I AM BACK!!!!!!!!!!

OH MY....what a summer this has been....and the beginning of school has been a whirlwind!!!!



To catch you up on the house....well, it's still a mess! The insurance company sent out a plumbing specialist to check for leaks under the foundation. He found one, so then they sent out a structural engineer about 3 weeks later and yesterday, 6 weeks later the insurance company finally calls and tells us that they are not covering a thing and giving us some vague reasons as to why. PLEASE pray for us as we research the best thing to do next. We have talked to a lawyer and will be meeting more with him in the next couple of weeks.

I have been SO busy at work. Two days before school started back I was called into the office of the director of Special Ed. Shw offered me a position at one of the high schools starting a unit for Autistic students. As much as I hated to leave the people I was working with, I jumped on the opportunity pretty quick. This is one group in special ed. that I love working with and I had been wanting to move to the high school level. However, there have been some set backs and many frustrating days since then.

I was suppose to have a week to set up the room. But because there was so much to be done to the room, I didn't get into the room until FRIDAY of that week! THEN our dear friend Gustave showed up and we were made to evacuate. The students showed up last Thursday! The work I had done setting up the furniture and cleaning on Friday, was destroyed by the men from the Coast Guard that used our school. When we walked in on that Thursday morning, we had to reorganize everything all over!

I still only have one computer in the room and it is not the one that I will be allowed to keep, but at least it is one! The aides that were hired for the room are precious. They will help in any way asked. I think they might be a bit bored right now since there is NO curriculum as of this moment. We have watched a few movies and done some academics here and there, but not much.

I am just glad to be back online! Finally! I look forward to getting caught up with everyone. I will still post, but probably not near as much as before. At least for now anyway!

Please remember me in your prayers!

Angie

Quick Update

I don't have but a few seconds, but I wanted to let you all know that the insurance company sent out a construction company to check on everything and they found that there are busted pipes under the foundation that is causing our problems.

WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that doesn't sound good to many and you may be thinking that is MORE money....but for us, the insurance company will cover the pipes AND since the pipes are causing the foundation issue, they will cover the foundation repair too!!! Now we just have to work out all the other stuff as well....like, all the CRACKS in the walls and resetting the kid bathtub!

The damage is actually getting worse as the days go by, so just pray that the insurance company gets on a roll and gets things moving FAST! I don't know if you have ever been to one of those "Magnetic or Tilting Houses" but that is what my son's room and the kids bathroom is starting to feel like. As soon as you walk in you can automatically tell that the room is off kilter!

PRAY they move fast!

My Summer Thus Far (part 2)

I know that these posts are a little out of order for you, but if you haven't read part one, then skip below to the post directly under this one and read it first.

Let's see.....I left off with "Personally, I am about to have a nervous breakdown. Then my phone rings......."

Well, my phone rang and it was Carlton on the other end....

C - "Is this not a house key on your spare set?"
M - "It is suppose to be....WHY?"(Hysteria is about to set in....)
C - "It is NOT working!"
M - "Did you lock all the doors?"
C - "YES, I locked all the doors. Then you called and I was going back in and this key does not work!"
M - "NO WAY!!" (other mothers around saying..."it's going to be okay!")
C - "How much time do I have?"
M - "Well, they are still playing all the pre-show music. Then they have production, and one woman sings before the girls go on."
C - "HOW MUCH TIME!!"
M - "About 20 minutes!!!"
C - "I am breaking the window then! BYE!"

Me....I hung up the phone and looked at those other mothers and said..."He's BREAKING a window! Oh my gosh....he is going to be so mad!"

Rachel looked at me and said, "You okay Mommy?"
Immediately my whole demeanor changed and I looked right at her and told her that Mommy was okay, and everything would be just fine. Then she skipped off to play with the girls!

About 3 minutes later Carlton calls and says...."How much time??" I told him that Dorthy was just meeting up with the Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Lion (as if you couldn't guess, production was a mini version of the Wizzard of Oz) then I told him he had about 15 minutes MAX. To which he replied...."I just broke a double paned window....I BETTER make it on time for her to dance!"

