I deserve an award

You ever have one of those days/moments where you feel you deserve an award?

“I just survived an hour with ___fill in the blank___ and didn’t kill him/her…..I deserve an award!”

“I just parallel parked into that teeny tiny spot….I deserve an award!”

Sometimes, the accomplishment is bigger….

“We just celebrated our ___ year anniversary – we deserve an award!”

“I just filed my taxes on time, I deserve an award!”

We say that our kids get too many awards.  Awards for participating and not winning and such.  But I say, maybe we don’t get enough awards.

This morning, I felt I deserved an award.  I was awoken by the youngest at 4 am because he had a bad dream.  Comforted him and he was back to sleep in minutes.  Award number one.  I wasn’t so lucky and couldn’t manage to fall back to sleep.  I took advantage of this by getting up early while hubby was getting ready to go hunting and make him a hot breakfast, put snacks together for him, and get the dogs ready to go with him.  Award number 2.  Then, I got the kid’s lunches ready, made them breakfast, made myself breakfast, and even tidied up the house a bit.  Award number 3.  Just as I was feeling very proud of myself for how great I was, I heard a trickling of water.

That’s never a good sign…especially in a 100 year old house with a septic system.

Putting my detective ears on, I wandered the house in search of the trickling sound.  I ended up in the mud room and thought (hoped) it was snow melting off the roof.  Just as I reached the back door, I found the source of the sound.  A drain pipe that sticks out of the floor that is not yet attached to anything was squirting water through the tape that covers it all over the walls/floor.  Apparently tape is not the proper way to cap off an unused drain pipe.

In a panic, I dialed up hubby as I ran to the downstairs bathroom to see what was going on with the drains there.  Hubby answered the phone just as I saw the water rising in the shower basin.  “You need to come home NOW!” I exclaimed.  “There’s water squirting up in the mud room and the shower basin is full of shit water!”  He assured me that he would be home quickly.  I screamed up the stairs and ran into the upstairs bathroom where the eldest was showering.  “Get out of the shower NOW!” I hollered.  She quickly started to step out of the shower.   “No, rinse of quickly, turn the water off as fast as you can, then get out!”  Apparently the panic in my voice made her think the house was on fire.

Then I realized that perhaps, just perhaps….I was overreacting just a tad.

After the shower was turned off, the water downstairs started to recede, the exposed drain stopped actively squirting and I started to feel just slightly embarrassed.  I called hubby back and told him he didn’t need to come home, I could handle it.  We talked about what I needed to do (go buy drain cleaner), I assured him all was well.  I went up to check on the eldest and instructed her that there was no fire, that she could actually dry off before putting her clothes on.

So, now I am feeling like I deserve not so much as an award, but maybe a world record….world’s fastest time going from self-pride to humility.

All in a day here at the farm.