New Family Pics

 

 

Our friend Sanae came out in July and we were lucky enough to have some family pics taken by her.  She does an amazing job!  I have a lot of blogging I keep meaning to do but haven't done.  I think it may be better to sum it all up.  Isabella turned nine at the beginning of the summer and Tessa turned one three days later.  We then moved into our new house.  We got settled in then went to Oregon for a week to help my mom with a yard sale.  While we were gone Nate painted the garage floor.  We had two state baseball tournaments to attend in Salem in July.  I turned 35.  We had a few family BBQ's mixed in there and hope to have one more before it gets cold.  We went to Idaho Falls for Nate's 20th high school reunion.  Jack started football.  Then he started middle school.  Bella started fourth grade at a new school and loves it so far.  The little girls and I miss the big kids while they are gone.  That sums it all up so far. 

Get Out Your Waders

I began the day early. Opening the door and getting ready to leave for water aerobics at six greeted me with three inches of snow on the car. It was so difficult to go clean off the car while I was warm and in flip flops. I was awake though and I must like water aerobics a lot, because I cleared off the car and went. Obstacle one-conquered.

Nate has a big project he's been working on at work, so he was all ready to go when I got home just after seven. Of course, all the kids got up within moments after I got home, so we ate breakfast then headed downstairs to snuggle, watch PBS Kids and read board books. Sitting on the couch I heard a strange drip drip drip. My first thought was to investigate. Then I thought no, truthfully, I don't want to know what that noise is. I want it to be melting snow, so that is what it should be. I sat for a few more minutes and sense kicked in and I realized I must investigate.

So, in this house we have three bathrooms. Two on the top floor, one on the bottom, none in the middle. The kids are reluctant to use the bathroom on the bottom floor. It is in the laundry room and they must pass the opening to the crawl space. Now the crawl space has a door, it just hasn't been installed yet. It's been waiting a good long time, at least two years I speculate. I am thankful they are afraid of the crawl space, because that means I can stash stuff there and they don't investigate it. Anyway, back to bathroom usage. I don't use the bathroom on the bottom floor often either. I have decided I can count going up and down the stairs as exercise, so I do that. That leaves Nate, who does use the downstairs bathroom. Now, Nate is definitely the most meticulous and observant person in the house. That is important to know.

It is also important to know that the downstairs toilet is stupid. It leaks occasionally. Meaning months can go by, no leak, then all of the sudden, constant leak. Nate has made attempts, and we are lured into believing the leak is fixed, when all of the sudden, it is back. The leak seems to generate around the base of the toilet. This indicates to me the wax seal has an issue. My solution is to turn off the toilet and ignore it's existence. This works for me as it frees me from cleaning said toilet.

Back to my investigation of the drip drip drip. I open the door to the laundry/bathroom and discover the floor is covered in water. Sophie comes running in after me and proceeds to water slide across the floor unexpectedly. I pick her sopping self up and realize the toilet is overflowing everywhere in a very slow fashion. Instantly I panic a bit. I've got one kid drenched with freezing water and two others laughing. "Wow, did you see how far Sophie slid mom!" Once I realize where the water is coming from, I know I need to bathe Sophie, after all, toilet water is toilet water. So, I get dirty towels to sop up some of the water, turn off the water supply to the toilet and then get upstairs to put Sophie in the tub. In all of this, Jack manages to get ready and leave for school. I don't even remember him going, I know, great moments in parenting. At this point, I need to confer with another adult as to the next course of action. The toilet bowl is completely full, and I realize it can't stay like this. And water is everywhere, though curiously not next to the door or on the carpet. So, I get Nate on the phone and explain the situation. He is alarmed, but stays on while I flush the toilet and assess the damage. Now, across from the toilet is an unfinished shower stall. I store empty boxes and bins there. I have been meaning to clean it out for ages. I have a deep and abiding love for Rubbermaid bins. Ever since I moved from home to college I have acquired quite a collection of them. Nate, in the past gave me a hard time, like my stuff was too good to store in regular boxes. Bins are uniform, I like that. And now, I have a lot of dry stuff, thank you Rubbermaid.

So, also in the laundry room are a few bins waiting to go into the crawl space. So I decide to get them out of there and put them where they need to go. This is when things got worse. I turned the light on to the crawl space and saw standing water everywhere. Water had leaked out of the toilet, under the washer and dryer, through the wall and down into the crawl space, there was a mini waterfall going as I took it all in. The crawl space isn't really full, but there were a lot of things sitting in all that water. Then onto the next thought, how am I supposed to get that water out of there? I really don't want Lake Toilet Water under the house. I found the phone as fast as I could and called Nate back in a total panic. I quickly explained and he quickly said he was coming home. He works twenty minutes away.

I began moving stuff to the difficult side of the crawl space. Blessedly the space is divided in two with a concrete divided about 10 inches high in the middle. And only one side was flooded. But I call the unflooded sided difficult because there are all sorts of vertical supports for the load bearing wall they support. I moved stuff until Nate got home, then he took over the rearranging. I escaped the situation by going to buy a Shop Vac. I think there are a few things houses should just come with. Shop Vacs are high on the list. So are lawnmowers. And long metal pole things that turn on your irrigation water each spring. When I returned I was calmer. I decided despite the inconvenience and surprise, it will be good to get a few things cleaned out and rearranged. And Nate and I have decided to replace the offending toilet. Really, we hate it and it needs to go. And we may finish the lower bathroom, which would make me very happy. And there was no damage to the wall behind the washer and dryer where all the water came through. At first I wanted to figure out how to seal that off, but if we did seal it off and have another flood, would the water just go into the family room? Also not a good place. Of course the ideal thing would be no more water disasters. But with the washing machine, a sink, toilet, water heater, and possibly shower in one room, I will not be shocked at another flood. But I will be armed with my Shop Vac.