Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Night Out

Shauna and I took a mini succulent class at a local little art studio called the Art Attic.

We've never done anything like that before and figured we would try it.

You start out with supplies like this. A small terra cotta dish about 5 inches across and half of a mini terra cotta planter.



You fill the dish with dirt and press the little half of a pot into it. 



Then you take small cuttings from a variety of different succulents they had ready. Arrange them around the pot and put a little decorative stone on the dirt! And that's it!

Here's the finished product!


 And this is Shauna's


We enjoyed taking this workshop and spending some time together, too. Which we don't to often enough! Plus we had a nice dinner together first!

The art studio is really cute and located above a law firm. 


They had this beautiful hanging swag with lights on the ceiling. The picture doesn't do it justice. 

The have drop in art classes for toddlers too which Shauna plans on bringing the boys to sometimes. 

I may just tag along!!

Until the next time...


Saturday, January 25, 2020

Plumbing Issues

I mentioned briefly in a previous post that we were having some plumbing issues. So here's what happened.

Shortly after Thanksgiving we started having some slow drains and then drains that would not drain, toilets that would not flush, water backing up into the bathtub and sinks etc...

After plunging and trying drain cleaner we finally called a plumber to come out and access the problem. For the record, I had previously purchased a new fluffy toilet paper and I was blaming everything on that!

The plumber told us the pipes under our house were clear and the problem, possibly a broken drain pipe, was under the ground and not underneath our house. Remember, manufactured home and we are on a crawl space, and we rent the lot our house sits on.

That's a good thing because the problem then becomes the parks. We called them and the first time they came out, they flushed the lines and called it good! Said they would send their plumber out to snake the drains just to be sure.

They didn't.

A few days later, we started backing up again, called and complained and they came out and flushed the drain again and called it good, but did not send a plumber to snake the drain.

And  of course, a few days later...plugging up again and this time Rich called them and told them no flushing the drains, send your plumber to snake them out!

When the plumber snaked the drain he  found a small pair of children's tights in the drain pipe that looked like it had been there for a while! I think the people that lived here before us had small children and it just took this long for things to finally build up enough to block the pipe!

Anyway, the drains were working find and then two weeks ago we had a lot of rain in one day, and a puddle formed right in front of the house where the water access is and where they were doing all the flushing and snaking.



After a few days when the water from the rain was drying up all over, the puddle in front of our house wasn't, in fact is was getting bigger!

We waited a day or so to see if it would go away and it didn't so we called the park again and told them to check for a leaking drain pipe.

They came out and flagged a bunch of stuff and spray painted all over the lawn.


And then it snowed, and you could really see how big the puddle in front of the house was!


Finally, they came out with shovels, dug a hole around the meter, (That is gas and not water) and then left for a few more days!


On Thursday while we were at work they came with what I'm assuming is a back hoe and dug up the yard and repaired the leaking drain!

This is what we are left with now.


It's kind of hard to tell but they dug a huge trench, repaired the pipe and then filled it in temporarily. At least I hope they are planning on coming back and smoothing everything out! Plus there is still a pretty deep hole by the meter!

Jeez! What a freakin' mess!

I'm worried because they dug so close to the tree there is pieces of root all thought the dirt! I hope they didn't kill it!

Anyway, that's where it stands right now. The good thing is it's not costing us any money.

But the lawn is ruined on that side and we're going to have to do some landscaping in the Spring!

Until the next time.....

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Winter Blahs and Maxwell Turns 3

Well, here we are in the middle of January and we haven't had to deal with too much crappy weather yet! That's good but I know it won't last. However, every day that goes by is one more day closer to Spring and May 22nd.


Yes, May 22nd is my last day at work before retirement. It's the Friday of Memorial Weekend and I can't think of a better day to begin my retirement!  This is actually 6 months later than I originally planned on retiring but I just wanted to be a little more prepared!


Anyway, I'm looking forward to a summer of leisure, which I haven't had since I went back to work when my kids were older in the late 90's!


The best thing that happened so far this month is Maxwell turned 3 years old! His mom and dad had a small birthday party for him, just us grandparents.


We got him a little tabletop easel, and a t-shirt that says "Young, Wild and Three" which he promptly threw on the floor as soon as he opened it! I know, clothes are not exciting gifts for a child!


He  had a cute little birthday cake with balloons like he wanted!

He loved having happy birthday sung to him and blew out his candles like a champ!

It was so fun celebrating with him!



The next time I saw him he gave me this beautiful work of art that he and his brother made for me!

More priceless than any Picasso!

So, it's Saturday morning as I am finishing up this post. It snowed overnight and we have about 2-3 inches so far. It's supposed to keep snowing until mid afternoon.

Plus, it looks like they are going to be digging up the front of our house due to a leaking drain pipe!

I'll tell you all about it the next time!

Until then.....


Sunday, January 5, 2020

Christmas Fun and Happy New Year!

Christmas was fun and I think the boys loved their toys! (Boys love toys, don't they? haha!)



All wrapped and ready for them to arrive! The workbench we got Maxwell was too big to wrap so I just draped wrapping paper over it and didn't even bother with Levi's car stroller!

They loved all their gifts and we had so much fun watching them I didn't take any pictures!


Here's one from earlier that Shauna took!

New Years Eve I worked and was so tired from my lack of sleep that my boss sent me home at 12:30! I must have looked pretty bad. 

We totally missed midnight! I went to bed a 9:00! Rich set his alarm for 10 minutes to midnight but I told him if I was sleeping soundly not to wake me up so he didn't! I woke up at 2:53, went to the bathroom and right back to sleep until 8:30. I sure needed that!

My staying away from my phone and tablet  and just reading a real book at night is helping a lot! For the past 5 nights I've fell asleep easily and slept all night. When I get enough sleep I feel like I can conquer the world!

This weekend I took all of the decorations down and stored them away! I enjoyed them this year and hated to take them down, especially the tree. 

Anyway, that's it for now. 


Mr. Levi James says Happy New Year!



And this guy is going to be 3 years old on Wednesday!

Until the next time....



Phone Photo Dump

 Time for another purge of the photos I collect on my phone!  The boys were playing with kinetic sand and it is a little oily.  Levi left hi...