Just a quick entry. Very cool.

Hi. I know we haven't posted in a while. It is on my list of things to do. This was too good not to post though. Greg's cousin has spina bifada and is in a wheelchair. He doesn't let this slow him down though. He rides at skateparks and stuff all the time and is amazing. He just got in the Guiness Book of World Records for doing the first wheelchair backflip. Here is a link to the Las Vegas news who did a story on him. Seriously you have got to watch this.

http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=5285116&nav=menu107_2_9

A big toothless grin

Adam lost his third tooth 2 nights ago. It is one of his front, upper teeth so it left quite a gap in his smile. He is changing so much! The dentist assures us that he will need braces. He lost his front bottom two several months ago and they have come in very crowded. He expects these top ones to do the same. He had quite a battle with this one and was up 'til 9:30 fighting with it, but he finally pulled it out himself. Enjoy! 

The kids and stuff

I thought since I haven't blogged for a while, I should do it. It seems hard for me to blog unless there is like an event or something to blog about, but I thought I would give everyone some updates on some things.

First, the kids. Things have seemed a little better since the last time I blogged, or else I am dealing with it better or something. Here is a rundown on each little Finchling.
ADAM-- He continues to ride his bike often and loves playing with our neighbors. He recently was excited to pass his level 2 swimming class and absolutely LOVES to swim. He has also inherited his father's desire for adrenaline rushes and loves the fast waterslide at our local swimming pool. He is growing up so much and always asks such intelligent questions. Just today, Greg had to look up the answer to one of them.
ANNA-- Is as sweet as ever. She is always willing to help. She is the first one to comfort and console. She is most aware of others' needs of all the kids. She is great at making friends, and has a variety of them. She even gets along well with hard-to-get-along with kids. She is feeling pretty nervous about Kindergarten and will occasionally have a break down along those lines.
LIZZY-- She is our silly goose. She knows what she wants and does not hesitate to tell you, over and over and over, even before you can respond. She loves playing with Anna and Ben. She is very bright and is starting to draw stick figures. She makes us laugh everyday (and cry some days too!), and she is so interesting to talk to. She loves to spend time with me.
BEN-- Is at an incredibly fun age right now. He is talking so much more, and will try to copy just about anything you say. I love that he says thank you and love you. Earlier this week he was calling Greg, honey (I guess I must do that a lot). He would say, Papa, honey, and then laugh. He loves to sing and does amazingly well. I think he has some of our Scripture Scouts tapes down pat (at least when he is singing along with them). He also loves "Scripture Power". On the other side of the age, he is great at dumping things out. He finds a cup and dumps it. I must say though, that he is getting good at getting a towel and cleaning it up (sort of). He can also stand on the toilet and turn on the water, which is great fun (for him, not me). He loves to "wash up" and would do it all day long if I let him. He loves to snuggle and rock with me. Oh yeah, he is also TERRIFIED of loud noises. He absolutely freaks if I try to vacuum. He cries, he shakes, he screams. I have gotten to where I won't vacuum unless Greg is home. Even if I am holding him while I vacuum, it is no good. Same reaction to the fireworks. He screamed and shook with terror the whole time. Tonight we had these balloons someone gave us that screech really loud when you let them go, same thing. It's bad. He is such a smiley, happy boy most of the time, just terrified of loud noises. We love it right now, though.

Greg is as busy as ever. There has been a lot going on at church, and he will get to conduct his first funeral this week. Then shortly after vacation he will be doing his first wedding. Work is also crazy busy right now, and promises to be so until the end of the year. He is also still trying to adjust to his new cpap machine for his sleep apnea. It hasn't been the instant fix for his tiredness that we hoped it would be, but it is in improving gradually as he gets used to it. He also tries to help at home as much as he can. He is supportive of me and tries hard to spend time with the kids, even though he is so tired. I am so proud of him for all he does to help people and the good man that he is.

