June 2014 - Week 1 (Part 2): Chaos and Fun!!

So the first part of our week was nice and calm.
Nothing exciting.

The second half...
that got a tad bit more interesting...

Thursday evening I had been communicating,
via text,
 with our tenants,
about random things,
nothing really important.

Then I get a phone call,
I figured they were just tired of texting.
The voice on the other end of the phone
was a little panicked.

There was a problem...
a "water coming through the downstairs ceiling"
kind of problem.

ACK!

I was already planning to head in the direction of the house,
Raleigh area,
the next day to pick up my mom for a trip to my grandmother's.

However,
I had intended on cleaning up a little before we left,
and taking my time in getting to Raleigh.

But due to the minor waterfall in the house up there,
I decided to head up there,
meet the plumber and be a
good home owner/landlord.

So...everything kicked into high gear...
my "take my time to get to Raleigh by early mid-afternoon"
was kicked into high gear when I learned the plumber would
be there before lunch!

This was on my "to do" list:


This is what the playroom looked like.
I didn't want to leave it looking like this,
mainly because I didn't want to come HOME to it!

Unfortunately,
it had to wait.

So while I am running around packing,
 for the weekend,
for 5 people...
to leave the house in about 30 minutes time...

my 8 year old comes to me and says:
"um, mom, I put something in the outlet in my room...
and it made this really loud popping sound...
and smoke came out"

UM, WHAT??!!??

So I stopped what I was doing,
walked up to his room
and this is what I see.

Absolute shock,

bewilderment,

confusion...

My sweet 8 year old second child...

who KNOWS better...

picked up something little

off of his floor...

and for whatever reason...

unknown to me

(or him)

thought it would be a good idea to 

STICK IT INTO AN OUTLET!!!

AN ELECTRICAL OUTLET!!!

Praise the LORD!

Praise!!

That he did not injure himself!

But why,

why,

why...

would you do that?

What were you thinking?

His response...

"well the last time I did it,

nothing happened"

WHAT?!?!

Yep,

just what I needed,

right when I needed it.

 So not deciding not to deal with it right then...
I flipped the breaker and turned the power off to that room.
(I have now been told that it wasn't a necessary step,
but I don't care, I felt better...
made me feel like it was reducing the chances
of the house burning down while we were gone.)

We hightailed it to Raleigh,
I met my folks at a restaurant
literally had my mom meet me in the parking lot to swap keys.

Left the kids with her,
jumped in her car
and took off to house.

I arrived right after the plumber.
Thankfully,
he only had to put a few "minor" holes in the ceiling...
then in a wall upstairs...
to find and quickly
correct the problem.

I contacted the drywall guy and left a happy girl.

I get to my folk's house
and was greeted by my dad asking...
"how old are the tires on your car?"

Um, I don't know...
I know - we need new ones soon,
but they just aren't in the budget right now
and aren't really a priority.

He changes my mind for me,
and off we go to the tire shop.

I picked these out first,
complete with the rims...
but the hubs said no.

Finally found a reasonable set...

and apparently I needed tires worse than I realized.

(Left: old, Right: new)

While we were waiting on the tires,

we decided to walk over to the Harris Teeter 

(my favorite grocery store)

in the same parking lot.

The just happened to have a sale on wine...

so this is what I walked out with.

(Happy Girl!!)

 Phew...after all of that excitement...
we FINALLY loaded up and headed to my grandmother's house.
This is where all 4 of the kid slept.
The 2 littles were on the little bed in the middle.
I thought this was a cute picture.

The next day,

Saturday,

we decided to try out a little park about 20 minutes away,

that my grandmother had told us about.

She lives in a very small town in South Carolina...

well outside of a very small town,

and honestly,

I didn't know anything about the little town,

or what it had,

because we hardly ever leave her property!

We hit the local small town grocery store

to grab some popsicles to eat at the park.

And getting 4 kids to decide on ONE pack of popsicles

is dad-gum near impossible!

And it was quite entertaining for 2 of the customers

that happened to be walking down the freezer aisle

the same time we were there.

The took a shine to the Mr. T...

talked with him and laughed with him.

Then went on about their business.

About 30 seconds later, they came back around the corner...

and told me that they would like to buy him the popsicles HE wanted.

How sweet!!!

I said ok,

and the scary part...

he followed right behind them...

without looking back to make sure I was coming...

NOT ONCE!

UGH!

He was a happy boy.

I asked if I could take their picture

and send it to their daddy.

So back in the car we got,

and on down the road we went...

to this "little park".

It was 

ADORABLE!!!

We all loved it!

Every once in a while,

they would take a popsicle break.

And since his desire for a "blue" popsicle was 

the WHOLE reason he got those popsicles...

This guy got ALL of the blue ones!

And enjoyed...

Every Lick!

And turned into a Smurf...

from the inside...

out!

(Luckily it did eventually wipe off.)

And since we were out in the country...
what better way to drink your wine...
than out of a mini mason jar?!?!

This is roughing it...
mini mason jar of wine (which I AM a fan of)
styrofoam plate (which I am NOT a fan of),
good country cooking (which I AM a fan of),
and an awesome fire
(for roasting marshmallows on!)

As if they hadn't had enough excitement and exercise for one day...

the big boys decided to hit the pond.

The next morning,

they were up bright and early,

to do a little fishing....

and that is exactly what they caught...

a little fish!

After another busy day,

the littles passed out pretty early.

When I went to check on them,

this is what I saw,

I think I was "supposed" to sleep in that bed too.

Monday morning, 

we loaded up,

said our good-byes and headed a little further south 

to meet some cousins that had flown all the way from

Washington state to visit!

I was so excited.

I hadn't seen them literally in 20 years or so

and thankfully for Facebook,

we are all connected!

We had such a good visit with them!

Here are all of the second cousins (is that right?)

that were together - this is not ALL of them though!

They are all my grandmother's great-grandchildren.

Here are all of the cousins that were able to get together.

Half are from Washington.

Super sweet girl cousin hugs!!!

Unfortunately, 

we could only stay for a little while and visit.

I wanted to stay

and almost did...

but had to get my mom home,

so she could go do something called 

WORK!

So we vowed to not let it be 20 years before we could visit again!

(So thankful for Facebook!)

On the way home, this beautiful rainbow crossed our path.

It brought me so much peace!