A Broken Toilet, Sick Kids, and Record Low Temps, OH MY!!

Sorry for the lapse in my blogging, it hasn't been that great of a week in our house.

To start the week off, Tad and I woke up last Monday morning, 3:30 AM to find that our downstairs toilet was leaking. BIG TIME!! The fitting on the cold water hose broke and proceeded to let the water run all over the floor. We estimated that it was only broke about 3-4 hours. But it only took 3-4 hours to do a couple thousands dollars in damage.

Ugh!! I hate water problems!!!

As Tad ran down the stairs, once he stepped into the hallway, SQUISH!! The hallway carpet was soaked and there was about 1/2 inch of water all over the bathroom. Not exactly my kind of thing to wake up to at 3:30 AM, when I should still be sleeping. Anyways, Tad is saying just about every cuss word in the book, and I just didn't know what to do. First things first, we took the girls up to our room to sleep, knowing we had a lot to do and we wouldn't be in our bed. To make a long story short, the water got into the girls' rooms, so the entire lower level needed to be torn up. From 3:30 until about noon that day, we took all the girls furniture/toys out of their rooms and into the basement and torn up all the carpet and the pad. Most of the pad was soaked!! Where do you put a soaked pad in the middle of winter in Iowa?? Well, ours got throw on the deck and in the garage, where it proceeded to freeze. After we finally got all of the wet pad out, we placed saw horses up in the rooms to dry out the carpet and the floor.

If you ask me, that is a whole lotta work on only a few hours sleep. We were exhausted.

After a call to the insurance man and after they came out to inspect it, we were informed that yes, it would be covered by insurance (thank goodness), but was given more advice on what we still needed to do. Ugh, more work that we hadn't thought of.

We had to pull off trim in the girls rooms and the bathroom and drill holes all along the bottom of the drywall so it could dry out. As we did this, we realized just how much water did get all over. About 1/2 of the drywall in Jadens room was wet, all of the drywall in the bathroom was wet, including under the cabinet, but just 1 wall in Skylars room got wet. Now, we have been running fans, fans, and more fans, and dehumidifiers daily to get everything dried out.

It is still drying out, but the biggest pain in all of this?? The girls are out of their rooms and sleeping in the living room on their mattresses, which means our living room is a complete mess all the time. It is amazing just how much stuff was in their rooms.

But, we do realize it could have been a lot worse. Thankfully, the water was clean water and not sewage or muddy; thankfully we caught it early and it didn't happen 8 hours later after we were all gone for the entire day; none of the girls stuff got wet, just the carpet; and it is fixable. It really made me thankful that we were not hit in the floods this past summer and I still can't imagine what some of those people had to deal with. Our water wasn't even standing, it was mostly soaked up by the carpet, pad, and drywall. The people caught in the floods had feet of dirty water. So, yes, it definitely could have been much worse.

So, all in all, it just makes our house a bit more clutter for the time being. I am hoping to get the girls back down in Skylars room here soon, so at least they are out of the living room. Jadens room is completely tore up, but Skylars room we should be able to lay the carpet back down (without the pad) and have some usable space again. The thing about all this is that was the one area in the house that was all new and we had just redone it when we moved in. The carpet was only 2 years old, new paint on all the walls, and we just finished that bathroom this past summer. Go figure.

As for the rest of the week? This was the week that my kids all came down with all the YUCK, sicker than dogs! We had been fortunate thus far and only had the sniffles here and there this winter. But this week they have all been miserable! Cael had a double ear infection, Skylar had one also, but hers burst in the middle of the night (which isn't the best, but it did releave the pressure), and Jaden was so stuffed up that her eyes were watering and her ears needed to pop. All the kids were feeling just miserable the entire week. I figured it was better that they all have it at the same time, get it over with. And, our TV has been on all time. That is when I know my kids are sick. When they don't play and just lay and watch TV.

Poor Cael. He was feeling so sick, the poor little thing just laid at the top of the steps and whimpered. Nothing worked to make him feel better.

And, the weather has been so stinkin' cold we can't do anything outside anyways. Seriously, it has felt like the North Pole here. We have been setting new records for low temperatures! That is just wrong. It is sooooo cold!!! I am not a big fan of winter, but I do like the snow, and I can tolerate the temps until it gets down to the teens. When it reaches single digits or doesn't even get above 0? Makes me really, really, really dislike living here. The day I took Cael to the doctor, my van said it was -17, at this was 2 pm!! Need I say more??

Here is our driveway, covered in snow. Not only did we get hit with 2 storms this week, the winds have been horrible and we keep on getting drifts across the driveway. We can't even get outside and enjoy the snow.But, who has benefited from all this??The dog. She has been inside all day everyday all week. I think she is enjoying it.

But, as I type this, things are getting better. We are still waiting for our basement to dry out and the kids are finally starting to feel a little better. Still runny noses, but no more hacking coughs and fevers.

Life is looking up. Thankfully, this week is just about behind us.