...and better....

Laila is feeling better, thank God.

Yesterday morning was very productive. We managed to clean the upstairs top and bottom (didn't want anyone else getting sick) and even packed up our downstairs and made it "liveable" until we get the time/money to paint and carpet - with no thanks to our insurance, once again.

But all was not to be well. At 4:00 I told Bill I wasn't feeling well. Being the headstrong person I am and fully believing it as mind over matter I took CeCe and Laney with me to the movie store and grocery store.
Let's just say I barely made it in the door without an "accident." The rest of my night consisted of having either my rear or face down in the toilet. What fun! And just to make this even more gross I would like to share the last thing that I ate - Chippers from my aunt Jill. (That's chocolate covered chips if you haven't heard of them). I will be lucky to ever eat a piece of chocolate again - which is maybe a good thing.
I digress.....
6:00 am Cecelia throws up in her bed and Laney is burning up. We give Laney some tylenol and throw CeCe's sheets in the wash. Alas, when Bill puts the wet clothes in the dryer the knob completely falls off. Can't use the dryer now until that gets fixed as well.
So, here we are in a house involuntarily under construction and 3 out of 5 family members sick.

I told Bill it would be totally awesome if something else went wrong. I'm practically begging here.

There has got to be a silver lining here, but this week I have decided to just feel sorry for myself.
I'll keep you posted on that lining....

It Just Keeps Getting Better.

Okay, so, here are the pictures of the holes in my basement floor from yesterday. The guys were chasing the rotted pipe trying to find a good piece on each end to cut off on. They were worried that they might have to start digging in through the bathroom tile - but luckily they did not!

I had to do daycare on Wednesday at my friend Jen's house (thanks Jen!) because of the jack hammering and concrete dust. What I wasn't expecting was the TOTALLY FOUL smell that would come from the hole in the floor and the dirt surrounding it. People, I change dirty diapers all day long, have dealt with every kind of vomit you can imagine, but nothing could have prepared me for this smell. When I walked in the door I had an instant gag reflex - for the first time in my life.

By the end of the day, though, we burned some oils and candles and managed to sleep in our own beds.

However, there was no way I was going to subject my daycare families to my stinky house. So, yesterday we had daycare at Clare's house (thanks Clare!).

That brings us to this morning.

Laila wakes up to eat. As I'm changing her diaper Bill walks in with an exploded can of caffeine free Diet Coke which, apparently, exploded all over the car. Great.

Then, I lay Laila in bed with me to nurse. She eats off one side, has a little cough, and projectile vomits it all up.

I put her in the Jump-a-Roo, change the sheets and throw them in the wash.

Laila starts to fuss. I grab her and smell her - yep - dirty diaper.

Wait for it........

Pooptastrophie.

Get her in the tub all while smearing poop all over myself trying to not make a mess.

She is worn out and already back asleep.

Oh, did I mention it's -20 degrees?? (that's negative twenty for those of you not used to seeing a minus sign in front of your temperature).

I was going to try and pick up a shift at the restaurant tonight to make a little extra cash so we're not eating Ramon noodles on our vacation but will have to wait to see how my pukey/poopy baby does today.

I mean, come on already.

Basement Update

We have been denied an insurance claim on the issue with the busted pipe in our basement. We were also denied a claim to replace the flooring.

If you ask me, these claims adjusters are a bunch of crooks.

Their reasoning: the pipe isn't technically a part of our house because it's under the concrete.

Of course it's a part of our house. If you want to play with semantics than you could also say that our entire house isn't our house because it's built up from dirt and since the dirt isn't a part of our house than our house isn't our house. Great logic.

Thanks alot Mr. Claims Adjuster. Technically, about $4,000 worth of thanks.

Seriously???!

The drain pipe that drains from my kitchen burst...under the concrete in my basement floor. Water has been seeping in through the cracks, and it isn't pretty. Gross, stinky water from the sink, garbage disposal and dishwasher.

Wish us luck with this mess.

What Hell.

Potty Trained!!

Look at that goofball!

I'm telling you, that kid is seriously funny.

But, do not underestimate her because she has completely potty trained herself.

A few weeks ago she started to want me to change her diaper every time it was wet. Then, she started asking to go on the potty (which I totally disregarded at first). Since then, we haven't seen a wet diaper at all.

She's had zero accidents (she travels and sleeps in diapers for now) and loves using her potty! As a reward she receives M&M's which is a huge motivating factor.

Basically, I'm just proud as the Dickens of my girl!

Guess Where We're Going....

DISNEYWORLD!!!

Yep, again :-)

Okay, we're actually going down to Kissimmee to visit my brother, sister-in-law and cutie patootie niece of mine, but you know we wouldn't go all the way there without a few stops at Disney!

So...even though I feel I'm somewhat of a Disney veteran I was still wondering if any of you had any packing tips or other tips to share with me in regards to doing the Disney thing with 3 small children.
Any and all tips are helpful.

Are ya jealous??

iShuffle

What a day, what a day.....

So today I brought CeCe to preschool and then my friend came over with her daycare children for a lunch playdate.
All went well until one of my friend's daycare children blew chuncks pretty much the minute we sat down for lunch. Luckily for me, most of it landed in her mac and cheese cup. Fabulous.
My friend and I frantically cleaned up the poor child and my kitchen (lysol, anyone???). Then, when my friend tried to use my phone to call the child's parents - the phone wouldn't work. Again. (I later sat on the phone with Comcast, forever, while my children screamed and cried in the background). We very quickly had the other children finish lunch so my friend could hightail her kids back to her daycare.
Laila decided not to nap, but also to be unhappy, for most of the afternoon (the reason my left arm is WAY stronger than my right).
End of day: Bill calls to say he's running late, CeCe has dance so I got her and Delaney ready for pick-up while Laila was still awake and still unhappy. Delaney has a full-on screaming tantrum because I'm asking her to bring her bed pillows back to her bed before she can go along to dance.
Finally, Delaney and Cecelia to dance, Laila asleep, .......

I plugged in Bill's iShuffle and did the dishes with some tunes. Really loud tunes. It was awesome! I now see what all the uproar has been about. Now I need a real iPod, I think. It'll put it on my wish list.
I think I'll use the music as my therapy.