What an evening!!

Jef wanted to have a special date with his wife-- in Nashville-- so I agreed to keep all the kids for the night. Sister Heather would keep them in the interim from about 3 until I could pick them up after work around 5. Then they'd be mine until Jen gets back tomorrow in time for me to go work. My boss agreed to let me come in at 1 instead of 12. She'll only be two hours away. Jef has to be at work in the morning... so all is well.

WAS well.

We all piled out of the van and came into the house and Sam and Zacky headed straight for the playroom. Then Sam comes out and asks,

Why is the playroom floor all wet?

GOOD QUESTION.

I went in and found that somewhere in my laundry room a leak was sprung and water was coming out into the playroom. The laundry room floor was full of water.

Oh, my. Now what?

"What are we gonna eat for dinner?" That would be Brad.
"Can I play a game on YOUR computer?" That would be Zack.
And then, without a word, Autumn begins to case out the place. It's amazing what that little one can pull out in five minutes.

Now what is Danny's number.
Where is the phone book?
I've gotta have help.

"Danny, could you please come over. I need some HELP. I've got a water leak and I can't figure out where it is." (He's my very good neighbor.)

I think I woke him up but he didn't say I did. (He works long hours as manager of a Foodland at Priceville.)

He came over and felt he had located the leak. Looks like my water heater was the source. After he determined that, we decided the best course of action was to turn off the water into the heater and turn off the pilot light.

Next.
The kids need to eat.

"Zacky, why did you pour that lego out all over the living room floor. Autumn will get all those little pieces. Pick it up right now, every bit of it"

"Did you kids, none of you think that you might have kept Autumn from pulling the Kleenex out of the box while I was dealing with the water problem?"

"What do you want to eat-- hotdogs or hamburgers?"
(Hotdogs, thank heavens.)
" No, Brad I do not want you to help me.
Just please go back and sit down and I'll let you eat first."

Josh. Josh. I need Josh. He can get the wet vac and help me get this mess up.

Now where is that cordless phone? If I can just get him. (No answer. Not from him. Not from Tesia.)

"Zacky, if you are not going to play with that block game you need to pick them up because Autumn is getting the blocks and taking them everywhere."


"Davis, I've got a problem. I have a water leak and I need a wet vac. Do you have one? No, I don't know what's caused it. We've turned off the water heater but I need to get this water up."

"I'm not worried about showers right now, really. I was just hoping you'd have a wet vac. Mine is shooting water out the top. I'm not sure why."

"Why yes, I'd be glad if you'd come over and see if you can figure out what the problem is. Let me call you back. I'm getting a beep."

"Sister Katie. Yea, I called you. I was trying to locate Josh. I need a wet vac. Oh, she does. Oh, you would. That would be great. I really can't go get one because I've got a house full of kids. Thanks. Yes, I'll call and ask if I can use it if you'll bring it over."

"Okay, kids. Let's eat. Brad you can be first. What do you want on this hotdog? You can't have ALL the chips. They are for everyone."

"Yes, Rachel I'll get you a drink. Just hold on."

"Okay, Sam. You want mayonnaise on the BREAD, not the hotdog and ketchup and mustard on the HOTDOG. Okay. "

"Oh, Davis. Thanks for coming. Yes, I have a flashlight but I have no idea where it is."

"Zacky come on and eat...."

"No Brad, you cannot have more until everyone has eaten. "

"Oh, Sister Katie.
Thanks for coming and for bringing the vac."

And I began vacuuming the water out of the carpet while Davis checked out the situation and decided he needed to drain the water heater so it would into continue to leak out the rest of its contents on to the floor.

He was trying to figure out how I would be able to get another one bought and installed and I'm thinking,

WHEN am I going to even have time to figure that out?

I work until late tomorrow night. I have freight to get out on Wednesday and church Wednesday night. I will be making up the time on Thursday that I took off tomorrow to keep kids. I work all day Friday and promised to help Tim move on Friday night and Saturday.

I'm thinking I shall be reliving the era of basin baths from water heated on the stove.

By the time I got everyone fed and bedded down, I was tired out. I'm sitting here waiting for the giggly kids to go to sleep so I can go to bed myself.

I thought today that keeping all these kids tonight could prove to be a challenge to me. But I imagined the challenge would be getting through the night without Autumn waking up and crying... or Rachel.

You never know.

Actually as the evening went on and one incident after another came up, while I was occupied with my disaster, I really considered my challenge to be staying calm and not getting upset with the kids because of the problems that were developing with them.

I did good.
I stayed calm.
We got the crisis dealt with, the kids fed and later snacked. They are all bedded down and quiet now so I'm outta here.

And I thanked the Lord I had agreed to keep the kids because I'm not sure when I would have even gone out to that part of the house, certainly not as soon as Sam and Zack did.

Judging by the area of wet carpet and dry, we caught the leak early on.

NEXT MORNING: Let me add, thought we had caught it. When I got up this morning there was even more carpet wet than when we came in yesterday, which makes me know we didn't locate the source and also lets me know we did catch it early on because the area of wetness is growing.

Back to the wet vac for me

.