When It Rains It Pours

Life has been a little frazzled around the O’Quinn house as of late, so please accept my apologies for the lack of posting any new information.

When it rains it pours right? As explained in a previous post, our entire air conditioning system went out a few weeks ago and had to be replaced. Now we are dealing with our wood floors. Before we moved into our house 3 years ago we had our master bathroom completely remodeled. Over time there was a small leak from our new tiled shower and it caused our beautiful wood floors to buckle. Ug! So last November we had the leak fixed. It wasn’t an easy process since they had to rip up the tile in the shower and tear into the wall in our living room. Ug! We allowed for things to “dry up” for awhile before we started on the floors, and here we are a total of eight months later getting the floors fixed. If only it were that easy! Last week when the floor guys came to rip up the floors there was still A LOT of moisture and they did not want to proceed until we were sure the leak was fixed. So, we had to tear into the wall for the second time and live with it and the ripped up floors for a week before we made any assessments. Mamma Mia! Well, I’m happy to say that the leak is in fact fixed and the area is as dry as a bone! Whew... Our house has not been a safe environment for a crazy toddler like Jacob. Anyway, the floor guys are back out today and installing the floors. Jacob is down at my parents house, and I’m confined to our home office while the guys are working.

Strange Story:
One of the workmen was asking me where our breaker box was ,and since it is in the back of the house inside a closet I needed to show him. When I came back out and walked into my kitchen one of the guys had gone into our fridge and was helping himself to our ice tea! What! I asked him, “so are you just going to help yourself to our ice tea?” and he said “yeah, just a little bit”. I wanted to scream! I told him to put the tea back in the fridge and had Jason call the guy who is in charge of the job. That guy is now no longer here. I don’t like to be rude but that was uncalled for don’t you think? If he had asked for some it would have been one thing, but just to assume he have fridge rights is beyond my own comprehension. Even though this is a very reputable company we are working with, I felt like this was a scene from The Money Pit and I’m Shelly Long dealing with freaks who have to hand me things out of my medicine cabinet. It’s been such a crazy day.

In all seriousness though, it’s been a rough couple of weeks. It seems as though a lot of different things have been going wrong with either the house, the cars, our trees, the refrigerator, and everywhere I look I’m seeing dollar signs rather than the abundance of blessings God has given our family. I am still learning though, and just like Paul I strive to be content whatever the circumstances. The things of this world will always disappoint us. My hope, rather...OUR hope is in the Lord!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jacob continues to be a little monkey. The other day I had my head turned for a mere second and he was standing on the end table stroking the lamp shade like it was a kitty. Crazy little guy. He’s so funny though, and my life is never dull because of him. So, because of all of this energy I have decided to enroll him in Sunshine School at a local church in the area. I’m nervous but I’m also very excited to. Jacob is extremely extroverted and I think he will really thrive in this environment! What a blessing it was that I was able to reserve him in the last spot that was available. They only allow 7 kids in his age group so I was thrilled to get him in when I did. The school is only two days a week and you have the option to do one or two days. I decided to start with one day and week and see how he does during his first month. I will be substituting for the school and if I work only one day a month it will cover more than half of his monthly tuition. That’s a huge blessing.

A Few New Words:
“A Book”: Which really sounds like he’s saying “Abu” the monkey from Disney’s Aladdin. This has been a huge deal for me since he is finally enjoying to sit down and read. He loves to play with his books and hand them to Jason and me for him to be read to. Love it!

“I did it”: Which sounds like ”I dee-et”

“Amen”: Which sounds like “Ah-beh”. He finishes the prayers with a very precious amen.

He has also added “Moo” and “Meow” to his animal sounds.

What a fun age. I love watching him grow up...if only it didn’t have to be so quickly!


I don't have a lot of recent pics. This is a mohawk picture of Jacob when we were on vacation. The quality isn't very good since I had it set on landscape, but it's hilarious!


Mommy and her sweet little boy!

Oh No You Didn't!!!!!

I thought the plant fascination was over with...boy was I wrong! On Saturday Jason and I were both working in the kitchen assuming our angelic child was quietly playing on the floor with his toys. Knowing that it all of a sudden seemed more quiet than normal I peeked my head into the living room and this it what we found. It seemed best to capture this with a picture in an effort to keep me from coming unglued. It was only about the third time it had happened that day. Seriously, the kid has not cared about plants for about three months. Why all of a sudden when he's faster and smarter does he take up an old habit? Ug!



Yeah, it's official. I'm the mom of a toddler, or should a say a little monkey? He climbs on everything. I was the same way as a child. If there was something bigger than me I was going to find any way I could to conquer it. Last week I was on the phone and Jacob was out of my eyesight for a few minutes. He had figured out how to climb from the back of the couch to the front of it. I caught him when he was almost all the way over. How in the world?!!!! On average I probably stop breathing 2 or 3 times a day. The bigger he gets the more ambitious he gets. Maybe I should enter him in a gymnastics class. He really needs a playground in the backyard but I refuse to pay full price for one, so I've been looking around at second hand stores and garage sales. Have you ever priced a plastic slide at Wal-mart? Yikes! Let me know if you hear of any good sales.

In other news we've been working at staying cool this summer. Ha! Our air conditioning went out over the weekend, and we ended up having to replace the entire system. Thankfully the technician who came to the house on Saturday was able to kick start the fan until they could come out on Monday to replace the system. Praise the Lord! We ran the air but it was making a horrible sound, so we ran the air on 80-82 so it wouldn't run much. It was a lovely weekend...actually it was a lot of fun. We had some wonderful family time and played with Jacob a lot. Here a few pictures from the weekend.

Oh! By the way...here are some Jacob stats. He has now grown 4 inches in the last 3 months putting him in the 25th percentile for height. There is still hope that he'll end up tall! His weight is another story...Jake is still weighing in at a whopping 19.3 pounds putting him in the 3rd percentile. I'm feeding him, but he just runs it all off! I wish that worked on me as well.


We got away from the heat on Sunday by playing out in the backyard and doing a little yard work....


My happy wet boy!


Helping dad with the plants. There's nothing better than getting drenched and then rolling around in some dirt! Jacob definitely left a ring around the bath tub that night!!!!

Well, take care and stay cool.

Blessings.