Prescription

After a few crazy weeks, this was just what the doctor ordered:

Clear skies, blue(ish) water, cold drinks, good company. Ready to do this again in a few short days!

World Cup Ready!

Here we go Team USA! On to the Round of 16!

Couch Trials

As I previously mentioned, the night before Darrell and I discovered our basement had flooded, we spent a solid hour trying to get our couch into the basement. There isn't a whole lot that needs to be said about the endeavor, other than it didn't fit. No matter what we did.

Can you spy Darrell? And note the missing door frame.... Still wasn't enough for us to be able to make the turn

Little harder to tell on this one, but Darrell is trying to squeeze out from under the couch to reevaluate the situation

In retrospect, it's probably okay we couldn't get it down there. While it may not have been in the flood-damage area, it probably would have still needed to be removed from the basement. And about halfway through our ordeal Darrell said that if we ever got it into the basement that it would not be coming up in one piece. So thankfully we didn't have to put that plan into action less than 24 hours after moving it downstairs. The couch has since found a new home, and we're on the hurt for new basement furniture. Once we, you know, get it recarpeted and everything. Minor detail.

Like Father, Like Son

I couldn't have asked for a better father and role model for my son.

The Sump Pump Dumps

In case you've been living in a hole (or not in the Midwest), Sioux Falls has gotten record amounts of rainfall this month. And it hasn't necessarily been a "rain a little bit every day" kind of thing; it's been more of a "let's dump an inch of rain (and hail!) an hour" kind of thing. Great for keeping our lawn nice and green, not great for flooding.

In our old house, we never worried about heavy rains. Because we had a split-level house, our basement was only four-feet under ground, and on the off-chance that the ground became SO saturated that it would cause flooding issues at that shallow depth, we also chose to install a sump pump. In the (almost) five years we lived there, I think there were only three rainstorms that were bad enough to cause our sump pump to run. So when the rain started to POUR down on Saturday night, we didn't think a whole lot of it. Our new house is also a split-level (although it may have a five-foot basement), and it is also equipped with a sump pump, which the previous owners had told us was in working condition. We saw posts on Facebook about people having to clean water out of their basements, and even went to church Sunday morning where we heard more of the same stories. In spite of all this, it still never crossed our mind to go check our basement.

In fact, the only reason Darrell actually went down to the basement Sunday after church was that he wanted to touch up the paint on some of the walls we had scuffed trying (and failing) to move our couch downstairs the night before (that's a story for a different post). All it took was one step off the bottom stair to realize that we were in trouble--BIG trouble. I'll spare you the details for now because I don't have any of the pictures uploaded, but for all intents and purposes there was at least an inch of standing water covering 90% of our basement. And our sump pump? Completely full of water and not pumping a lick. Were we shocked and upset? Absolutely. But devastated? Not so much. Here's why:

1. Because we discovered the damage on a Sunday, Darrell didn't have to take time off work to help clean up some of the water and relocate our stuff (granted, I don't think shop vac-ing 175 gallons of water out of the basement was high on Darrell's to-do list for Father's Day, but whatever). 

2. The rain we got Saturday/Sunday was not nearly as bad as the rain we got on Monday. When we called our plumber, water removal service, and insurance agent on Sunday, they were already backed up (our insurance agent was still dealing with hail damage claims from the week before!). However, given the rain and flooding that occurred on Monday, I am certain all of those people are even more backed up.

3. Despite being busy, our plumber was able to get to the house Monday morning and fix (aka replace) our sump pump, which meant that we got no new water in the basement during that storm (it makes me shudder to think how much more we could have gotten; our sump pump was running almost continuously for a solid eight hours). Additionally, Intek was able to get here Monday evening to get rid of the damaged carpet and suck the rest of the water out, which was good because it was already starting to get pretty dank smelling down there.

4. Darrell and I pretty much hated most of the finishings in the basement--the two bedrooms had industrial-style carpet, and some of the walls had some awful wood paneling. The majority of the carpet was ripped out as a total loss, and most of the wood paneling was removed because it was going to prevent the drywall from drying out. Although this is much sooner than we had anticipated re-doing the basement, now we'll get to do some of it with our insurance money (less our deductible, of course--but that's an insignificant amount compared to what it would have cost to re-carpet the entire basement). 

5. Aside from the carpet and wood paneling, there was hardly any damage (I'm certainly not going to lose sleep over throwing away a few wet pillows). All of our storage areas got flooded, but when we moved I insisted that anything placed into our storage areas was stored in a plastic tote, not a cardboard box. So no damage there. Additionally, the bedroom that was storing all of our boxes with our picture frames and wall decor items (because we haven't gotten around to doing any decorating) had a stage built into it (don't ask why), and for whatever reason when we moved in I put all of the boxes on the stage instead of on the floor. So all of those items stayed nice and dry.  However, the bottom of a few electronic items (namely our shredder and Darrell's old, old desktop computer) got a little wet, and we haven't gotten around to testing either to assess the damage. Thankfully, a shredder is easily replaceable and I'm pretty sure we moved all "valuables" from Darrell's desktop to our laptop years ago, so there shouldn't be any major losses there. 

Does it suck to have a flooded basement? Absolutely. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy (well... Maybe a little bit of water. They are my worst enemy after all). But this is why we have homeowner's insurance, and why we had the sellers purchase a one-year warranty on all appliances in the house. Granted, we were anticipating that the warranty would come in handy on the 26 year-old furnace and air conditioner, not the sump pump, but whatever. Covered is covered. Now if only the massive dehumidifier and three industrial fans would dry up the last bit of carpet downstairs so our house stops smelling so dank that'd be great. And then I can get started transforming our basement into something I'm proud of!

