Blessings Well Disguised

As much as it pains me to admit this, it was probably for the best that Saturday did not go as I wished.  We would have wanted to hurry up and get the new flooring installed asap, and this waiting has allowed for more drying time.  Tuesday Ryan had the time and energy to attack the floor once again.  I am impressed with how many floors we have in the kitchen.  On the upside, Ryan was able to get down far enough to find wood that wasn't disintegrating before he reached the crawl space.

 You can't see it well, but there is a black fan on the black floor below.  The black on the floor is either the back of those peel and stick tiles, or the adhesive left over from them.  Ryan scraped away at it in places to make sure the wood underneath was solid, and it was.  He scraped soft flooring from under the cabinets as far as he could reach with his tools.  I hope with that fan going 24/7 everything else will dry out.  The weather has been really nice and so our kitchen window has been open a lot.  The smell is getting better.  Elizabeth no longer covers her nose when she gets home from school.

 So, this space in front of the counter and sink is an ugly tripping hazard.  What's worse is that no matter what I have done, I don't feel like my house is clean.  I'm not a neat freak by any means, but I still like things to feel tidy enough and I haven't been able to feel that.  It's frustrating even though I know this is only temporary.

The dishwasher was supposed to arrive at Lowe's yesterday, and I am still waiting on that call.

It's peach season, and our bishop and his wife gave us 4 boxes of peaches last Saturday evening.  Four boxes.  Whew.  We've eaten a ton fresh and we've made a pretty good dent in them, but they are on the verge of all going bad.  I was putting off canning because 1. It's a long and lonely job alone, and 2. No dishwasher.  On the bright side, these peaches are free stone and they peel really easily even without blanching them.

So yesterday went like this.  Get out the canner and put on water to boil.  Gather jars, lids and rings.  Wash one batch worth of jars.  Put the water and sugar to simmer so my syrup is ready once I am.  Peel and cut.  Peel and cut.  Peel and cut, ad naseum.  Add Fruit Fresh powder.  Grab my jars and cram those peaches in.  That wasn't enough for 7 jars, so more peeling and cutting and dripping juice all over.  I had to put towels down because we are missing any type of covering to protect the floor.  Canning peaches is such a messy job.  Finally had enough peaches cut for this batch, so over to the stove I went, added syrup (oops, need more of that) and finally got the peaches in the water bath.  With the timer set, I grabbed another set of 7 jars, washed them and started the process all over again.  And again.

This is only some of my newly canned peaches.  We love canned peaches, so I know the effort is so worth it.  It's just a sticky mess!  Once the towels were picked up, there was no mopping needed.  Well, technically I can't wash this mess of a floor anyway, but that's beside the point.

As I was thinking about the whole kitchen situation yesterday while I was peeling peaches, I was thinking that the new flooring wait was really a blessing in disguise.  Very well, very frustratingly disguised.  I shouldn't be regarding this kitchen fiasco as an utter disaster of events because maybe there was actually a plan in place by my Creator.  This may be for our benefit.  So why do I complain and moan and feel dejected, instead of having faith and a perfect brightness of hope?  Maybe this experience is another one of those reminders from on high to work on some spirituality flaws.  Staying positive is definitely a point I need to work on.  It's an ongoing struggle.

Continuing Woes

We made it to the conclusion of a not-so-restful weekend and are now facing a new week.  The good news is- we are back to just our family.  (Hooray!)  The not-so-good news is our floor is as bad as we feared it was.

Saturday we bit the bullet and ripped out the kitchen flooring.  Pergo is supposed to be a "floating floor," meaning it should just clip in and clip out.  Imagine our surprise to find the boards glued to each other, although thankfully not to the sub floor beneath.  Getting the flooring out required a lot of tugging and hitting it to break the planks apart.

 This was 5 days after the leak.  The pad under the floor was still soaked, so out it came.

 We loaded all the flooring into Ryan's truck, and hauled the broken dishwasher to meet its fate at the dump.  You horrible, beastly machine.

 Well, that's certainly an attractive floor.  Those blue strips are extra layers of blue padding to fill in where there is no plywood.  That seems.... not quite right.

 As we are replacing the whole kitchen floor and the front room also has an area of the Pergo flooring, out it came too.  The color we picked out was not going to match, and we might as well just do it all.

