You never appreciate it till it's gone

What a weekend! We have Corey's dad visiting us this week, so we thought we'd go for a drive on Saturday into Kettle Moraine Nat'l Forest and see what fun we could find. Corey took a shower, then I did, but before I even got dressed, Corey's dad told me our water heater was leaking. We went downstairs to look, and sure enough there was a nice fountain (or bubbler, are you from Milwaukee?) coming out of the bottom of the water heater. GREAT!!! Does this kind of thing only happen on a weekend?! There went our plans.



Of course, the kids were desperately in need of a bath, as Halloween can be messy when you add glitter hairspray to your little ballerina. Plus, Max has a cold, so he's all boogery and slobbery. All I could think of was going to church the next day with dirty kids, and greasy hair. Corey got on the phone, and an hour later spent $600 on a new waterheater that would be installed sometime on Monday.



Suddenly, I'm realizing that I'm way behind on dishes, laundry, and can't figure out how to get Addie to school on Monday when she's days past a bath. Bathe her at the neighbor's house, perhaps? (We are feeding their fish while they are out of town, and Corey was insistant that they wouldn't mind if we used their shower. Is that creepy to anyone else? Also, we weren't sure when they were coming home, and it turned out they arrived at noon today when Addie and I were over there feeding the fish! Could you imagine if I were leaving their house with a towel on my head, what would they think?) Hot water, I've found, affects all aspects of running a household.

On Sunday, with my kitchen overflowing with dishes and no way to get it clean, I decided to boil some water and wash the pans, at least. They are big, and getting them taken care of clears a bigger spot. It worked quite well, so I started washing knives and miscellaneous things, and I cut my finger! So that was the end of dishes for me. Then I got the brilliant idea of boiling water to fill a bath for the kids. It worked like a dream!! I had to boil 2 pots of water and poured it into a shallow bath of cold water. It wasn't quite warm enough, so I boiled the 2 pots of water again. I was pouring the last pot in, and poured the very last of the boiling water all over my hand -- the same hand I cut! And I am such a weenie about things like that. But I had to bathe the kids, so I gritted my teeth through the pain of putting my burned hand in the hot water. Then nursed my poor hand with an ice pack, even slept with it to ease the burn (told you I'm a weenie!)

So today I'm feeling pretty gross, and we don't know when the installer is supposed to come, so I decide to do the same thing I did for the kids. Of course, I need a bit more water in my bath, so I ended up boiling water for AN HOUR before the water was tolerable (not steamy, the way I would have prefered). I stepped into the tepid water, and heard Corey greet the installer at the back door. Oh well, all that work could have been avoided had I been a little patient. But I had to take Addie to school at noon, and didn't think we'd have hot water in time.

The up side to this whole thing is we now have regular hot water pressure in our kitchen faucet (we lost pressure one day a couple years ago, and I am unwilling to pay a plumber oodles of $$$ to fix it). I guess there was a block near the water heater in the lines, and it was cleared when the water was turned back on!!! All in all, nearly worth $600. But, you know how spending large amounts of money is fun only if you can feel the tangible reward? My reward is new pressure that we have lived without for too long, and the thought that listing our home with a new water heater (when the time comes that we've outgrown our house) will help it sell faster. I can always hope, right?