Flood of 2011

This year couldn't begin without incident...and in this household incident usually means a pipe bursting and a flood of some sort. We are jinxed in that way for some reason! This is our 4th official flooding since living in Texas...official meaning we were actually wading in water. We've also had unofficial floods caused by rain storms, where the carpets get wet and ruined, and our life gets turned upside down, but there's no swimming involved. This time the water spigot outside froze, and the pipe in the kids closet burst, and we all had a fun slip sliding time! HA! I guess the kids would call it fun, but Bryce and I call it something else entirely!!  I like to say this flood was "less bad than it could have been." And I guess that could mean many things, but for us it meant only half the house was flooded. We opened the front door and let the water rush out, so it didn't seep all the way through the living room and into the kitchen and master bedroom. But the kids room, bathroom, half the living room, and Bryce's studio all were sitting in a couple inches of water.

We're now in recovery mode, which means the carpets are drying out, and we're waiting for the carpet guys to come replace the pads so we can get our house put back together! It's an awful limbo. We are functioning, but barely. And people are doing their best to help us out however possible, so we'll make it through! (Plus I get to do some early spring cleaning....joy!)

As you can imagine I didn't get to snap many pics while
the flood was happening, but here's one, that sticker
is floating in the kids room

This used to be a bathroom...now it's Bryce's studio ;)
Maybe we should keep it this way!

The dry half of the house bears the burden of everything
from the wet half. And we're left with very few feet of space to maneuver and live! But Diamond Baby doesn't seem to mind!

“Two” many kids…too much to drink…and Walmart!

I’ll tell you I’ve never paid attention to this before, but I’m sure paying attention now, moms are truly amazing. Grocery shopping with a toddler was a challenge in and of itself, but adding a newborn to the mix I’ve found requires super skills and an engineering degree!

I’m certain it was a man who invented shopping carts - a bachelor no less, without even a niece or a nephew to think about. Maybe his mother mentioned to him that they should have a little seat for a kid somewhere, so he stuck one in there, but he must have been reading some strange statistic that said families only have one and maybe ½ kids! So shopping carts are obviously not made for gigantic families like ours (yes we have two now). If the infant seat goes in the basket…where do you put the groceries? If it goes in the seat area…where do you put the toddler? And regardless of what method is “best” the toddler will certainly disagree and want to be wherever the baby is…or else he will be playing fireman, and pushing the cart (and the precariously perched baby seat) away from you as you stop to pick out some tomatoes! So….shopping is a challenge! Kudos to all you other moms who already have this one down to an art…I’m impressed!

Anyway, as if shopping (and having a newborn) weren’t challenging enough add to it that we’re potty training our toddler. No, I’m not a masochistic mother…this potty training idea was actually daddy’s idea. We decided to use General Conference weekend to make it happen, since we’d both be home all weekend, and basically be sitting there for hours just waiting to hear “I gotta go pee pee” (and listening to the speakers too of course). Now, The Snack is an amazing toddler, and I knew that once he was ready for this it would just “click” which really it did, and he’s doing great, but…we still have our challenges (wow it’s hard to wipe a bum while nursing a month old baby!). So, Bryce and I…well, really The Snack, determined that Pull-ups are nothing more than glorified diapers, so we decided to do away with them in our potty training (it’s so convenient to just pee pee and keep playing when you know it’s not going to come running down your leg). And so day 1 without Pull-ups and I find myself…dun dun dun…at Walmart of all places.

Now, you experienced mothers know that being out in public with a potty training toddler requires “mom training” more than anything else, but keeping track of time in the black hole called Walmart is virtually impossible! So we’re standing in the check out line 2 minutes from being done and a frantic little voice pipes up, “huh! I gotta go pee pee!” (que the music)…dun dun dun “wait, Snack, can you wait?! Don’t go, ok?!” “Ok, mama” and he waited!!! Wow, what a kid. So 2 minutes later I’m rushing off to find a bathroom (of course only to find out hours later that I left my last bag at the check out…another story). When I get there I just stop and stare at the door dumbfounded. What do I do now? I have a cart full of groceries, including melting popsicles, a month old baby sleeping in a carrier, and a toddler who needs to pee! And I’m staring at the door of a WALMART BATHROOM! Darn those little bladders! So I bump the door open with my butt and peek inside. “Oh…there is just no way I’m going in there!” Grimy floors, scummy stalls, and where the heck do you put the shopping cart and the baby…never mind how in the world you get a toddler to pee in a toilet without touching it!

