Monday morning started like any other, the craziness of waking Lola at the last possible minute (7 am) to get ready for the bus which arrives 25 minutes later, the fun of stuffing an irritable toddler into his clothes so we can get to daycare on time, all while trying to get myself ready for work at 8:30 15 miles away. The day was long and exhausting at the clinic, and the kids were tired, grumpy, and ready to eat when I picked them up from daycare at 6pm.
All I had on my mind when we walked in the door was "dinner, bath, bed!" so imagine my surprise when I heard water running. Not just running, but gushing. My first thought was that there had to be someone in my house. I shoved the kids behind me, and turned on the lights to reveal 3 inches of standing water in the kitchen and a waterfall coming from the dishwasher. Panicked, I ran downstairs to shut off the water to the house. Then I called my husband, then my parents. I quickly assessed the damage to the kitchen, thankful that it didn't seem too bad. Then, with a sinking feeling, I ran downstairs again to find water pouring from the seams in the ceiling. I opened the office to find a pool of water drowning our remaining laminate flooring, still in its packages.
Our neighbors, my parents, and Wil and I worked to control the water while we waited for the flood specialists to arrive. When they finally got here, they used their awesome equipment to suck up all the water they could, and then left us for the night with three giant dehumidifier machines, and six turbo fan driers. Here is what our kitchen looked like around midnight that night:
48 hours post flood things seem to be improving. We have 9 fans now instead of 6, however, which only adds to the landing strip feel of our home. The fans are so loud that we can hardly hear ourselves think. I am in constant fear that the kids will put their hands in the fans, and so am obsessively vigilant, which is very tiring. The cool thing about the fans is that they are so strong that they can actually blow the chihuahuas around a little, which is pretty entertaining, and has helped to boost morale, which has been understandably low.
The flood guys came to check on us today and used their little probes (kind of like something off of Ghostbusters) to check for moisture in the walls, floors and ceilings. We still have quite a bit of moisture, hence the three new fans. Still, they think we may get to lose a few fans tomorrow afternoon if all continues to go well. I am hoping that they will take them soon, as I am afraid I may be deaf before they are gone. The dehumidifiers can go too, as my hair has started to stand up on end due to the dryness and static they are creating. Even the cats' hair is starting to stand up!
Aside from the inadvertent installation of a downstairs pool, life has been pretty sweet lately. Speaking of pools, Lola had her 4th birthday party at a nearby aquatic center. We invited the entire preschool and the kids had so much fun swimming and playing! They even took time out to do cake and presents. It was awesome to enjoy 92 degree water in an 80 degree center when it was 20 degrees outside. Nice!
For her birthday, I bought Lola a manicure! She was soooo excited! So excited in fact, that she chose several colors for her nails. We narrowed it down to two colors, alternating every other nail. Here she is showing off her nails....I'm not sure why she looks so demonic here, but she was actually very proud of her nail polish!
Wil and I had a rare day off together, so we decided to take the kids to that time honored traditional trip to Chuck E Cheeses. They had an absolute blast! Lola was weirdly good at the games, and ended up with a ton of the little tickets that you then have to trade in for goodies. That process, of course, took about 4 years. She finally chose a ball, a necklace, an some other cheap junk. We met up with some friends there, and the kids had a really good time! We even managed to get the coveted picture of the kids together, and they all sort of looked at the camera!
Thanksgiving went pretty well. We enjoyed our feast the weekend before, as I was working through Thanksgiving day. After several calls over my on call week from hell, our schedule went back to normal, giving us plenty of time to prepare for Christmas. Lola is all over Christmas this year, as she fully understands what it going on. Rowan has no clue, but loves the lights and the tree!
We went hiking out into the woods near our house in search of a tree this year. I promised Lola we could have a real tree. Usually I set up the fake one, but this year we all trooped out in the cold and snow to find our tree. Not 5 minutes into the hike, I was carrying Rowan, which meant that when we finally found the tree, Wil had to pull the tree back while carrying the chainsaw. He certainly got a workout! The tree is beautiful though, and well worth the trouble.
I have finally got all our decorations up, but they will never hold a candle to the awesome decorations that my Gramma used to have in this house! Maybe we can live up to her decorating talents over the next few years.
Lola has started helping us with the chicken chores lately. She walks up with one of us and collects the eggs and helps feed the chickens, and in return she gets to sell the eggs for a buck a dozen. She has like $20, which she is saving for some sort of polka dotted pony. Cute!
Well, It is getting late, and I am tired. Tired from being in fan hell. I really think that maybe hell is not a fiery sweltering inferno, but instead a huge house filled with industrial fans that you can never get away from, no matter where you try to hide. I wonder if we added a few more fans and pointed them all straight down if we might just be able to send the house aloft, and maybe fly it to Hawaii? Seeing as it is currently -4 degrees here, that would be killer!
Oh, and we got another chihuahua....meet Sterling!
1 comment:
Cutest little doggie!
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