When it Rains, It Pours...

Sometimes quite literally... in your house!

September, despite it's cooler temperatures, has brought with it quite a bit of excitement. However it's been mostly the negative kind of excitement. It's less than one week into the month and already our house has flooded, our expensive vacuum and desktop computer have stopped working, we received sad news about some friends of ours, our bank account has dipped dangerously low and my grandma is in the midst of passing away.

On the last day of August, my mom called to say that my Grandma Linda, who has OPCA - a rare brain disease - is slipping away. She has been unwell for a while, but more recently has been in very obvious decline.  And these past few days have been worse and worse.  There was a point yesterday evening that it looked like the end, but she is continuing to hold on, not quite ready to let go.  But it really doesn't look like she'll be with us much longer.  And I think most of us, though as hard as it is, are ready for her to go because we know how miserable she is trapped in her own body and having to experience so much pain constantly.

On September 2nd, after not sleeping well again for the second night in a row, I was up feeding Callen.  I suddenly heard a noise that sounded like the washing machine had turned on.  I finished up with Callen, laid him down and walked into the living room to see a stream of water pouring out of our laundry room into the living room.  I grabbed some towels, and opened the laundry room door to find a couple of inches of water pooled inside and spreading.  There was also water spraying everywhere!  I was still in the waking stages and it took me a second to realize what was even happening... the water was spraying straight up out of the back of the washer, hitting the shelf above and ricocheting down ... it was difficult to decipher where the water was coming from at all.  And it was like movies with the water spraying me in the face and what not.  I managed to grab a shirt, put it over the hose that was busted and spraying the water so that I could get to the faucet to turn off the water.  Just praying the whole time that it would be as simple as turning the handle.. and thankfully it was.  However, once I got it stopped and stepped out of the laundry room, the water was EVERYWHERE already.  The entire living room had an inch of standing water, it was quickly moving into the hall towards the bedrooms and into the kitchen.  I tried to call Michael, who was about to leave work, but it went straight to voicemail.  I couldn't get him, Callen was screaming in his crib, Preston was asking what was going on and trying to help soothe Callen.  It was just so ridiculous!  I was completely drenched, standing in water in my living room, trying to find all the possible towels and blankets and comforters in the whole house to use to soak up the water.  When Michael finally arrived, I kinda freaked out on him "Get in here!!!"  He went next door and borrowed a wet-vac and we were able to suck out most of the water.  We got everything cleaned up as best we could.  I am soooo thankful that I was up and heard it when I did, 'cause if it had been any longer that it went without stopping, it could have really ruined a lot of stuff.  I'm also super thankful that we have tile everywhere except the bedrooms, because it would have meant completely ruined carpet.  It did get into and under Preston's laminate floor unfortunately, and a good chunk of that is ruined.  I'm not sure what we're going to do about that.  Right now I just have a rug over the entrance to his room so that you don't stub your toe on the warped boards.

After we got everything dried out, we went to shampoo my beloved cow run with our expensive Kirby vacuum/carpet shampooer... and the dang thing would not work.  Well, it worked, then we tried to put on the shampoo accessories, took us a while to remember how and then when we got it on right... it just wouldn't even turn on.  Just up and decided to quit.  Thankfully, after just letting it rest a full day and putting the vacuum parts back on it, it worked.  We haven't tried to shampoo again, so we'll see.  But at least it's not completely dead like we thought at first.

And, currently our desktop computer is on the brink of death.  The fan isn't working so before it can even finish booting up, it overheats and shuts down.  I know this isn't the end of the world because we have the laptop, but it's a nuisance just the same.  And we don't have the money for repairs or a new one right now.  So it's just one more thing to add to the list of crappppp.

There are good things that have happened over the past few days, I should definitely take note of some of those.  Callen is about to be 6-months old and he's exploring new foods (carrots, avacado and bananas so far), he's rolling and scooting all over the place and doing his best to make words (mamamama, buh buh buh buh are the clearest and most frequent).  Preston is excited to start homeschool Kindergarten tomorrow and I feel like I am (mostly) prepared for it.  We are using the workbox system that I learned about last week at the Mom's Support Meeting.  It's more for me to make sure I stay motivated and have an idea of what we're doing everyday, but I think it will be great for Preston to work with as well.  He also starts soccer tomorrow evening! 

Anyway, it's definitely been a trying week and is sure to continue as my Grandma continues to slip away.  Prayers are always welcome, especially for my Grandma, so that she doesn't have to be in pain and that she doesn't have to be scared to leave us.  For the family, that we can find peace in letting her go.