Another Flood!

Trying to catch up a bit on my pictures while I've got a computer I can do it on!
A couple weeks ago we got close to 8 inches of rain in less than 48 hours. So we had another flood! We're very thankful we installed sump pump last year. It worked overtime, that's for sure!

They would fill up the water bucket from the sump pump and "water" the sidewalk! It kept them entertained for a long time!

LOVE their faces in this one!

The morning after the first rain-we got 6+ inches in a few hours' time. Our front sidewalk was completely under water. They didn't seem to mind that it was ice cold. Again, it kept them entertained!!

Craziness!

Oh my stars. We got MORE rain. It poured like you wouldn't believe Saturday. After it finally stopped, I stepped off our front curb into KNEE DEEP water!!! I've never seen that much water here. I'm so glad we have a sump pump!! It's been going like crazy since Saturday. Aaron said after the first "flood" he thought Glad we just spent $400 on a sump pump that we'll probably never need again! Wrong-o buddy! Our neighbors' pump has been going like crazy, too but the house on the other side of them--theirs hasn't gone but maybe 3 times since the first flood! It's crazy.

Completely flooded. And yes, our trash can knocked over so now there's nasty, wet trash all over. Lovely.

My garden even flooded!! Our yard slopes down, but we built up the garden about a foot or so when we put it in. There was actually water bubbling up from under one tomato plant!!

Flooded...awfully close to getting in the shed! That would have been very bad.

that's our neighbors' camper that they're loaning us for the 4th when all my family will be here to celebrate Anna's birthday! she is so so so excited about it (both the camper and her cousins coming!)

The kids had so much fun playing in all the water!

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Okay, Jacob got this race car book almost a year ago, I think. He's always loved it (*gasp* shocker, I know!). But just recently, he discovered it again and he L.O.V.E.S it! Lucky for him, Anna doesn't have any qualms reading it to him over. And over. And over. And over. I think she must have read that book to him 20 times in one afternoon! I'm uploading some videos. One of them is of her reading it to him. The book is about 5 pages and it rhymes, so she has it memorized and can "read" it to Jacob. They both love it!

After reading it to him 10 times in the bedroom, I hear her say

"Just a minute Jacob. I have to go potty. Just wait."

Then I look down the hallway to see Jacob trailing after Anna, book in hand. Then I hear

"Jacob! I have to go potty, just wait a minute!"

So I peek into the bathroom and see this:

What a sister!!!



Just hold on Jacob! I have to pull my panties up!!!

And this is what happens when Jacob gets ahold of a yogurt container when I'm on the phone with the internet company!! Isn't that just some lovely art on my floor?! Oh well.

So things have been fun around here! And we got a surprise visit from my parents for Father's day! The kids were excited to say the least! This week will be spent getting ready for all the family and Anna's party. Oh, and we have termites so tomorrow will be spent at Kim's while Orkin does their (ridiculously expensive) thing for that! When it rains, it pours...in more than one way!!!

Well...

This is how I've felt all week with no hot water...

And a little like this...

But then...

Our neighbors came over to install the sump pump! This is the only picture I have so far because guess what? IT'S RAINING AGAIN! But Aaron did make me go down and look at it (you have to go outside to get down there). It's a pump in a big bucket with holes in it...what's the big deal?! Other than the fact that it's making it possible for me to have hot water again. But really? I didn't need to clamber down there in the rain to see it. Men! ;)

Gone Fishin'

Have I mentioned that we're flooded? ;) We also have new Dollar General. I spent the best $2.50 today...on a fishing pole! Jacob wasn't as interested in it as I thought he would be. Anna was so excited about it. She spent over an hour outside this afternoon with it!

Jacob preferred to play in the water while Anna fished.

Look Mama! I caught a fish!!

She put the fish in the bucket. She doesn't like getting in the 'pond'...it's too dirty!

Jacob on the other hand...he doesn't mind getting in the dirty water. AT ALL.

Oooooo...what's this?!

Look Mama! I caught a fish too!!!

He did so good, just sitting on the curb playing. Until he walked "across the pond". Then he kept trying to go too far into the street. So he had to go inside. He was NOT HAPPY about that. I'm sure the neighbors thought he was losing a limb the way he carried on.

