A pretty wet month for us

The month started off pretty good for us.  We were able to take the kids to the Chicago Children's museum on one of their spring break days! 

 

 

Grant digging for bones

 

The camping section of the museum is an overload of cuteness!

 

 

 Early in April we had a few warm teaser days so we were able to get out to the park.  Zoie thought this little drinking fountain was just her size- gross!  I had a hard time keeping her away from it.

Some friends brought their chicks to our church playgroup and the kids loved it!

 

 Someone is getting busier!

This spring I have been working on making the yard more maintenance free.  So I built a wall around the garden area to help it look cleaner and keep the mulch out of the grass.

 

 

 

On April 18th, we got some crazy rain and everyone flooded.  There was so much water that it had no where to go.  Originally we thought the sump pump just couldn't keep up, then we realized that all the water in the basement came from the sewage drain in the furnace room. The city closed the public storm drains so the extra water had no where to go except back up into the house.  We would have been able to save a lot of our items if they had just been sitting in ground water, but since it was sewage we couldn't keep anything.  The highest we measured the water was 18 inches.  All but one house on our street flooded. 

 

We had to rip out carpet and drywall.  Our awesome friend recommended a tool rental place nearby so we were able to rent our fans and dehumidifiers at a fraction of the cost of what some of our neighbors paid professionals to do.  It is crazy how expensive flood clean up is.  We had to keep 8 fans and two dehumidifiers on for over a week to prevent mold growth.

 

The water went as high as the drywall removed on that top step.

 

 

 Some nice sewage from the shower.  The sewage actually completely covered the floor, but I didn't have electricity to take a picture of it at night.  So I cleaned up most of it and then took this photo after we were able to get power back on.

 This was about 3/4 of how big the pile got. There are a lot of things that happen after a flood that you don't realize.  Loss of hot water heater, loss of furnace, loss of property, the clean up is a nightmare, and then all of the germs!!!  I have been a major germ-a-phobe and became very attached to bleach and some other anti microbial spray that we purchased. 

Even though we lost everything except for the items on shelves and it is going to take years before we can get it back to "normal" I feel really blessed through this horrible experience.  We had church friends who stormed in to help us remove carpet, wash/fold laundry, clean, bring over meals, watch our kids so we could work, loaned up space heaters because the furnace flooded and the weather dropped to the 20's and 30s. I was extremely humbled by all the service that surrounded us!  It is tempting to feel overwhelmed by self pity and sadness, but I learned that it is better for the soul to look for the blessings that surround you rather than only focusing on the negative.  Chris and I are truly grateful for the kindness and love that we felt.  These sort of events bring people together and bring out the best in people.

Moving on to much cuter things!

 

 Maddie is wearing my mom's dance recital dress from when she was a little girl.

 

Chilling with my girls on a beautiful spring day!