Tree Down

Yikes.

We all heard a pretty good crash.  Thought it must be Eric in the basement.  Nope.  A neighbor just ran over to tell us he watched a tree hit our house.  Eric has been predicting this since we moved here.  Thankfully it's a smallish one.  Thankfully it just missed Jia's room.  Looks like it's over the kitchen.  Eric is still trying to figure out if there is immediate roof damage.  Fingers crossed!  Right now he's moving the girls cars and then getting a ladder so he can get up there.

Not loving the snow. We haven't even got to the heavy rain and wind part.

Still waiting on a damage report.  The bulk is down in the side yard.  Massive mess.  

Here is the parenting low down.  I haven't seen the littles.  The boys came up for lunch.  They have not talked to me all day.  I'm running window to window trying to see while making sure no critters are out there.  They have asked for snacks.  They want to make slime and can I find and get Luk's connetic sand and Jia wants to know how many of the Santa chocolates she can have.  Eric is on the roof in wet slippery icy conditions and there could be a hole or holes in the roof and a storm is coming.  Are you kidding me?!  Harsh words of NOW IS NOT THE TIME were said through clenched teeth. And how is your day going?   

Eric gave me a thumbs up, no visible holes or damage to the roof.  He cut it all down.  Fence was damaged but he says repairable.  Just a heck of a mess left to cart away another day.  He's been outside for hours dealing.  

Snow

Coco was interested but not delighted.

Slight smile.

Fei took the puppies out 1st then got Isabel out for a good play.  She LOVES the snow and tends to run like a crazy wild woman for the first 10 minutes or so.  Wouldn't have been safe for the little ones.  Fei played with Izzy about an hour.  So fun.  So glad I didn't have to go out there.  

Proof Sasha runs ;)

They look like they are beseeching Fei to pick them up.  

They were ready to come in after a few minutes!  I should have ordered that 2nd pair of boots. Great pictures from Fei.  

Luk and Jia have headed outside now and Fei has followed for pictures.  Coming soon.  

I've whined about the basement hoard, it's super messy.  My brilliant idea for a storage space by stealing space from the play area was met with approval.  So Eric has been pounding nails all day.  Building a new wall so we can keep our hoard revolving!  Exciting.  He loves a new project.  Haha.  Because there isn't enough of them already on the list.  

Cubby cleaning.

Another weekend down.  Not a single picture taken.  Lili came home Friday to celebrate the end of her 1st University term.  We ordered Chinese food and watched Charlie Brown's Christmas.  Saturday Eric and Lili moved Lili out of her place and did the final clean and were home in time to bring us all lunch.  Wicked fast.  Lili has been sorting and doing laundry all weekend.  Today she is doing a purge in her old closet.  It would be great if she could just move into her new room but we just haven't figured out how to deal with Jenny in the basement.  Right now we're still no critters allowed down there.  With Jenny there is just too high a chance she'll get locked down there.   None of us wants another litter box down there.  She'll have her room as her school room though so we're getting there.  We had Spaghetti and watched the season ender of Mandelorian together.  So good.  Already anxious for season 3.

On Sunday I told Eric where we could move all the photo books and albums from yesteryear to a cubby upstairs.  It involved cleaning out said cubby first.  I estimated a couple hours.  It took double that.  Sigh.  Easter is sorted into one big box! So that was huge.  Many many bags of donations and garbage left the house.  Little kid stuff leaving rapidly.  Eric also put door handles on my closet doors for me.  Big deal.  I bought the handles months and months ago and we just keep moving them around.  Haha.  The silliest little things thrill me.  I'm not sure Eric likes shifting gears and working on my projects but he was a good sport about it.  I also unearthed a crochet project, a blue blanket for the old blue trailer.  Haha.  It's almost done so I'm just doing the edging now.  Something to do while I feebly attempt calm and relaxed.  

We woke up this morning to snow.  Ick.  I got ready for work and while clearing my car I listened to the radio and it was all bleak.  So a snow day it is.  I'm back in.  Did some dishes and made some tea.  Now sitting with the blanket project.  

Fei got up and took the puppies outside to play.  Expecting she'll take some pictures ;)  Coco's first snow.

Water spewing.

I shouldn't write this.  Haha.  I arrived home yesterday and Eric was running into the house and didn't wave or come get the puppies.  Odd.  When I came in the front door Luk was standing sentry.  Mom, don't use the water!  Ok.  What happened? Luk tells me he doesn't know but the bathroom stinks and he thinks it must have been Kai again.  Uh oh.  Eric was in the basement.  I busied myself for a while doing daily chores.  Eric went outside a couple times, he wasn't talking and was still running.  I finally went down. It wasn't Kai.  Kai had used the toilet but didn't flush thank gawd because when Eric was trying to hook up Fei's new pumper toilet he had to move water and sewer lines.  Which is when he accidentally cut a water line.  That spewed all over the basement.  He had lots of towels down.  It took another hour but he got it fixed.  The new debacle revealed mold inside a shower wall so Lili's bathroom will take a while longer now.  Not kidding, we should not be allowed to have running water.  

Anyone looking forward to anything?

Not much on the horizon these days.  Year almost up and I didn't use my holiday time off.  Should take some days this Dec but what for?  We're getting enough home time.  Haha.  Had a phone appt with Luk's pediatrician yesterday.  Everything all good but she is still pushing for flu shots.  We've never had one also have never had the flu so we're not keen to get the shots.   She is encouraged by the vaccine here but she is sticking with the fall being when things might return to normal. She admits all the hygiene practices in place have greatly reduced sickness in general.  

