Often times, things don't exactly turn out the way we envisioned them. After a pretty intense school year and a too-busy spring, I was looking forward to a lazy, laid-back, stress-free, restful, relaxing summertime. But . . . no.
Our June turned into a month of four baseball tournaments and a lot of practices for Allstars. If we aren't home, you can find us at the ball field. You know, I'm really not a ball field kind of girl. So I had to come to terms with that last week, which also meant giving up on that restful, relaxing summertime I'd been dreaming of.
And then came this week.
Sunday night after Mason took a shower, he came running downstairs to tell me that his sink was full of water and almost overflowing. He can be so dramatic sometimes. And then I go upstairs to find this.
His sink hasn't really been draining properly for quite awhile, and I've been saying that something is wrong with it. We suspected a few months ago that someone (and I'm not naming any names . . . I don't even have to) had been mixing up concoctions of lotion and who knows what else and then dumping it down the sink. But I hardly think lotion could clog up a pipe, which means it wasn't just lotion that went down the sink.
But Sunday night was different. The sink was full, and Mason hadn't even used it, which meant the shower had backed up in it. And it wasn't draining. At all. So I grabbed a bucket and loosened the pipe underneath the sink so I could drain the water out and into the bucket. My bucket wasn't big enough for all the water so I had to fill the bucket, tighten the pipe and then come downstairs to empty the bucket. The door to the back porch was the closest so that's where I went to dump the water. When I was coming back inside after my second trip, I felt something slimy land on my arm as I was closing the door. Needless to say, it scared me to death, and I screamed. The kids all came running in here. I told them I thought it was a frog. I didn't bother looking for it because I was just trying to drain the water out of the sink.
So I'm upstairs again, and I hear Mason yelling that there's a gecko in the house. Great. But, honestly, I really don't care. I'm more concerned about my upstairs bathroom flooding. I finally drain all of the water and decide to leave the bucket under the sink "just in case." My solution? I tell the kids they can no longer use the bathroom upstairs. At all. But they aren't worried about the upstairs bathroom. They don't want to share the house with a gecko. Under normal circumstances, I would've let it ride. I was so tired, it was late and it had been a really long day. But, alas, I finally found the gecko and managed to get him back outside.
Of course, Seth is in Wyoming while all this is going on. He is ALWAYS out of town when the really fun stuff goes down. When I told him Sunday night what happened, he said I needed to get the shop vac and duct tape it to the pipe and suck it out. And drano. Clearly, we are beyond home remedies now.
I decided it was probably time to call a plumber because something was clearly very wrong. But I wasn't in a hurry because they could just use the bathroom downstairs instead. I honestly didn't want to deal with it. No big deal. Until the next morning. Mason wakes up and tells me there's water in the bucket under the sink. How can that be? No one had used the upstairs bathroom since I drained the sink the night before.
So not only was there water in the bucket under the sink, but the water was overflowing into the bottom of the cabinet. So I dumped the bucket downstairs again and cleaned up the rest of the water. I noticed a steady drip of water coming from the pipe that goes into the wall. So I called my father-in-law.
To make a very long story short, it took two days, but my father-in-law was able to unclog the pipe. We still have no idea what it was, and I probably don't even want to know. I always feel so bad every time I have to call him over here when Seth is out of town. But you know what? It wasn't over yet.
Last night on the way home from baseball practice, my truck starts "yelling" at me, and all the lights are flashing. It's telling me the PSI in one of my ties was 13, and I watched it go down to 5 in about five seconds flat. It was late, it was dark and I just wanted to go home. So I drove the rest of the way on a flat tire. As soon as I got out of the truck, I could hear the air coming out of the tire. I looked at it and immediately saw it - a hole in the tire so big that I could put my finger in it.
So . . . I had to call my father-in-law. Again. I told him I just wanted to be sure it was okay for the tire to sit on the rim completely flat all night without damaging the rim. He said it would be fine. So I turned the light off, shut the garage door and walked inside.
This morning my father-in-law came back over. He put the spare on for me and called around to find a place to get me a new tire. I wasn't able to go today because Hannah Kate was leaving for church camp, and Mason had baseball practice again so he took the truck for me and got it fixed. When he brought it back this afternoon, he told me to call him if I needed anything else while Seth was gone. I mean, I think I've called him enough this time around, and I really don't want to call him again this week!
Our June turned into a month of four baseball tournaments and a lot of practices for Allstars. If we aren't home, you can find us at the ball field. You know, I'm really not a ball field kind of girl. So I had to come to terms with that last week, which also meant giving up on that restful, relaxing summertime I'd been dreaming of.
And then came this week.
Sunday night after Mason took a shower, he came running downstairs to tell me that his sink was full of water and almost overflowing. He can be so dramatic sometimes. And then I go upstairs to find this.
But Sunday night was different. The sink was full, and Mason hadn't even used it, which meant the shower had backed up in it. And it wasn't draining. At all. So I grabbed a bucket and loosened the pipe underneath the sink so I could drain the water out and into the bucket. My bucket wasn't big enough for all the water so I had to fill the bucket, tighten the pipe and then come downstairs to empty the bucket. The door to the back porch was the closest so that's where I went to dump the water. When I was coming back inside after my second trip, I felt something slimy land on my arm as I was closing the door. Needless to say, it scared me to death, and I screamed. The kids all came running in here. I told them I thought it was a frog. I didn't bother looking for it because I was just trying to drain the water out of the sink.
So I'm upstairs again, and I hear Mason yelling that there's a gecko in the house. Great. But, honestly, I really don't care. I'm more concerned about my upstairs bathroom flooding. I finally drain all of the water and decide to leave the bucket under the sink "just in case." My solution? I tell the kids they can no longer use the bathroom upstairs. At all. But they aren't worried about the upstairs bathroom. They don't want to share the house with a gecko. Under normal circumstances, I would've let it ride. I was so tired, it was late and it had been a really long day. But, alas, I finally found the gecko and managed to get him back outside.
Of course, Seth is in Wyoming while all this is going on. He is ALWAYS out of town when the really fun stuff goes down. When I told him Sunday night what happened, he said I needed to get the shop vac and duct tape it to the pipe and suck it out. And drano. Clearly, we are beyond home remedies now.
I decided it was probably time to call a plumber because something was clearly very wrong. But I wasn't in a hurry because they could just use the bathroom downstairs instead. I honestly didn't want to deal with it. No big deal. Until the next morning. Mason wakes up and tells me there's water in the bucket under the sink. How can that be? No one had used the upstairs bathroom since I drained the sink the night before.
So not only was there water in the bucket under the sink, but the water was overflowing into the bottom of the cabinet. So I dumped the bucket downstairs again and cleaned up the rest of the water. I noticed a steady drip of water coming from the pipe that goes into the wall. So I called my father-in-law.
To make a very long story short, it took two days, but my father-in-law was able to unclog the pipe. We still have no idea what it was, and I probably don't even want to know. I always feel so bad every time I have to call him over here when Seth is out of town. But you know what? It wasn't over yet.
Last night on the way home from baseball practice, my truck starts "yelling" at me, and all the lights are flashing. It's telling me the PSI in one of my ties was 13, and I watched it go down to 5 in about five seconds flat. It was late, it was dark and I just wanted to go home. So I drove the rest of the way on a flat tire. As soon as I got out of the truck, I could hear the air coming out of the tire. I looked at it and immediately saw it - a hole in the tire so big that I could put my finger in it.
So . . . I had to call my father-in-law. Again. I told him I just wanted to be sure it was okay for the tire to sit on the rim completely flat all night without damaging the rim. He said it would be fine. So I turned the light off, shut the garage door and walked inside.
This morning my father-in-law came back over. He put the spare on for me and called around to find a place to get me a new tire. I wasn't able to go today because Hannah Kate was leaving for church camp, and Mason had baseball practice again so he took the truck for me and got it fixed. When he brought it back this afternoon, he told me to call him if I needed anything else while Seth was gone. I mean, I think I've called him enough this time around, and I really don't want to call him again this week!
After I got Hannah Kate off to camp, I came back home and began the massive project of purging Ellie's room of all the junk. I have to do this about four times a year. Oh, that girl. I should've taken a picture of what I brought out of her room. I mean, I just can't even! And every time I say I'm not going to let it happen again. So after I finish this project, I notice I have a missed call and voice mail on my phone. The number was registered in New York, New York so I knew immediately it was a junk call. But usually they don't leave a message. It was an automated message, and the beginning of it was cut off so I heard only that there are four serious allegations against me, and I needed to call a particular number within the next 24 hours or I will be arrested.
Seriously.
I can't make this stuff up.
That's been my week. And it's only Wednesday. What about you?
Oh, and if you don't hear from me after tomorrow, I guess you know where to find me . . .
Just kidding. I'll be at the ballpark.