drama.

I hate drama. No, not the fun Broadway sort. I mean the drama of life that produces stomach knots and headaches. I like to steer away from it. But sometimes, it likes appear in the form of home repair woes. Our drama became apparent the night of Christmas, when one too many conversations about the wet spot in our yard collided with the discovery of a spinning 'leak indicator' on our water meter (yeah, there is a 'leak indicator' on the water meter. go check yours.). What followed were many headaches, many conversations with our plumber, many 'worse case scenario' formulations, and the decision on Christmas night to turn our water off to prevent what could potentially be one ginormous water bill from growing into an even more ginormous water bill. Cue the huge snow storm and the days of temperatures in the teens. Follow that with one too many acts featuring me trudging out into the cold dark in my wellies and robe to plunge my hand into bitterly cold water covering our meter to turn it on for shower, and then off again for the rest of the day. And I won't soon forget the 1.5 hours each evening where I frantically turned the water on, did dishes, did laundry, bathed children, refilled jugs of water for the following day, and flushed toilets. Classy. I especially loved hearing the words, "Mommy, can I flush the toilet or is the water off?" coming out of the mouth of my 3 year old. Now I know, I know, there are third world countries with no running water. But this is my blog and my rant, so back off. Ahem.

So, after snow storm and freezing temps and finally melted snow, the digging began. And then stopped when pipes couldn't be located. And then began again. And then stopped when hubby discovered logs and other fill 3 feet down, covering pipes. Children ushered inside, hubby outside with ax taking wrath out on hole, me inside praying neighbors are not witnessing mayhem in front yard. Hole filled with water overnight. Water still off. Daydreaming of being able to go potty without coordinating it with other household chores. Keeping Purell in business and getting super crafty at cooking without running water.

Fast forward to today. 2 weeks after Christmas. Plumber and 2 incredibly huge guys digging, digging, digging, and then WHOOSH - the leak was found. Here is a picture of it, with the water turned OFF...

And now for my close-up, darling. . .

It literally took about 5 minutes to fix it, and then the hole was filled and I ran around the house flushing, rinsing, basking in the glory of running water.

Sweet, pure, fresh, running water. I feel like I could make out with my washing machine right now. And my dishwasher. But first, I am going to go flush my toilets.

* * * *

And now, for some of the good drama. You know, the actual Broadway sort. Last night David and I took Gavin and Merritt to see The Lion King at the DPAC. We were really excited but a bit nervous, as we were taking 2 kiddos to a show that started after their bedtime. But, the show was AMAZING and my children were, too. I was so proud of them. They made it through the whole show, clapping and laughing at completely appropriate times, and they were completely mesmerized by all that was going on. I wish I could relive the first 5 minutes again and again. Merritt was so overwhelmed that at one point he leaned over, grabbed my arm, kissed it, and went back to watching the show. So fun.

Here are my little theater critics pre-show:

Little Ian slept at home under the watchful eye of a babysitter, but here he is getting some blog-time, showing off some of our new favorite duds in the new house: