Plumbing Problems

We officially moved into our new house last Saturday but the house gave us a very rude welcome: the plumbing was not working well. We had VERY low water pressure (it took 20 minutes to fill the tub for the boys bath). Also any time we used very much water (the dishwasher or took a shower) the sewer backed up into our basement. We survived like that until Monday morning when I called the city. For the last month the city has been doing construction on our road putting in a new water line. So I told them about our pressure problem and they came to look at it. After a few visits from city workers and plumbers they dug up the street where our water line connected (they hadn't paved it yet) and flushed out our pipes. I guess some rocks got lodged in there and that was why we had no pressure. So thankfully we didn't have to pay for that.

Over the couple of days that it took to solve that problem I noticed that our sewer problem was getting worse. I asked the city if they thought our sewer problems and their construction were related and they said no. So I called a drain cleaning service and they sent someone on Wednesday morning. So began a roller coaster ride. After a while the drain guy told me he had bad news - he had found mud in our pipes which meant that our sewer pipe was broken somewhere. That was disappointing news to say the least. The drain guy said he would put his camera down the pipe and try to locate the break. He spent the next hour and a half trying to find where our sewer line went outside. He finally called in some help and they tried for a while and still couldn't find our sewer line. Finally they sent there camera back down the pipe and they stood outside and found the camera's signal. Then they came and told me they had good news - they had found our pipe and our pipe went out into the street where the city had been doing construction (implying that the city probably broke it so they would need to fix it). They said that all of the city records show our sewer line running north toward the alley, but they found the signal south of our house, in the street. Immediately my hopes soared - the city would fix it! As I was paying the guy I hear over his walkie talkie a guy say "Well, the city still says the pipe runs to the alley" and I realized that this might not be so easy. About an hour later the drain service secretary called and said that all of the maps showed our sewer line running north and she thought maybe the workers were wrong - another low dip in the roller coaster. Then a while later they called back and said that their boss had looked at the data and he agreed with their find - our pipe ran south to the road. They said the problem was that the city still maintained that the drain guys were wrong. I think the drain guys and the city spent the rest of the afternoon saying
drain guys: "It goes to the street"
city: "No, it doesn't"
drain guys: "Yes, it does"
city: "No, it doesn't"
Meanwhile we couldn't put water down our drains - no showers, no toilets, no washing dishes.... The next morning the city sent some people to check it out. Towards the end of the morning they knocked on our door and announced that they thought they had found a place where our pipes hooked up to the sewer in the street. They came back and dug it up and then sent someone to our door. He said something like "Yeah, we found your line and it looks like we broke it so we will fix it" and then he turned and walked off. That was the highest high on the roller coaster. I was so excited! By the end of the afternoon we could use our sewer system again. I have never been so thankful for indoor plumbing that works properly. In the end the city agreed to pay for it, although they were pretty annoyed about the whole thing. Before they left they asked me to make sure everything was working, I think because they had already been to our house to fix problems twice this week and they didn't want to see us again. The feeling was mutual.

Fun Family Home Evenings

Funny FHE - one of our friends invited us over for Family Home Evening. She had a really cute idea to teach about appropriate Sabbath Day activities. We were both interested to see how our boys would do with the lesson (she has a 3 year old son too). She put vanilla ice cream in a bowl and told the boys we were going to make a sundae. Then she put shredded cheese, ketchup, mustard and ranch dressing on it. The boys looked shocked when she first started putting the toppings on. Then we talked about how these things are good, but not on ice cream. Then we talked about activities that are good but not Sunday activities. Then she asked the boys if they would want to eat the sundae. Alan nodded. She said "Really? You think that looks good?" and Alan said yes. So she gave him a bite. I fully expected him to spit it out but he ate it. Can you believe that? Gross! We asked him if it was good and he said yes. Then we put chocolate, caramel, peanuts, whipped cream, and a cherry on top and talked about appropriate Sunday activities. After that everyone had an ice cream sundae - I had to laugh at Alan. He didn't want peanuts or caramel on his because that is gross :) So weird.

Then for another FHE we made halloween goodies for dessert. We made brownies and put marshmallows on the top and frosted them different colors and then decorated them.

This one is a spider

This one is Frankenstein

We also made ghost ones. Alan loved the idea - he loves marshmallows and decorating things. Conner just wanted to eat the marshmallows plain.

A campout to remember

The second weekend of September we decided to go camping as a family. We have been wanting to all summer and it hadn't happened for one reason or another. Conner had never been camping so it would be his first experience. We drove about an hour from our house and stopped at a nice campground called Many Pines. I immediately started a fire and started roasting hot dogs for dinner with the boys. Reed found a large pile of dead branches and he started to chop them up for firewood with his new hatchet. After a few minutes I heard Reed say "I think I just ended our camping trip". I turned around to see him staring at his hand while blood ran down his hand. On closer examination I noticed that there was a deep cut on the back of his hand between his thumb and forefinger. I put the boys at the table with some food (hoping they would not notice what we were doing) and then I grabbed our baby wipes and put pressure on the wound. We debated whether or not to go to the emergency room (mostly for the cut and partly because it had been 15 years since his last tetanus shot) and Reed decided he would lay down for a few minutes and see how he felt. After laying down with his hand elevated the bleeding had almost stopped so we decided to stay. Luckily Reed had thought to bring our big first aid kit and I had thought to bring Tylenol. After we bandaged his hand we had dinner and put up the tent. Then we sat around the fire and roasted smores. Alan was thrilled with the whole experience and Conner did so-so. He fell down a lot (the ground was quite uneven) and he wanted to be very independent around the fire but I wanted him to stay back so he wasn't very happy about that.

(sorry the pic is fuzzy, our camera wasn't working while we were camping so we didn't get any authentic pictures)

I had forgotten how cold the mountains could be at night in September. Reed and I zipped our sleeping bags together and put Conner between us. Alan had his own sleeping bag. Neither Reed or I could get very comfortable so we didn't sleep well. Alan ended up in our sleeping bag at 2 or 3 am as well so it was pretty crowded. To top it all off I was awake at 2 am to hear some wild howling (not sure if it was wolves or coyotes) which completely woke me up until 4 or 4:30 am. On the bright side the boys slept pretty well and there was no crying (always a plus, Alan's first camping experience was a nightmare of crying in the middle of very quiet mountain nights with lots of people in tents around us to hear him). The next morning we were up bright and early so we made another fire to keep warm, had some breakfast and packed up. We stopped to do a short hike on the way home. All in all it was a memorable experience but I wouldn't classify it as fun.

This Old House

The answer to how old our house is: 123 years old, so Brenda guessed closest. Yeah, when I said old, I meant old. Luckily it has had many updates so hopefully we won't have too many problems. Here is a brief history lesson. We found out that our city was founded in 1883 and our house was built in 1886. Imagine all the people who have lived in it. Electricity didn't even come to the city until the 1890's. We are going to close on the house next Friday so then we will officially be home owners.

Conner's first haircut

I finally buckled down and cut Conner's hair for the first time. It was plenty long. Conner is 16 1/2 months old in the pictures.
Long, long hair. His hair is very light blonde so I didn't want to cut it too short or it would look like he was bald.
Conner was pretty patient. It helped that we had just bought a new movie so he kind of zoned out while watching it. There was one time though that he jerked his head while I was cutting his bangs...that patch of bangs is shorter than the rest but you can't really tell while his hair is all tussled.
After the hair cut.