Birthday Parties, Turkeys, Doors, Appliances and Power. Now, that’s an eclectic, interesting title! Yep, that’s the story of my life these days. No particular order or organization. Just random, eclectic, interesting tidbits of life crammed in. Yep, that sums it up pretty well. Here’s the latest Carter Crazy scoop:
We had to call the power company again. And again. For some reason it was taking them forever to return our calls about finishing up the power. All we really needed was for the power to be buried from the temporary power pole to the house. That’s not hard, now is it? No, of course not. Not unless it’s us. Then, it’s an impossibility, apparently. We called 2-3 times every week. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Finally, Jim got a little frustrated and called about 15 times in one morning. I think I’m rubbing off on him. Yikes!!! He was finally connected to the right person and they agreed to meet us the following day to lay out the path of the power across the driveway. See, that wasn’t hard at all folks! Thank you for your cooperation!
The next day they met with us and said they would have someone out by the end of November. Well, that was a bit of a set back, but we also understood once they explained about how far behind they were due to the damage from the storms. Ok, sure. We will wait again. I still have my list of things to do so we will still be keeping busy. Yes, another list. Wait, where did my family go??? Hello????……
Monday November 13 was Maylin’s 7th birthday. That little stinker is growing up too fast!!
This is Maylin on her birthday morning, bed head and all. Won’t she just love me for taking this picture one day? I’m sure Maleah will be thrilled as well. Sorry girls! Mommy loves you!
As soon as Maylin’s eyes open, she is ready to open up presents. And she has no problem with waking everyone in the house up to get to her presents faster. So, we all have bed head. I just happen to be on the safe side of the camera!
Maylin is patiently waiting to open another gift and Rocko is begging to have his cone of shame removed. Well, if the silly dog would quit licking his hotspot! Then, of course, I would remove that horrible monster strangling him and knocking over everything in it’s path-the kids and I included!
This was Maylin’s favorite present, her very own mermaid tail. Hmmm, anyone want to go swimming in November?
Maylin wanted a million things for her birthday, but finally decided on a trip to Fun Depot in Asheville. Wouldn’t you know that we had no sooner gotten inside and paid for our tickets than the power company called and wanted us to meet then right then. They were already at our place and unloading the equipment to bury the power to the house. What??? Now???
Apparently, they didn’t really want Jim to keep calling a few times a day anymore, so they moved us up on the schedule. Jim had been smart though. I thought he was being silly, but he had spray painted our yard and driveway with so many markings and words that our yard looked like some kind of graffiti warzone. He had marked ALL the water lines in blue ALL the way from the well to the house and marked where the power needed to be in yellow ALL the way from the box to the house. It was hysterical! I just wish I had gotten a picture of him spray painting all those yellow and blue lines.
That Saint Jim is a pretty smart fellow and his plan worked brilliantly. Jim was able to explain it all to the guy on the phone and we didn’t have to disrupt Maylin’s birthday! Trust me when I say that hell hath no furry like a 7 year old who is told to leave a fun park just after entering. Nope, not happening!!
I was happy that we didn’t have to drag our kids away from their fun time. And the kids were obviously ecstatic because we didn’t have to leave. And Jim was thrilled because work was being done even without us being there. Whoo-hoo!!
They did a marvelous job and even put the driveway back together again.
You can’t even tell they buried the power here. Nice work guys. Maylin and Camden approve!
Now, I just need to plant more grass seed….
The driveway looks good as new!
By the end of the week, we had gutters installed and even had some of the interior doors hung. Boxes are the best toys ever! My kids have played with this refrigerator box for months now. Maybe I should just give the kids different size boxes for Christmas? Yep, I like that idea.
Jim’s parents came down and hung all the doors for us. They are awesome! One door was named the “door from Hell”.
Everything about this door was wrong. In the end, we gave up the battle and returned it for a door that was actually made and hung correctly.
We had been in a hurry to get the electric and HVAC done so the plumber could get back in and finish up his work. Then we could get the final inspection done and be ready to move in. Maybe before Christmas? Maybe… Well, maybe not.
Sadly, Doug the plumber, had a grandparent die 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. He left to go out of town for a few days. The week after he got back to town, he had another grandparent pass away. That is heartbreaking! He was kind enough to call and tell us that he was leaving town again. And that he was now about 2-3 weeks behind on his work. It looked like it might be the middle of December before he could get out to our house and finish the plumbing. Rather than being disappointed, I felt relieved actually. Some of the pressure was gone to move before Christmas. There is no way that I am going to add more stress to the holidays by moving 2 weeks before Christmas. Nope. We were staying put and will worry about moving after the holidays. Done. That left me more time to focus on the kids and others for the holidays. Great!
I might have been a little too late with that thought though, because I forgot to order the decorations for Maylin’s birthday party. Totally spaced that one out! So, we improvised by letting her paint dinosaur handprints on a shower curtain to hang up. Maylin is incredibly artistic and creative so I knew if anyone could make it work, it would be her.
Maylin wasn’t exactly thrilled, but she let me off the hook. Thank you, princess! I tried to make it up to her by letting her make a fruit dinosaur and having her Nana make that cool Triceratops cake. In the end, it turned out well. At least Maylin is still speaking to me!
After Maylin’s party we were able to do some small things around the house and wait for the appliances to be delivered the day before Thanksgiving.
Yes, we have appliances now! It’s starting to look like a house. Complete with clutter and everything. Yep, home sweet home.
Yep, we are the crazy people that arrange appliance deliveries the day before Thanksgiving. What were we thinking? Didn’t we have anything better to do?
Jim did a great job leveling up the yard so we were able to plant grass seed. Again. Note to self-never, NEVER, under any circumstances plant one seed of grass until ALL the construction is done.
Just after Maylin’s party, we celebrated Turkey Day. Maleah couldn’t say Thanksgiving until she was almost 10 so we started calling it Turkey Day and still do. Turkey day. Isn’t that cute?
I love Thanksgiving. I love food, so Thanksgiving and me just go together perfectly. We celebrate with just us normally and then see the rest of the family for a meal on the weekend. And then we get to splurge twice. Yeah, I still don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I guess it depends on whether you are asking my mouth or my waistline!
