Penicillin is great...

...when it's not growing on your basement baseboards! I went downstairs yesterday to do some laundry and found some green fuzzy mold. I started to freak out inside, but calmed down and decided to "bleach" the heck out of it. I read the bottle which indicated that I could leave the bleach to dry in place to kill the mold and then repeat as neccessary. I did that, in all three of our "leaky" spots, and then came down to check on it this morning. Thankfully the fuzzy green baseboard is now a sparkling white color, but I did miscalculate how wide the spray of the bottle was in the other spot and ended up bleaching the bottom stair carpet! :) I don't know how to cover that one up, but it's much better than mold growing in there. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how things go with the basement. Ryan is supposed to call the insurance company again today about our claim, so we'll wait and see how that goes.

New due

I got my hair cut and colored today, and I'm lovin' it! It's been a year since my last cut, and I've never had it colored...so today was the day.

It's the little things

Last week I started working again. For the first time since being at this job, I'm not pregnant! It's actually really nice, and I feel more settled and motivated than before. However, getting back to work wasn't easy. I really struggled the first couple of days. It's the longest I've been without Melodie, and the furthest away from her I'd ever been. But as the week went along things got easier and easier. I don't think I got to bed before midnight at all last week, but this week has already been better. (before midnight is my goal - I've hit it by a few minutes last night ;). Ryan has been working on a schedule so we'll both know where and who has Lodie, and what days we're working etc. Also, he worked night shifts all last week and today he gets to work days because my brother-in-law is watching her for us today! :) I don't think I've ever been this excited about a night with Ryan. It's funny because we'll actually see eachother during the week this week! It's the little things that bring me more joy than I anticipated. I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing night with Ryan. Will it happen? Who knows with the flooding, etc, but at least it's something to look forward to tonight. :)

Flooded

Normally I love storms. Perhaps not as much as the weathermen do when there is a big system coming through and they are nearly crawling out of their skin with excitement at their weather map exploding with colors, but I like a good strong storm once in awhile. This weekend, however, nailed us. On Saturday our basement began flooding, as most houses did in the area, and it hasn't stopped. About 10 minutes after it started Ryan and I decided that he needed to brave the storm and go to Home Depot for a shop vac, dehumidifier and fan. He made it there and back successfully, and all three of our new purchases have not stopped being used since. Our washing machine has been solely running on the spin cycle. We've finally gotten to the point where we can actually throw the freshly spun towels into the dryer, and rotate the wet ones out, but even that took us some time. With continued storms and more flash flood warnings coming today, it looks like "dry" won't be in our future anytime soon. That being said, we're thankful we found the leaks before they got worse, and we're more than thankful to still have a house. There are some others in the area that have lost everything.

Dave's message

I was thinking of a blog on my commute into work today, and was excited that I had gotten to work a bit early to write it. When I booted up the computer and began to read my regular blogs, I found my brother-in-law's blog and it particularly hit me today. He ALWAYS posts good, genuine stuff, but today was a particularly pointed message that reminded me of something God has been showing me lately. It completely blew out the intended blog regarding the Brewers and Randy Johnson pitching tonight, and made me reflect on the power of encouragement. More to come about that later, but read Dave's blog. It is an awesome example of how the things that we say to others aren't without impact, they can literally transform people's thinking and attitutudes.