This last weekend was great. Tim's parents were here, Taryn graduated, Claire was as cute as ever (she now knows how to clap on cue) and I had the awesome opportunity to experience 2 days without running water. Now, mind you, it was only 2 days, but IT FELT LIKE 2 WEEKS!!! There are many things I do everyday that use water, things I obviously take for granted. For instance:
-- Watering my newly planted shrubs and trees. It was hot over the weekend! I was worried about them!
-- Doing laundry. Well, I never do it anyway, but it was the fact that I couldn't that made me so upset.
-- Cleaning the kitchen/doing dishes. The dirty dishes were neatly stacked on the counter just waiting to take a hot steamy bath in the dishwasher, but only after the ones already in there had their turn.
-- Cooking dinner. So, I probably could of made something, but I didn't have any room! Dishes were everywhere, tools and spare pipes were scattered across the floor and men holding flashlights were laying half-in and half-out of the kitchen sink cabinet.
-- Brushing my teeth. OK, I did have water, but only after I trudged through the garage and pulled out our 72-hour kits and used some bottled water. This water was a life saver, not only for teeth brushing but for bottle washing. See below.
-- Just getting a drink! A drink of cool, crisp water! We had to settle with old warm bottled water from the garage. I know, I should be thankful any type of water...
-- Cleaning baby and baby items. So, with no water means no washing of bottle, which means no formula, which means hungry baby, which means crying baby, which means frustrated and at-her-wits-end mother. So, once again I trudged through the garage and pulled out our 72-hour kits and got more bottled water. Only after I realized I had used too much water for washing, I again trudged through the garage and pulled out our 72-hour kits and got more bottled water. I know, I should of got all the water I could find on the first trip, but I didn't. So, bottle is clean, formula is mixed, now baby messes diaper, BIG TIME! Big like, she-needs-a-bath, big. But remember, no running water! Ahhhhhh! I cleaned her up, using a million wipes, put new jammies on her, fed her, snuggled her, loved her and then put her down, all the while just praying that the water would soon be fixed.
-- Washing hands. I have a crazy fetish with always needing my hands to be clean. But, with no water this was put on hold... AND IT KILLED ME!
-- Taking showers. Who wants to smell bad, have bad hair, smeared make-up and dirty feet? Not me! But I did. For a whole day. It really felt like longer.
-- Using the toilet. The first thing I said when I found out that there was no water, "So, we can't even go to the bathroom?" There were a couple of times when they (Tim and his dad) would turn the water on and I would run downstairs and use the toilet hoping they would keep it on long enough to let the tank fill back up! Having the thought of no toilet was horrifying!
To say the least it was an eventful weekend. With the help of JR (Tim's dad) and the plumber, Tim got the kitchen sink to stop leaking by taking the garbage disposal out and replacing all the piping, and the upstairs shower to work again (this was the main big problem resulting in the water being shut off).
So, yeah, I am thankful for water, running water. How did anyone do without? I know how, they just did.
(Thanks Lib and JR for everything. It was so good to see you. We love you.)
-- Watering my newly planted shrubs and trees. It was hot over the weekend! I was worried about them!
-- Doing laundry. Well, I never do it anyway, but it was the fact that I couldn't that made me so upset.
-- Cleaning the kitchen/doing dishes. The dirty dishes were neatly stacked on the counter just waiting to take a hot steamy bath in the dishwasher, but only after the ones already in there had their turn.
-- Cooking dinner. So, I probably could of made something, but I didn't have any room! Dishes were everywhere, tools and spare pipes were scattered across the floor and men holding flashlights were laying half-in and half-out of the kitchen sink cabinet.
-- Brushing my teeth. OK, I did have water, but only after I trudged through the garage and pulled out our 72-hour kits and used some bottled water. This water was a life saver, not only for teeth brushing but for bottle washing. See below.
-- Just getting a drink! A drink of cool, crisp water! We had to settle with old warm bottled water from the garage. I know, I should be thankful any type of water...
-- Cleaning baby and baby items. So, with no water means no washing of bottle, which means no formula, which means hungry baby, which means crying baby, which means frustrated and at-her-wits-end mother. So, once again I trudged through the garage and pulled out our 72-hour kits and got more bottled water. Only after I realized I had used too much water for washing, I again trudged through the garage and pulled out our 72-hour kits and got more bottled water. I know, I should of got all the water I could find on the first trip, but I didn't. So, bottle is clean, formula is mixed, now baby messes diaper, BIG TIME! Big like, she-needs-a-bath, big. But remember, no running water! Ahhhhhh! I cleaned her up, using a million wipes, put new jammies on her, fed her, snuggled her, loved her and then put her down, all the while just praying that the water would soon be fixed.
-- Washing hands. I have a crazy fetish with always needing my hands to be clean. But, with no water this was put on hold... AND IT KILLED ME!
-- Taking showers. Who wants to smell bad, have bad hair, smeared make-up and dirty feet? Not me! But I did. For a whole day. It really felt like longer.
-- Using the toilet. The first thing I said when I found out that there was no water, "So, we can't even go to the bathroom?" There were a couple of times when they (Tim and his dad) would turn the water on and I would run downstairs and use the toilet hoping they would keep it on long enough to let the tank fill back up! Having the thought of no toilet was horrifying!
To say the least it was an eventful weekend. With the help of JR (Tim's dad) and the plumber, Tim got the kitchen sink to stop leaking by taking the garbage disposal out and replacing all the piping, and the upstairs shower to work again (this was the main big problem resulting in the water being shut off).
So, yeah, I am thankful for water, running water. How did anyone do without? I know how, they just did.
(Thanks Lib and JR for everything. It was so good to see you. We love you.)
Comments
Second, I'm SO SORRY you guys had plumbing problems. About a year ago our water main sprung a leak and we had to dig a HUGE hole on our front yard and be without water (on and off) for a few days -- the pits! Hope you're back to flowing problem free.
For example: I would not have survived if I was a pioneer for 3 reasons: no tampons, no microwaves and then my pregnancies would have killed me!
It is great to have something go wrong just so you can reflex about how grateful we actually are about the simple things in life.