I keep busy with chasing after kids, feeding kids, keeping the kids clothed ( I have come to loathe laundry), arranging activities for the kids, driving the kids around, setting up play dates for the kids, doing swimming lessons with the kids, putting the kids to bed, and starting all over again in the morning. Occasionally we have time to have friends over.

I feel thankful for my good family. I feel thankful for my membership in the Lord's church. It gives my life direction and strength and joy. I am thankful for good friends who are loving and supportive. I am thankful for my temporal blessings. How nice it is to feel comfortable. I admit my life can be challenging at times, but the joy far outweighs the trouble.

So there you go, us in a nutshell. Now you won't have to read our blog for another month or so (just kidding, we should have some fun things to post about soon... you'll see (no I am not pregnant, I was talking about vacation!)).

4th of July

We had a nice, very exhausting Independence Day this year. We started the day off at a ward pancake breakfast at the park. There was lots of good food and fun games for everyone (I even got to bomb Tammy with a water balloon). Right after the breakfast we walked downtown to watch the parade. Bettendorf's 4th of July parade is pretty small - it's mostly made up of politicians and commercial business advertising their cause (including the ACLU and gay rights march). But there's plenty of candy for the kids so they were entertained - especially Ben who must have eaten 30 pieces of candy while we were watching.

After the parade we went home and had lunch. Tammy stayed home with the younger kids for nap time and Adam and I headed out geocaching with a friend of ours. By the way, this friend of ours we introduced to geocaching a couple of years ago has now found nearly 1400 caches - he's crazy about it. He took us to a remote forest wildlife preserve where there were a few caches hidden. Below is a picture I took of Adam - the picture doesn't really do the location justice - it was a very beautiful area. We found 1 of the 3 caches we hunted for.


After geocaching, we headed home in time for supper. We invited our geocaching friend and his family along with another family with young kids for a barbeque. We all went together after dark to watch the fireworks show.

All together, it was a fun day! I really just wanted to blog SOMETHING (ANYTHING!) to get that awful picture off the top of our blog!!! Hope you all had a nice holiday too! 

Where's Maldo?

Do any of you guys recognize this guy? This is a picture of the new bishop of our ward. Do any of you have a bishop that looks like this?! You can add this picture to the collection of Greg's bad pictures this week.

Our youth group at church played a fun little game tonight called Where's Maldo?. They asked some of the people in the ward to dress up in disguise and then walk around the mall (not in the stores themselves) and blend in. The kids then had to search around the mall to find all the people on their list. They had to approach each person and state who they were. In return they were given a sticker to verify that they had found that person.

Greg chose the urban cowboy look. His wonderful, full head of hair is actually the hood of a halloween costume I made for Adam a few years ago. It is a wolf costume. He just taped down the ears, and kind of pulled it together in the back to make a ponytail. He pulled out a little of the faux fur and stuck it on with a glue stick to make the nice little whiskers under his lip. I bought the hat at Goodwill and some cheap glasses at Wal-mart. Then I used some mascara to darken up his goatee area. The look was completed with a grungy t-shirt and a longer pair of cut off jean shorts. The kids and I went to the mall just to see everyone dressed up and to see their reactions to Greg. We of course did not walk around with him, but it was fun to see the others in our ward dressed up too. It did make for another scary picture of Greg though. What do you think? 

Adam's new skill

Greg has been working with Adam the last couple of weeks teaching him to ride a bike. Just yesterday he finally got to where he can start himself and stop himself. He still has a little trouble steering and stopping (he has crashed several times into our light pole and Greg's car which is sometimes parked on the street), but I think he has finally gotten it. It has taken a little while and many, many crashes. As a mother it was hard to watch him, especially at first. He would really bang himself up sometimes and just cry and want to quit. He has perservered though, and I think it is safe to say that he can now officially ride a two wheeler. We are so proud of Adam and what a hard worker he is. This seems to have brought him new freedom and an increased desire to be outside. It's great!Here he is rounding around our cul-de-sac. At least he didn't wait 'til he was on a mission to learn, like some people I know:) It makes you want to go out and ride a bike doesn't it? 

