Water water everywhere.

I feel like the guy in the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. "Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink."

I'm not kidding, I think this April has been by far the worst month of my entire life. It definately takes the cake. Now the water in the basement - that started coming up from the floor 9 days ago after really heavy rains and was just about to start drying out - is back in full force because of the even heavier rains we got yesterday. So I called some people who are going to come out and give us estimates next week, but I have been talking to some people who have either had this problem or know someone who has had this problem and a rough estimate to fix it is probably going to run us somewhere around $10,000. Ok. Last time I checked we didn't have $10,000. Maybe I should check under the couch cushions one more time to be sure, but I'm pretty darn sure we don't have that just lying around. So I have no idea what we are going to do. First things first I guess...wait for the guys to come look at it. One is coming next Tuesday and one is coming next Thursday.

So to top all of the inside water problems off, I go outside today to play with the dogs for a few minutes while the kids are napping and I look over at where the sump pump drains - last week Jeremiah and Brian hooked up this plastic hose type thing to the PVC pipe to make the water drain farther away from the house - and it's just lying there in a lake of water. It was totally disconnected so all the water from the basement was being pushed outside like 5 feet from the house and presumably running right back down through the ground and back into the house. WEEEE! What fun! I should add food coloring to the pond out there and see if it shows up in the basement. Hmmm. I might do that. Not that it would really solve any problems, but you know.

So after I discover that mess I go over and try to reconnect the blue thing. I am successful. Hooray. Then I look around the side of the house to see where it goes and it doesn't get really far so I decide what would be even more genius would be to connect a series of pipes together to make it drain out to the street - after about 8 different random pipes and a half a roll of duct tape later it occurs to me that we have such a thing called a "garden hose." Duh. So for dramatic effect I put that at the end of the line. Like magic I watch the blue hose expand by the house as I stand by the street waiting for water and voila! there it was! It drained right into the street and down into the city sewer. "I'm a genius!" I think as I walk along the makeshift drainage system admiring my work. Then, as I get to my first joint, the one which connected the other end of the blue hose to another piece of PVC I see the blue hose start to swell and then hear a fast hissing sound, and before I can jump out of the way the more than wet duct tape lets loose and I get sprayed with water as the pipe and blue hose seperate.

At this point, soaked and angry I decide to give up. Perhaps we should just dig out a mote around the rest of the house instead of just the one back corner and side and put the house up for sale. We could market it as lakeside property with a security mote around it. We can get some alligators and a drawbridge from the porch to the driveway. Who needs ADT when you can have real alligators?

By the time I walked from the side of the house to the garage my next brilliant idea hit me...wouldn't you think they would make some kind of threaded fitting that would connect to the end of a piece of PVC on one side and a garden hose on the other? Duh, again. Then we could forget about the dumb blue plastic hose thing and just put a real hose on there that could go all the way from the back of the house around the side and out to the street. When the kids get up from naps we might take a field trip to Lowes to investigate.

Sick day fun

The kids are both sick and had fevers yesterday so I took them to the doctor. Mackenzie has a double ear infection...number 5 since July last year. Poor thing. So she's on antibiotics again. Brady has really swollen tonsils with puss spots on them. He tested negative for strep, but had a high fever - 103 - so the doctor decided he needs antibiotics too. So we stayed home from daycare today. When Jeremiah got home Brady played dress up with Daddy. They were "police guys" and ran around the house putting the cat in jail. After the kids went to bed I made a monkey cake for Jeremiah to take to work for his buddies tomorrow. He turned out ok. I used different icing this time so it wasn't as stiff as the other stuff I usually use. I made some candy bananas to go with him. They turned out pretty cute. The kids are feeling better, but not all the way back to normal, but tomorrow it's back to daycare and work. Ick. Saturday Brady has his graduation ceremony for Parents As Teachers. That will be a lot of fun. Then we're taking him to the Royal's baseball game to celebrate! I can't believe he's going to be 3 in less than a month!!!

Sissy, the Parrothead!

Easter fun!

The Easter Bunny!

The kids had fun this morning searching for their Easter baskets. They have also discovered the fun of playing in the cabinets!! They are too silly.

Here's the bunny cake I made today. Super cute...and he smells delicious! His ears are a little uneven but we won't notice when we eat him!!!

Panda cake!!!

Here's the panda cake I made with my new bear cake pan. I think he turned out awesome!! For Brady's birthday party next month I'm going to try to convert the bear into Brady's favorite cartoon character, Leo from The Little Einsteins.

Before three hours of icing!!! He is so cool he sits up by himself!!!

Adventures in baking

I have decided to start trying to sell cakes. I have made a princess castle and an Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street. I also made some fun cupcakes. I figure I have to get some practice and some photos to show people who might be interested. The babysitter said she would buy one for her daughter's birthday next month. I started looking for deals on cake pans on Ebay and in the stores. As I get more cakes I'll put them on here so everyone can see them. I'm going to make a bunny head for Easter this weekend. That will be fun. Here are my first adventures in caking:

Princess castle.

Zebra cupcakes.

Abby Cadabby.

Getting so big...

Poor Mackenzie shopped till she dropped yesterday!! We went to Walmart and Target and she just couldn't take it. Poor thing fell asleep right there in the cart! She's been taking more steps each day, but she still gets around primarily by crawling. I expect her to be running by Brady's birthday next month!!

Brady having a sweety moment. He's so cute and so good - when he wants to be!!! He's actually had two pretty good days. Most days he pushes Sissy around a lot and doesn't like to share. Yesterday and today he's been really good. We bought the kids two different sets of plastic drawers that they can each put their special toys in them. Brady knows he can't play with Sissy's and we tell her she can't play with Brady's. So far it's working and helping to prevent some of the fights.