Flood!

If you've been watching the weather, you may have noticed the midwest (at least our part of the midwest) has had a typically wet spring. In the past couple of days we've had several more inches of rain with more on the way. So, I guess it didn't come as a huge suprise last Sunday when Tammy and the kids went to the basement to find a flood of water.

My immediate thought upon seeing the water was that the sump pump had failed and flooded the basement (nearly every house in Iowa has a sump pump and flooded basements are very common around here). I went straight to the pump and opened the well and tested out the pump and all appeared to be in working order. So, perplexed by what could have caused the flood, we ventured into the storage room where the water seemed to be originating. I looked around the base of the walls, examined the water pipes coming into and out of the house (that's where the main water lines come in and sewer lines leave the house), and everything appeared to be fine. We just couldn't figure out where al the water was coming from.

Finally, after considerable wondering and thinking on the subject, I remembered that the previous day I had used the outside hose hookup while doing some yardwork. At the top of the storage room, there is a small pipe leading to the outside where the hose attaches and we wondered if that may have been the cause. So, Tammy headed upstairs and opened the valve. Immediately, water began spraying out of the pipe and pouring down the wall into our storage room. I started yelling "SHUT IT OFF, SHUT IT OFF". Of course Tammy couldn't hear me so Adam in a panic rushed up the stairs and relayed the message.

It turns out the pipe probably burst during the winter time (we had a very cold December). The break just happened to be on the other side of the valve that controls the outside water flow so we didn't know about it until I used the outside hose. The previous day I had had the water on for 20 or 30 minutes. At the rate it was spraying from the pipe, that was more than enough time to cause the water to cover a signficant portion of the basement.

So that was the bad news. Fortunately in this situation, the good news far outweighs the bad. About half of our basement is finished. The pipe is located in the unfinished storage room so there is no drywall around it. The only carpet in the room is just carpet scraps that have been rolled out across the floor. We simply rolled those up and hung them outside to dry. The flood was bigger than just the storage room though and did soak some of our installed carpet. Fortunately, that carpet is heavy duty indoor/outdoor carpet with no pad under it. It was fairly easy to dry out with a few fans blowing on it for a couple of days. The water also didn't appear to damage any drywall and all the stuff we had on the floor of the storage room was in plastic bins so none of that stuff was damaged either.

I'm fortunate to have a very good friend (my running partner, Dave C.) who also happens to be a skilled plumber. He came over and quickly figured out what we'd need to repair the broken pipe (we ended up replacing the outside faucet and some of the copper pipes leading to it) and later returned to teach me how to "sweat pipe". It's something I had never done before and it was a good chance to learn it. It was actually quite easy and fun to do and made me want to go and replumb the dishwasher! Then again maybe not.

So, thanks to Dave and to the good fortune of a well placed pipe, a much worse disaster was averted this time. Two plumbing projects in one month is more than enough for me!

Rowan of Rin

Yesterday, our family drove down to Nauvoo and back. About 2 hours each way. During the drive we listened to a book on tape. It is a children's book, it says for 7 and up, and I would put it in the fantasy category. It was called "Rowan of Rin" by, Emily Rodda. Even though it was a children's book, we loved listening to it on tape. The story was great and the narrator awesome. Greg added about 20-30 minutes to our drive so that we could finish it (Lizzy and Ben didn't appreciate that, but the rest of us were thrilled). I would highly recommend it, even to adults. It certainly makes the drive seem shorter.

It is about a boy who doesn't really fit in at all in his village , but how his uniqueness ends up saving them all. It is a little predictable in some places (after all it is for 7 year olds), but still very enjoyable. It has a meaningful ending, and is very well written and narrated. Check it out at your library for free!

Hunting for eggs at the Jensens

On Good Friday, we went to a our friends, the Jensen's house for an Easter Egg Hunt. The kids all had a super time. We did too, visiting with our friends while the kids played. Even Ben and Holly, the two little ones had fun. Here are some pictures of our Egg hunting adventure!

Easter Egg Hunt fun

 

Laughing with Lizzy

Lizzy, our three year old, has always been a very verbal young lady. Lately she's been spouting out some really funny things. Here's a sampling:

* Lizzy - "My eyes kept opening and closing during the prayer." Mom - "Oh, you should try to keep them closed during a prayer." Lizzy - "I didn't do it! They were opening and closing by themselves!"

* Lizzy watches daily a show called Boo-Bah. I have no idea what it's about and have never seen it, but she calls me at work and tells me about it every day. (Here's a very entertaining Boo-bah site: http://www.boohbah.com/zone.html). The other day, her comment was, "That Boo-Bah is REALLY FAT! He's even fatter than you and mom!" If that's not a hint that we need to lose weight, I don't know what is.

* We were staying at a motel recently - Anna and Lizzy were sharing a bed. Lizzy was saying family prayer and had asked that I help her think of things to say. So, I would whisper things for her to repeat. I'd say, "Say, 'Please bless us that we will sleep good tonight.'" and Lizzy would repeat. At one point, I said, "Say, 'Please bless that Anna and I won't fight in bed tonight.'" With that Lizzy stopped and looked up at me with a VERY confused and frightened look. I repeated, "Say, 'Please bless that Anna and I won't fight in bed tonight.'" Another confused look, then, with a sigh of resignation Lizzy says, "Please bless that Papa and Anna won't fight in bed tonight." It was difficult to finish that prayer with a straight face.

* Lizzy's name is Elizabeth Cherrine Finch. Her middle name is my mom's first name. Anna's name is Anna Darleen Finch. Her middle name is Tammy's mom's first name. So the other day, Lizzy asked Anna. "Anna, what's your whole name?" "Anna Darleen Finch" "You're named after the DEAD grandma! I'm named after the LIVE grandma!"

* We try to read a little in the scriptures with the kids each morning. One morning we were reading about some battle where it said something like, "And the army did march forth to battle." Lizzy perked up at that and shouted. "Hey, that's my BIRTHDAY!!!" Indeed, March 4th is her birthday.

A new dishwasher

Well our big excitement for the week was acquiring a new dishwasher. As you can imagine, most of the time you get something new, it is because the old one is broken. Yep! our old dishwasher was leaking water all over it. I noticed that it had started leaking during the family reunion (why is that whenever we have my family coming into town, one of our appliances break?). It continued to leak, so I asked Greg to take a look at it. He had successfully fixed the dishwasher at our old house, but no such luck here. Any way, instead of paying someone hundreds of dollars to fix our very old dishwasher, we thought we would spend hundreds of dollars for a new dishwasher. We were able to find a stainless steel one that matches our other appliances for a reasonable price so we got it. It does have a little scratching on the front, but we're ok with that.

Greg, chose to install the dishwasher himself to save us the fee of having "them" install it. I don't know how many of you have ever installed a dishwasher, but it is not the most comfortable thing ever. Much of the time is spen on your belly on the hard kitchen floor working in a space not bigger than a bread box. Real fun. Of course, after Greg installed the new dishwasher, we realized it was not the dishwasher leaking, but the hose underneath the dishwasher that was leaking. We also discovered that it had leaked some through the ceiling and down into Greg's workshop in the basement. Sometime in the long future, we will need to replace some of the wood when we redo the kitchen floor. Greg had to buy a new hose a spend another night working on the dishwasher.

Greg got the worst of this one, unless you count taking the kids dishwasher shopping as worse. We are glad for a new dishwasher. I am glad for Greg for using his time and skills to install it.

Greg hard at work installing the dishwasher

 

Out with the old

 

In with the new

 

Thank you Vanna