Flooded!!

It's been a day... a rainy, hot, humid day....

When I got out of the shower this morning, I looked outside. It was 6:45 and looked like the Heavens could open up and downpour. I wondered for a brief moment if swimming lessons would be cancelled, but then decided I better get a move on and start the day. Swimming lessons started at 8, and I didn't want to waste time by checking the weather.

At 7:15 the sky turned pitch dark, and the rain started. And oh did it rain! It rained and rained and rained. Seriously it was down pouring like I haven't seen in ages. Swimming lessons were cancelled, and rescheduled for 9:30. The kids looked out the window and called me over -- by the sounds of their voice, there was some kind of emergency. I looked outside and saw a 10 - 15 foot wide river running through our backyard. It finally pooled in Rick and Danyel's old yard and covered almost the entire backyard. The craziest thing is how fast this newly formed river was moving. "Gushing" would be a better word. Seriously it was moving! The amount of water was shocking! I wish I had taken a picture.... This is one of those "you'd have to see it to believe it" type things. The sheer magnitude of water rushing though our backyard was insane.

This went on for about 30 minutes when all of a sudden we lost power. Everything went dark. The rain stopped after about 35 or 40 minutes, but we were still without power. We got ready for swimming lessons and realized ... without power, we are stuck in the house. So I called my dad and he came over and "disengaged" the garage door so we could make it to swimming lessons. Funny thing is .... on the way home Andrea calls me and tells me that she figures out I don't know how to disengage the garage door, so she's on her way over to do it for me. She knows me well! LOL. She then tells me that we got over 2 inches of rain in slightly less than 45 minutes, and we won't have power for a few hours. 4700 homes were without power, and it would be a while before we got it back.

I get home to a sweltering house. It's now 90 degrees and HUMID. The house is unbearable. I tell Matt what's going on, and he's not the least bit concerned about the temperature in the house. He's worried about the sump pump. Oh my goodness. It never crossed my mind! Imagine that! LOL.

I go downstairs with a flashlight and look down in the sump pump. I can see water -- it's about 8 or 12 inches from the top.... I think. At this point, Andrea calls to tell me that she has water all over the perimeter of the basement. Matt is even more concerned when he hears that we'll be without power for several more hours.

Finally after 4 + hours the power comes on and all is well. I walk the basement looking for water and find none. Thank Heavens!

During this little power outage, the kids went down to the basement to play ... it was the coolest part of the house and also had good light. Morgan was over today too. I'm watching her some days this summer while Laurie is in school.... Anyway, all of a sudden I hear the most chilling frantic screaming/crying fit I've ever heard out of my kids. From the sounds of it, I was sure a limb was amputated. It was so loud and so out of the ordinary, I honestly didn't know who it was.

As I'm rushing to the basement door, I hear Morgan yell, "I'm gonna go and tell your mom"!! OK, so it's either Katherine or Caleb, and from the sounds of it, they're in serious trouble. I race downstairs to find Caleb absolutely beside himself. He's screaming and crying and shaking. He's jumping around, kicking his little legs around in a dance and shaking his hands at warp speed. Tears are streaming down his face and he can't breathe. I scoop him up and try to talk to him, but seriously he can't answer. He is in a different world!

I finally figure out that he's not hurt.... he's scared .... and sorry. Evidently he kicked the ball and it hit the light fixture in the playroom and it came crashing down, shattering on the carpet. I've never been so relieved in my whole life! LOL.

We then had a long talk about the fact that I'd never be mad at him for an accident. He was playing and having fun and that's what he's supposed to do in the playroom. He was so sorry! I kept telling him that it wasn't a big deal, and that he did the right thing by telling me the truth. I felt so badly for him. He just felt horrible! And seriously in the grand scheme of life, this was no big deal! I didn't yell, didn't raise my voice, didn't do anything but smile at him, but he still felt AWFUL!

It was at this point that I decided that Caleb needed to clear his little head, so I packed up the kids, and we went down to the Science Center for a few hours. Seeing him that upset just broke my heart.

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Tonight I went out for dinner for one of my friend's birthday. As I was leaving our development I saw 4 service vans at different neighbor's houses ..... two Servicemaster, and two random. Carpet pad was lying all over their driveways. On the way home from dinner I saw several more. Literally, maybe 8 or 10 trucks total. It seems that everyone I've talked to has water in their basement. I'm not sure how we were able to escape, but thankfully we didn't get water in the basement. I will say this..... as soon as Matt gets home from Canada, we are buying a battery backup for the sump pump.

AAAAAAHHHHHH.... it's been a day!