Oh bother

Well here we go again. It seems like there is never a dull moment here at the "L" house. The bazaar is happening in 2 weeks and the dishwasher flooded the kitchen the other night. We noticed a problem with the floor a couple of weeks ago and Trav investigated the entire kitchen and went under the house where Jerry lives (The dragon) and found no water damage. After looking up the model number and brand of flooring that was originally installed we found out that it is not to be used for bathrooms or kitchens. Of course. The company who manufactures the floor will not replace it because we are not the original owners of the home so we figured we were hosed and were going to have to make due until we could afford to replace the floor ourselves. Large kitchen rug it is!! Not being really happy with that answer I begrudgingly went out and bought a rug to hide the horrible looking and now dangerous tripping hazard floor with a nice red rug. I have grown fond of the rug now and enjoy that it brings out the red wall we have in the kitchen. On the evening of the 19th I stepped on the rug as I went to put dishes in the sink and quickly realized that it was soaked in 1 place. Thinking it was one of the kids that spilled water and didn't want to fess up I blotted it up and went about my evening. We don't usually run the dishwasher during the day and do it while we are sleeping (Trav says the electricity is cheaper at night) but I needed to run it because I spent a lot of the day baking. At about 11pm we were just about to start filling the dishwasher again to run it at night like usual and fount that the entire rug was soaked. After lifting it up and running it outside we noticed a ton of water and more flooring puckering up and swollen with water. I spent the following day making calls, talking to our insurance company, and found we are covered for such a disaster. Whew! This morning the restoration company came and assessed the damage and tore out a lot of the floor and we now have 3 very large industrial fans and an industrial dehumidifier which we have to run constantly until the restoration company comes back at some point on Monday. At this point it looks like the cabinets may have to come out and some of the underlaying floor will need to be replaced. We will be getting a new floor and if the cabinets need to come out basically a new kitchen. On one hand this is a huge pain but I have to admit I am a little excited as I was never super happy with the kitchen but it worked and was basically new so we didn't make a fuss about it. This could be fun? My camera is having some troubles so I only had my phone to snap a couple of pictures but you can see some of the damage and wonderful Barry (Who was very nice and quite funny) did a great job with the kids around and keeping us entertained while he worked.

A typical day

These are just a couple of photos I managed to snap with my phone. They are a great bunch of kids if you

ask me.

Oh yes I am really doing this. This is a true story.

On minute 7 of my ridiculous "Test." We have had another invasion of gnats after having 3 boxes of tomatoes (About 50 lbs) in the house to make marinara sauce for winter. They are everywhere but we are starting to win as we are starting to see less and less of them. After heating up some juice for Sam one flew into the microwave and not really thinking I quickly shut the door. I stood there for a bit watching it fly around and trying to think of a good way to open the door and kill it. Not wanting to risk letting it get away I had an evil thought "Just cook it." Why not? Other than being cruel it seemed like a good plan.

My finger slowly reached up and pressed the "1 minute" button and the low whir of death began. I walked away not wanting to witness the horror as it drew it's last breath and died on the glass spinning plate (Maybe he would think he was in the 60's on a rotating circular bed as he went on to meet his maker?). Waiting for the beeping to signal that the deed was done and was time to remove the remains seemed like an eternity.

Finally with relief in the air it sounded like a trumpet. I was about to open the door and noticed a small black flicker out of the corner of my eye inside. What?!! To my surprise the little gnat was flying around happily. How could this be? In this very machine I have at one time made an arc of electricity happen trying to cook carrots and the gnat lives?! Oh it is on! All my feelings about performing an act of cruelty went out the window. "Does 2 minutes sound good to you....Harvey?" (I named him Harvey) Alright tough guy! 2 minutes doesn't seem to bother you?! Try 5!

After 5 minutes in the nuclear oven I peaked in to see if he had finally expired. After seeing no movement or body I opened the door slowly. I looked around and lifted the plate and found nothing. Nothing?! After staring at the back of the microwave trying to pick up on any movement it happened!! He flew right into my eye!

Farmer McDonald has his hands full

This is what happened yesterday while Claire was at school and Sam was napping.

Ben: Old McDonald has a farm

E-I-E-I-OOOOO!

And on that farm he had a........Moose!

E-I-E-I-OOOOO!

With a moose moose here

And a moose moo.......Wait!.........Moose don't make noise.