It's been a month from...well, you know!

First it started with this:

Our dishwasher broke and leaked water all over.

The week before I had our carpets cleaned, but I had called them back to treat the worse area again for some spots that had reappeared. So that night when the carpet was still really wet, I thought it was from being cleaned so I called the cleaners out again to vacuum up the water. Still soaking wet.
Without realizing it, both days I had ran our dishwasher.

Then 3 days later we realized it wasn't coming from the carpet cleaners, but from the dishwasher, so we pulled back the carpet. This was Saturday morning.
We called the insurance company, and by Sunday afternoon, we still hadn't heard back and our house was starting to smell like mildew. So Clint being frustrated and worried that the carpet was slowly turning into a health hazard, he decided to cut it out.
Leaving us with this:


The insurance lady came out on Tuesday and did some tests on the walls/floors and called out a water abatement company. That left us with 6 giant fans, a dehumidifier, and an air purifier in our house for 3 days. Yuck!


About a week later, the insurance claims adjuster came out and told us that they would pay for the damages. Took measurements and sent off a sample of the carpet and pad to be analyzed so that the insurance could tell us how much to pay us for replacement. The lady told me that she wished we hadn't cut out the carpet because they would have cleaned it. Our thoughts were that the carpet was beyond being cleaned and that cutting the carpet was the best decision Clint made. Clint and I had also decided that we wanted to replace the carpet with hardwood. But I'll get to that later...

While the insurance lady was at out house I received a call from Clint. He said that his brother was in the hospital due to an intense headache. The hospital did an x-ray and found a mass in this brain. Mission Hospital was sending him to CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County). So Clint quickly came home and went to the hospital.
The Doctors at CHOC said that Jack had a tumor in his cerebellum and that they would operate the next day.
Jack had been dealing with sever leg pain and just a few months before started to come down with migraines. Migraines tend to run in the family and so no one thought to be alarmed.

Here are some pics of Jack post op. The awesome mo-hawk and a picture of the back of his head. We tried desperately to talk the nurses into shaving his entire head, but I guess they were too busy.



After many hours of worry, Jack came out of surgery great. I'm very impressed with him! Well, proud of him actually! I look up to him for finishing up with school work for the year despite being in a massive amount of pain from his legs and his head. He finished up with his junior year of high school just a few days before being hospitalized! That takes some guts! And to know that he did all of this not only with pain, but a brain tumor. Jack, your an amazing young man and I'm proud I get to call you my brother-in-law!

To show you all that Jack is recovering well, here are some pictures from last week:


Clark showing his Uncle Jack how to ride his bike:


Jack riding bike:



So now that you all know that the amazing Jack is on his way to recovery, I can finish my story about our floors.

Once Clint and I decided to put hardwood in the house I called 6 different flooring companies and had them come out to the house with samples. We narrowed it down to two companies so we had them come back. The one that we picked, almost didn't get a chance to meet with us because he originally was scheduled on the day of Jack's surgery. Boy am I glad the guy called me back! He was able to get the floors we wanted even though it wasn't one of the samples he brought with him.

So then this also left us with the decision of what to do with the horrible fireplace in our house.
This hideous thing:
We knew that with the new floors we were going to have to at the very least rip out the hearth.
Check!

And since the flooring guys we chose were the least expensive we were able to get the front of the fire place refaced. Here is the progress.






And as Clark says, "Ta-DAAAAA"


Ah but the saga doesn't end with the pretty fire place... our floors are held up at the port in Los Angeles. I guess some security thing happened and they decided to x-ray the 80 containers that came in yesterday. One of which has my floors in it! SO SAD! This leaves us waiting until they are delivered. I thought that by Friday we'd have pretty floors and a beautiful fireplace, but we are stuck waiting again! RATS.

So I'll keep you all posted on the progress of my not so great, but great at the same time month...

Water Adventures

This week Clark and I did a lot of hiding from out house. Hiding because we had some flooding due to our dishwasher leaking which lead to us having to have professionals come out and dry out the walls and the concrete under where the carpet was.
They had 6 fans, a dehumidifier, and an air purifier going downstairs. The machines made it extremely noisy and raised the temperature of downstairs to about 80-82 degrees. Not very pleasant. So Clark and I did a lot of activities away from home. We would get dressed then go out for doughnuts or beagles, then go do something fun and not come back until 1 for nap time. He would nap, I'd hide upstairs where it was cool and I could close the door from the noise. Then we'd leave again until bed time. The only time the machines were turned off were the 2 hours or so that Clint and I would be downstairs to watch t.v. before bed.

