OMG!
What a week!
Parts of it have been good. Parts of it have been awful. And parts of it have been really bizarre!
For starters, the girls have all had some sort of mystery virus. I can't even tell if they all have the same thing, but they've all been sick. N went to the doctor last Friday with sores in her mouth and a low fever. Eating and drinking were so painful for her that she prayed before supper one night, with tears in her eyes, "Please God, help my mouth stop hurting." The doc diagnosed her with the "cold sore virus" (a nice way of saying oral herpes) and prescribed anti-viral meds. The meds have helped immensely and N quickly bounced back to her old self.
That was right around the time her sisters started getting sick... Tuesday evening-ish. L seems to me to have something resembling hand foot and mouth, which N and L both had last summer. She has the rash, but the fever isn't bad. She has no mouth sores, is eating like a horse, and she has been very cheerful through the whole thing.
Poor little C, however, has not been in good spirits. She has a very high fever, hovering between 101 and 104.5 (yikes! fevers are so scary!) but no other discernible symptoms. She won't let me get a good look in her mouth, so I can't tell if she has the sores. She's refusing all solid foods (she was never too crazy about them anyway) but is still nursing like a champ. I'm glad that seems to be comforting her, because she seems otherwise completely miserable. She's constantly whimpering, sometimes shaking and shivering, and is only really happy in the arms of Mommy or Daddy. Last night she slept well from about 7 PM to 12:30 AM, and for the remainder of the night she was either up crying or sleeping with her head resting on my chest. She would not be put back in her bed, despite multiple doses of tylenol and motrin. Can you blame her? I wouldn't want to be alone in such a state.
If things continue this way tonight, I will definitely be taking C to the doctor tomorrow to see if there are any anti-viral meds to be had for her.
Sorry to ramble on, but I just don't do well when my kids are sick. I feel like I'm in a constant state of sleep-deprived panic. Now that I've written about it, I feel better. Moving on...
So we decided our first home improvement project would be replacing our toilets-- they were both nearly as old as the house. Because of some cramped measurements in the upstairs bathroom, we decided we would need a professional to install them rather than M doing it himself. In hindsight, I'm really glad we made that decision.
The plumber had a window of time free Tuesday morning, so we scheduled the toilet replacement for that morning, figuring it was a quick job, and the plumber would be done in time for me to pick N up at school and then leave for my afternoon of teaching (M took a half-day off from work).
Big mistake. Never assume that a home improvement task is going to be a "quick job".
When the plumber arrived, he didn't want to touch the water shutoff valves on the toilets, because they were so old that he was afraid they wouldn't turn back on. So he shut off the water for the whole house. The water shutoff valve for the whole house is also quite old. Do you see where this is going?
You guessed it... the plumber replaced the toilets no sweat, but when he went to turn the water back on, the valve was broken in the off position. The only way to turn the water back on was to have the water department come, turn off the water at the street level, replace the broken shutoff valve in the house, and then turn the water back on at the street level.
So I called the water department. I assured them that yes, this was an emergency situation and we needed somebody to come right away. No, it couldn't wait until tomorrow. I was housebound with a recently toilet trained 2-year-old and no usable bathroom. I'd call that an emergency if there ever was one!
Meanwhile, I called M to pick up N at school, since I had to be there when the water department arrived. Thank goodness he was already planning on leaving early.
The very kind water department guys came with their schematic diagrams to measure and find the street shutoff valve for our house. They found the place where the valve should be (which was under the blacktop in the road) and started digging with their jackhammer (while two of my babies were trying to nap! yes!!) and then broke out their shovels once they got through the blacktop.
(I left for teaching around this time, so M was home alone with the girls for the rest of the saga.)
15 feet of digging and two hours later, the water department guys had still not found the shutoff valve. In fact, what they did find was another layer of blacktop. Apparently, the road had been re-graded in the 1970s, and at that time they piled dirt up over the old road and then paved again. Our water shutoff valve (for our house built in 1957) was under that second layer of blacktop, nearly 20 feet under the current road.
