Las Vegas

For my Father-in-Laws birthday, we all took a trip to Las Vegas. We had absolutely nothing planned while we were there and had an absolutely wonderful time! Since we didn't go to any shows, events or casinos we didn't take very many pictures. While we went shopping each day, the boys were so patient and were completely content reading while we shopped.

We were able to go see a couple movies, Bridesmaids and Super 8 which were both really good. These are pictures of Diane and Brandt and Nick and I oustide the theatre.

I think that this is the Public Works building in Las Vegas. It looks like it's melting in the awful Las Vegas heat!

Our goal was to have a totally relaxing vacation, all we did was read, swim, watch movies, watch TV and go shopping. It made me look forward to seeing my kids, and was definitely the break that I needed.

Best Present Ever!!

So, I had so many posts right around our Anniversary that I postponed this one. Save the best for last right?

For our Anniversary Nick made me the most kick a#$ jewelry mirror. We found the idea in a catalog that came to our house, but all the ones online were at least $300. Nick took a full length mirror we had in the bedroom, and created a box that would fit behind the mirror. He lined it with felt, and attached a bunch of small hooks for necklaces and bracelets. He also knows how much I like the little details so he attached a detailed leaf mounting on the front. I can now fit all my necklaces, pendants and some bracelets. It ended up only costing around $60. I absolutely love it, it's one of my all time favorite presents.I have such a stellar handyman of a husband!

Full Mirror

Mirror Knob and Leaf Mounting

Inside Top of the Mirror

Inside Bottom of the Mirror

Full Length Inside

18 Necklaces all in a Row

Daley Halloween Party

Our Daley Halloween Party ended up being on Halloween this year. I love Halloween; the smell of Fall, the pumpkin flavored everything and the decorations. Each Daley Family has a holiday hosted at their house. Cam has the 4th of July, Aly has Easter, Kyle has Mother's Day and we have Halloween. This was our 4th or 5th Halloween Party, and they just keep getting better.

I had the perfect costume ordered by the beginning of September and then it never came in stock, so my Gypsy costume was a fallback but it was still really fun to put together.

Heather and Asher

Ryan and our Gumbi Casualty

Asher and Season

Nick made this costume out of scrap pieces. He's Ash from Army of Darkness. He always does an amazing job on his costumes!

Asher was Kratos from the God of War video game. Nick made the whole costume out of red fabric, plastic storage containers and plywood. He made the swords with a couple pieces of wood. My only contribution was the face paint. His costume is pretty accurate, wouldn't you say?

Asher and his first pinata

Father's Day : A Post by Nick

The two problems that have been bothering me since we moved into our new home are the clogged upstairs toilet and the leaky shower in the basement. I decided on Sunday morning that I should be able to fix at least ONE of those before church. I figured it would make me feel like a man on Father’s Day.

I started on the shower. It was leaking into the wall between the bathroom and laundry room every time it was turned on. Luckily, the laundry room walls were just drywall so I could just cut into it to access the leak. I managed to fix the leak fairly quickly and I took a shower for the first time in that bathroom. But for some reason, I didn't have very much hot water. It was relatively cold regardless of how far I turned the handle. So I started fiddling with it and managed to create another leak. A pretty bad one…further into the wall. So much for going to church.

The only way to fix it was to shut off the water to the house and try to clamp off the pipes. I spent two hours at Home Depot and Lowes (three separate trips) trying to find the correct parts. I finally found the pieces necessary to just stop the leak, not fix the shower. That cost me around $45. After another hour of removing drywall and cutting pipes I finally stopped the leak.

Since I failed at that, I figured that I would just unclog the toilet. I mean, really, if I can't unclog a freakin' toilet I shouldn’t be allowed to own my own home. I tried three different chemicals and two types of plungers (4th trip), but nothing worked. I ran to Home Depot again (5th trip) and bought a snake. But that didn't work either. I just managed to scrape up the bottom of my bowl and get my bathroom floor wet.

Finally I just unhooked the toilet and set it in my front yard. I pulled out a garden hose and just went to town on that sucker. I was shoving the hose in the top, in the bottom, my hands were down inside the bowl. I’m sure my neighbors were glad to have me in their neighborhood. I had toilet water spraying all over the place, but I was determined to get whatever was in there OUT.
After about 15 minutes of wet, messy struggling, a rock and a tampon fell out. A ROCK. Who the H flushes a rock? It was more or less a piece of asphalt, so it looked like a poo, but luckily it wasn't. The tampon looked pretty clean though.

