Snake 1, Hildi 0

Well, we have continued to make progress on the house. We still have several boxes to un-pack in the basement. We are excitedly awaiting the treasures that we will find. One challenge that we had with this move is that our items have been spread throughout several boxes. We might find a box with some contents of a cupboard from the laundry room and the remaining items from that cupboard in two or three other boxes from different rooms of the house.

A great example was when I unpacked a box and found the computer monitor from downstairs. I was thinking that I would find the cable that was attached to the monitor at the time it was packed either still attached, or at least in a wad of paper in the same box...Not so. I have still yet to find the elusive cable. Perhaps I should look in the one that has "tools" on the outside??

During our un-packing, it became very clear that we will stick to the plan of only finishing 1/2 the basement...we need the rest of the space for our "stuff". It is amazing how much we still have. Even after discarding a lot, we still have a bunch down in the basement.

We have continued to run into some challenges with the house. We were thinking that the extreme watering from our neighbor's house was causing our backyard to be a bit of a marsh land. However, after tracking the source of the 3 inch deep standing water, we recognized that we had a different problem than Aqua-Man living next door. We called the sprinkler company and it turns out, we had a joint that was not properly fixed (who knows how long ago) and 7 valves that were leaking! This was the same company that did the "inspection" on the system, so they gave us a pretty good break on the repairs. Having said that, it was still a lot of money.

Last Sunday, we had a huge rainstorm. The water was literally coming down in buckets and sideways. We took the opportunity to check for any water issues. It did not take long to find a few. The boys thought it was a pretty cool game running through the house screaming "I found another one" as though they had just stumbled across the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Apparently, some items that we would have thought the house "inspector" would have found magically appeared after we closed on the home.

Fortunately, these appear to be relatively simple fixes...at least for someone that knows what they are doing (not me). When we have the contractor work on the basement, he will also address these issues. Turns out that the contractor also does siding (very handy)!

Yesterday, Taylor and Hildi went out to check the mail (a favorite activity of Hildi's). She came running into the house and was shaking her head badly and spewing spit all over the place

(which she never does). Cath was holding her and noticed that she had blood coming out of her mouth. We immediately took her down to the emergency room (very expensive!). They had to sedate her so they could look at what had happened. They told us they found a puncture wound on her tongue and cheek and that everything was consistent with a snake bite. Apparently, we have snakes in our area!

I am sure I know exactly what happened. Hildi was sitting on the front porch, enjoying the nice weather and watching the birds and Taylor check for mail. All of a sudden, a snake leapt out of the bushes and attacked her! I am sure that the snake jumped at least 10 feet to get to her!

The rest of the family thinks that she was poking around in the bushes and found a big long slithery thing of which she has never seen before. She likely then tried to do what she does with everything and grab it with her mouth and play with it. I am sure that the snake did not like that very much and bit back.

Either way, she was bitten and is in a lot of pain. Fortunately, she is eating. Perhaps she will be wary of these things in the future. She will either have to watch for flying snakes, or not try to play with them.

Aaron