Spring Cleaning?

As I wrote my Wednesday night post the rain had begun. It rained all night and we woke up to massive amounts of rain. Walking down to the basement, I saw that Rob had pulled up a couple of our rubber tiles around the drain in the laundry area and there was water around the drain - maybe 3 feet in diameter. Ellie got breakfast ready for her and Nick while I continued to pick things up off the floor. I noticed that the walls were weeping water - seriously not coming through the window or a holes - the walls were just weeping water. Not tragic but it was weeping on the electric outlets. I left a message for Rob at work and then debated how we were going to get to the bus stop. Our street was completely flooded over. The sidewalks were covered, the grass, it was inching to the level of the car doors. We grabbed umbrellas and put on rain boots and we made our way slowly to the corner. Our neighbor was pumping water out of his basement window, another was pulling leaves from his gutter. We had to stand a good 8 feet away from the corner to be on dry ground. The bus finally pulled over the curb to pick up the kids because the water was that high.
I came back home and went to check the rest of the basement. I noticed that other sections of the basement were now wet. I started pulling the rest of the tiles to clean them and start drying them off. I started vacuuming up the water from the laundry area but it would replenish as soon as I would vacuum it. Rob came home a bit before lunch time. We worked together vacuuming, cleaning and just trying to keep ahead of the water. The good news is the rain really slowed by that time. Our yard was one giant pond. We had wood chips floating way from where they originated. By the afternoon we were able to go to the yard and sweep the pond with the broom to try to move the wood chips back to where they belong and the water out to the alley. Rob went out and bought a new industrial fan to help dry the floor out.
By the time school was over, most of our clean up was. We had seepage still coming in on one corner but the majority of the floor was dry. I got Nick from the bus but we basically turned right around to go back to cooking club. I picked both of the kids up after cooking was over. Ellie's dance class was cancelled because the facility was flooded. We had dinner and just talked about the crazy day.
Friday was a much different day. We were able to get to the bus stop and have a normal morning. I worked to finish cleaning and drying the basement. I washed all the towels we used. My good friend, Christi, took in a bunch of water and had sewage, too. I made a batch of soup and worked on dinner to bring over to them. I was able to get in a nice phone call with my friend, Lee. Nick had succumbed to his asthma again. I don't think it has much to do with the water in the basement - I think it was the weather. We started his nebulizer treatments again. Ellie came home from school complaining about a tooth ache and her throat was sore. Rob was working a gymnastic meet but we were able to watch it online. I took dinner over to Christi's house. A problem that comes about when massive amounts of water flood streets, homes and alleys - I saw rats in our back yard - yuck!
Saturday morning, Ellie and I went to a rummage sale but didn't find a thing we wanted to buy. We went to the bank and deposited. We came home and just kicked back. Rob and I were able to work on getting a bit more of the basement back together. I took advantage of the chaos to organize the one closet and the racks I use to store my ebay clothing. We ordered pizzas for dinner and watched a movie together.
This morning, we let Rob go to church. The kids are on the verge of getting/being sick and I didn't want to encounter any further germs. We went to Emily Oaks for the Earth Day celebration. It was a nice program this year with more stations but it was chilly and I forgot to put kleenex in my pocket, we left a bit early. We came home and continued our lazy day. Rob is taping a friends wedding tonight, so it was just me and the kids heading to Mom and Dad's for dinner. Today is Tony's 5th birthday - time flies - so they didn't join us for dinner. Mom made tacos for dinner and they were delish. Ellie requested pierogi and Nick wanted potato pancakes - so it had a smidgen of everything.
Looking forward to a less cleaning involved week to come. Visualizing my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal, Tree