Wow, it's been over a year since I last updated here. I think about it a lot but just can't seem to find the time or maybe I just don't make the time. Either way it doesn't matter, it's hard to find time to do the things I want to do. This year has taught me a lot about that too. I make big sacrifices for my family especially with Art away but I need to take time for myself no matter what. It sounds kind of selfish when I see it in print but it's not really. I explored a lot of ideas this year around this whole idea of sacrifice. I don't make resolutions anymore, haven't for years really, but this year I've decided that I need to make a commitment to something that is just about me. Maybe that is a resolution but I'm not calling it that, I'm just making a decision to do something for me and then stick to it. So I'm sticking to writing whether it's journalling or blogging it doesn't matter and sticking to it means I do it whenever I can not that I'm committed to something I can't keep up with. And having that, it isn't that I have issues with being so 'on' for my kids all the time but what I've discovered is that if I don't do enough for 'me' at some point then I don't have a lot to give them. It feels so good to give so much of myself to them when I've been taking care of myself too.

So our first year in the new house was a pretty eventful journey. We had our first flood in December and then we had our second flood in December. Our third flood happened in January and it was downhill from there. We were assured that there had never been any water problems when we bought the place which is pretty standard information but we were beginning to get suspicious. It was difficult to believe that in the 10 years the previous owners lived here that it had never flooded when we had 3 floods in 2 months. I was still taking them at their word but Art wasn't buying it. We decided to do a little investigating on our own and found out pretty quickly that they had lied, that this place flooded quite regularly every winter. We went to see our lawyer about it and we would have to gather information, get affidavits from people confirming what they told us and so on. It seemed like a lot of work to me and was starting to create even more stress. Every time it rained I had to roll up rugs and move things out into the garage and then I couldn't sleep at night. We managed to get through spring and had someone come out to look at the foundation and hear our story. The only work that was ever done on the place by the previous owners was inside and that wasn't where the problem was, even we could see that. Our first estimate rang in around $10,000, we ended up going with the second guy. He dug up a small part of the foundation at the back of the house, put in some drainage leading out to the road. Art did some work on the downspouts on the other side of the house and $1000 later, no more water. So, as we move through another winter, fingers crossed, we are confident that the problem is fixed. What is astounding to me is that the previous owners, as I keep calling them although I have other names for them, lived here for 10 years and never did a bloody thing to try and fix the problem. So they lived with the fact that every winter they would have flooding in their basement and would have a 24 hour cleanup routine. So how did they hide this from us, because we saw no evidence of it nor did the inspector? Well, the basement has in floor heating and the only thing we can figure is that it would dry things out so quickly that it left no evidence of water. How do you live with yourself hiding this kind of thing? Well, this world is made up of all kinds of people... apparently.