FINALLY!

Here is a more recent picture of Ryan. He's not smiling, but oh well. I still think he is cute. This is from about 4 weeks ago so he's changed some since. Basically he's just bigger. He's 16 lbs. and not even 4 months old! The weight limit on the 6 month size clothes is 16.5 lbs. What?! (Side note: I'm sitting in the dark in Ryan's room because my wireless isn't working; he just went to sleep and he laughed! In his sleep! He usually smiles, but laughing...too cute.) So, yes, he's laughing now and rolling over as of last Monday. He did both on the same day just in time to show Uncle Max before he went into the MTC.

Max went into the Mission Training Center for our church to get ready to spend 2 years in Korea. The MTC is in Provo and very close to where we live, but we are not able to see or talk to him. Communication is only through the mail. I sent him a batch of cookies on Friday and we got our first letter from him today. It's amazing to see how much he has grown already. He says Korean is HARD. Supposedly the 2nd hardest language next to Finish. He'll be here at the MTC until Thanksgiving, then off to Korea. It's been hard to say good bye, especially for my mom, but we are so proud of him and know that it is the best thing for him to be doing right now. We are already seeing the blessings!

We are back in Orem/Provo. I have mixed feelings. Good to be back in our own space, bad to be heading into another UT winter. Hurray that this is our last year! Our little town home must have been a bit mad that we left it alone for so long. We've been welcomed back by a myriad of problems that have gone from annoying to ridiculous to so bad it's funny. Our lawn is totally dead (even though we have sprinklers), we couldn't get the pilot light lit for the water heater for 3 days. (We showered at the pool house.) Once we got hot water I did some laundry and the bathroom down stairs flooded! That was on a Saturday so once again we were at the pool house for showers and extended our pool house use to the toilet too! We had a guy come last Monday to fix it and thought everything was fine...took a shower on Sunday= flood #2. Again, Spencer packed his bag and headed for the pool house. I had the guys out again yesterday to fix it, but this time...no luck. They public works guys from Orem City came with their special camera for see if they could take a look. Too much water. I had ANOTHER guy come out...

Verdict: BROKEN SEWER LINE

Today the excavators came and dug out our front lawn and part of our driveway. The pipe was in a bunch of pieces. Appartently this pipe has NEVER been connected and somehow has been working for the past 10 years. The guys today were shocked and amazing. So that bad smell I sometimes smelled when I was getting out of the car? NOT Utah Lake as previously supposed...it was the sewage line just seeping into the ground = NASTY!!! So now we have water that works. YAY! And now you say, "Enough, what else could there possibly be?!"

So, when the bathroom flooded (twice) in also ran down through our living room and in the entry way and under the stairs to the entry way and the carpet and hardwood flooring got ruined. Also, it went into our neighbors who we share a wall with. AND because the water was from the sewage line it is contaminated and contains pathogens. Bottom line: everything that the water touched has to be ripped out and replaced. Are you laughing yet? The good news in all of this and the ONLY reason we are laughing is that we don't have to pay for it. Thank goodness for the HOA! Needless to say we've been a bit busy. I'll post more pictures soon!