Panic sat in once again for I knew that he had our son in the car and was breaking ALL kinds of traffic laws on the way. I told him to call me once he got to the street the theater was on and I would run out and get the costume. SO when he called, I ran, and ran, and ran....then I ran back in, got to Rachel and one of the other mothers had already unbuttoned her cover up. The woman was singing her song, we slipped Rachel in her costume, snapped the back, the girls walked backstage, I met Carlton and Timothy in the hall, we stepped in the theater and the Baby Ballet class walked out on stage!

NOW tell me he doesn't love his daughter and wouldn't do anything for her! That is one incredible man I have. However, he then had to listen to a million questions from Timothy who was trying to figure out why he was driving like a maniac....because you see, we live at least 15 minutes from the theater!

Whew......what a night!!!!

Well, $234.64 and one week later, the glass has been fixed!

Now for another part of our summer.....let's see....oh yeah, we finally got a fence put up around the back yard. Now the kids will be wanting another dog. They have wanted one for some time now, but we have put it off because our last one, Pongo, a Dalmatian, was an indoor dog....but....we have decided that we don't want another indoor canine in the family, so we have been telling the kids that we needed a fence first. (I'll let you know when the dog comes!)

And now for the best part of all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rachel was in her room the other night and yelled...."Mommy, come look at my crack!" Did your eyes just get big and your jaw drop to the floor?? Because when I heard those words, mine did! As I got up and walked to her room I thought, "We have NEVER called it that, where is that coming from!" When I walked in, she pointed to the wall above her bathroom door and said, "See it, up there!" And sure enough there was a crack in the sheet rock that was about 2 1/2 feet long from the corner of the bathroom door on up in an angle. Immediately I knew what we were looking at......the foundation. SO I called Carlton in the room and started looking around the other doors and windows, and sure enough there were other cracks. Some big and some small, but lots of them. So we walked into Timothy's room (they share a Jack-n-Jill bathroom) and sure enough, there were cracks in his wall too! Carlton said he noticed the doors were harder to shut the other day. Well on this night, the two doors in his room would NOT shut!

So the next morning I called a slew of foundation repair companies, and over the next several days they all came out, shared their two cents, and showed us how much it would cost us to fix our problem. The problem being the corner of the house that Timothy's room is in, has "sunk" a whole 2 inches! Well, the cost ranges anywhere from $1850 to $5765. The cheaper cost was using the most simple way to fix the problem but has no warranty to guarantee the work. The most expensive amount came from Olshan (the leader in foundation repair) and it includes a lifetime warranty that can be transferred to a new owner if/when we sell the home. It also included coming INSIDE the house and drilling holes in the floors of the kids rooms. (Not something I am totally thrilled about, but then again I am not thrilled about the whole situation anyway!)

We will probably go with Olshan, but please make it a matter of prayer. There is an older gentleman in our church that was pretty set on us going with a man's company that he knows. And although he knows him, I checked him out with our friends from the Better Business Bureau and they showed several complaints filled against him (the older man's friend that is) SO we just don't want to take the risk. We have had too many problems with this house as it is and don't want to do anything to "risky".

Well, that's it so far....crazy summer huh?? The kids and I are at my parents until early Sunday morning. We will get up then and head on home. Carlton and the youth will be coming home Sunday evening late and I want to get home before he does.

Hope you summer has been better than ours thus far! :)

My Summer Thus Far (part 1)

Well, I tried to load some pictures to go with this post but for some reason I am having a tuff time with Blogger here at my parents house. I wanted to catch you all up to date on what's been going on so far this summer. I know that my cousin Melissa checked my blog everyday before school was out so I told my mother she is probably having "withdrawals"! LOL

Well, where do I start......I SO wish I had pictures....

Let's see......Ok...the first thing that happened after school let out....a TUBING TRIP! Carlton took a group of youth on an overnight trip to New Braunsfels (sp) and I actually got to go without the kids! It was a much needed trip for me. We had a blast.

The next couple of days I spent getting Rachel's costume ready for her first recital. Did I mention I wish I could have loaded some pictures! Well, this was an interesting 1st recital to say the least. The dress rehearsal was extremely long! The dads were told to be there for the Daddy/Daughter dance part of the rehearsal @ 6:30 so they could be on stage by 7:00. Well, they were all there, many of them against their will, however they didn't go on stage until 10:00!!No, I am not kidding. So you can guess that the daddy of this house was very frustrated! At this point he had been the only staff member in town since two staff resigned and our pastor was on a trip in the Holy Land! He had spent the day with a family that he was preparing his first adult funeral for that day and was suppose to meet with them the following morning! He was one pooped Daddy!

