Thursday, August 23, 2007

Water and fire

Well, today has been a very adventure-filled day! What we had planned to do was have one last day of fun with Meagan and Lexie before school starts next week. What we got was that, plus a little bonus excitement!!

It all started about 9:15 or so when I put in the first, of what was sure to be many, loads of laundry. After it was going, I started in on some other really important jobs that I really can't remember. Next thing I hear, Parker is coming in from the garage and yelling, "WHOA - what's all this water doing here?" As I turned the corner to see what had happened, I was greeted with the sight of about an inch of water coming from the direction of the laundry room!! I ran through the water to the washing maching and started banging, twisting, and turning every possible switch and knob until the water stopped running. I could still hear it eerily dripping even though it was turned off.

I ran through the house to get towels, which just for the record, a hundred towels would make very little difference with a laundry room full of water. I called my neighbor, Casey, because she's a great neighbor and always helps us out in crisis situations. (That makes it sound like we have lots of crises around here - perhaps, we do!!) Ryan just happened to be dropping the girls off in the midst of the chaos and he pitched in to help. After lots of mopping, wringing, sopping, and other drama, we called it done. Scott called a guy he knows from a restoration company and they came out and brought like a million fans and a huge de-humidifier. You can hardly walk from the garage door through the laundry room for all the stuff -crazy!! Oh, and for an added bonus, it seeped into our bedroom so there's pulled up carpet and some fans in there too!!

Just as the adrenaline was returning to normal, Alex and Meagan come in to ask me if they can make some tea. I said yes so off they went to make their tea. A couple of minutes later, I start to smell this terrible smell. I look around and see nothing. Then it hits me - the tea!! I fling open the microwave and the smell almost knocks me over. They had put 4 tea bags in a bowl and put it in the micro for 5 minutes. They forgot perhaps the most important ingredient in the equation - WATER!! I sweetly call them to the kitchen and ask them what exactly they were thinking (nice tone of voice, of course!) and they were very surprised at their lack of ability to make a pitcher of tea correctly. They began their second attempt at making tea and I dumped the tea bags into the trash (smart one that I am!).

A couple of minutes later, I walk through the kitchen and Landry is standing at the trash can saying, "hot!" just as calmly as if what he is seeing is completely normal. I look down and there is SMOKE coming from the trash can!! So, of course, I panic again and dig out the tea bags and see that one of them has little orange ember-like things on it!! Those things were getting ready to start a fire in my trash can!! And that part I couldn't have blamed on the kids!! How crazy! At this point, I was thinking that maybe everyone should just get a pillow and find a quiet corner for like, a few days!!

I was afraid there for a little while that another major catastrophe was just around the corner, but thankfully, those events were the most excitement we saw!! Now there was some minor excitement such as Landry getting his fingernails and toenails painted, big yellow/black bumpy spider sightings, cleaning of the slide with WD-40, etc. etc. but this has truly been an exhausting day!! Definitely one for the record books - not sure which record book, but it should make one of them!!

ps - this post has been all day in the making and I should note that Chris (husband of neighbor Casey) came over tonight and fixed my washer!! See? I told you they were good neighbors!!

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