MOLD

As many of you might have heard, we have moved. We are still in the same area, just a different house. Why have moved? Mold. Lovely, mold. And a lot of it I might add. After three years of complaining about a water damaged wall, they finally came and took care of it. Well as they started ripping, they kept ripping and kept ripping until they had uncovered a 12 section of rotting wall and mold! I was so ticked! They ripped it out with the kids and I in the house and we immediately started getting a burning sore throat. We contacted the housing people and they had the nerve to tell me that it was fine to live in. Ha! Over my dead body. Jake's boss was so mad when he saw what condition of the house. It is nice to have someone on our side! The next day we had keys to a different house. It is the exact same layout as our old one. It made the move a lot easier. We have been blessed to have so many great friends come over and help up move. We had it done in three days. Not bad! Now we just have to finish unpacking everything here! Enjoy the photos!

This is where they started. And they kept going...

After they pulled in moldy insulation out they found that the outside wall was soft. So soft in some areas you could push your finger straight through the wall.


More yucky wall


That is me, being brave. I wiped my hand on a small area and pulled of mold.
It was the entire stinkin wall! 12 feet total. It was on the bottom of the carpet and the two by fours were rotting away!
The smell was horrible! I had a had time breathing

This part is my favorite. These boards were so rotted out that you could use your finger nail and pull hunks of them out. Even I could tell that this was a HUGE project to tackle and I was not planning on living in the house while they did it. That is when I called Jake home from work.


What makes it even better is that they said that sealing it in with a spray paint was going to fix it. Ha! How stupid do I look? They honestly thought that we would want to keep living in that house. Not on your life, buddy! So once we talked to all the right people they said they would hold off on any fixing of the house till we had moved out and then a great job duct taping plastic over the wall. It was such a high quality job that it fell down every day, until they just stopped coming over to tape it back up. Nothing like breathing in all that crap!

Now we are in our new house. All major items are put in the right place. We still have my craft room to do and to hang shelves and photos. Give me a week and I think I will have it together. My goal is to have it done before Jake leaves on a business trip in a couple of weeks. That way I can just play in the evening, once the kids go to bed. We'll see how that really goes!

If you would like our new address, please email me at sariahenglish@gmail.co and I will send it your way! Have a wonderful and healthy day!

First Day of school!

The has arrived and I am happy to say I did NOT cry! We started school today. Phoebe is on her way to a wonderful first grade year and Kimball got to do his Kindergarten orientation today. It was only for an hour, so he is already home. Warren has been asking were Phoebe is and that he misses her. I am glad this week Kimball is home. It wont be so hard on him.








Phoebe and her friend from last year, Molly. They are in the same class again. Yippie!
This Phoebe at her new desk. She almost started to cry but I quickly pointed out her friends from last year and she started to feel more comfortable.

This is Kimball in the Terrific Turtle line. They got to tour the school holding on to the rope. He did so great! I was so proud of him and how he behaved! What a great boy he is!This is Kimball sitting at the blue table and his teacher, Mrs. Moore.
The whole classroom.

New Couches!!

I am so thrilled about these couches. If any of you have been to my house in the last year you will know trashed my couches have become. It isn't that we treated them bad, they were just crappy couches. Jake bought our first couches as a college graduation present. I loved them, but we soon found out that they couldn't hold up to life with three kids. Every time I turned around there was another snag or a hole. We tired to patch and stitch whatever we could but it was like putting a band aide on a flesh wound. Then we got a dog. Oh that crazy dog, he tore up out couches! He went to town. I never have wanted to kill a dog so much in all my life! We bought some twin sheets to cover the seats. It was livable, but Jake and I both hated it. Finally, we found a great deal at Ashley Home Furnishings. I love it! It is a sectional but we have split up. It is also microfiber! I love it. I love the new color. It makes me want to redecorate my house. But I will wait.... maybe when get to new house! So please come on over and sit on my new couches!



I really like the couch pillows. The colors are great!
This is wear we had the love seat, now it has the "L" couch. Kimball thinks the chassis is his couch, because it fits him.
The big couch. One of our requirements for a couch is that we have to both be able to lay down on the couch at the same time. This passed. Very snugly!
Big room shot! Look how nice my house looks! Wish it would stay like that all the time!

