The Other Photographer

Since Jon is really the photographer in the family, I'm always really excited when I (with my little point-and-shoot) get a good one. Aren't they the cutest?

Restored!

Finally, after two weeks of waiting for repair guys to show up, the family room is good as new. I'm so glad because it's one of my most favorite rooms in our house. The damaged area was to the right of the window. Hurray for homeowner's insurance!

Never a Dull Moment

It was Monday, Jan. 21. Jon and I were excited b/c Kate seemed ready for a little nappie and we wanted to relax at a nearby coffee shop. So we bundled her up, got the diaper bag ready, grabbed our books, and I headed downstairs to the front door to get my shoes and coat. Halfway down the stairs my brain registered a very bad sound. I thought, hopefully, that's Jon doing some laundry (as he'd been out of town last week and was going out of town again this week.) I called, Jon, are you doing laundry? No, he called back. Oh no. I turned the corner from the stairway and looked into our downstairs family room. Water was gushing out of a hole in the wall in the back corner of the room, soaking the floor and heading ominiously toward the couches. JON! GET DOWN HERE! (Of course, I don't head for the water shut-off valve, I call for Jon.) He, however, took one look (as I'm standing there in disbelief, socks soaked) and flew down the hall to the water shut off valve. Swamp-0-room.

Long story short, a pipe inside the wall, attached to an outside spigot, burst and soaked through the wallboard until it, in turn, burst through the hole. Here we are, three days from disaster date and things are drying quite nicely. Sigh. However, we have several positive ways to look at this catastrophe:

1. We have homeowner's insurance.
2. Jon was home, not out of town, when this happened.

3. Our deductable for the insurance is something we can pay.

4. The plumber (that we had to pay for; he's not covered by insurance) was very reasonable in how he charged us. (And let me tell you, he was NOT cheap.)

5. Kate napped extremely well that day.

6. The restoration company that will fix the wallboard and replace the baseboards will repaint the entire room including the hallway, entryway, and all baseboards. They'll even repaint inbetween our crown molding!

7. It looks like our furniture is ok.

8. Our insurance company (USAA) has been great to work with through this.

9. The water came in just below the fuse box to our home. It didn't actually HIT the fuse box.

There will probably be more positive things but for now, that's all I can think of. Oh, one other thing. Jon said, well, this helps solve one problem we were thinking about. I said, what's that? Now we know how we'll spend our tax refund, he said. OH GREAT.

Interestingly enough, since we moved into this townhome in August 2005, we've had to: replace the washer/dryer, the kitchen faucet, a bathroom drain, the microwave (that was covered, thankfully), and the roof; restain the deck, and now, fix a burst pipe. Gotta love owning your own home. But seriously, we are so thankful for the above mentioned things. God is still looking out for us! Oh, and on that note, remember the post on how God returned my purse and how we thought the pastor's sermon the Sunday before was particularly apt? (If not, see The God of Missing Purses, Oct '07 post) Well, this Sunday (I kid you not) he preached about suffering. How Christians who do not suffer really lack in their relationship with God because we draw closer to Him through suffering. It's easy to look to ourselves when life is going well--it's the difficulty that God gives us because He loves us and wants us to have a closer relationship with Him. We're so glad He really nailed that sermon home this week.

Lastly, the water poured all over our DVD/VHS collection. And if you know us at all, you know we love our movies. Hopefully, they'll be ok too--they're drying upstairs in the living room. But the final praise? Our Star Trek: TNG DVD set is just fine. Wheeww---thanks, Lord!

Happy Birthday, Gramie!

This post is dedicated to Belle Brown, who turns 90 on Jan 23. Congratulations, Gramie! (Doesn't she look great?) We love you so much and look forward to seeing you this summer. Join us in celebrating this special day with Belle by wishing her a happy birthday.

Captions, Anyone?

We think these pictures are so great that they need captions. Tell us what she's thinking!
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