But this hardwood floor was underneath the Pergo in the front room.  It's full of holes.  I want to find whoever was responsible for the holes, shake them and ask, "What on earth were you thinking??!?!"  It was probably a beautiful floor once.

 So, the dishwasher is gone, and with it my overpriced drying rack for when I washed dishes last week.  After much research, Ryan and I came to an agreement on what kind of dishwasher we wanted and had the color picked out for the new laminate flooring.  Oh, and I put the sample of the flooring into a bowl of water for 3 hours to see if it is as water resistant as they claimed.  I was impressed.  All we were waiting on were Simon and Charlotte's parents to come claim their children so we could go buy those things.

Ryan and I were both under the impression at the beginning of the week that Michael and Blair would be back mid-day Friday.  Simon and Charlotte were eagerly anticipating seeing their parents Friday.  Mid-day turned to landing at 9 pm ("After your bed time guys, sorry!"), and that turned into 11 pm or midnight, which then turned into noon on Saturday.  The hurricane on the east coast was responsible for most of the changes, but not the one that changed the time from mid-day Friday to Friday night. (I'm still not sure what was the cause for change there.) Mentally, I was prepared to make it to Friday afternoon as the ending to that part of my extra challenging week.  So were my kids.  They had been particularly helpful and uncomplaining of the extra work, and Ryan and I promised them a treat once their cousins left.  Looking back, that maybe was the wrong strategy to employ.  It was a blow to all of us; no Friday cousin removal, no Friday night treat.  Simon and Charlotte were also upset.  Every time we had to tell them their parents were going to be later (and later, and later), there was some emotional upheaval and meltdowns.  We were all counting the minutes.

After many flight plan changes, Michael left Blair and their baby at the Salt Lake airport (that's their home airport, and it had been a long trip for them already) and flew to Pasco by himself.  He finally drove in at 2:30 pm. 

Insert Halleluia Chorus here.

25 minutes later, Ryan and I were off in his truck to go buy the new dishwasher and floor.  Lowe's website said they had two of those particular dishwashers in stock and we were excited to start fixing the floor.  This is what we are looking at.  Isn't that old linoleum just lovely?  And it smells.  I don't know why, but old linoleum that has been hidden away smells terrible.  We experienced that at the house we bought before this one.  Gross, gross, gross.  The mold isn't helping matters either.

 I should have known it wouldn't be that easy.

For one, it was tough to get someone to help us.  Maybe it was because Ryan and I were wearing our very best I-just-ripped-out-flooring clothes, which were stained from previous house projects.  Maybe we had the air of people who drove an '88 Mazda pick-up 30 miles to get there.  No A/C + open windows = amazing hair, pony tail or not.  I'm sure we were looking a little white trash-y and therefore not enough money to spend on appliances?  I don't know.

Once we got help, the fellow went in the back to track down one of the two dishwashers.  And we waited.  And waited.  Finally Ryan told another employee that we were going to look at flooring and would be back.  We really did want to buy the dishwasher.

Once at the flooring section, we couldn't find the color we wanted in stock.  Oh, see that tag?  That means it's special order only.  It's going to be a couple of weeks before it comes in.  So we got the flooring ordered (after more waiting and hoping for some employee to take us seriously), and the fellow charged with finding the dishwasher found us.  (Yay!  Some initiative!)  Only, the two the computer said they had in stock wasn't, in fact, a fact.  So, we got the dishwasher ordered too, and it should probably arrive this week.

That outing was turning out less productive than we had hoped.

Before going home, we swung through Krispy Kreme to buy a dozen donuts.  We still owed the kids a treat.  But our luck held, and it was forever before we were helped (the drive through has priority), and even longer for the employee helping us to get his transaction register unlocked by another employee.  My stony expression must have been pretty fierce, because we got two free donuts for the wait.

Thank goodness for tender mercies.  And yes, free donuts are tender mercies.

We came home to our stinky house, and I was feeling so glum.  Nothing was going right.  (Except for the free donuts.)  My kitchen looks horrible, and I am now lacking even a drying rack for dishes with the dishwasher gone.  My front room looks like this:

We had to take the door off the pantry and empty a couple of shelves in there so we could pull out the flooring.  The fridge and wall moulding and tools are all out in the front room, and I was without the will and energy to do anything about it.  The whole house was a mess, and our company was still about.  (I'm not saying Michael didn't need a nap, but selfish me really wanted any tiny little bit of my sanity restored.)

