AND... back to crazy!!!

The design business is picking up. Mostly the Holiday side but picking up new residential clients as well added to the on-going two I have been working with. I was painting a ceiling medallion Thursday at a client's home. I had to leave because I ran out of paint. I had not eaten anything that day and was going to run home and grab some bread with peanut butter before picking my two year old up at PDO. That is when it alll began.....

I walked into my kitchen hearing water spray and seeing a floor with pooled water in the center. Looked under my sink and water flowed out the cabinets. I thought it was my RO system and called Culligan first. They sent someone out the moment they got my call and then walked me through the valve shut offs. Did all that, water still running. I turned off the water at the wall. HUGE shout out to Culligan man- the valve had corroded and he had the tools on his truck to change it out. He also brought in a shop vac and fan. This was not even their issue. So we thought we were on the way to recovery. Ummm...... NO.

I walked in the living room and as I put pressure of my foot on the floor water came through the grooves of the planks of my wood laminate flooring. It was also running under the wall in common with the kitchen and living room. I called the Culligan man off and had to call in the big dogs.  DANG.

Long story short, they had to rip out all flooring and run 12 industrial drying units as well as 3 HUGE (size of outdoor a/c Units) de-humidifiers that hoses running into sinks in every bathroom.  This lasted FIVE DAYS.

We are now back in our house after a hotel stay, that I have to say was not that hard on me! No cooking or cleaning for FIVE DAYS! Returning home however has made my stomache turn. Everything is displaced. We are living on concrete. Went from no shoes in the house to don't take your shoes off til your getting in bed! It will probably be a month before we have flooring due to the insurance and ordering, getting in, and installing new flooring.

Where I could use your prayers:
1. Was supposed to have a cooking party for my daughter here in two weeks... thinking it will probably actually be better with concrete floors but there is some stress involved there.

2. The place we bought our flooring is no longer here. Matching the old is important because we cannot afford to replace flooring in the bedrooms.  Otherwise it would not matter. Pray we get a fair price for what we lost.

3. This has been especially fun with my toddler who cannot seem to keep his shoes on, and falls all the time. 

4. Prayer of Thanksgiving. This is so much easier to deal with than something like a fire or to where we lost unreplaceable items or someone could have been hurt. Thankful we HAVE insurance that is good. Its a pain and inconvenient but a spec in the grand scheme of things. IT is setting us back financially with our deductable and out of pocket expenses that have to wait to be re-imbursed. We are THANKFUL that we have jobs and can scrape by in the mean time.  We are THANKFUL for family and friends who stepped up and helped us with our kids on Thursday and Friday and for blessing us in areas that I can not share.  God is good ALL THE TIME.

Crazy to Lazy

  Last week was a doozy of one. Was hardly able to work on anything design related and things at our pre-school were not so great. LOTS of illness, with teachers AND kids, a major kid situation, all the while we had Scholastic Bookfair and our big fundraising spaghetti dinner Thursday night, also the night my husband left town for a golf trip in Ruidoso.  Usual afterschool activities and homework left me feeling exhausted. 

  The amazing thing is that everything went rather smoothly despite all the circumstance. Our director was out and the assistant stepped up to the plate and handled everything with a smile and incredible grace.  I managed to keep my cool and find joy in interacting with so many through the fair and dinner.  My house however suffered tremendously. I hardly stepped foot in it except to sleep, and my room to the major brunt of it. Feeling guilty about not fixing that as I type!!  Laundry got done at night but its clean ALL OVER MY ROOM! I am not able to spend ANY amount of time in there with out Levi following me and getting into stuff.  So I leave it and run b/c I don't want it in my living room!

  The best part of my week was last night when my daughter left for a slumber party and my two good girl friends came over to enjoy a pappa murphy's meditteranean pizza ( MY FAVORITE) and a little wine on the back porch with wonderful catch up conversation which was only interuppted a few times from the boys who mostly watch tv in their room.  I just don't get that enough.  I am not one who likes to have a girl's night out so much, but I absolutely adore a girls night in!

  The Design business is taking off slowly. I have partially finished one clients entry and dining and am working online with another and been introduced to several builders who have sent business my way. I am hoping to get involved in holiday decorating and there is a strong possibility I will be involved in our town's Parade of Homes tour next June.  Its rolling and I feel like I have no time!

 I'll leave you with some more fun fall pics and a preview of my shared boys room which is almost complete with the exception of hung drapery and wall art.

This is a friend's table for a party I helped with. She had all the stuff and I just put it together and added ribbons and rafia.

Ahhhh

My parents are in town so I was able to have some time to myself while they spent it with the rugrats! Got some decorationg done, laundry, and projects accomplished. Here are some of them....

I love Fall SO much that I only do Halloween that is easily removed to stay up through Thanks giving. I can thank my mom for all the fun little spider, bat, and owl silhouettes- she got them at Dollar Tree of allplaces!! SO fun! My decorative gene comes from her for sure!

MY FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR!