Catch up - the rule of threes.

So, they say bad-luck comes in threes. Well,... for us, i guess it comes in more than that.

We headed back to Ashland on the 26th - and had an nice visit with my dear hubby's mom. M and I drove separate so that he could bring back the deer feeders and stand, and so that i could head to a baptism at the church on my way back on the 27th. On my way to the church, we got up to Mt. Sterling, and A said she wasn't feeling very well,... i had her grab a back-pack, and she managed to get the toys out of it just in time to fill it with puke. I was in process of pulling over, and we cleaned up as best we could - called my 2nd counselor to see if she was going to make it to the baptism, and then headed to the church to meet her. When i got to the church, the family with the daughter to be baptized were still waiting in their vehicles - i was the first one there with a key. I let them in, and told them i wouldn't be able to stay,... but felt SO bad for them - i don't think the font was filled, and they only had an hour before there was supposed to be a court of honor there also. What a mess. My counselor got there, and i passed off my stuff, made sure she was prepped to sub for me for sharing time the next day (as i wouldn't be able to make it to church) and then we headed home.

Once i got home, i realized that M still had my garage door opener, and i was without a house key. After checking every window and door, I called marke up to check his ETA. He hadn't even left yet. I didn't want to take puke-y kids to anyone's house,... It was too cold to let them play outside, so we resorted to wasting time at the library, McD's, and walmart - cleaning the kids off with clorox wipes and germ-x every five minutes. It was miserable.

M got home, and called me on the cell to let me know it was open now,... but he picked up the mail,... noticed our water bill was three TIMES normal,... and so he discovered a leak in our water pipe coming into the house. The leak seemed to be IN the cement wall where the pipe comes through, so he had to turn the water off at the meter for the night time. He turned it back on for us in the morning before heading to church, where he got the name and number of a plumber. But then, he had turned it off on sunday night, and,... Lo and behold,... C choses that night to get the stomach virus - puke all over, and M had to head all the way down the hill to the meter to turn the water on so we could clean up. What a pain!

He called the plumber on Monday morning,... and he was able to come out half and hour later (NICE!) - but as they dug down to the pipe entrance,... they ran into block and brick. Apparently they had used the 'leftovers' from the retaining wall after it had fallen down 5 or 6 years ago to back fill after we'd gotten the basement wall piered and tied-back. OH - FOOEY! (i'm running out of 'clean' exclamations ;-) Anyway,... long story short - the block and brick back fill had stressed the pipe into the house, the crack was directly in the wall itself, so they had to move our water softener, knock a hole in the wall, replace the pipe... and we're going to patch it and back-fill it ourselves so we didn't have to pay plumber-rates for a lay-man job.

SO,... by now you're figuring i'm through,... that surely NO ONE could have any MORE bad luck. I wish. We'd set up and invited over 4 different families for a New Year's Eve game night at our house,... and the night before - *I* start getting sick, and apparently the virus has either gotten more virulent, or it's now a new strain,... 'cause i've got it coming from both ends. As i'm up hanging around the toilet that night at about 3AM - i hear a loud banging outside, which wasn't too unusual, as it had been a VERY windy night,... however, i noticed the water in the toilet was 'shaking' whenever the noises came. I had M go outside to check it out, and he found that our metal trim from where the soffit meets the siding on the house is hanging off, flinging in the wind - hitting the house and window; we don't have an extension ladder, so we'll have to take care of it later after we either buy or borrow one.

This morning, I called all the families who were going to come over, and canceled our game night - but then also got a call from our branch president, letting me know that he's requisitioning one of my best (and most reliable) primary teachers for another calling, and i'll have to replace her. It was a small thing,... but added to everything else,... i'm about at my limit.

Ce la vie!