At least there was this to cheer me up.  Donny Osmond has yet to fail making me laugh with what we like to refer to as "Dad Dance Moves" in this Weird Al outtake.

Sunday morning arrived, and with it Sunday morning meetings.  I was feeling emotionally wrung out from the weekend that wouldn't go right.  What I really wanted was to snuggle with my husband and family, and pretend that the rest of the world didn't exist for the day.  But there was church to attend, a lesson to teach, and a good example to set for the girls.  You go even when you really would rather not.  You support your husband doing his calling, even when you'd rather not.  My one rebellious move was to not attend Teacher Counsel.  Instead I watched the new Primary presidency try to get through their first practice of the Primary sacrament meeting program.  

Maybe others are having a worse day than I am.  That looked exhausting.

Ryan called his parents after church to see how their cross country trip is progressing.  When it was our turn for telling news, our kitchen fiasco earned one "Oh boy" and Michael driving his kids back to Utah alone all night earned a "Poor Michael!  That sounds like a miserable trip back from the east coast. I bet he's awfully tired.  I hope his wife lets him take a nap."

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Now that I've unloaded my many complaints, I'm feeling much better.  Yes, this kitchen situation stinks.  Yes, there is a lot more work to be done.  And yes, it's going to be a while before we get back to normal.  But is it the end of the world?  Nope.  Ryan and I merely have another project to do, and we have handled most things the house has thrown at us.  We make a good team.  And in the end, I think we are going to be so glad we finally replaced our floor.  

Thursday Ramblings

We are plugging our way through the week.  Despite my last post, life isn't so bad.  In fact it's been rather manageable.  We are using disposable plates, bowls, cups and utensils with the dishwasher out of order.  While we are making a TON of garbage, it keeps the amount of dishes I have to do at a feaseable amount.  I keep applying hand lotion, and the dry skin on my hands isn't too bad.  We are trying to stay busy, as you can see in the following pictures.

 Emma got the part of Scarecrow in the high school production of The Wizard of Oz.  She came home the evening of auditions declaring that everyone had done better than she had, and she just knew she was only going to be in the ensemble as back up to the main characters in the songs and stage filler.  But she was wrong.  She landed a main role.  She was positively gleeful when we saw the cast list on Instagram last Saturday evening.  Tuesday she came home with a binder full of the script, eager to start memorization.  Last night Simon figured he'd better check out what all the fuss was about.

For this next photo, there is some back story needed.  Ryan's parents retired at the end of the last school year, and have embarked on their dream of a cross country trip to see all the sights.  The Great Lakes.  Canada.  Church history sights in New York.  Pennsylvania.  Washington D.C.  Relatives in Maine and Alabama.  Kirtland.  Nauvoo.  It's a two month long trip, and after leaving they discovered maybe they over packed.  Just a little.  So this suitcase arrived today via UPS.  One of these days I'll need to drive it up to their house for them.  But I may wait a few days, because I may get another suitcase to take too.

 (Proof to Kim that the suitcase arrived.  With a couple of interesting poses from these munchkins.)

Having little kids in the house again changes how I do things, like exercising.  With littler ones, the only way to get a few minutes without "Aunt Duh-naaaAAAAaaay" is to plug in a movie, and then crank through the exercise and shower as quickly as possible.  No treadmill though, because it's much too loud to hear the tv.  And no outside runs because, well, 4 year old legs.

I do not get this interested in My Little Pony Equestria Girls.  I'm just saying.

This week has shown me why I feel very comfortable in our decision to stop at 4 kids.  It has shown me also how much I really enjoy the girls getting older.  I do miss the little arms around my neck, slobbery kisses and snuggles on my lap while I read a story.  However, I do not miss needing to inform everyone about my movements all the time. 

In the laundry room.  "Aunt Duh-nnnaaaaaae!!"

In the bathroom.  "Where are you?  Duh-nnaaaee!!"

Took the garbage outside. "I can't find you!  Aunt Duh-nnaaaAAAAaaae!"