So here’s the big question. What’s more daring…

Braving a Walmart bathroom?

Or

Taking a gamble and facing the possibility of pee all over the car etc.?

So I made my choice…

“Can you wait, Snack?” And, hallelujah, he did! What a kid!

There were incidents and accidents...

Golly...how can I find time for blogging with all the other craziness that happens in life?! So the other day I hear this hissing noise coming from behind the fridge, which is plenty frightening, then water...no, strike that...WATER came pouring out everywhere! So the story is; the line that feeds the ice maker burst, and my kitchen floor got a good washing in places that have never seen the bristles of a broom, never mind a mop! Of course the Dad-n had just left like 20 minutes earlier, so I was alone on this one...well, me and The Snack. So I'm trying to squeeze behind the fridge and The Snack is standing at the edge of the kitchen with water lapping at his toes saying "Wha happn' mama? Wha happn' mama?" Trying to stay calm as I twist, and twist, and try to twist some more, the knob that supposedly shuts the water off, I yell "get some towels, Snack!" Knowing that sending my two year old off to fetch towels is a fruitless effort, but he nevertheless attempts to comply and goes running off to each bathroom coming back empty handed. Of course he can't reach our towels on the back of the bathroom door, but it brings some relief to me that I can at least yell some orders out. Eventually after getting ENTIRELY drenched I got the knob to turn the right direction and turned the water off. Then after breast stroking my way to the bathroom I grabbed all the towels I could and dropped them in the water...but as we all know, a towel doesn't really do too much to lap up a lake. So I set to work with the mop (wishing I'd invested in a wet/dry vacuum like my genius mother has...but hey, she's got YEARS on me, ok). Of course The Snack is always willing to lend a hand "my turn mama?" grabbing the mop and nearly knocking over my bucket of freshly absorbed ocean. Eventually I get the water up, but of course floods aren't cooperative, and they like to get into EVERYTHING. So, needless to say, my pantry as well as my laundry room got a little "Spring Cleaning." Which of course brings about new stories and tasks that I don't even want to go into! Now, if only I'd had the presence of mind amidst all of this to snap some great blog photos, but I'm certain you can all have a good time imagining this scene on your own.

Poop.

Ok...so NOT a picture worthy post. We visited friends this past weekend, and they have a boy about the same age as The Snack, who is potty training. Well...it got a little quiet so I sent Dad-n to check it out. He came back looking green. "Poop" was all he could say. The other boy had let one slide right onto the floor and was playing in it! Fortunately The Snack only had a little tiny bit on his foot. Oh boy. But of course we didn't learn our lesson! Yes...it happened again! This time we weren't so fortunate. The Snack comes to me with what looks like chocolate on his hands (and I soon noticed everywhere else). My friend and I both go "oh that isn't..." Yeah, it was. I should have just asked for a hose this time! I just hope and pray that The Snack doesn't get any ideas!!!!!!

Inevitable...

Some people call it Murphy's law, and it doesn't matter what you call it...it happens! So one day my mom is commenting to me about always keeping a change of clothing in the car for my son. I think to myself, "yeah, that's smart, but I've never ended up needing it sooo..."

Ok, so then THE VERY NEXT DAY we're down at the art museum, and it has this incredible reflecting pool almost surrounding the whole building (like a magnet for The Snack). We've been there several times before, and Snack likes to look at the water and be close to the water...but this time was different...


He goes around the corner and my mom is following him and suddenly....SPLASH! So...did she push him in to prove her point or what!? ;) (LOL) Moms...go figure...are they always right? I like to think I am!

The Snack attempts to dry off after his little dip