Weird, weird week

I don't even think I could get into all that has gone on this week but I'll do a fun little re-cap so I don't ever forget the insanity...

--Monday morning I'm still not feeling great, but I have leftover stain, plenty of sandpaper and a free schedule in the week ahead, so I decide to start refinishing the kitchen cabinets. I tear the kitchen apart, finally figure out how to load the sandpaper into the hand sander and get going! Before...

--Monday afternoon I find out that school is canceled on Tuesday due to cold weather. Remember I mentioned that I had torn my kitchen apart and was planning on a free schedule... Scramble time! I organized a large child swap/playdate to keep the kids occupied.

--Tuesday morning it's -18 degrees outside when we get up (-31 with wind chill.) We swap the kids around and I end up with 4 three year olds. They play all day long while I continue to work on my kitchen. It is exhausting work. And extraordinarily dusty. Here are some of the 3 year olds playing...

And here we have a very strange dust pattern on the tv.
--Tuesday afternoon...the kids are all having a blast. I get another call from the school district--school is closed again on Wednesday. Isaac plays in boy's heaven all day. The girls spend the morning at a friend's house playing American Girls and then get to go to a museum and sleepover with another friend.

--Tuesday evening I get a phone call from Ryan--with a high of -2 it is too cold and his car won't start. I load up the boys and we brave the freezing cold to go rescue him. We leave the car and hope that it will start on Wednesday.

--Wednesday morning we load up again and drive Ryan to work. The kids have a low key day while I continue to work on the kitchen.

--Wednesday evening we get the call--Ryan's car still won't start even though it's a whopping 9 degrees! I bundle and load up all 4 kids and make the trek again. We get Ryan and then go and buy a tow rope. I get the exciting new experience of towing him home. Oh, I can say for a fact that I never want to do that again. (That little trip took us almost 2 1/2 hours...ugh.) Ryan sets up a heater tent on the car engine to warm it up.


--Thursday morning the kids go back to school and Ryan's car starts!! Yay! Kirby has his first puppy playdate with his sister, Sugar.


I continue to work on the kitchen. My house is slowly being overtaken by dust. I finish a round of sanding and as I turn off the sander I hear water running. I wonder why Lincoln has turned on a bathtub and I investigate. No, it's not a bathtub. I go into the basement and discover water cascading from the ceiling into the workout room and pouring out of the light fixture. Frozen pipes. Gulp. I frantically call Ryan who explains how to turn off the water and the power and says he is coming home.

--Thursday Ryan spends the day on the phone with the Homeowner's Insurance Company, six different plumbing companies (it took that many phone calls for him to find one that could come that day), and a water clean up crew. The plumber has to tear out walls and part of the ceiling to get to the leaky pipe. The cleaning crew does more damage by removing more drywall and insulation. I keep on working on the kitchen.

--Today. The kids go to school. Ryan goes to work. I FINISH the kitchen and clean up all the dust. (This picture is dark--I'll have to take another tomorrow in the daytime.)

Weird, weird week.

By the way--refinishing the kitchen cabinets was a long, dusty, labor-intensive process, but the whole project only cost me a whopping $15!!! Not too shabby. But I never want to do it again...