Hiding in the pantry with the last two snickerdoodles. "Mom!  I mean, Duh-nnaaaaaaaaeeee!"

There have been a few moments where I thought to myself, "Hey, I totally can manage two extra kids."  But there have been many more moments counting down the days until I am back to my own brood.

When I tuck my kids into bed at night and we do our "Favorite and Least Favorite" of the day, the kids have all told me how much work little kids are.  My girls have been extremely helpful, reading to, playing with, giving piggy back rides, and jumping on the trampoline with their cousins.  They are finding it a little tiring.  I want to tell them, "I know!  I feel like that every day!"  Taking care of kids is physically and mentally and emotionally challenging.  It's a good thing I love them so much.
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On another note, I feel really blessed to have good friends.  Someone who knew I was having a rough week stopped by with two bags of disposable kitchen supplies yesterday.  It was so kind and so thoughtful, and a balm to my frazzled soul.  It was one of those moments where it hits me again that the Lord is mindful of me and my little worries and concerns.  Honestly, it could have been any kind of token of "Hey, I was thinking of you," and I would have loved it.  It's nice to be remembered, and not just because someone needs something from me, but out of love and concern.

A Long Labor Day

I'm counting on the fact that no one reads my blog anymore because I rarely post.  I sure hope so, because this one is going to be an over share.  But I have a lot of feelings and emotions rolling and writhing around inside of me, and writing is my under used form of therapy.

But before I get to yesterday, I have to start with Saturday.  It was a long weekend culminating in a really rough Monday.  Friday night we got a call saying that Ryan's brother and his family would be arriving mid day Saturday.  This was news to us.  We were expecting them in the evening.  We had made plans to go on a mountain hike, and this was kind of important to us because it would be the first and only one we will probably get this year.  It's just been a very long, very stressful, very busy (and not in a good way) summer.  This hike was happening or else.  Ryan's brother and family have never actually arrived here when they said they would, like ever.  We plan on their expected time being + a couple of hours on what they say.  We left a house key for them, and went adventuring anyway.  It was a glorious hike.  (I will include photos at the end of this.)  It was 3 miles of uphill and then the return trip of those same 3 miles downhill.  It felt so good, but we were sweaty, dusty and a good tired at the end.  We got back home and our guests had arrived when they said they would.  Whoops.  Oh well.  It's not like we left them stuck outside.  We had a dinner provided by Papa Murphy's (I did not feel up to cooking a nice dinner), and had some visit time, did showers and got the kids to bed.  At that point Ryan left to do bishopric house calls, and wasn't back until after our guests had all gone to bed.  When we got up Sunday morning, Michael, Blair and baby Cora had left for the airport and Simon and Charlotte were left in our care for the week.

During Ryan's early morning bishopric meeting we received a group text telling us that Ryan's uncle had passed away after a very long 6 year battle with cancer.  Not a very nice start to the day.  Well, I got 6 kids ready for church, installed two booster seats, and let Emma drive us to church.  We made it in enough time so I could give my sad husband a hug before sacrament meeting started.  Where Ryan was able to watch me keep 6 children reverent instead of my usual 4 from his seat on the stand.  Yay.  And if meetings and settings apart and the counting of tithing wasn't enough for him to do, Ryan had another house call to make in the evening.  It's been four years since Ryan was called to the bishopric.  There's a part of me that is glad we are on the "home stretch" (only 1-ish more year to go!!!) and the other part of me is particularly tired of it.  And that about sums up Sunday.

I didn't sleep well that night.  Sometimes my hormones include a night or two of insomnia just before that time of the month, and this was one of those times.  So, holiday or not, I was not exactly primed to have a great day.  My kids have been very helpful entertaining their cousins, but two more kids is still two more kids.

Yesterday, Ryan discovered that our kitchen floor spewed water from between Pergo planks when he stepped on it by the sink and dishwasher.  So we looked around for obvious spills.  Looked under the sink.  And then Ryan started messing with the dishwasher.  All looked fine inside, but he unscrewed the kick plate and we found a steady stream of water coming out.  We mopped up the water under the dishwasher with paper towels, and told the kids that the dishwasher was out of commission permanently.