Never Done That Before...

Well, I have officially used a lint roller on a door and the ceiling in our (not-so-new) house. Why, you may ask?? Because they were disgusting and covered in dust. We noticed the dust on the ceiling first, and because we have popcorn ceilings (boo!!) Darrell thought a lint roller would make less of a mess than trying to wipe with a dust rag. Today I noticed the same buildup on a door, and because the lint roller seemed to work so well last time I just went with it. Weirdly, though, it is only the ceiling and door in the master bedroom with this dust-accumulation issue, and only the top half of the door at that. Best explanation I can come up with is that they had their dog sleep in the master bedroom with them, although that wouldn't explain why dust covered only half the door. Who knows. And who knows where else I'll find places to use my lint roller--it's a nifty little gadget!

Driver's Ed Anyone?

How's that for a spectacular parking job?? This was the predicament Darrell and I were faced with after church a few weeks ago (his is the silver car--and yes, we were there first). And of course, unlike most Sundays where we hang out and socialize for a little while after church--making this situation not as big of a deal--this was the one Sunday we were in a hurry and wanted to get home ASAP. Darrell really wanted to go inside and make a (loud) announcement to people sitting around enjoying coffee fellowship to find out whose car it was, but I know my husband in those type of situations and I know that his "announcement" would have not been very calm and would have likely hurt feelings. Trying to be the less confrontational calmer one, I convinced him that we should wait it out (it wasn't extremely important that we get home right away; it was just for the sake of William needing to go down for a nap because he was already almost two hours "late" for his nap thanks to church). Unfortunately, the lady parked next to us was apparently in no sort of hurry to leave, and we ended up waiting nearly 45 minutes. Needless to say, we were all pretty stressed (and overtired) by the time we got home. But miraculously, there was no damage to our car. Not entirely sure how she managed that, but whatever. It's also safe to say that we've learned a few lessons about ideal (and less-than-ideal) spots to park our car, especially when we have to navigated getting a door open wide enough to get William into his car seat. Lesson learned. 

How to Win Parents of the Year

Step One: Have Daddy take the day off work (yay!!).

Step Two: Decide to take advantage of the fact that the rain from the morning seems to have ended and go to the zoo in the afternoon.

Step Three: Start driving to the zoo and discover that there seem to be more storms on the way.

Step Four: Pull up smartphone to check the radar.

Step Five: Receive a tornado warning while checking the radar but establish that the system is going to be north of where you are headed so you continue onward (plus the warning will have expired by the time you get to the zoo anyway).

Step Six: Get to the zoo and realize that there are other storms behind the initial tornado threat, and these seem to be headed right at the zoo.

Step Seven: Decide that you can always take covered in a covered animal exhibit (like the penguins!) or inside the museum if it starts to rain and head in to the zoo anyway.

Step Eight: Make it to one animal exhibit before deciding that rain looks imminent and agree to wait out the storm inside.

Step Nine: Be inside for no fewer than ten minutes before the tornado sirens start going off.

Step Ten: Get ushered to the banquet room in the middle of the museum and hang out there for forty-five minutes (through two tornado warnings and massive hail).

Sounds pretty easy, right? Definitely a sure-fire way to lock in that Parent of the Year Award. Because look how much fun we were having!

They had face-painting, animal pelts, candy bars, and even people in animal costumes! I think the zoo is definitely the place to be during a tornado warning. Although it would have been nice if they had offered covered parking so Darrell's car didn't get hail damage--including getting the tail light busted out. Maybe something we'll have to consider next time we decide to go out when there is a threat of tornados.

Silver Lining

William puked this morning. Full on, all-over-everything puked. But I'm doing my best to stay positive and look for the silver lining in the ordeal and not let it ruin my Monday.

Silver Lining Number One: He puked in his car seat on the way to Darrell's office (because Darrell forgot his lunch at home). This meant that Darrell was able to come out and take care of the majority of the mess for me--all I had to worry about was getting William into a change of clothes, and Darrell even took the puke-y clothes off for me! (thank goodness I had an extra outfit in his diaper bag!) I have a notoriously weak stomach, and while I know things are going to get worse before they get better with kids, it was nice to have Darrell's help with the majority of the mess. (I still have to be responsible for rinsing out his clothes and car seat cover before getting them in the wash--a task that I might need to do while breathing through my mouth.)

Silver Lining Number Two: Not only was I already planning to do laundry today, but the load that William's car seat cover needs to be washed in had not been washed yet. That may not sound that remarkable, but considering I had already started two of my four loads before leaving the house this morning, I consider it fairly lucky that I hadn't started the load I was going to need.

Silver Lining Number Three: Even if I weren't able to get William's car seat cover washed and back on his car seat in a timely manner, it wouldn't be an issue anyway because we just ordered a new car seat for William and it is on the truck for delivery today! We have him in a rear-facing convertible seat in Darrell's car (and have since he was born), but up until now he was still riding in his infant car seat in my car (although I long ago stopped removing the car seat from the base to carry it around. Little devil was too heavy for that business!). He's pretty much at the point of having outgrown it, though, so as of tonight he will be in a new rear-facing convertible car seat in my car as well!

Here's to hoping I find more silver linings in my dark clouds today--or maybe just no more dark clouds!!