Michael & Liz are Bloggable

When we first found out that Liz was pregnant back in July, we started playing this game. We're due in March? That's forever from now, we have tons of time. But do we really?

The game is pretty simple. Randomly we would say "The next time" and then finish the sentence with something that will occur after we have our baby.  It's an easy way for us to realize we really do not have a lot of time. The baby is coming, and it's right around the corner. I wish I would have written all of them down, because some of them were HILARIOUS. But I'll write out what I can remember, most of the non-funny ones.

• The next time the Summer Olympics are on. 
• The next time the Winter Olympics are on, we'll have a 2 year old! (holy crap)
• The next time there is a World Cup, we'll have a 2 year old. 
• The next time there is a Spring finale of Biggest Loser. 
• The next time there is a presidential election.
• If Obama has a second term, the next time we elect a new president, we'll have a 5 year old. Now THAT is weird.
• The next time I have a birthday.
• The next time we have a day off for Memorial or Labor Day. 
• The next time we fly on a plane, now that is weird. 
• The next time we are able to go to Movies in the Park nights at the Art Museum. 

You get the idea. All these events and activities we have lived with over the last 5 years, are now going to be drastically changed. But so far life hasn't changed at all, except Liz's belly is a little bigger than it used to be. This is just our way of making it real.

Also my sister sent us a onesie in the mail today, that did a pretty good job of making it real.

Well we had our big ultrasound yesterday and had the sonographer write down the baby's sex so we could open it at dinner. We thought that might be tough because we weren't sure how obvious it would be. Good thing most everything looks like patchy blobs to us because we couldn't tell. She had us look away when she was specifically looking for it.

This entire time we've been thinking it was a girl just because of what our doctor said at the 12 week appointment. He certainly misled us, that's for sure. Boy or girl, we would be thrilled just as long as the baby is healthy, and it sounds like all is well.

It was actually difficult for the sonographer though, because he was kicking and moving around like crazy. At one point on the screen, we could literally see him kick is his legs straight out and then curl up, over and over again. The sonographer was laughing because she was having a hard time getting pictures of the important stuff (organs) with all the movement. Sounds like we're going to have our hands full!!

We got a bunch of pictures from the ultrasound, but I thought I'd share our 2 favorites:

Everything in the pictures are a little bumpy, but that's just the inexact science that is taking pictures during the ultrasound. The one above is our favorite.

The picture below is one we had a hardy laugh about. Liz said "Oh my gosh, it looks so frail, I need to eat more!"


But believe me, she's eating enough. He's progressing just fine. Today marks week 18!

4 years ago after we bought the house, the main sewer line going from the house to the street got clogged up. We had a plumber come out and unclog the drain and the plumber said that he thought there were some roots in the drain, but there wasn't that much. He said, he wouldn't worry about it.

Then, this Spring, we had the same thing happen. Drain clogged up, we got a plumber to clear the drain but this time he said it is a pretty strong root. His suggestion was for me to dig down and fix it myself. I put a stake in the ground where I thought the clog was, and said "I'll get to it".

This week I got to it, although not in the way I wanted. I was forced to. On Wednesday Liz was running the washer upstairs and all of a sudden, when it started draining, our toilet downstairs started gurgling and then the water started to rise. ACK! It's only been 6 months!!

A plumber came out again and said the root was so strong that when the drill bit used to clear the clog went through, he couldn't pull it back out. They unhooked the drill at the other end, and then just pulled the wire back through.

So today was the day. It was time to dig down and find out what's going on. To prepare, I called the 811 number to get our utilities marked, so I didn't hit an electrical wire or gas pipe or anything. And this morning I started digging.

I was smart enough to document the work with pictures, check it out.

So you can see where the line goes. It's from the little spout at my feet all the way to the white pipe coming out of the ground near the trash cans. If you look close, halfway along, there is a white dot where the plumber thought the pipe was on Wednesday. Turns out he was completely wrong and the spot was where I put the stake back in the Spring. Oh well, cost me about a half hour of digging.




We've struck GOLD! There's the pipe. Nowhere near where I originally started digging.


The problem is instantly evident. Should there be a massive hole with a big root sticking into the pipe?? The root is to the far right of the crack. You can't see it in this shot, but it's there. In fact the root had wrapped itself around the pipe, and was starting to tear a crack in the bottom of the pipe. Give it a little more time and we may not have had a pipe anymore.

I has a tired.

Can there be anymore roots? What an awesome source of water this tree has had!!


You can see the cracking that has already started around the bottom of the pipe on the right.

Now this is the point at which my easy little task took a turn for the worse. Little did I know that when building the house, the builders ran the water line directly beneath the sewer pipe. So when I started to saw the sewer line out, I accidentally hit the water line.

Saying that I panicked would be an understatement. Luckily my neighbor across the street was outside and he ran over and turned off our water line at the street. I didn't even know how to do that, but water was spewing every where and I couldn't hardly think. I actually didn't take a lot of pictures at this point, because lets face it, documenting this moment wasn't a big concern of mine.