Bad picture day

Okay, so Tammy made me feel guilty enough to finally sit down and do this! What's been going on in my life ...

About a month ago I had a sleep study done. A simple explanation of a sleep study is where you go to a sleep center, they hook a hundred wires to your body, jam a tube in your nose, strap a microphone to your throat, turn on a video camera, and tell you to go to sleep. If you're lucky enough to actually fall asleep in that environment, then they monitor you as you sleep. They track eye movement, knee jerks, teeth grinding, breathing, heart rate, oxygen levels, snoring, and so on.

The results came back a couple of weeks ago and it turns out that I have severe sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is essentially when you stop breathing while you're sleeping. It's typically caused by throat muscles relaxing as you enter deep sleep to the point that your airway is closed off. Your body has to wake itself up in order to start breathing again and so you never really enter deep sleep and never get as good of rest as you should.

It's pretty common to have some apnea's when you're sleeping. I think they said that they don't worry much if you have 10 or fewer in an hour. During my study, I averaged almost 60 an hour. The average length of time that I wasn't breathing was 23 seconds per apnea. So if you do the math, I'm only breathing less than 2/3 of the time that I'm sleeping. One apnea lasted 48 seconds and my blood oxygen level dropped to 80%. Kind of scary to think about!

So, to treat sleep apnea, there is a machine called a CPAP that pumps air into your nose all night long. The constant air pressure holds your throat open so that you can achieve a deeper sleep. Problem is, having a machine pump air into your nose isn't all that fun and not so conducive to sleep.

CPAP machines only work on some patients so I had to go back last night for a second study wearing a CPAP mask. It was a LONG night. Not only was I totally uncomfortable, but every time I did finally fall asleep, the nurse would come in and have to wake me up to fix something (a wire falling off or whatever). It was an awful night! If I opened my mouth on accident, my lungs would collapse from the loss of air pressure and a breeze would start blowing from my nose down my throat and out my mouth. They say you get used to the machine after a while and a lot of people that I've talked to that use them absolutely love them. They say this discomfort of wearing the mask is far outweighed by the benefits of getting better rest. We shall see!

So, here's the first bad picture of me for the day. This is me all rigged up with the CPAP jammed up my nose.


Enough of the bad news. Here's some very nice news, but an equally bad picture. For Father's Day and my birthday, my good wife bought me a brand new Lazy Boy recliner. She's of course in big trouble for spending way too much, but I love it! It is soooooo comfortable - I would sit there all day if I could! She had it sitting in the driveway and blindfolded me to go out to find it. I wondered if I was getting a new car when we went outside. Here's the picture...


Aside from that, my life ticks along at a hundred miles an hour getting pulled in every direction. But all-in-all I'm happy and am looking forward to getting a good night's rest tonight before I have to start wearing that machine every night!

Boring old me

I thought I should post since I haven't posted in a long while. Part of the reason that I haven't posted is that I am so boring. Nothing out of the ordinary happens much. I do have lots and lots of the same old, same old. Greg on the other hand has lots of things happen to him, but he doesn't have time to post about them. If you didn't know, he had his birthday last week. He turned 32. He has had a couple of sleep studies done recently. He continues to help people as the bishop. He got some really cool presents for his birthday and father's day. I don't want to tell too much because I keep thinking he will blog about it one of these days, and I don't want to steal his thunder, although, he would probably say he would LOVE if I would do it for him.

Anyway, I am looking for some parenting advice. My kids have been fighting a lot lately. It seems our home is often filled with screams and shrieks these days. There is also a lot of she did this and he did that going on. It has been my experience thus far that usually that means one or more of them is in need of more personal attention from me or Greg. It continues to be very difficult to find one on one time with each child, though. How do you do it? Lizzy is particularly struggling. She always feels like she is put off and ends up screaming at me to get her things and do things for her. My unforunate response to this is that it makes me want to be around her even less. My head aches from all the screaming! I have this book that I have been intending to read, called "Siblings without Rivalry", but I haven't gotten to it yet. I am up for any suggestions. I know family life can be more pleasant than this.

