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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

Snow, sleet, sledding, secret ingredient cookies & sleepy babies

Posted on December 17, 2007 12:15 am by TheAngelForever

Storm #2 of the not even officially winter season is heading out (I think). As of this morning we had 5-6 inches of snow and the ice kept on coming all day. Our plan was to stay home, watch movies, dig out, and bake cookies. Some of those were accomplished. We are partially out from under the snow and ice, we never had a chance to watch a movie (thanks to a certain little monkey), and we ate cookies that were delicious.

By mid-morning JL finally decided that it was time to head out into the snowy cold "fun" and took NHL with him to get out some energy. The poor kid was experiencing some serious cabin fever from being in the house since early Thursday afternoon. Here is Darth Daddy with his camera of course!

Now please note the dorky Abominable Cameraman taking a photo here while measuring the snow fall:

Finally it was time for NHL and JL to dig out at least the front area of the house:

After some time they finally made it further down the sidewalk to clean up more of the snow. Look at the little guy following his daddy – AWWWWW!

Digging, digging. . . . and yes more digging!

I went back inside to check on the little guy who was keeping warm. As you can see he was having a blast playing, but you can also see his poor little nose was very sore looking. He now cries when he sees a tissue coming toward him.

A little while later JL came in to get me for some photos. The boys had decided to take a break from cleaning up snow to play in it. Here is a mosaic of their sledding fun.

The smiles one both of their faces were just SO big!

Soon after this the boys came inside to get warm and eat lunch. We had lunch that NHL picked out – tomato soup with alphabet noodles in it. Mommy thought he might get a kick out of them and bought them. After this we noticed that NHL was getting tired. We knew he would not go to his bed. Instead we got him to snuggle up on the couch under a blanket. After fighting the nap we finally noticed that he was quiet and calm. Here is how I found the little guy. It still amazes me how kids can fall asleep in the most odd ways.

Meanwhile another little boy in the family was miserable. He refused to eat solid food, wanted to be held and could not sleep. He would settle, get into his crib and wake up crying within 20 minutes or so thanks to his poor nose. Here is how he greeted me after one of the mini-naps. The shine on his nose is vasoline to help the sore areas from constantly wiping all of the dripping.

While NHL was napping JL was ambitious and made some chocolate chip cookies using the recipe from Deceptively Delicious. The secret ingredient in these cookies are whole chickpeas. NHL woke up just in time for the first batch to come out of the oven. JL made one recipe which yielded 40 cookies (Seinfeld’s recipe says it will make 2 dozen – what size cookies does she make?). As you can see NHL approved and wanted more than the two that he was allowed. They truly were YUMMY and you never would know there was something like chickpeas inside.

Now both of the boys are in bed and the house is quiet. The 7 month old was a struggle since he was beyond overtired, congested (did the milk thing to help), and two teeth are really coming in. He also learned a lesson – you do NOT bite mommy when nursing and laugh. If you do that mommy will pass you to Daddy and say "No BOOB for you!"

Night-night for now since the morning will be here soon to finish digging out.

Categories:
food glorious food fun jl jsl nhl photos sick kid teething weather weekend winter yummy

NHL’s Chanukah Party 2007

Posted on December 13, 2007 8:13 pm by TheAngelForever

Yesterday was the rescheduled Chanukah party in NHL’s classroom. It had been on Monday, but thanks to the ice storm it was pushed off. When we arrived all of the kids were waiting for us at the circle area. We went over and they "lit the candles", said the blessing, and sang a few songs. After that the teacher explained that the kids would rotate around the centers will all of us. There were 5 total and we went to all of them.

Here are some photos of NHL from when I first arrived and one of JSL with his Chanukah bib on. The last photo at at the first center that we explored. This center was the pretend (dress-up/kitchen) area that also displayed all of the show-and-tell items for "H" day. NHL brought in his travel "Hungry Hungry Hippos" game.

Our next stop was the math center. Here they had a menorah set up to count candles.

Then we went to the fine motor center. Here they had dreidels to spin and play with. As you can see they had sheets to show the kids how to play. Please note NHL’s teacher took a photo of all of us and I had fun taking a picure of the dreidel whirling around.

Next we went to the hands-on center area where they had latke tasting for everyone. Here is NHL testing them out with some sour cream and apple sauce.

Then we went out to the hall where the motor center was set up. Here the kids had to sit and wait their turn. Then they got onto a scooter and pushed their body on their tummy down the hall. They had to get some Chanukah cards and bring them back to a sheet to make matches on and identify them. These are some photos of NHL doing this activity.

