Fun in the "Slippery Room"

Parker came over today and he & Jamie had SO much fun playing in the "slippery room"!

They posed...

...they ran...

...they slid...

...they danced...

...and they slid some more!
Who knew that a new floor could be so much fun??

Laminate Floor Installation 101

First, install the underlayment.

Second, tools are NOT for throwing at each other.

Third, pretend you're putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle, tongue in groove style.

We worked Saturday & Sunday and then Bill took Monday off and we're almost finished! We're having trouble getting the last row to "snap" in so Marianne is going to come out on Wednesday and see what she can do. We've also decided that since we have everything out of the room, we should also paint the walls. Unfortunately, we probably won't have any time to work on it again until next weekend.

Jamie LOVES the new "slippery" floor! We think it looks very nice!

Water Damage, cont...

Day 21 and counting...







We're slowly making progress on the repair and renovation of the computer/craft room. The insurance adjuster came out and estimated over $4,500 in damages, including the cost to replace the carpet. So, we've decided to install laminate flooring instead of replacing the carpet. We are "home-improvement challenged" but feel like this is a project that we can do ourselves. We've read a few magazine articles and watched a video and it looks pretty do-able. Time will tell.

In the mean time, we've been going through things and seeing what the damage is. It really could've been a lot worse. My scrapbook paper is completely ruined as are several of my and Bill's craft magazines. We still don't know the extent of the damage to the hot tub...may not know about that until spring.

We've had to rip up the carpet & pad to dry out the sub-floor. They had to punch holes in the walls to get air in to dry out the walls. After everything was dried out (took about 2 weeks), they ran an ozone machine to kill any mold. We finally moved the huge bookcase and desk out. I set up the computer in a tiny corner in the dining room, which I'm also using for my Stampin' Up! business. It's really cramped, but it's working for now. We've also rearranged the piles of furniture and stuff and cleared out the living room so that Jamie has a place to play and hang out.

We bought the supplies to install the laminate floor at Lowe's in Pueblo. We also bought a nice space heater that will live permanently in the computer/craft room (or at least until we can install an additional heater vent from the furnace).

Jamie is going to spend some time at a friends house this weekend so that Bill & I can get started on this project.




These two photos show the sub-floor and you can see the water line and see how far the water came across the room from the hot tub (about 3/4 across the room).

Skiing 101

My friend, Jan, and her husband came with their church group from Derby, KS to ski at Monarch and invited us to meet them there for a visit. We were planning to just meet up with them in Salida but, at the last minute, decided to go skiing too. I was SO nervous because I had NEVER gone downhill skiing and figured I was too old to learn a new trick. We thought we were being resourceful by calling in advance to pre-register and pre-pay for everything but, for some reason, we were not in their system when we arrived and spent almost two hours bouncing around trying to get equipment rented. (This confusion was NOT helping my stress level!) We dropped Jamie off at the Ski School and by the time we got our skis and boots, we were late for our lessons and got stuck with Charlie. Charlie was a nice enough guy and is, I'm sure, a very accomplished skier. He, in my opinion, is not a teacher and he & I just never connected. Before the morning was over, he took us up the chairlift and expected us (me!) to just follow him down the hill. He kept telling me to "turn this way" and "just ski towards me" yet never actually told me how to turn or even stop. So, I was on my butt most of the time, bawling my eyes out and NOT having a good time at all! Bill was doing OK but he had skied before and kind of knew what to do. I was so frustrated by the time we stopped for lunch that I was ready to give up! We found Jan & Leon and had a nice lunch and then headed back out to the slopes for our afternoon lesson...HOPING that we would get a different instructor. NO SUCH LUCK!!! We were stuck with Charlie for the afternoon. The first thing he did was take us back up the chairlift without any further instruction. Did he think I learned to turn and stop over lunch??? Anyway, after I fell down the third time, I took my skis off! I told Charlie that I was done, that I was walking down the mountain to spend the rest of the day in the lodge. I walked down, crying like a baby, and Charlie carried my skis down. THEN Charlie decided that maybe he'd find a different instructor for me...and Peter came to my rescue. Peter was an instructor from the Kiddie School and he was awesome! He started from square one and after a couple of hours, I was actually skiing down the mountain. Bill stuck it out with Charlie for the afternoon and then we both did one run on our own before heading over to pick up Jamie at the Ski School. Jamie had a great time with his lessons! He said that he "only fell down and cried three times". Well, buddy, I fell down & cried WAY more than that so, you did great!!!

So, my first ever downhill skiing experience is over. The morning SUCKED and was a total waste of time and money. But, the afternoon was good and I'm glad that I didn't give up. I'm even looking forward to maybe trying it again sometime. Thanks Peter!

Needless to say, photographing this event was the furthest thing from my mind so the only thing I have to show from this experience is my lift ticket. I am disappointed that I didn't at least get a photo of Jan & me.

After skiing, we went back into Salida and had a nice dinner with Jan and Leon. We spent the night in Salida and before we left to go to Pueblo, we stopped and visited Rynn & Jim, who happened to be at their gallery for the weekend. In Pueblo, we went to Lowe's and bought the supplies we're going to need to put in the new floor in the computer/craft room.

Sledding

Jennifer invited us up to Beaver Creek Church Camp for an afternoon of sledding. Bill took the afternoon off and took Jamie and Parker up to enjoy the abundant snow! The sledding was fun and the snowball fights were even better!
(Thanks Jen for the great photos!)

You Don't See This Everyday...

I was driving home today and got stuck in a sheep drive. Traffic was stopped until the herd, complete with dogs and sheep herders, moved their way past us. I'll take this type of a traffic jam (over city traffic) anyday!

Water Damage

We're still dealing with the water damage from the frozen hot tub. These are photos of our messy living room & dining room that has now taken on all of the furniture and miscellaneous items that occupied the computer & craft room. We still have to go through all of this stuff to determine property damage for insurance purposes.


This is the area that was damaged. We used space heaters to actually thaw the carpet so that it could be pulled up from the floor. The ProClean guy was finally able to suck out the water and then set the turbo fans to dry the pad and subfloor from underneath. The fans have been going for three days, so far, and the carpet is still wet.

(Not So) Great To Be Home

We heard tales of -35 degree temperatures in Alamosa while we were enjoying 70 degrees in Arizona and were dreading what might be awaiting us when we returned. (Do the math...that's a 105 degree difference.)

We arrived at home at 7:30pm on Jan. 3rd and this is what we've found (so far)...
Frozen pipes...no water. We tried thawing the pipes overnight, to no avail. This morning, Bill braved a trip into the crawl space to see what the problem might be. His "professional" opinion (ha! ha!) was that we needed a plumber, evidenced by the water filter system (frozen solid and busted off of the water line) that he brought out. Thankfully, the plumber came out this afternoon and restored the luxury of indoor plumbing within a couple of hours. He had to use industrial heaters underneath the house, though, which apparently emit heavy doses of carbon monoxide. When the plumber left, he told us to make sure and open some windows so the house could vent.

The major problem, however, is not the lack of water but the overabundance of it. We discovered that the hot tub froze and the 300+ gallons of water that were in the hot tub drained out into the carpet, walls and floor of our computer room/office/craft room and attached storage room. We naively thought that we could Shop-Vac the water...ha! After about an hour of vacuuming water and making no progress, we decided that it was time to call in professionals. We had to move all of the furniture and stuff we had in that room plus the storage closet, so it is now stacked in our living room & dining room. One of my New Year's resolutions was to clean out and organize my craft room but I sure didn't expect to go about it in this manner! But, the problems don't end there... oh no...the water seeped into everything (carpet, walls, floor) and then froze, so the carpet is frozen to the pad, which is frozen to the floor and it's all frozen to the tack strip. We have to run space heaters overnight and try to thaw everything out. Once everything is thawed out, we're told it's simple to pull the carpet up and dry it with these huge fans. We're hoping that this can happen tomorrow.

It's been a crazy day and, thankfully, Jamie got to spend most of it at Justin & Ryan's house. It was a huge relief for Bill & me to be able to deal with these issues without having to also try to entertain a five year old. Thanks Coleen!!

