iDisaster

If it's not one thing around here, it's another! This morning I was in the shower when Lovey came in to use the washroom. I reminded her not to flush or she'd burn me from lack of cold water. The next thing I know she's shrieking with utmost horror in her voice:

Mummy! MUMMY!!!!!! My iPod is in the TOILET!!!!!!!! MUMMY!!!!!!!!

I peeked out around the curtain and witnessed the disaster firsthand. The whole "don't flush" thing worked to her advantage as the ipod hadn't sunk all the way down and was resting on a pile of toilet paper. It was definitely wet but wasn't quite totally submerged.

Me: Get it OUT!
L: (paralyzed with fear for the iPod coupled with fear of touching toilet water & accompanying substances)
Me: Just grab it! You've got to get it out of there!
L: (stuck, except for the glassy eyed stare swiveling between me and the bowl of human waste)
Me: the longer you leave it, the less chance you have to get it working! (still no action) Get it OUT!!!!!!!!

She is suddenly spurred into action and makes a grab for it (extreme handwashing later!)

I told her to go turn both dials on for the oven and set it on the lowest temperature, I've got soap to get rid of and I race through the rest. (sorry legs, maybe next time!). While I'm doing that Lovey is so panicked and freaked out that she can't remember how to work the oven & screaming like a depraved lunatic does nothing to jog Sweetie's memory either. When I get to the kitchen they've set the temp but not turned the oven on (separate dials). Obviously we've slacked off on the cooking duties too long! We throw it in around 9:45 and begin the fun, time-filler game of "will it, won't it?!?!?". It was a long afternoon for one little girl!

Murray was out at the time of the incident but came home shortly after to monitor the drying out while we went to church and he stayed home with his bad cold.

On the way home from church, Sweetie starts pondering about saving up for a new iPod. She hadn't see hers since last Saturday and despite her "it always turns up" attitude. It hadn't. She wanted to know if we had any jobs she could do to earn extra money. I reminded her that hadn't worked out so well for us last time and she dropped that idea in a hurry!

She then wondered if we'd buy her a new one for Christmas. I told her that would take our entire shopping budget and no one else could get any presents if we did that. The other 2 quickly disabused her of that notion. She then decided it would be ok if we just gave her some cash towars it, like maybe $50. I said I didn't think that would be a fun gift to give.

Then they moved on to fundraising ideas. Hmmmm. They decided it was too cold for a lemonade stand but she still had a gum making kit from some Christmas past. The bonus being that even if she didn't sell any, she'd have lots of gum made up for herself to chew! Lovey was on board and started making signs when we got in the door. Meanwhile, Sweetie is outside playing with the little swing they made out of a stick and some rope hanging off the tree in the front yard (she'll make someone a nice manager someday!)

While she's swinging, she notices something on the platform. IT'S HER iPOD!!! Sitting outdoors for 8 days straight. More screaming ensues as she realizes this is not good, not good at all for an iPod. (check out their handmade swing to the right of the picture)

So now we have a two for one drying station and we wait and we wait. Lovey's was in there for almost 6 hours and Sweetie's was in for about one. To our utter astonishment BOTH turn on and are functioning fine so far.

Here are the two extremely fortunate and incredibly ecstatic girls.

More valuable lessons learned today:

-even though Mum says to never put the iPod near the toilet or sink, it doesn't matter, you can dry it out anyway!

-you don't have to really look hard for anything, you can either track it on "find my iPod" or it'll turn up eventually anyway and even if you leave it in the damp outdoor fall weather for over a week, Dad can fix it for you!

Rain Rain GO AWAY!!!

It seems like every heavy rainstorm means a flooded basement these days! Now that we've pinpointed a couple (hopefully that's all of them!) entry points, we know where to watch on rainy days like today. So I did, allllll day and watched and worried and watched and worried. On Monday I bought some drain spout diverters so that instead of funneling all the rain from the roof down into the ground by the foundation, it will run 25 feet away from the house and on a downward slope away from the house. We also put buckets outside in places where there's a gap between the eavestroughing and the house. Huge puddles were forming in those spots so we caught as much as we could and I dumped those out periodically through the day. By mid afternoon I started hauling up all our lovely interlocking foam flooring. It doesn't get damaged by the water but it gets dirty and stinky and has to all be wiped down with disinfectant afterwards. I decided not to risk it this time and got all absorbent toys, clothes and the foam tiles all up off the floor. So of course no water came in! Oh well, it's not like picking up around here is going to hurt us and it's better than 8 hours of shopvaccing through the night!

Hopefully our $70 solution will provide some relief from the rain invasion. Murray did notice a couple spots where the floor was getting damp today and upon closer inspection, he found some cracks. Could it be so simple as patching/sealing/fixing a couple cracks in the foundation??? Could we really avoid an expensive excavation all around the house to inspect a draintile that may or may not be faulty??? Oh let's hope so!!!