Oh NO!

I just spent 2 hours posting pictures from my surprise b-day party and I don't know what happened but I have nothing- any ideas how to figure out what happened and where they are?

IF I WASN'T ALREADY OVER THE HILL...

Guess What I Saw

Okay- so this is a little guessing game for the Grandkids-

Guess what I saw on the way to Church last Sunday?

Hints:
It's bigger (much bigger) than a bread box (boy that saying dates me!)

It's animal - have you made a guess yet?

And it rhymes with "loose" (that probably gave it away for you)

I'll share in a couple of days...
Meanwhile, an update.

We celebrated Kaylee's 2nd birthday on the 9th- that was fun- we also celebrated Grandpa Tom's - I made him his favorite cake- German Chocolate!

We've been working on the house- especially Tom- he's been doing alot of cleaning up after the construction workers and helping Tyler finish up the electrical- THANK YOU TYLER SO MUCH!!! It will be nice to have more convenient switches, more lights, and a porch light!

The freezing cold turned back into rain yesterday- then sunny skies- it almost feels like a heat wave (40 degrees!)

Our new community theater is finished and they are having the first production in March. The director asked me to try out- it's "Blythe Spirit" a comedy about a man who's first dead wife comes back and "haunts" him and his second wife. I play Madam Arcati- the psychic that conjures up the first wife. It's a really fun part- I get to act really crazy. It will be exciting to act on the new stage with all the amenities! It even has live audio and video feedback in the green room and dressing rooms!

Last Saturday, we had some of our good friends overnight at the Center- Mike & Phyllis Peterson. We went out to eat, came back and played some games- then on Saturday- Phyllis and I went to our Stake's Geneaology Conference while Tom & Mike went ice fishing. We all had a great time- I learned a lot- and Tom caught 2 fish- which we ate Monday for lunch! t is so nice to have such good friends that we love doing things with.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HONEY

I love this picture of Tom that Kelli took a few years back for his knowledge management website. I can't remember what Kelli said- but it made him laugh and she caught it just right. It's hard to find a picture with a good smile on Tom- because once, someone told him he had an ugly smile and not to show his teeth. And so we are forever trying to get him to do a REAL smile when we take pictures! I love his smile, especially because he gets a twinkle in his eyes. And I see him smile all the time- but you bring out a camera and there it goes- into hiding.

I was going to write something really mushy here- but I don't want to embarrass my easily embarrassed husband (which I probably already did) so I'll try not to make it too mushy... But Tom really has been a blessing in my life. We've overcome a lot together and what impresses me most about him is his willingness to keep learning and growing and trying. The next thing that I am grateful for is his kindness to the underdog, underpriveledged, and ignored. He is always willing to stop and help a stranded motorist, or chat with a lonely widow.

He's not perfect- and sometimes I get really frustrated with him, but he never holds a grudge and always forgives me of my trespasses. He is always willing to do the dishes and take out the garbage, and help with the horses. He supports me in my callings- and is always there to defend me when I get down on myself or second guess a decision I made that didn't turn out quite like I had planned.

Insides and Outsides

Here's a few thousands words in pictures...

Tom clearing the drive at the center after our HUGE snowfall yesterday. See pics below...
Looking across the street at the Museum.

Over 2' of snow...

These 2 pics are of Mt PLeasant main street- it really looks like an old fashioned Christmas here.

The pics below are of the live Nativity that was done in Fountain Green. We took Kyle and Ryan to it. Start down lower if you want to see the pics in order...

Baby Jesus and his family.

We're approaching the manger scene- the 3 Wise men are on the left.

Outside of Ceasar. Note the snowflakes in all the pictures.
The boys waiting for the hay ride to take us to the Nativity.

Arriving at the nativity.

This is our living room wall/hall. That is adobe bricks incase you've never seen any before.

Note the rock wall- Tom's removing the bench that was by the window- we figured we mmight as well clean up all the misc stuff we could while we had the opportunity. Note the rock wall that's now exposed.

The mess in the lower bathroom- no crawl space.

we meet with the adjustor/contractor hopefully today to see what's next and when.

The demolition continues...

This was before they brought the dumpster- they cleaned this up the next day- but just to give you an idea of how much came out- just to start...the dumpster is actually full now.

This was our living room...now it's completely gutted. The friendly workers.

Upstair bathroom, hall, and bedroom. Really nice guys doing the work. The man with the mask on the right is from Peru- he served a mission there as well and his family was converted around the time my brother served there- small world! Another side note. The other guy says he may join the LDS Church because the Catholic Church has nothing to offer his family- he's from Mexico City. I told him to call the missionaries- he smiled and said he probably would be soon.

I'll take more pics today- Tyler is coming out to help us rearrange some power (and possibly redesign the downstairs bathroom) while we have the chance and things are torn down to the studs. It also looks like they may have to tear up the kitchen floor to get to some pipes for the plumber- the crawl space isn't big enough- actually, part of it there is no crawl space-WOW WHAT A MESS! I just keep telling myself it will all look like new when they are finished (and then I click my heels together three times ;-)

FLOOD, PESTILENCE, AND .....?

Hopefully not fire...

So, we called our insurance agent- they sent an adjuster out and he felt like there was more than enough damage to make it worth our $500 deductible. They send out a special restoration crew that tests for humidity in the walls and floor, etc. They found plenty-in the living room floor (obviously where the water damage was), but the shocker was in our archway AND upstair the entire bathroom, and they also found moisture in our bedroom. Anyway- long story short- the demolition crew arrived and removed walls, flooring, etc in both bathrooms, upstairs hall, bedroom, and downstairs front entry and living room.

so part of our house is currently being renovated- but that's not all...

We discovered a family of skunks living under our house- basically the kitchen. So Tom has been trapping and "disposing" of them. The last time one let go it's "essense" and the heater sucked it up and sent it through the house! So now the poor house stinks too!

Tom shut the heater off (the workmen have had it on high to dry out the house) and changed the filter, sprayed abunch of deoderizer in it, and it's smelling a TON better. I feel bad for the poor plumber who has to replace all the pipes under the, yup, you guessed it, kitchen. Well, I guess a little bad smell is better than getting sprayed.

Unfortunalety, the skunk smell just attaches itself to everything and after Tom came back to the office, I could smell it there now- and the car... he even threw the clothes he was wearing away-I asked him where he thought he was sleeping that night :-) ... He took a long bath.

I don't even know how to feel at this point-except to find the humor in it all.

The adjustor said that if we have hot water by Christmas they won't pay for a hotel for us to stay in while the center is rented between Christmas and New Years. But even if we do have hot water, there is no where to sleep right now since all the furnishings are moved into the spare bedrooms up stairs and the den downstairs. Not to mention the construction dust, etc.

So we're not sure where we'll be spending New Years...

One good note- the weather has been unseasonably WARM- we have "0" snow on the ground, it was 48 yesterday-this has all helped with the house- but the storms look like they're starting to line up on the west coast- so we may still have a white Christmas.