A little water, anyone?

Well, our big storm hit Friday. By the time Brian left for work a little after 8 am, the sidewalk was totally covered in water (as well as the entire street minus a narrow strip down the center) and he had to come back and put old shoes on so he didn't get his good ones all wet. By the time he got to work in Davis, I'd discovered that the floor in the boys' room was wet...water was seeping in between the floor and the baseboard under the window. So after calling him to let him know (and finding out that he was without power in Davis and so would be returning home anyway), I pulled on some clothes and went outside to see if I could see where the water was coming from...well, whenever it rains our backyard seems to flood to some degree - our patio is always under water. Well, the whole side yard (I use the term yard loosely since we don't really have a backyard...no grass, really) was basically flooded. I stepped in one spot that went up over my ankles. The water was pouring out of the gutter right over the boys window and there was a huge puddle there. So I attempted to dig a trench, but could hardly see due to the water covering my glasses and the wind. I went back into the boys and moved a small bookshelf in their room that was under the window to try and assess how wet the carpet was. I used some towels to soak up what water I could and cleared out the stuff under the bunk beds. I also called our hometeacher (who is also one of Brian's counselors in the Elders Quorum presidency) to see if he happened to be home. He was and said he could come help. I knew Brian wouldn't call for any help, but being has he was fighting off a sinus infection and we couldn't leave the boys unattended for that long alone in the house, I knew we needed some help. So between Brian and Bill they dug trenches to direct the water out of the yard and down the driveway and into the street (which was flooded anyway, so no big deal) and cleaned out the drains so that the water would go down the downspouts instead of over the sides of the gutters. Bill went back to his house and got his sump pump which we also used and was a huge help. I continued to move stuff in the room and peridoically change towels. I just dumped the wet ones in the tub, because I was sure we'd eventually lose power...the wind was horrendous. And sure enough, just as Bill was heading home and all the power went out...and didn't come back on until quarter to 5 the next morning...so we were without power for about 17 hours. No power meant no fans or anything to dry out a bedroom floor. Around 5 pm Friday night we decided to go down to Vacaville to get some dinner and maybe some more batteries...well, 505 to Vacaville was closed, but half of town did have power - luckily the half of town that has our three main resturants. So we went to Cody's and got some dinner and then went back to our cold dark house. We "camped out" in the living room on air mattresses. The boys thought it was great...yeah, well, at least we were dry and kind of warm. It could've been so much worse.

With the power back on yesterday, I was able to get some laundry done and vacuum the house. We turned on fans as soon as the electricity came back on early Saturday morning and by evening the floor was quite a bit dryer (Brian also used the carpet cleaner's hand attachment to suck as much water out of the carpet as he could), but not quite dry enough for the boys. So night 2 of Camp Living Room. At least we had real lights and stuff last night and we were quite a bit warmer...until the power went out again at 4 am this morning! Brian went to his early meetings at church at 730, and called back to say that if the power wasn't back on by 845 (church starts at 930), church would be cancelled. Well, the power came back on at 810 this morning. Another storm is supposed to be coming, so we'll see what it brings. Yesterday and last night's rain didn't seem to affect the boys' room, so hopefully tonight we'll all be back in our own beds as we have the fans blowing back on the carpet and it seems to be much much drier. I know this is nothing like flooding that Brian's sister had up in Washington recently or many others have had, but it was enough for us! I decided I was so not cut out to be a pioneer! I like my heat, my electricity, etc.

Here are a few pictures of Brian on Friday and our yard.