Our Scary Story

Do you like hearing about home-horror-stories? In light of this scary Halloween holiday I thought I would share our scary story. Last night Howie and I were watching TV and I kept hearing this constant "tick-tick-tick". It somewhat resembled the sound of a ticking clock. We ran through every option of what the noise could possibly be. A really, really loud clock in another unit? A bomb? A metronome? We both sort of shrugged it off. Around 10:30pm I decided it was time for bed and I shut off the TV. "Tick-tick-tick". There it goes again. I thought it would be a good idea to investigate the bothersome noise. To my surprise, when I put my ear to the wall of our laundry room I could hear the noise the loudest. I went in to the laundry room and found a small stream of water running out of a hole in the wall that was put there to accomodate a hot water pipe that hooks into our water heater. Great, we have an internal leak. I put my hand to the wall and I could tell there was water damage to it. The drywall was mushy in some places. We initially thought it was our neighbor's (above us) water heater that was leaking. We woke them up to let them know. I'm sure they didn't appreciate a rude awakening at 11 o'clock at night, but we felt it was an emergency. There was nothing visibly wrong with their water heater so we had to take matters into our own hands. I didn't really know who to call about it so I called the first person I could think of. Dad. Unfortunately, at that hour he was completely asleep. My second thought was a plumber. I got a hold of one and they said there was not a lot they could do at that hour and told us to just shut off our water for the night and they would come check it out in the morning. So, we did. This morning they came to take a look at it and in order to find the source of the leak they had to cut a gaping hole into our wall. See...They even had to go up into our ceiling. What they found shocked me. Apparently, the pipe that was the culprit behind our mushy wall was RECALLED and BANNED from use in the 1990's due to a major class action lawsuit that was filed. The reason for the lawsuit? Well, these pipes have a great susceptibility to leak. AND LEAK IS WHAT IT DID! The guy that cut into our dry wall said the wall was very moist. Who knows how long this leak has been happening. The only reason why we heard it in the first place is just because of how the water just so happened to be dripping on another pipe and making the loud noise. Otherwise, we would've never known.

Here is the kicker...I call the president of our HOA board and tell her the situation. She tells me that if our unit is the ONLY one effected as a result of this, that it's our responsibility to pay for the damages. So, Howie went down to talk to the people that live below us. They are two single bachelors. They let Howie take a look in their laundry room and they found a small drip in their ceiling. And not only that, but their ceiling was buldging down! Their water damage must be worse than ours. So, I go back to the president of our HOA and let them know the unit below us is also effected. She says she'll get back to me. Her answer wasn't exactly what I was looking for. We have now found out that because the pipe directly services only our unit that it is OUR responsibility. And not only are we responsible for our damages, but for our neighbor beneath us, too. Terrific. We are responsible for the shortcomings of a pipe that was recalled and banned from use in the 1990's but yet overlooked when our condos were refurbished just LAST YEAR. Am I crazy or does something seem not right about this?

Twilight Woods

Bath and Body Works is coming out with a new fragrance and it is YUMMY! I haven't liked a lot of their new stuff so I was excited when I smelled a sample of this and loved it! They only have trial sizes of everything now, but the full line comes out November 2nd! If you like Bath & Body Works fragrances as much as I do you should check this one out!

Ah, Fall...I love you.

It's Fall! My favorite time of year. On Saturday morning Howie and I took a quick drive up Millcreek Canyon before meeting my brother and sister-in-law for brunch. Unfortunately, this canyon isn't a very well lit one, especially at 9am, but we still got some pretty pictures in. Hopefully you can see the pictures. This is my first time attempting a collage in Picasa.Then on Saturday evening I went to Gardner Village for their Witches Night Out! That was so much fun! It was me, my sister-in-law Cheryl, my niece Chauntay, and some of Cheryl's family. It was really neat to see how people got so creative with their costumes. These pictures are from my iPhone so I hope they look alright. Here is a hula-hooping witch.
Here is the Witches Square. This is where most of the people gathered to dance and socialize. This is also where they announced the winners for the drawings.This was my favorite witch! "Witchy Poo"! She was on the toilet in an outhouse. Very clever. We all dressed up like witches. My costume was probably the most dull. I just threw on a black robe and a black witch hat and called it good. If I end up going next year I'd like to have a better costume. Some people got REALLY into it. Holy cow. I wish I would've taken my normal camera, but all I had was my iPhone to take photos. :( Oh well. Here are some we took with my sister-in-law's camera...