Anna stayed out there for at least another hour fishing. She had so much fun. I think the only reason she came inside was because she was thirsty!

So I think I know what she'll be getting for her birthday! The lake has great fishing, I hear. Although she might change her mind when she sees what real fishing entails...touching a worm and a real fish! :)

The flooding continues!

Well, Aaron got home early today and found another 14" of water in the cellar! It rained last night/early this morning but it didn't flood the streets so I didn't think our cellar would be flooded again. I had hot water for a shower today, so I figured we were fine. Especially since the little pump was still going strong. No such luck.

So he spent the afternoon using the bilge pump and it's below the water heater again. But the little pump can't keep up fast enough. Our neighbor is going to install a sump pump, but not until this weekend! So we'll see how it goes. Kim, we might be borrowing your bathtub again!!

The bilge pump is pretty loud, so I got Anna's "ear muffs" for her to wear. She had a lot of fun helping Daddy :)

Here she's telling me all about what they're doing.

That's a lot of water!

She would fill up this cup (also water being pumped out) and take it to Daddy so he could prime the pump.

She was afraid to go down there at first, but once she went down one time she liked it. She would just perch right there and watch Daddy work. I'm sure she talked his ear off, too! :)

The bright side of flooding...

I discovered that I don't like being without hot water...or a heater!!! The dishes pile up, the stinky towels get stinkier and so do Mom & Dad. Nice, huh? Well, the kids didn't seem to mind. Here's why...

First, they got to play in Daddy's car!

OH BOY...they found the mini pond at the end of the driveway! And that water coming out of the hose? That's being pumped from under the house! We estimate it's pumped out well over 45,000 gallons in the last 40+ hrs.!!

Whoops! Sister accidentally got Jacob in the face. He was shocked, and then...

Ooooo...I kinda think that was fun!

And this....THIS is REALLY FUN!!!

Oooooo...here comes a car!!!

He accidentally fell down in the water like this, but then decided it was kinda fun!

And then he discovered he could walk across the "pond" to where I was taking pictures!

Miss Priss, on the other hand...she hardly got wet. She preferred to sit on the curb and gingerly stick her feet in the water!

Uh oh...he knows what Mama's thinking! It's time to go inside before hypothermia sets in! The water was ice cold and it was probably only 65 degrees outside. But boy, did they have fun!

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Good news...we have hot water tonight! We're going to let the furnace air out a bit more before we turn it on. We have a heater in the kids' room and Aaron is my personal furnace so we'll be fine. Our neighbor is going to install a sump pump for us this weekend b/c the water just keep coming up from the ground. We are in a flood plain, but this hasn't happened before. You can actually see a current coming out of a hole in the ground down there! Hopefully the little pump keeps up tonight (there's a chance for rain almost every day for the next 10 days!) and the rest of the weekend until the sump pump gets in.

Craziness

You'd think I would've learned by now that I can't turn my back on this stinker for any amount of time! I was at the desk and Anna says "Mommy, what's that noise? It sounds like something is talking." I heard something faintly. Anna looked out to the living room and said "Oh Jacob is playing on the computer." I assumed she meant HIS laptop.........

Uhhh...wrong-o!

The TURKEY! He somehow got DORA to play!! Good grief.

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The really crazy thing is that our basement/cellar flooded last night. We got a TON of rain yesterday. Aaron woke up this morning and took an incredibly cold shower and went down to check out the hot water heater. And he found at least a foot of water down there. So he went and got a pump and came back and started pumping. Lucky for me, Addie was still at the college (graduation was Saturday) so after helping her load up, I took a shower up there. After over 6 hours of pumping, it's down about halfway. So I took the kids over to Kim's for baths tonight (thanks Kim!!). And luckily, Seth is still at the college tonight so Aaron can get a shower up there tonight. Hopefully by morning, it will be all pumped out and when Aaron gets home tomorrow he can re-light the pilot on the hot water heater! Whew. Hopefully it doesn't get too cold tonight since we have the furnace off, too! (It won't...even with all the rain and cooler weather, it's plenty warm in here).


You can see on the bricks back there how high the water was!

And on the pole you can see it, too.