totally worth it

so needless to say, our days around here have not been the best.  my initial assessment of the severity of our basement was nowhere near what it really is.  luckily, none of our things were ruined, but almost all of the basement was finished with carpet.  which has been a life-saver with these twins running around.  our deductible for insurance is more than what bryan thought we'd spend doing it ourselves, so he and my dad have been working for the last couple of days ripping up carpet, ripping out the super absorbent underneath pad and carting it outside.  filling a trash can 15 or 20 times with 80 or so pounds worth of water-logged styrofoam (or something similar), and hauling it up a flight of stairs to the street. yeah.  we've transferred the playroom to our office, which isn't child-proofed, about 1/3 the size of their play area downstairs, and has too many things for the boys to get into that they aren't appreciating being in there at all!  no limits, mom!

thank goodness my sister was here today, although it was still a rough one... can't go anywhere inside, so hot outside - but luckily, she took them on a loooonng walk so we were able to get some work done.  i cooked.  which i don't really do.  i found something that i knew they would like (parmesan-crusted chicken fingers - i mean, come on!) and crossed my fingers.  well, par for the course, they weren't having it.  so by the time bedtime rolled around, we were SO ready to put them down for the night.  diapers, pj's, replacing all the pacifiers and blankets that have been thrown out of the beds at naptime, brushing teeth.. normal routine.  i turned off the light, and turned on the fan as bryan was telling them 'night, night, i love you'.  and then, as we were walking out of the room, we hear 'uh-yuh-you'.  for the first time in liam's little life.
and the day disappeared...

i learned a few things today...

- we should always check the basement first thing in the morning after a giNORmo thunderstorm the previous night
- i shouldn't think things like flooded basements don't happen to me
- something i already knew, but appreciated even more today : dads are the best
- i wasn't as strong as i thought (apparently, carrying around 2 22-pound toddlers every day doesn't make you strong - what?!)
- the wet vac is a serious machine
- seriously, dads are the best
- and i'm sure, had he not been saving lives (i exaggerate, but only a little), husbands would have been the best
- i definitely take the men in my life for granted
- am grateful for the roof over our heads, but cursing whatever part of our house let all this water in
- am also grateful i chose a day last week to clean up a major part of our storage in the basement, putting all of the babies' clothes in water-resistant tupperware
- is it still called tupperware if it isn't holding left-overs in your fridge?
- shouldn't have chosen this particular day to paint our front door 'mixed berry jam' (more on that in a bit) and change the hardware
- if the hardware on your front door hasn't been changed since the house was built (1950s?), there's probably a damn good reason
- trying to force a brass doorknob out of a door jamb with a flathead screwdriver is not a good idea
- using a hammer to jam the screwdriver into said door jamb is definitely not a good idea
- mixed berry jam, i'm slowly finding out, is a fancy word for pink. maybe even hot pink. fuchsia.
- i still love it
- but i'm not sure how bryan will feel about it
- pandora is the best app for days like this (glee radio to be specific!)
- hoping mixed berry jam dries more than just a shade darker
- and even if stan at the home depot tells you you won't need more than one coat, count on more than one coat
- starting to realize why bryan is so obsessed with his drill

you be the judge

maybe tomorrow i will learn how to get the doorknob out of the door.

pond fun!

i don't know if i've ever shared that i grew up on a farm.  not a real farm, like corn and cows (although we have had other people rent our land from us to house their cows), but 62 acres of land in the country. a farm.  over the years, we had sheep, goats, chickens, a couple of horses (for a very short time), dogs, and a countless number of cats.  at one time, it was 14. 14.  on this farm are two ponds.  one of them was already there, and my parents put in our swimming pond a few years later.  it has a peninsula, and a dock, and we spent so many hours in it... and somehow, as i've gotten older, i haven't so much been into the whole pond thing.  part of it has to do with the fact that the sand guy didn't dump the right kind of sand a couple of summers ago, it's more like gravel and it's ended up more mud, less sand where you can touch.  slimy.  however, as the boys are getting older, i've been told a few times by my mom and dad that i can't pass my irrational fears onto them.  even though it's not a fear (eyes rolling), i'm letting it go and not thinking about the algae and ginormo catfish in there..  the boys got in for the first time last weekend and had a blast!! the first of many times, i'm sure..

finn with mimi

liam having a blast with poppy!

peter pan

love this pic of liam  

swimming with the bear

forgot to take the camera to the pool... but got a few cute pics of the guys beforehand.  seriously, i don't know of anything that is cuter than these three boys!