Our house

Part of the chaos preventing me from blogging has been our house!!  We had water damage due to an overflowing toilet, which of course, happened while Andy was gone in California.  It was actually funny to realize I was in the position "to know what to do" since I only had my 16 and 12 year old with me at the time!  And it was sooo funny to realize that my 12 year old was much better in this crisis than was my 16 year old who would have slept right through it!!
Noah woke with me to the unfamilar sound of rushing water out of our light fixtures on the first floor and to a chirping noise at 3 in the morning!  We rushed downstairs and both exclaimed "oh no."  I immediately went into crisis mode and said, "think, think, think!  Where could the water be coming from?"  I immediately knew it was above us and since I hadn't used the washer, or shower it must be a toilet.  But I was frozen into inaction until Noah said, "Mom, what do we need to do?" 
"Oh right, we need to turn off the toilet where the water is coming from."  And before I could ask him (because I wasn't really sure I knew where the valve would be to turn it off), he was off to figure it out.  Later on, as I was dealing with towels and blankets and pools of water, the chirping from the fire alarm became incessant!  So, I went and woke Tobin up to ask him to take care of that.
He was completely amenable, but asked, "How do I do that?" 
"Tobin, it's the fire alarm. It's a battery, take it out."
"Ok, but how do I do that?"
"Tobin, just twist it off and pull out the battery."
"Ok, but how do I do that?"
"Tobin, I need you to figure this out!  You can do it."

Seriously, the difference between Thing 1 and Thing 2 had me shaking my head!! 

So, our whole main level floor had to be replaced!!  I am sooo happy!!  It is beautiful now!

Before:

After:  Coming