Good news/Bad news

I was working on cleaning my bathroom today, which is the job I most absolutely detest. The bus was coming to drop off McKenzie, so I hurriedly put the hand-held sprayer back into the slot by the bathtub, threw on my coat, shut the water off and ran outside. The bus dropped her off about 5-10 minutes later and we walked back into the house.

The bad news: I heard water running. It was coming from the kitchen; from a speaker in the ceiling. Not a place where water normally comes from.

The good news: We're planning on going to Seattle tomorrow for the weekend; a broken pipe and running water all weekend wouldn't be good.

I called my husband and he said to turn the breaker to the pump off and he'd be home soon. So I turned the breaker off, and got out a garbage can to collect the running water, and some towels to mop up the floor, countertop and cabinets that were soaked with water.

The bad news: We live in a two-story house, the kitchen is on the first floor.

The good news: The water flow seemed to subside after I turned the pump off.

My hubby came home from work, along with his brother, our all-around handy man, and pulled the speaker down from the ceiling, along with a bunch of soaking wet insulation. They got a lantern and a flashlight and peered into the kitchen ceiling/upstairs floor to see what they could see.

The good news: it wasn't a broken pipe, probably a broken drain pipe from my bathtub.

The bad news: They needed to cut a hole in the ceiling.

I protested...take the wood surround down from around the tub...please don't cut a hole in the sheetrock! Make sure that's what the problem is first! Oh, we have to, my hubby said. It's the ONLY way to dry out the sheetrock. I can repair it, his brother said...no big deal. Grrr...I've heard that one before.

The good news: it wasn't a broken drain...it was the water running out of the hand-held sprayer, which has a broken fitting, down under the tub. All they need to do to fix it is buy and install a new washer.

The bad news: I now have a hole in my kitchen ceiling.

The good news: It matches my messed up, wallpaper-free, need-texturing, need-painting walls, my water-damaged wood floors, and trashed-carpeted family room.

Christmas is how far away and how many people do I have coming over here?

Oh, and apparently, somehow I am to blame for this. After all, wasn't I the one using the sprayer to clean my bathtub? Remind me of that next time I decide to clean.

Project Runway

Does anyone else like to watch the show Project Runway? Now that we have cable again (that's another whole post) I sat and watched it for two hours last night...every show since the season started. Am I the only one that thinks some of those people are brilliant and some are just plain crazy? Some of the clothes they design and construct, in only a day or two, are stunningly beautiful to me, but some of them....oh my goodness! Still, I love the creativity of the designers. It's amazing and inspiring to me.

awakenings

Several days ago an acquaintance of ours called to check on my husband after his knee surgery. She's not a close friend, just someone we know; a lady that my husband watches out for because she's had a rough go of it the last few years and is in really poor health. She lives in a travel trailer on the back of a piece of property that has a house in the front that another family, consisting of a mom, dad and four little girls, rents. I told her I hoped she'd had a good Thanksgiving. She said she had. She said that she had been hoping she would have enough money to buy a turkey, but she just hadn't been able to afford it, but it didn't matter. She said the parents of the girls both had to work, so the four little girls had come back to her trailer and stayed with her for the day and that she was just so happy not to be alone on Thanksgiving.

I was humbled. I had so many leftovers from Thanksgiving that my refrigerator was overflowing and here this woman, who I know, didn't have enough money to even buy a turkey. I wish I had known. There are people like her, each with their own story, all over my community. Each story is different, each unique; this woman had had a good job working for the Wash. State Dept. of Ecology, identifying and cleaning up hazardous chemical spills. Because of her constant exposure to toxic chemicals, she now has permanent lung damage. She also was involved in a horrific car accident, caused by the other driver, leaving her with permanent brain damage. In her late 40s, she is unable to work and survives on social security disability payments. She had a home she sold a few years ago because she couldn't afford to keep it, but the money she made from it was all spent by her ex-boyfriend, who took advantage of her mental confusion and eventually became physically abusive to her. She was given three months to live about seven years ago and told me that she's really not sure why she's still alive, but that God must have some reason.

In my lifetime, I've never know what it was to go hungry. I've never had to worry about having a roof over my head. And I've certainly never gone without a special dinner on the holidays. I feel a tugging at my heart to do something to help those in our community less fortunate than myself, but I struggle to know what form that help should take. I know I can't save the world, I just hope that I can make a difference in one person's life.

It works!

I bought oil for my sewing machine today. My hubby took the machine all apart and oiled it, put it back together and voila'!! it works great! That man is my hero!

Who would have guessed that you have to oil your sewing machine more than once every 23 years?

Bella Boo

Bella came to hang out with Grandpa and Grandma tonight while her Mama, Papi, five sisters and brother, and three cousins went to the movies. My daughter and son-in-law are a glutton for punishment...or just love, love, love kids! I cherish the fact that I live so close to my children and grandchildren and can do these spur-of-the-moment fun times with them! Bella is a clown. She is such a fun baby to spend time with. She is the only baby I've ever seen that can actually make a walker go forward, not just backward! She loves any toy that lights up or makes noise and put some music on the stereo or computer and she dances away! She's chubby and happy and loved so much by all her siblings...she's just a joy to have around and I'm glad she came to see Nana and Grandpa tonight! :)