But then...as I set the toilet down on its back, the toilet seat fell backward and hit the tank, shattering it. It looked like this but without the Text:

So now I've got an unclogged toilet :), but I have no tank :(. I tried to get just a new tank from Home Depot (6th trip), but the guy there said that tanks are made specific to the toilet and not just any tank will work. That means I'll probably have to buy a whole new toilet. That should cost me around $170 to $200 more than what I already spent trying to unclog the broken one ($63).

Lizz called my little brother Kyle after she saw how frustrated I was, thinking that since he used to work for a company called Standard Plumbing he may be able to offer some assistance. He came over and we decided to tackle the shower again. Together we pretty much ripped out all the plumbing and one of the wall joists. But as soon as we pried it all out, we realized that maybe that big huge metal thing we just ripped out of the wall didn’t really need to be removed. Perhaps we could have just tightened this little bolt right here. Oh…Whoops. So now I have to buy new pipes, fittings, wood, drywall, and a big huge metal thing that costs around $40.

I guess that's what I get for working on the Sabbath.

Follow up: The next day Kyle called his contact at Standard Plumbing and hooked me up with a new toilet for only $60. He was even nice enough to go to my house and install it for me. He’s such a good brother.

- Nick -

Florida

We just got back yesterday from a 9 day trip to Florida. Our last vacation was almost 2 years ago, and we just stayed at home then. It was a ton of fun. We were able to stay free at 3 of the Marriott Timeshares in Florida! We stayed at Grande Vista in Orlando for 3 days, went down to Fort Lauderdale and stayed at BeachPlace Towers for 3 days and then back up to Orlando and Harbour Lake for 3 days. Since we stayed in 2 bedroom units, we were able to take my whole family.

Asher did surprisingly well on the plane. We also dosed him up with Benadryl, which helped.

Here is Nick and our nephew, Noah.

Asher playing around

The best service we EVER had at a restaurant, was at the Hooters in Fort Lauderdale. She was so sweet, catered to Asher the whole time, gave us drinks to take with us and when he wanted her to hold him, she danced with him!

Nick was totally awesome, and drove 2 hours from Fort Lauderdale to get to the Fruit and Spice Park. I'd read about it in The Fruit Hunters, and it was absolutely amazing! Totally worth the drive, and I got to taste and see some amazing things!


This is a Blackberry Jam Fruit

These are called praying hands and they grow off of one of the varieties of banana trees that they have.

This is a Cherry of the Rio Grande, which grows in Brazil.

I don't even know what this is, but it was a pod that was hanging from one of the awnings at the park.

This is Jaboticaba, the fruit only grows on the trunk, not the branches.

I ate one of these, it's a Surinam Cherry. It was very seedy and not very good.

This is a Fried Egg Plant.

A Breadfruit from the Archipelago.

Nick and Asher on the Fort Lauderdale Beach.

We didn't go to many parks, but we did end up going to Blizzard Beach. It was a whole days worth of fun!!

We went to a miniature Golf Course in Orlando called Pirate's Cove. Everything was pirate themed, and they even gave Asher a little pirate goody bag at the end.

They also gave him a little plastic putter to walk around with.

Fishbones, was one of the Florida Specific restaurants that we went to. There was a fish tank right next to our table, that's what Asher's looking at. We also tried Bahama Breeze, and Cici's Pizza and Hooters which we'd never eaten at before. Cici's sucked, Hooters was really yummy.

We had an amazing time, but it's nice to be back home. This is the last big vacation we'll be taking in awhile so I'm glad that it was a good one!

Some Fun Pictures

If you didn't think that Asher was a happy kid, here's proof.


We were trying to take a picture of his food baby.

Asher trying to "get rid" of the competition.

Asher just discovered this bin of balls. He crawled into the small cube and wedged himself down into it, so that the balls were all around him.

Asher and my Mom

Asher and his friend, Jerry.

Asher being surprised

With both mine and Nick's eyesight being so bad, we figured Asher better get used to the glasses right now


Nick looking all hot and sexy in a shirt that we bought for Asher.