Family Picture...Gone Terribly Wrong

We've been busy this week driving around Texas visiting family and friends. Several of us got our hands on a new app for the iPhone...titled "Action Movie." It's a free app that let's you add special effects to your movies. It's hilarious!

An Early Christmas

Tonight we went over to my Aunt and Uncle's house and had an "early Christmas" before we leave town. It was mainly a chance to give the kids their larger presents so they can be packed away and sent to Zurich (too big to take on the plane.) Their main presents were toys they begged us for at Dineyworld...a "Cinderella Castle" and an "Epcot Spaceship Earth." After we returned home from Disney Jenny ordered them for their Christmas presents. The kids were very surprised and thrilled. It was nice exchanging gifts around a Christmas tree...since we don't have a tree this year.

The Heat - Ben's Last Game

Ben played his last basketball game of the season last Saturday. The team has a few more games to play but with our coming move Saturday was Ben's last game. He ended up playing his best game of the season. He played good defense, and he hustled a lot. He even worked up the confidence to dribble a bit and attempt a shot. All in all Ben had fun playing basketball with his friends. He really improved over the course of the season and at all the practices. We were very proud of him for trying something new to him and different.

Life At Random

Here are some random scenes from around the Frame household. I just realized all of these are "pre-kitchen disaster" (except for the last one of Glacier.) Ben, Megan, and I had several German tutoring sessions with Miss Ruth, we've had basketball games every Saturday morning, Megan took a few tennis lessons at the tennis center, and Ben was the top "Popcorn Seller" in his Cub Scout pack.

Nothing Says The Holidays Like...A Kitchen Remodel?

Well, we finally got the number of the settlement that we'll be receiving from State Farm. All in all it was a generous total, so we shouldn't have any issue rebuilding our kitchen and basement. So last Friday Jenny and I went to a local designer here in town and picked out our cabinets, countertops, etc. The designer also showed us her plans for how the new cabinets will be arranged and how the kitchen should look when it's completed. So we made our choices and picked everything out. Now Serv-Pro and our designer will take it from here and get everything put back better than it was before. This ordeal has been a nightmare, and it has really put a cramp on our "holiday spirit," but we're trying to stay positive about everything. When everything is all complete we should have a nicer kitchen and a bigger basement. So all this stress will be worth it in the long run.

"Feliz Navidad everyone!"

Santa House

I think I've mentioned a few times about the "Santa House" downtown. It's a building where kids get to visit Santa and look at tons of Christmas decorations. We took the kids there last night and they got to talk to Santa. Ben made sure to tell Santa that we would be spending Christmas down in Texas at his Nana's house. Santa said he would remember.

Christmas Pageant

This kids performed in the Christmas Pageant at our church last night. Ben was a shepherd and Megan was a star. They had to attend a few rehearsals this week but overall they had a good time performing. Here are some highlights.

What Happened When We Came Home...and...What Happens Now

After a long afternoon of planes and airports we finally arrived at home last Friday night at midnight. When we walked in (carrying 2 sleeping kids) we heard the sound of splattering water. What awaited us was a kitchen and hallway full of standing water. Evidently the thin plastic hose on the back of our refrigerator cracked while we were gone, and water leaked out all over the kitchen. To make matters worse the water seaped through the floorboards and vents and down into the basement. That's where most of the water collected and pooled up. We had about an inch of water in some places. All the dry wall in the basement was destroyed, and all the ceilings. On both floors all the floors were ruined. In fact, water had been leaking for so long that it spread into the living room, dining room, and study.

So now we're in rebuilding mode. All weekend SERV-PRO has been clearing out our furniture, ripping up ruined hardwood floors, ripping out drywall, and drying out baseboards. Our basement and entire main floor of our house are basically unuseable. We're basically walking on baseboards and concrete. We're basically living upstairs only as we wait for our insurance company to get the rebuilding process started.

In the span of a few hours we went from the happiest place on Earth to a nightmare. Jenny and I have gone through a range of emotions in the past few days, going from shock, to despair, to anger. Now I think we're moving into the acceptance mode, but we don't need this right now as we get ready for our move. This is such a bad time for this to happen.


















So what happens now? Well...as of yesterday we're all "dried out." Serv-Pro and State Farm both came by this morning and we all did a "walk through" to assess all the damages and start the rebuilding process. I've elected to have Serv-Pro handle all the restoration (instead of trying to find a contractor on my own.) Throughout all this Serv-Pro has been great, so I'm not about to change course now. So anyway, everything that was damaged has been tossed out and gotten rid of, so Serv-Pro is going to begin installing new drywall tomorrow, so we're getting started right away. That's encouraging. Jenny and I need to go out this weekend and start looking for flooring, new cabinets, new countertops, etc.








We've been in this house for close to 6 years now, and a lot of the things we didn't like about our house we always kind of lived with. But now we have a clean slate on the basement and kitchen, and of course with all the floors, so we might make a few changes through all of this. Might as well. So if there is a silver lining to all of this it's that we get to customize the house more to our liking. Just trying to stay positive I guess.