The kitchen floor is warped and ruined, at least on that side of the kitchen.  Pergo is just about the worst flooring to use anywhere it might encounter water.  You know, entry ways, bathrooms and kitchens...  Those are all the places the previous homeowners put it.  The fake wood has seen some water damage near the toilet, in front of the bathtub, refrigerator (it has a water dispenser), and kitchen sink from the normal wear and tear of a family.  We've talked about replacing the floor for years, but, you know, it's just flooring.  Trees fall down, decks need to be refinished, ovens die and these things have taken precedence.  I didn't really want to replace the floor right now.  We just replaced our double oven, because those about died completely (just how long is it going to take to bake a batch of cookies...?), and our fridge is old and worn, and the produce drawers need to be handled with care or they fall apart.  But who wants to spend money on appliances that still semi-work when you could TRAVEL and see new places?

Never let anyone tell you home ownership is easy.  It's a money pit, I swear.

During all this, I'm getting asked about a hundred questions an hour.  What time is it? Can you stand by the bathroom door while I go potty?  When do the cousins go to school?  When do they come back?  Why can't we do X?  My mom does X this other way.  Our X does (insert something cooler than what we have).  Do you have Star Wars on your tv?  When can we watch a movie?  Why won't they let me into the play room?  Look at what we made with the Lego's.  Can I color?  Where's the glue?  When will my mom call?  Why won't Elizabeth come out of her room?

On and on and on.

Let's not forget Ryan's phone is nearly non-stop beeping, signaling new incoming text messages.  Work.  Church.  Family.  Work.  Work.  Church.  Family.  Family.  Work.

So, with the hopes of a fun family trip pushed back a little longer because of the floor and dishwasher issues, and hormones, lack of sleep, Ryan's long and busy week and his attention being commandeered all. the. freaking. time, the thought of hand washing dishes for 8 people this week (first world problems, I know), and taking care of 6 children this week, two more children to haul around to various activities... well, it all came crashing down.  Ryan found me sobbing on the bathroom floor.

If that wasn't enough, just as we were leaving to go to dinner at a friend's house with two pies in hand (yep, more dishes to wash), Ryan's sister called and wanted him to shear her kids' sheep.  In a couple hours.

You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding.

She graciously drove the sheep to our house, so we could leave early from our dinner engagement so Ryan could wrestle sheep in the twilight.  For the 3rd time this summer.  She drives an hour and a half one way for free shearing.  I didn't feel like being polite and making small talk.  So I made sure my kids got showered, and I washed dishes.

I know the floor doesn't look bad in this picture.  But it is, and the kitchen was a disaster.  There are big, black gaps between the wavy planks.  And the more warped the planks become, the more of the wood-looking covering gets scraped off by passing feet.

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But at least we still have these pictures to look back on from Saturday.  We drove up to Mt. Rainier and hiked a small portion of the PCT.

 It's about 2 miles of mostly gentle but relentless uphill hiking to Sheep Lake.

 Arriving at the lake means snack time!

 The kids did not want to do the final leg of the journey to Sourdough Gap.  It's one mile of pretty steep hiking.  So, we left the kids with one phone, snacks and water, and did the last bit by ourselves.  I felt slightly irresponsible, but they really are old enough for something like that, right?

 This was a particularly tricky part of the climb.

 Ta da!  Ryan and I made it in 30 minutes.  That's a pretty good pace, let me tell you.  We were breathing heavily when we arrived.

 Sheep Lake (and our children) are in the background.

 We made the downward journey in 23 minutes, and found our kids safe and sound.

 I make no apologies for buying a selfie stick.  It's the only way to guarantee a family picture on our adventures.

 We are not typical looking day hikers.  We did not look like we stepped out of an add for REI or Cabella's with fancy backpacks and hiking poles.  Nor were we in shorts and leggings.  Just jeans and tennis shoes for us.

It's huckleberry season, and we foraged a pretty good amount of berries.  None made it home with us because they only made it as far as our mouths.

The weather was just about perfect.  The air was clean and crisp.  The sun was shining.  There were still some flowers blooming.  It was warm enough for a t-shirt while walking, but once we stopped, we definitely needed our sweatshirts.  It was blessedly free from phone calls and texts.  We listened to Michael Vey book two on the car ride there and back.  It was a great trip.