The Incident

So last Saturday night (the 29th) turned into an interesting evening...why is it always a Saturday night?  That is not a good time for us!  It was about 5:30 or so, and the Saturday evening bath ritual began.  Twinkle was very cranky, so I had her strapped to me in the carrier, and I turned on the bath for Sweetheart Girl.  The washing machine was also running so the bath water did not have full pressure.  Sure enough, a few minutes later, I heard the water pressure pick up, and along with it came a blood-curdling scream from Sweetheart Girl.

Now, Sweetheart Girl is known to be a little bit of a scaredy-cat, especially when it comes to water.  I ran in there to tell her to stop her screaming!  But, alas, I went in the bathroom and brown was gushing from the faucet- YUCK!  Now I can hardly blame my 4-year-old from screaming :)


I yelled for Daddy-man (remember, I still have a cranky baby in my arms), and he turned everything off.  Well, once the tub water was turned off, we could see that the brown was actually copper-ish colored, tiny, crystal deposits.  We checked all of our other faucets, and they were just trickling.  Okay, so long story, short, I called a family that lives about 2 miles away, and dragged all the kids over there to bathe.  Normally, it would not have been that bad to take the kids to church without baths, however the previous two days worth of activities really demanded it- upon penalty of banishment (or at least a 'Bad Mother' award) due to the kids' stinkage. 


Needless to say, it was not fun for the three babies to be taken out at that time, thrown into the water, scrubbed head-to-toe, and thrown right back into the van, however, they survived the ordeal.  After the kids were in bed, I went over to take my own shower!


In the meantime, Daddy-man is calling his brother and dad who are in-the-know of all construction-related things.  And his dad has the problem figured out in seconds (he's so smart!).  The water heater went out, and there's some part that oxidizes 'something,' and when the water heater goes out, all those oxidized particles come right out into your water. Eeeewwww.


So I have a full load in the dishwasher, several loads of laundry (always), one of which was in the machine at the time, no hot water, and no cold water, practically speaking.  I do not have the use of showers or bathroom sinks.  I am able to use one toilet that is left leaking because of this disaster.  Ouch.  Thankfully, we have one of those reverse osmosis systems so our drinking water was left unscathed.


But this proceeded my brother and sister-in-law coming into town from Hawaii, and having a big Sunday dinner, plus we were leaving Monday morning for a Church Planters' Conference in Phoenix.  The dinner did happen, however, the paper plates I had out were missed, so Daddy-man and I had a lot of dishes to do that night (we heated water on the stove, and waited for the crystals to settle on the bottom)!  We had to pack up a couple days' worth of church clothes to take to Phoenix, but we had just had Revival services at our church that week so our supply was low without the ability to do laundry!  Anyways, it worked out fine.

Oh, and don't forget I now have soaking wet towels that are going to get all mildew-y while we are gone, AND Minion 1 woke up Monday morning with a messy, dirty diaper that got all over his sheets- which I can't wash!  *SIGH*


The gentleman we rent the house from is a full-time truck driver, and we only see him a couple days each month.  He just so happens to arrive into town Sunday evening.  Hallelujah!!  Hallelujah!!  I can hear the angels singing!


By the time, we returned from Phoenix, he had a new water heater in.  My dishwasher was saved!  And Daddy-man was able to take apart the washing machine and get that unclogged- more importantly, he was able to put it back together, and it works!  It is still clogging up with leftover deposits, and Daddy-man has pulled it apart again, but he will probably have to unclog it a few more times.  We can use all toilets and sinks, however the little mesh screens that cover the faucets are still off and we still get a bit of leftover deposits.  It will take a while for all the pipes to clear completely.  The showers are still a work-in-progress.  The shower heads are all clogged up beyond repair so we have to replace those- not too big a deal- I just need a time to go out and get them!


So all in all, it's been a week and a half since The Incident, and we're still not running at 100%, but it's close enough.  It's times like this, that I don't mind renting at all!