While you were gone

Last Sunday,on Mother's Day, Aaron headed once again to Taiwan for work and was there a week. Before he left he gave me a gift that I loved the most.

It was wonderful to open up and read some words of love from Aaron especially at night.
For each day of the week I had a card from him to open and upon any crazy shouting matches, the kids could insist I open a "bonus power up" card. (sadly I used those up pretty quick!)

Our week at home was mostly good but we added a little bit of crazy in there which made for an eventful week.
First off was a really cute preschool graduation for Mr. Garrett (blog post to come). Tuesday came and went, but Wednesday I painted my front door. I love this blue!

Shortly before having to pick kids up from school I went to turn on my kitchen water to rinse my brush from painting and there was no water pressure. I had turned a sprinkler  on to water my garden and had heard a thunk earlier but had thought it was Garrett dropping something. I scouted out my house and walked into the basement to find puddles of water! At that moment I felt totally overwhelmed. I quickly turned the water off to my house and then, not thinking very coherently, I promptly soaked every towel I owned. After that I called on my one neighbor who is a plumber and asked if he would come help me out when he got home from work.
There was a prompting to go out side and check my sprinklers because I was trying to pin point where the heck it was leaking from so outside I went to find running water close to the basement window. In fact the ground was saturated under the mulch. This is also where the main valve to the sprinklers are. I took the key thing to turn off the valve and opened up the pvc pipe that goes down to the valve. It was overflowing with water so I quickly shut it off. That seemed to do the trick and stop the water output. (Thank goodness!!!) At that point, I had to go get kids from school. When I got back my two neighbors came to help. Their husbands started digging down to the main water line  (a good 5 foot hole) and the ladies helped me vacuum up water. I can't even tell you how grateful I am for these people!
Chris and Adam found that the sprinkler valve had indeed busted and were able to fix it up. I also have had fans running to dry things out and for the most part I think we are dried out (as of today).
As crazy as this was to have happened, with Aaron out of town, I can't help but think of how it could have been so much worse. It could have happened the week before when my basement was full to the max with garage sale items. (That would have been a MESS!) I also found the problem quickly and instead of my basement being filled with 3 feet of water the deepest puddles were a inch or two. Plus I'm grateful for the easy cleanup. It was crazy but we made it through.
Karate sparring was Thursday, a great place to get stress relief. And Saturday we went to a ward BBQ where they were letting off bottle rockets. I'm so glad church went quickly and that we were able to pick up Aaron soon after church. It's so good to have him home again. What a week!