Happy Birthday Cam!
10/02/09 21:33 Filed in: family
Saturday was Cam's 6th birthday! Can you believe how
fast time flies???
We had a small party at home. Donna, Randy and Patrick came over for some cake. Of course, I used this opportunity to decorate food. LOL
Here's the R2D2 cake I made for Cam:
Another view with the candle and "light saber" (yes, I KNOW R2D2 doesn't have a saber...I thought it was cool though. It even lit up!):
For those who are interested, the cake was made out of red velvet cake mix, cream cheese frosting and fondant. The legs are rice crispy treats, set with white chocolate bark on the bottom (to make them more durable), then wrapped in fondant.
Since I'm not a fan of fondant (yuck!) I threw together a plain yellow cake too (plus...I needed a creative way to give Cam one of his presents. It's not the greatest looking cake, but it tasted great. LOL
Here's Cam with one of his presents. He's still in his hockey 'under clothes'. He had a game right before everyone came over, and apparently was too excited about cake to change. LOL
We had a small party at home. Donna, Randy and Patrick came over for some cake. Of course, I used this opportunity to decorate food. LOL
Here's the R2D2 cake I made for Cam:
Another view with the candle and "light saber" (yes, I KNOW R2D2 doesn't have a saber...I thought it was cool though. It even lit up!):
For those who are interested, the cake was made out of red velvet cake mix, cream cheese frosting and fondant. The legs are rice crispy treats, set with white chocolate bark on the bottom (to make them more durable), then wrapped in fondant.
Since I'm not a fan of fondant (yuck!) I threw together a plain yellow cake too (plus...I needed a creative way to give Cam one of his presents. It's not the greatest looking cake, but it tasted great. LOL
Here's Cam with one of his presents. He's still in his hockey 'under clothes'. He had a game right before everyone came over, and apparently was too excited about cake to change. LOL
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The Great Flood - Part 2
03/02/09 08:29 Filed in: family
So we're almost 2 weeks into the flood fiasco now. The
adjuster was out on Friday for his walk-thru. Ian has a
guy coming out today to build a 'materials list' with
us. As it stands now, here is the break-down of what
they're paying for:
Jessica's Room:
Replacing the entire floor. We opted to go with carpet instead of more laminate.
Replacing and painting new baseboards.
Painting the walls.
Replace a dresser, book shelves, and her bed
Kids' Bathroom:
New bathroom vanity - custom built to replace the one that is in there
Painting the walls and baseboards
Replacing hardware for toilet
Boys' Bedroom:
Replace the carpet
New baseboards
Painting for walls and baseboards (though I'm not going to let them paint over the space theme in there)
Office:
Replace the padding under the carpet
Sanitize and deoderize existing carpet
Painting the walls
Living Room:
Replace laminate floors
Paint walls
Replace and paint baseboards
I talked at length with Ian about how some of this stuff we can do ourselves, and how some of it doesn't need to be done at all. He is willing to work with us, and count it toward our $1000 deductible. For example, painting in all of the rooms, I can do. The boys' room doesn't even need to be repainted. The adjuster added an additional 2 hours in labor to try and recreate the mural on the wall. I told Ian it would be a waste of everyone's time and money to repaint in there because there just wasn't any damage done. He agreed with me, and pointed out that when the new baseboards go on that the paint line might come up short. I told him I could touch that up - no problem.
Since the baseboards in the living room are practically new and didn't sustain any water damage, I asked him if we could reuse them somewhere else (those are 6" baseboards and not cheap!). He told me that was fine. I'm not sure where we'll put them, but I'm not willing to just chuck them either.
I'll know more after the materials guy meets with us today. They're looking at starting the work some time this week!
Jessica's Room:
Replacing the entire floor. We opted to go with carpet instead of more laminate.
Replacing and painting new baseboards.
Painting the walls.
