House Problems…

You know we had a fun kitchen remodel / bathroom addition last year in the spring.  This spring, we are also working on some “fun” projects.

In January, Jeremy went to ride on the Peloton when he heard some sizzling in the outlet.  He shut off the breaker and checked things out.  The plug was corroded.  He investigated a few other plugs in the vicinity and noticed the same thing.  They all sat on the walls that are outside walls under the patio.  We sensed there was a problem with the patio and water.  So, we tried to temporarily remediate it during the snow and cold. 

We turned off all the breakers to the plugs and lived with a lot of extension cords coming from the few that weren’t affected. 

Then, one cold, rainy, Sunday we got home from church and encountered another situation.  Jeremy went down to check that the sump pump was working and stepped his sock-toed feet in squishy carpet – it was not working.  We had just had a plumber out in May to put a new sump pump in and install a back up pump (and we had a battery back-up in case the power went off).  We thought we were set.  However, the primary pump did not turn on for unknown reasons AND the secondary pump also did not start running for unknown reasons.  So, we had wet flooring throughout much of our basement. 

    

We called the plumber who put the sump pump in and he came on on a bitterly cold, harsh road conditions, Sunday to fix it for us.  It was a blessing.

We called the insurance company and were relieved to discover that we were covered – we had included the sump pump on our insurance with a decent amount of coverage.  ServePro, a remediation company, came out, ripped out wet carpet padding, and set up A LOT of floor fans and dehumidifiers to dry things out over the next week.  (This was a bit complicated by the fact half our plugs weren’t working in our basement!) 

Then, we had Travis Miller come out to rip off drywall to get a feel for the water/plug problem.  It was a problem…

    

We called a gutter guy to check to see if our gutters were a source of the problem- probably not, but they also weren’t carrying the water as well as they could.  We called a drain guy to see if our drains were backed up – he was pretty useless to be honest.  Because then we had my coworker, Kenton Lemon, come out with a rented scoping camera to look in all the drains with Jeremy to see if they could identify any problems; not anything serious. We called a concrete guy to ask about the patio.  And that seemed to be the root of the problem.  He said that the small section of our patio where the water was coming down through the block was dead flat.  So, water was entering the crack by the wall, but mostly because it wasn’t moving away from wall. 

Okay, so we got one guy to come out.  He started to chip away at the patio.  But our patio is apparently not the normal patio.  The concrete was 8 inches thick (which is overkill by the way).  It also had rebar anchoring it into the foundation of the house – seems like a bad idea.  So, this guy was having trouble jack hammering and sawing without shaking/vibrating the foundation.  (We did NOT want a crack in the foundation.)  We finally just said we would find someone else.  And this guy, Ryan, he was okay with it because frankly, we had a lot of crazy going on back there. 

We then called the original company back, but they were out a couple weeks; he gave us a name of a previous worker that had decided to start his own business that he thought could handle the job.  BRZ, three brothers, were able to come out and fix us up.  They were effective because there were three of them.  They also said they had never seen anything like this – built more like a bridge they said.  But they came, they had a plan, and they made it happen.

    

Now, we have a sloped patio.

Next week, we will have new outlets downstairs. 

The next week, we will have drywall, trim, and paint back on the walls. 

After Easter, we will have new carpet padding down. 

And then…. we will have our basement back in order!

Oh, and we have new gutters because why not…

Damn, Yankees!

Usually I don’t use that kind of language in my posts – or my titles!  However, this was the name of the spring musical this year, and Madison was in it!  I had not seen or heard of this musiacal, but I am also not well versed in the musical world.  So, it was fun to see one I didn’t know much about. 

Madison tried out prior to Christmas break.  She decided to actually sing – a solo! acapella! – to try for the chorus.  She said she would be happy with being on stage crew or a part of the chorus.  She made the chorus role, which was pretty exciting.  Musical practice started mid to late January and continued regularly until the mid-March performance.  Practices were often at 6 or 7pm to accommodate those participating in other sports practices.  She was kept pretty busy with that and youth group and, starting in March, track practices. 

She had fun learning songs and dances, getting outfits for different scenes, and makeup.  She was in the opening montage of just dancing,

she had a cameo as “Cleveland”

She was in the jury during the Joe’s trial

and the crowd during the night of dancing

and she was part of the silly fan club mango song

Then, she sang in the background a number of times as well.

