Mr. Joe

This is Mr. Joe. He works at "the Botanicals" and Paige loves him. My littlest is very particular about the people she loves. She's always said hi, making sure to find him whenever we are there. I found myself a little teary eyed when she ran up to Joe arms out to be picked up. Paige then proceeded to hug him as tightly as she could. Mr. Joe's face was full of happiness. They definitely have a mutual admiration society going. I took this photo a few days later. How sweet is this?

Paige's perspective...

So I've taught Paige how to use the camera. It's better to have taught her how to use it than sneak and break it. I try to supervise but she's quick, tricky, but actually careful with the camera. We were decorating the gardens today. With greenery, bittersweet, birch branches whatever Mr. Matt and the rest of the staff could find. The Americorp workers are a lot of fun so you'll see peeks of them and Miss Mary, my wintertime partner in crime, in Paige's photos.Later we got to meet more of the staff of Mr. Rooter Plumbing. Ryan the plumbing boss came out. He spent hours here...on my roof and digging around. The major discovery was that the main line was blocked for a good 15 feet, almost the entire length of pipe to my septic tank. Next is a photo of how to properly climb a roof. Not how I climbed the roof in January to check out the same drain vent. That experiment ended in my sliding down and almost off the roof. Mail man thought the spectacle was hilarious. John, who had just had major lung surgery, just shook his head and tried to talk me down. Me not doing roofs again....ever! Mr. Ryan cleaned everything out up to the break in the line and told me my sink should have drained.
Nope, still had three days of standing water in the sink was getting gross. Yes we had drained out what we could by hand. Plumber to the rescue he opened up the U trap to drain the water. All was well until the water that was in the outgoing pipe, you know the one that goes into the wall and under the house, decided to perform a reverse tidal wave. Mr. Ryan caught most of it in the bucket but in a freak accident(which happen around here all the time!) the bucket toppled onto his lap. Oh poor man. He was soaked. Needless to say the water shouldn't have come back out the way it did. So he started to snake the line. He couldn't find any obstructions while reeling back in the line it twisted around his hand placing an large metal splinter in his ring finger. He didn't say anything until he was done. I am always ready for emergency medical procedures. I did balk when he asked to use Tilex on his wound, which is bleach just so you know. We went outside to use the faucet. I was armed with bleach, alcohol, towels and hydrogen peroxide. He was worried about using my towels to clean off his hands. Really? I was wondering how I would make it up to the poor injured and very wet man. After refusing the Strawberry Shortcake bandaid, sorry we're all out of manly band aids right now. He applied new plastic gloves and crawled under my house. Turns out the entire line from the sink to the main line was filled with sludge and needed to be replaced. So Mr. Ryan went home and out came Mr. Nick to replace the line. When he was finished I rejoiced in the fact that my sink was finally empty. So very thankful for plumbing that works. Okay it's not really working but I am allowed to was my dishes.

Sometimes you just have to know when to call a plumber. I think the dishwasher flooding into the kitchen sink, the washing machine outflow pipe overflowing and a strangely slow draining toilet and bathroom sink were all good clues. Really don't bother with draino or ridx, you can try to snake it out yourself but be warned didn't work here. It was time to call in the trained professionals. What are you seeing here? Roots...escaping from the drain under my toilet. There was a veritable forest of mold, roots, and even a worm under the toilet. So when you see roots like this coming out of your toilet it's a bad sign. Our plumber's rock! We had Brent out from Mr. Rooter Plumbing...he's told me not to worry we'd jet out all the old roots and things would be fine. I chuckled and explained that in my world this was just the beginning of worse problems. He told me to be optomistic. Really?
So when he jetted out the main line we started to have mud coming back up out of the toilet drain. Not muck, not sewage, soil! Mud puddle in my bathroom. I know I'll dream about the black mud coming up out of the floor and the bathtub for quite a while. Nick who was outside running the jet..."So you're going to tell the homeowner right?" See who wants to deal with a crazy lady? I saw the mud...I knew it meant my main line was ruptured. Brent and Nick were waiting for tears, denial, anger, not complete calm. Really it's not their fault I did hire them to tell me what was going on. Verdict they would be out Tuesday after we had the septic tank drained again. Shouldn't have been full I had it emptied in January. Apparently when your main line leaks water into the ground and floods the leach field things don't work exactly right. Here are Paige's version of events today..."Mom why's there mud puddle...big mud puddle, uh huh, in the bathroom? You say Oh Man? uh huh." Bleach it's my new best friend.
Ran away to Laura's for dinner...Thanks sister friend appreciate it muchly.

I love...

that Christmas is coming. I love creating gifts to give. I love the plotting and planning. I have been busy canning away so I'm stocking up on jellies, dilly beans, and more. I'm crafting in the studio. Photos, paper, fabric and more being put to work. I love to give the people I love something I've made. It means so much more than something I buy. Don't worry Miss Kathryn I will still buy you a few presents.
So today I was inspired by this very fun artist her blog and store go by knock, knocking...gotta love that, here is the link to her etsy store and her blog. So here are a few of the beautiful wreaths that she specializes in. Hello who knew orange and blue for Christmas... miss decorating Skrappaper. But I will get busy on my studio this year.

