One day we will look back on this and laugh.

One day we will say, “Hey, remember that time we came home from bible study and started the dishwasher and then walked away and then started hearing really loud rushing water and went into the kitchen to find it completely flooded?” And then we will laugh.

But I so was not laughing last night. Praying, more like.

We had just gotten home from Bible study and Carl went to load the dishwasher and start it because we had some friends coming over to watch a show with us. Well we had left the room and I was on the phone with my mom and all this time I am hearing rushing water, thinking nothing of it because I was sure it was the washing machine filling up or something. Well I walked into the kitchen and found it flooding. I told my mom, “Something big just happened! Gotta go!” and hung up the phone. {Poor mom thought something was wrong with Ben because he had banged his head pretty bad about 20 minutes prior and she was saying to watch out for a concussion. She told my dad after I hung up that she was afraid something was wrong with Ben—sorry mom and dad!}

Anyway, like I said, the kitchen was flooding rapidly before our eyes. The first words out of my mouth were, “Call David NOW!” – he is a deacon at the congregation and he is super handy and lives just up the road. It was coming from under the sink and Carl rushed around to try to turn the water off but the water was SO HOT and it was scalding our feet and fogging up Carl’s glasses. While he tried to turn it off, I ran back and forth from the bathroom to the kitchen with towels, throwing them down on the floor to try to get the water to stop moving further into the house. I ran out of towels eventually, and we have a LOT of towels. It still really wasn’t enough to really get it all soaked up. It wasn’t like “oh there is some water on the floor” it was like “Wow, I am splashing through my kitchen” – even with the towels down.

Finally the water was shut off and David arrived with his shop vac and we got the soaked towels up so he could vacuum up the rest of the water. We looked under the sink and found that the line had exploded. This morning David came with some new lines and installed them for us.

So all is well, or should be. I haven’t tried to turn the dishwasher on again because now I’m all nervous. It should be fine, but I’d rather not risk it. My kitchen is kinda cluttered up now with cleaner stuff that had been under the sink now on all my counters. It was a stressful situation and all I wanted to do was pray and count my blessings and there were a few big ones that really came to me.

I am thankful that we have indoor plumbing even if it explodes in our kitchen!

I am thankful for a quick-moving husband.

I am thankful that we have hot water even if it scalds our feet!

I am thankful that we have a million towels to throw down on the floor!

I am thankful for friends and family in Christ who are handy and close by enough to come help us in our time of great need!

I am thankful that tonight I am going on a girls’ night out with Blythe to get our nails did and have dinner and relax.

I am thankful for a new line under our sink!

So very, very thankful to be able to remain calm and keep a good attitude when I really wanted to scream and rip my hair out! Oh, and you might be wondering what Benjamin thought of all this. Nothing. He thought nothing of this because he was completely oblivious the entire time. I am so thankful for Word World no matter how many times I have seen it and no matter how annoying it can be. It kept him so occupied so we didn’t have to keep him out of the way or out of the kitchen. I imagine he would have  been slipping all around in that hot water! It still cracks me up that he STILL has no idea what happened.

So yeah, one day we may look back on all of this and laugh. But right now I’m feeling really sleep deprived and just really thankful that it’s all been taken care of.

our house!

Finally I have some pictures to show for our new digs. Oh yes! You’re really excited, I can tell! I don’t blame you! I love our new house!

Ben’s bathroom.

Benjamin’s bedroom. You may see a few pictures with him in them because he was following me around… or I was following him. Either way…

Dining room…see what I mean? There’s Ben!

There’s the entry way…
{boy these neighborhood dogs sure do like to bark all night…}

Guest room.

Kitchen… and I LOVE the red.

Laundry area

Living room!

 

Of course, it’s not completely put together but it’s so very close. It is so homey and nice and we just love it here! We are just so blessed! God is good!

Also, a little update on Benjamin and a prayer request. Prayers first. Benjamin is sick. We are probably going to try to get him in to see the doctor this week. Please pray he starts feeling better. He has a runny, cloggy nose {I seriously wipe his nose all day long. He comes to me and goes, “TISSUE! TISSUE! NOSE!” while his nose just drips and drips}, a nasty cough, and he wheezes when he breathes. Sigh!

And the update is that tonight will be the fourth night in a row that he has been sleeping in his big boy bed without any problem at all. This transition has been so easy. We still push the pack-n-play up against his bed until we can get some rails up. But he does so well. We are SO proud of him.

Ahhh my big boy! Now if we can just get him to use the potty….

Sweet Home, Alabama!

So we made it to Alabama! And we finally have internet at the house now, so I can finally get back into blogging! I have really missed all my bloggy friends and I have been spending some time catching up on y’alls blogs. I’m trying to leave comments but you know how things are. We have been very busy around here, if you can imagine, but I am happy to say we don’t have any unpacking left to do and we finally have places to sit in the living room! We are just waiting for the rest of our furniture to get here (that would be tables and lamps for the living room), and I’m also waiting for paint to dry on these shelves I’ve painted for our DVD’s… and then I  just need to keep things tidied and all is good!

I have been so good about keeping busy lately. Part of that is because I have been getting up earlier than I used to (which actually is about the same time in Georgia that I used to get up, but it also means I am getting more work in as I’m seeing more daylight).