Replace a dresser, book shelves, and her bed
Kids' Bathroom:
New bathroom vanity - custom built to replace the one that is in there
Painting the walls and baseboards
Replacing hardware for toilet
Boys' Bedroom:
Replace the carpet
New baseboards
Painting for walls and baseboards (though I'm not going to let them paint over the space theme in there)
Office:
Replace the padding under the carpet
Sanitize and deoderize existing carpet
Painting the walls
Living Room:
Replace laminate floors
Paint walls
Replace and paint baseboards
I talked at length with Ian about how some of this stuff we can do ourselves, and how some of it doesn't need to be done at all. He is willing to work with us, and count it toward our $1000 deductible. For example, painting in all of the rooms, I can do. The boys' room doesn't even need to be repainted. The adjuster added an additional 2 hours in labor to try and recreate the mural on the wall. I told Ian it would be a waste of everyone's time and money to repaint in there because there just wasn't any damage done. He agreed with me, and pointed out that when the new baseboards go on that the paint line might come up short. I told him I could touch that up - no problem.
Since the baseboards in the living room are practically new and didn't sustain any water damage, I asked him if we could reuse them somewhere else (those are 6" baseboards and not cheap!). He told me that was fine. I'm not sure where we'll put them, but I'm not willing to just chuck them either.
I'll know more after the materials guy meets with us today. They're looking at starting the work some time this week!
The Great Flood
27/01/09 17:31
So last Thursday Scott surprised me with an early
release of the movie, "Fireproof". About an hour into
the movie, I happened to glance over at Holly, who was
lying on the floor. Next to her was a huge puddle of
water. I was confused by the site, and asked Scott what
all the water on the floor was.
We both jumped up, and lo and behold, from our living room, back to Jessica's room was under about an inch and a half of water. I hauled my steam cleaner out (useless) and Scott plugged in his Shop-vac. We sent Jess to Walmart to buy "the biggest Shop-Vac you can find". She came back about 30 minutes later with a 12-gallon one.
The water was so bad that I gave up trying to suck it all up with my steam cleaner, and grabbed a broom. I started shoveling the water out on to the pool deck. That's how I managed to get most of it out. Then, I used the steam vac to try and get the water up out of the carpet. The boys' room was saturated. Half of our office was saturated.
Our main concern was the water getting to the walls.
The next day we called a local water damage company, and our home owner's insurance. Ian, the project manager for the water company was at our house within 10 minutes of our call. He had his crew at our house within minutes of his arrival. Turns out, Ian has worked with our insurance adjuster a lot, and knows the guy well. Which of course, works to our advantage.
We have spent the past 4.5 days with industrial fans and dehumidifiers running around the clock. Can you say NOISE? We unofficially named our house "Camp Covington" because the kids are all sleeping in our bedroom. Jessica's entire room is now in the tiled area of our office, and the boys' toys are all in the living room area. My house is a disaster.
Today, Tuesday, they took the last of the fans out. The insurance adjuster will be out some time later this week, and he, Ian, Scott, and I will determine what needs to be replaced and by whom. As of right now though, all of the laminate in my former scrapbook room was torn up and thrown away. Scott wants to tile in there now. :(
I'll keep you updated as we go.
We both jumped up, and lo and behold, from our living room, back to Jessica's room was under about an inch and a half of water. I hauled my steam cleaner out (useless) and Scott plugged in his Shop-vac. We sent Jess to Walmart to buy "the biggest Shop-Vac you can find". She came back about 30 minutes later with a 12-gallon one.
The water was so bad that I gave up trying to suck it all up with my steam cleaner, and grabbed a broom. I started shoveling the water out on to the pool deck. That's how I managed to get most of it out. Then, I used the steam vac to try and get the water up out of the carpet. The boys' room was saturated. Half of our office was saturated.
Our main concern was the water getting to the walls.
The next day we called a local water damage company, and our home owner's insurance. Ian, the project manager for the water company was at our house within 10 minutes of our call. He had his crew at our house within minutes of his arrival. Turns out, Ian has worked with our insurance adjuster a lot, and knows the guy well. Which of course, works to our advantage.
