Our Lesson of the Year . . . It's Always Something - Beware, very long post!

So, this was our first week off from daycare and school and the week started off great! Here is a picture of Olivia in her new suit. Her look of concern is justified. She is taking swim lessons (whole other story) and as of yet, is not very fond of swimming. Which is kind of sad because prior to the lessons she was a fish and we couldn't keep her out and now she's overly cautious. Anyway, another story for another day.

Here is a great picture of Juliana and Roger. I love this one. Just look at her face! She loves the water. She is always such a trooper and very willing to go along with whatever we do day to day but it gives me great pleasure to see her genuinely enjoying something. She had such a great time in the water.

Here are a bunch of "sister pictures". I love these as well!

So Wednesday came and out of the blue, Juliana decided about mid day to start a yelling spell. I'm not really sure what was bothering her, perhaps the two year molars who have been teasing us for about a month, who knows. The girl screamed and cried for literally about 70 minutes. I tried all the old trusty tricks like a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, taking off her socks and scratching her back, all to no avail. She kept screaming like a champion. I was on the verge of taking her to the ER, when it occurred to me to stick her feet in the pool. Voila! It worked like a charm, only that before I knew it we had gone from sticking feet in to skinny dipping (her, not me!) Oh well, whatever it takes, right?

So fast forward a day to Thursday. Started off pretty normal except that it was raining pretty hard. Roger left for work and Juliana was not having a good morning. So as I was changing Juliana in my room, my trusty friend Gabbi informs me that there is water coming in from the bathroom! Ok, not unheard of in our house, but still a bummer. So I call Roger and tell him my morning is turning out to be a doozy so he offers to come home and help. What a sweet heart, right? He said he also needed to backwash the pool because it was getting high with all the rain. So by the time he got home, we quickly went from bad to worse. My bed room carpet was beginning to feel damp as was the girls bedroom. So, I'm starting to get a little nervous because the rain is not letting up. I must have projected these feelings on Olivia because before I knew it she was walking around with this Saint in hand (I believe it is St. Anthony, though I'm not sure what he is the saint of). It was adorable - she's my little catholic! Also, I think she was copying my face as well because she's got the same "You have got to be kidding me" look that I had on.

So Roger decided to go to Home Depot and grab a pump to start moving water out of the backyard. So we (me, girls and my trusty friends Gabbi and Micki) stayed in my bedroom watching a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and waiting for Roger. After about 20 minutes or so, I don't remember what made us go to the kitchen, but that is when we discovered that the kitchen was beginning to flood! We through down all the towels we had (plus the ones that Micki lent us). This is just one of about 4 towel piles we had going on!

Once again, things got worse. I looked out the back door, which at this point looked like a fish aquarium with about 7 inches of water on the other side of the glass. The dogs room was flooded, the dining room was flooded and water from these two rooms was now pouring over into the living and play room! So, to make a long story, not that long, insurance company sent out restoration people, who proceeded to take out all the carpet with damage and set us up with about 25 fans and 4 dehumidifiers. My whole house sounds like a jet engine!

Here is the living room - carpet ripped out at the fire place

Here is the girls room

Here is another of the girls room

Here is our room

Here is another of our room

And here are a few of the play room or as we fondly call it the beloved "Red Room". (Sadly we used to laugh and make fun of the red carpet, but I think we will replace it with the same fiery red carpet)

Entrance to Red Room

On the bright side, we have an upstairs that we never used. So we moved in up stairs. Here is the girls new playroom/bedroom (We brought the most important thing - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) (And subsequently, of all the carpet to be damaged, why couldn't it have been the horrid pepto bismal carpet from the upstairs?)

Here is the girls new sleeping arrangements. They actually thought it was really fun laying on the mattress. Really fun, that is until it was actually time to go to sleep and they couldn't be in their real bed.

But you know what, we will be ok. Thankfully with the help of our wonderful friends, we will make it through as always. Here is a picture of my girls keeping it cool as a cucumber, which is what we are trying to do. Just pray that we can get new flooring fast. I don't know how "fun" the upstairs is going to be after a few days.