Girls on Sunday

Today was the primary program at church. The children all have a part and teach us about what they learned in their classes this year. I love primary. I get all choked up and teary eyed when they sing, some of them very, very loudly. So today's program was excellent. Kate played a violin solo. She's only been playing for twelve weeks and taught herself a song by ear. Yeah some musical talent in that one. Sydney's entire primary class was to shy to speak. I thought for sure she would refuse but her teacher called on her and she hopped right out of her chair. Her question to answer how do I help my family be closer to Heavenly Father? Her answer....remember Sis Schaeffer was so relieved Sydney was speaking right..."I help my family by playing baby tag and hobo tag." Yep leave it to Syd to make me laugh out loud in church. Here's photos of me and the ladies today. See Jennifer I really can make sure to photograph myself.

Life after shots...

These are the faces of three very happy Rapplings.I had an appointment this morning and took the girls with me. The plan was quick appointment then we could go to the health department for the H1N1, hear after to be known as the Huswavian, shots. The appointment well that took a one hour wait then 45 minutes appointment. So far so good, the girls had snacks, crayons, MP3 player and a book for Kate. Not a short appointment by any means but they girls were good. Onto the health department next.

Sydney doesn't like shots. Not at all. I had to keep Kate from saying Huswavian and the s-h-o-t word. This worked until we were in line and another big sister was teasing her little brother about his shot. The tears started. First they were tears of quiet desperation. About an hour into the line as we drew closer to the front the sobbing started. She wanted to get the Huswavian. She didn't care how sick it would make her. There was some serious bargaining going on. By the time we reached the desk to log in she was flailing around like a fish out of water. Good note of the entire Huswavian event...we knew through the garden and Mr. Matt the lovely Miss Gehring who was checking us in. It was nice to recognize one person in the mass of humanity I was in line with. It was driving me a little crazy that Paige was fine and Sydney was having a complete panic attack. I was T-I-R-E-D. Kate was a big help and kept hold of all the paperwork and cards since I was carrying a flailing Sydney and trying to keep a hand on a very confused Paige.

The woman administrating the shots announced, "Next." and took one look at Sydney, shook her head and rolled her eyes. I asked her if she thought she could handle this? Said nurse was a little offended to be asked that particular question. But yes she could handle this. Then she told me that the girls could only have the live virus intranasal vaccine. I was miffed and worried since I had planned on the shots not wanting a live virus to spread on to John. So I started asking questions. That made my nurse sigh. You know the sigh. It's the one you give the 50th customer who asks the same question about if you have the hardest to find item the day after Thanksgiving. Okay, really, I know I'm allowed to ask questions. "Mam, I can't tell you what will happen. Here's this sheet you can take it home and read it, but do you want your turn or not?" This nurse and I are definitely not on friendly terms. Sydney proceeded to act like major surgery was being performed without anesthetic. Finally girls all done. Mom got her shot and I was beyond relieved to be leaving. Syd was fine. Now Paige was mad and kicking at every inanimate object and family member who got in her way. It was a long, long walk back down the hallway to get out.

The magic promise of a Happy Meal and a visit to see Cyggy, the not so little baby swan, at the Botanicals was what kept Paige on good behavior. So off we went. Kate announced once we arrived that I must just require nature. Yes, yes I do. I need to be outside. I love the sun, the clouds, rain, snow, whatever, just please let me out. Lines in the department of health or crazy crowded rooms with no organization are a particular torture aimed to send me to a mental institution. I had done both for the past four hours and was so happy to be free. The girls had fun visiting with the swans...Martha and Cyggy came up for a visit. Miss Martha has bold streak in her when it comes to little girls and cheeseburgers. Mr. Phillip stopped to talk with the girls about the swans and gave the girls a bagel to feed to the swans just this once. Okay, so really don't feed the birds at the Botanicals. They don't need food and my girls know that this is not allowed. They also know Mr. Phillip is the boss and serious about the rules. To the girls this was magic. They got to feed Cyggy. Times like this makes me remember that behind every cloud the sun is still shining.

Side note... when you leave a beach ball out in the yard it becomes art at the Botanical Gardens.

Art on Central

My former neighbors, and owners of Meant to Bead, Julia and Les have a Art Gallery on Central Avenue. Where? In the former location of Skrappaper, 6540 West Central Avenue next to Speedway, after the fire station but before Central Park West light. They've actually had the location since we closed Skrappaper but I've never thought to blog about it before.

So I took in a few of my fallish photographs after I spent a day in my studio. I'm also going to be taking in a few more fun projects later this week. They have an amazing selection of photography, paintings, jewelry and my favorite, blown glass pieces. I especially fond of the pumpkins and glass coasters that they are selling. Please stop by I know they'd love to see you.