We're still here

We're still here. We're just struggling. Home issues, family issues, adoption issues. Please, pray for us. Oh, how we need it.

We celebrated R's bf's birthday this week. We made silly hats out of paper and some of us sucked helium (left over from A's birthday) and sang songs and told stories. That part was hysterical. Thank God for some laughter in the trials. The making and wearing of the crazy hats may become a birthday tradition. We did it when the kids were younger and we used to do it for the pets' birthdays too.

Here is the birthday boy.

T even made and wore a hat.

A was trying to get her hat on and was telling us that ours seriously lacked in the creativity department. She struggled some more with her hat and then concluded that ours may have beat hers in the functionality department. She had to add on to hers to get it to stay on her head. That's a paper swan on top of hers. It's holding a happy birthday banner.
Our water dispenser on the fridge quit working Sunday. We were very bummed. We came home from church Wed. evening really thirsty. I hate the taste of our local water so the filter is a must. I started trying to clean the dispenser and figure out where the problem was. T found me trying to clean it out and he got involved. His solution to anything that breaks around here is to take it apart. Of course, he's been taking things apart since he's been in the world. He and his twin brother took the water heater and furnace apart when they were two, and not because they were broken. At least they weren't broken when they started but had to be repaired when they were done. One of the things couldn't even be repaired. His parents had to replace it. But anyway, back to the fridge. Remember that we have a long-haired cat who leaves his fur all over the house. We are constantly saying, Dexter, I wish you could keep your fur on your body. When T pulled the fridge out the side of it looked like it needed a shave.
So I "shaved" it with the vacuum. Think Flow-be. This is what we found behind the fridge. Yuck!

It's all cleaned up now. But back to the taking things apart. I had mentioned to him that I found the little ice door flap held open with a chunk of ice while I was inspecting the water dispenser a couple days prior to that. Aha! His theory was that the ice in the fridge began to melt some and leaked into the door and then because the fridge ran so much because of the cold air leak caused by the ice jammed into the flapper door, the tube that runs the water to the dispenser, froze. He concluded that he could prove his theory and fix the problem by taking the freezer door apart. Yeah, it has like 20+ screws in it. He was not deterred though. He moved all the freezer stuff to the fridge side and proceeded to take the door apart. Sure enough. There was a sheet of ice over the whole door. A has a pic on her phone of me with a blow-dryer trying to melt the ice. We were trying to salvage the insulation around the door and finally decided to replace it. The tube was frozen, just like he thought. We got the tube thawed out, the insulation replaced, the freezer completely cleaned out, the door put back together and wa-la, water. Sweet, filtered water. Here is the inside of the freezer door. The fuzzy looking stuff is insulation packed with ice.

We started our little project at around 9p.m. and finished about 11:15. I'm just glad I have a Mr. Fix-it type husband and we didn't have to pay anyone to thaw our water tube. Even if his "fixing" almost always involves taking things apart. :-)