Extreme Makeover Home Edition

So, two weeks ago we thought we had a clogged drain. That clogged drain turned into a broken pipe...under the slab. That clogged pipe turned into..."we'll have to take the cabinet out to get to that". Which turned into..."wait there is actually a problem further out in the floor too".

Hmm...

This is the initial work to look at the problem yesterday morning.

It's hard to tell from the picture but that hole goes down about 3 feet.

That's the place where the oven was until lunchtime, when they realized they were going to have to jackhammer under it.

Unfortunately, the pipe didn't run the direction that they thought and the next step is to move the island and bust up the floor going toward the guest bathroom. But, that's a task for tomorrow.

The smell of sewer water is permeating our house. We have the kitchen all closed off but it still smells all throughout the downstairs in a way that no amount of candle burning could ever cover up. It will be interested to see what today brings. I know that it will definitely bring a trip to buy some air freshener and probably a lunch prepared in someone's kitchen other than my own!

Silver Dollar City

This weekend we took all of the big kids up to Branson to Silver Dollar City. It was their first trip and they LOVED it! Cuatro stay at home with Gabby and that made my trip A LOT more relaxing. We ended up having beautiful fall weather which just added to the fun.

We started the day by taking all three kids on Fire in the Hole. I will say that since I'm scared of Fire in the Hole, I don't know what made me think that it was good to take all of the little people on it. We got by with just a few tears, one quivering lip and two kids who decided that they wanted to ride again. Kate ended up LOVING roller coasters! This is a picture of her and Chris at the top of Powderkeg. I'm glad that Chris has a friend to ride with now. lol!

We are thankful for a wonderful weekend together and look forward to many more trips to Silver Dollar City!

The Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very Bad Week

Last weekend was wonderful! We had no commitments. We spent time with friends. I had a night out with the girls. I spent Sunday afternoon with my sweet in-laws enjoying a yummy meal that I didn't have to cook.

We even made it through Monday with not much damage, just the normal run of the mill stuff. Then Tuesday came.

Luke woke up with a fever and cough. It rained and the dog doesn't like to potty in the rain so I cleaned up an enourmous amount of puppy accidents. Because of the craziness of the morning, we didn't start homeschooling until 10:00, two hours past our normal start time. Luke's TV watching was a huge distraction to schooling on top of the fact that it's been raining for 40 days and 40 nights here and all of my other children are swinging from the chandeliers. We finally finished schooling at 4:00, only 4 1/2 hours late.

Last night I finally identified the funky smell that had been haunting me all day. There is water in our ventilation system. Perfect. The smell is enough to make you want to throw up. This morning I turned the heat down to try to keep the smell from being blown through out the house. I've even covered some of the vents that I pass by regularly to try to prevent gagging.

Luke still has a fever. There are only 2 more days until I am suppose to go on a trip with my mom and Kate which means that in the midst of today's homeschool lessons, I'm trying to keep all of the other 3 kids away from Luke in the hope that no one else will get sick. I don't feel good about my chances. He's like a sibling magnet!

Then as I was trying to fix the little boys breakfast, I realized that the dishwasher was leaking all over the kitchen floor. Really?? Why??

I guess we all have those Margarita drinkin', eyeball pokin' weeks! Hopefully this one will end with me enjoying a beautiful weeking at War Eagle!

Smooth Like Butter

Yes indeed! Today's mission at Larsen Academy was to make butter!

I was shocked at how easy it was! Not to mention how exciting it is to look in your jar and see REAL BUTTER!!!

Don't get me wrong, it's not so easy that I'm going to make this my primary butter source. That is of course, unless we buy a cow and use that as our primary source of milk. Don't hold your breath on that one. I'm strange but not strange enough to have a dairy cow out behind our house in the middle of suburbia.

The results of our project were greatly enjoyed by all during snack time today! Oh, the joys of homeschooling! lol!