We have spent the past 4.5 days with industrial fans and dehumidifiers running around the clock. Can you say NOISE? We unofficially named our house "Camp Covington" because the kids are all sleeping in our bedroom. Jessica's entire room is now in the tiled area of our office, and the boys' toys are all in the living room area. My house is a disaster.
Today, Tuesday, they took the last of the fans out. The insurance adjuster will be out some time later this week, and he, Ian, Scott, and I will determine what needs to be replaced and by whom. As of right now though, all of the laminate in my former scrapbook room was torn up and thrown away. Scott wants to tile in there now. :(
I'll keep you updated as we go.
Date Day
27/01/09 16:50
Scott and I took our weekly "date day" on Thursday.
"Date Day" is always on Thursday, and we generally use
this day to go fishing alone. It's something we both
look forward to each week.
Well, today the fishing just wasn't happening. We caught about 10 fish between the two of us, but none were big enough to keep. However, we were blessed with something we'd never seen before. We had a family of manatees come up to our boat! The pictures you see below were NOT zoomed in. These magnificent creatures came to check us out and they were so close we could have reached out and pet them (had that been legal - it's against the law to touch manatees). Anyway, here are the pictures:
Coming up to the boat:
Surfacing
Saying 'hello'
Then her partner said 'hello' to us too.
Can you see all three of them in the water?
Well, today the fishing just wasn't happening. We caught about 10 fish between the two of us, but none were big enough to keep. However, we were blessed with something we'd never seen before. We had a family of manatees come up to our boat! The pictures you see below were NOT zoomed in. These magnificent creatures came to check us out and they were so close we could have reached out and pet them (had that been legal - it's against the law to touch manatees). Anyway, here are the pictures:
Coming up to the boat:
Surfacing
Saying 'hello'
Then her partner said 'hello' to us too.
Can you see all three of them in the water?
Santa Claus Came to Town
26/12/08 15:35 Filed in: family
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.
We had a fantastic Christmas! The kids got more than they should have, Scott got new projects for the boat, and I got Annual Tickets to Disney World and a Wii Fitness setup!! It was definitely a blessed Christmas for all. Santa, in his rush out the door, forgot a whole rubbermaid container of presents in the garage. Thankfully, when I realized that the 'big gifts' weren't under the tree, I was able to bring the box out without the kids even realizing it. Whew!
Anyway, this blog entry is going to be more of a pictorial instead of me rambling. There are various photos that I took throughout the holiday season. Enjoy!
Let's start with the holiday baking:
The "Pool Tree"
Decorating the tree (Camden)
Ty decorating the tree
The Christmas tree
Waiting in line for Santa
Santa and the boys
Christmas Eve wearing the pajamas that PJ the Elf brought
Santa comes!
Christmas chaos!
Most of our Christmas is captured on video. Hopefully as soon as Scott is able to transfer the video, I'll have a home movie for you to watch as well.
Merry Christmas everyone, and have a safe New Year!
We had a fantastic Christmas! The kids got more than they should have, Scott got new projects for the boat, and I got Annual Tickets to Disney World and a Wii Fitness setup!! It was definitely a blessed Christmas for all. Santa, in his rush out the door, forgot a whole rubbermaid container of presents in the garage. Thankfully, when I realized that the 'big gifts' weren't under the tree, I was able to bring the box out without the kids even realizing it. Whew!
Anyway, this blog entry is going to be more of a pictorial instead of me rambling. There are various photos that I took throughout the holiday season. Enjoy!
Let's start with the holiday baking:
The "Pool Tree"
Decorating the tree (Camden)
Ty decorating the tree
The Christmas tree
Waiting in line for Santa
Santa and the boys
Christmas Eve wearing the pajamas that PJ the Elf brought
Santa comes!
Christmas chaos!
Most of our Christmas is captured on video. Hopefully as soon as Scott is able to transfer the video, I'll have a home movie for you to watch as well.
Merry Christmas everyone, and have a safe New Year!