This will be a blog full of randomness. Be prepared...

First! We got news today that the lawsuit that was filed against me for my December 2003 car accident has been settled. We were actually just getting ready to go to trial in another month or so, but at the last minute the woman who filed the claim has settled (and for $35,000 less than her original demand...). YAY! Of course, I still have to testify in court for my OTHER car accident that happened in February. The woman in THAT case is claiming that she was not at fault. I haven't heard anything so it might not happen - she may back out once she realizes it's easier to pay the $150 ticket than for a lawyer...Between me and Chase you'd think one of us would be a lawyer by now with all the time we spend reading legal briefs and hanging out in court.

Second! We've talked to our real estate agent about the damage to our house - which we believe was pre-existing and deliberately covered up in order to sell without having to fix it - and there IS recourse for our situation! We have to have a contractor come over to look at the roof and windows and give us an estimate. At that point James, our realtor, will contact the seller (who is a real estate agent and who should know better) and we'll start from there. Cross your fingers for us...

Third! 12 more days until we (hopefully) find out if we're buying pink or (not buying) blue!

Lastly, we only have five more weeks before we leave for the reunion! YAY!!!! I'm so excited...

Here are some random pictures from the last couple of days. Enjoy!

UPDATE:
Ghetto-caulk not working. Chase checked and said that I did, in fact, caulk it correctly however the leak is coming from some place we can't find. On both windows. So we have two window casings that are getting worse with every drop of rain. We've been reading in Genesis 6 & 7 about Noah and the flood - mostly because we think it's appropriate to read about God's promise never to flood the whole Earth, but He never mentions anything about our living room - and it talks about Noah building the ark. At one point Heavenly Father directs him to put "pitch" on the inside and out of the ark. So I think that's what we're going to have to do to our house. Just put pitch over the whole thing and make it tight like unto a dish...sigh.

So if you haven't heard, it's raining in Dallas. A lot. Like, flooding. As in, in our living room. Yes, when Chase came home last night he went to look out the window and when he stepped on the carpet he felt a sickening *squish*. We look out front and see that our whole front walkway and flowerbeds are FLOODED! Right up to our front door. Luckily the water didn't get high enough to come in our front door, but apparently there is a gap in our brick outside that is just right for water to sneak in and flood our floor. Awesome. So last night I was sucking up water with my mother-in-law's steam cleaner late into the night. And it was gross dirty water, too. Gag.
Then, this morning as we were getting up the bed gave way. I guess all of the monkeys jumping on the bed (and, more importantly, climbing under the bed) had caused the middle supporting beam to twist out of place, thus the sudden clunk and heave of the mattress. So Chase had to fix that before running out of the house for work.

So, as if that wasn't bad enough we've discovered that two of the windows overlooking our deck are leaking (and I have my piano next to one of them - not cool). So we looked at it, realized it was causing lots of damage, but knew we couldn't do anything while it was pouring outside. Well, this morning after Chase leaves I hear a noise in the hallway where one of the windows is. I walk out to see our blinds on the floor and paint chips and drywall chunks everywhere. I guess the water got so bad that it weakened and rotted out the drywall. So now we have a huge hole there. So while the sun is shining I decide that we've gotta do something to try and seal up the windows. They're caulked just fine on the inside, it's the outside that is the problem. SO I find some "roof cement" stuff - that happens to be black like tar - and the caulk gun. Look at the directions, figure out how to use it and pop it in. I pull up the ladder, climb up and I'm squeezing and squeezing trying to get it to come out! All of the sudden the caulk container explodes. Apparently you have to puncture a hole in the seal. Oops. So I'm covered in the stuff - which is not easy to clean. BUT I still need to get the windows caulked because rain IS coming. So I cleaned myself off and found another tube and this time I punctured it correctly because all of the sudden black caulk is FLOWING and not stopping. SO, basically it's the most ghetto caulking job ever. Just caulk piled up everywhere. Hopefully it actually works.

Gaby, this is going out to you.
Okay, so this picture is almost 2 years old (Halloween weekend '05) but I needed to use a pic of Cam's cousin Gaby (with whom he is madly in love). As Cam gets bigger it always astounds me the silly, and yet totally logical (to an almost 4 year-old, anyway) things that come out of his mouth.
So tonight as we're putting Cam in bed we lay down for a few minutes to read stories and sing songs and I said something about needing to get up. Cam asked why, as he does at least 1000 times a day. Chase said something to the effect of, "because mommy has a baby in her tummy." And Cam, again, asked why but in a somewhat negative way. My response was, "But Cam, I thought you wanted a little brother or sister." He didn't seem sold with that one. So I tried again, "Cam, don't you want another little friend to play with?" His response was swift. "Yeah! I want Gaby to be in there!"

Check out my Slide Show!

Wierd, I can't figure out why those videos won't post. Basically they were of Miles running. When he walk fast or runs he only pumps his left arm and it's hysterical.
Anyway, here's me today at 15 weeks. Getting fatter. Awesome. Those are, in fact, maternity pants and let me just say thank goodness for lycra.
The other pics are of the boys and there's one of Chase's dinner last week. I made yummy chili (I know it's too hot for chili but I had leftover meat) and Chase was having a side of apple sauce. Before I know it he's dumping the applesauce into the chili. Yes, this was Chase, not Cameron or Miles. For those of you who are not familiar with the eccentricities of Chase's palate, just know that he does this wierd stuff all the time. Yuck. And there's one in there of Cameron's milk fu-man-chu. It was awesome. You also get to see Miles chomping it up with chopsticks. Lastly, there's a pic of Miles carrying a pink thing. Those are my pajama pants. For some reason Miles has decided they are quite nice to cuddle with. He will scour the house and come up with these every time. He cuddles them up to his cheek and sucks his thumb. It's wierd, funny and cute.

Here are some funny videos of Miles! Enjoy!

Just thought I'd throw up a couple of pictures I took today. Just over 14 weeks. Time is flying and I'm getting fat. I'm in that sweet stage where my pants don't fit but I'm not big enough for maternity yet. I have a pair of maternity shorts (in the picture) that are constantly falling down, so I'm always hitching them up. It's very graceful and elegant.

Nevermind the splotchy bathroom mirror. I'm about to clean right now...which is why I'm blogging. Anything to put off washing floors and sheets............................................

Here's Michelle with her ribbon!

The ladies at the beginning of the day. From the left is baby Madison (who was a trouper the whole time!), Sarah Wise, Mom Rawlins, Stephanie Bean (my super friend from the ward...I totally love her), and me.

What you can't see in this picture is the funnel cake. Oh the funnel cake...Steph, wanna go back next month for more? And don't you love the huge cowboy hat behind us. Gotta love Texas!

At the end of the day with all of our goodies. That's Abby Hobson in the pink shirt and Michelle Fowers over on the right...

Last Saturday I got a girls day out and went to Canton, in East Texas. Since most of you haven't heard of it, it's (I think) the largest flea market in North America. It's huge. It's amazing. And it's a great way to spend a Saturday. I rounded up my girlfriends and mother-in-law and we had a spectacular time. Michelle, who makes customized baby items, was in heaven upon arriving and finding an entire tent dedicated to millions of yards of ribbon. The girl went positively wild. Stephanie found a great antique child's chair that she walked away from twice before going back and buying it. Abby, Sarah and I were all at the jewelry booth in the bargain bin, and we found some great deals! And this was all in the first 10 minutes! So that set a great tone for the day. We all found candles, home crafts and jewelry and random other goodies. Mom Rawlins always gets good smelling sprays and stuff for the house. And let's not forget the 18 pounds of food I put away! I had the single best BLT I've ever eaten. Then a little later on me and Stephanie split the best funnel cake ever created, followed DIRECTLY by the best soft-serve ice cream cone (I could only eat half because it was so rich...and if you know me, you know I don't believe in throwing away ice cream or chocolate, so it was serious stuff).