Who could have known this?? Seriously??!!??
The water department guys had to leave (they had been pulled off another job to come to us) so they created a temporary water solution by running a hose from our neighbor's house to our water supply. (Howdy neighbor, nice to meet you! Mind if I borrow your water supply? Sheesh!) They promised to be back in the morning to continue digging and find the street shutoff. They also said they'd do us a favor and replace our house shutoff valve, since technically the town should have a shutoff valve (that they own) behind the water meter on the house, but such a valve does not exist on our house.
(The explanation behind all of this is a bit foggy to me, since I'm not really an expert on plumbing, and I was holding a whimpering baby and watching a stir crazy two-year-old while the water department guy was explaining everything.)
So they came back yesterday morning, did some digging around, and still weren't able to shut things off. They promised to come back again today but I haven't seen them yet. So, since we're still borrowing our neighbors' water two days later, I need to start making some phone calls and find out what in the world is going on.
It's like we had a house-warming welcome-ourselves-to-the-neighborhood party by calling up the guys with the jackhammers, partially shutting down the street, and stealing our neighbors' water. All over two measly toilets.
I can hear you saying, "You're making this up." No, it's true. It's really happening. I keep asking myself if I'm dreaming, but I'm not. Talk about bizarre!!
But here's the good news... we have new potties!!
I got my run today, after being housebound most of the week. And L and I enjoyed our favorite lunch-- grilled cheese and blueberry smoothies-- out on the porch together today while looking out at the pretty fall leaves.
Parts of it have been good. Parts of it have been awful. And parts of it have been really bizarre!
For starters, the girls have all had some sort of mystery virus. I can't even tell if they all have the same thing, but they've all been sick. N went to the doctor last Friday with sores in her mouth and a low fever. Eating and drinking were so painful for her that she prayed before supper one night, with tears in her eyes, "Please God, help my mouth stop hurting." The doc diagnosed her with the "cold sore virus" (a nice way of saying oral herpes) and prescribed anti-viral meds. The meds have helped immensely and N quickly bounced back to her old self.
That was right around the time her sisters started getting sick... Tuesday evening-ish. L seems to me to have something resembling hand foot and mouth, which N and L both had last summer. She has the rash, but the fever isn't bad. She has no mouth sores, is eating like a horse, and she has been very cheerful through the whole thing.
Poor little C, however, has not been in good spirits. She has a very high fever, hovering between 101 and 104.5 (yikes! fevers are so scary!) but no other discernible symptoms. She won't let me get a good look in her mouth, so I can't tell if she has the sores. She's refusing all solid foods (she was never too crazy about them anyway) but is still nursing like a champ. I'm glad that seems to be comforting her, because she seems otherwise completely miserable. She's constantly whimpering, sometimes shaking and shivering, and is only really happy in the arms of Mommy or Daddy. Last night she slept well from about 7 PM to 12:30 AM, and for the remainder of the night she was either up crying or sleeping with her head resting on my chest. She would not be put back in her bed, despite multiple doses of tylenol and motrin. Can you blame her? I wouldn't want to be alone in such a state.
 |
| I can't wait until she's smiling like this again. |
Sorry to ramble on, but I just don't do well when my kids are sick. I feel like I'm in a constant state of sleep-deprived panic. Now that I've written about it, I feel better. Moving on...
So we decided our first home improvement project would be replacing our toilets-- they were both nearly as old as the house. Because of some cramped measurements in the upstairs bathroom, we decided we would need a professional to install them rather than M doing it himself. In hindsight, I'm really glad we made that decision.
The plumber had a window of time free Tuesday morning, so we scheduled the toilet replacement for that morning, figuring it was a quick job, and the plumber would be done in time for me to pick N up at school and then leave for my afternoon of teaching (M took a half-day off from work).
