Flood of 09

Here in Atlanta we have begun boarding an arc 2 by 2. The news just said in the last 5 days we have had 15 inches of rain-grr, I am SO ready to see the sun again. Not to mention that every time it rains our yard floods. I'm not talking a little water, I'm talking we had white caps this time. Now I know that the ground is saturated and it can't take anymore water, but this is crazy. Another thing I'm mad about? Last year I never got a snow day or a rain day or a flood day when I was teaching. This year, 2 rain/flood days already from the storms. I feel jipped.
Here is the history:
The previous owners of the house never disclosed that the yard flooded when it rained and for the first year we didn't know it since GA was in such a bad drought. Since the drought is officially over the floods have started. You see, our house was built in 1982 and about 15 years after that they built a more expensive subdivision that our subdivision backs up to. Guess where all the water drains from the expensive subdivision? Down our street. And we live at the bottom of the hill, so guess who gets ALL the water? Us. This summer I took it upon myself to see if I could lobby for a change. Our immediate next door neighbors tried it a few years ago with the previous owners and got no where with the city. Well, after our yard flooded in June I contacted every city official I could get contact information for and sent them letters and pictures of our damage as well as multiple phone messages. I even spoke with our city councilman from our district. All of this groundwork landed us a meeting with the city engineer, who looks like he might be 25. Well, this poor kid didn't know what the hell was going on and brought all these maps and told us this was 'normal runoff.' Bullshit.
Fast forward to now:
So now we seriously have white caps-but I guess it could be worse. They just showed someone on the news that has raw sewage in their yard from the flooding. And at least we don't have a sink hole like others. This is the most rain I have ever seen at once! Plus we have no water damage and we are okay, our house is okay and many people have lost everything they have which puts our small problem in perspective.

There are nurseries for babies like mine

Last weekend our friend's baby, Avery, was baptized at a Methodist church very close to our house. It was a beautiful church and one that I have actually been thinking of attending since we have other friends that go there. There were quite a few babies there since all of our friends attended with their children and Jake was just very excited to see all of them. Every time another baby would look at him, he would squeal with delight. When the choir would sing, yep, my baby was 'singing' right along with them. After the baptism was complete it was time for prayer and then the sermon. . . Well, right when everyone got quiet, Jake decided it was his turn to talk. Finally the minister said "I think I'm going to have some competition today" and of course we were seated in the first two pews since they were reserved for the family and friends of the baptism so I just felt like everyone was staring. So, as soon as the minister said that, Jake thought he needed to reply with more squeals of delight. The minister then said "I think that boy was born to preach." Okay, more chuckles from the congregation and it was like Jake knew he was 'on' and seriously answered the minister. Finally, the minister said, "You know we have a nursery." I think he was just joking, but I did end up taking Jake out and sitting in the back hallway for the last half hour of church. You know, it really pissed me off, it's not like he was screaming and crying. If he was doing that, I would have taken him out--but he was happy. I did have a good time back there with a few other of my friends that decided to bring their kids back as well, but man, was I embarrassed. I know the minister probably meant well, but holy cow--they make nurseries for babies like mine.

So to settle the score, I called my aunt and uncle (who is a minister) to see how he would respond to the situation. My uncle said he would never do anything like that and my aunt that it was the rudest thing ever! After talking to Aunt Linda tonight, it seems I even got a shout out in Keith's sermon this past week at church!!
Oh well, at least he was happy and wasn't screaming. . .I will listen to his squeals of delight over and over--they can't help but make you smile.

Here is a family picture from the baptism:

Our Manual Labor Day Weekend

Okay, so since Adam graduated in May he has had a honey do list of things that have piled up around here because he was so busy with school. One of the things on that list was to paint the guest bathroom. (He also had to sand the walls down because the idiots that lived here tried to paint a second coat while the first was still wet resulting in drips and a nasty looking textured wall.) I very nicely asked him to get this done by September 15th because my Grandma is coming back and I wanted it done by then. Well, painting the guest bathroom turned into "let's put a new floor down" and a new floor turned into "let's get a new vanity" and that turned into a new mirror, a new light, new fixtures, new shower curtain. . .you get the picture (and this wasn't my idea, ALL his). This process actually started a little bit last weekend and I'm not sure how it happened, but I'm the one that ended up painting the bathroom Thursday and Friday while Jake was napping. Sure glad it was on Adam's list (grrr). It is a good thing I got the painting done last week because it allowed Adam to get everything done in there this weekend. It looks a TON better and my husband is a rock star that he can do all of this! (Please ignore the spot on the wall that still needs sanded and painted, we had an 'oops'). The only thing left for us to do this week is hang our towel bars:-) Plus I need to see if I can find any before pictures of it to show you how far we've come. Here are just a few pictures from this evening.

A month of firsts

So, I've been napping quite a bit lately because Jake has decided that sleep is overrated. August has been a fun month of firsts for us, some are the culprit of our sleepless nights! The biggest first which came early in August is that Jake can now sit up on his own. This led to 2 new things, sitting up in the shopping cart and sitting up in a high chair in restaurants. He's pictured here at our favorite restaurant Taco Mac. It is so much nicer for him to be able to sit up and look around, not to mention it keeps him much happier and more occupied.
Jake got his first tooth (and his second) which made us lose some sleep and most recently he got his first ear infection. Let me tell you, ear infections suck.

He has also had his first solid food which was green beans, and we haven't looked back since! He's had carrots, sweet potatoes, avocado, peas and bananas. A first for me as a mommy this month is that I am attempting to make my own baby food. It seems to be going pretty well so far. I figured he doesn't know what anything else tastes like, so he likes my cooking for now.


Another first was our first mommy and me swim class which is just so much fun:-) Here he is pictured on our first day of swimming lessons before we hit the pool. Adam is supposed to come to a lesson to take pictures of our future Michael Phelps.






We are also now out of our infant car seat and into what I call his big boy car seat! He loves it. He can finally see out the windows and he sits up more. He just hated that darn infant carrier. This new car seat is HUGE, but he will be in it until he weighs 65 pounds, so I guess kindergarten or later:-) (He better be in it for a REALLY long time as expensive as the darn thing was)