It is such a shame that this whole day will now be summed up in the flooding.
It started off kind of rocky, with E in a bad mood and yelling at the kids and me silently judging him all day. T got home from the city shortly after dinner (leftovers!) and told me she spoke with him and asked him to back off a bit in the mornings. I've talked with her before about how I am not going to interfere when he's present so as not to undermine him. So she talked him into stepping back so that I can take over without doing exactly that.
Tomorrow is our trial run.
The evening seemed to stretch on forever in the most peaceful manner.
Monkey is getting his two year molars and true to his history, he is not teething well. He's got another monster of a diaper rash and spent the entire morning home from camp, crying and following me around when I tried to sneak off into another room. I had nothing much to do because our wonderful, beautiful, amazing cleaning lady came yesterday and did EVERYTHING.
The floors are so clean I keep almost falling and dying. T's mom stopped by this afternoon to tell me how dangerous that is.
Anyway, Monkey ate some plain pasta and some white rice for dinner to help rid him of teething diarrhea and the other two kids were hungry so early I just went ahead and fed them before T got home. When she did, we bathed all the kids for like an hour, and by that I mean, we put the three big ones in the tub and talked for forty minutes before taking them out and washing the small one.
Then we sat around until E got home and had a dance party with the whole pack of them upstairs.
The party was just winding down when T got a call from the county about a tornado watch.
I called Nanny K to cancel our plans and went to prepare all my flashlights. I love being without power but I am pretty terrified of the dark. I had three working flashlights and went downstairs to find one more. Instead, I found the first inch of rainwater creeping across the basement.
Problem.
I yelled "No!" at it like it would just stop and retreat. It didn't, so I ran across the basement to my room, flashing back to that morning when I had left my last pair of good slippers on the floor.
You might recall that before the last flood my computer charger fell to the floor and I had been to lazy to pick it up.
Well.
I went upstairs without putting my slippers into the shoe organizer this morning. Same thought process about should I, shouldn't I and in the end I just forgot all about them.
Another pair in the trash. These were a three dollar pair in an especially old lady pink color.
So sad.
T is planning to replace them.
She and E went down to start clean up and I took over bedtime. Monkey is in his new big boy bed and he is exceptionally easy to put to bed now. His vacant crib lingers across the room, an ever-present threat to his freedom if he dares to set foot out of bed.
With him down, I tucked J in and told him I loved him. Even though he's been SO BAD lately. I didn't say that. But I thought it. And he has. Been so bad. SO. BAD.
The last three days with him have been all crying and whining and not eating. I've wanted to spank him more than once. Fortunately, so has T so I just pass him over and he gets what's coming to him. He's usually so sweet and so good that we are positive this is a cry for attention. Middle child syndrome times infinity.
So exhausting.
Two down. I told R to wait for me while I fed the munchkin. He nodded off after an ounce and my work was done.
Once R was settled I went to check on the happy couple in the basement.
The trap had been full and they had pumped all the water outside. Most of the puddles on the floor were gone and on my way down the stairs E informed me that T was obsessing over getting my room clean and dry.
I had to go down there and help her and promise her that nothing of mine was ruined except my crappy slippers and that my stuff was so waterproof it isn't even funny. I mean, it's funny, but it's not.
She still felt guilty and kept apologizing.
But I promise you all, she has done everything possible to get this basement-fixing process moving.
They are waiting on insurance money from the last flood. That basement is supposed to be waterproof already. This isn't supposed to be happening. And the cess trap has a six month guarantee every time they pump it and unclog it. Things just aren't right and it's not anyone's fault on this end.
I assured her I understood all that and that sleeping on the couch and taking a two minute shower while E pumps the trap isn't the worst thing I've ever experience.
Unfortunately for E, it was probably close to the worst thing he ever experienced.
After judging him all day and then during clean up while he walked around angry and frustrated, the poor guy was bent over the trap, helping the pump along after my shower when I went downstairs to ask how it was going. T had gone to take her two minute shower.
I had no sooner opened my mouth to ask my question when something from the depths of the cess trap bubbled up and pushed the pump above water, spewing trap water DIRECTLY into E's face.
Ladies and gentlemen, I witnessed the reaction of a true man here tonight.
He's short tempered and irritable in a tight spot, but the fact that he didn't puke all over that trap and run for the shower impressed me greatly.
I have a brother-in-law (I won't mention any names) who gags at hairballs. Gags like he's never going to be able to eat again.
I've seen my own brothers grossed out by lesser things.
I dated a guy once who, after stepping in a puddle of questionable origin in an Allentown park, trashed his sneakers. I mean, it's just water. Probably.
E spit a few times, went back to work and after a long, long minute passed, looked at me with the first hint of humor I'd seen in him all day and asked, "Am I going to die?"
I told him I thought not and then went to tell T to go pity her husband. She did.
He threw away everything he had been wearing and then said, and I quote, "It's just a little sh**." And went to take his military regulated shower.
So, we can't let any water go down the drains here. The kids will be happy because none of them like flushing anyway. And tomorrow is predicted to be a day full of hail storms and thunder storms and perhaps a tornado.
I'm sure it will be awful, and I'm sure it will be hard, but the good news is, everything in my upbringing prepared me for this job, for this family and for this septic system.
I can't express enough gratitude toward God for making me resilient and easygoing. If I wasn't flexible, I might be crazy. As it is, I spent five minutes on break with T during clean up, dancing in the rain barefoot because it was the only way to clean our feet and organize our thoughts.
I also don't know how to communicate the depths of perspective I have been given in the last 24 hours.
Nanny K got the bad family; she's leaving. She's sad and heartbroken and lost and confused and feeling depressed and betrayed and let down and a million other things she didn't say so much as I picked up on it. She's going. And I feel so sad for her, but I can't help but smile inwardly at my abundant blessings in having my family.
I had one conversation with T about getting back to church like I should and bam, no problem. Anything I need to be happy here. She spent an hour drying my flooded room frantically. Not a lot of bosses do that. Even fewer will stay up half the night talking and laughing with you on a week night (not tonight) while their husband sits idly by with the TV paused, waiting to finish a show.
And above all, no matter how bad things get or how frantic tomorrow may be, I can take comfort in the fact that a cess trap didn't spew crap, literally, CRAP, into my face. I feel as though I can take anything this job can dish as long as that never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever happens to me.
R.I.P E's facial skin cells. R. I. P.
No comments:
Post a Comment