Renewal, Destruction, Renovation, Renewal

This week included a renewal of friendships. What a great time we had at our "Young Adult" Reunion. It was great to see everyone, but we missed, Judy and Bill, Randy and Andrea, and Al.



This week included destruction. Our flooding mishap has spurred us on to make some renovations in our family room, which first must include the destruction of a wall and parts of another wall and ceiling. Monday we'll have a visit from an "Insta-Dry" Guy and Tuesday we have someone coming to move some ductwork. I'm hoping we finish this process before school starts.



This week will include another kind of renewal--a trip up north to Otsego Lake with the Woehlke's, the McClelland's, and Andy and Christie. We will leave as soon as we get ourselves moving today, and return on Monday. The Woehlke's and McClelland's will stay in Bob's family's rustic cottage right on the lake. Tom and I get to stay in a 4 bedroom house in a golf resort generously lent to us by members of our congregation.

How We Spent My Summer Vacation....

Our family room (the moldy part screened off with plastic):

Our carport containing all our family room furniture:

Not exactly as what we had planned for our time and our resources. But you have to do what you have to do! Right now I'm procrastinating going down into the moldy family room to bleach the darn stuff away. We've already pulled away part of the carpet. Then we'll have to tear apart part of the wall to make sure there's no mold growing in there, then repair, rebuild, and re-install flooring. While the room is torn apart we may decide to replace the less than energy-efficient doors, and some of the lighting. $$$$ Unfortunately since the water seepage was from an outdoor source (the 4 or 5 inches of rain we had a couple of weeks ago and not discovered until this past Friday), insurance won't cover a thing. (If it had been a broken water heater, we'd be all set.)

Miss Woehlke! Miss Woehlke!

One great thing about living in our country is that you can be want you want to be (if you can find a job, that is). For her birthday, Ella decided she wanted "teacher stuff", so I resurrected an old chalkboard (preserved from when I was a child), and made a trip to the teacher store for maps, supplies, etc. and last night we played school. Ella turned out to be a fine teacher. After Custodian Bob installed the blackboard, she read to her students (Emily, Sophie, Lucy, and me), had a geography lesson about Michigan, made assignments and led us to "specials". She displayed classroom management skills, even while one of her students was rather distractable and distracting--Lucy was in constant motion all the while calling, "Miss Woehlke, Miss Woehlke". But in spite of this distraction, Sophie learned where Michigan is and could identify it both on the US map and the world map. Good job, Miss Woehlke, Miss Woehlke!

Happy Birthdays!!

This morning I finally decided to blog (I know, I know, it's been a lonngggg time!). I have a favorite picture of the two birthday people that I went to look for in a drawer in my entertainment center in the family room. It's of Andy and Ella in lovely little ladies' hats having a tea party (at that time Ella was two and Andy was 25).

To make a long story short, I never got to find the picture. We have noticed a musty odor down in the family room, and today I found it's source. Apparently in the last bad rain storm we had, water seeped into the corner of our family room. There we found water wicking up through the carpet into the wood on the entertainment center. Yuck! Four hours later all the furniture is out of the family room, there is plastic hanging to block off the possibly mold infected area, phone calls have been made (of course the insurance company is closed today) and hopefully Monday we'll find out that our insurance will cover the damage and that we can have someone come and fix the problem.

In the meantime, Andy and Ella---HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I can't believe you're thirty and seven!!! I love you both. Emily, if you have that picture of Andy and Ella can you post it?