Catching Fire

Love, love, loved this book! I've been done reading it for a little while now, but have just decided to blog about it. This was the second book of The Hunger Games series. I cannot wait until the third and final book comes out! Suzanne Collins is the type of author that likes to leave you hanging on a cliff at the end of each chapter and each book. This book was no different. I have no idea when the third is due out, but I can't wait! Even Howie has gotten into this series. I read the last part of this one by myself though so he doesn't know how it ends. I told him he'd have to read it himself, but maybe i'll just summarize it for him. Again, if you're looking for a good read and you like book series, definitely pick this one up. I can totally see them making a movie out of this series someday. I just hope it isn't too graphic. Hopefully, if they do decide to do a movie, they will tone it down. This series can get a little violent. Anyway, the characters definitely make it worth the read. Suzanne Collins is an excellent author.

Colbie Caillat and Howie Day... and...David Archuleta?

On Friday, October 2nd, Howie and I went to the Howie Day and Colbie Caillat concert. I was so excited to see her show because I've been a big fan of hers ever since her first album came out. Howie Day isn't bad either. After buying tickets to the show, I went on to Colbie's fan website for tour information and found out that you could sign up to win a "Meet & Greet" with Colbie. Only 9 lucky winners would have the opportunity to meet her that night. Well, as it turns out, I was one of those lucky, chosen 9! We won two tickets so, Howie and I were both able to go backstage and meet her. Here is Colbie on stage during her performance.Howie and I enjoying the show.Howie Day rockin' out! He was actually a really good performer. I'm going to have to look into getting his CD's because I really liked his music. He's got a great voice.After the show, people who bought one of Howie's CD's got to get an autograph and talk to him for a bit. We got close to the table to snap a picture of him.Here was our ticket backstage! They gave us these stickers to wear so everyone knew how V.I.P. we were.Here is the blessed picture! Me, Colbie, and Howie. They had us meet & greet in a dark, dreary room. Seriously, it was something out of a scary movie. They had a table set up with hot dog buns, beer, and some potato chips. That wasn't for us. Apparently that's what the band had before the show.I was so excited when I found out that we'd be meeting Colbie that I decided to make something for her. Since my recent hobby has been to make jewelry, I decided to make her a necklace and earring set. I found these cute pink beads and this dragonfly pendant and made this set for her...I put it in a little red mesh gift bag. She was so thankful for it! I told her "I have this little hobby of making jewelry so I made this set for you" and she goes "Oh thank you so much!" and hugged me. I think she appreciated it. I had to get an autograph so I took my copy of her new CD in with me and had her sign it.This has to win for the most random moment of the night. So, we're standing in line to meet Colbie and I hear a girl behind me say "OMG, that's David Archuleta!" and all I could think was "That girl is crazy. Why would David Archuleta be here? She must be mistaken". Then, I look where she's looking and I see, none other than, David Archuleta at my Colbie Caillat meet & greet! Haha! I told Howie "Oh, we are SO getting our picture with him!" Unfortunately, the guy in the striped shirt was ushering David out as we were walking up to him. The guy said to David "Uh, you're wanted outside." I think he was afraid that David being there was taking the attention away from Colbie because all these little kids ran up to try to get pictures with him. So, this is the only picture I got of him. Bummer. Maybe next time, David! I wanted to tell him that he and I went to the same High School. We had so much fun at the concert. I'm really glad we both enjoyed it!