I'm A Potty Fixer!!!

Ever heard of water torture? If you are a light sleeper, like myself, then water torture is hearing the toilet in your bedroom gurgle and make sputtering noises every night while you try to sleep for months and months and months.

Our house is about 20 years old. New enough that we still live in a nice neighborhood and not everything is completely outdated, but old enough that everything is starting to break down and needs to be replaced. Being the proud owner of a home = responsibility and hand over the $$$.

Our toilet has needed help for quite some time. After both Chris and I attempted to fix the problem with a little wiggle and jiggle here and there of various potty parts we finally called for help. Chris had a friend, who is a professional plumber, come to the house to solve the problem. 45 dollars later he had replaced the screws and attached some kind of floaty device to the chain. The water still ran, but he said to just play around with the bulb until it settled down. Um, I might be kind of stupid here, but isn't that what we paid you for?! I guess you get what you pay for (he did give us a 50% discount - seeing as we were friends and all that.)

After much more wiggling and jiggling, the water still ran it's course taking my sanity with it. Knowing that Chris would not approve of paying for another plumber to come I decided to take matters into my own hands. I drove all the way down to Home Depot and purchased a complete toilet repair kit.

Since no amount of adjustment to the old parts seemed to work I decided to rip out all the old and replace it all with new potty parts.

So I spent most of my Saturday rummaging through the garage in search of tools that would fit and work (the instructions assured me that all I would need were one pair of pliers and one wrench - ha, ha, ha!). Several hours later I had a toilet with a new flush valve, fill valve, gasket, flapper, and tank lever.

When everything was once again assembled I was so proud of myself (and also forgave myself of any unwomanly words I might have uttered during the process). I called to my husband to show off my handy work only to notice that my toilet was now leaking in two different spots. Water was dripping onto the floor. And like any composed woman who has used up her whole day on a stinky project I created some new words and had a nice tantrum.

I once again turned off the water valve and emptied the toilet of water. I put a towel down on the floor and waited until I cooled off to fix the problems.

Well, two days later I finally got back to my project. Now that I had the right tools and knew what to do I had that tank off and tightened up all the leaking parts and reassembled it all in less than 30 minutes. Wahoo. And this time - no more leaking!!!!!

I am now in Heaven. The night is still and quiet - not a drop or drip to be heard. And if I need to get up in the middle of the night I no longer have to stumble down the stairs in the dark into the other bathroom.

If any of you are having problems - call me over - I'm free! And by the way, just call me Josephine (Jo for short) the plumber. Thank you.

January -- So far . . .

Already the year 2009 is passing quickly by. It's the middle of January and I am not quite sure how that happened. In a few weeks my main project will be to get my in-law's house ready for them to move back into. Looking back, this year has gone by so quickly. One minute I am wondering how in the world I will survive without my in-laws and the next I am hardly noticing that they are missing. Not that I don't want them back - I just learned to live without them -which was good for me.

Okay, now what have I been doing in January?

SNOW DAYS

After 5 days off of school (before and after Christmas break) because of snow and ice it has been wonderful to get back into a schedule. But being on a schedule does mean I'm busy from sun up to sun down and beyond. The school district will be making up all 5 schools days this year (last year they loop holed out). My kids are quite devastated that it will encroach into their summer break.

SPORTING EVENTS

Just before January, Chad won some tickets to attend the Spokane Chiefs hockey game. With all the crazy snow we didn't know if we would be able to attend or not. So I didn't make a big deal out of it (or even remind the kids) until that night when we had decided it was a go. This was the first time our kids got to go to a hockey game. They really had fun but were a little confused to see professional grown ups fighting during a game. But they were highly relieved when they learned that there was a time out box (penalty box) for those that were fighting. They liked seeing the players be sent to time out.

The Spokane Chiefs getting ready to play.

Getting into the game.



Sean and I were there too.

One sporting event we never miss is the Rubber Chicken Game. It is the big rival basketball game between Ferris and LC. It is a competition of basketball and spirit. This year Ferris choose the theme of Chuck and the Chocolate Factory. (Chuck is the name of the rubber chicken you are awarded if your team has the best spirit.). LC's theme was Geek Week. (Extremely lame if you ask me.)

The girls game didn't go so well, LC beat Ferris by a lot. The boys game was great. It ended with Ferris winning after over time.

I thought Ferris was way more creative in their spirit theme, but LC did have a lot more members in their crowd and I have to admit, a lot more spirit. (Halle wanted to be a traitor and join the LC crowd because she thought all their props were way cooler than ours.) So LC won Chuck again this year.

It was still a lot of fun to go to.

Cheering with our purple handed props.

The Principals dressed up as the Grandparents in the bed.

Dancing Wonka Bars.

The "Geeks" of LC. They are masters of military drill dance, but not as creative as our dance team!

HAIR TROUBLE

As soon as you mention the word, "hair," all sorts of complaints come spilling out. Who likes their hair? It is either too thick or too thin. It is too straight or too curly. Someone else's hair is always better than yours. Halle and I were blessed with the very thin kind of hair. Thin hair is hard to rein in, it defies gravity, it breaks very easily, and any little amount of damage is very noticeable.

