Scarf

I made a scarf.  I wanted it done quick, so I cut loooong strands, knotted them together on one end, and did a 4 strand braid (with several strands of yarn making up each "strand").

~cozy~

Halloweens past and present

Have a happy and safe Halloween everyone.

Also, here's a great idea for what to do with all the halloween candy.

http://www.halloweencandybuyback.com/

Wordless Wednesday 2

Great shot from my sister's special day.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Plumbing issues....

Today's post is brought to you by: My wonderful husband.  

So there's been a slow leak under my kitchen sink for a long time. I was pretty sure that it was the drain pipe at the connection to the p-trap. For a long time, I was happy to put it off and leave a bucket under the sink. As long as I checked on the bucket every so often to make sure it wasn't overflowing, everything was good. Every once in a while the wetness would seem to come from somewhere else and the towel under the bucket would end up wet. But this was sporadic. So on the one hand it was not a huge problem, but on the other hand it made determining the source of the problem more difficult.

Well last week - the procrastination had to stop as there was a new source of drippage under my sink. The faucet just began dripping from the bottom at a pretty good rate. It no longer took my bucket a few weeks to get full, but about half a day.

So Sunday afternoon I undertook to replace my faucet.

We went online and found a relatively inexpensive one at Lowe's and went down to pick it up. I thought I was in for a few hours of work. The instructions said 45 minutes, but I knew there was no way and that it would end up being at least 2 hours....heh....I was in for more fun that I imagined.

It's funny how a half an hours work can be reduced to one line "Remove the old faucet". Rather it should say "strap on your headlamp for a half an hour on your back with your arms straight up in the air holding a wrench and a pair of pliers and trying to undo about ten years worth of corrosion".

Of course when I got the old faucet out and the new one in, it turned out the rubber seal on the fittings were completely destroyed and leaking all over the place. Well, a trip to Home Depot to replace these taught me that "that's the old way of doing things" and I would have to buy completely new hoses, and of course new valves. So I went home to get the old pieces to ensure I bought the right size new parts. This of course required shutting off the water to the house. No problem though as I was going to run back out to the Home Dee-Pot and get the required replacement valves and work late into the night to get the problem fixed. The only problem was that both Home Depot and Lowe's were closed early due to it being Sunday. So our water was off and the valves removed and we were out of water for the night. I stopped at Albertson's to get some bottled water for drinking and teeth brushing and the like. This is fun! It's like camping at home!

So at this point I was 7 hours into my 45 minute project, and I knew I would have to take at least the first part of Monday off work because I couldn't leave the family with no toilet and no dishwashing water all day.

Despite the fact that the main valve was shut off, water continued to drip from the pipes all night long and by morning the bucket was overflowing. yay!

Well - thanks to my Grandpa coming over and lending his expertise, I was able to go to both Lowe's and Home Depot and come home with most of what I would need to finish the project, and by about 10:30 the old fitting were cut off the pipes and the new valves were on and the water to the house was back on.

Well to shorten up this long story, I'll just say I had another trip out to both Lowe's and Home Depot in store. I also had about two or three more times of thinking "ahh, finally done" just to find out I wasn't.

What was supposed to be a new faucet with a cool little sprayer turned out to be: a new tee at the drain pipe, buying a new air gap for the dishwasher drain then throwing it away, buying a new 7/8" hose for the dishwasher drain and not using it, buying a new direct attachment from the dishwasher to the garbage disposal, two new valves, two new supply hoses, a new cap for the random hole drilled in the top of the sink by a previous owner, AND a new faucet with sprayer.

It was a long, tiresome, painful, expensive process, but I feel so happy now that we have a new faucet and everything underneath the sink seems to be in good working order. The cold water valve still has a really really slow drip. Maybe it will calcify shut in a couple days, or maybe there's going to be more adventure in store as I try to fix that.

I'm sure this story bring back fond memories of similar experiences for most other home owners, especially owners of older homes. No project is what it appears to be. Whatever you see is only the first domino to fall, or the tip of the iceberg - whichever analogy you prefer.

Sadly - this experience makes me more prone to procrastinate on other projects. I'm never sure if this one hour project will turn out to be the one that ends up lasting 30 hours instead!

Joshua blogs at http://anotherdayanothernewthing.blogspot.com/

He has great insight and a wonderful style.  I promise you'll be challenged intellectually if you give it a read.

Blessings~

Camp-in

The kids and I had a "camp in" while Daddy was having his "camp out".  It made being alone in the house less uncomfortable and more adventurous.  The kids loved it!  We watched "How it's Made" on the Science Channel.  It's Ballerina's favorite show.  

Kid's names

I've decided to nickname my kids on the blog here.....based upon their personalities.  So here you go:

Add caption

We shall call her "Ballerina" for obvious reasons.

This one shall be called "Hipster" since he spends 50 % of his time on my hip.  :)

Have a pleasant evening ya'll!

My take on the Waterfall Braid.

I wanted little C's hair to be out of her face.  I love the look of the waterfall braid these days, but I wanted her hair all up.  I decided to modify it and use the fall through pieces to pull into a second braid.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  She agrees.

Break

I'm taking this week to unplug and get stuff done around here......See ya'll in a few days!

Guest post from my Mountain Man coming soon.  Stay tuned............

From Pintrest....

Irena Sendler 1910-2008 A 98 year-old German woman named Irena Sendler recently died. During WWII, Irena worked in the Warsaw Ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist. Irena smuggled Jewish children out; infants in the bottom of the tool box she carried and older children in a burlap sack she carried in the back of her truck. She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers wanted nothing to do with the dog, and the barking covered the kids’ and infants’ noises. Irena managed to smuggle out and save 2500 children. She eventually was caught, and the Nazis broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar buried under a tree in her backyard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and reunited some of the families. Most had been killed. She helped those children get placement into foster family homes or adopted.Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. Al Gore won- for a slide show on Global Warming

Wordless Wednesday

This photo moved me.  Choose the things you say to your kids carefully.

Jibberish

Juice on my floor

food in my hair

toys cast aside

do they even care?

Laundry unfolded

beds are unmade

Is that pee on the floor?

Whew!  Just lemonade.

Stains on my t-shirt

dirt on the rug

yesterday's coffee 

still in my mug......

Cooking, cleaning, 

mopping and such

who'd a thought 

I'd love it this much?

A perfect house

can't always be,

nobody knows it 

better than me.

But would I change it?

Not even a bit!

For joy is found

inside of it.

~Regina 2011