Wow

I know I said I wouldn't post any pictures of the house until I had decorated more, but I just couldn't resist posting this one. Behold, our theater room in the basement...
Holy crap!!

Let's get another look at that pile of dirt, shall we?All day, men have been banging and jack-hammering away in my basement, and then hauling loads of concrete up the stairs and out into the garage. I thought that pile was appauling. But after they left for the day, I got the courage to go down and look at what was in the room itself.

Yikes.

So, here's the story, as of today (it changes every few hours). There was no issue with an actual plug. Rather, the pipe bows in a few places under our house, going either up or down, rather than at a gradual decline out to the street. (Thus, sewage would back up at the bowed area, creating a "plug" of sorts). They dug this awesome hole to see if they could just lower the pipe itself to fix the problem in the house. Also, there's some issue with the connection spot right outside the house, which is why they'll be pulling out all our brand-new flowers and bushes in front and making a huge hole outside.

We're hopeful this won't all cost the possible $10,000 to fix that the plumber told me on Tuesday (I stopped breathing for a few seconds when he said that) but it's going to cost quite a bit, that's for sure. And we don't know if we can A) prove who caused the negligence in the first place since a few different people would have been involved in the plumbing of the house and doing the pipes out to the street, and B) get any of those people to pay anything, since when people work on a short sale, they typically don't get paid and they're very, very angry about it. Maybe we can get an insurance company to foot the bill, but we're not sure about that either (not ours, since I was still in the process of setting up our insurance here when it happened. Who knew a catastrophe of this magnitude would happen in the first week?!!).

The fun just never ends. :)

Time machine

I wish I had a time machine, so I could go back to yesterday, before the bathroom in the basement and the furnace room were filled with raw sewage. Or better yet, I wish I could go back to before the builder poured the basement floor, so I could punch the plumber that didn't remove some stupid plug out of the pipe that's always, always supposed to be removed.

We had an emergency plumber come out last night and he was able to punch through the plug and drain the mess. After looking at the bathroom down there, I knew I could never, ever get it clean enough myself to feel comfortable using it again. So, now we have a disaster clean-up crew down there, cleaning the bathroom, ripping up the carpet that was affected, and hopefully making it so I can walk into my house without cringing. Hopefully.

We have another plumber coming out on Tuesday (awesome that this all happened on a holiday weekend) to send a camera down the pipe to see if the plug is still there or if the other guy was able to completely get rid of it. If it's still there, we'll have to rip up part of the basement floor and get it out. Also, my favorite idiot plumber installed the drain in the furnace room off the ground so that's why that room got destroyed. We'll have to fix that as well.

My husband said the silver lining in all of this is that BYU won yesterday. Hmm. I'm glad the Cougs won, but I'm not so much feeling the silver lining. Hopefully the silver lining will be that we can actually track down the idiot plumber and make him pay for all of this. Hopefully.

Settling in

Our phone and Internet got hooked up yesterday—hallelujah! I was so grateful for the amazing technology of my iphone this week. Although it was a huge pain to type long e-mails out on it (and I did do several of those for work) it was my lifeline to work and the outside world. Thank goodness for it.

We're slowly but surely unpacking all of the boxes and figuring out where things go. That's the easy (but annoying) part for me. I can organize and clean and put things away just fine (although, a few times, I've forgotten the oh-so-handy spot I put something in and had to open several drawers to find it). The hard part for me is what comes next—filling up the wall space with all of the art and knick knacks that we brought with us. Will our old stuff still work? Do we need to get new stuff? If so, what stuff? Luckily, I have people like A's cousin who actually think it's fun to decorate a house. I like the finished product, but I don't have an eye for that kind of thing. At all.

The kids are starting to walk to and from school now. They (meaning S) were nervous about not remembering where to go, but I walked with them several times and they're a lot more confident now. I love that we have these great bike trails that they can walk and ride their bike on. And I love the grassy area and playground that are behind my house. The kids have been playing there non-stop and it's awesome.

Since we're still in a state of semi-moved in, I'm not going to post any pictures just yet. Except for this one—it's the view from my bedroom window. I love it. I'm getting even more of a view of the park and lovely mountains in the distance since we don't have blinds yet (and won't for a week more). That's been fun, letting our new neighbors get a great introduction to us. But it is a beautiful view.On Sunday, we go to our new ward for the first time. We've already had several neighbors introduce themselves and even bring over treats, but I'm still nervous. I feel like my kids probably did on the first day at their new school: Will they like us? Will anyone sit by me in Relief Society? Wish us luck!

Quick update

So, we're in our new house. Hooray! This past week just about killed us, but we made it. A big thanks to all the friends, family members, and neighbors who helped us move. We couldn't have done it without your help! We're going to miss everyone in our old neighborhood, but I'm sure we'll be back so much they'll be sick of us!

P.S. I'm writing all of this on my iPhone since we don't have Internet access until later in the week. Nor do we have any TV channels. My husband's depressed about it but I figure I can really get him to do some good unpacking in the meantime. More updates (and maybe even pictures, if I can get things settled quickly) later when I don't have to type with my thumbs on a tiny keyboard. :)

Play with my children!

Things are still going well for the kids at their new school. However, I must confess some conflicted feelings on my part. When I drop them off in the morning, I try to train H to find his class door, so that he'll be able to find it on his own. He's getting better at finding the door, but he always looks back at me like, "Are you sure about this, Mom?" I know his hesitation is probably because it's a new situation and also because he only knows a few kids so far. But part of me wants to take him by the hand, go in there with him, and make those kids like my wonderful son!

Yesterday when I picked the kids up, I asked S who she played with at recess. "No one." What?! I was all worried about it, but she said it wasn't a big deal, and she even laughed about it. I did ask her the names of girls that look like they might be fun. When she rattled off a few names, I suggested she go up to those girls and ask if they wanted to play at recess. The thought of doing that even as an adult is scary (well, obviously not playing at recess, but you get what I mean) but I hope that she'll be able to do it.

I know she's feeling shy about just walking up to people she doesn't know (and with the way some girls act these days, I don't blame her), but once again, my mother bear instincts kicked in and I wanted to fix it all for her... to fast forward a few months and have both kids happy, adjusted to their new school, and firmly in the middle of a group of a friends. But alas, I guess I have to let my kids learn on their own sometimes!

New school!

Yesterday, S and H had their very first day of school at their new school. I drove them there and then walked them in the bike trail they'll use once we move to our new house. We found their classrooms quickly and off they went. As expected, S was excited and giggly and H was unsure and quiet. On the drive up there, the kids were talking about the new friends they would make, and I talked to them about how important it is to be a good friend. I even used the example of adults who talk about how their neighborhood or ward isn't very friendly, when really, isn't it just as much our responsibility to say hello and be friendly? I encouraged them to say hi to the kids in their class and try to get to know people.

When I picked them up, both had great things to say and both had made new friends. Yeah!