Where have we been? What is going on?

We are overdue to post vacation pics. Coming soon! Of course we all had allergy attacks due to real, live, blooming things in HHI, so were a bit snuffly when we got home. Things were cruising along fine last week...until, Sunday night...

Our disposal backed up into the wet bar in the basement on Sunday night, exploding and causing damage to the carpet and bar area (and did it again when I ran the dishwasher), so we've been dealing with ripping up the carpet, renting fans to dry things out, calling the plumber, etc.

Thankfully John was off Monday and today since he worked the weekend and got off early yesterday, so he has dealt with most of it. We now own a wet-dry shop vac that has been used a bit :).

As of an hour ago, about a third of the basement is not carpeted and the rest still has carpet. I'm sure that insurance will only want to replace the damaged side, but since I think it will be impossible to match 10-year old shag carpet, looks like we will be getting new carpet in the basement in the near future. I'm thinking some kind of Berber would be nice. We shall see what the deal is with insurance. I've never had to make a claim before...but we do have some kind of sewer back-up/water coverage according to our agent. And I guess this kind of thing is why we have insurance in the first place.

The plumber informed us that there was a blockage in the outbound pipe that had been a long time in the making. And, although we have a 2004 disposal, our pipes are close to 60 years old, so we need to be very careful in our use of it. Another lesson learned.

Quotes

"I love the water!" - Maren, after jumping into the pool 30 times in a row in Hilton Head (pics and stories to come)

"Are you sure?" - Maren, to John, after having a "One book", "No, two books Daddy," conversation. We are amazed by her grasp of language.

"Hey, Greta. I have something to show you." Maren, to one of her daycare teachers who told me that many of the kids in the three year old room don't speak as well as Maren does.

I have TWO ponies!

New Wagon!

Maren got a wagon from Grandpa and Bunny for her birthday, but it's been too snowy to use it until recently. Currently, she would rather pull it than ride in it. Here are some things that enjoy the ride.

Party all the Time

We had a good time on Saturday night with some Grand Rapids friends having a "dinner party", Maren will do anything to go to a party. John got all of the kids to pose on the couch. Here is Maren with Katie, Ellen, Henry and Matt. Henry and Maren are in the same room at school. Katie and Matt and Ellen and Henry are sibs. Maren has been telling John she wants a brother or a sister. Ha!

New Bike!

Here she is, getting ready to ride in the snow a week ago. We have spent a lot of time learning to ride her new tricycle - that's a lot of coordination (steering and pedaling). She loves it.