Out of the Mouths...

Jojo can not say his L's and it often leads to some funny stories.  Most words we have figured out by now but every once in awhile he'll say something new with the missing L and it takes us a bit.

This morning we were looking at pictures of him and he says to me:

"Mom, I look like I was oozed in one of those pictures."

Me: "What's oozed?"

Jojo: "You know, like oozed in the woods and no one is with me."

He meant losed, lost.  I read something recently that was talking about the brilliance of children's brains.  It used this example, that often a child will conjugate a past tense verb but not know that the verb breaks the rules of conjugation.  So the past tense of lose is lost.  But Josiah knows that past tense is -ed... so it's losed.  Love it.

Oh boy...

This was fun.  My cousin Caryn asked if I would take their family photos.  Her husband is an avid Star Wars fan and he wanted to play a prank on his parents who needed a new family photo of them.  She asked if I would take regular pics and then some of them in their Star Wars costumes.

Let me tell ya', this was so fun!  I have to admit I was a bit nervous about the costume part.  I wasn't sure how it would all flow and function and how I would pose them.  I should have known that would have all taken care of itself.  :)  They were comfortable and having so much fun with each other.  It was one of my favorite photography moments.

My cousin actually made all of these costumes, extremely impressive!

Mold Selfie

I'm not much of a selfie person.  A few weeks back I was doing some intense cleaning in the crawl space and caught a glimpse of myself and couldn't resist.

Drama

If you are a regular reader of my blog you may have noticed that things have been a bit slow around here.  Our lives have been interrupted with some significant drama and I've simply not had the time or energy to write about it.

Late this summer Aaron mentioned to me that there was a bump in the living room floor, right by the front door.  Steve moaned when he saw it, thinking it was the result of the weather strip on the door that needed replaced.  As time went on, we noticed that the floor was buckling more and more.  This created a much greater concern than simply the weather strip.

Keep in mind this is our new living room, added only 6 years ago.  Underneath the room is crawl space that we literally never go in to.  Finally, Steve went down to see if there was a bigger problem.  In his worst fears I don't think he could have imagined what he found down there.

The crawl space was full of moisture and rot and mold.  The rim joist (the beam that is at the edge of the room and supports the wall of the living room) was completely rotted.  The concrete block was very wet and mold had attacked the insulation, block, and beams.  As you can imagine this was a devastating find for him.

He and my dad spent weeks trying to determine the source of the moisture.  We had 2 mold professionals in that were supposed to be able to find the source of the problem and they were both stumped.  As Steve did more and more demo and searching and investigating, it became evident that the water was not coming from the outside in.  It was condensation from the room.  There was no damage on the outside of the house. It was all underneath, coming up.  But where was all the moisture coming from??

My dad called a friend of his who does basement work.  His assessment was that because we had some exposed ground in the crawl space that was creating the moisture. He was certain that if we covered the ground that would solve our problem.  He had seen this exact situation in another home.  That was news of much relief to my dear husband who hardly slept for 2 weeks.  Thus began the demo and rebuilding of this area.

Here is a before picture.  You can see the floor buckling along the trim.
                                      


This was after the demo of the damage.  The beam that sits along the wall was completely rotted.  Steve said you could just grab the wood and pull it out with your hands.  He said he thinks the only reason the wall stayed up was because of the stone of the front porch.

This is in the midst of rebuilding.  Steve had to rebuild the floor joist and replace some sub flooring.  

Before Steve did any demo to the crawl space, he poured concrete into the crawl space floor.  It was quite the scene to take in, having a concrete truck backed up to the house with it pouring in through my living room floor.  My dear husband, what a crappy job!  Pouring concrete on his hands and knees.

So bummed, missed the focus on this adorable pic.

This little guy was pretty pleased with a concrete truck in his driveway!!

The bulk of the work and demo took place over the week of Thanksgiving.  I was grateful to be able to stay at my parent's for a couple nights.

It's been quite the month, wresting with my fears (mold spores, anyone???).  I had a friend who recently dealt with mold in their home and her advice to me was to 'just keep cleaning.' My HEPA vac, microfiber cloths, steam mop, and Borax have been my newest friends.  I'm wiping, cleaning, vacuuming, re-wiping, re-vacing, and wiping again.  Good news, my house has never been cleaner.

One tremendous blessing to us through all of this is that Steve's brother Jeremy has been laid off from work and been able to help Steve almost every step along the way.  Nothing like your brother to work along side with.

The real hero in all this has been my dear husband.  He worked so hard 6 years ago to make this a beautiful home for us.  The day he ripped out the living room floor I cried, it was such a labor of love  for him to lay that beautiful flooring. Steve has been diligent, hard-working and most impressive, not one complaint has come out of his mouth.  His perseverance and faith amaze me.  So grateful to have him.

Our house is still under construction.  Our living room is taped off, the piano is in the kitchen, couches in the garage, and boxes and bins of lamps and decor scattered about.  It took a bit to track down our flooring, they discontinued it and we finally found a couple boxes.  These next couple weeks Steve will repair the drywall and re-lay the flooring.  Looks like we may be able to have our tree up by Christmas Eve!!

Outtakes

Often the outtakes are my favorites from the photo shoots with my kiddos.  I see the "real" them coming through with a genuine laugh or when I capture them mid-thought.  This girl keeps me cracking up...as seen below.

Hangin out

Finally made it through my Iowa pics!

Not exactly sure how this picture happened but it cracks me up.

Ashley convinced me to chop her hair and I caved!!  I think the shorter 'do is adorable on her.

Boys