One quick story about Ben. He is becoming quite independent these days, not all in good ways. He pretty much helps himself with whatever he can, whether I want him to or not. It is not uncommon for me to find him rummaging through the pantry with an open box of crackers at his feet. Anyway, we went to the grocery store the other day. Our store has those little carts that are like little cars where the kids sit up front and down low, like they are driving. The only bad thing is that Ben usually screams and pushes out all the other kids. So we were in the checkout aisle putting our food on the conveyor. Ben was down in the truck cab and the other kids were helping me load everything on. I leaned over to get something out of the cart and I heard Ben say, "Mmmmm". I looked down in there and he had swiped a candy bar off the shelf (it was Baby Ruth if you want to know) and managed to open the thing and had started to chow down. He was thoroughly enjoying himself. I just took the wrapper and put it on the conveyor empty so we could pay for it. The other kids of course got candy as well. The checker, and I. got quite a kick out of that. Ben continued to "mmmmmmmmmm" his way through the whole thing, peanuts and all.

Well, sorry I am so boring. If you are not asleep yet, feel free to make a comment. Oh another side note. I listened to the "Thief Lord" on tape. I really enjoyed that. I think some of you have read the book. Anyway, ciao. Boring people rock!!

KANSAS!!!

I was recently assigned to work on a new project at work. The sponsors of the project are located at John Deere's marketing office in Lenexa, Kansas. I found out a week and a half ago that I would be traveling to spend a week in Lenexa working with the project sponsors. Since Lenexa is only about 30 minutes from my hometown where my brother and sister and grandmother (and various other relatives) still live, we decided that Tammy and the kids should travel with me. So, we spent Tuesday through Saturday last week in Kansas and had a great time! During the daytime, I worked in the office while Tammy and the kids played, then in the evenings we traveled to visit family.

My brother and sister, Jeff and Sandee, live next door to one another. Tuesday evening we traveled to their homes for a barbecue. Jeff and Sandee each have four children so together with our four there were 12 little ones (ages 10, 9, 7, 7, 7, 5, 5, 5, 5, 3, 2, 1). It was quite a party! We didn't get back to the hotel until after 10 p.m. so everyone was a little fried the next day.

Wednesday we ended up staying at the hotel to get the kids to bed at a normal hour - otherwise we would not have survived the week. The hotel we were staying at (company paid) was very fancy - one of those you feel uncomfortable having kids at. Also one of those where they take as much money from you as they can knowing your company is paying for it ($7 for 30 minute internet access, $5 per min phone usage, $30 breakfast, and so on). We did venture out of our room Wednesday evening to try out the pool. Other than Lizzy nearly drowning, that was an enjoyable time.

Thursday during the day, Tammy and the kids went to Science City (a hands-on kids science museum in Kansas City) and Kaleidoscope (a kids art gallery sponsored by Hallmark where they do some simple art projects). Thursday evening we spent the evening with my Grandmother visiting and playing games. Adam now believes he is the world champion Skip-bo player.

Friday I wrapped up work around noon. The rest of my project team was traveling that afternoon back to the Quad-cities, so I took off to spend time with family. We, along with the 12 kids and their moms, headed to the zoo. It was a very hot day (95 deg plus high humidity) but we survived and had a fun time. Friday evening was spent back at Jeff and Sandee's houses. We also moved to a cheaper hotel with free breakfast, free internet, and free phone calls since the company was no longer paying.