Benjamin has adjusted very well. You’d never know he just moved here two weeks ago! He’s made friends whom he loves very much already and he just has made himself right at home with his new church family.

Speaking of which, we are so thankful God has blessed us with the church family we now work with! They are a wonderful group of people and we are really looking forward to really working with them and getting to know them better and building relationships with them!

We do miss being close to family and we know that Benjamin does too. A lot of the time, especially when we first got here, when we got in the car Benjamin would say, “Nana? Papaw? Bailey?” It was sweet but it also broke my heart. We are looking forward to seeing Andma and Poppa and Uncle Preston this weekend for Benjamin’s 2nd Birthday Party, though!

All in all, we are very happy here. We love the house, we love the people, and we are getting into the swing of things here in LA (Lower Alabama). Benjamin and I are getting used to not seeing daddy so much during the day but we are enjoying the time spent together.

I just wanted to give a quick update and hopefully later I’ll be able to share pictures of the house and everything with those who haven’t seen it yet. Here’s a hint: If you’ve seen Micah’s old house, you’ve seen our new house, HA! We love the Paschalls!

Well Mr. Benjamin is wanting help with his new train set… y’all take care and I’ll be catching up with your blogs soon enough!

Decoration and Schedules!

When we moved into this house back at the end of November, I was too pregnant to even think about decorating. Earlier this year, I just didn't have the energy. And now, finally, I am starting to think about decorating. Starting with the Guest Bedroom, which is a blank slate at the moment. I have always considered myself fairly creative (up for debate, I suppose!), so this blank slate excites me! Hopefully in the next few weeks/months I will be able to keep you posted on how the transformation goes. It may take some time, but we're going to do what we can.

Here's what I'm starting out with:




We have decided that the Hope Chest, against the wall there, will be moved. It was the last thing my grandfather was able to make for me before he passed away two years ago.


The bed was my OTHER grandfather's while he was in college, and he made the dresser for me.

I'm excited. That's a lot of blank wallspace just waiting for some wonderful paint!

Other than that, I wanted to share our system for getting things done around here. Granted, we don't always stick to this because things come up, such as yesterday (when Ben was SUCH a pill). But so far it has seemed to work nicely.



I am a list/schedule kind of person. Although I am no expert, I appreciate organization. Anyway, that's what we do! And for most things, Ben can sit a few feet away and be fine. Such as with laundry and tidying up.

Do you have a system that works for you?

our new digs.

We are excited about our new house. I was a little disappointed that the previous tenants didn't take care of the place like they should have. There are quite a few touch-ups that have been done, and still need to be done. What I'm excited about, though, is the paint job. So, in this post I will give you first the before pictures of the house, and then what pictures I have of the "during stages" of the process of making this house our home. Yay for paint on the walls!

This would be in the living room, me and Mrs. Jacks talking about what we thought would be nice. The Jacks' came along to check out the house and give insight on what needed to be done. Oh, and the kitchen is behind us.

Master bathroom, which is actually the smallest room in the house besides like... a closet or something. Don't worry, the border was ripped down.

The toilet seat will be replaced. I don't do puffy toilet seats. They freak me out.

In the master bedroom. Yeah unfortunately those aren't shadows on the carpet. Those are stains. Previous tenants were nasty tar-lungs. Aka. Smokers.

Closet in the master bedroom.

Oh, we're back to the living room in this one.

Living room, with the fire place. And the blue lightswitch cover will be replaced...

Laundry room, aka Davey's winter home. For those of you who do not know, Davey is my rabbit.

Laundry room looking into the kitchen, the kitchen being where you see me and Mrs. Jacks standing.

Guest bedroom, which was pretty spacious!

Guest bedroom again. And yeah, I don't know why the carpet changes colors throughout.

Guest bathroom, which is decent sized. And not our shower curtain. :/

Guest bathroom toilet. I hope that blue isn't stained. :/

Gues bathroom again. This will be our UGA bathroom.

The dining room, and yet another shade of carpet.

Benjy's bedroom

the Bonus room, which used to be a garage. REALLY spacious.

The other side of the bonus room.

In the dining room, looking into the room that we're going to turn into Carl's office.

In the office, looking into the dining room.

And we're back to Benjamin's room. Through the door you can see the door to the master bedroom.


And NOW for the touch-ups!!

The master bedroom. I love the green. It's going to look amazing with our comforter.

The hallway/entrance way. Obviously this is not finished yet. Carl said it is like an adobe color. I like it!

The dining room. Carl chose the blue. It turned out brighter than we both expected (I guess - I haven't seen it in person yet), but we both really like it, especially with the dark wood accents.

The office is the same color as the dining room. Blue is supposed to be a calming color and all that. Again, it turned out brighter than expected, but I really do like the way it looks with the dark accents. Besides, if you know me, you know I am more of a bright-color person than a muted color person. I mean... my room growing up was lime green. Seriously!

And that's all for now, folks! I assume I will get more pictures before the day is over, and then as soon as we get internet down there, I will give you the rest of the photos, plus photos of the finished rooms with the stuff in it. Hopefully it won't take too terribly long to unbox our stuff. We shall see!

Hope you all have a safe thanksgiving tomorrow! If you're traveling, buckle up, it's the law! ;D

Love,

Kristen