What. A. Week.

*note--if you're feeling down, just read this, it might make you feel better.

Monday: Let me just start off by saying that this week started off with my birthday on Monday. I am now 29. Only one year left in the 20's. I gotta admit it, I'm really sad about that.
So anyways, Bo had to work all. day. long. on my birthday. He left about 6 am ish and didn't get home till after midnight. That was a bummer deal, but whatever. Carter brought me lots of his toys wrapped in blankets as presents. What a sweetie. I treated myself to Chipotle for dinner. YUM. I did have a friend who hung out with me too, so it wasn't too bad.
Tuesday: Anyways, Tuesday wasn't bad either, just busy. I really really REALLY wanted to go to Harry Potter for my birthday, and Wednesday was Bo's only free night, so I tried getting a babysitter, but wouldn't you know it, all the babysitters either had mutual or institute for Wed. BUMMER.
Wednesday: I woke up Wednesday with the great idea that I'd swap with a friend in the ward (my only friend in the ward). She said she'd love to. SWEET. One problem. Carter started not feeling well and wouldn't eat a thing. I thought he might be tired and was optimistically hoping he would feel better after nap. Apparently not, because after nap he had a fever and was crying. Dang it. No date. Well at least no date out. Bo and I did make up for it, kinda, by renting part one of the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows and eating Panda Express while the kids cried themselves to sleep. haha.
Thursday: About two in the morning Carter came into my room saying he threw up. Joy. Luckily it was only a little, since honestly he hadn't eaten anything all day, and it was in a bowl. I helped him out, put him back to bed, and three hours later Derrick woke up ready to play. I got him back to sleep a little bit later only to have Meg come in at 7 am ready for the day. I knew it was going to be a long day, and I was dreading having to deal with Carter being sick. If only that were my problem for the day.
I came down the stairs with Meg, ready to sleep some more on the couch, only to hear a trickling noise. I thought it was the faucet, so I checked all the bathrooms. Nope. I looked up in my living room, and to my horror, could see patches starting to droop on the ceiling. No. Way. I ran upstairs, because yes, our water heater is upstairs, and sure enough, the water heater was broken. So was the tray under it. Kinda defeats the point of having a tray, if it's BROKEN. About a half hour later, the water started dripping out of my ceiling into my living room. Thank goodness I was at least prepared and had pans and towels ready.
I called Bo, who was on his way to work, and he told me to call the home warranty people. Home w. people said they'd have a plumber call me. He called me an hour later to inform me he would make it over as soon as he could, but it might not be till tomorrow. WHAT???? Thankfully he came at 2. From 7 am to 2 I was pretty much running up and down the stairs with wet and dry towels. So many towels. So much water. All by myself. Carter was still sick. He had diarhea. He needed me to help him. Derrick was hungry and wanting to be held. Megan wouldn't stop washing her little princess dolls in the pots of water on the floor that were collecting the water. Can we say AHHHHHHH! I remember thinking, it's not even 10 yet. We didn't get naps because we had to wait for the plumber men to come. They came. They looked at my ceiling, told me I'd better get a restoration guy here asap, went upstairs and confirmed the water heater had indeed broken (you think?), realized they brought the wrong water heater replacement, and left. Left me home to watch the water keep dripping even though they had said the water was turned off. Restoration guy came. He quoted $2500 at least. Thank heavens for insurance. Said as soon as he got permission from insurance, he'd get started.
I called the insurance people crying, because by then the water was a constant STREAM, no longer drips, I was on low sleep, my kids on no naps, and I couldn't call anyone because I don't know anyone here, its a 3 hour difference to WA where my dad is, and everyone in my family pretty much has their own problems anyways. The insurance lady was very nice and helpful. I love Liberty Mutual. She told me I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. She got my adjuster to call me. He was helpful. Ceiling started to slow down dripping. Bo called at 4 and said he was coming home, about 2 hours early! Bo came home just in time to meet the plumbers getting ready to finally install my new heater. I left. I had to. I was losing it. I went to Target, a wonderful, wonderful place.
I came home and the restoration guy was setting up the fans, 9 in total, and two dehumidifiers. I didn't realize this, but the worst was still coming. How? Well Indiana has been having HOT HOT weather. Heat index of 105 weather. So my ac was already running a lot, and it is HOT outside. What do you think my house might feel like with 9 fans and 2 huge dehumidifiers. I'll tell you, no I'll let the thermostat tell you, 89 degrees!!! It is sooooo hot in our house now. The bedrooms are a little cooler, but all in all, we are drinking a lot of water and getting out of the house as much as possible. At least it cools down a little at night. Oh yeah, and the guy says that all of this needs to run for 4 to 5 days at least.
Friday: You 'd think I'd seen the worst. Friday afternoon I go into see Carter during his quiet time, and he is kicking the wall and crying. His ear hurts. I bring him downstairs, and start looking for a pediatrician, because I know my boy, and he NEVER complains of ear aches. It's like 3:45 in the afternoon. I call a pediatrician and she tells me I can come in, if I get there as soon as I can. I was out of the house in record time. Poor Meg, I had to wake her up from her nap. We get in the car, go to the Dr, and sure enough, it's an ear infection. We get the prescriptions and head out the door to drive over to Target, because that is a wonderful, wondeful store, and I need to fill Carter's prescription. At this point I need to mention that I am driving Bo's car because he was going on a retreat (leaving me home alone with the kids for the whole weekend) that evening and he needed the Explorer to car pool some of the other residents. He took the car with wonderul ac and tinted windows. I was left with a car with horrible, unreliable ac. Remember, heat index of 105. The seat belts burned my kids, shoot they burned ME. So I get in Bo's car and start driving to the store when all the sudden the car starts shuddering and acting like it's out of gas. I looked down at the dash and no, it has gas, instead it was OVERHEATING. The ac stopped working. The car drove like it wanted to shift but couldn't. It was crawling. I started to panic. I was out on some random road, with three kids in the back, and I didn't know what to do. I prayed. I prayed and I prayed and I PRAYED. I'm proud to admit that I didn't start crying. We made it to Target, but barely. That car practically coasted in the parking lot. I looked back at my kids, and you should have seen them. Carter's hair was all damp. Meg's face was RED. Derrick's little bald head had sweat dripping all over it. My poor babies.
I got a hold of Bo. He couldn't come help me out till 6:30, but at least he'd be able to, because they weren't heading off for his retreat till 7:30. An hour and half to kill in Target. This actually might have been the best part of the week. hahaa. The kids got icee's. They got to play with the toys. I bought tv dinners, because there is no way I'm cooking in a 90 degree house.
Bo came. He saved us. He put coolant and oil in the car. He let us drive the wondeful cold Explorer home. He even left it for us. He got someone else to carpool to the retreat. We came home. Thermostat said it was 91. I turned off those dumb fans and dehumidifier. We cooled down. Turned everything back on and then it was bed.
Saturday: Spent as much time in the cool places of the house as we could. Went to the nice air conditioned library and then McDonalds for dinner. We're all tired and whiney. I blame it on the heat.
Thank goodness tomorrow is Sunday. We'll get to spend three hours in a nice air conditioned building. Not to mention, it'll be the beginning of a new week.
Fingers crossed.
Bo and I figure that other stuff might as well break (okay not really) since we'd already met our deductable for both the insurance and the warranty. We haven't even paid our first mortgage payment yet. Oh yeah, and the house inspector that did our house is going to get an earfull on Monday, because you'd think he would have noticed THREE cracks in the plate under the water heater.
Enjoy the pics.