I immediately called a plumber to get someone who knows what they are doing. I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning out water from the hole and continuing to dig to get a better look at both pipes. The plumber arrives and says to continue cutting out the sewer line and he'll fix the water line. Good deal.

So... back to pictures. We finally get the sewer pipe out:




Ah! Relief, the water line is fixed, but for a pretty little $155 penny. Back to the sewer line... It took a while to find the parts, I had to go to 3 different stores to find the correct pipe and couplers.


I probably cut the new pipe unnecessarily close to the length needed, but that way there is very little lip on the inside for stuff to get stuck.


This is exactly how the plumber suggested I do it. He even got the part out of his truck to show me. Very nice of him.


This is the second largest pile of dirt we've ever had in our drive way.


This last picture might be more for my benefit than anyone elses. If we ever have to dig the pipe up again, I know where it is.

So now we are running laundry, I showered, we finally flushed our toilets, and are now enjoying the amenities we are use to. I'm leaving the pipe exposed until tomorrow to make sure we don't have any leaks. If all is well until tomorrow, I'll cover it up and try to forget this day. But for now, I am going to sit here and enjoy the sound of our washing machine. Go water go!

For years I have been singing this song every October. People (friends) would ask me "I've never heard that, where is it from?" and include a jab in there somehow. I would respond with a meager "from my childhood somehow, I can't remember, but it's awesome." Well it is awesome and it's songs like this that make me love October/Halloween.

Well here is it's awesomeness, in all of it's glory:



(You can fast forward 1 minute to hear the words, if you get bored by the spooky sounds)

You're welcome, your life has been changed forever.

H-A-Double L-O-Double U-Double E-N spells Halloween. I love it.

I thought I took more pictures than this. But here are all the good pictures from our Blue Ridge Relay Race. I need to do a better job of spreading the camera around because all the pictures are of not-me.

Wow, I bet a bunch of people who read this blog just had their blood pressure jump. There's probably fewer subjects that are more volatile than this one  right here.

I'm not talking about federal income tax. While I do have my opinions on that, it's not something I feel like expressing here. I'm not even talking about the most influential tax that I feel should be implemented, a huge gas tax. Could there be anything in the United States that would impact our country more than having to pay an extra $5 per gallon? It would be pretty awesome in my opinion. If you disagree, read the book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" and then feel free to comment.

No, here I'm talking about state sales taxes. Can anyone honestly claim they fully understand how your state sales taxes work? What you'll be taxed when, and how much? I am happy to admit I am 100% ignorant on the subject. I couldn't have even thrown out a number without looking it up, and even now, I'm still confused.

A few years ago, when Liz and I started cracking down on our budget, I started grocery shopping with her. Not to help pick items out, but to be her personal calculator, keeping a running total of how much the grocery items we'd collected would cost. I actually take a lot of pride in being able to nail the total right on the button. We always play the guessing game in the checkout aisle, and I can usually hit our total within $1. I can't help but feeling proud when Liz strokes my ego with a drawn out "Woooooow" too.

The point of my story, is that the first time I started shopping with her, I had no idea how much to account for sales tax. 5%? 7%? I dunno? So at that time our total came to roughly $120 without tax. So I guessed $135? Do you know in our state, that a grocery bill of $120 would generate a tax of only $2.40?

Are you as surprised as I was? The tax on groceries is only 2%. Liz just came home after picking up a few items for dinner tonight. She spent $9 and was taxed a whopping 18 cents. Now I realize other things like hotels and electronics are taxed more, like 6% to 8%, but it's all relative in my opinion.

Most people would say "that's awesome, what's wrong with a low tax rate". Here's where my opinion changed.

I heard on the radio a few weeks ago, that one local county would only have to increase their sales tax rate by .25% in order to save several hundred teacher jobs that would soon be laid off. It wasn't done, obviously, because all taxes are bad nowadays (apparently). Why not do that though?!?! It's not too often that a tax is instituted that would go directly to one announced cause. And would anyone seriously notice? I know I wouldn't, and I guarantee 99.9% of anyone else would either.

I'll take it one step further, why don't they increase the sales tax by 2% more and make the local schools absolutely awesome?? If that's what it would take to cure a current problem, why don't they just do it?!

The downside is that it would never be taken away. Not only would it never be taken away, it would then be diluted into other forms of funding until the original "for the schools" cause is no longer necessary. Maybe that's where local politicians can go from good to great? Announce what the tax was for, and announce when it's being taken away. It's probably not that easy, and that's where my ignorance comes in on the way it could or could not be done.

Taxes shouldn't be used to cure all government problems, but when offered as a direct solution to a current problem, not to mention a temporary one, I don't see how that's bad. Please don't comment with a one-sided political argument about how all taxes are bad. I'm just talking about a measly sales tax here. Government spending and regulation is a massive problem, I understand that, but what I heard on the radio and what I see on my receipt doesn't seem to add up to me. If I can pay an extra $1 on a grocery bill so several hundred teachers can save their jobs, sign me up immediately.