These pictures were when Clark and I met our friends at the Irvine Spectrum. They have a little area of water spouts for the kids to play in.









Then another day we joined our neighbors with a slip and slide.

Clark's first experience with a slip and slide.

No Cats Were Harmed In the Making of These Videos

As many of you know, Clark and Wes are the best of friends. Just last night, Clark finally more or less, learned how to pick up the cat. The funny thing is that Wesley loves the attention. The second video shows you that Clark doesn't run away, but sits down and waits for Clark.

New Toy

A couple of weeks ago, I was telling Clint that although we are trying our hardest to not be a family that has a house full of toys, we do need more toys for Clark. He is getting older, and has jumped into the next age category of toys. Granted, I was a little early in the purchasing of some toys, like the Alphabet Train when he was 8 months old. (Rated for kids 18months+) But that is beside the point. We also have half or so of our toys over at my parents' house because there isn't a parent/kid friendly backyard, well not at his age anyways. It's great for kids like 7 and up that are much more independent that you can send off to "explore" the backyard(s).

So because we are sharing our toys with my parents and Clark is getting older, I've been on the hunt for something new. I discovered the Berlington Coat Factory a month or so ago too! They sell MUCH more then just coats. It really should be named the Berlington Home Factory or something like that. Not only do they sell coats, but they sell all sorts of clothes and some stores even have a Baby Depot. It's like a mini Babies-R-Us. This is especially important if you are like me and are boycotting B.R.U. because they bait and switch and are a little over priced. So the Baby Depot at Berlington has pretty much everything you need for a baby from cribs, to carseats, strollers, highchairs, feeding supplies and clothes. Just no diapers or actual food.

They also have a small toy section. Within this small toy section I found this:




I thought it was a reasonable price, and Clark and I love playing with it! Plus, it has lots of storage. Besides the two drawers, there is a shelf between the drawer and the top that holds his slowly growing collection of trucks.

I included this video because I think watching him hammer the little "nails" is totally adorable! But then again, I think everything he does is adorable!

Fun Trouble

Playing nice with Wesley:



Getting a little more aggressive:




Yep, that's right, he is sitting on the cat!


Lately Clark has been obsessed with Clint. He wants to do everything Clint does. Including wearing his shoes:




Clark has learned how to use the water sprayer and loves to water the plants, the house, the fence, US and the windows.

I love his tongue sticking out too!

Fireworks

Clint and I are really lucky to live so close to the lake and the firework display. We decided to watch the fireworks at the lake because we weren't sure how Clark was going to react.

At 8am July 3rd the city allows residents to place blankets/chairs to hold their spots around the lake. I went at 11am on the 4th to add another blanket to the two that the neighbors and us had put the day before. This is what I saw:





Clint's mom and grandma and my dad joined us for a BBQ. Delicious hotdogs and watermelon and yummy treats. As the night went on we were a little worried because it was only 8pm and Clark was getting very tired and cranky. Clint's mom had offered for us to put him to bed and to stay at the house while the rest of us went to watch fireworks, but it was important to us that Clark experience this. Even if we had to go home.
We decided to walked over to the lake and the sea of people and blankets. Clark instantly got in a better mood and had a wonderful time!
Clark with cookies crammed in his mouth.

The gang waiting for fireworks:






Clark getting ready to watch the fire works and watching them from my lap:


The only time Clark freaked out was when people started to cheer and yell after the National Anthem was sung. But as for the fire works, he thought they were amazing. When there was any pause in the show, the would tap his hands together and say "more!"
He stayed awake until right before we walked through the door, but by then it was 9:45:

I gave him a cookie in hopes that it would keep him awake, guess he had enough earlier that day. :)

The Cuteness That Gets Me Through The Day!

This last week I've been battling headaches/migraines. Especially the last two days. Yesterday I was sure I was dying. Maybe not really, but my head hurt so bad it hurt to breathe. But at least I have this wonderful little boy that never fails at putting a smile on my face and giving me a reason to thank Heavenly Father for him being in my family.







I also wanted to share how Clark really knows how to get messy when he is playing. Tonight we were playing with our neighbors and Clark always seems to swim in the media in which we are playing. Chalk, bubbles, dirt...tonight it was chalk and he had a rainbow of colors on his clothes and skin.