Downstairs.The cooler and bucket are there because I had to switch them from the pans because it was dripping SO MUCH.

Restoration guy poked three holes in our ceiling to help get it to start drying.

This is upstairs.

Indianapolis Zoo

Oh man, I have been really slacking in this blogging thing.
Here are some pictures of a trip to the zoo we took awhile back. The Indianapolis Zoo is really cool. While at this visit we got to see a really neat dolphin show (seriously cool, with tons of tricks from the dolphins), a tiger/trainer show, and an elephant show, where the elephant did all sorts of tricks and then afterwards you could pet it! So below are mostly pictures of us at the elephant show. In the bottom picture, if you look, Carter is in the middle and his hand is on the elephant. Neat!

Random tidbits on the kids

My kids. They are a handful. They are cute. They are crazy. They are lovable. They are sanity testers. I hope this means they are normal. haha.

Derrick. Oh that Derrick-boy. What a fun, fun, FUN baby. So smiley. I feel bad sometimes, because often times he is just watching me, waiting for me to glance his way, and when I do, he puts this HUGE grin on his face. I should look at him more often. Those other two kiddos of mine are so distracting though! Oye. Derrick loves life. He seriously is always happy. Well okay, maybe not when he is hungry and I've made him wait for 5, 10, okay...15 more minutes. Then he's not. But other than that, I couldn't ask for a better baby. He is 5 months old. How is he that old already????? SLOW DOWN KID! Slow down time. He can roll, he's actually been doing it for over a month. He is starting to grab things in front of him. He'll grab Meg's hair when I'm doing it, he'll grab Carter's ears when Carter rubs his face in Derrick's belly, he'll grab anything he can. His most favorite thing to do is grab his feet and then try to eat them. He love, love LOVES to chew his feet. Whenever I'm changing his diaper and I have to pull his legs out of the footie sleepers, the feet are always wet. haha. He is so flexible. I know babies are supposed to be, but this one is my most flexible by far. To quote Bo, "It looks like he's bending in half." Really. He's also my drooliest, slobberiest (word? it is now) baby. He loves his brother and sister, but I'm by far his favorite. I should be, I've earned it. :) Derrick is very sensitive. If one of the other kids is crying, you can count on him to join in, even though two seconds before that he was grinning ear to ear. That is my cutie boy Derrick. I love that boy and am glad he's in the family. I really love having him around.

