Today started as a kinda fun and normal Monday. Joseph slept over. He came home Saturday night, since he was free and approved to be released from the leper covid colony, and cause he was speaking in our church to share some of his mission experiences. Funny, he's been home 8+ months and just barely having his "homecoming" address, that's how this year has been though! We trust that he is no longer contagious. And we're really hoping it is true, since the little boys were doing some Insanity Cardio with Joseph in the front room. All jumping up and down and breathing heavy and sharing air.
We talked to our missionaries a few times, they are doing good. Daniel wearing his spy glasses.
So, things got interesting when I left for violin. Peter was asleep on the couch in my room, Hyrum was still gone at the school district, Wes arrived home at 2:45, Abi and Lily walked in around 3:15. Daniel said he wanted to go with me so I got him ready, I told Abi she was in charge of Peter, we went to the car, I picked up the girls at school as I talked to Mel and Ethan. I could have waited in the car, but Daniel wanted to get out, so we get out in the winter cold air. Brr! We see Owen walk by, he wanted to ride the bus home alone so he didn't come to violin and that was fine. Mel and Ethan got a kick out of seeing the kids at their old elementary stomping ground. They are all so little and so cute! Especially Owen walking by with his big backpack, winter hat and boots, and face mask on. Sophi, Natalie, Daniel and I head back to the car. 5 minutes into the route to violin, I'm still talking/listening to Mel and Ethan, and I get a WhatsApp message from Abi. I listen to it. "Hi Mom. There is something... that has happened... very major... in your bathroom. I just walked in here, and I will send you a video or photo of it, and I have no clue what to do..." Followed by this video:
Did you catch that part where Lily yells "It's coming through!!!" What? "It's coming through!!!!!" then the video ends. I was like "Shoot..." and I told Mel and Ethan I had to go, there appeared to be an emergency at home.
I call back Abi - "Get towels, soak up the water, ring out the towel, repeat, just get all the water off the floor! Have you stopped the toilet? You have to jiggle the handle!" (It's been finniky for a few weeks, a new problem that I new needed to be fixed and now I'm kicking myself...) Then Hyrum calls. He had just gotten home and as he walked into the side room from the garage, it was obvious that there was a problem, as he saw water falling through the light fixtured in the ceiling... (photos courtesy of Abi, she gets points for documenting!)
I tell him, "Get bowls, catch the water, swap out one bowl for another until the water stops, Abi's working on it upstairs, see if someone can help her! Do you guys need me to come back? I can turn around but I'll be 20 minutes, can you guys fix handle it?"
We've had this problem before (Feb 2016). Several times before.... (Jan 2017). Once with a phone call from the kids at home (Wes in September 2017) letting me know that water was coming through the light fixtures in the side room... so yes, here we are again. "You guys got this, right?" Our violin teacher texted to ask if we were doing in person or online today. I said in person, I was getting off the freeway. Followed by "...although my kids are calling me at home with a plumbing issue, we've got water dripping through the ceiling so I might need to turn around and head back home, but I can leave the girls for their lessons". I call Abi and Hyrum again, you guys ok for an hour? Is it under control? I think they've got it, they're not so sure. I go in to the violin lesson with the girls. Sophi was going to go first, but then she needed to go to the bathroom, so I whip out my violin and have a quick 5-10 min lesson, playing Bouree and getting some great advice. I'm hitting the notes, bowing is good, to work on the tone by practicing with my bow playing closer to the frog to help me get a better sound on, relax my wrist when I'm close to the frog, and to also be sure I don't get to close to the bridge when I'm on the D string, great stuff, I feel like I have enough to work on until January. And then Corey is texting me telling me there's an emergency at home, he's heading home, and I should head home too. So I tell Miss Amy thanks and Daniel won't come with me cause he wants to play, so I leave him there and hope she'll forgive me and I run home with plans to be back in 45 minutes to pick them up. Ahh! I wonder who is the guilty person who caused this water leakage. I am positive I hadn't used the bathroom, plus I know to jiggle the handle, plus I don't use too much tp. I walk in. It was worse than I thought. (These are all still photos from Abi)
Owen told me he thinks we should get a new house.
Corey was home, he had just barely plunged the toilet upstairs. That's what I get for thinking Corey and I can have nice Charmin tp in our bathroom! Actually, I only bought it a few months ago because Costco was out of the Kirkland brand. Darn pandemic! Rona is to blame once again. The kids told me they had jiggled the handle and that it had stopped. I hope they really did.
I get to work. Every bathroom towel is wet and thrown in our tub, but the floor is still soaked. I go and grab the swim towels. I'm still pondering how this happened and how it caused so much flooding so quickly? The only other people at home when I left were Daniel and Wes. Wes says he never uses my bathroom and hasn't for weeks. Daniel doesn't use tp when he goes #1, and I know he didn't go #2 cause he hollers for me to come wipe him, and again, I would have jiggled the handle AND I wouldn't have clogged the toilet. I continue to ponder as I mop up water. No wait, Lily and Abi had just barely gotten home from school. But was the toilet so fast that it would flow over and make such a big mess so quickly, that in 10 -20 minutes it was pouring into the floor below? A mystery we may never know until the next life, when God can finally give me the answer all my deep questions - "Who clogged the master toilet on December 14, 2020?" I trust someday this mystery will be solved. We'll see if any of the kids fess up. Corey didn't know what to do to help, and I'm the one who handles these special projects anyway, so I told him to go pick up the girls at violin. While he was gone, I ran to Home Depot for a floor fan, they didn't have small ones, just a big major one for $99, so we skipped the carpet fan, but I did get a new side toilet lever and our toilet is now fixed. Next time, I will remember that when it comes to water issues, do not "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it due...". I should have fixed the handle sooner. Lesson learned and noted in my brain and here. Fix it. Our house is now in a state of disaster, so I shall now go start another load of laundry and wash more of our big kitchen bowls and beg the kids to keep helping me get the rooms that were not attacked in a lovely state, so we can have a feigned sense of calm in a few areas of the house. (thank you Hyrum for cleaning the front room and loading the dishwasher!) The rest of the kids helped too, but Hyrum was my big life saver. Sorry to keep you from your BYU essays! I trust you will be blessed for your sacrifice. Life is still good, even with water damage, but I'd be fine if this never happens again.
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