From Fantastic to Craptastic in 4.2 Seconds

Saturday started out as one of the best, most exhausting days I have had in a long time. I played in a volleyball tournament at the Simon J. Graber Building. We started playing in the Round Robin portion at 9:00 am. There were 3 other teams, so we played 3 games that morning. The matches were best 2 out of 3 games, and we were pretty worn out by the time they were finished up. We ate a bite for lunch (Thanks to the mothers on the team -- Beth and Jodi -- for bringing us snacks), then started a Double Elimination Tourney at 11:30. The matches in the tourney was played best 3 out of 5 games. I have to say, we were pretty much done for, but we toughed it out. It wouldn't have been so bad, but we only had a few minutes between games to rest. Turns out, our little team of old fogies was pretty good and we wound up winning the whole shebang. I'm not sure just how much bragging rights we have after beating girls who wear skirts to play in (not all of them were Amish, but there were a couple of them), but I had an ABSOLUTE BLAST playing ball again. I really have missed it! I hope that they call me again when they need someone to play with. I don't think I was too awful, but I was a little out of practice and I can't jump near as high as I used to. All in all, though, it was a great time! Thank you Momma for going with me; I love our days together! Not just a Momma, you are one of my best friends!

The craptastic part of my day started at about 3:30 when we were leaving Donut Hill. Grandma Ruth called me and told me that our basement was completely flooded!!! We have been having problems with our hot water heater, and decided that the bottom element was bad. Friday night, we replaced it, but that didn't solve the problem. Grandma and Grandpa stopped by later that night to look at it again, and we decided to change the top element out too. Somehow, we left a water hose turned on when we were messing with it (it was stuck down the drain so that we didn't get the floor wet, which is ironic), and it was left running for almost 24 hours. I never heard anything that night, and didn't check the next morning because I left the house early to go play in the volleyball tourney. Honestly, we are lucky if we go down in the basement once a week. The only thing down there that we mess with is Tim's hunting stuff and the cat's food and litter box; it's just not a room that we use very often. There is a spare bedroom down there too, but we don't usually have people stay overnight. Needless to say, it was a total disaster when I got home. My rubber boots certainly got a work out. We managed to get just about everything to higher ground, but the carpet and the wooden floor in the bedroom are pretty much saturated. Grandma and Grandpa got a sump pump and we finally started pumping the water out of the basement. The drain is completely filled up with sand, which is why the basement flooded to begin with, so it was absolutely useless. Chuck's litter box was floating around when Grandma first found the water (I bet he really, really had to potty), and his water-logged cat food was EVERYWHERE! Super long story short, we finally got the water all pumped out and now we are in a drying stage. I have Dad's propane heater and every fan I own down there trying to get the carpet and the concrete floor dried out. I'm hoping beyond hoping that we don't get any mold, otherwise we will have to rip up the floor. Tim is way too sensitive to the mold, and he would be unbelievably sick. So, come on propane heater! Do your duty!

Here are some pictures of the Flooded Basement Incident:

This is once we had been pumping the water out for a while and had gotten most of the floating cat food cleaned up (the cat litter box scoop worked well)

Gross! Soo much water!



She brought her duck to play in the water with us

Grandpa's rubber boots in the water

 Ducky in his natural environment -- He floats lopsided

 Ducky -- Comic Relief courtesy of Dixie

 The culprit of our hot water heater problems -- Notice the black, burned spot

"What's all the fuss about??"

"WHOA!"

"Hmm, it's sorta wet..."

 "Okay -- Here I go!"

"This isn't so bad"

Yeah, our cat's not normal, but he loves life, that's for sure -- Look at how weird his feet are under the water!

Sunday has been a lot better when compared to yesterday! I had some serious problems getting out of bed this morning. I'm positive that every muscle in my body is rebelling against movement of any kind. My calves are cramping, my thighs feel like they are ripping in two, my butt is sore, my abs hurt (especially when I cough -- OUCH), my right shoulder is totally worthless, and my hands even hurt. I took a hot bath with Epsom Salts last night at Mom's and that helped a lot. I have taken it pretty easy today, but I think that work tomorrow could be unpleasant.

I slept in this morning and laid around for a while. House re-runs were on, and I watched for a couple hours. My biggest project for the afternoon was to get rid of the wet boxes that were still in the basement. There is an old coal room down there (super creepy) that I call the Saw Room, because I feel like there should be chains hanging on the walls. We just use it for storage, and there was a bunch of cardboard boxes and stuff down there. Mostly, it was just the boxes that were ruined, but my box of Christmas stuff was down there too. My beautiful Christmas stockings were soaked! I sewed them myself this year, and I'm not sure if they are going to be salvageable. There are some pretty serious stains on them and part of the letters have come loose. I will do my best to save them! I cried a little bit when I found them -- They were from our first Christmas together in our house and are very special to me.

Now, Tim is headed off to work and my butt is parked on the couch. It is raining outside and I don't have the ambition (or will power) to attempt anything productive. Maybe I will attempt to wash the dishes and fold up the laundry -- I'll even reward myself with some chocolate when I get it done. My plan is to watch the Oscars tonight then go to bed early. As for work next week, my schedule looked pretty full when I left on Friday, so I'm sure that I will be busy! Looks like it's going to be a good week!!!   :^D