I really needed to spend Monday being sure I had presents for every child in each age group, sorting them by boy/girl as well as their classes.
After flipping my car back in May, it's safe to say I am terrified of driving in the wet much less the ice & snow. I decided to stay home, comfy & warm with my kiddos, watching t.v., playing games, & drink hot cocoa. I figured I could just delay my shopping excursion by one day and no harm would be done.
HA, HA,,,Approximately at 10 pm on Monday night, Noah says "Mom, I don't feel really good, my stomach is hurting" Calmly, I ask him do you feel like you are going to be sick, which he replies with a "uh huh" while running for the bathroom. He spends the next hour or so going back and forth from bed to hoovering over the toilet. His little face turning so red and just heaving like crazy there is little I can. Several times over I get him wiped off, clean the toilet and get situated back in bed. Finally, the torture ends and we are able to sleep.
We wake up Tuesday morning, I drive Abby to meet a parent so that she can babysit for the day since county schools are out. I inform my girls at Early years that I will not be in today because Noah had been sick the night before. Noah says he feels "a ton" better and all seems to be well.
UNTIL!!!! My book reading is interrupted with a frantic phone call from Early Years (just let me tell you, panic in a teachers voice is heart stopping). She is saying, "Uh, Stacy!, Uh, We have a problem, We...Uh...there is a problem...there is...it's a waterfall...the WHOLE SCHOOL is FLOODED". I am on the other end of the phone trying to process what she is saying. "What? What is wrong?" She says, "pipes broke, there is water everywhere, it's like a waterfall in the bathroom ceiling!" "I can't find the water shut off" "What do you want us to do?!". I am running around the house, telling Noah "here put these pants on, here wear this shirt, just grab your shoes, we gotta go!" I tell Mandy, "I will call you right back and I am on my way". I can only think of one thing to do, I called the previous owners and frantically ask Mr. Jones "where is the water cut off inside the school?" He calmly tells me where it is. I call Mandy back and tell her where the water cut off is. I arrived at school, thinking to myself (being an optimist) "How bad can it be?" "It's probably fine."
I walk to the front door, open it and to my shock and surprise...I was met at the front door by about 2 inches of standing water!!!! I can not believe my eyes as they take in the rest of the school's floor. There actually WAS water everywhere. Panic mode in full speed now. We call Hillsville water company to come out. I call my insurance representative. We call all the parents and tell them we have this leak, and that they must come pick their kids up immediately. As quickly as we called, the parents began arriving one by one. We waded each child to the front door and sent them home. Many parents were so kind and offering their apologies, offering to help, asking "is there anything we can do?", one mother calmly walked around and looked for important things to get off the floor, such as my computer in the office, another left money so that we could order Rafael's pizza for lunch, while another offered to come back and help.
I am walking around almost in a frenzy, but also a state of confusion. I didn't know what to do. I was thinking we were gonna have thousands of dollars worth of damage. It's almost Christmas time, and now this. We have parties schedule for Friday. Why now?!!!
It's now Thursday afternoon and I have found the time to sit here in front of the computer and type this out.
Our building is DRY...bone dry. My staff stayed the entire day, and walked around in cold water, cold shoes and socks, sweeping & mopping, shop vacuming, dragging out rugs, moving furniture, books, etc. until everything was dry. It was soo cold outside that as soon as we swept the water outside, literally within minutes it had frozen into sheets of ice. So, you can imagine how cold our feet were. We moved things out, and most stuff back inside in one day. My girls were fabulous hard working women!!! (the plumber did a pretty awesome job too, fixing the broken pipes for us. haha), I just wanted to brag on two things.
#1- first and foremost I am so thankful that the pipes did not burst on Monday when we were NOT open
#2-my staff displayed unity and persevearance (sp) until our school was able to reopen the very next day.
Even the insurance adjuster was impressed. She could not hardly believe her eyes when she came to evaluate our losses.
The moral of this story...STACY ANN (as my mother used to call me when in trouble)..."don't put off until tommorow what can be done today".