The next day, Saturday, was the recital. We hung around the house as much as we could, the leisurely got ready. I took Rachel and left the house at 5:45 to arrive at the theater by 6:00 for what I thought was a 7:00 recital. BUT I was ALL wrong! The recital started at 6:00! As I was pulling down the street to the theater, the line mother called me and said "panically"...."Angie, where are you!!! We are lining up!"

Me... "No way, are you kidding me....I thought it started at 7!"
Line Mom.."No, it starts in 5 minutes!"
Me..."Oh MY GOSH!!! I am outside, be in there in a minute...."

Then I frantically get on the phone and call Carlton to tell him to get there NOW! So, after me explaining to him that I had gotten the times wrong, we hung up and he got himself and Timothy dressed.

In the mean time I realized as we were getting out of the car that I had left Rachel's costume ON THE BACK OF THE CHAIR AT THE HOUSE!! I got on the phone and called Carlton....

C - "What...where is it???"
M - "On the chair......hurry....they are on after production!"

As I am running in, the other mother's start asking "where is Rachel's costume?" Personally, I am about to have a nervous breakdown. Then my phone rings.......

Okay, this has gotten long, and my kids are giving me fits right now, so I will have to finish this later.....hopefully tonight, but if not, then tomorrow....come back, and hang tight, it gets CRAZY.....broken glass...cracked walls......OH YEAH.....it gets CRAZY.....

My Kitchen and a Christmas Present

My dear hubby is picking up on my desire to make our home "presentable" and to make it a Sanctuary. For years now we have only had one picture that SOMETIMES hung on the wall. It is a huge Betty Spooner picture that has some names of God on it. A beautiful picture, but the only one and I say sometimes hangs, but if it is not hanging it is leaning. Like now, it sits on the mantle and leans on the wall. I have seen this done and like it, so we are trying it.

Anyway, this Christmas my dear hubby got me 3 of the 4 pictures below. We had one that Carlton had gotten at our last church as a going away gift. It had been in a closet since we moved into our current home. The picture didn't turn out so well, but they say Faith, Hope and Love, and the bottom middle one says Amazing Grace. I know they are just materialistic things, but the day we hung them I looked at my dear hubby and told him that the house already felt "comfy" just by adding this little touch in the entry.




Now for the kitchen.....I love my kitchen. It has white cabinets (which I sometimes don't love), stainless steel sink and appliances, and island with a JennAire stove top, new hardware, tile and marble backsplash and marble countertops. The first two pictures are of my CLEAN kitchen. It is beautiful from this angle. (sorry the pictures are a little dark)

Oh, did you see that bowl of fruit Company Girls??

But then there is this part.......the part I just can't seem to get control of.....the built in desk with the shelves above and the fridge! I had neatly placed some things from my grandmother, and others in those shelves. However, everytime I "clean" up around the kitchen, or the living room and I find things that I don't have a "place" for, they end up on this desk or on the shelves!!! Then there is all the stuff on the fridge. I like a little something on the fridge, but the kids want ALL their stuff on the fridge. What do I do with it all??? We really did want doors on those shelves, but that hasn't happened yet, and until it does, I really need some since of order here. Do you have any suggestions???

Weekend Woes

Well their is still water in the house! The water that came up in the living room seems to actually be worse at this moment. We have put towels on it all weekend and kept fans on it and it is still saturated. We took a video of it on Thursday, but I am thinking that we need to do it again tonight to show how long the water has stayed. Honestly, we can not figure out where it is coming from. The attic shows no sign of water and the walls are dry! The only thing we can think of now is that it is a slab issue. I think that Carlton and I will pull the carpet back this evening to see if we can tell anything ourselves. I did call the insurance company, but have not heard from them as of yet. I just left a message with the adjuster for this area a little bit ago.

On another note.......please be in prayer for my parents. My mother made the decision to leave my father this weekend. Actually the decision had been made a while back, but she followed through with it this weekend. I know she is doing what is best for her. Pray that she finds peace. This was a really hard thing for her to do, but she asked my father if he would give up the drugs and he told her he couldn't! Pray for him!

DQ