO plows out and it was miserable to say the least.

This is a photo of JL coming down out street at about 6:30 Thursday evening. Not the best photo, but it gives you the idea of how "lovely" the conditions were.

As you can see from this next photo it was coming down quickly and had gotten a lot deeper since I went out to shovel earlier.

And now a car going down the street on that "fun" evening:

Friday everyone stayed home. I did not want to dig out and take NHL to school and he was really tired. So we stayed home and I dug us all the way out.

Yesterday we went to get things for the house (FOOD) before the next storm hit over night and today. JL was feeling better so everyone went out. This is how it looked yesterday at about 10:30 (about the time I was freaking out over the ice damns forming again):

Last but not least my boys ready to brave the cold temperatures. The poor little guy didn’t know what to do. He was just happy that we were going to get him some "cushy" tissues for his poor bleeding nose.

So here I sit moo-ing the little guy who is refusing solids today while the other boys are digging us out of 5-6 inches of snow while the sleet and freezing rain continues to fall. More photos to come later. I am off to see the sledding NHL and price out a move to Florida so I can be warm near Mickey Mouse!!!

Categories:
jl jsl losing my mind my boys nhl photos sarcasm sick kid vent winter

Winter 2007-2008 unofficially begins

Posted on December 13, 2007 3:21 pm by TheAngelForever

Is it OVER yet?

How sad is it that I am saying this after only one ice storm and our first real snow event of the season? GAH!

This morning the snow began to fly just before 11:00. JSL was in his crib sleeping peacefully (thank you MOOricle) so I went out to my car to clean it off and move it up. The white nasty stuff was coming down quicker than I was able to get it off my van. *sigh* As I was out there flipping out about getting NHL at 1:00 my father called. He was going to suggest to pick him up NOW since he had heard the roads were already bad. This was just 30 minutes into the storm and about 1 inch on the road.

So I cleaned my car off, scooped up JSL and went to pick NHL. His teacher was really nice and brought him to meet me at the door so I did not have to take the sick monkey out of he car. Poor NHL did not have his boots and wiped out on the way into the house. This stuff is powdery and slick. We are home warm and safe and just have to wait for JL to get in later on. He has a nice size trek to get here. With any luck he will be out a little early to avoid the major mess.

They are saying that we may receive 4-8 inches this storm.

This one?

Yes, you read that right. We are getting an even larger storm coming Saturday night and all day Sunday. ICK! I am ready to pack it up and move to Florida to be closer to Disney World NOW!

Here is a photo of the white stuff as of 1:30 this afternoon.

And now here is one of the Chanukah decorations in the window:

Updated storm photos to follow later. Now I just hope we can stop the ice damns from forming on our roof and flooding the inside of the house.

Categories:
sahm vent winter

Kid medications pulled from market

Posted on October 11, 2007 5:01 pm by TheAngelForever

As I sit home with my 4 year old that is sick as a dog being treated with some over the counter medications and some prescription I am irritated with the news today. Several manufactures have decided to pull their infant and toddler products from the market (full list here). One of said items is a product that I use for NHL and it works wonders since I follow the directions and my child is above the age of 2.

It really bothers me that because of a bunch of stupid adults out there that 1) Don’t bother to read the directions, 2) Don’t follow said directions or 3) do not ask a pharmacist or doctor about the medications that those of us that do will have children that are going to have to suffer. It is sad I was just going to head out and get more of those Triaminic strips for NHL to have, but who knows they may already be off the shelves.

Personally I do not believe that this will solve the problem. My theory is these people that never read/followed directions or asked about the medications will simply take the adult or older children varieties and try to figure dosing on their own. *rolling eyes*

C’est Moi

Categories:
health awareness real world news recall vent

Eeeeeek . . . .

Posted on October 3, 2007 10:44 pm by TheAngelForever

For those of you that know me, picture me in the kitchen with JL. I was about to get some water and hear JL jump back and say "AHHH!"

Before I could think about what I was doing, I jumped up on the step stool and shouted "Eeeeeeeek!" I just knew what he had seen.

I scared JL and he then told me that he had seen a centipede, but it wasn’t on the floor like I assumed. The darn thing ran under the microwave on the counter. GRRRRRRR!!!!!

And I admit it, it took me a little while to get off the step stool. I immediately went to get shoes on. I am so sick of these huge centipedes. STAY IN THE BASEMENT!!!!

C’est Moi