A Series of Unfortunate Events

Yesterday morning Starr woke up to a flooded living room downstairs. Apparently the gutter on the back of the house wasn't able to drain all the water before it froze over so all the run off was dripping off the edge to the sidewalk below. That created an ice damn at the edge of the lawn. That made it so the water couldn't get out to the lawn and started running back toward the house and down into the stair well and under the door. Mom and Dad worked for several hours with the shop vac and Mom's carpet cleaner sucking as much water up as they could. They finally decided it would be best to call a company with bigger equipment to come help. When the guy got here he pulled up the edge of the carpet and stuck a big blue fan under it to dry everything out. They just had to let the fan do it's job until Monday morning when the guy would come back and check everything out again. Yeah, problem solved...

Oh sure! I had gone to Mandi's to scan some pictures for a few hours and then decided I had better get Zoe some lunch and take her back to Mom's for a nap. Once she was down I headed back to Mandi's to get all my stuff. I was there for a little while listening to a story Mandi had for me and then I headed back to Mom's. On the way back I passed the church and apparently someone had lost control of their car and completely wiped out a power pole. I really wish I had stopped and gotten some pictures, but I didn't want to be a problem with the clean up and all so I just drove by. When I got to the house Mom and Dad were without power. Always lovely! I was only home a couple of hours when Justin called to ask if I would babysit while they go to a movie. ABSOLUTELY! Since we were still without power we figured it would be best if I went to their house instead of them bringing the girls over to Mom's. Landon and Camille went to help me and then Starr picked them up and they went to have a fun evening of dinner and a movie. Mom called me shortly after I got to Mandi's to let me know that she and Dad were going to run some errands and get some dinner since they were still without power. Glenn and Maggie arrived shortly after Starr picked up her kids. We had a fun time at Mandi's, and the girls only had a couple of power struggles. It's all fun times with Zoe and Sadie!

Mandi and Justin got home and I informed them that I would be requiring extra compensation for having to deal with Kinley for two hours. That kid was a major pill and I had to devote all my attention to her...Yeah right! The silly kid slept the entire time. Even with the screaming and loud TV she was completely unconscious the whole time. I love that girl! So after they laughed in my face we all went to dinner and had yummy pizza from the Pizza Factory. We went back to Mandi's to pick up Glenn's truck and the pictures I had been working on and then we were off to Mom's to get the girls to bed.

When we got to the door Camille's cat, Jasmine, got in between a few of us and got into the house. I had my hands full of stuff that I couldn't just put down anywhere so I was blocking the cat from getting out of the laundry room and sent Maggie into the house to find out what that noise was we were hearing. To me it sounded like the bathtub was running, but didn't know how that would be possible. Everyone else was gone. She came back and told me the sink was running. I told her to turn it off and she informed me that she couldn't because there was a "leak". By that time Glenn had gotten in and was taking care of the cat so I went to investigate. I set our leftover pizza on the counter and just about lost it. The faucet in the bathroom had been turned on while the power was out and didn't get turned off. It had been running full blast for several hours and there was water EVERYWHERE. There was a lovely little "pond" in the kitchen and the bathroom was pretty much a lake with a pretty waterfall flowing over the edge of the sink. Luckily for us the shop vac and Mom's carpet cleaner were already out due to the mornings incident downstairs so we just sprang into action and got to vacuuming! I called Mandi to see if they had a shop vac and while I was on the phone with her Starr and the kids pulled into the garage. I explained what was going on and Starr ran downstairs to see if the water had gone through the floor and done damage to the ceiling downstairs. It had and there was lots of damage. Big bubbles of water just waiting to pop and ruin everything below. Her new TV was getting a shower and the bathroom was pretty bad as well. Justin brought their brand new shop vac over and Shelly borrowed one from someone she knows and soon the house was buzzing with the sound of vacuums sucking up water. After Mom and Dad got home they decided it was just beyond what all of us could handle and they called the company that had been here earlier. So now there are lots of fans blowing under the carpet and a couple of dehumidifiers as well.

Some of the downstairs damage...

The lovely fans blowing LOTS of air ALL DAY LONG...

It's pretty loud at Mom and Dad's house right now!