At this point it was already getting late. We barely had time at the block center on the rug. No photos of this, but I did take some of random Chanukah art that was in the hall and within the classroom.

Then it was time to have some brownies and get presents. The kids (and teachers) made the parents photo frames with their photos in them. The teachers also gave a bag of goodies to the kids. It was a very nice hour in the room and we were able to see how centers run, just with a LOT more people in the room. I was floored that almost every child had at least one parent/grandparent there.

With that I will share one more photo of my fun Chanukah socks. (Hey L this is just for you!)

Now it is time to get the big kid into bed. We already have at least 6.4 inches of snow outside and they claim a bigger storm coming Sunday. The bad news – our snow rake temporarily broke while JL was using it on the roof. He did the side that gets ice damns more, but the other side will be finished at a later time.

Categories:
fun holidays jsl nhl photos school weather

Weekend Review (10/12 – 10/14)

Posted on October 15, 2007 5:06 pm by TheAngelForever

What a difference a week makes. From temperatures in the 80’s where onesies are optimal, to weather barely making it to 60 for a high with sweaters and hats required. I missed feeling the change since I was cooped up in the house with NHL most of the week, but man did it hit hard when we went out this weekend.

Friday night NHL was going stir crazy from a week almost entirely in our house. We figured we would head out and about the next day. We tried to get both boys ready for bed early. Here is NHL trying to avoid PJ’s by playing with his little brother (all happy and warm in his froggy PJ’s).

He even tried to avoid bed by trying to kiss JSL over and over:

Of course JSL thought this was all hilarious:

Finally given no choice in the matter he started to put on his PJ’s.

The next morning we actually had to turn the heat on since it was FREEZING in the house. After it was on and we had breakfast the three boys thought it would be fun to romp around. ‘Tis my pile o’boys!

Pile o'boys!

Soon after this it was time to get dressed. JL went to get dressed while I went to find something for NHL. Check out the twins! Seriously we had no clue what the other was selecting.

Some friends stopped by early afternoon to talk. Once we were done we got the boys bundled up and went to the park. JSL had his sweater on, a blanket, and hat . . . we did not think the car seat cover was needed at that point since the sun was out. Here are some photos from the park (not too many were taken of NHL since he was always on the move.

Saturday we went out to dinner and then both boys crashed on the way home. NHL got up for his antibiotic, but practically begged to go right back to sleep.

Sunday we went out to breakfast with my father. Then we went to Target for some things and for Dad to get photos printed. Next we went to BJ’s to look at the cell phones there (we’re due for new ones). Got diapers and other "fun" stuff and dropped dad off and went home. After lunch we went to get NHL’s 4 year portraits at JC Penney – they came out great!!! Since it was SO cold we put JSL’s car seat cover on. Check him out in the car along with NHL in his cow (also note his shades they will show up again soon).

Before dinner was ready JSL was playing in his highchair. JL decided to put on NHL’s shades on him. This is the result:

Cool JSL and NHL

Later at night JL found a new program and made the following which is a nice way to end things.

Wanted Poster-JSL

C’est Moi

Categories:
jl jsl my boys nhl photos weather weekend

Another storm, tree down & even more flooding!

Posted on July 10, 2007 12:23 am by TheAngelForever

Tonight JL and I were taking the boys to my parents house to head out to do some packing. Well, as we went out the door it started to rain. We bolted to the car. BAD MOVE! We should have turned around and went back into the house. We got just to my parents just as the sky opened up. We sat in their driveway for a good 15 + minutes while it dumped water and hail on our car. The wind was SO bad that my van shook. UGH!

Finally we decided it didn’t look like it was going to lighten up and to slowly drive home. I couldn’t go up the block since a huge tree limb was in the middle of the road. Every way I went there were flooded roads and trees down. Well we made it to our block and saw our next door neighbor’s tree down. It barely missed her house. We pulled into our driveway and eventually bolted into the house. I nearly fell. My flip-flop got stuck in the mud and JSL nearly went flying in his carrier into mud along with me. Thank goodness JL came running to rescue the baby. We got into the house dried off, calmed NHL down, fed JSL and assess things. Of course our damn basement was flooded again. My father is giving me the name of a new person to contact with the city to complain to. I’m just sick of this crap.

Here are photos that JL took of the tree right next to our house that was clearly FRIED by lightning