I always figured we would have the haircutting incident and braced myself for that event. Well as of yet it has not happened, at least not how I thought it would happen.

Halle loves playing with her hair. She is always twisting it and pulling it, putting elastic bands in and pulling them out. Well thin hair is not meant to be played with. At first I noticed the sides of her hair getting a little shorter and thinner. And then the back of her hair became an odd angle instead of a nice straight line. As I started brushing her hair I noticed huge chunks that were way shorter than the rest of her hair. Having her hair straight down looked like a mess - like her head had been caught up in some machine and ripped out.

So finally I had to do it. I had to get her hair cut. It made me cry. I love long hair. I thought that cutting her hair short would be a sort of punishment (she keeps saying she wants to be like Rapunzel). It wasn't, she loves it short. And I do have to admit it rather suits her. Oh well.

Halle and her new look.

December 2008

Getting Ready for Christmas

December is always a very busy month. It doesn't seem to matter how much I plan ahead, there is always so much to get done after Thanksgiving and before Christmas day. (It also doesn't help much when the weather goes completely bonkers and you are stuck at home.)

Our tradition is to put up the Christmas tree on the first Monday after Thanksgiving for FHE. We have an artificial tree and the kids are getting quite good at knowing how it is all put together. The tree and the lights usually get done on Monday, but then it takes the rest of the week to put the ornaments on and to decorate the rest of the house.

Once the tree was complete I took our family photo for our Christmas cards. I usually get them professionally done but was too worn out to try and arrange it this year. So after lining everyone up and constructing a tower to hold my camera we took some pictures. It was kind of hard because I have horrible lighting in that room and I couldn't look through my view finder the way my camera was positioned. So, I would take a picture and then look at the picture after it was taken and try to adjust the camera accordingly.

This is the best I could get this year.

After having a wonderful adult only Christmas party at church the kids had a Christmas primary activity the next day. The primary presidency and bishopbric (minus Chris because of a teaching workshop) made waffles for the primary kids and of course the best part was that Santa came to visit. (Although if you ask Sean, the waffles might have been the best part). I am so glad the primary did this because it was the only chance they got to see Santa this year.

Halle was the first to sit by Santa.

Sean carefully explains and gestures with his hands what kind of giant water gun he wants for Christmas. (I'm truly glad he wasn't at all disappointed when Santa did not bring him a water gun, or any other gun, for Christmas.)



Chad tried to act cool as he asked for more bionicles.


My Christmas cuties.

Christmas Traditions

1. Twelve Days of Christmas

A tradition that I started last year was "Mommy's Twelve Days of Christmas." On each of the twelve days before Christmas they get a little present and we incorporate it into the tradional song of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Halle loved this last year and insisted that we do it again this year. So it seems we have a new tradition.

This is what I did this year:

First day - one Christmas pillow case

Second day - two yummy suckers

Third day - three Christmas pencils

Fourth day - four laughy taffies

Fifth day - five glow sticks

Sixth day - six feet of gum

Seventh day - seven coloring pictures

Eighth day - eight pixi stix

Ninth day - nine square bingo

Tenth day - 10 shinny dimes

Eleventh day - 11 sucker sticks

Twelfth day - 12 rainbow skittles

2. Reading Christmas Stories.

This year I started a new tradition of wrapping up our Christmas books. So each night after singing our Mommy's Twelve Days of Christmas song we would unwrap one of the books and read it. I didn't have enough books for 25 days like some of my friends do, but the 12 worked fine. This is definitely a keeper tradition.

3. Christmas Eve Dinner and Program.

Every year since I have been in Spokane (and those years that I visited before) we have always had a Christmas program and dinner on Christmas Eve.

We always start dinner off at John and Lisa Erickson's house. John always fixes the most delicious meal of prime rib. Then after dinner and cleaning up we head over to Herm and Jeraldine's house. There we read the Christmas story from Luke 2 and sing Silent Night. Then everyone has to share something, whether it is performing on the piano or another instrument, singing, or reading a story. We always end it with a game (it would not be a Caviness Christmas without some competition!) Mike (Chris' brother) is in charge of the game, it consists of being divided into teams, using tissue to signal an answer, and being able to answer questions about It is a Wonderful Life and anything else to do with Christmas.

This year was a very different one. Our friends, John and Lisa, moved to Springville, Utah (my old home town) and Chris' parents are on their mission out in Ohio. We also had my parents join us for Christmas here in Spokane (their first time).

I wasn't brave enough to cook prime rib but we did have a great Christmas eve dinner of "yummy chicken", rice, rolls, and jello. Our little gang consisted of my family, Jeff's family, Mike, and my parents. We then had our little program. Chris took the place of Herm and read from the scriptures while I took the place of Jeraldine and played Silent Night on the piano. That was definitely the weirdest part of the evening - being my mother-in-law. That is when it all sank in that they weren't really here with us.

Chad and Halle played the piano and Sean sang I am a child of God.

For Jackson's, (my nephew's) part of the program, he let me pull out his first wiggly tooth. He was a pretty brave little boy. (I should have been a dentist - I love pulling out teeth!)

