Adventures in broken toilet land *UPDATE*

My son's most expensive phase? Flushing random shit down the toilet. Unfortunately, it's not actual shit like it should be. We're talking toys, key, table utensils, you name it, it's been through our septic system. Well, our house is about 30+ years old, including our toilet. It's couldn't handle all the things Orion flushed, and inevitably clogged. Not knowing the problem of the clog, my dear husband thought he could fix the problem himself. We tried Drano, snakes, even sulfuric acid, and nothing. Because we decided not to call a plumber right away, our toilet overflowed many, many times. After a particularly messy flood last night, we finally threw in the towel (literally, all our towels were on the floor trying to contain the flood) and called a plumber.

So this morning they show up and tell me there's water damage and possibly mold under the entire floor of this bathroom. Not only do we need to replace our 30 year old toilet, but we need a new floor too. Great.
I am crossing my fingers this doesn't cost the boys' college tuition.


This incident happened about a week ago. The plumber told us a Restoration company would come in, clean up the water, put down a new floor, and then he would come back, put the new toilet in, and voila! Only a small section of our floor was wet so everything looked good. Except when the man who does restoration got here. He immediately was looking for as much "damage" as he could find to try and get more money. We politely declined after we got a second opinion about the additional "damage" and told him to fix what our insurance is covering and nothing else. He didn't like that, so we didn't see his face again until Saturday. He comes in, leaves some equipment, and takes off, telling us he'll be back Monday. Monday rolls around, and this guy doesn't show up or even return our calls. Great. He shows up yesterday, starts complaining that we damaged the equipment, and leaves. Haven't seen him or heard from him since yesterday. This was all supposed to be resolved days ago. Now we have a non-functional bathroom, a gaping hole in the floor, and oh yeah, half the floor is missing.
If this guy doesn't show up today, we're calling the insurance company and telling them what's going on. Hopefully we can get this sorted out soon.

Adventures in Birthday/Halloween land

My oldest son reached a huge milestone: his 3rd birthday! (I don't think there's anything particularly special about turning 3, just the fact we've made it three whole years still blows my mind) Since this was the first birthday Steven (my husband) had ever been in attendance to (aside from the actual birth), I wanted this to be the best birthday party any three year old could wish for. Orion's favorite place of all time (a farm with "baby goats". According to my son, all goats are baby goats), pizza, chocolate everything, Mickey Mouse everywhere you turn, and of course, a homemade, from scratch Mickey Mouse cake! Well everything seemed feasible except the cake. I am a pretty good cook, but I have to admit I am a Fancy cake decoration virgin. Luck for me, Michael's sells cake pans in various shapes, Mickey Mouse's head included. Fast forward to the night before the party. There I am with three bowls of colored frosting, a chocolate cake shaped like Mickey Mouse's head. Three hours later, and I've successfully iced my son's birthday cake to look like Mickey's head. Mickey may have had a stroke, and I may have been covered  from head to toe in black and peach frosting.

The party went off without a hitch...almost. We had some jealously issues with my stepson, Nathaniel. Nathan had a very hard time with the concept that not everyday is worship Nathaniel day. Everyone had to make a serious effort to keep the focus on Orion, but in the end it was a good day.

The next day was Halloween. We took a dinosaur, a Transformer, and a chili pepper trick or treating. They got lots of candy. Orion's favorite part: crossing the street. Apparently this is something the parents in our neighborhood find too dangerous, as we were one of the only families on foot. I saw way too many families trick or treating in cars. Eh, whatever works for them I suppose.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with all this leftover candy....