A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 39 Recap

Well, we have put it off for long enough. After finding out our dear friend Steve Kurtz (Kurtzy) was in the hospital with COVID, we decided it might be time. I didn't tell anyone I was was doing it, but instead called Jeremy after I had done it and announced I had got the Moderna COVID vaccination first shot. There were so many contributors as to why I decided, but the #1 reason is that I want to travel to a conference in Seattle in November
and they stated the only way we would be able to attend is with a vaccination card. Don't mess with my travel and getting outta here. 

Kurtzy and I celebrate the same birthday. In fact, I remember joking in college something about my birthday and he said it was his special day too. I made him show me his ID and sure enough...birthday buddies. He also played football with Jeremy and was a close friend, close enough Jerm asked him to be in our wedding party. Most of the pictures I had of him were from our wedding. When I read the news on Facebook that on Tuesday, Sept. 21 he died of COVID, I didn't believe. it. Jeremy certainly didn't believe it either. We stayed up late that evening looking at pictures and remembering our friend. It was raining hard out, so we went outside around midnight and brought in all the outside furniture's covers so they didn't get wet. (Keep reading-ugh) Jeremy finally drifted off around 1, but I was reacting terrible to the shot. I was cold and teeth chattering and couldn't get comfortable. Furthermore, I was feeling like bugs were crawling on me. I ended up sleeping on the couch that night. 

Tuesday we thought was the worst, but Wednesday was our rock bottom. Since I was sleeping on the couch I heard Jeremy yell/cry out NOOOOOOOOOOO. Oh noooooooo. I ran downstairs to find the entire basement flooded throughout about 3 inches high. The kids came running down and we were all in disbelief. I started making phone calls. We found out we had $1,000 deductible and only $5,000 coverage. So the first thing we did was carry all our furniture up into the garage. We were exhausted from being up so late, I was really beat with maybe 2 hours sleep and my right arm felt like it was going to fall off. To make matters worse, the back stairs are wood, my feet slipped and I went riding about 5 stairs down on my back into the water. I sat at the bottom and just cried. Then said, well there is no time for this and got up and kept going. Now we have 2 sump pumps, a 3-foot retaining wall AND a back-up generator should we lose power. We didn't lose power and the sump pumps were running, but the water was still falling over the wall like a waterfall. It was simply too much to keep up. We called the city later in the week to come look to see if there was a back up on our street. They said it wasn't their problem, but it was the third highest recorded rainfall in a 12 hour period in Lima since 1901. Oh thanks, that's comforting- NOT. 

We called Browns first to get the water out. Luckily, they were there within the hour pumping us free of water. Next we called Swartz to dry us out. They came and Laken's hubby Jayden works for them. He rode some thing that looked like a segway and sucked out the water out of the carpet. He was here for like 8 hours on that first day. They put up 3 dehumidifiers and nearly 40 little fans throughout the basement...for 6 days.  They had to drill holes in the walls to dry out the insulation, so they took off all the baseboard. They also pulled up all the carpet to dry underneath as well. In the end we didn't loose too many big things- just the mattress that went on the pull out couch and the xbox that sat in the water too long. Otherwise, everything else was salvaged. We didn't get to put everything back together until the following weekend, but finally is put back together and all cleaned!  

Back at school, the PRSSA Chapter had a big week with speaker Steven Miller, ONU alumni who has worked at Disney for the past 23 years. It was such a great topic and since Steven had had Dr. I as a professor and this was Zoom call, we invited him back as well. Since we are headed to Disney soon for their 50th anniversary, I was particularly interested in all the tips and insight he could share about the parks. How fun to work on something so monumental. 

After the week we've had, Jeremy and decided we needed a night away at Texas Roadhouse on Friday night. I ordered a fishbowl drink and posted it on Facebook. My sweet friend Ann decided she wanted to treat me to the fishbowl and electronically venmo'ed me some dollars to cover it.  So stinkin sweet!  

The last part of the weekend ended with Isaac mowing by himself for the first time. Jeremy is so particular about his lawn, that I couldn't even believe it was happening, therefore I grabbed my phone and started recording. I don't totally feel comfortable with him running this next to the pool yet, but he's getting good.  I don't even know how to turn the the thing on and move it out of the garage, so win for me.