Megan-love. What a girly girl. She loves to play with babies. She's been great with Derrick, but she's even better with her dolls. She loves all things pink, purple too, but mostly pink. She can also wrestle with the best of them. She puts up a good fight with Carter. She says the funniest things. Lately, when we lay down with her for nap time, she'll stroke mine or Bo's face, say she missed us too much, she loves us too much, and that we're the best mommy or daddy. Too tender. She'll also just have the most adoring look on her face. Yeah, I love that. Meg is STUBBORN. She still screams herself to sleep every night because she doesn't want to go to bed. Megan is independent. She knows what she wants, always has. She calls me "mommy" even though I've always referred to myself as "mama" and Carter calls me "mama" too. Don't know where she got it, but that's what she calls me. She's athletic, just like Carter. She loves to dance. She can't wait to wear make-up, and was strutting around the house today in my heels. She makes us laugh so hard. I can't wait for the Fall. Carter is going to be in Kindergarten half day and for those 2 and a half hours that he's gone, it's going to be just me and Meg. Okay, Derrick too, but he'll be sleeping. It's never been just me and Meg. I'm excited. So that's my Megan-love.

Carterbug. Carter informed me yesterday that he can't decide whether to do Karate or be a Jedi when he grows up. Tough choice. He is OBSESSED with Star Wars. He even wrote a book about it. really. He goes around the house humming the Darth Vader song. At night time, just before prayer, we usually sing some songs. He ALWAYS requests the Darth Vader song. Really sets the mood for a good heart-felt spirit-inspired prayer. haha. For the longest time he thought 88 was the ultimate number. To quote him, "It's even more than a hundred BILLION." He did, however, inform me like a month ago that one million twenty might be more than 88. haha. Still, 88 is usually the number he refers to when he means a lot. Funny, right? I don't know why it's that number, but whatever. He is quick to compliment. I can be my ugliest, just rolled out of bed, in mismatching bleached clothes with the hair everywhere and he'll say, "you're so pretty today, mom." I tell Bo he could learn from Carter. Carter has learned to talk back. Talk back and argue and debate and everything else! What happened to my little boy who just assumed I was all knowing and did everything I asked??? I hope this talking back thing is a quick stage, 'cause let me tell you, that is NOT going to be acceptable with this sister. No way. Carter is my most challenging child, but he's also my most loving and comforting child. Why is that? Because he is my oldest, and a lot like me, I have a hard time watching him try to make friends because I know what if feels like, and I don't want him lonely. It makes me sad if I think he's left out. This move has been hard on me for a number of reasons, but one of the main ones is because Carter has no friends right now, and watching him try to make new ones and trying to fit in is just so gut-wrenching to me. He really wants some friends. He is hyper, he is active, he is trying, but at the end of the day, he's still my lovable, sweet, adoring baby. I love him and would be lost without him.

Do I really have THREE kids??? I somehow don't feel like I'm old enough for that. haha. I love them though, and can't imagine what life would be without them. Very dull, I'm sure.

Our First Visitors!

Our friends, the Heiners, came to visit!! They were moving from Spokane, WA to Rhode Island and stopped at our house on the way.
We were so excited to see them. It was short, only one night, but it was oh so much fun.
Before they left we went to the park for a couple of hours to get some energy out of the kids. Here are some of the pictures we took. There was a hike that we took while at the park, hence the random trail pictures too.
Doug, Serena, and co., we are so glad you came to see us!! We miss you guys.

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis

Did you know that Indianapolis has the biggest Children's Museum in the world?? They do. It is HUGE.
One of the first things we did when we moved here was go and get memberships. We have gone a couple times already and still we've only seen just a fraction of what there is there.
Here are some pictures from our most recent adventure!

The above picture is from OUTSIDE the museum. Yeah those are my kids way down at the bottom. If you look at the picture below, with the giant Transformer, you can see at the top of the picture the heads of the dinosaurs that were outside. So cool.

They have one section where you get to pretend you are underwater looking at a sunken shipwreck.

Carter's favorite spot of the day.

Meg's favorite spot of the day UNTIL....(see a few pictures below)

Derricks favorite spot. hahaa

BARBIES!!!!!!!

NOW this is Meg's favorite spot!! I love this picture. She could've sat there all day staring at the barbies. That is, until she found the spot where you could actually play with some!!More pictures of the museum to come. I know I took a ton from the dinosaur section, now just to find them.

Happy Fourth of July!!!

God bless America.

I could go on and on about how I feel about our country, and how I feel about the latest political debates and such, but I won't. Instead I'll just say that I hope this wonderful nation remembers its roots, and that I LOVE being an American.

Thank you to all those who have fought or put in service for this country.