When You Were Young...

If you know the band The Killers you'd get the title of this blog....if not, then oh well. The point is we love this band and were so excited to actually go and see them in concert on Thursday night!!!! Brian sent me an e-mail at work on Tuesday to say The Killers were going to be playing in Ypsilanti, MI on Thursday night and he could get tickets. My mom said she could watch the kids so we got tickets and headed up as soon as work was done. So, we were probably on the older end of the age group attending this concert but it was so fun to get out and see a live band again like we used to do all the time in college. They put on quite a show and even though I was soooo tired at work on Friday it was really worth going.

Now, an update on our water situation....yes, we have water again...for the most part. The plumbers got here late last Sunday night and could repair the pipes under our pantry, right where the crawlspace starts and is about 2 feet high. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no access to the pipes under our downstairs bathroom unless you are a foot tall and a contortionist. So we either have to rip up the bathroom floor or excavate under the foundation and build an access door.....awesome. We therefore just told them to shut the water off to the downstairs bathroom so we could at least have water in the rest of the house until we can get the work done. We had problems with pipes freezing when I was growing up too, but it's much different when you can just go into the basement to fix things. I'm just glad I don't have to go down into the crawlspace....yikes!!!

On a good note, Ian is starting to show an interest in potty training now! He does not want to go on the little potty we bought him but he really likes sitting on the "big potty" before he gets in the bath at night and sometimes even tells us if he needs to go at other times. They also sit him on the potty at daycare so that really helps too. Ian is very much a "do-it-my-way-and-on-my-schedule" little person so we'll see how things progress.

That's all for now.....sorry there were no pictures...next time maybe!!

Our Winter fun...and not so fun...

Last weekend we decided to head out to the resort at Maumee Bay State Park which is just east of Toledo on Lake Erie. My mom picked Ian up from daycare on Friday afternoon so they could head out and get checked in to our rooms. Then when Brian and I got off of work we picked up Alexis and drove out. The weather had started to get bad that afternoon and by the time we drove out there the roads were a mess. We made it though and had a really great weekend. It was nice to be inside a warm place and look out at the beautiful snow without having to go out and shovel it or try to drive in it (that awaited us when we left on Sunday).
We did go outside and play in the snow for a little bit but that didn't last very long. The wind coming off the lake was just too cold. So we spent the rest of our weekend indoors swimming in the pool and hot tubs, playing games in our rooms or sitting by one of the nice fireplaces in the lobby.
Here are a few pictures just outside of our rooms playing:

The weather the rest of the week only got worse. The snow kept coming and the temperatures began to get well below zero. The following Friday saw temperatures at about negative 30 with windchill. The poor furnace in our house just couldn't keep up. Our upstairs was warm thank goodness but downstairs we couldn't get the heat above 60 and that's when the trouble started. We've had the pipes in our downstairs bathroom freeze before but when we got home from work this past Friday we had no water in any part of the house.

Saturday morning we woke up and still no water so we called the water department to see if it was a problem on their end (they had been out in the alley behind us with a backhoe for several hours on Friday). They sent someone out who took a look all over and told us that unfortunately it was our pipes that were frozen. He suggested leaving the door to our crawlspace open to try to get some heat down there where the pipes were.

Since there wasn't much else we could do we packed up some things and headed to my mom's house to take showers and get ready for the day. We were planning to take Ian to the International Auto Show in Detroit so we decided to just go ahead and go up there.....oh boy....

The actual auto show was great. Ian loved all the cool cars and kept saying, "Let's go bye-bye in that one!" Fortunately, you could get in and look at most of them so he was excited to do that. He really liked all the crazy concept cars and was very interested in the Mustangs, the new Camaro and the Viper.

After the show is when our day started to get slightly off track. Surprise, surprise we started to get more snow. The temperatures had come up a bit (I think we were finally above 15 degrees) but the snow mixed with the fact that Detroit has a bit of a problem with construction detours and lack of funding for plowing or salting made for quite a mess. It took us about 3 hours to get home (normally it's 50 minutes) and I can't even count how many spin-outs and accidents we saw. Luckily we made it home safely.

Because we were without water we decided to let the kids sleep at my mom's house and Brian and I would go back home to make sure things were alright there....thank goodness we did. Around 2:00 a.m. I got up to go the bathroom and could hear water running. "Oh, thank goodness!" I thought....until Brian and I went downstairs to see that it was actually a burst pipe pouring water into our crawlspace. Lovely.

A long string of events followed but we eventually got the water turned off, put a call in to a plumber, and got back in bed around 3:30 a.m.

Which bring me to today....we are on our third day without water and are still waiting for a plumber but the crawlspace has mostly dried out and we are lucky to be able to go to my mom's house when we need to. As if my Dad and sisters weren't already trying to get us to move down to Florida with them, now they've got this to keep reminding us of. Ah well.....

Hopefully, next time I post a blog we'll have water......

Our Christmas (a little late...)

Yes, I know we are already in the second week of January but with work and the holidays and all the other craziness around here I am just now getting a moment to put up some Christmas pictures. Work is starting to get busier with tax season right around the corner and we now have 4 cats in our house!! We got my dad's two again since he goes to Florida for the winter and my sister Heidi just moved to Florida and couldn't take her kitty with her....Brian is thrilled, let me tell you. Hehe.
Anyways, our Christmas plans changed about 50 times before Christmas Day actually arrived...mostly because of my work schedule. Our office was open Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas so although we had planned to go to Rochester for Christmas we didn't know how that was going to work. Well, it's a long story and like I said our plans changed a million times but we eventually decided on Brian driving up with the kids on Christmas Eve morning since he had off of work. I ended up getting the day after Christmas off so I drove up myself early on Christmas morning and we all came back the Saturday after Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, Brian's family had a Christmas party with Santa and lots of gifts. I couldn't attend of course but I guess the kids had a lot of fun...but were pretty tired by the end. They weren't too fond of Santa at first, but once Ian realized Santa was the source of presents, he warmed up to the idea.

Before Ian realized Santa gave out gifts:
Ian and his cousin Reese dancing:

Reese and Lahna (Brian's brother's girls) and Alexis and Ian....yeah, trying to get the four of them to pose together is impossible...especially when Ian is trying to squeeze his sister:

And he's still squeezing:
Alexis and Papi (Brian's dad):

Uncle Mike, Ian and Reese:

On Christmas morning (before I arrived) Brian, the kids, Brian's parents and Brian's brother's family all opened gifts at his parents house. Wow! What a ton of presents!! Both of our cars were loaded on the way home. His parents had already gotten Alexis a kitchen and Ian a workbench and tools but the gifts just kept on coming!

Uncle Mike, Ian and Lahna:

Ian with his new guitar:

Aunt Meghan and Ian opening gifts:

Ian and Reese with a train set:

The rest of our time in Rochester was spent visiting more of Brian's family and friends and Brian and I even got to go out and get lunch and see a movie together without the kids! That's always a plus!!

Alexis with Brian's cousin Emily:

Oh, and Happy Belated New Year!!! Hopefully it won't be so long before the next post but I can't guarantee anything.