Saturday was a very enjoyable morning. We took Grandma out to the community where I grew up and where my dad grew up and where Grandma grew up and where her dad grew up and where her Grandpa settled in the 1800's (yes, there's a LOT of family history in that area). We wandered around the cemetery where my dad and grandpa and great-grandpa and grandma, and great-great grandpa and grandma are all buried. Grandma's grandma was named Lizzie and when our Lizzy discovered that, she couldn't stop talking about it! Grandma told stories of many of the fine people buried there (such as the man who delivered her at the local country hospital and who eventually became her uncle and whose deceased wife's headstone rolled over and nearly crushed Grandma's brother). It was so much fun - many of the stories I had never heard before! At one point Grandma said that she thinks she knows more people buried at that cemetery than she knows still living in the rest of the world! I very much enjoyed that time with her and felt a new and stronger bond to that part of my family than I have ever felt before.

After lunch with Grandma, we started the long drive home and it was a LONG drive home. The kids were all tired, but we finally made it around 8 p.m. and got to bed at a decent hour. Aside from the drive home, it was a very nice week. Fortunately, we forgot to bring the camera. Otherwise, you would have to put up with more pictures of our cute children. Sorry!

A Graduate and Four Eyes

Congratulations to Anna - Class of 2006 Old Blues Preschool. Today was her graduation ceremony and performance. She is quite a good tap dancer!
Here is Anna inspecting her diploma.
The other big news of the week is that Adam has glasses! We've known for quite a while that he was needing them. I think it's from all those nights sneaking books into his room and reading in the dark! We think he looks rather handsome! Since Tammy and I have neither one ever had glasses, this is a whole new experience for our family.
Here's a shot of Ben just a few hours ago. He's really growing up - starting to talk quite a bit and getting into everything! He's developed a healthy temper and must have things his way.
Finally, here's beautiful Lizzy. This was taken today at Anna's graduation. She's not feeling well today with a fever but otherwise is as sweet as ever!

Released??

We have some good news and some good news to report today. After five (sometimes long) years serving as a counselor in our ward bishopric, I was released today.

The other good news is that I've been called to serve as the new bishop in our ward. It's been an interesting, sometimes difficult and sometimes wonderful week. I can't honestly say this wasn't expected; we've been thinking it was a possibility for quite a long time. We've known for several weeks that we would be released today and as the time drew nearer, we were beginning to feel more and more relieved thinking it wouldn't be us. A week ago last Thursday evening Tammy and I were talking before bed. Tammy said, "Well, at this point I'm pretty sure you won't be called as bishop."

Friday I arrived home from work at the normal time. As I was walking up to the door a thought entered my mind, "Tammy is going to say we need to meet with the stake president." I opened the door and she looked at me somewhat pale and said, "Let me know when you're ready to talk." She didn't have to tell me what it was about. I can honestly say that I was not a happy camper that night. Angry and depressed would more accurately describe how I felt. Tammy was good and encouraging and all, but I was lost. I couldn't believe "they" would do that to me.

So Saturday came and we went to our scheduled appointment with the stake president. I think I may have scared him - I was still pretty concerned. Toward the end of the time with him, I asked him to give me a blessing which he did. From that point on, something inside me changed - I no longer felt the bitter and angry feelings. The next morning I woke up and went to church. I stood in the foyer greeting members of the ward as they arrived and as I did that I was filled with a feeling unlike any I have ever experienced. I felt so much peace and so much reassurance and so much love toward these people. I knew then that this calling isn't something "they" were doing to me; that truly I was called to this service by the Lord. The rest of the week was wonderful - I felt completely at peace and completely sure that this was the right thing.

Today the ward showed so much support and sustaining and love that I was reminded that I'm not in this alone. There are a whole lot of people ready and willing and able to help. I know that there will be many very difficult and very trying times ahead, but I know that the blessings associated with the sacrifice we are making will be well worth the challenges. I'm very grateful for the experiences of this week.

Through it all Tammy has been wonderful. Especially during those first couple of days when I was not feeling good, she was so supportive and encouraging. I know I wouldn't be able to do it without her by my side. Last night, we sat down with the kids to let them know what was happening. Immediately, Adam burst out in sobs saying, "Papa, I don't want you to be in the bishopric anymore." Adam's crying triggered Ben and Lizzy to start bawling (I'm not sure they really understood why). Anna sat quietly off to the side with a peaceful look on her face. I asked her what she was thinking and she simply said, "I think this is a good thing." I do too (and I think Adam will as well).

