And The Bottom Fell Out

Let me just say that on Saturday morning I was pretty sure that I had made a BIG MISTAKE waking up and getting the day started. Claire's birthday party started at 10am, so I woke up at 7:15 so that I could have a leisurely morning hanging out with family and getting last minute things done for the party....that did NOT happen.

After taking a shower and eating breakfast it was time to start assigning jobs, Allan's dad was going to stop at the pool and save the tables we would need, I was going to make a fruit tray, Allan was going to do a MINOR piece of plumbing upstairs and then head out to get the cake and baloons. We would all head to the pool around 9:45 to wait for the guests.

At 8:45 I hear Allan SCREAM "Heelllppp!!" from upstairs. I took off running with George, Gig, and Claire close on my heels. When I turned the corner to the guest bathroom two things happened almost simultaneously- I saw water spraying EVERYWHERE and I was airborn when my feet hit the wet tile the first part of my body to hit the floor was my left elbow, the second was my head. I was getting soaked, laying in pain on the floor, and Allan was being thrown towels to try and soak up as much water as possible (it was usuless by the way). Once I came out of the shock of what was going on I jumped up and ran back downstairs where I was greeted by a waterfall in my living room. Normally I love waterfalls, this time I DID NOT. George followed my down and started emptying Claire's toy buckets to catch the water. I called my dad who informed me he was an hour away but said I needed to find the water turn off thing out by the curb and use a "T" to turn it off. Needless to say, we did not have one of those tools. I proceeded to go banging on neighbors doors saying my husband is flooding our house and we need a "T" to turn off the water. One man said, "what is a T?". ARGGGHH!!!! Please keep in mind the water is still spraying all over the place and the waterfall in the living room is still flowing strong. By the time I got back to the house Allan and our neighbor Dave had pliers out and were able to get the water turned off to the entire house.

Having the water off was great for the whole stopping the flood thing, but not so great for the having six extra people in the house that needed to get ready for the party and me needing to get things together for the party that was starting in less than an hour. Bottle water was used to brush teeth, and we were all thankful that it was a pool party so we didn't need to look great.

The icing on the cake for me was when I was taking the big box of party favors that I had put together the night before out to the car and it fell out of the car causing me to say not so nice words as I chased bouncy balls down the driveway only to see them disappear down the street drain. All of the organization that I was so proud of was literally going down the drain. I spent the next ten minutes throwing bubbles, a few balls, diving sticks, and candy into buckets thinking why are we even having this stupid party, I don't even want my baby girl to grow up.

I got a call from my dad saying his famous quote "Don't sweat the small stuff...and it is all small stuff". I got my emotions in check, took some advil for my aching body (from the fall in the bathroom), and decided to be thankful that I had a lot of family around that pitched in to get all the last minute details taken care of and got us to the party less than five minutes late. As you can see below it turned out to be a great party and nobody even noticed the missing bouncy balls. Allan was able to find a fantastic plumber to come over at the last minute and fix the mess that was made and more importantly get the water back on. The waterfall in the living room was coming through the air vent, so there was no major damage to the drywall and with the help of a shop-vac, towels, and fans the carpet is finally dry. We survived!

I am just sorry that there is no video or pictures. It was all too hectic.