The Niederer's: What a week! many posts.

oh where to begin! Lets start way back to a week+ ago. My boss Tami bought us hair show tickets to the Cosmo Prof hair show in Sandy, Utah. Everybody from the salon was going. But we had to get ourselves down there. So long story short, me, my two sisters, and my mom went down. It was the first girls trip we've ever had and it was wayy too much fun. We drove down Sunday afternoon and stayed till Monday night. Sunday we drove to SLC and were going to go to the new somethin creek mall. Well, once we got there it was ALLL closed. haha oh jeeze. So since we were pretty much there at temple square and didnt have a ton of time, we decided to go through the conference center and go on top of the roof for a tour. Even though i've been to temple square and SLC a kazillion times its still fun! Anyways, after all that we were starving and decided we better go find our hotel to check in and then get some food. So we drove down to Sandy, found our hotel, checked in, then left to go to dinner. We ended up at Texas Road House where i ended up eating waaay too much. so yummy. :) After dinner it was getting late, so we headed back to the hotel, and went swimming/hot tubbing for a while. We were the only ones at the pool which makes swimming that much more fun! We showered up, then went to bed. We woke up early that next morning so i get get going to the hair show. I met up with the girls from the salon at the show and i must say that that hair show was the lamest one ive ever been too. Even Tami said it was one of the worst ones shed been too as well. The plus side was everybody that entered the show got a bag from the product line of It's a 10 and got about $100 worth of free product. That was a big plus. and it was stuff i was about to buy anyways! So that was awesome. I met back up with my sisters and mom and we went shopping and ate lunch. I headed back to the show and then after the show we headed back for home. SO this trip was fairly short and the hair show was lame. But what made it worth it was the fact that we finally were able to have a girls trip. We laughed the full two days which was so much fun!

Sadly, this was THE only pic i got. and mom wasnt even in it :( makes me want to go back just so i can get a pic of all 4 of us. Guess that means we will have to have another girls trip! ;)

It has started to really cool down here in Rexburg....

In fact, SO cold that we are now scraping the car windows and wearing coats...

Now for the super long fun post. When i was out of town for the hair show, Caleb had texted me and said that our drain in the tub wasnt draining...again. We have had problems with our drains and the toilet flooding super easily ever since we moved in. So he went and bought some draino and plunged the tub and it kept backing up and wouldnt drain. gross i know. So because he was using chemicals, he kept the bathroom door shut so that Libbie our dog wouldnt get into it. Anyways, i came home monday night and both me and caleb were starving. It was late, and i didnt want to cook anything. So we went to go get food. Came back, i changed into my sweats, went to the bathroom and the toilet did flush and was just fine. I shut the door again then sat down to eat my dinner. Litterally 5 mintutes after, Caleb gets up in the biggest panick i have ever seen. I thought he had to puke or something...so i get up to see what the heck he's freaking out about and when i get up water is just seriously pouring into the bedroom where we were at. So im yelling at caleb to hand me some towels to stop the water from getting to his computer chords and EVERYTHING else. Long story short, The toilet had overflooded and flooded our house..pretty bad too. There was about 4 inches of water in the bathroom and our whole hallway was inches deep too. The water was running into our second bedroom, into the closet (where all our storage is), under the bed (where there is more storage), under Calebs computer, into our kitchen/living room and a little bit into our bedroom. Keep in mind we are in a basement apartment so its not that big of a place. So caleb shuts the water off and we just sit there staring at eachother not knowing what the heck to do. Its after 10 p.m. so it was getting late. So i went upstairs to Calebs grandma to get a mop and a water vacuum thing. Long story short we had to have a city guy come out after 11:30 p.m. just to find that he couldnt do anything. So we mopped and vacuumed up over 40 gallons of water. We threw all our towels we had used in the tub for the time being. And we used EVERY single towel we owned. after hours of cleaning up and moving furniture we sorta got it under control. So Caleb goes to plunge the toilet to get it working again, and once he plunged it, a bunch of sewage water backed up into our tub and covered allll our towels. Now the house is soaked, im frustrated and almost in tears, i have cold pizza on the bed, im still hungry and now our house litterally smells like poop. So for that night, we couldnt use the bathroom till the plumbers came the next day. So i pretty much tried all the different toilets in rexburg. It was a crazy night. I had to miss my work meeting that next day so that the plumbers could come out. They snaked the toilet and sewage was splattering everywhere. They fixed the toilet! hallelujah! So i cleaned up after their nasty mess. Then, we had carpet cleaners coming the next day to see if they cant clean the carpet up..(i personally would have just pulled the carpet up and let it dry. But, thats not what Calebs grandma wanted. Its her house. We do what she wants.) So now comes ALLL the furniture moving. We had to put everything that was on carpet onto tile so they could do that. So we basically played tetris with our furniture and squished it in our already squished kitchen and 2nd bedroom. Pretty sure Libbie thought it was a huge obsticle course and she was having a fantastic time. I had to take work off so that I would be there while the carpet man was there. He came, cleaned the carpets, and was still pulling water up through the carpet. I had nowhere to go once he was done because the carpets were still wet and we couldnt move furniture back yet. So i went out to my parents house to sleep. Came back later that night and moved the essentials back. And now today (friday) we are just now finishing up putting the furniture back. Caleb and me were both working throughout this week too so it has just been chaotic. To the point it has left me so stressed out. We lost about $200 worth of stuff. So not a ton, but hello, we arent wealthy so $200 is a lot to us. So i had to go out and buy new towels, new rugs, shower curtain, and some other stuff that was needed. The tile in the bathroom is coming up, one of the closet doors in the hallway wont close beacuse the water made the baseboards swell, the paint is somewhat starting to bubble out too. Our house smells like sewage, and musty carpet, the door is open along with the windows to air it out and its freezing. So that is our flood story. Sorry it was so long....Here are some pics of that.

