O.k., so my TTT post is late again.  Suffice it to say I was exhausted all day yesterday, plus I was preparing for Mother’s Day.  (Yeah, I’m a mom, but Andrew and I each have mothers too!)

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After  lunch one day, Paul said to me, “Don’t do the dishes, lady.”

“Are you going to do them, gentleman?” I asked him.

“No.  Daddy will,” is what he said.

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Recently, I coughed once or twice.  I was very surprised when Hannah came over and gently patted me on the back and said in a soft, concerned voice, “Are you alright?”  She was so tender, gentle and caring, it was so sweet to be the recipient of her care!

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The last time I was cutting fingernails and toenails, Paul was repeatedly telling me I could trim his fingernails but not his toenails.  As I was getting done the fingernails and soon going to start on the toenails despite his instructions, he then pointed to his right tiny toe and said, “Don’t cut this one out.”

Then, as I was trimming the toenails on his right foot, he then pointed to the tiny toe on his left foot and said, “Don’t cut this one.  It would give me a sense of hurt.”  I’ll never know where he got that phrase to describe pain!

By the way, my little people need their fingernails trimmed about every 5 days.  They aren’t just long enough to handle a trimming, they are turning into dangerous tiger claws by then.  All I can say is they must be healthy!

Paul writing in one of his wipe-clean books.

Hannah & her daddy playing tin whistles.

Tonight we had grilled, marinated chicken breasts for a main part of our supper.  (We aren’t afraid of grilling over here, and we love it when it’s marinated first!)  A little after supper, when the coals were still good and hot, we got some skewers and the marshmallows and helped Paul and Hannah roast a few.  They had eaten so much chicken, and Hannah had also eaten so many Garlic-Parmesan Potato Wedges, that they didn’t want to eat many marshmallows.  I think Hannah only ate one, even though she roasted three.  I believe Paul ate 2 or 3.

Hannah really wanted to do it all by herself, but
without assistance, her marshmallows always
hit the ashes.

(Of course it got in her hair!  What else
would mama do if there weren’t baths
to give and hair to wash?)

There were days in my past when I ate roasted marshmallows, and then, after they were invented, S’mores.  Tonight, I sneaked and ate 1 and 1/2 roasted marshmallows, and I saved one of Hannah’s roasted-but-not-eaten marshmallows to eat before I exercised.  They were very, very good!

That would be the conclusion of the leaking water situation in our house.  Very early Monday morning, as in around 1:00 or something like that, Andrew put some type of sticky, gooey repair tape on the leak in the pipe in the wall behind the kitchen sink.  Later, when we all got up on Monday morning, there were drips of water on the patch, but there was no water dripping in the basement and the bucket in the basement was dry.  We were so happy!

Andrew called the contractor who built our addition, and he said since it was a rainy day, he would send one or two of his guys over to assess the leak, and possibly even fix it today.  We were even happier!

A little before noon, two of “the men”, as Hannah calls them, came, assessed the leak, and went off to get parts.  Meanwhile, Paul, Hannah and I went to Bridgewater to eat lunch with my grandmother at the home.  By the time we came back, the guys had turned off the water, cut out the holey part of the pipe and put in another piece, and turned the water back on again!  They were all finished and gone when we got home.  Joy of joys!  And, the bill was very much less that we had anticipated back when we first realized we had a serious problem.

The brass bump on the pipe is the
repaired part.

I now have my kitchen back in working order.  Andrew plans to cover up the holes in the wall, but even with the holes there, I am enjoying using my new kitchen faucet!  I wanted one that was tall in order to get big pots under it.  I also remembered that some or one of my sisters has a kitchen faucet with a pull-out head.  You can wave it around like a wand and put water different places or spray things off.  That’s what we got!

Paul and Hannah really like this new faucet too.  They want to wash their hands here often, and I believe Hannah would play here all day long if I would let her.

Praise the Lord for a fully functioning kitchen!

Needless to say, our water leak situation did not self-heal over night.  In fact, is has only worsened.  Later today it was leaking from the ceiling in the basement at 2 places, so we had to put another bucket under the second drip.

So, last night, after a run to Lowe’s for gaskets, Andrew replaced the gaskets in the kitchen faucet.  That didn’t fix the problem.  After doing all that, Andrew also discovered that water was leaking from the hose that takes the water from the copper pipe to the faucet, and all the connections were corroded and rotting and the actual hose was leaking.  Hence, he determined that the new gaskets were a waste of money and we needed a  whole new faucet apparatus.

After church today, we buzzed over to Lowe’s and picked up a new faucet–and some more plumber’s grease.  As soon as we got home and had finished lunch, Andrew set about to taking out the old faucet and installing the new one.