So, if you're ever planning a visit to see me, make sure it is on the first weekend of the month. We'll go to Canton. It will change your life.

For all the mommies in the hiz-ouse. AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I promise at some point I will stop posting youtube videos...really).

There's not actually a picture to go with this post and it makes me upset. I wish I had my camera with me at all times, but alas, I'm a forgetter. Anyway, this afternoon I was out running errands with the boys and it was getting close to dinner time. I got this great idea to call Chase and see if he would meet me at a restaurant, thinking he would say no let's just eat at home (I really do appreciate his super frugal-ness...). Anyway, he surprised me by saying yes and that he would meet me there in 45 minutes. Sweet! We pick Pei Wei's, which for those who don't know is a P.F. Chang restaurant but it's more fast-food style. For the boys we ordered a teryaki chicken and rice bowl for them to split, since neither can be bothered with food in a public place where there is endless utensils and napkins to throw on the floor. Well we get our table and Chase and the food arrives and Chase breaks out the chopsticks while I'm getting the boys food ready. Miles refuses to eat. He's TOTALLY grumpy and doing everything he can to show us. I try everything, thinking he's just really hungry and he'll feel better when he gets the chicken and rice in his tummy. As a last resort I figure he's not going to eat and I give him a pair of unbroken chopsticks to play with while we eat our meal. Bingo. Immediately Miles starts diving after the chicken with them! He was ticked off the whole time because mommy and daddy are using chopsticks and he doesn't have them!!! Unfortunately Miles has a long way to go before his fine motor skills are ready for chopsticks, so the food wasn't getting from his plate to his mouth and he was getting frustrated again. This is where super-dad comes to the rescue. Since the chopsticks were unbroken, that is, connected at the bottom still, Chase just picked up some chicken and wedged it between the top of the chopsticks. Perfect! Miles was so happy to be "eating" with chopsticks! He loved it the whole time and it was honestly one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Cam, of course, saw what was going on and had to do the same thing. By the time we left those boys had eaten more food than I've ever seen them eat at a restaurant! I guess it's just all about having the right utensils!
Other funny (okay, it's funny now, but wasn't at the time) thing that happened today was during "quiet time." Miles was napping and Cam was supposed to be in his room for quiet time. I was on the couch trying to alleviate my constant exhaustion. At some point I heard Cam sneak out of his room and into the kitchen. I thought he was just going to steal some goldfishies and eat them very quietly at the table until caught. I was fine with this because it wasn't worth getting up over. Or so I thought. A few minutes later Cam walks up and puts his face in mine and breathes all over me, saying, 'Mommy, look what I got!" In his hand is the lid to his VITAMINS!!!!!!!!!!! He had gotten them open and was chowing down! I immediately go into super-freakout mode. If you've ever read children's vitamins there is a very scary warning about iron poisoning being one of the major causes of fatality in children under 6. So I start dialing my pediatrician who tells me to call poison control. I dumped out the bottle and started counting what was left in there. luckily I bought it last week so I had a good idea how many should be in there. I concluded that he had had 6 or less and told the PC guy that. He puts me on hold for a long time, and all the while I'm frantically CLEANING MY KITCHEN because I'm afraid the ambulance people are going to show up and see the dishes in the sink and conclude that yes, I am in fact a bad mother. And all the while I'm having flash-backs of the famous Scott the Sudafed Sucker story (that includes a lot of vomitting and stomach pumping on the part of Scott). Nightmare! So after forever the guy gets back on and tells me he'll be okay. Just give him some liquids to dilute it and watch for nausea. Phew! We're grateful that was all that happened. And those errands I was running this afternoon? I was buying locks for the cabinets.