DaVinci Cryptex

If any of you use Google much, you may have seen that they have been sponsoring the "DaVinci Code Quest" in anticipation of the upcoming movie. It is just a game with a series of puzzles to solve. So, since Tammy and I like puzzles, we decided to tackle these - they were fun to do in the evenings before going to bed. There were 24 daily puzzles (one released each day) that became increasingly more difficult as you went along (although they never got all that difficult). Anyway, the first 10,000 people to finish the 24 puzzles won their very own replica of the DaVinci Code cryptex. Those 10,000 people are also finalists and can compete for the grand prize (several trips to different places around the world and a bunch of other stuff). Tammy and I are proud to announce we did it! Now you can say you know one of the DaVinci Code Quest finalists! Our cryptex arrived in the mail today - we had to figure out how to unlock it to find out how to compete in the final (it wasn't too tough). The final challenge is this weekend - fastest to finish five puzzles wins. Wish us luck - 1 in 10,000 is better odds than most games you see! 

Mother's day

I just wanted to write and let everyone know what a great family I have. I have had a super Mother's Day. Really it has been over the last couple of days. The kids got pretty anxious and couldn't wait to give me the things they had made for me, so this past week I received several gifts. Adam made some bath bead stuff and a worry rock for me to rub. He also made some nice cards. I was surprised about how much he seems to like me!! It is just nice to have those feelings written down. Maybe I can recall them the next time he is giving me a hard time (which really isn't that often, anyway). Anna painted a beautiful watercolor painting for me and it is all matted and ready to frame. She also gave me a card with her picture. Lizzy and Ben both made cards in nursery today for me that were very sweet. They all worked together to clean the basement (which is no easy feat!) and they put on a little play for me of their own creation. Greg said they had been practicing for weeks. He also said that cleaning the basement was their own idea, too. They also let me have a nice nap this afternoon and brought me lunch in bed. I am so thankful for my good little children. We have such a great family!

Greg was also great today. The bishop cancelled meetings before church so he was here in the morning to help me get the kids ready for church. We even made it to church by 8:30 so he could unlock the building and things (Adam had the thrill of his life as he handed out the programs for sacrament meeting today). He was so helpful to the kids, but let them do the things that they wanted to do for me today, not what he thought they should do for me. He offered to cook me a gourmet meal for dinner. I declined, and asked him to make me rice krispie treats instead:). He did. They were yummy! He also game me a new board game, the Marklin edition of Ticket to Ride. I hope we will be able to try it out tonight. He also recorded the play the kids presented to me and then set things up so we could watch some old family videos starting when Adam was little. It was a great day. A peaceful, restful, loving day. I love being a mother and I love my wonderful family who take such good care of me.

Life is fragile

I traveled up to the University of Iowa hospital this afternoon because a friend of mine is hospitalized there. She is just 2 or 3 years older than me. She is a single mom, who also does a lot in caring for her mother. Her son is 8 years old. She works the 3rd shift and often struggles to make ends meet. She was out mowing her lawn and felt really funny. She went in the house and fell down. Her mom called an ambulance and she was rushed to the hospital and then life flighted to the University hospital. She had a stroke. She is alive, but it remains to be seen what her condition is. I wasn't even allowed to see her, but I visited with her family that were waiting there at the hospital, along with another friend of mine.

This has really shaken me up a bit. She is not that much older than me. She is overweight like I am. She has a lot of responsibilities; so do I. I just can't believe it is all happening. Her son and her mother will really struggle if she doesn't make it. They may really struggle if she does, if she needs a lot of care, and isn't able to work anymore. It seems so unreal. And of course there are thoughts of, "that could be me".

I don't want that to be me. I am still too young. I need to be healthy. I need to do what I can to prevent this from happening. I need to be there for my family.

I feel grateful to know that this life is not the end; this is just a small part of our existance. I am glad that my family knows that too.

