A Scare With Evan

I super duper love my boy.  I don't ever need a reminder of that.  Nonetheless, Evan almost drowned today at swimming lessons. There is nothing quite as terrifying as seeing one of your children fighting to stay above water as another kid is pulling him down, and being too far away to help.

McKenna and Evan started swim lessons this week. We are five days into a ten day session. Evan has one other boy in his class and they quickly became friends. Frequently, when one of them is away from the pool wall he will swim over to the other boy, grab onto his shoulders, and then grab the wall. But today, Evan wasn't holding onto the wall well enough, so when the other boy grabbed onto him he went under the water and away from the wall. This pulled both boys away from the wall and they panicked. They began climbing on top of each other in order to stay above water instead of swimming to the wall. During all of this, the swimming instructor was about five feet away instructing another child. She was oblivious, as were the two life guards who should be overlooking the whole pool.

I was up in the observation balcony, where access to the pool deck is indirect. I have to go out the side door, down the stairs, and through the locker room. Thank goodness the head swim coach attached whistles to the banister in case a parent saw a kid in trouble before anyone else. On the first day she gave the parents the line, "I trust you all to see something before the life guard will. That's why I put the whistles out". Comforting, right? Either way, I am so glad she did that. Because that's what saved Evan and the other boy.

I didn't see it happen. I was looking away dealing with Alana when I heard the whistle. The other boy's mother was the one blowing it. I looked for my kids as soon as I heard it and my heart sank when I saw that it was Evan struggling for air. Once the whistle was blown, his instructor rushed over to the boys. I rushed down to the pool, handed Alana to a lady I barely met four days ago, and got my boy out of the pool. I wrapped him in a towel and held him while he cried.

It didn't last long, and the whole thing just scared everyone real good.  But you can bet I will hold my son a bit longer today.

Evan lost his first tooth 3 days ago. He is very excited.

Mold, Sickness, and Explosions

Our life has been a bit crazy lately, so once you read my current post you will forgive my lack of posting in the last month.

We've had a bit of an adventure in the last few weeks. It all started when the air conditioner in the van stopped working. I was crossing my fingers for a quick fix but not holding my breath. After the dealership kept the van for two days the verdict came back that the compressor was shot and we needed to replace it, an easy $1,100 would get the job done. I said "No, can't fix it now" and went to get my van. I drove away with cold air blowing out my vents. Guess we'll see how long it lasts.

Three days later..... I awoke to find a huge puddle in our kitchen. It was discovered when Ryan almost slipped and died while getting Alana some milk. The water was coming out from under the dishwasher. It was draining out the front into the kitchen but also out the back in to the living room carpet. I moped up the mess an alerted the maintenance department. They hurried over turned off the water to the dishwasher and told me someone would be by later to have a look.

I left that morning and took my kids to school followed by errands and my classes at the gym. I returned after noon and found an even bigger puddle coming out both sides. I notified the front office again and proceeded to rearrange my living room so I could get my couch out of the water.

Mario (maintenance man) showed up and quickly figured out that there was a slab leak. Essentially there was a water leak in a pipe under the cement and he would have to jack hammer it up and find it. But, "sorry lady" it will have to wait until Monday he doesn't work on the weekends. In the mean time they shut off the water to our whole unit and gave me the keys to the empty place across from us.

We spent that night and the next day shuffling water and kids back and forth while also trying to dry out the four by five foot section of sopping wet carpet. By Sunday morning we decided to move to the other place until the repairs were done. The mildew from the wet carpet was making me, Alana and Mckenna sick. Plus, I really hated having to walk across to pee in the middle of the night.

So, Sunday after church we moved our whole living room, dining table, washer and dryer (Monday is laundry day) and all the mattresses over. The kids thought it was the funnest thing ever and had a hard time doing to sleep.

Our temporary home

Mario was true to his word and he had the place dug up and fixed by Monday afternoon. The carpet guys, however, really took their time. They set up floor blowers that blew under the carpet sending it whipping up and down billowing mildew into the air and all over my home. Every time Ryan or I had to go over and get something we felt like we were being attacked. We were so worried that they would just "dry it out good" and tack it back down. I was so paranoid in fact that I started looking for another place to live. There was no way I was going to bring my kids back into this place unless I knew it was cleaned up right. I was not going to take the chance of us getting sicker.

Two days of drying and a good cleaning later, it all turned out okay. We moved back in one week after the pipe broke. The kids were really glad to be back home again.

Three days later.....It's Sunday afternoon and we are hurrying out the door to get to church on time. Ryan starts the van as I buckle the kids. We heard a noise and Ryan says "Sounds like the starter might be going out."  Evan says "What's that smell?" "I don't know. Just get your seat belt on." I reply. As I step out of the van I see what Evan was smelling. We have smoke coming out from under the hood of the van. Ryan hurry's and turns it off and pops the hood. We see the radiator blowing anti-freeze strait into the fan. At least it is steam instead of smoke (in hind sight I think opening the hood on a smoking car might be a bad thing. Feeding a fire is never a good idea) but either way the van is down and we pile into the Camry and head off to church.

For the next week (also the last week of school) I play taxi driver as I hustle McKenna and Evan to there different schools and Ryan to his two job locations. Didn't leave much free time.

Ryan has figured out that he can replace the radiator himself for a fraction of the cost of taking it in. If something else is going to break at least it's right up front where it's easy to get to. Ryan still needs to order the part and I figure by the time it gets here and he gets it installed it could be another week or two. In the mean time we took our friends up on the offer of borrowing their truck. Playing taxi driver is no fun.

Seven days later....Alana, Evan and I get a very nasty 24hour flu. I will spare you the details but it was an awful way to end the month of May.

I do not wish to sound whiny or in grateful. We had a month full of adventures. Some frustrations along the way but also lots of smiles. I am abundantly blessed.