Friendly reminders and stuff

I don't even know where to start tonight. Just some things that I want to throw out here as reminders.

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In case you missed my post last night, my friend Jessica's home was severely damaged in the flooding in Lancaster County, PA. A blog has been set up to keep everyone updated on progress and how to make donations to help her family as they figure out just how much damage was done. As of now, the water is receding, but the garage and basement were completely under water, so the house may have severe structural damage. You can check out that blog here.

She did post on her facebook page tonight that they found her van....on top of a riding lawnmower. I'm not sure how far away from her house it was, but this picture just amazes me.

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On that note, remember the post I did the other night about performing a random act of kindness tomorrow in honor of little George's second birthday? What a perfect opportunity - make a donation to Jessica's family, or to any of the other families in that area who have gone through this devastating flood. Make a donation to any charity at all. So many of them have online donations set up, and you can do it from the comfort of your home. Do something nice for someone just for the sake of doing it. In this day and age, sometimes the smallest gesture of kindness can make all the difference in the world to someone who is struggling. Trust me.

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In other mundane, boring, run-of-the-mill stuff that I deal with daily....

The property manager for my house finally convinced the owner that having a stove in here that spewed sparks and didn't always work was not a good idea, so I got a very special delivery today...

The boys were anxiously awaiting...

Ol' Smokey

She's so shiny....

And while Maintenance Dude was here (I really need to get his name - he's a heck of a nice guy.) he also took a look at the bathroom to see if he could figure out where the "new" leak was coming from. When I left to take the boys to school, he was still looking, and didn't think that it was going to be a big deal. Then when I came home, he was gone so I thought that he was done. Imagine my surprise when I walked in the bathroom and saw....

When he came walking back in with more supplies, he showed me what was going on with the leak and we bounced ideas around about how to put everything back together (we both knew that the owner wasn't going to spend any more money) and then he cleaned up the mold, put it all back together again, and I'll see in the morning when I get my shower if the leak is gone or not. Yikes. I had him look at a couple of other things around here too, and he'll run them by the owner to see if we can get those taken care of too.

I had a few people tell me that I needed to start threatening the owner that I was going to withhold my rent payment until the stove was replaced - I'm so glad that I didn't do that. I was patient (maybe a little too patient) and it got done - with a stove that is a heck of a lot nicer than anything I ever expected. I mean for crying out loud, it is even childproof! I can lock the door and they can't open it. Yay!

On that note, going to go do the usual nightly cleaning and try to get things organized for tomorrow. It's going to be another one of those crazy never-ending running-around-in-circles kind of days. Woohoo.