Daddy came home this week! Yay!!! He's home for 2 weeks and the time is going by wayyyy toooooo faaast! Whenever Dad's home we bake a "bakarella" cake-yellow with chocolate frosting with crushed Reese's on top. Welcome Home Daddy! Then every morning Dad makes pancakes or waffles (whenever he's home I gain weight--obviously). We have so much fun together-going to the pool, kids wrestling, playing games, it just doesn't get any better when the whole family is together.
This week I got to host Bunco at my home! I had a western theme party with checkerboard tablecloth, ate out of pie tins (thanks Mom!) had my hair in pig tails and girls dressed up in yee-haw style! So fun.
Quotes from Austin this week:
"Oh-turn it up! Whenever I hear this song my butt starts to shake!"
"(song) "I Wanna be a millionaire, so stinkin bad..."
"Would it be cool if Lego Star Wars was real?"
Ashley:
"Daddy, who do you love more. Me or mommy?"
"Mommy, your boobies are so juicy."
Yes, out of the mouths of babes.
Friday, August 20, 2010
I'm So Glad When Daddy's Comes Home!!
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Allentown, PA
Last weekend the kids and I trekked up to Pennsylvania and visited my dear friend/bridesmaid/sorority sister AXO, college and lifelong buddy Amy Peterson. Amy (nicknamed Willow) has 4 of her own kiddos now. Jack, Paige, Brooke and Colt. We had a wonderful time with them. We visited Dorney Park amusement park where the kids rode their first real kid roller coasters! We ate Dunkin donuts, relaxed on the patio and let the kids play outside all weekend. Amy is quite the hostess with the mostess. We had a great time together. And the kids had a blast! Thanks Willow!
The No-Good-Rotten-Week
On the homefront, I walked in from being gone most the day to a basement full of water up to my ankles. Our finished basement. Ugh. There was no leaking from the ceiling, washing machine fine, toilet fine, no water coming in from the doors....but the water was coming more from one side of the house than another. I stepped next door to ask my neighbor if he had any flooding in his basement. A look of shock covered his face...he came back to the door grabbing his head and shrieked, "Water is up to my shins!" His destroyed basement was flooding into mine. Fun. Earlier in the day, he'd turned on the water in his utility closet and didn't know a pipe was broken. So all day long water was running between the houses, soaking both. That night from 8pm-3:30am I used a 12 gallon shop vac and sucked out about 50 gallons of water. I then pulled up all my carpet (WHERE IS MY HUSBAND WHEN I NEED HIM? OH YEAH, IRAQ.) So after ripping back my own carpet, another neighbor picked up to industrial carpet fans we placed on the padding. Thank goodness for neighbors. The next day Serve-Pro came in and placed 7 more fans, dehumidifiers, tested for mold, moisture,etc. After 7 days of a destroyed basement, they came back in and we are in good shape. There was no moisture in the dry wall, baseboard, foam pad, carpet, and they sprayed a mold/spray and deep cleaned my carpets. All in all, my carpet in the basement looks better than it did before the flood. What a disaster. There was a claim filed by my neighbor to his homeowners insurance and hopefully I will get some of my personal property that was damaged reimbursed....the verdict is still out.
Same week, my oven broke. Needed a new ignitor (took 3 hours to preheat). Same week, dryer door wouldn't close. Another repairman. All in the same week. 3 house problems. They come in 3's right?
Then in Iraq, there was a very deadly explosion. Duane was fine, but there were 3 casualties and 15 American injured in a rocket blast within the Green zone.
Next week will be perfect because Daddy comes home!!! Austin got to pick up his football equipment/pads this week which was very cool. Ash got her hair done by Mrs. Erika! Ash wanted to sleep in her hair for 2 days with her hair like that.
Come on Barbie Let's go Party!!
So the beach cruiser is a little big for Ash....a 20 inch bike, so I overestimated her size. So we need a 16" in the meantime. Craigslist to the rescue! A Barbie bike. 30 bucks. Does life get any better? Ash learned to ride off of her training wheels and she's so proud of herself. I'm a Barbie Girl....
Here's...... Jonny!!!
So mid-July, after all the beach vacations, 4th of July party....all the festivities ended. That means Duane goes back to Iraq. So sad. But Jonny came to visit! We always have so much fun. Trips to Chik-fil-A for their anniversary, putting together Ash's beach cruiser bike, the Bachelorette tivo'd shows, and chatting till the wee hours. I love you Jonny cakes!
4th of July
This year for 4th we had Christian, Jodi and their whole family here and Aaron and Reghan to celebrate the 4th. Instead of going downtown DC to the Mall/Iwo Jima to watch the grand fireworks, this year we headed to The Plains to celebrate.
This 4th of July was very special to us this year, as this marked the year point of Duane being in Baghdad. It was so nice though to have him home and to be with him during this important holiday. We are so thankful to all of our servicemen and women and everyone else who is there-State Dept, other government agencies that are working very hard to protect what we believe and help others out.
Toler/LaBarbera Family
TOLERS
THE GIRLS
Pop and Grandma and all of their grandkids
The WHOLE FAMILY
THE GIRLS
The MEN!
Chris and his boys
Reghan and Aaron
Chris, Jodi, Ryan, Brigg and Jax
