My world

So if problem neighbors was not enough I was blessed with more to shoulder.  Several of our neighbors were evacuated due to flash floods last Friday, they all lived behind and below us and it looks like the pond from the edge of my property (on the green belt land) might have emptied into their housing area.  I feel really bad for them and said many times I am so glad we bought on a hill so at least we do not have to worry about flooding.
Well Saturday Richard got up and we did not have hot water so he went to check the water heater that is located in the sub basement, what he found was about two feet of water that had risen to cover the pilot light of the furnace and water heater.  Luckily we already had a sump pump down there, it came with the house since I guess the crawl space flooded once before. 
After we pumped out the water we still could not get the water heater to light, everyone told us to let it dry out so we set a fan to blow on it and left it overnight, when it still would not light the next day Richard pulled it apart and noticed it was really rusted so we figured ok we need a new part, maybe 50.00 of course we could not get it until Monday but we could make due.
To condense the story Richard could not get the part without the make and model, when he went back under the house to get that,,,,more water, and water heater to old to get parts for so has to be replaced.  There is a leak coming into my house from the well, so we did not flood from the rain it is our well flooding into our sub basement and along the way something broke, most likely a pipe so now I have NO water into the house.
After calling around we are guessing it will cost us somewhere around 3,000.00 to fix, if we do not fix it soon it will ruin our foundation and we have not even closed on the house yet.
I already had a headache that was making me sick, now I am trying to figure out how we are going to take care of this.  We used all out savings the month Richard was off work, the VA is still not paying us, so they now owe us 5 months worth of back pay, more than enough but they will not tell us when it will come.
Stress Stress Stress that is how I feel, it is like something new happens every time I get over one mess.
Our contract on the house states as is, with the exception of the deck and leak into the garage, the sellers have one more month to fix it or we will not close, we already pushed closing back three months because we are waiting on VA.  If I do not fix it soon the VA will not loan on it, it just goes round an round.
We will take out a loan to fix, we will survive, but somedays I just wonder if it is all worth it.
Oh and lets not forget the whole week I have been trying to keep Conner out of the hospital, his lungs sound crappy, we have his neubulizer and medication left from last year so we hope that is enough to help him get better.
Anyway I am sure this to shall pass and we will have all made it, but when it is happening it really sucks!
If my headache would subside I think I might be able to make a plan.

recylcled record bracelets

Staci's slumber party guests will be making bracelets out of old records next weekend, we had a trial run yesterday to see how it would work.

They are a easy and fun project kids can do with minimal supervision.  We started with old records, I bought these at a local thrift store for .50cents.

Place record on pizza pan and draw half circles around side of record (mine are hard to see).

 Put in oven at 200degrees until the record is soft, (I recommend using your oven fan and opening a window to let out fumes). Mine took about 3 to 5 minutes to soften.

 Pull out and cut half circles out, if record hardens while your cutting (they harden fast) just put back in oven for a few minutes.

 once you have cut your shapes out bend them to fit wrist.

 You can use a soup can to help shape them since they will be hot, if they are not small enough or you don't like shape just put back in oven to soften and start again.

I trimmed the back side of mine so the edges would not be sharp.

Then the girls decorated with a variety of things, you could use anything to decorate them, we used glitter glue, ribbon and beads, but I am also buying charms and decals for Staci's party so the possibilities are limitless.