Monday, December 31, 2007

Christmas Disaster Update

The trip to Portland was pretty good aside from the morning sickness (that seemed to last all day, everyday for 2 whole weeks) and the stubborn head cold that went around to all family members and landed on Kaia for a Christmas Eve emergency room visit. I swear, every time she gets a cold, her lungs close off and she chokes so hard on the boogies that she makes herself throw up. Nothing like the smell of vomit to accompany a holiday dinner. Anyway, after about 3 hours of observation and a breathing treatment, she recovered well enough to come home and sleep till Christmas morning. On the bright side, we made out like bandits and really enjoyed the family time.
(Here is a pic of Kaia after getting into Grandma's mascara)

Once the festivities ended at Grandma's house, we headed home to a house torn apart by frozen pipes that flooded the entire downstairs and a reclamation team who did their best to rip it up and dry it out. To top it all off, Ben was weathered in in Nuiqsut and couldn't pick me up at the airport or come out to meet with the insurance claims adjuster, so I got to drive home after 10 hours of traveling with a toddler and roughly only 2 hours of sleep all by myself.
(These are the icicles under our house formed from broken pipes in our house)

So it's been a busy couple of days, but I think it will all work out. It sounds like the adjuster will give us all new cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom, a new toilet, tub and sink and all new floors! Yae!!! I am going to double check their pricing though, because I don't trust insurance people. They don't make money by being generous. Anyway, I am glad that we have it and they are willing to replace the things that are ruined.

Aside from the disaster, we have been really enjoying our time together and had a good night in a jacuzzi suite while we were waiting for our pipes to get fixed and the water to be turned back on. We still have to get the filtration guy over here because we are pumping up ORANGE water that smells like dirty nickels. YUCK! Not real friendly on the pregnant lady with the sensitive nose.

Things aren't quite back to normal yet, but we have had so me really fantastic things come our way. Ben brought home a new chocolate lab puppy named Pukuk (mischievous one) and we promptly changed it to Nui (pronounced Noo.ee) after the village he came from. He is a sweet little guy, but what a handfull! He gets along pretty well with the cat... it is more of a tolerance thing than a friendship, but the neighbor cat got a hold of him and scratched his eye. I think we will have to take a trip to the vet this afternoon to make sure it is OK. It looks like it is going a little bit lazy and it makes me sad to think he could lose it. He needs his shots and registration anyway, so we will just bring him in and splurge on the puppy.

Kaia sure loves him and I am certain they will be best friends. I came downstairs this morning to find Kaia sitting indian-style with the puppy curled up in her lap while she teased him with a toy. It was obvious they were both having a great time and I and found myself near tears with the awful thought of how hard it will be for her when her little friend grows old and dies. I figure it will probably happen before she goes off to college and it will be a hard, hard day for everyone. Yup, little Nui is already part of the family.

It has been so good to have Ben home. He has done pretty well at getting the place put back together and Kaia is getting a kick out of following him around. Here is a pic of her in Daddy's hat helping him fix the pipes... We tried to get the baby-plumber crack in the photo, but the camera was a little too slow to catch it.

Yesterday was Kaia's 2nd Birthday and we got her a whole bouquet of balloons, a gorgeous cake and a trip to Carl's Jr. (her favorite restaurant because of the big toys) She had a blast playing for about 2 hours with a whole playground full of friends and we had a few moments to decide what we were going to do about the house. There is so much more to say, but I will save it for other posts. For now, I will just leave you with these few pix and this general update.
Hope yall had a very Merry Christmas and I wish yall the best for the New Year!

3 comments:

Kim said...

Sounds like things have been pretty crazy! I hope that you start feeling better and that you get your house fixed up the way that you want.

Karin said...

What a nightmare!!! I am so glad that things are looking up though and that the insurance will take care of most of it. We had a little leak problem ourselves recently, requiring a new floor in the laundry room. Good luck putting it back together!

NicciN said...

So many people I know are getting puppies. It makes me want one too, but I am allergic, so it is really not in my best interest. They are so cute though!