As seems to be the theme with this project, one thing leads to another.  After he removed the old faucet, he realized the back of the cabinet was much more accessible than when a faucet and hoses were in there.  So, he decided to cut out the back of the cabinet and the dry wall behind it so we could see the leak and have it open and ready for the professional plumbers, whenever they get here.  The only problem was that we didn’t have anything to cut it out with.  So, he buzzed off to Lowe’s yet again while I was fixing food for our church’s carry-in meal this evening.

He came back with this handy and loud little gizmo that cuts through drywall.  He said it’s what the men had used when remodeling our house.  (I said, so is it a “see one, do one, teach one” thing here?)  He cut and cut out pieces of wall, and everywhere he cut it was dry behind there.  It was time to leave for church, so he had to put the project on hold until we got back.
Once we got back home, he cut around some more for over an hour.  Still no sign of where the water was coming from.  Then, he got the tape measure and was measuring down in the basement to try to determine exactly where it should be in relation to the bathtub, which was visible in the basement and through the holes in the kitchen cabinets.

Finally, he found the leak.  It is a hole in the back side of one of the copper pipes carrying water up from the basement to the kitchen sink.  The front of the pipe is dry, and that’s why we didn’t see any wetness when he cut the holes  in the cabinets.  The water was running down only the back side of the pipe!

Andrew was trying to figure out a way to stop the leak until we can get some plumbers here (and we don’t want to pay for emergency services, so likely we’ll be put on a waiting list for several days or a week).  He was going to take the inner tube out of his bicycle and use a piece of that to try to make a patch.  I recommended using balloons instead.  So he tried that.

Needless to say, it didn’t work.  We also didn’t have any hose clamp thingies to tighten it really good with.  So, at 10:40 in the night, Andrew decided to head out to Wal-Mart to find something to stop this leak until we can get some professional help for it.  He just got back, and now has the water cut off while he’s working at installing some temporary repair stuff.  I really hope it works, because this is what the damage looks like so far.

Through all this, I am working in a compromised kitchen.  The island is piled high with plumbing supplies and tools.

All the stuff from three cabinets are stacked around the kitchen or in other various places so this problem can be addressed.

And, I have no kitchen sink!!  I’ve been using the bathroom sink for all my kitchen needs so far, which is nice, but not nearly as handy.

So, this afternoon, I made a casserole, a cake, and a tossed salad using a tiny corner of the kitchen.  Sigh.  It’s possible, but I really hope we can get things back to normal before too long!  If finding the problem is at least half the battle, then we’re on the road to victory!

Thank you, Andrew!

(He has braved spider webs and dead and live centipedes to work on this!  If you know Andrew very well at all, this is a big deal for him.)

My goals for this week were to go through the clothes in Paul’s & Hannah’s rooms and take out the ones that were too small or out of season and thoroughly clean their rooms.  I wanted to get it done by the end of the week.  There were days when I was completely worn out and didn’t do a thing to further my goal, and I was beginning to wonder if I would meet it.

I am hereby announcing that the project is done!  Complete with washing the curtains and windows, vacuuming (and in Hannah’s room, floor-washing), and dusting.

Hannah helping me wash windows.
(I was talking on the phone, that’s
why my hand is up at my face.)

And, the grown-out-of clothes have been returned to their owners, and the ones that were mine are packed in the appropriate boxes in the basement.  If any of you have known me for very long, one of my most disliked tasks that I can procrastinate forever on is going through clothes.  Especially those of my kids where I have to sort them, return some, sort the keepers further in the basement, and then find a place for the box in the basement.  Mine, well, I just decide what I’m keeping and send the rest to Goodwill, or some other thrift store.  Much easier.

When I was going through the clothes in Paul’s room, I let Paul & Hannah watch a DVD of children singing.  They rarely get to see these DVD’s and they loved it.  I enjoyed  not having my clothing piles strewn around the room as I was sorting the clothes.

Now that our addition is done, I’m sure something else will fall to rot and ruin each week.  It has already started!  This evening I discovered a significant water leak in the basement.  It seems to be coming from up in the wall between the bathroom and the kitchen.  We can’t see the source of the leak.  We did know that the base of the kitchen spigot did leak some water, but not anywhere near that amount.  Andrew put a bucket under the leak in the basement, and we took a trip to Lowe’s to get new gaskets for the kitchen spigot.

Andrew stepped out of his programmer role and into a plumber one and worked on this.  He says he hopes success is proportional to the amount of plumber’s grease used!

Despite clearing up this leaky gasket situation, our leak in the basement seems not better, but worse.  I guess we might be, (ouch) calling a professional plumber on Monday and emptying the bucket every so often until then.  I guess if the water starts positively gushing out down there, we’ll just have to cut off the main water valve to the house except when we need water.

