November 2010
Most of our time was spent with no plumbing.
The first sign there was a problem was when sewage began coming out of the pipe our washer hose drains into. And Boy did it stink!
We had one guy come out and he and I added a clean out inside the basement because he didn't know where the outside one was, then he snaked it and put acid down the pipe but the problem came back a couple days later. He felt bad so he returned $100 of the $175 he charged.
Then we had Reddi Rooter come out and the guy was super nice! He was an older gentleman who really knew his stuff. He knew exactly where our outside clean out was. The clean out was 1 foot under the ground. Whomever had done work on this pipe before buried it. (Thanks previous owners!) Anyway, the pipe was also tilted and he said he thought it might be broke off. He tried to snake it but it broke his blade. He said he was positive that it was broke off somewhere. We would have to dig it up. SO we paid him and hoped that when we dug it up we could do the fix ourselves.
POOR Mike! He dug the 5ft deep, 5 ft long and 4 ft wide trench. He spent hours digging in solid ground. (Keep in mind this is November and the ground isn't exactly soft)
Too our dismay, the pipe wasn't broke in just one place but 3! Clean off the foundation, off the clean out, and off the main sewer line.
I was able to get out some stress by creating a hole in our wall in the basement to give access to the area where they would need to replace the pipe.
So, we had another Reddi Rooter guy come out and he was super nice but could only tell us he would have to come back another day because of the size of the project. He said he would come with another guy and charge us for one man labor ($115 per hour). Estimated cost was $700. It would have been a thousand more had we not prepped the area.
When they come out again, it isn't that guy at all. It is another guy! He says he has another guy coming and they have to charge for each man. ($115 X2 per hour) The second guy doesn't even get there for another hour but they start charging when the first guy is there!
Needless to say, they got it done quick so I didn't complain. Overall this experience cost us around $1000.
Oh, the Joy of Home ownership!
Mikes brother, Steven and his family came to stay with us for a couple days. It was a great visit!
For Thanksgiving things my mom came to visit. Somehow her few days stay turned into a month. lol Gotta love mom! We had a good visit though. I got her to leave some nice clothing items behind. AND Some family photos.
December 2010
We spent this time getting our house together for company for Christmas. We planned to have Jay, Malissa, Maria, and my mom. For Christmas we went up for a day to my dad's for a family reunion. It was great! We brought back with us Malissa and Maria (my sisters).
My brother Jay came down the next week.
Over the Christmas break we had a house full of people. There wasn't a bed or couch that didn't have someone sleeping on it. Luke and Alisha (my brother and his family) came down from Utah! That was great! We had Misty and Ben (another sister of mine and her family) and BOY was it a mad house! At one time we had over 7 kids under the age of 10 at our house. Mike decided that we shouldn't have that many kids. lol (He used to tell people we wanted 8) It felt good that everyone was happy to be at my house. When everyone left, right before New Years, it was so quiet! It was kind of bittersweet moment. Nice to have your home back but you miss all the entertaining people.
January 2011, went by with snow day after snow day. I think we missed at least two days of school a week all the way until March. We had a great time sledding!
February 2011
Mike and I took Toby up to Missouri to visit my friend Lacy Walker before she moved back to Atlanta, GA. She ended up working so we saw her for a couple hours late Saturday night. We got to spend some time with Jay, since we stayed at his place. We helped him clean since he is a bachelor and they aren't the best at it. We went with my dad, step mom (Marilyn), and my grandma Bohannan to my youngest brother Ethan's basketball game. It was fun! We all went out to eat for my grandma's birthday after. We ate at a little Mexican restaurant in Knob Noster. We then went and saw the house my Aunt Connie is having built.
We didn't get to see Malissa and meet her boyfriend Brent until Monday at lunch. He seemed nice. He has a HUGE pickup truck! Hate to pay for that gas. We then headed home.
March 2011
I, Lydia, turned 27 on the 10th of March! Mike bought me a laptop! Mostly because we needed a new computer anyway. He uses his work laptop so I get this one all to myself!
ADOPTION
As you may or may not know, Mike and I put our application in for adoption through LDS Family Services. Because of all the problems with plumbing, holidays, and weather we didn't have our first Home visit until March. We are excited but nervous. There is no guarantee of placement and it can take years. Lately we have been trying to get our photo collage together as well as our training and baby proofing.
April 2011
Mike and I spent the first weekend in April watching General Conference for our Church. It was awesome! You can check it out on LDS.org. It is sooo wonderful to have a living prophet of God to guide us! I forgot but in December I got a new calling! I am no longer 2nd Counselor in Young Womens but am the NEW Ward Bulletin Lady! I make sure everyone knows what is going on for that Sunday and I have a calendar. I enjoy creating themes for each week. One week I used the quote from a favorite movie of mine called Pollyanna.
"When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will."
I also included a quote by Dieter F. Uchdorf about looking for the good in people.
Well, I will try to keep yall posted. Sorry I am a slacker! But better late than never!
Uncle Mike and Rebekah making S'Mores. Uncle Mike was a favorite.
Suzanne (Lydia's mom) was able to come with us on our little adventure! She was also nice enough to let Mike and I use her full sized blow-up matress. We put it on our cots and we slept like babies! Poor mom had the one she slept on deflate on her in the night.
Playing toss the kid was fun and a good upper body workout. We just tossed Seth (pictured right) back and forth until we got worn out. Lucas's kids are like little fish. They just keep swimming swimming swimming! Wish we still had that kind of energy!
I did my own hair and makeup. I was going for a dramatic look. 
