SET SEA

We recently had the opportunity to join some friends of ours out on their boat at Saguaro Lake. While I spent many summers in my youth playing on the water, it's not something that the mr. got to experience much before now. Needless to say, it was quite a day. Three adults. Eight kids. Seven hours. Rode on the weenie and flew on the hammerhead. Watched a bald eagle fishing. Ate all the food and drank all the Gatorade. Hunted for cliff caves. Splashed. Swam. Sunned. Even the babies had a blast.

365.2: WEEK 38

IT"S FALL. Which means that life is going to move at an even FASTER pace than normal as we near the holidays. I love this time of year - stress and all. It probably helps that family photos for Christmas cards are ALREADY DONE. Hallelujah. Now my focus can be on sewing Halloween costumes for the littles. The rest of our time is filled with hanging out with our cousins, getting new hair cuts, playing at play places, going pokemon hunting, reconnecting with old friends, taking family photos in the woods, and participating in the primary program. Our life is so full.

September 19th - September 25th 

LABOR DAY

Two weeks ago, I somehow conned the mr. into going up to Prescott for Labor Day. Hoping for a repeat of my trip last month, we arrived only to find the town crawling with people. Not exactly what I had imagined. We skipped a stop at the courthouse and headed straight for Goldwater Lake. A bit busy, but we found our favorite playground empty. The kids played for a little while before growing restless, so we decided on a hike to the water's edge. We took a different path than before - one with a bridge and benches along the way. We collected flowers and enjoyed the view before returning back to our car. A little detour for a picnic lunch and then we were on our way home. Traffic was terrible, but it was still nice to escape the heat if only for a few hours.

365.2: WEEK 37

13 days without AC and counting. Luckily, the new portable unit that my dad purchased a week or so ago is AMAZING; it keeps things bearable. Still no word on when the replacement part will be in, so escapism until then. I've legitimately forgotten what our normal routine is like. For now, reading books. Watching movies. Eating ice cream. Swimming at my parents. Visiting the zoo. Playing at the lake. And going to church.

September 12th - September 18th

365.2: WEEK 36

This week has been eventful. HA. If you haven't read my last post, go ahead and do that because yeah... Insight into the joys of homeownership. Or something. Monday was Labor Day so we took an impromptu trip to Prescott. Fun, but not fun. We'll go with chaos as a descriptor. Tuesday was all fun and games until our A/C decided to give up on us. Since then, we've basically been doing anything we can to survive. Playing at the splash pad and drinking soda. Standing super close to the portable A/C vent to cool down. Figuring out how to entertain each other without expending all energy. The oldest escaping our hot house for a lake trip with friends. And then Sunday. The 15th anniversary of 9/11. So many memories and emotions that day. I'd say it was a good week, but... no. It was a loooooong week.

September 5th - September 11th

CHILL

If you are on Instagram, you may have read about some of my A/C problems. On Tuesday of last week, we noticed that our A/C was no longer cooling the house. We put in a service order through our home warranty company and waited to hear back. The earliest that they could send someone out would be Thursday. By 9 PM on Tuesday night, we knew that we couldn't wait it out until Thursday, so we bit the bullet and contacted an A/C repair company directly. It meant an out of pocket expense, but it also meant a faster turn-around. A technician was at our door within 30 minutes. He did a comprehensive exam of our unit and gave us a complete run-down of the problem before recommending that we wait for the home warranty company to cover the cost, thus saving us upwards of $1,000. We were entirely grateful for his honesty and thanked him for his service. On Wednesday, the mr. called the home warranty company to get our order pushed through faster because SIX LITTLE KIDS. Our order went to the top and... the soonest they could send someone out was Thursday afternoon, between 1-5pm. Lovely. Thursday came and the technician arrived at about 3pm. Looked over the A/C unit for maybe five minutes at the most before telling us that he would have to completely replace the coil - which needed to be ordered, adding an additional 3 business days to the wait - (NOT what the first company had told us). If the home warranty approved. And then he just left. Seriously, service at its worst. With no direction as to WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON, the mr. called the home warranty company only to find that our case was denied and subsequently dropped. According to the home warranty company, such a repair would actually fall under the manufacturer's warranty - even though the home warranty company had replaced the exact same part in question a year prior. Basically, they washed their hands of us. We were left to wait for their A/C repair technician to contact the manufacturer to push our case through to a company contracted with the manufacturer. Being the proactive soul that he is, the mr. called a contracted A/C company of his own accord to see what the process would look like. Glad he did because the A/C company with the home warranty company dropped the ball on that one... On Friday morning, a new service order went in through an A/C company contracted with the manufacturer (all thanks to the mr.) and though the technician was 2.5 hours late, he did a thorough examination of our A/C unit. The part in question fell under the manufacturer's warranty and would be covered, but labor would not. After nearly passing out at the sight of the financial responsibility, we agreed to go forward. The technician called the manufacturer regarding the specific coil, only to discover that there are literally none in the state of Arizona. It would need to be ordered. 7-10 BUSINESS DAYS. Not including weekends. Or the time that went into rescheduling for the technician to come back out for the repair - which will be about a 4 hour job. Today is day 1 of those 7-10 business days. We've been without our A/C for 6 days now. And likely have 14+ more to go. So... that's life right now...

*Just a disclaimer, on Wednesday of last week, my dad rented a portable A/C unit that is currently being used to cool my living room. After discovering that this debacle would last MUCH LONGER than anticipated, my dad then purchased a unit for us to borrow in the mean time. So many people have offered a place to stay, whether during the day or overnight. We are so, so grateful. Uprooting six kids and working adults is just not an viable option. Luckily, we're getting by on the portable A/C, a window unit, and a high-powered fan. There are only a few hotspots in the house - otherwise our only other difficulties are limiting ourselves to microwave only meals and sleeping on the couch. As terrible as it is, this situation could be so much worse.

365.2: WEEK 35

I'm starting to freak out. It's September. Which means family photos, Halloween costumes, and Christmas gifts are looming on the horizon and my OCD brain is telling me that I have to have everything figured out RIGHT NOW. I'm mostly there. But monies. Sigh.
Last week, we: dove into the deep end. Learned about the letter A. Caught and fed a toad. Visited our school's open house. Went on a mini field trip (to the pet store... and walked away with a pet fish). Laughed and played with sisters (in law love). Watched our favorite dessert being made.

August 29th - September 4th