a little do-it-yourself...

our weekend started out fairly normal...cleaning, playing, re-plumbing the entire house. you know...all regular saturday activities, right?! hahaha. the plumbing adventure was a planned one. as with ALL projects we start in or on or around our house, they all take longer than anticipated. i remember once mike bought a kit to fix the inner workings of our toilet. the box said it would take about 45 minutes. well, 5 hours later and much frustration...the toilet finally worked. ok, so maybe it's plumbing projects that seem to take longer than anticipated. well, and baseboards. and kitchen cupboards. and doorknobs. and switch plates. ok, everything.

so, here is how it all began.

a whole lot of pipe. red for hot. blue for cold. pretty ingenious, huh? you'd think it would be pretty easy to get hot and cold right. well, for now our shower is backwards. but at least we have water! ok, so the project was going fine. a special thanks goes out to gary, our plumber friend. yay gary for helping out! and andrew. and eric. and tony. and doug's tool. thanks to you all.

so mike said at about 5pm...i'm only about 6 hours behind. what? how will we ever sleep with you working? take baths for church? go potty in the middle of the night? solution = the hampton inn. the boys and i were off. we got to the hotel and luke flipped his lid. he didn't like the idea of being in a strange place behind a big closed door. he screamed and screamed. i got him calmed down enough to go take a dip in the pool. sorry, no pics of that. i was afraid of dropping my camera in the water - or else losing luke in the deep end while i was focusing on taking the perfect shots! i opted for saving both the camera and the kid. anyway, we went for a swim in the bathtub temperature water. it was great. and we had it all to ourselves. about 8pm we decided (rather, i decided) to head up to the room for bath time and movie and bed. hey, we were living large in the hampton inn! so baths went fine. got in our jammies...and laid down to watch the bee movie. (great flick, by the way!) then bedtime. i had borrowed izzy's port-a-crib for luke. (mike must have left ours up at the cabin on his last boys only trip.) out went the lights and max snuggled into his own queen size bed. i put luke into the crib and climbed into my own queen sized bed and WAAAAAAAA! the screaming began. it went on for about 15 minutes until i got luke out of his prison and let him throw himself on the floor. i kept telling him it was time to go night-night and he would get his blankie and run to the door of the room and try to get out. he was ready for bed alright - just not at the hampton inn. does this kid not understand how fun it is to have a sleep over at a hotel? apparently not. this was his reaction...


max on the other hand was having a blast posing for the camera. and kept showing me how he could jump from bed to bed. "hey mom, watch this!"

i gave in and called mike and asked him to come rescue luke from the hotel jail. this was bout 10:30p - way way way past luke's regular bedtime of 7:30p. mike came and took luke home to go to bed. max and i stayed and enjoyed fluffy pillows - 4 each - cozy down comforters and a good night's sleep.

back at home luke didn't sleep so well for mike, but luckily finally drifted off and they both got a few good hours in.

mind you - still no running water.

this morning the work began about 8:30a. mike and gary were at it again. max and i got cleaned up and checked out of the hotel. we came home to the workers trying to get things wrapped up. about 11a it was official. we had running water again! oh the joys of modern day conveniences. who knew running water was so important? that we had to go stay at a hotel and make a huge event out of a "simple" home improvement?!

i know it wasn't simple and that it was quite the undertaking. i am however very grateful for a husband who is willing to work his tail off. willing to learn from making numerous mistakes. who rescued his bride from a screaming child so she could get a good night's sleep. and who was willing to replace the plumbing by himself in the first place. thank you, mike!

this afternoon i headed up to church and left luke and mike home to sleep the afternoon away. we all know they both needed it. max stayed home to rest and hold down the fort. lucky for all of us luke slept for over 3 hours and mike got a little shut eye in as well.

so if any of you are planning on redoing your plumbing i have some advice. give yourself a day or two extra. book a hotel. have a friend named gary who is a plumber. and have a husband like mike who is willing to make it all happen.