This post won’t save you any money, or tell you how to sniff out sales, etc., but this is a little picture of how I handle shopping with my 2 and 3 year-old, especially when I am alone with them.  We had  a very successful shopping trip this morning when we did a few short stops on the way to a doctor’s appointment for them.

When they’re really little, they ride in their little car seat in the shopping cart.  Then, they get big enough to ride in the cart without an additional seat.   The challenge at that stage is to keep them from chewing on the germ-laden shopping cart handle.

Then comes the walking stage when they don’t want to ride in the cart, or there are no carts at the store and they’re too big for a stroller.  How does one keep control and not end up with a large bill from the kids breaking things, poking holes in bags of food, etc.?

Well, I didn’t read any instructions in the manual for this, but I’ve found the tricks that work for me.  (And yes, once I had to buy a package of cheese that one of my kids poked a hole in, and a bag of pretzels that they had dropped on the floor and broken.  I started learning really fast!)

In a store with a cart, if they want to walk, they can walk but they cannot run around.  They have to stay right with me.  I explain to them right up front that if they run around or touch things,  they will have to ride in the cart.  And, I carry through with it.  Usually, they do very good at not running around and not touching things because they want to walk.  And, if they have to get in the cart and ride, they don’t fuss about it because they know what they did to lose their walking privilege.

In stores without a cart, I explain that they have to walk right beside me and not touch anything or else they will have to sit on the floor in one spot while I do the shopping.  And, there have been times when I’m going through clothing racks that I have backed them up to a display and had them sit there until I was finished (of course I was going through a rack right there beside them, I never sit them on the floor and walk away).  It might not seem like the most exciting thing in the world, but it worked.  And, they didn’t cry or fuss or pitch a fit.  Most of the time they do just fine and I don’t have to make them sit on the floor.  But, they know that if they misbehave, then they will have to sit down.

So, those are my survival tactics for shopping.  It also helps not to have hungry, thirsty kids.  Unless we are going out for a very short time, I usually grab the box of fish crackers or some teddy grahams and the water cups to take along.  If it gets close to lunch time, I give them a little snack in between stores so we don’t have fussing and whining because of hunger.

The pictures are of this afternoon.
After we got home from shopping
and had lunch, Paul & Hannah
played in some boxes.

This was supposed to be Tiny Talk Tuesday, but since I went to my sister Miriam’s house to help her on Tuesday, this is a Tiny Talk Thursday post!  O.k., how’s that for a fancy way of saying I’m really behind in my blogging.  I assure you that all these quotes are from before Tuesday.

Hannah states while patting her head, “This is my neck.”  We then helped her know where her neck was!

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While we were preparing for Miriam & Susannah’s baby shower, my brother Glen was here helping out some of the time.  One evening after supper, Paul, Hannah and Glen were outside and Paul and Hannah were running a lot.  As it was getting dark, Paul came in and I suggested he get a book for Uncle Glen to read to them.  Paul said, “I will [have Uncle Glen] read to me to help my runs,” as he was rubbing his ribs on both sides.  “These are my runs,” he went on to explain, as he rubbed his sides.  I explained to him that those were called side-stitches.

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We went outside to get in the car recently, and a squirrel was in the yard under the tree in plain view.  Hannah said with excitement, “There’s a dinosaur!”

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When we traveled to PA this weekend, Andrew had ridden up with some other Chorus members and Paul, Hannah and I drove up Saturday evening after the shower.  (The trip went excellently, by the way.)  During the trip, Paul started hiccuping, but I didn’t pay any attention to it.  After a couple of hiccups, Paul said very seriously and with concern in his voice, “Something’s the matter.”

I had no idea what was wrong and I was driving so I just asked him what was the matter.

“I keep burping,” he said.

I told Paul those were hiccups and they were o.k. and would stop after a while.  I believe that was the first time in his memorable life that he’s had hiccups!

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The Rockingham Male Chorus sang three programs on Sunday.  At the last one, as the Chorus members were filing in and it was all quiet except for the piano playing, Hannah was standing beside me on the bench watching.  When she saw Andrew, she loudly proclaimed, “There’s Daddy!”  I know the whole church heard that there was her daddy!

Paul & Hannah enjoying ice cream sandwiches
that Aunt Gail gave us.

I could not believe this this morning.  I was stunned.  I don’t know how it happened.  Either I’m completely losing my mind, or it’s a fall-0ut-of-the-sky out-and-out miracle.

Many of you know that we went to PA over the weekend for Andrew to sing in the Rockingham Male Chorus programs up there (and the quartet that he sings in debuted!).  Well, when we got back, I couldn’t find my hair spray anywhere.  I use it daily or else I have a curtain of hair hanging over my face and in my eyes.  I searched the van, the suitcase, the bags we took along, and the bathroom cabinets and drawers.  I even searched in the old bathroom.  I couldn’t find it anywhere.  Andrew suggested we might have left it in the hotel.  I knew that wasn’t the case because I specifically remembered putting it in the front of the car when we left the hotel thinking I’d use it at some point that day to fix up my hair.