Her first performances was a Thursday morning for the senior citizens.  Then, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday she performed again.  We all went out on opening night to watch.  The cast and crew did a great job.  We didn’t noticed any missed lines, just a bit of quieter lines/delivery.  I went on Saturday night (still trying to figure out what drama parents do… every night? one night? two nights?).  This one had a few missed lines, but they handled it well.  Then, Sunday afternoon, Marianne and Erin Bricker came and Grandma and Grandpa Ediger came.  The cast did a great job – more robust vocals and enthusiasm.  While I could deliver some lines and knew what was coming, it was still a good production on day 3. 

    

Job well done!  It was fun watching you shine!

Wrestling

Sam and Cale both wrestled this season.  Sam, unfortunately, had to have some surgery on his knee at the beginning of the season and didn’t make it back until District Tournament.  Cale was able to compete the whole season.  It is kinda hard to get to these meets – they are pretty far away and they pretty much last all day.  They are often in tournament format with a double elimination set-up.  I have a love-hate relationship with wrestling.  I find it captivating to watch what is happening between two opponents, but I also cringe and want to cover up my eyes with a lot of what is allowed to happen.  Bodies are just contorted in interesting ways. 

At any rate, I made it to a few meets.  Cale had a tough season.  He has not had the best record, which means he ends up wrestling a lot of #1 seeds at tournaments.  And the tournaments they go to are really hard – like wrestlers who have done this since they could walk, live and breathe it.  Cale has endured.  He came out last season after not wrestling since junior high? or youth wrestling?  He has worked hard and shown improvement and not quit.  And it must be so hard to get out there against the best and keep working.  I was so proud of him for doing it every. single. tournament.

Sam, on the other hand, has been wrestling consistently over the years.  He really enjoys wrestling and has been able to pick up on things and done well.  This season was unique for him.  When he came back for districts, I drove up to watch since I hadn’t seen him all season.  He plowed through the bracket like no one else had a chance.  He came out as the #1 seed and moved on to State!  It was incredible to watch. 

    

    

I took the day off school the following weekend.  We took the girls out of school.  And we headed to the state wrestling tournament.  It is a 3 day event.  We bought tickets for the first day of wrestling.  There were three Dalton wrestlers competing: Sam, Kaden, and Cohen.  The Schottenstein Arena at Ohio State is a pretty cool venue.  While our seats were kinda high, they weren’t bad.  But we could actually sit wherever there were open seats, which was nice.

We watched Sam’s match first.  He came out strong and won the first match.  He was done for the night and would wrestle the next morning.  We decided there was no way we were missing that, so we bought tickets for Saturday morning.

We left to go eat at Cheesecake Factory, check in at our hotel, and shop a bit (Ulta and Barnes and Noble and Target). 

We had early matches the next day, so we didn’t hang out long in the hotel.  Sam started his next match and had something tweak in his leg within the first round.  It made me scared he had reinjured his knee, but he didn’t.  He ended up losing the match; that kid ended up taking second place in the tournament to the kid who has won state since his freshman year (4 time state champion!).  Sam had a second match not long after.  He still wasn’t 100% but he came out more aggressive and worked hard.  He did not win.  But wow!  We were so proud of him – a win his first time at state is a huge deal, as is just getting to state.  It was a lot of fun to be there.

We took off pretty quickly.  We were needed to get Madison to OMEA choir competition (see a previous post) about 1-1/2 hours away. 

Glimpses of Things

Pepper has been quite photogenic lately.  He enjoys snuggling and burrowing into things with these colder temperatures.

    

He has also managed to get stuck a couple times, usually because he is trying to do something he shouldn’t be doing.  He tried to get on the table, but whined when he got his head stuck and couldn’t move.  He tried to get his big boy body underneath the couch to dig and burrow, but then he was too big. 

    

He also brings us things for attention.  The pen is just one of his many tricks – usually it is socks, followed by underwear or shoes, sometimes a baseball cap or a pen. Oh the joys!

Jen and Jeremy were going through a box of fun items we had brought here to look through from Gloria’s – who knows what you might need for spirit week.  They found some keepers!

The girls found a way to keep busy one day by dressing each other up as someone else.  Madison created an outfit for Ellie reminiscent of a character from the movie (book) Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret.  Ellie put together an outfit to mimic Sandra Bullock after her Miss Congeniality transformation.  Fun looks!

Jeremy remembered Valentine’s Day, as always; this year with roses in honor of our 20th anniversary of our first date and Valentine’s Day.

And… Madison got her braces off after 3 years of various appliances in her mouth.  She now has retainers daily until the end of school, but no more braces!

