OH WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE SUMMERTIME WHEN YOUR ENTIRE BASEMENT FLOODS?

Many of you may remember this past Wednesday evening the viscious thunderstorms that came through central Ohio. Well of course true to form, Eldon was out of town and I was alone in my bed listening to Tornado sirens wondering if and when I should move the children to the basement. I had taken a Tylenol PM at 10 pm and the sirens woke me up at 11:30. (RUDE) I thought to go check on our laundry room. We have a door that goes to the outside in there and in the stairwell outside, is a piddly excuse for a drain that often clogs and sends water into the laundry room. Since it was raining so hard, and if you notice the state of my laundry room from the previous post, I should at least get the clothes off the floor so that the already clean ones wouldn't have to be washed again. I cleared the drain in my garments and then picked all the clothes off the floor. I looked out the window at all the lightening and marvelled at mother nature.



The next morning I thought, I should check the basement. It's always been a little sketchy during wet weather. I opened the door and saw Lake Gale. True to form a little toy floated by at the stairwell. Panic began to make my throat swell shut. That day I had a HUGE day at work trying to close deals out for the quarter ending June 30. The President of our company had already called that morning asking me how things were progressing on a certain deal. Jackson had a Dr. appt. at 10 am and Eldon was out of town. I called my mom in a panic asking how you got that much water out. We thought about calling someone to come do it, but I didn't want to pay $1000. I decided there was nothing I could do at that moment so I left and took Max to his swimming lesson, Jackson to the Dr. and then made a stop at Home Depot. Now this part of the story is my favorite.



Eldon and I are very different. He would have paid someone to come fix it, or would have thought it not a big deal and bought the smallest most affordable solution. Normally I would have paid someone as well, or I go buy the coolest gadget on the market to work on it myself. Jackson and I went into Home Depot and I bought the coolest Wet/Dry Vaccuum. I also bought one of those industrial strength fans. It cost a bit, but I thought well it's not $1000. I made plans for my mom and Lisa to come over after lunch to help. I also sent an email to Eldon that just said, FLOODED BASEMENT, CALL ME. Since his new promotion, he now has a secretary that can read his emails. Oh yeah, then the largest stress of the day, the State called me saying there was a problem with my quote on the deal that the President of my company had called earlier about and I was going to have to scrutinize a spreadsheet of 1000 lines before 2 pm. HOW!!!!



I dropped Jackson off, ran into work to try and solve my issue. I got a team of people working on it and then left. On my way home I stopped at Wendy's for lunch and ordered a large drink. I got going and it was a large Iced Tea. I add this only because I hope that many of you can relate to how annoying something that little can be. I can't drink Iced Tea!!! I don't want it, I want my drink! So I turned around and got it taken care of. Just more stress. I came home, and realized that we had to assemble the vaccuum. HMMM and I started moving stuff out of the basement while my phone kept ringing. Lisa came over while we were assembling the vaccuum and just laughed at how serious we were about it. Eldon called and said he got an early flight home and would be there. We started to work on the carpet in the basement. Eldon got home and we looked at the sump pump. It was totally fried. AHA an answer to our problems. I look outside and the sky is black. I thought to call Steve Sabin in our ward to ask him what to do. Well I dialed the number and handed the phone to Eldon so he could pretend it was his idea.



The tender mercies of the Lord were upon us as Brother Sabin answered the phone, said he was on his way to High Priest meeting but would stop by before and tell Eldon what parts to buy and then come after to help him put it in. The whole family jumped into the car because Eldon doesn't like to shop by himself for some reason, and we headed off to Lowe's. We bought one of the few sump pumps they had left and headed home. I put the kids to bed, realized I was exhausted and laid down while Eldon and Brother Sabin installed the new sump pump. They said that it ran straight for 10 minutes just pumping water out like crazy. Thank you Brother Sabin.



Our house now smells like a diseased bog, but we are getting it cleared up. I'm looking forward to spending time in our bog this weekend doing nothing! I feel like my test right now is fitting in everything that comes at me as well as what I already have on my plate. It's become a fun game (at least I pretend). You know after awhile, you can't smell the bog once you get used to it. It's probably not the best time to come visit us!