I went all Tuesday and Wednesday with shaggy, annoying hair.  I even searched the bathrooms, van and the bags a second time.  Wednesday evening after Bible study when we stopped at Wal-Mart, I got another bottle.  I put it in the bathroom medicine cabinet.

This morning, when I opened the cabinet to get out the hairspray to fix my hair, this is what I saw.

Do you see that?  A bottle of hairspray on the bottom shelf (the old bottle) and one on the top shelf!!  How could I have missed it all those times when I was searching? Am I blind?  Is this the miracle of the restored hairspray?  I cannot explain it.

As many of you may know, we had a baby shower for Miriam and Susannah on Saturday.  I know some people are just dying to see the pictures.  Well, we’ve had a pretty big weekend and needed a little recovery time today, so tonight I am just doing a quick post of the shower preparations.  I promise that there are a lot more pictures of Susannah for the next post, the actual Baby Shower post.  But, now, for the preparations pictures!

Hannah helped me wrap presents for the shower
one morning before breakfast.  We used blue
Tigger paper because that’s what we had!

We did a lot of cleaning and organizing and moving
of stuff into our new rooms in preparation for the
shower.  Amidst all that movin’ and shakin’, we
found this pair of kid’s sunglasses.  They were a hot
item!

Unfortunately, in the final days before
the shower, my kids got put on automatic
more than a few times while I was working.
Doesn’t Hannah look lonely and deprived?

Happy times came when Gail and Bobby came to
help clean.  Here the little folks are taking a snack
break (because supper was really, really late that eve.)
and eating some “Bubble Balls” as Hannah called
the Yogo Bites that Aunt Gail brought.

Uncle Glen also spent some time here
helping out.  One of the ways he helped
out was to be a little kid entertainer!

Rachel was the main decorator for the shower.
With a little brainstorming, we decided to decorate
with the many teddy bears that our grandma
Gardner had made (one for almost all of us) over
the years, and with the porcelain dolls a lady had
made all of use girls (except for Katie; she wasn’t
born yet at the time).  We used some of Paul’s and
Hannah’s alphabet blocks and baby blankets.  All
the crocheted or knitted ones were made by my
sisters Lucy and Miriam.
Who needs to use commercial decorations when
we have stuff like this in our closets?  We did have to
do some scrambling and digging to find the bears and
dolls of the ones who live out of state and have their
stuff in storage around here locally.

I know this pink blanket was made by Miriam.

The night before the great visit from Susannah!
Paul slept with this trash truck of Bobby’s that
he graciously let Paul play with until Bobby came
back the next day.

Princess Susannah has arrived with
with her mommy!

Paul & Susannah.

Hannah & Susannah (remember that
they both have the birthday of March 11th?)

And, after that, guests started arriving and the party began.  So, stay tuned for up-dates in the near future!

Paul and Hannah were snuggling on our bed while I was working at my office.  Paul called out, “Please shut the door, Mommy.  Genesis 2:1″

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Paul says to Hannah, for no particular reason, “No!  Hannah!”

Hannah immediately says very seriously, “You say, ‘Yes ma’am’.”

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On one of the 90 degree days (or nearly that) this week, Hannah was outside and came to the door and asked for a coat.  I told her no.  Then, she started crying and said, “But I’m hot!”

Later, Paul was walking around (same temperature) and said, “My legs are cold.”  I quickly assured him they were not!

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On Wednesday evening Hannah was being particularly wiggly during Bible Study.  At some point, after nearly an hour, and she was really struggling on my lap, I whispered to her, “What do you need?”  Hannah immediately whispered back, “I need to cry.”  Wow!  What a need!  No, she didn’t start crying.

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On Saturday we were getting ready to go to town to run some errands.  I told Paul we were getting ready to go to town and asked him what we do in town.  He said, “Buy things.”

I then asked him, “What do we buy things with?” with the intention of getting him to think that things cost money.

Paul said, “A list!”  (Hmmmmm….)

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Paul is pretty excited that Baby Susannah is coming this Saturday (for a baby shower).  On Sunday we were talking about it, and I told him that Susannah would be coming in 6 days.  Paul said, “Six days you shall labor.”  (He was quoting from the Ex. 20 passage he is memorizing.) You are so right Paul!  We will be laboring for the next six days getting ready for Susannah’s baby shower!

Now, a few pictures.

We finally got around to hiding their Easter
baskets yesterday morning.  I think these
cheese curls are about their favorite thing
from the baskets!

You can tell from these pictures why Hannah just about needs pigtails or extra barrettes in her hair at all times.  She is Hannah the Beautiful, and also Hannah Hair.  We still just love her curls!