    

Solo and Ensemble

Ellie participated in Solo and Ensemble again this year.  She stuck with all vocal performances, while last year, she did a instrumental one, too.  She chose to be a part of a girls ensemble with other 7th grade girls.  They did a nice job with their song.  She also braved a solo herself again this year!  I cannot believe she has the courage to do that, but she does.  She earned a Superior rating for both things she was in.  She was pretty proud of that accomplishment.

Madison participated in Festival of Choirs, an event where all (most?) of the Wayne County schools gather to sing two pieces as individual choirs and one (or two?) piece as a joint choir.  It was a long night of lots of music, but Dalton did a nice job with their pieces. 

Madison also went with the high school choir to compete at OMEA.  They had to sing three songs and then go to a sight reading room as well.  They sounded pretty good I thought.  The judges must have thought so, too; they earned a rating of 1… which moves them on to state level competition.  Pretty cool!

 

First Dance

February marked Ellie’s first school dance.  She was supposed to have a fall dance, but the football team did well enough they were in playoffs, and they canceled it.  She and her friends were excited for a chance to go experience something new together.  We found her outfit with a quick trip to MCC Connections after she told me her dress she had bought for the fall dance was too small.  I worked on her hair – tried to improve on the Austin hairdo. 

    

And she looked grown up!

I dropped her off at 5pm. 

    

I picked her and a few others up at 7pm.  We headed to LincWay.  Madison and her friends had often gathered after dances, and Ellie thought that sounded fun.  So, I texted a group of parents, and the girls hung out there til 8pm.  It was fun to be a fly on the wall and watch them having fun.

    

Austin, Texas

We put Austin on our bucket list trip of the South two summers ago, and it was great!  Then, Jeremy’s cousin, Renee, got married and is expecting.  We weren’t invited to the wedding (attendance of less than 5 there), but she did have a baby shower.  We decided to go even though it seemed like a trivial reason to fly all the way to Texas.  It was an opportunity to gather with many from Jeremy’s family, allow the girls some time to connect with 2nd cousins and extended family they don’t see often.  And I am so glad we did.

We left on Friday morning for Cleveland airport.  Julie (Jeremy’s aunt) joined us on our flights there and back. We flew with Southwest which boards you in groups rather than assigned seats.  Ellie and Madison were pretty nervous about not sitting near us or with each other, but in all our flights we had seats near each other.  They sat next to each other and had fun hanging together. 

We met Jen at the airport, and we headed to the AirBnB that we rented together.  It was off the beaten path, but near Aunt Lisa’s house, so it was a good place to be.  Aunt Lisa and Aunt Diane and their cousin, Sherri, met us at the AirBnB which was a fun way to be welcomed. 

We took it pretty easy the rest of day.  Saturday, we met most of the crew at a hiking trail to enjoy the weather and get moving a little bit. 

        

After that, we broke up into groups.  Our family went to grab lunch and then buzzed around to some thrift stores and to downtown Georgetown – super cute little town square.  We found some souvenir t-shirts both in the thrift stores and shops.

That night we hung out and had supper at Lisa’s house.  The girls brought along a small assortment of nail polish, so they did some manicures for those interested.  Renee was there.  We played a competitive game of Pictionary and just hung out.

Sunday was the big day!  I managed to get Ellie’s hair into a cute updo.  And we headed to the baby shower. 

         

We connected with people,

       

had a meal,

played some fun games,

    

watched Renee open gifts,

    

and had a fun time being with others. From left to right: Jennifer Quinones, Rebecca Costello, Megan Gaumer, Julie Gaumer, Madison, Me, Renee Parker, Lisa Costello, Ellie, Sherry Luby, Diane Sommers, Niki Yoh.

It was Madison and Ellie’s first baby shower, and I think they were pretty honored to have been invited.  It felt very grown up and special.  They handled themselves well and had so much fun connecting with everyone, not just at the shower, but at the less formal times as well.  I think this was incredibly vaulable for them as a way of staying connected to family.

    

While the ladies were at the shower, the men (Jeremy and Jason) went downtown to wait in line at the famous Franklin BBQ.  They were the last ones to get bbq, but not the last ones in line!  It was good bbq, but I don’t know if I would’ve waited in line. 

That evening, we gathered again at Lisa’s just to be together – I love family!  (I don’t love the planning drama that usually comes with getting together, but I love the result.)

    

Monday, we packed up and headed back to Ohio.