So, right now we're camping out in the south side of the house, windows open to vent carbon monoxide and space heaters running on high to thaw the frozen carpet in the computer room. But, we do have running water so, all is well.

By the way, we have decided that we will never again leave Alamosa to go anywhere over Christmas Break. (We had frozen septic lines when we returned from Amarillo over Christmas Break last year.)

Hope your 2008 is off to a better start than ours!!

Cardinals vs. Rams

I found tickets to the Cardinals/Rams game on CraigsList so we spent Sunday afternoon at the University of Phoenix Stadium. Jamie was so excited to go to "real" football game. It was really a meaningless games as both teams are out of playoff contention but, we still had fun. The Cardinals won 48-19 and Jamie had a great time celebrating each touchdown. He wasn't feeling very well, though, as he had a bad cough and seemed to running a slight fever. He was ready to leave at halftime but was just as happy to curl up in my lap and take a nap during the second half.

Arizona Christmas

Our flight was delayed by 1 1/2 hours and we didn't arrive in Phoenix until after 10:00pm on Friday. Jamie had such a great time on the plane, he colored in his new coloring book and entertained the other passengers with his excitement. He's been on planes before but this might be the first commercial airplane that he'll actually remember. It took at least another hour to get to the Casa in Mesa and we were exhausted! Julie's uncle John, aunt Jean and Elizabeth were also at the Casa when we arrived.

Jamie woke up bright and early on Saturday morning, ready to open yet more packages. I got my Cuttlebug, so life is good. (I knew about the Cuttlebug - it was what I told Bill I wanted and also what let him get away with the toilet seat he gave me on Christmas day.)

Plumbing Problems

We are staying at my mom's house in Rio Rancho, NM but she is actually in Mesa, AZ where we will be flying tomorrow night. After Bill's shower today, the toilets overflowed...not just a "normal" overflow, they were gushing and no amount of plunging would stop it. We finally had to turn off the water. I think we used up every towel my mom owns to clean up the mess! So, I called my cousin, Jimmy, who happens to own a plumbing business but he said that he didn't have the equipment to work on sewer drains and suggested another plumber to call. I called and they said they'd be here in a hour (which would've been an hour ago and I still haven't heard anything). Didn't really want to be stuck here all day but, at least my mom's wireless internet is working.

Albuquerque Christmas

The Thomas family met at Gram's last night to celebrate Christmas. We drove to Albuquerque yesterday afternoon and, since I hadn't heard from Esteban, I went shopping...found a great after Christmas sale at Target, they still had TONS of stuff left. So, Esteban called me at 6:30 wondering where we are and then realized that he never called me back to confirm the day. I felt bad because I know that everyone else made special plans to be there for us to visit with and exchange gifts (they did the big family get-together on Christmas day). We rushed over and had a good time visiting with Julie's family.

the cousin's kids
Brooke, Zack & Brandy (Becky's kids), Tyler & Daron (two of Chick's kids), Cruz & Xavier (Daron's kids - Chick's grandkids) and Jamie

Jamie's gift from his Aunt Bev & Uncle Steve is this cool toy called a galimoto. He brought it to Albuquerque from Alamosa and it was a HUGE hit with all of the cousins. Cruz loved it so much that it was hard to get it away from him at the end of the evening.

Jamie was excited that there were even more packages for him to open!

Winter Wonderland!

snowy front yard

snowy deck

snowy tree

another snowy tree in snowy backyard

snowy deck

The snow is so beautiful and an added bonus for Christmas Day! We are planning to drive to Albuquerque tomorrow so I hope it doesn't snow TOO much! I think the worst of this storm is to the north of us so we should be OK to travel south.

Community Christmas Dinner

We once again joined our friends, neighbors and other Alamosa community members for a Free Christmas Dinner at the American Legion. Jamie got another gift from Santa and we enjoyed a yummy turkey dinner and pumpkin pie.

It was snowing when we left and headed home...a beautiful white and snowy Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas 2007!

Scenes from Christmas Day at the Brooks' house...








































...games and books and toys for all!

a pirate ship and hot wheel track from Santa...

...his and his Bronco's jerseys...

...and what every girl wants, a toilet seat!

Jamie had fun playing with his cool new stuff!