My parents shared stories of English Christmases and taking a 36 hour trip with me as a baby to London.

We did play Mike's game and all seemed right with the world and Christmas eve.

4. Christmas Eve Presents.

Our children get to open one present on Christmas eve. Each year in their Christmas Eve bag they get new pajamas, a new book, a new ornament for the tree, and then something else that differs each year - this year they each got a little webkinz.

Getting ready to open their Christmas Eve sacks.

Tearing into the presents as quickly as they can.

Sean very carefully puts his new ornament on the tree. This year I made each of the kids an ornament with a picture of the Kirtland temple.

Halle was the first one dressed in her new pajamas and is affectionately holding her new webkinz kitten appropriately named, "Snowy."

Sean loved his new pajamas and his bear.

Chad was happy with his new book and doggie, "Tickles."

My parents first Christmas in Spokane - the kids were so excited to have them here with us.

5. The Night Before Christmas.

Our traditional story on Christmas eve is of course, The Night Before Christmas.

Me reading the story.

6. Sleep Over

For Christmas Eve the kids all get to sleep in one room. This year it was Halle's turn to have everyone in her room. The kids think it is a blast and it also helps out Santa because he only has to listen out for one bedroom. (We also hang bells on the door knob to let us know if anyone is trying to sneak out.)

This year Nanny and Grandpa joined in a quick nap on the floor too.

A big old sleep over on Halle's room floor.

Christmas Day

We told the children they were not allowed out of Halle's room before 7:00 am. They are pretty obedient and waited until 7:01 am to wake us up.

On Christmas morning our kids are not allowed to go and see what Santa brought yet. They must wait until everyone is ready and then they must wait their turn (a Caviness tradition). It took a while for Nanny and Grandpa to be ready so the kids waited and waited.

It was Chad's turn to enter the Christmas room first this year. He was really hoping for a wii, but as soon as he found that Santa had left a DS for him he totally forgot about a wii. (Maybe next year.)

Christmas totally brings out the material girl in me. I love getting gifts for my kids and love seeing their faces when they see what Santa has brought. I'm so grateful that we can provide nice things for our kids.

Waiting so patiently to see what Santa has brought. Chad is still praying for a wii at this point.

Chad totally delighted with a DS.

Halle's main wish was for a Hannah Montana DVD.

Sean is thrilled that Santa finally brought him some bionicles.

While everyone plays with their Santa gifts it is my job to prepare our traditional breakfast. Every year we have "Breakfast Lasagna" and muffins. Breakfast lasagna is made with hashbrowns, eggs, sausage and mozzarella cheese - and it is delicious!

After breakfast it is then time to open all the gifts under the tree. Again, as in true Caviness tradition, we do each present one at a time and in an orderly fashion (not how the Hansen's did it).

Then it is time for more playing and napping. Christmas dinner is a turkey dinner for us. It was a great Christmas day.

Snow, Snow, and More Snow!

I thought last winter was bad with the snow - it was nothing compared to this season! We started off Christmas break a little early with two snow days off of school. It was a little disappointing because the kids had their presents ready to give to their teachers and Sean's preschool was supposed to get a visit from Santa Claus.

With record snow falling it made it hard and also impossible in some areas to get around. It took my mom two days just to fly into Spokane. The day she was supposed to fly out was the day the first and biggest storm hit and Spokane airport was closed. The next day the Salt Lake City airport was shut down for a while, but she was finally able to come that night into Spokane.

Chris and I only have a small car and a minivan - nothing good on lots of snow. We also live in a cul-de-sac that is downhill. Sometimes it is impossible for us to get out of our neighborhood. We were thinking about all sorts of ways to get my mom from the airport to our house if they did let her fly in Thursday. Our ultimate plan was to hire a cab or shuttle to get her from the airport and up the hill. We would then have them drop her off on the main road by our house where we would met her with sleds to help carry her luggage to our house. It is probably a good thing she didn't come until the next day and Chris was able to get out and get her.

I just heard that tomorrow will be another snow day - with no school. We are supposed to get another 4-8 inches tonight and a couple more inches tomorrow. I am so ready to move! I am really, really, really done with snow!!!!!!!!!!

A view from our back deck after the first snow storm that hit December 18.

The view from my front door. Everything was white!

The view from my basement back door.

Our little trampoline is about level with the first snow fall.

The snow is up to Chad's thighs in this drift by our back fence.

After several more snowfalls, there is plenty of snow for the kids to play on.

After all the snowfall and plenty of shoveling there is enough snow for a sliding hill.

A picuture to show how high the snow is.

Halle and Chad make their way over to the slide.

Halle goes head first.

With lots of indoor time we played lots of games. Chris taught Chad how to play chess. Halle wanted to learn too and Grandpa was the one with enough patience to play with her.

New Year's Eve

The kids were pretty excited about New Year's. We let them have their own little party downstairs while we had ours up stairs. They made their own posters, watched movies, popped English Christmas crackers and then went to bed totally exahusted (about 10:30pm).

Happy New Year everyone!