Tag: life

This morning I happened to go to the basement for a random reason.  What greeted me was a large puddle of water on the middle of the floor.  The location could only mean a plumbing problem two stories above, instantly making me wonder what kind of damage we might have.   A quick check of the main floor revealed nothing, so we started poking around in the basement ceiling.

It revealed a mistake made by subcontractors when building the home.   While installing the ducting on the air return for the furnace, several nails went right into our hot water pipe.  They’ve been there for five years, leaking tiny amounts of water into the ducting and wood, and for some reason today the holes got bigger than the nails and we had a problem.  What a bummer that a thoughtless mistake wasn’t caught long ago!


The good news:

I went to the basement before 8 a.m., before I got in the shower and made it worse.  On a normal day I’m not down there until dinnertime when I need an ingredient from the storage room for our meal.  My husband was working from home today, saving us the cost and hassle of calling a plumber.  We turned off the water, drained the pipes into buckets, cut the pipe and went to buy a new piece.  We opened up the ducting to dry it out, put a little bleach water on the wood that appears to be rotting, and now we just wait and see if it has to be replaced.  The actual cost so far is around $20.

The bad news:

If the wood doesn’t dry out properly it will cost a lot more than that.  Having the water off meant no laundry, no shower, time spent working in the basement instead of doing other things.

Really it’s not a big deal, not a big deal at all.  But sometimes it’s tempting to feel like everything is going wrong, especially when you start stacking recent setbacks on top of one another.  Not necessarily life changing things, but little things that weigh on you, interrupt your ability to accomplish necessary things, and significantly add to your stress.  I was tempted to feel totally overwhelmed by this today, not just because of what happened but because of what didn’t happen as a result of it.  Life has a way of getting us when we have the least amount of time for it.  I’m noticing that I’ve had to give myself a lot of pep talks lately, and today they increased.

Still, as I’m trying to live joyfully this year, I do feel like I’m getting better at taking things in stride.  At least I am on the surface.  The stomach ache I’ve had for several weeks might indicate that I’m not as successful as I think.  Nevertheless, it’s progress.  I’m working at it.

So today we had an unwelcome surprise.  But it happened on the right day, we found it at the right time, and so far it’s cost as little as it could possibly cost.  Let’s hope it stays that way.

And I’m thankful for running water that isn’t running into my basement.

He went snowboarding with his dad on Thursday morning.  They had about 14 inches of fresh powder and loved every minute of it.  He landed a front flip.  An awesome, memorable day.

Then he came home and went to a friend’s house.  They took turns filming each other doing tricks on the trampoline.  After landing a front flip on a snowy mountain, a trampoline sounds rather benign, doesn’t it?

Well, it isn’t.   He was practicing a cork7 when he landed on his ankle, which was almost instantly swollen, bright red, and hot to the touch.


Yesterday’s x-rays confirmed what we had already guessed.  He has a broken ankle.  Broken through the growth plate, to be exact.  Funny how life can take such sudden turns.  It’s merely a speed bump in the long run, but feels more like a course change right now.


He’s being such a good sport about it, laughing and smiling and we’re laughing along with him when he says things like “I guess I just became the most boring person I know.  Let’s see…. we could play thumb wars!  Or tic-tac-toe.”  I remember his spring break two years ago when his week took a similar turn.  His last broken bone (wrist) was in December of 2010.  He made it 15.5 months without a break.  It was so nice of him to save this until we had health insurance again!

So we’re laughing as he adjusts to his new boot and crutches, but inside part of me is crying for all he’s lost, even if it’s just in the short run.  He’s done snowboarding.  His lacrosse season just ended, although it really just began.  The rest of his school year will probably be spent on crutches.   We hope this will heal well so he won’t have problems with it for the rest of his life.  That’s really all that matters.

New item on next week’s to-do list:  visit orthopedic surgeon.

Should be fun!  {Poor guy.}

Hopeful Homemaker

I arrived home from Logan in time to eat pizza with my family and jump in the car for a night in Provo at a BYU Men’s Lacrosse game.


It was cloudy and sprinkling on our way down, and turned into a downpour for much of the game.  We were all soaked through, the little ones ended up watching most of the game in the car, and it could have been a miserable night.  It wasn’t.  We laughed as we played in the car, laughed at our dripping wet clothing, laughed as I drove the little ones around in search of a bathroom, and laughed at BYU’s 27-2 win over Utah State.  We watched some amazing shots on goal!






It was a great night, and we made a great memory.  We came home to revel in hot chocolate and dry pajamas.  After 70-80 degree weather for the past week it was funny that the downpour happened during the only planned outdoor outing of the week.  The weather has since cooled, the boys have gone snowboarding on fresh powder and I’m glad the children spent Monday through Wednesday running outdoors as much as possible.  It’s been a great spring break!