Finally

The insurance adjuster finally came this afternoon. From the very beginning of this ordeal that's all we asked for. We were told to hire our own "professionals" to assess the damage, but when our professionals came back with big numbers the insurance company decided to send their own guy.
So, he came this afternoon, spent about 15-20 minutes and here's the deal:

-washer and dryer are being replaced
-freezer is being replaced
-water heater is being replaced
-tile floor and footings/trim is being replaced
-4' up of drywall is being replaced
-$ to pay people to move our stuff out of the way while floor/walls are being done

Whew! A blessing in disguise perhaps. We've had our washer and dryer for 7 years (which is ancient in this day and age where things are made to be broken and thrown away) and our water heater is 12 years old. I'm very excited to get to go appliance shopping, but it was SOOOOOOOOOO not worth it.

Now, onto taking steps to make sure that this doesn't happen again next spring.

"You Are Not in Charge"

Wow. I can't count the number of times I say that to Aidan in any given day. Being the oldest, being almost six, and being Aidan he tends to think that he's the boss and that we're all subject to his commands.
Imagine my shock and horror when I discovered, in light of recent events (oh yes, there's more...), that perhaps God is trying to tell me the same thing: YOU ARE NOT IN CHARGE! I AM!
So, after several days of wallowing in my self-pity and trying to figure out "why?" I have resolved to letting go and letting HIM be in charge.

When it rains...

....it floods

....in our basement

....with sewage!

We knew that basement flooding can be a problem. We knew that it had been a problem in this house before we got here. We spent many hours and a lot of sweat "grading" the slope around our house so that this would be less of a problem. We have had some good rains since we've moved, and were feeling quite smug about the fact that our basement had yet to flood.

Let's go back to last Sunday night/early Monday morning. Brett had just gone to bed, I hadn't gone to bed much earlier when we were awoken by a huge "thud-thud-thud". We got out of bed, did the usual "bedroom scan" of the kids' rooms, were satisfied that it was a mystery sound that may never be found and went back to bed. Never mind the fact that it was thundering and lightening and pouring rain. "Thud-thud-thud" went the mystery noise again. Brett went for a solo exploration this time and somewhere in the back of his mind he was told "go check out the basement". He did, yelled for me, and this is what we saw:

That bathroom mat floated out of the toilet "stall".

Our whole basement was being flooded with city sewer water right before our eyes and there wasn't a thing we could do about it. Well, there was one thing we could do. I jumped from furniture to furniture trying to salvage anything I could. Brett took a tour of the basement with the aid of our computer chair and wheeled himself from room to room saving all that he could and taking pictures for documentation purposes.

We discovered that the mystery sound was the toilet lid going up and slamming shut while the "water" (I use that term lightly) gushed (as in geyser) out of it. Lovely!

The basement is technically "clean". We are in the midst of dealing with our insurance company ('nough said) and getting quotes from different "experts".

More pics

Just adding some pics from our outdoor adventures:

Gigi's "look"

Scouting!

On Saturday, while the paint was drying on our apple-stamped sweatshirts we went out into the forest and "scouted" for deer. We saw a lot of "sign" and also learned a little something along the way. For instance, we learned that when a size 13 footprint is seen at just the right angle it looks nearly like a bear pawprint. We also learned that public hunting land may be "public", but it isn't exactly "public" if ya get my gist. We ran into a nice man (he really was) who was going bird-hunting with his dog in the exact area where we were going to scout for deer. He informed us that this was a fantastic place to go deer-hunting...in fact that is exactly where he and his family have gone since 1985! Oops!

We went back out today to check out a different area and we did indeed see some "sign", but this time it was of a different nature. Aidan was the one who spotted this in fact. It was big, fresh, and had a lot of berry seeds in it! Yes, that's right...not too long before we came trekking into the woods this morning, a black bear relieved himself right in the middle of our path. We have yet to see a bear (and I'm completely okay with that), but we know they are there and the kids were very excited about their "find".

(photo credit: Aidan)

Applefest 2007

Every year during the first weekend of October the town of Bayfield, WI has a huge Apple Festival! We were planning on attending, but as the time drew nearer we decided that instead of making the trek up there and spending a bazillion dollars on "everything apple" that we would buy a bunch of apples (some from the orchards in Bayfield) and have our own apple festival which we have named "Applefest 2007"

The festivities included:

-a breakfast of apple bread, apple crisp, and apple cider

-apple stamping on sweatshirts

-an apple tasting with 6 different types (Honey Crisp was our favorite)

-apples in "dipping" caramel for a snack

-caramel apple making/eating

Fun was had by all! We also had applesauce, apple butter, and an apple pie on our menu, but that might have to wait until later in the week because we are all completely sick of apples. Next year we may have to incorporate more crafts/games and less eating! :-)

Slip, slidin' away!

After several tries and many frustrations Gianna has discovered the perfect method for making sure she "sticks" every bite!