Kitchen Craziness

Let the fun begin! I certainly wouldn't call this fun, but we don't have a choice at this point. We have a leak somewhere in our island and all signs still point to the fact that it's in our concrete slab under the island. I called our home owner's insurance and a plumber. The plumber came yesterday and pretty much said the same thing we already knew, but he left it up to us if we wanted to use him or try to open it up and find the issue ourselves. I wanted to wait until the leak inspector came out from the insurance company. We got a call from the man that will be coming on Monday to find the leak and he gave us the okay to open the back of the island to see if we could find any water...

The first cut - the second white lines are from the shop vac leaving powder on the wall:

Nope, not big enough, we have to cut more sheet rock.

Now we can see everything:

We know it's this brass pipe; we can hear the water running through the entire pipe.

BUT, we can't see or find any water. The bad news is that probably means the leak is below the floor :( I'm grateful our home owner's insurance will cover it, but we have a $2000 deductible - which may end up being much cheaper than paying out of pocket. Depending on what the leak detector finds and says, they will determine if it's easier to rip our island out and get into the concrete, or reroute our water line.

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We've been living with water 30-60 minutes at a time, twice a day. We go out to the main line, turn the water on and do whatever we can in a short amount of time: take a shower, turn on the sprinklers, do the dishes, fill water pitchers, run a load of laundry, etc and then shut the water off again. It's been interesting and quite a pain in the neck. We can flush each toilet twice without the water on, so that gives us 6 trips to the bathroom if needed. I'm not a person that can deal with pee left in the toilet - the whole, if it's yellow, leave it mellow doesn't work for me.

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I'll keep you posted. This could get really interesting by the time we're done. I had no idea the sound of water running could cause so much trouble.

Crouching Cat, Kicking Doug

I saw one of the 2 cats that keep peeing and crapping in our backyard and Doug grabbed the air-soft pistol and ran after it. The cat was quickly up and over the fence, but Doug could see the cat through the fence. He kicked the fence to scare the cat away. Well, it looks more like he jump kicked the fence. Doug thinks the cat might have splinters in it's butt. I asked him if he thought he could stomp on the cat through the fence. I guess we're even now since I shredded the BBQ cover. We're getting a little violent over here people!! LOL I ordered a cat trap, so hopefully we'll calm down a little once we get rid of these cats.

Grumpy Impatience

Where will grumpy impatience get you??.... A ripped BBQ cover and a bill for a new one! OOPS!!! Yep, I went outside at 11pm and I was grumpy the BBQ wasn't covered because the stupid cats will pee on it, so I started putting the cover on and it got caught. I kept lifting and pulling on it. Why? Because I was grumpy and impatient. Then I realized it ripped and, oh boy, did it rip! I told Doug, "I ripped your BBQ cover!" and I kept walking. Then the next afternoon I asked him if he saw the BBQ cover yet and he said, "Yeah, what's left of it." hee hee OOPS!! Now I have to go buy another one and they aren't terribly cheap.

Are You Serious?

My first "Are you serious?!" is the gas prices around here!: My second "Are you serious?!" is nail caps you can put on cats!! - they are literally like press on nails, complete with glue. What the heck!???!!! People are waaaaaaayyyyyyyy too into their animals. Really, really?? Caps for their nails? Holy cow.

Anyone Know a Plumber?

This picture is just about the opposite - it's me wanting to start without the plumber.

A little over a week ago I noticed it sounded like water was running under our kitchen sink. I have no clue about plumbing and I didn't notice any leaks or water, so I decided to wait until Doug got home. We can't figure out what is causing the noise. We shut off the water heater, the water to the toilets, sprinklers and anything else we could find. The only thing that stops the noise is shutting off the main water line to the house - which tells us there is a leak in the cold water lines somewhere. Now, how are we supposed to find it? What are we supposed to do? I know plumber could cost a fortune, but so could leaving a water leak running and running. If anyone knows a plumber or could recommend someone, we would really appreciate it!

Doug is Back!

First I can't get spacing between paragraphs and now Blogger is giving me too many... oh well, what can ya do?? Here we go anyways...
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It was a long 6 days and 5 nights without him, but he's back and he passed his training class. He went to Maryland last Sunday morning and came home Friday night. His training class reminded me a lot of a military type Survivor because they had to have their uniforms super ironed and their shoes needed to have a serious shine. When people didn't do well in the class or even with their uniform/shoes/shaving they would lose points and/or be sent home. Doug was exhausted from the flight, time change and the extreme amount of information he was getting every day... not to mention they didn't have a room for him when he arrived at the hotel and he sat until after midnight until they got a room for him (and he still had to iron and shine his shoes before getting up early in the morning).
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This is one of the training situations they put him through. They strapped each person into a harness and then attached them to this walkway demo. The floor was very slippery and they had to learn how to walk on it without wobbling like Bambi on ice.
Here is Doug's room; I wanted to see what a mess his room was :)
After Doug passed his final test on Friday, he had some time until his flight left. I have to mention that Doug's group was the only group that didn't lose any members of the team and they all passed the tests. YAY DOUG!!
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Fortunately Doug's brother, Mark, didn't live too far from where he was staying and they were able to spend some time together; Doug also got to spend a little time with Mark's family. On Friday afternoon, Doug and Mark went to a museum. Here are some pictures from their outing. This is a replica of the Rosetta Stone.

