Where there are trials, there are also blessings

In mid-December I was sitting on the floor working on a Christmas gift for Luke when I felt like a drip of water hit my head.  Being inside, it took me a minute to realized something really did hit my head.  I looked up only to realize there was a drop of water getting ready to fall.  We were in the middle of a storm that included a lot of wind and rain.  There had been water damage to the ceiling from the past but we figured the problem had been resolved and just never repainted.  I called our landlord's daughter (our point of contact) and told her what was wrong.  She said she would return my call after getting a hold of her dad.

Right before we left for our week long vacation for Christmas, I was at work for training and I got a text from Alex saying that the ceiling had cracked and a bunch of water poured in. We were all frustrated at this point.  A couple days later a chunk of the ceiling (a little larger than a golf ball) fell in showing us not just the amount of moisture that was up there, but also the black mold.  We ended up calling the landlord's daughter again and let her know the condition had worsened.  Since drips were coming down in multiple spots, Alex tacked a garbage bag up and poked a single hole in the middle of the bag to help it all drain to a central location (a bucket on the floor). We finally made the decision that it was time to move and started looking for other buildings, in the end coming back to one we had looked at multiple times before. 

Since our business is the main source of income for our family and we don't have anyone to run our shop, vacations are not only short, but few and far between.  Our business had grown in leaps and bounds recently and allowed us to take a full week off for Christmas.  We got to go down and visit with family and friends around the Portland area.  Minus the driving, the kids loved it and it was nice to take a break from our daily routine.

We had breakfast with Grammie Sanford on Christmas Eve and then went over to the Johnson's side for dinner. 

Kaylee loved playing with Grandma Johnson's candles. 
It even looks like she was trying to light one with the other.

Luke was super excited to get to see everyone and open his gifts.

Luke got a Jake and the Neverland Pirates set of blocks.  

Him and Kaylee sat on the floor playing with them together. 

On Christmas morning we had breakfast and opened up gifts with my parents and brothers before heading out to the Jordan's house.

Kaylee wasn't too sure about this (doll) sippy

Grandma & Grandpa got her, nothing would come out.

Luke and Kaylee each got their first pair of real cowboy/cowgirl 

boots from their Uncle Josh.  Luke thought they were the 

greatest thing because they were like Uncle Josh's.

Kaylee loved crawling around in the tunnel at 

Uncle Duane & Aunt Joyce's house.

For Christmas dinner we went out to GGma's. 

Kaylee had a lot of fun going in circles with her new stroller. 

The next day we went over to Vancouver to see Bonnie.  Luke loves going to Bonnie's house and Kaylee found lots of stuff she could get into.   That evening for dinner we went to Kevin & Holley's.  While all the big people's were playing ping pong, Kaylee found this toy shotgun in the big bucket...hmmm, she must be mine. 

Luke & Papa were playing with the nurf guns and darts. 
Luke would shoot the dart and Papa would catch it. 
He would giggle and squeal.  

 

When we got back from our little vacation, the roof and ceiling had still not been repaired and we knew it was time to start moving forward with things.  In the middle of January we put an offer in on this building we had been looking at and waited to see what would happen. 

When we came into the office a week ago Monday, our toilet was draining really slow and by Tuesday, it was not flowing at all, in fact, any time you ran water in the sink, the toilet would over flow. We tried plunging, snaking, and even CO2 blasting the dang thing but nothing worked.  On Wednesday morning we called our landlord's daughter and let her know. On Thursday a plumber stopped by to look at the problem and we were told we had a broken pipe under the building...YUCK.

 At this point both us and the buyer have signed the offer and we just completed the inspection and will hopefully be closing on the property this coming weekend.  Our hope is to be out of our current building and into the new one by mid February.  When we get moved in, I will post pictures.