So this was after we cleaned some of the water up. our bathroom rug is just floating...

Our kitchen. try crawling across that to make yourself a piece of toast!

2nd bedroom

We slept here in the middle of the living room while all the furniture was getting moved around.

And while i waited for the carpet cleaning guy to get here i chilled riiiiiight there...

Hangin out in the middle of the floor.

Since the water got into some of our storage i had to go through boxes to see what was damaged. I came across this picture. My senior prom with Caleb :) helped with the frustration i was dealing with and brought back great memories :)

New shower curtain and rug. Plus side of a flood was getting new things. Kind of annoying still.

And now for other news. I was feeling crafty to relieve some stress. But dont have a dollar to do anything. So i look through my house to see what i have and could find and i created a picture frame and decorated a repainted D.I. shelf.

This was what i made. Made from old wedding announcements, the black is from a pair of old holey skinny jeans, and some burlap.

And here it sits on my new shelf. $2 shelf. 10 cent tiles. basically free picture and it sits on more of my black skinny jeans. haha im serious that i truly am the cheapest decorator on this planet. I HATE spending loads of money on stuff i can do for cheap. Maybe if i had the money and didnt feel so guilty about buying them then maybe it would be different. But yes, here is my latest craft, chillin in front of those ugly flowers. haha

And now to get a bit personal. I dont know who reads this blog but sometimes i like to write things down on here so i can look back and have good reminders and remember what i went through and what i was feeling and how i got through hard times. So lately, i personally have been frustrated/stressed/feeling down. I think i have the worst jealousy issues on this planet. I have a love hate relationship with facebook and instagram. I love it because i do get to keep up with cousins and friends and i like to see what everybody is up to. I hate it because for me its hard to see that i dont have what other people have. I dont have children or this fancy home. I in fact live in an old basement with pink carpet, yellow tile and blue couches. I dont have thousands of dollars to go on vacations and trips. I dont have a single day off with Caleb to simply sit next to him for a while. Our schedules clash. We work a lot. I dont have all the up to date home decor that i would love to have. Both me and Caleb are still sick every day, money is tight, work is hard, surgery is coming up, and im simlply feeling frustrated. But then 4 things happened to me this week in the middle of everything going on that helped me remember.

1. I was at work and i was coloring a girls hair. She was a young mom of 2 and she was explaining to me that her husband works in north dakota. He is gone for 3 weeks, home for 1 week. then gone again for 3 weeks, then back home for 1 week. And i couldnt help but feel mad at myself for being so selfish. Here i am complaining that Caleb has been working for 14 hours that day and still wasnt home and that i never get to see my husband. And here is this young mom basically being a single mom and only getting to see her husband for 1 week out of the month while she raises her two kids and works part time.

2. Me and my brother in law got in a small argument the other day. There i was again complaining of how much my life sucks. And he quickly put me in my place.

Here is my brother in law getting deployed last monday. He's saying goodbye to his wife and daughter for who knows how long. Last time we heard it was 7 months. And here i am again complaining that i dont get to see Caleb as much as id like.

3. Ive been quite sick lately with my stomach acting up more than normal. I think its due to the stress. But its hard to go to work and live in the bathroom. Its hard to litterally plan your life around your health problems. I went to work the other day sicker than a dog. And all i wanted more than anything was to go back home and sleep it off. That was the day that the primary childrens radiothon was going on. Tamis Salon was involved so all these stories from children were on the radio all day. Some of the stories of why those children were there at the hospital put me to tears. Why is it that i have to learn the hard way that my life really isnt as bad as it could be? Im over here dealing with stomach pains while people and children are in the hospital not even able to go outside. My health could always be worse. Those children are strong and it makes me want to be as strong as them.

4. I came across this article on facebook. Basically it said that we are simply human. Everyone has struggles weather other people see them or not. We need to stop complaining and realize how blessed we are. It could ALWAYS be worse. We need to be happy now. Not when we lose that extra weight, or when we buy that home or fancy new car, or when i get that piece of furniture. Try to find the good in what you have and be grateful and happy. Me and Caleb are lucky to have two cars. They are older and have missing hubcaps but they get us from point A to point B. I know people out there that maybe have a bike. or couples sharing one car. I am lucky.

As much as i look at facebook and wish i were like that certain person, or this certain persons lifestyle, Im sure someone is looking at mine and thinking the same. So, this is my goal and i hope this can be a good reminder for those reading this as well. Life is great. Find the good in it. You are beautiful, you are lucky. One of my favorite quotes is "Live simply, Laugh often, Love much" and thats really what life comes down to. Life isnt about being sad and frustrated all of the time. So lets find the good in it!