My life is so good. I walked into that waiting room and there were so many families there. Waiting, hoping, praying for someone they loved. My family is home, safe and healthy. There are so many people that are facing big problems. My family only has little ones.

I am glad to be alive. I am glad for my health. Even though life is fragile, it still goes on.

Butterflies

On Friday, the kids and I (minus Adam) went to the Family Museum for their annual spring event. Every spring they have a screened in cage thing were they first grow caterpillars, then then the caterpillars make cocoons and finally break out as butterflies. In this case they are Painted Lady butterflies. Since Anna has preschool at the museum we watched the whole process, checking up on them every couple of days. After all the butterflies have broken out of their cocoons, they have a big release event where they release the butterflies into the wild. I thought it would be a great thing to see, so we made sure we were there.

Things did not turn out how I imagined them, however. I thought they would open the cage and all the butterflies would just come flying out going out into the sky, but that was not so. They were not so sure they wanted to come out. They were each coaxed onto a stick and then handed out to a waiting child. There was one class of older grade school children that were there that made it quite difficult for any of the rest of us to see, or get close enough to get a stick with a butterfly on it, not to mention the annoying media people who thought they needed to me up front. After picking up both Liz and Ben for several minutes (no easy task these days), we made it up to the front where we acquired a stick with a butterfly on it. Anna was with her preschool class, but I took Liz and Ben away from the crowd so we could get a better look. Lizzy held the butterfly for a little bit, but didn't like it when it started crawling on her, so held it most of the time. Ben mostly just ran around. He just wanted to play. I brought the butterfly over to Anna and her class as they too were having a hard time getting to the front. Anna would not hold it though. I got too close to the flowers and it finally flew away.

It was a fun and interesting thing to watch the changes over the weeks, and then be able to hold one of the butterflies. Hope you enjoy the few pictures I was able to take. 

Flood!

If you've been watching the weather, you may have noticed the midwest (at least our part of the midwest) has had a typically wet spring. In the past couple of days we've had several more inches of rain with more on the way. So, I guess it didn't come as a huge suprise last Sunday when Tammy and the kids went to the basement to find a flood of water.

My immediate thought upon seeing the water was that the sump pump had failed and flooded the basement (nearly every house in Iowa has a sump pump and flooded basements are very common around here). I went straight to the pump and opened the well and tested out the pump and all appeared to be in working order. So, perplexed by what could have caused the flood, we ventured into the storage room where the water seemed to be originating. I looked around the base of the walls, examined the water pipes coming into and out of the house (that's where the main water lines come in and sewer lines leave the house), and everything appeared to be fine. We just couldn't figure out where al the water was coming from.

Finally, after considerable wondering and thinking on the subject, I remembered that the previous day I had used the outside hose hookup while doing some yardwork. At the top of the storage room, there is a small pipe leading to the outside where the hose attaches and we wondered if that may have been the cause. So, Tammy headed upstairs and opened the valve. Immediately, water began spraying out of the pipe and pouring down the wall into our storage room. I started yelling "SHUT IT OFF, SHUT IT OFF". Of course Tammy couldn't hear me so Adam in a panic rushed up the stairs and relayed the message.

It turns out the pipe probably burst during the winter time (we had a very cold December). The break just happened to be on the other side of the valve that controls the outside water flow so we didn't know about it until I used the outside hose. The previous day I had had the water on for 20 or 30 minutes. At the rate it was spraying from the pipe, that was more than enough time to cause the water to cover a signficant portion of the basement.

So that was the bad news. Fortunately in this situation, the good news far outweighs the bad. About half of our basement is finished. The pipe is located in the unfinished storage room so there is no drywall around it. The only carpet in the room is just carpet scraps that have been rolled out across the floor. We simply rolled those up and hung them outside to dry. The flood was bigger than just the storage room though and did soak some of our installed carpet. Fortunately, that carpet is heavy duty indoor/outdoor carpet with no pad under it. It was fairly easy to dry out with a few fans blowing on it for a couple of days. The water also didn't appear to damage any drywall and all the stuff we had on the floor of the storage room was in plastic bins so none of that stuff was damaged either.

