Home Owning

Before we ventured into the word of owning a home (well, of letting a bank own our home) we were warned about the amount of work we were bringing on to ourselves. So I can't complain when it takes us all summer to get *most* of our sprinklers working correctly or when I discover a leaking pipe in the basement on the 4th of July, or when our main drain line breaks. After all, I was warned! And just in case you were wondering, those home warranties that you get after you buy a house are useless.

Our neighbor is a plumber, which is a huge win for us! Knowing a plumber is like knowing a good mechanic. (At least I think it would be like knowing a good mechanic...I don't actually know one, but I can assume.) The only problem with knowing your own plumber is he waits to work on your stuff when he has time. And if he has a deadline to finish a project at an elementary school that is opening in 5 days, that doesn't leave him a lot of time to fix your house. He DID come over and did a quick fix to make it more useable for a few days (thankfully). And of course when it broke we had company in town (bless you, Tina!) But after a couple of days I got to the point where I couldn't do laundry and I couldn't use my kitchen (the bathrooms run on a separate line). So basically we couldn't do much in the house. Not fun.

This is a bad picture of Dan jack hammering up our foundation. It was the only way to get to the pipe. It was nice of our neighbor to loan us the jack hammer, and it was nice of Dan to do it himself, because then we didn't have to pay the plumber for his time to do it.

Can you see that break?! Even the plumber was impressed. No one knows why it happened . . . the foundation shifting, tree roots, bad luck? Could have been anything.

And here it is all fancy new and fixed. Hoorah!

On to another *fun* house project. Back in June (or was it May?) I scored an awesome deal on a used swing set. It was already taken apart and all we had to do was haul it and put it together. Easy peasy, right? Well, it's super heavy so of course Dan hurt his back again trying to move it, and by the time his back was feeling better it was way.too.hot to spend any amount of time in the yard working on it. We also knew we would need help from family and we didn't want anyone having a heat stroke at our house while trying to put it together (because with our luck it probably would have happened!) So we FINALLY had a swing set raising party and thanks to all the men in our families we got it up. Hoorah!

It took all these men to get the side pieces connected to the top piece that Greg
is standing on. I was there to pass out cookies and remind them how manly
they are. 

The look of joy on Owen's face made it worth it. I think. :)

Owen with his cousins on the cool tire swing.

We let all the men go once the main platform was up, which left Dan and I to do the rest (but mostly Dan). He is becoming quite the handy man after a year of owning a house. We got everything up that day but the slide. We needed a few more bolts and it was getting too dark to finish, so the slide had to wait.

Owen played on it anyway.

This project took some SO MUCH nagging on my part, so Dan is grateful to have the wife off his back. And I am grateful that I can send Owen into the backyard to play while I make dinner and watch from the window. If we ever move this is NOT coming with us. Dan said the only way it's coming down is by fire. :)

And now here are some random pictures in no particular order.

My little cougar.

Can you guess what Owen's halloween costume is going to be?
(Assuming he actually keeps the wig on his head.) 

Mr. Dapper

These 2 play together all the time now and it is THE BEST!

Capes make everything better.

Stop growing up already! 

I always get stares from people at the grocery store when they see tiny Savannah holding herself up just fine in the cart. She'll be 10 months next week and has just started wearing 6 month clothes. At her last appointment she was 2% for weight. So little!

Once she figured out how to pull herself up, she has to stand all.the.time. Including when she is supposed to be napping. The dirty dog.

 Owen had his first day of joy school. Really it's just a glorified play group. It's once a week for two hours and he and I both love it. A win for everyone!

We survived our first stomach flu. He rocked it and threw up in the bowl, so thankfully the cleanup wasn't too bad. Joy school is bringing home lots of *fun* bugs. Tis the season I guess.

I came into the kitchen and found Owen "playing the drums."

I love this picture!

My little bear. :)

Grandpa visits are the best.

Savannah's right eye is pinwheel blue/brown. I LOVE it and I really hope it stays (although I'm doubtful). I finally captured it in a picture. Cool huh?!

And while I've been quickly creating this post and the kids were "playing" together, they made this mess with Owen's diapers. This is his last package of diapers and then I'm potty training. Pray for me.