Big mistake. Never assume that a home improvement task is going to be a "quick job".
When the plumber arrived, he didn't want to touch the water shutoff valves on the toilets, because they were so old that he was afraid they wouldn't turn back on. So he shut off the water for the whole house. The water shutoff valve for the whole house is also quite old. Do you see where this is going?
You guessed it... the plumber replaced the toilets no sweat, but when he went to turn the water back on, the valve was broken in the off position. The only way to turn the water back on was to have the water department come, turn off the water at the street level, replace the broken shutoff valve in the house, and then turn the water back on at the street level.
So I called the water department. I assured them that yes, this was an emergency situation and we needed somebody to come right away. No, it couldn't wait until tomorrow. I was housebound with a recently toilet trained 2-year-old and no usable bathroom. I'd call that an emergency if there ever was one!
Meanwhile, I called M to pick up N at school, since I had to be there when the water department arrived. Thank goodness he was already planning on leaving early.
The very kind water department guys came with their schematic diagrams to measure and find the street shutoff valve for our house. They found the place where the valve should be (which was under the blacktop in the road) and started digging with their jackhammer (while two of my babies were trying to nap! yes!!) and then broke out their shovels once they got through the blacktop.
(I left for teaching around this time, so M was home alone with the girls for the rest of the saga.)
15 feet of digging and two hours later, the water department guys had still not found the shutoff valve. In fact, what they did find was another layer of blacktop. Apparently, the road had been re-graded in the 1970s, and at that time they piled dirt up over the old road and then paved again. Our water shutoff valve (for our house built in 1957) was under that second layer of blacktop, nearly 20 feet under the current road.
Who could have known this?? Seriously??!!??
The water department guys had to leave (they had been pulled off another job to come to us) so they created a temporary water solution by running a hose from our neighbor's house to our water supply. (Howdy neighbor, nice to meet you! Mind if I borrow your water supply? Sheesh!) They promised to be back in the morning to continue digging and find the street shutoff. They also said they'd do us a favor and replace our house shutoff valve, since technically the town should have a shutoff valve (that they own) behind the water meter on the house, but such a valve does not exist on our house.
(The explanation behind all of this is a bit foggy to me, since I'm not really an expert on plumbing, and I was holding a whimpering baby and watching a stir crazy two-year-old while the water department guy was explaining everything.)
So they came back yesterday morning, did some digging around, and still weren't able to shut things off. They promised to come back again today but I haven't seen them yet. So, since we're still borrowing our neighbors' water two days later, I need to start making some phone calls and find out what in the world is going on.
It's like we had a house-warming welcome-ourselves-to-the-neighborhood party by calling up the guys with the jackhammers, partially shutting down the street, and stealing our neighbors' water. All over two measly toilets.
I can hear you saying, "You're making this up." No, it's true. It's really happening. I keep asking myself if I'm dreaming, but I'm not. Talk about bizarre!!
But here's the good news... we have new potties!!
 |
| Cue the heavenly music! |
Yep, she insisted on wearing her bike helmet throughout lunch time. How could I refuse her, when she looks so cute?
Love that blueberry all over her face.
Aren't you glad you read my blog? I'm always good for a crazy story.
On to the next adventure!!
Addendum post-posting, written Friday morning: M and I took a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies over to our neighbors' house last night, as a thank-you and an apology for stealing their water. We told him we hadn't heard when the issue was going to be resolved. He assured us that his water meter had been turned off, and he wasn't paying for our usage. Furthermore, apparently our neighbor knows everybody in town, because he told us he'd "ask Sean (at the water department) and find out" when everything would be fixed. He seemed to think they needed a dig-safe permit and that's why they hadn't been back yet. So... we got a chance to get to know our nice neighbor, and now we can take as many guilt-free showers as we like. Oh, and C's fever broke this morning. Hooray!!!
P.S. Excuse spelling errors in this post. I am tired.
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