the flood.

"The foolish man built his house upon the sand,
and the rains came tumbling down.
The rains came down and the floods came up,
and the house on the sand washed away.

The wise man built his house upon the rock,
and the rains came tumbling down.
The rains came down and the floods came up,
and the house on the rock stood firm."

At least, that is our goal, to build our house upon a rock. But sadly, we have been building our house upon the sand. Now I know that this song makes a reference to our Savior Jesus Christ, but that is not the way in which I am referring to it. You see, my apartment flooded this past week. Yes, flooded. No, there were no big rainstorms. Instead, my lovely commode, which is always giving us problems, overflowed. And it kept going. And going. And going. And going. Like the Energizer Bunny. It happened in the master bathroom, located in the master bedroom, so I did not realize what was happening because I was here, on the computer, in the living room. I don't know how long it ran. I only know that Terry came home from school late that night, and immediately asked "Why is the floor all wet?" He was talking about the area right in front of the front door. No where near my bedroom. I had no idea where the water was coming from, so I got up to look. The outside of my front door was flooded too. I figured something had happened outside and that the water had just come in. Oh how I wish that was what had happened.



Then we walked into our bedroom and saw that the toilet was just pouring out water. AHHHHHHH! It was INSANE! The whole bathroom was flooded, and the water had seeped into the carpet in the bedroom. Almost the whole entire bedroom was wet. It then went down the hall, towards the girls' room and the other bathroom. Then the water started seeping into the carpet in the living room. So the water had literally seeped through the wall, into the living room/front door area, to the outside. We then knocked on our neighbor's door, who are also in charge of maintenance, and apparently the water had seeped through the walls into their apartment too! It was such a mess. And here is the worst part: I had not put any clean clothes away for a couple weeks. You know, I was lazy/tired/always on the go and didn't have time to do it. Basically, "building my house on the sand." Plus there was all kinds of other stuff on the floor, like boxes that we just can't unpack because we just don't have any place to put their contents. And LOTS of this stuff got wet. It was a NIGHTMARE. Sheer hell. And you know what? I figured I deserved it for not getting all my chores done. I'm good at putting myself down.



Well, we got as much picked up as we could. We started doing laundry. And the carpet cleaners came the next day at 8am. We were exhausted, because we couldn't sleep in our bedroom. Terry took the couch and I slept in a little twin bed with Natalie. Soooo uncomfortable. We got about 4-5 hours of sleep and then Terry and I had to go to the VA for appointments. But first, we met the carpet cleaners that morning and he helped us move everything but our dresser into the dining room area, along with all of the contents in the living room. They planned on cutting the carpet and replacing the pad underneath. I'm still a little worried about mold and getting sick, but I guess we will have to deal with that later. That night we came home to an apartment full of huge, super loud fans, plus an enormous dehumidifier. But the place had started to dry. We were able to sleep in our own bed that night, and though the fans kept us up all night, we were grateful that our feet were no longer soggy.



That day I went with the girls' school on a field trip to see the movie "Oceans" for Earth Day. It was a cute movie, but the kids from other schools were totally loud and annoying. Later that day the girls and I hung out with our neighbors Todd and Leslie, so that we could get away from the fans. Now here we are, all dry, and just waiting until Monday for the new padding to go under the carpet. Until then, we are still cramped and crowded with junk, but I have been inspired to throw more things away. I never want to go through this again. But if I do, at least I will have less stuff in my way. Look out Ebay, here I come!