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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Living life in the construction zone!

We have had a BUSY 4 weeks.

(Honestly, more like "Can't catch a break kind of 4 weeks!")
And we felt like this ALOT the past month.

We had some renovations done on the downstairs of our home. We had a new ceiling, lighting and flooring installed. The journey getting there was a challenge with two small kids. It is ever so challenging to live mainly on the upstairs of your home, when your children are way too curious about all the construction on the lower level~!STRESS!
I had to be creative with the cooking, amongst all the drywall floating around.
Only so much $ allowed for takeout. I for one love to cook! However, I do not love a messy house and cooking in one. It was alot of added stress to my life and trying to contain our busy two year old and keep him out of the big buckets for drywall, and the raftors=super stress!

(Caught in action "jumping"on the raftors during renovation time).
I don't recommend cleaning the drywall on your countertops nightly. It was a waste of my time to go into the kitchen and clean every night!
Needless to say that part of the construction took just about 11 days and dead smack into the end of the contruction we hit a HUGE curve ball.
As I blogged earlier-we had been waiting for Feb. 3 to come. We had sleepless nights and a miserable two year old. He had not been responding the last 3 antibiotics for ongoing ear infections. So, Feb finally arrived and it was the night before Kaden's surgery.
Day 8 of renovation was the night before Kaden's surgey.
I had to take Parker over to a friends to spend the night. We had to be at the hospital super early for Kaden's surgery.
Therefore, a sleepover was in the plans for Parker.
I got home 1 hour later to find our hot water heater exploding in the garage.YUP!
A flood of water came streaming down our driveway.  I was shocked! I opened up the garage storage room and it sounded like a shower was running in our garage. I just stood there starring and was completely NUMB. I was in complete, utter, shock!  It really felt like an out of body experience. I was not really seeing it. But I snapped back into reality ~and it was REAL!
Mike was still at work (wrapping up a corporate meeting);I call him in a complete panic and demand that he leave immediately.
I was not a sweet "Proverbs 31" wife at the moment.
I think my tone was calm, but I honestly have NO clue what I said?
I was still trying to unwind from all the construction inside, and preparing for Kaden's surgery in the AM. I was really not prepared for the Hot Water Heater explosion. I was actually saying "WHY!?The night before surgery!?" Really God!??? (A lot of laughter because tears had already overflowed the week before.) "We really can not take anything more."
I called our neighbors, the Hoeyes, and they came right down while Mike was in in route.
They figured out how to shut off the water and gas. Mike was home within 20 min and they investigated the outside meter and it appeared to be a leak going on underground as well.
We called the water company and of course, it was our fault! Not theirs. So the water was shut off!
LOVELY!
No water before a 4:30 wakeup time....NOT fun! We had to be out the door by 5:30 for Kaden's surgery. I don't really think Mike nor I slept much that night.
All Mike was seeing was $$$$$ in his sleep and all I was seeing ?????!!!and thinking~ "OH NO,one more thing of chaos"
So, first thing in the morning we headed up to the hospital and got Kaden all prepped for his Tubes.
  
About 7:20AM they came and wheeled him off to surgery in a wagon.
 He LOVED it! (SMART distraction for a 2 year old!) No tears at all.

Once he was wheeled off, guess what we were doing?
We were on the phone calling plumbing companies.
Great distraction while your child is in surgery...just spend the time and call all the plumbing companies and see who can service you ASAP!
I was on the phone with the local plumbing company setting up a 9AM arrival and in walks the surgeon.
(WOW! That was a fast 13 minutes!.)
I quickly hang up and tell them I will call them back and we hear from the surgeon~
"Everything went great! I drained out his right ear! He was a trooper. No tears the whole time and everything was smooth sailing, he should be peacefully sleeping come today!"
He did fabulous and only cried for about 30 min following surgery.
He has been a different kid ever since!
We are so happy we went through with it for him. This construction was so worth it for him.
His little body had been exposed to so many antibiotics and could not snap those ear infections out of his system. The ears are draining and doing well.
Speaking of draining~As for that water damage that was going on the night before his surgery,it got it all fixed by 3PM.
A 6 hour job; a new underground pipe,a new valving system completely replaced and a new hot water heater!

 Emergency funds are a great thing to have when you own a home! :)
We finally were back on the uphill journey as the end of renovation was wrapping up and then Kaden picked up a virus following surgery. :( That kept us housebound.
Kaden finally recovered, was back to sleeping 3-4 hour naps daily and 13 hours of sleep uninterrupted at night.
And then the very next weekend, Parker's asthma flared up and he went into a really bad attack! So, we added the nebulizer back into his life, 3 days of Prednisone and finally got him back to well.


I had days that I felt like I could take anything! And I had my days where I felt like there was nothing left of me to conquer another "disaster" or "issue."
Many mornings-I would pray; "What is going to happen today? God, we are in this together and I am ready!"
Thankfully, both of the boys are on the mend and Mike and I stayed well!
We are coveting all the prayers of protection around us.
I know Satan really wanted to get in the middle of Mike and me.
However, I kept praying "Lord, help us come out shining like gold!" I don't want to look ugly!" I trust in your timing but I really don't like all that has happend in just 2 weeks!
I had my days that I really got down and discouraged and panicked alot about the list adding up financially.
However, God continued to remind us that he has never once let us down and his ways are greater then ours! (And he always provides!)
I kept coming back to Jeremiah 33:3,"Call unto me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things that thou knowest not!"
Isn't that the truth! Our home is his and our lives belong to him.
He is in charge yet we have plans! But he can wake you up and change plans in an instant.
The Lord was in the midst of it all! The night our water heater busted, I happened to have been out.(Many nights we are home and boys are in bed by 8PM) Good thing I had to be out, or we may have found out about the end of it's journey in a bad way.
Our water heater was withinin a few hours of a gas fire! (Quoted from the Plumber and Gas specialist who had already seen the copper burning away at the bottom of the water tank).
So, we could have had a gas fire occur. Our water heater was 17 years old. Most water tanks have a 10-13 year life span. EEEK!!! (Sadly,we have been homeowners for 7 years and just learned this.)
So make special note and go check your water heater. If your water heater is older then 13 years get it replaced and save some chaos and $$.
I don't want to go through it all again.
However, I am thankful for the lessons, new renovations and most of all happy to have our home AND Kaden all fixed!


 *Happy moment they were enjoying a cakepop from mommy on Valentines Day!:)
Until our next "piece" of excitement,
Blessings to all,
Jenn :)