Teacher gifts

I made these little buckets for Kimball and Phoebe's teachers. I found a great deal at the local thrift shop and each of the paint buckets were 50 cents! I had all the paper on hand and ended up borrowing my friends Locker Talk Cricut Cartridge. ( love this cartridge so much! I really hope Jake will buy it for me! HINT HINT HINT!) I filled the bucket with chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. I labeled the bucket "Teacher Survival Kit" I would think that much chocolate would get them through the first month of school. LOL. I hope you enjoy them too. I wish I had all that chocolate right now.....

Happy Birthday Phoebe

My baby turned six on Sunday. I really can't believe how time has flown. She is such a great daughter. I love her so much. We had another family birthday party. She loved it. As part of our birthday tradition we took her to go pick out her present from Toys R Us. She looked all around and then said she was sad because she wanted some American Girl things. Barnes and Noble was just a store or two down in the strip mall so we walked over there and my little girl picked out the six newest American Girl books, all about Rebbecca. She was thrilled. Jake also got her some American girl trading cards. He is teaching her the art of collecting cards. They had a lot of fun. I can see more of these cards coming in the future! It was fun to see them so involved in something together. To Phoebes much happy surprise, (and to a lot of pre planning on my part,) she had quite a few gifts from American Girl. She got Felicity's riding outfit, the pet vet set (say that three times fast!) and also the pet bed set. Bella got her the American Girl Chrissa book, littlest pet shop stuff and a new blanket for her new twin bed! The bed doesn't come till the first week of September but she loves that it is princess and not Dora. Dora is no longer cool. Glad I am informed of that! Phoebe also wanted a cake like her brothers. I did my best but the frosting was so soft. The kids thought it was great, and that is all that really matters, but I am my own worst critic. It was a great Sunday and Birthday! Happy Birthday my angel! I love you with all my heart!

Cupcake Heaven!

How many of you read the Nie Nie Dialogues? If you don't, you should! In fact, stop reading this and go here: http://www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

Are you back? Isn't she one of the most amazing people on the planet. She makes me want to be a better person. Really, she does. When I am having a bad mom day, I think about some of the blogs she has written. It really helps. Lucky for me she lives in Provo, so when she talks about places in her town I know where it is. She started talking about this great cupcake shop. My sister and I both wanted to try it out. Let me tell you The Sweet tooth bakery is the best! WOW! I have never had such great tasting cupcakes. If you go into Provo, go and visit this place!

Fish Tank

I really haven't been able to get great photos of the fish tank we have, but my sister was able to with her camera. I hope you enjoy them!

Kimball's 5th Birthday!

Who wants an update? I do! I do! I figure that I should probably get Kimball's birthday post done, sense Phoebe's is this coming Sunday! Man, I have been slow at this. Part of the reason is that I am getting all things back to school ready. This year in includes a bit more work. Because Kimball has Sensory Integration Disorder he has to get a 504. It is sorta similar to and IEP, but not. I 504 covers kids that do not have a learning disability, but a disability that could affect there learning. I am really thankful they have something like this. Mrs. Moore, Phoebe's Kindergarten teacher from last years has be the biggest help to Jake and I as we have gone through this process! Thank you Mrs. Moore! We also got the happy news that Kimball will also be in Mrs. Moore's class. That right there helps him on so many levels! We are down to two weeks till school starts. I am busy making teachers gifts, continuing to work with Kimball's potty training. Yes, that is right, my son is 5 and still not potty trained. Going pee in the potty is really starting to take hold. We can usually make it with one accident a day, as long as I remind him. Occasionally he will go in on his own. I am really praying that being around kids his age everyday will jump start him will this. I will keep you informed. Okay, so I was going to post about Kimball's birthday. It was a really great day. My sister Charlotte flew in that day and that evening after church we had a small family party. Kimball requested a "Big Top Cupcake" for his cake. (How many of you have seen that info-mercial? It drives me nuts! Kimball can recite the whole commercial! My friend had the Wilton version if the pan so I was able to use that! He loved it. I had a blast making it. Kimball was in heaven with it. Then he went to cloud nine for the presents. Any of you that know Kimball, know how excited he can get. He was able to go to Toys R Us and pick out a geotrax airplane set. It is really fun, he can connect it with Warren's airport set. He also got some racetrack and cars, and some transformers and a hippied hop. I can't believe this little guy is five. It has been some pretty crazy past five years, but I wouldn't change anything of it. Even with all of his difficulities, this kid is amazing. I love you so much Kimball!