29 hours and counting!

Yesterday, we tried to get back to a normal school day. The kids were doing math and I was talking to my sweet hubby on the phone. When all of a sudden, the sound of rushing water was heard in our kitchen and it wasn't coming from the sink. It was the 14 yr. old water heater! Because the fun never ends around here! : )

Zach and I learned how to drain a water heater. (because we are do-it-yourself'ers around here) Then we went the whole day without any water. ugh! I also learned that on most water heaters there is a valve that makes it possible to cut off the water JUST to the water heater, but ours is so old (or so bizarre) that it doesn't have one. And so if we want to keep from flooding our kitchen, we have to go without water in the whole house. This made us we really enjoy our grocery shopping trip to Wal Mart.

Then we went out to dinner because we decided that making more dirty dishes that we couldn't wash, didn't make sense. Our next door neighbors wanted to join us and we had a great time! I made all our kiddos drink WATER because we hadn't done enough of that today and use their restrooms which actually FLUSH before we left. (too many details, I know!) Going to the bathroom is a process that shows you what you usually take for granted! Here is how it works now: One of our kids will hop the fence and turn on the hose at our gracious neighbor's house and fill up 5 gallon buckets, which will then be carried into the house to fill the toilet tanks and make them flush-able. It's really just too fun for words. ha ha

Zach taught me how the Royal Rangers do dishes while camping. Boiling water, rinsing in bleach water and then rinsing again in boiled water. So, he and I washed up a bunch of dishes together with our neighbor's well water and I was really thankful that we'd gone out to eat last night.

My hubby bought us a new one this morning and Carlos is installing it for us now. He just pulled out the old one. Yes, I'd say it was time for a new one! : )

So, we are going on 29 hrs. without water and it's been interesting, let's just say that. But we did get some school done in spite of it all and Zach is outside helping to hook up the new one and that should count as a 'life skill', right? One, his future wife will be really thankful for!!!

And if you have a water heater with one of those lovely valves on top of it, know that you are blessed!: )

~Becky