REWIND Part 1, Why I need a vacation

Good morning!  Its a nice summer morning. I'm spending a few extra minutes in bed, reading my Bible.  Relaxing.  Meditating on what I'm reading...

  It supposed to be SUPER hot today...I think I heard something about it reaching over a hundred degrees.  Whoa, that's hot! 

 Thank the Lord, we have air conditioning!

... ... ...and then suddenly...

PAPA! MAMA! 

HURRY! HURRY!! 

 THE WATER!!

WATER....OVERFLOWING!!

OH NO!

 HURRY!! 

 I CAN'T STOP IT!!

 HURRY HURRY!!

Early one morning sleepy Ethan rubbed his eyes and made his way lazily to the bathroom.  He slowly opened the door into the dark room and stepped in... SHOCKED! He flipped on the light only to see the bathroom rug floating on a sea of turbulent toilet waters. Alarmed, he screamed for Caleb to come to the bathroom and help!  Help!  Shut the toilet water off!!  Caleb dashed to the rescue, but was unable to calm the rushing waters.  Realizing his inadequacy, Caleb sent Ethan to awaken Papa using cries of help and desperation. (akin to screaming, really)

Brian, having just arrived home from working the midnight shift awoke startled, but dashed up the stairs to rescue the house from certain drenching.  Mama arose and ran for the utility closet only to discover that the floor and ceiling downstairs were also covered in water!  Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the raging toilet waters had overflowed with such ferocity that they had spilled down into the downstairs bathroom, utility closet, hallway, and coat closet.  

This is the DOWNstairs bathroom...

We ran and fetched every dry towel in our home, even a few tablecloths made it into the mix!  Finally, the waters subsided and we surveyed the damage.  oh. my. word. 

  What is it with this family and toilets?!   

Outside the bathroom of doom,around the corner by the guest room, under the carpet and padding.  Yes, that is a puddle

The ceiling puddle in the downstairs bathroom

To this day we still do not know what caused the toilet to overflow.  The timing of the overflow was actually very good.  If it had happened the night before when I wasn't home and Brian was working, things would've gotten a lot worse in a hurry.  Also, we were supposed to be leaving for vacation a few days after this and had it happened while we were gone?  Well, that would've been disastrous!   

Thankfully, the insurance company came through for us and sent over "Water damage specialists"  that same day.  They came in and brought drying fans and giant dehumidifiers.  They ripped out carpet and padding and wall and ceilings to get everything dried out.  As I mentioned previously, it was supposed to be very hot during this week.  As it turned out, it WAS indeed VERY hot this week.  The outdoor temperature was around 105, which was really, really HOT.  Astonishingly, with all of the fans and equipment running INSIDE the house at the same time, it was also a balmy 95 degrees INSIDE my house.  I'll admit, this did make me grumpy. truly. Yes, I was thankful that the damage was not more extensive, and yes, I was thankful that the insurance company was taking care of the repairs....but, I was having a hard time being thankful for a steaming hot house that I had to deal with because I had a Mount Everest of wet towels to wash along with clothes to wash and pack for vacation.   I seriously wanted to bail and go whine and cry to my friends, but I managed to keep it to a dull whimper and suck it up so we could go on vacation.
  Here I sit in my family room, about 2 months later.  I can still see concrete in my living room, but I can also look around and see the beautiful hardwood stairs that my husband refinished.  I see the gorgeous tile that was laid in our downstairs bathroom and entry way.  Our dining room, now turned school room also has beautiful new laminate flooring.  Oh sure, I still have the contents of three of our rooms and two closets in the living room and on the floor, but pshaw, it could be worse, right?   What if a flood just washed my entire house down the river?  What if I lost my family in a devastating event like the tsunami in Japan?  Its true, I'm a big, spoiled, baby...wah, wah, wah...poor me, the contents of my bookshelves are spread between two rooms. 
 That sounds so trivial I almost want to spank myself!!  (okay, not really)  
We are getting to re-do parts of our home that would have otherwise stayed the same.  It IS looking wonderful and I AM so happy to get to decorate in  new and more updated way.  We still got to go on vacation and it was also wonderful.  Sure there was also a little hitch in that whole vacation thing, but I think that I'll tell you about that later.
Good news!  We're ordering carpet tomorrow!...only a few more weeks of concrete on the inside of my house!