Golly, what a weekend!

It was an interesting weekend, to say the least.


FRIDAY:
DH was at a Klondike Scout Campout Friday night. No big deal, he often goes (at least once a month). Just after he left, I had scheduled one of the Stooges to bring his family's deep-cleaner-vacuum thing to clean our living room carpet. It was pretty nasty, since it's the most frequented room in the house. So, the stooge came (and brought another stooge) and cleaned the carpet. Since it takes so long to dry, I decided to take the kids to dinner. I called my cousin; she couldn't go. So I called a good friend, and asked her to go with us. She balked at the reason why she couldn't go --I finally convinced her to tell me. It was so sad --her good friend, one week from her due date, and delivered a still-born child. My friend was going to help her, and therefore, couldn't come. This made me feel really bad for her friend --I mean, REALLY bad. I also freaked out (although I swore to my friend I wouldn't) about my own child. For the last 3 days I've been very aware of movement inside of me and I take the time to make sure he's still alive in there...
Anyway, I took the kids to dinner. We went to Red Robin --I decided I wanted a waitress after having to wait in line so long the last time at Wendy's. Of course, we got there and the wait was 30 minutes. The kids were great, though --the waitress very kind, and we even got dessert. :) It was a fun time for all of us (except the rude laughing and looks from some people at a nearby table at the size of the mud-pie ice-cream dessert I ordered. No doubt they thought I was a big fat pregnant pig; did they not notice I put half of it in a container to take home? Man, they were rude. I was about to chew them out, but the dirty look I flashed them made them stop). We came back home, moved the furniture back in place and the kiddies went to bed. I actually went to bed early myself, which is uncommon when I'm without DH at night.

Around 2AM, #2 came in wanting a drink. At 4AM, #3 had a nightmare.

SAT:
We woke up, ate breakfast, dressed, etc. and I had a nice talk with the kids about it being "cleaning day". The kids were actually pretty okay with it; I cleaned the kitchen while they worked on their rooms. And they did a fantastic job! So then it was onto the hardest part: the basement. We have a family room and play room down there --and the kids get it pretty messed up. So, down we went.
Earlier in the week (around Mon or Tues) I had smelled what I thought was cat pee down there --but I couldn't locate the smell. So, I figured I'd find it later. Yes, this sounds just gross and awful that I waited until SATURDAY to search for the "pee" smell. But I did. Anywho --the smell was BAD...it was worse than even Thursday...and I thought "Did our cat bring in a friend to pee on our floor?" #1 told me that she knew where he had gone to the bathroom..."what?!"...and she showed me the "wet spot". OKay, folks, it was NOT pee (thank goodness). It was WAY WORSE.

The entire West wall of our playroom, including about 2 feet (and the entire length of the wall) was soaking wet. With water. From outside. And the smell was MILDEW.

Immediately, I got the kids to get everything out of there. Not much was damaged --and nothing beyond repair. I had a number of blankets and dress-ups to wash, but luckily all the stuffed animals were having a "tea party" at the "fancy restaurant" in the family room. We moved all toys and furniture out of the way, and I called DH and left him a message. I then thought of who I could call, but was too tired to care. I figured if the slow leak had been going on for days and days, another 2 hours wasn't going to hurt anymore than it already had.

So, the kids and I organized all the toys. We filled 4 large garbage bags full of stuff to give away, and another large bag of garbage. It felt good to get it all done; I had been wanting to have it done before the baby came.

Then DH called --VERY UPSET that I hadn't called anyone to come help us out. Within 20 minutes, our neighbor and ward member, who works at BYU over maintenance was at our door and discovered the problem: our pipe had frozen inside the house just inches from our front yard spigot. The pipe broke, and since DH had left the water dripping in order to prevent freezing and cracking (very bad advice we got from somewhere), the water was still running up the pipe, and then trickling back down. Our water main was right there in the wall in the playroom. Therefore, slow leak, bad damage, yucky smell. I was just grateful it was not a FLOOD.

So, thanks to this great neighbor (who told me to call him the next time something with the house happens and DH is not around), DH and he were able to fix the problem. The carpet pulled up fairly easily, and it's drying out with fans. Now we're just waiting for the insurance company to call us back to see how much we can get replaced. The paneling on the wall will need to be replaced, as well as the carpet. It's NASTY. Of course, it would be nice if we could replace ALL the carpet in the basement and up the stairs, since it's all the same. I think we might splurge for that if we can.

Oh, yes. And did I mention that I had woken up SICK Sat. morning? Yeah, that was yucky, too. And no, this isn't pregnant sick --it's head cold, nose running, coughing up gunk, regular kind of sick. That I can't take anything for. Because I'm pregnant. And being pregnant --37 1/2 weeks pregant--isn't exactly comfortable, either.

Luckily, DH and I had a long and peaceful sleep last night (no kids woke up! --oh, wait, yes, #2 had a nightmare, but I had gotten up to use the bathroom anyway, so it doesn't really count) and we were ready for today. Church went well and now we're home. Yes, not a bad day.

But I'm still tired, you know. And almost --ALMOST --laughing about yesterday... :)