Heres my humble little list of joys.  One of my favorite writers is releasing two books on Christmas day that are historical with Chinese characters.  So I pre-ordered them to my kindle.  New show Bridgerton coming to Netflix on Christmas day that I'm looking forward to.  There's a new Shaun the Sheep released on the 22nd so that's fun.  My game is starting a new event on the 17th, we're getting Brave.  Love it.  Eric's free gift from shopping Superstore yesterday was an Alexa Auto.  It's exciting but I don't really get why I'd want her in the car.  Alexa is on my phone, so already in the car if I wanted. That's my alone time.  Now wondering if it would work in the new room.  It's just fun to have a new toy to contemplate.  I've been shopping for a pink bed for the Chihuahuas for the pink room.  Then last night I realized Jia has a doll bunkbed in her room that has to go.  Cute photos coming soon.  Just not quite sure Jia is ready to donate more of her things to the cause yet.  Haha.  

I had a wicked bad night of Chrones hell last night, struck suddenly with extreme vomiting and took myself upstairs at 8 and stayed there.  Not pretty.  Pain set in to add to the fun.  Feeling extremely empty and a bit shaky today but good.  No pain, no nausea, no need to be near a bathroom.  Too much info?  All to say basically pretty grateful to be alive this morning.  I'm a bit afraid to eat today.  Having Cheerios and fresh whole milk from our cows today.  Packed grapes, raspberries and blueberries too but we'll see how the cereal goes.  

A Facebook meme on my Chrones support group today that had me howling in laughter.

Kai is entering a contest, the British Columbia Regional Braille Challenge, happening virtually this year, in February 2021. So that sounds fun.  His test will be at his level administered by his SD vision therapist so he will be comfortable with her since she's been seeing him since kindergarten.  

Lili is moving home this weekend :)  I might be more excited than her.  She likes living on her own.  I finally got an appointment for Esmei to her groomers and Eric is taking her today. I got her in a kennel for him.  When I left today she was complaining bitterly. Isabel had a bath last night prepping for Christmas.  Kids only have two days of school left.  I found a fat free, sugar free gingerbread recipe that we're going to attempt.  Eric made us yam gnocchi on Sunday that was a major hit.  We didn't tell Jia why it was orange.  Just told her it was pasta.  Jia brought home grade 6 math homework that I don't know how to do the new way.  So Fei had to help last night.  I was too sick anyways.  Think it was the math that upset my entire system? 

More to the flooding story.  We're attempting to get Kai to come get us to flush his poops for him.  So far this is working.  He is actually scared enough of the flooding that he is telling Eric.  Last night he told Eric.  Eric told him he'd be there in a minute.  In that minute Luk flushed.  And it was rising and neither Luk or Kai said anything.  Eric arrived in the nick of time.  Yes, we do now have plungers beside each toilet.  Do ya'll have the same issues or is it just us??  With Lili moving home we're hoping to get her settled into the downstairs bathroom, it needs the drywall put back and paint.  Scary to put the work, money and time in when it's directly below the boys bathroom.  

Overfilled tub.

So, in the ongoing saga of flooding at the Nelson house.  On a lazy Sunday...

I'm at the table doing Christmas cards. Eric is in the kitchen.  It's bath time for the boys.  The normal routine is that Luk gets the bath ready and helps Kai quickly through the process because Kai HATES baths then when Luk is alone he enjoys a long leisurely bubble bath.  But I meddled.  Said to Eric maybe Luk just enjoys his bath and we do Kai after.  Must be a pain for Luk to deal with Kai's fussing.  Good plan.  Nice break for Luk.  Kai is delighted to put the horrific bath experience off for a little while.  

Luk ends his bath.  Drains the tub.  Starts the next tub running and calls Kai.  Next thing we're aware of is Kai's fussing, we call it the Kai alarm.  Now, these are normal sounds here and especially around bathing.  But he is escalating the volume so I alert Eric that perhaps he should check.  Thinking it sounds like too much for Luk to deal with.  Haha.  Eric goes in and Luk isn't even there and the water is 2 seconds from overflowing the tub!  Kai was aware...didn't know how to turn it off and didn't think to come and get us.  Sigh.  Kai was greatly relieved to see Eric.  The little overflow drain doesn't do the job in case you've ever wondered.  Close call.  And we were right there.  Clearly that bathroom needs to move or we shouldn't be allowed to have water.  

Crazy might be setting in.

Reinventing Jia.  She doesn't want the doll house cabinet any more.  It was bought for Lili's purple room on Riverbottom.  Then to Fei and then Jia.  I'm just not ready for it to go.  

At the same time I've been struggling with where to put little doggy things.  We were talking about modifying an old nightstand  with a bar so I could hang their stuff on doll hangers.  Cute idea but it would mean crouching to the floor level to get things.  

Problem solved.  It's either super cute or super crazy.  Depends who you ask.  Sadly this isn't all of it.  Still stuff in cars, the office, the pet cabinet and the motorhome.  I am aware that I have a problem.  To be fair a good chunk of this is from Lacie over a 16 year span.  Some would see that there is enough...I see that we're short a raincoat and a set of boots.  Off to shop online for the puppies.  Who of course love it all. Haha.  Oh, and Jia is a bit jealous now.  Luk came to tell me good night and found me in the pink room grinning all by myself I was so pleased with the girls new dresser.  Looking for the joy!