And the World Keeps Turning 'Round

OK girls with GSPS kids only: 9 weeks down, 7 to go!!! Yeah team!! We're over half way there!!! On the downward slide!! Woooohoooo!!!

Dawn: I'm severly peeved for you and the whole mystery-person-telling- on-you-to-the-club-manager-behind-your-back incident. If the manager was at all confrontational to you, I'd point out to him that there wouldn't need to be venting blogs regarding the club if the service was at least reasonable. Granted, most of the time it is, but those incidents still ruin the whole picture......I'm going to miss you here!!! Hope you'll still be willing to read & post with us!!

Jeri: I don't know......the varnish fumes start to be kind of fun after a while........Actually they make you sick, so you did the right thing by getting out of there. I can't wait until our house is back in order (if you haven't heard the story, see below). I can't wait to see the final results!!

About our house: Last Wednesday I noticed the upstairs toilet was clogged with what I assumed was a kid-sized wad of toilet paper. Plunging didn't budge it, so I begged Maggie to tell me what was flushed down the potty and her answer began with "Kendall did it ALL by herself!!". After a lot of side-stepping by Maggie she finally stated that Kendall had flushed a doll's shirt. I told Jeff and he said he'd try to snake it out before bed, so I turned in for the night. Maggie got me up at 5:30 am Thursday because she wet the bed, and as I walk into the bathroom there is water all over the floor as the toilet overflows. I throw all the towels I can grab down and head downstairs and as I walk through the living room I step in something wet. Since Jeff hadn't put the dogs up before bed I thought maybe they'd had an accident, then I stepped in some more wet stuff. So I turn on all the lights and there is water dripping down from the ceiling in a circle in the living room, which is located directly below the flooded bathroom. I freak out and get Jeff, stating as calmly as I can that we have a problem. He promptly freaks out with me as he realizes what's going on. We get all the furniture plus the Asian rug moved out of the living room into the kitchen & entryway and throw all remaining towels in a circle on the wood floor. Jeff turns off the water to the toilet and says we have to wait until morning to call the insurance. I try to see the silver lining and point out that we were thinking of remodeling the kitchen & living room anyway.......he fails to see the humor or possibilities with that right then. However, about 10 minutes later he realizes that if we have to tear down the sheetrock he'd be able to wire the ceiling for a projector......Anyhoooo, we try to go back to sleep until 7:00; no such luck for me as Maggie realizes the sun is coming up and decides it's time to get up. Oh goody. So I call Farmers around 8:00 am and contact the claims center and basically begin the waiting game for return calls. Unfortunately they all occur within about a 5 minute time-span during a downpour at the club during swim lessons while I'm trying to corrale two pre-schoolers to dry ground (yes they were already wet from being in the pool but for some reason the thought of getting wet from raindrops was more than they could handle) so suffice it to say, it wasn't my best "mother" moment. I get home and the guy from Servicemaster arrives to start testing the house for water. In short, they've had to pull up some carpet (just installed in late January) and the tile in the bathroom so the fans and de-humidifiers could dry things out. We also have the fan & de-humidifier in the living room, so we can't have a decent conversation in most of the house and can't use the living room for lounging, playing, TV watching, etc. So basically our lives are in a big state of disarray. I just keep reminding myself, it could have been sooooo much worse.

On the good side, Jeff & I just got back from a weekend retreat at the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas while the girls spent some quality time with his parents in OKC. We loved the hotel, the food, the shopping and the time alone!! Last night we got massages at 8:30 pm, then had room service before falling into bed; what a wonderful way to spend an evening!!! We badly needed the couple time and with our house in it's current state, this was the perfect weekend to go. We plan to do it several times a year.......

So now it's back to reality and all it's little messes. But we're glad to be home.........