the best ever

My hubby is the best! Last night he was at worship team practice. I was just beginning to settle in to watch the US Open a bit when he returned home with surprise hot fudge sundaes and fries!! My favorite combo, and he knows it. He said I was even more excited about the fries than the ice cream... duh.

with this ring...

Steve lost his wedding ring almost a month ago. He doesn't even know where he lost it, he just looked down at his hand one day at work and realized he didn't have it on. It's a bummer. And especially so since we just spent like $40 or something to have it sized up. I was sure it would just turn up, either at church, work or home. Now I'm not so sure, and am thinking we'll have to buy him a new one. It could be much worse, I'm just glad that it wasn't my rings! Anyway, if you know of a good place to buy a cheapish wedding ring, let me know.

another basement post

I know that this latest thread obsession of talking about our basement is a bit... dull? to some, so bear with me. I have a feeling after this weekend is over I'll be back to posting about our ever so thrilling daily life :) And yes, our huge mounds of dirt are back in place, in the ground, where they should be! Take a look!

Notice that all of our lawn furniture and grill are in the back garden. Wonder why? Well, our slab porch was taken out.


Here you can see the gravel where the old porch was, and new porch went in the very next day. When I got home and saw the fresh concrete I had a moment from The Office. Anyone remember that episode? I love it when Michael yells "Pam, translate" after Kelly starts talking, and Jim's little speech that is going on while Dwight is smearing vaseline all over Michael's face... ahh, funny.


And in this picture you can see how they get in and out of our yard, through the field behind our house.

So possibly today we'll have fresh new sod to water like crazy for the next few weeks. Can't wait to have the finished product, and be done with this for good!! Aren't you just as excited as I am?? :) Hope that your week is brimming with excitement as ours is.

slight mix up

So this morning as I was getting ready my mind was really not on what I was doing. I usually do my hair first and then my make up. So I put a small drop of hair product on my hands and proceed to rub it all over my face! Oops. That felt really strange. I got it mixed up with my moisturizer :)

The past few weeks have been really busy, but all with really good things. Friends graduating and moving (well, that's not that good for us), meeting with friends for ice cream and catching up. On a sad note - Steve lost his wedding ring. We have no idea where it is. He noticed it was missing a few weeks ago. It hasn't turned up. Bummer. I'm just glad that it wasn't my ring that was lost. It could have been worse.

rain rain go away

Well, the basement fixer guys were supposed to come today and backfill the holes. Then they'd lay sod tomorrow. But at about 4:30am I woke up to quite a bit of lightning and sheets of rain coming down on the window. It was still raining that way at around 8, so I'm guessing that they're not coming today. It would have been nice to have the sod laid before the rain, but maybe we'll get some nice heavy rain after the sod is put down also. It also would have been nice to have the dirt back up against the house to see if there was any leaking. Next time it rains like it did this morning will really be a test of how well this fix worked.

Hopefully I'll have some more pics by this weekend. Right now it just looks the same, a little bit more soggy today, but the same.

now that I've had a few hours of sleep...

I'll describe the pictures for those of you who have been praying for our basement issues. They dug out the foundation of our house on 2 sides. Those were the two sides that have been leaking. There were leaks on one more side of the house, but after they did the inside fix to those cracks, those cracks have not leaked in I'd say a year?? something like that. I'd have to go back and look at our records, but they haven't leaked in a while where as others have continued to leak even after the inside fix.

Anyway, they dug out the foundation. Then the next day they came back and put on some black tar looking type stuff. I'm assuming that it's a type of sealer. They put that over all the stuff that was currently on the outside of the cement. Then they put blocks of red foam looking stuff. (can you see how knowledgeable I am on this topic!) It looks like insulation, but I really have no idea. Then they also filled up holes half way with rock. This is to aid in the drainage around the house, so hopefully no water will sit right up next to the house. That's as far as we are right now.

Concerns we still have: Some of the cracks leak from the ceiling of the basement, so right at or around ground level. As of now they haven't put any finishing strip or anything around the top of the tar/sealer stuff. And if the sealer that was already on the cement in the first place is leaking somewhere, then how would putting more sealer on top of it fix the problem?

Anyway, if you're still reading at this point, and have any clue about this stuff and can enlighten me, feel free to do so!! We really do want to know what's going on, and have asked that they provide us with some information (multiple times we've asked) but haven't gotten any out of them.

Also, when I saw the caterpillar start digging, I knew that it would cause quite a stir in our neighborhood. It's been kind of funny. I really do feel badly that our neighbors have to deal with it, and we've asked them to bear with us on this. Already the dirt has been piled on one neighbor's law and I know that that's frustrating for them. But one interesting thing is that another neighbor stopped by last night, and their house was built right after us. They're having the same problem as us, although it sounds like to a much smaller degree. Anyway, it was interesting to talk to him. They have the same builder (and actually the same floorplan as us) and probably the same contractor who poured their basement. Just interesting.

just pics and video

These are all out of order, but it's late and I don't care. Basically our house looks like a war zone :)



Our beautiful Indiana sunsets now look like this.

And our poor neighbors have to put up with this next door. I feel pretty bad about it actually.










And because I felt like pics weren't doing the devastation complete justice, I took a video. I didn't talk because I hate my voice on camera :) Look at our poor lawn! Just pray that this this is the end!