If there is one thing Dan and I have gotten good at the last two years... it would have to be moving things to at least 5 different places in our house before actually taking them to the Goodwill. So many people have been so generous... but we only have so much room in the house. The weekend we left for vacation our basement flooded in two different places. One side had sewage coming up out of drains and the toilet and the other side had water pouring out. Those two areas met in the middle to almost completely cover our basement. By the time we got home the School District had put in new drywall and carpet... so Dan and I have spent the last day and a half trying to figure out what needs to be thrown out and scrubbing the furniture that did stay. We also cleaned out our tiny storage room and our shed in the back yard. Dan ended up taking two truck loads to the Goodwill and one load to a school dumpster. We are so excited to have more storage (and a clean basement). Here is a picture of the basement with new carpet.

I should have done before and after pictures.

I thought I would also include a picture of our new fence. This is an exciting addition to our house for multiple reasons:
a. It will prevent at least 30 kids from walking to and from school through our yard each day.
b. It will greatly reduce the number of things stolen from the yard (including laundry that was set out to dry)
c. It will prevent high schoolers from urinating in front of me while I am sitting at my computer in front of the window (that was the last straw).
d. It will make backyard time with Carter so much easier!!!

It's actually kind of funny... the fence was finished on Monday but they haven't put the front and back gates on yet. Today Dan was on our side deck when a high schooler walked through the yard... and kept walking even when he saw Dan. Seriously... it's not even that much of a short cut.