My tale of "whoa"

Monday morning started out pretty routine, except our furnace sounded "funny," and there was a weird "static-y" sound somewhere in our bedroom. I didn't think too much about it because I was busy getting Ethan off to school and seeing Brian off to work. Plus, I was anxious to get Corinne fed so that maybe she and I could get back to sleep. She was sick and cranky all weekend, and hadn't slept well at all. So of course, I was exhausted and I needed to do a little catching up on my sleep while she slept. We went back to bed around 8:00 am, and slept until 11:00 am or so. Corinne was ready to be up, but I was kind of stalling and trying to get her to hang around in bed a little longer. Eventually I just had to get up because she wasn't having any of me being lazy. I got her up and went into the kitchen to get some juice/water for her. As I was filling her cup I noticed the water pressure wasn't as strong as it usually was. For some reason I still don't understand my brain found a connection between the furnace sounding funny, the weird static-y sound, and the lower than normal water pressure, and I decided I better get to the bottom of things. I went in our room and realized the weird sound was coming from under the floor in our closet. We have a crawl space under our house that is accessed in our closet through a trap door (no we are not magicians and it sounds a lot sexier then it actually is). I lifted the trapdoor to find our crawl space was completely filled with water, and the water was practically in the house! I began checking the heat registers and quickly realized that every furnace duct into our house was also filled with water. I started panicking right away. I called Brian, my parents, and eventually the city to come and turn the water off to our house before water came flooding in.

So now, almost 36 hours later here is where things stand: tonight, we are spending a second night in a hotel. We now have running water (the controlled, in-the-pipes kind) in our house because Master Rooter came and dug two huge holes in our yard to try and find the problem and eventually fixed it. It looks like the main pipe that runs under the foundation was installed incorrectly by our builder 8 years ago. Unfortunately we still have no heat because all the air ducts need to be replaced, and it's still too wet for anyone to get down there and install them. Theoretically we could have heat by tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath. In addition to the air ducts some of the insulation needs to be replaced. Our insurance company has been... unhelpful to say the least. It's likely this is going to cost us a lot of money. Brian has missed a day and a half of work, and will maybe miss tomorrow. We are both physically and emotionally exhausted. To add to all my worries about the house, Corinne is still sick. She is running a fever again tonight, has some sort of rash all over her body, and coughs so hard it looks like she is going to pass out. I've taken her to the doctor twice in the last month and all I ever get is that it's a virus so all we can do is put her under the vaporizer, give her some Tylenol and wait it out. But the poor child isn't getting any better and I don't know what to do. I have to say that Ethan is doing great, though. He was pretty excited about staying in a hotel, and he came home from school today to find an excavator in his yard. What could be better than that! And he lost his two front teeth yesterday (yeah two teeth in one day and he's lost 4 total in the last week!) and got two dollars.

My parents came to offer assistance but since Dad feels like there isn't much they can do as far as repairs to the house they are going home. I know I am a grownup and I should face this like an adult, but, man, I dread seeing my Mom and Dad go. They may not have been able to crawl under the house and get stuff done, but I really appreciated their emotional support. Does that make me weak? I can't help it. I am feeling quite overwhelmed. People keep telling me, "It could have been worse," and that's true. Yet I still feel scared and worried and unsure of what to do. Yeah, I could look on the bright side. I keep trying to tell myself things like, "Well, hey, at least we got rid of all the spiders and other creepy crawling things under the house," or, "for awhile we had our own basement swimming pool," but I still have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. What are we going to do? How are we going to pay for all this? Why isn't Corinne getting any better? When do we get our house back?

When I was in 5th grade, I took skiing lessons at Magic Mountain resort, south of Twin Falls, ID. I don't remember being totally sold on the idea of learning how to ski. My mom and older sister were taking lessons, it was some special four lesson package that our church was getting, and somehow they convinced me to come along. The first day I got put into a beginners class, and I was separated from my mom and sister. After a quick lesson on the basics, the instructor took us over to the bunny hill. My first time up the rope tow, I fell forward at the top, my skiis crossed in the back, and I couldn't get up. The rope tow operator had to stop the lift and come rescue me. I remember him walking me back down the hill and sitting me down in a chair, where I cried hysterically for awhile. Scared, and alone, I then wandered back to the rental shop/cafe to wait for my mom and sister. After that day I felt pretty strongly that I was done with skiing and I wasn't going to go back, but Dad convince me to give it one more try by telling me he would come with me. So I tried again, and I even made it up and down the bunny hill a couple of times without too much trouble. I will never forget, though, the feeling of panic when I would feel myself going too fast, and then falling down on purpose so I would stop going too fast and ending up out of control.

Well, that is a LONG way of explaining that that is how I feel right now. Things are getting just too out of control and I am feeling panicky, but there is nowhere to fall. I have to keep going down the hill no matter how messy it gets. Yeah, it could be worse, and I know that the most important thing right now is my family. I could lose 10,000,000 houses and be okay as long as my family was okay. I know we have a lot to still be thankful for, but that still doesn't stop me from feeling like someone drop a ton of bricks on us. I guess, "whatever will be will be" and "just take one day at a time" and "this too shall pass" and "that which does not kill us makes us stronger", right?

Hello sun

The middle of February suddenly got busy for us. With Presidents' Day both Ethan and Brian had the day off, so we spent the weekend in Buhl. Ethan also had Tuesday off, and with the Friday before off he had a 5 day weekend. We are also now back to being a two car family. My awesome and generous parents gave us their old mini-van! We are grateful beyond words.

I am back to work, so to speak. I am working just two hours a week, from 6-8 on Tuesdays at the middle school I use to work at. They want to keep the library open in the evening for parents and students to use the library and computers. So far in the two nights I've worked we've had a total of zero people come in. I am hoping it picks up a little.

Corinne is still suffering from the never-ending cold. Now Ethan is coughing, sniffling, and complaining his ear hurts. It totally could be worse, but it's hard seeing my kids not feel well. Corinne turned 9 months old Tuesday, and she is playing peek-aboo, babbling up a storm, standing a little on her own, and just generally being cute and lovable. Ethan is doing well in school. According to his reading scores he is ahead of where he needs to be as a first grader, and he is doing well in math. He just needs to work on making his work a little neater. Of course, I think he is a pretty bright, imaginative kid.

I am frustrated that Corinne is still sick.