Random funny story from Doug's return to work on Saturday. The people he works with at his second job are so bright that they watered a plastic plant.... (there's water on the floor in the picture below).I kept pretty busy while Doug was away. I went to Happy Hour for drinks and appetizers with a friend - here are a couple pictures of the flowers outside the restaurant - the first one has a bee and the second has a ladybug. It was fun to sit and chat - not to mention after chips & cheese, chips & salsa, lemonade,tea and hours worth of conversation we only spent $10.

Wednesday evening I had dinner with Brad and Amera. They made a wonderful dinner! We had a tri-tip salad with mangos, avocados, nuts, etc and they grilled artichokes too. It was sooooo yummy! Then we played the card game Phase 10; we left Brad in the dirt, but then he ended up beating me! It was a very fun evening!

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On Friday I drove up the hill to have lunch with my mom, grandma, my grandma's roommate and the nursing home driver. We had lunch at Mel's Diner and while I was waiting for the driver to transport my grandma's roommate, I noticed a fireman polishing the bell on top of the building next door.

I also took a walk while waiting and I went into a gun shop. I sent this picture to Doug to make him a little jealous :)

Then, on Saturday morning, I went to a baptism. I cannot believe Sammy is 8 years old! It was a great morning and I'm so glad I was able to go support Sammy and her family. It's also hard for me to believe that I've know the family for about 12 years now! While I was at the church building I took a walk out back because when Doug and I were getting married we were hoping they were going to get the amphitheater done before the ceremony - but no luck. It's done now and it looks great:There were turkeys and squirrels running from me:

I asked Doug to bring me a present from Maryland - I said, "even if it's only the peanuts from the flight." I got peanuts!!

This picture is from earlier in the week. Doug left me notes and candy all over the house starting with one he put on my dash when he got out of the car to catch his flight. Awe! He loves me! MMMMMM Twix!!! I carried one of the notes with me wherever I went and I would move the other notes around the house so I would always see them.

We spent Easter at Doug's parent's house. The dinner and company was great; I think we all over ate. We haven't done great with our resolution to see family and friends more often, but we haven't done too bad either - we just need to kick it up a notch....hopefully this training will boost Doug even closer to that full time management position we've been waiting years for.

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Also, to shift gears, Doug's brother, Brian, has been in the hospital since last Tuesday. He hasn't been able to eat food for almost a week and he's been in a lot of pain. He had another scan done and he has a tumor just below the base of his stomach (so he can't pass food through his stomach) as well as a tumor on his kidney (they don't know if the tumor goes into his kidney) - both tumors were not in the scan a month ago. When we went to visit him on Sunday they were still waiting for pathology reports to establish a game plan. The doctor is trying to determine if Brian has a second form of cancer or if they misdiagnosed the first type. The doctor thinks he might have Large B Cell Lymphoma rather than, or in addition to B Cell Follicular Lymphoma. The large B Cell is curable and the B Cell Follicular is not. The chemo Brian went through was for B Cell Follicular, so he may have to go through another round for the Large B Cell - but it all depends on the remaining test results. My heart goes out to him and his family and our prayers are with them. Please keep Brian and his family in your prayers too.

Goat Adventure

Just when I tell myself I'm not going to post anymore goat pictures because I don't want you guys to think I'm completely nuts.... here are more goat pictures. The goats are pretty close to our house, so we took a walk to see them. I saw a dark shadow moving at the top of the hill and I told Doug there was a goat stuck. But when it comes to seeing things at a distance his vision is 20/15 and I'm 20/20, so he can see farther than I can and he said it wasn't a goat. So I took a zoomed in picture so I could see for myself. It was hard to tell with the sunshine, so I zoomed in on the picture I took and then Doug asked where I was looking, so I pointed it out again. This is what we saw:

We couldn't decide if it was a goat or not, so we watched the other goats for a moment and then the goat started to struggle again and it began crying out.

We went to the top of the hill and the poor goat was completely wrapped in the fence and being shocked every 3 seconds. We could hear the fence "pop" and then the goat would cry out. The fence was shocking us too. Doug got a couple of it's legs untangled, but the goat's head and body was still wrapped in the fence. The goat would struggle and then get really loud. I wasn't sure who to call or how to get help besides cutting the fence. I carry a knife with me at all times and a woman walking her dogs yelled that they would bring us wire cutters. Doug felt bad about cutting the farmer's fence, so I called 911. I told the operator where we were and she said, "I'll call the farmer," and hung up the phone. I thought, "uh, wait, okay, how long will it take? what? um...", but she was gone.