I'm fortunate to have a very good friend (my running partner, Dave C.) who also happens to be a skilled plumber. He came over and quickly figured out what we'd need to repair the broken pipe (we ended up replacing the outside faucet and some of the copper pipes leading to it) and later returned to teach me how to "sweat pipe". It's something I had never done before and it was a good chance to learn it. It was actually quite easy and fun to do and made me want to go and replumb the dishwasher! Then again maybe not.

So, thanks to Dave and to the good fortune of a well placed pipe, a much worse disaster was averted this time. Two plumbing projects in one month is more than enough for me!

Rowan of Rin

Yesterday, our family drove down to Nauvoo and back. About 2 hours each way. During the drive we listened to a book on tape. It is a children's book, it says for 7 and up, and I would put it in the fantasy category. It was called "Rowan of Rin" by, Emily Rodda. Even though it was a children's book, we loved listening to it on tape. The story was great and the narrator awesome. Greg added about 20-30 minutes to our drive so that we could finish it (Lizzy and Ben didn't appreciate that, but the rest of us were thrilled). I would highly recommend it, even to adults. It certainly makes the drive seem shorter.

It is about a boy who doesn't really fit in at all in his village , but how his uniqueness ends up saving them all. It is a little predictable in some places (after all it is for 7 year olds), but still very enjoyable. It has a meaningful ending, and is very well written and narrated. Check it out at your library for free!

Hunting for eggs at the Jensens

On Good Friday, we went to a our friends, the Jensen's house for an Easter Egg Hunt. The kids all had a super time. We did too, visiting with our friends while the kids played. Even Ben and Holly, the two little ones had fun. Here are some pictures of our Egg hunting adventure!

Easter Egg Hunt fun

 

Laughing with Lizzy

Lizzy, our three year old, has always been a very verbal young lady. Lately she's been spouting out some really funny things. Here's a sampling:

* Lizzy - "My eyes kept opening and closing during the prayer." Mom - "Oh, you should try to keep them closed during a prayer." Lizzy - "I didn't do it! They were opening and closing by themselves!"

* Lizzy watches daily a show called Boo-Bah. I have no idea what it's about and have never seen it, but she calls me at work and tells me about it every day. (Here's a very entertaining Boo-bah site: http://www.boohbah.com/zone.html). The other day, her comment was, "That Boo-Bah is REALLY FAT! He's even fatter than you and mom!" If that's not a hint that we need to lose weight, I don't know what is.

* We were staying at a motel recently - Anna and Lizzy were sharing a bed. Lizzy was saying family prayer and had asked that I help her think of things to say. So, I would whisper things for her to repeat. I'd say, "Say, 'Please bless us that we will sleep good tonight.'" and Lizzy would repeat. At one point, I said, "Say, 'Please bless that Anna and I won't fight in bed tonight.'" With that Lizzy stopped and looked up at me with a VERY confused and frightened look. I repeated, "Say, 'Please bless that Anna and I won't fight in bed tonight.'" Another confused look, then, with a sigh of resignation Lizzy says, "Please bless that Papa and Anna won't fight in bed tonight." It was difficult to finish that prayer with a straight face.

* Lizzy's name is Elizabeth Cherrine Finch. Her middle name is my mom's first name. Anna's name is Anna Darleen Finch. Her middle name is Tammy's mom's first name. So the other day, Lizzy asked Anna. "Anna, what's your whole name?" "Anna Darleen Finch" "You're named after the DEAD grandma! I'm named after the LIVE grandma!"

* We try to read a little in the scriptures with the kids each morning. One morning we were reading about some battle where it said something like, "And the army did march forth to battle." Lizzy perked up at that and shouted. "Hey, that's my BIRTHDAY!!!" Indeed, March 4th is her birthday.