I thought it was best that we back off for a bit so it could calm down. We watched the poor goat jerk after each pop of the fence; it was heartbreaking. The other goats were just hanging out. Some goats came to watch and others would walk a little closer to BAAAAA at us. I'm assuming they were yelling at us in goat speak.

Farmer to the rescue!:

We could tell this man has gotten plenty of goats out of fences. He turned off the fence and then had the goat out of the tangled mess within a minute or so. We had been trying to help the goat for about 15 minutes. It was kind of funny because the rest of the goats seemed to know the fence was off because they started reaching over and jumping on the fence to eat a nearby tree.

He said he usually has a bunch of signs around the fence so that people won't call the police, but we didn't see any. Then we noticed a couple on other parts of the fence - they were bright yellow signs and I told Doug, no those are just electric fence warning signs. But sure enough they have the farming phone number on them too. ** insert eye roll ** Oh well, I wasted 2 minutes of our emergency resources. The man said he was going to put signs at the top of the hill too.

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The goats eat all day long - here's an example of how they clear a hill. You can see where the fence line was in the left of the photo; there's a line of tall grass. It's quite a way to save money and resources ... and we get to play "Where's Waldo" trying to figure out where the goats are going to be.

We walk by a pond that's just behind our house and there were some ducks swimming around. I haven't posted a picture of a duck since we moved out of the apartment, so here's a duck!!! Yay ducks!

Ol' McApril had a farm, E-I-E-I-O

With a "pop - BAAAAAA" here

And a "pop - BAAAA" there

Here a......wait, it's too soon for that joke.

POOR GOAT!!

Doug Withdrawls Coming Soon

First, I have to say how excited I am that Doug qualified for and is getting additional training/schooling to advance in his job. He's been waiting for this training for a couple years and it's finally happening. We really, really, really, really hope the promotion won't be too far behind, but that's also been in the works for years. We're not holding our breath. I'm so proud of Doug; he works so hard for us. He gets up every day, works 2 jobs and still finds time to listen to me ramble, take the trash out and mow the lawn - not in that order :), but that's what he did this evening. Now, he's sleeping on the couch after he did some studying for his upcoming classes and training. Now for the selfish part.... Doug and I haven't been apart for even a night in about 4 years and he's going to be gone for 6 days and 5 nights. I'm going to have withdrawals! I started tearing up the other night, but I was also PMS'ing, so I blame the added hormones. Sigh, I'm going to miss him so much.

Smurf Addiction

Yep, I have an addiction. It's an addiction to Smurf Village on my iPhone. It's like watching an aquarium, or having a pet I carry around (but there's no clean up, fur, or smells that come with pets). They walk around, grow vegetables, make funny sounds, run errands for Papa Smurf, etc. If I'm expecting a Smurf back at the village soon, I've asked Doug to Smurf-sit them. HA HA!! I hope you're laughing at me because I laugh at myself :) They're just so cute to watch and there are games to play. I'm on level 24 with 1% to go until level 25 and I have 38 working Smurfs and Papa, Jokey, Grumpy, Vanity, Farmer, Miner, Greedy, Timber, Handy and Brainy Smurfs too. If I get more Smurfberries I can get Smurfette too. Oh, this app is crazy though - it's free, but you can buy Smurfberries and they cost a small fortune! They seriously offer them for upwards of $90!! I'm okay waiting and earning them. I shut off the ability to purchase them so I wouldn't accidentally purchase any (or accidentally on purpose).

More Spring Clean Up

Doug gave the bush by our back fence a hair cut today. While Doug was cutting the grass, I was checking on our trees. Our orange tree has a ton of new growth on it!

Our mandarin tree doesn't have much going on, but I'm hoping it's going to hang in there. Maybe it's a late bloomer. It does have some little branches trying to sprout:

Our little lime tree has some flower buds beginning to show:

And our lemon tree, although it still looks a little beat up from the winter is doing pretty good; especially because it was 80 degrees one day and then froze a couple nights later. It has a lot of new growth that wasn't there a week ago:I can't wait for these flowers to open all the way. Last year they smelled amazing and brought a lot of bees around:

Look how cool these are:

Becky brought a Lowe's Creative Ideas magazine into work and they have a project that you glue pavers together and make a planter out of them. I really, really like this idea! I wanted to get a wine barrel to put my plant in, but this looks much better. I'm really excited to make these!

Saturday Date

Doug and I had a couple friends over for dinner and then we went bowling. On our way to the bowling alley we saw some goats and this guy go up over the freeway: Here are some action shots: Brad

Doug

Amera

Our scores game one:

Our scores game two:

Then we headed to the restaurant side of the building for dessert. We had no idea the desserts were going to be so big!!

I'm sure our sugar levels were off the charts, but the desserts were so yummy.

Before we left a 90's cover band, Love Fools, started playing and we were singing along and having fun. They are a really good band!

We tried to take a picture of ourselves; we didn't do too bad. Doug was holding the camera and Brad pressed the button.

Thanks for a fun evening guys!