"This is the day the Lord has made...

I will rejoice and be glad in it!" Psalm 118:24

A day in the life of Aimee Schutz:

This was one of those mornings when I just did not want to get out of bed. Okay so most mornings are like that for me but this morning I really should have just stayed in bed.

The morning started with a 6:30 AM feeding for Taryn. Micah wandered into our bed and was being a little whiny about getting going. Buckley and Sammy both wanted to eat but Buckley was trying desperately to convince me to abandon the eating child and feed him instead. I kept pushing him away thinking that he was just really hungry and when I finished with Taryn I went upstairs and fed the starving boys. Normally I stand there for 30 seconds while Buckley swallows his food and then I let him outside to do his business but this time I quickly ran downstairs to get Micah ready while she was in a somewhat cooperate mood. In the 45 seconds I was gone Buckley ate his food and then pooped and peed in the playroom. His persistence was now making sense. I never wake up early enough to spare any amount of time for unexpected incidents but this one I was especially annoyed with. I quickly cleaned up the mess and finished getting the girls ready. I caught a glimpse of the clock and realized I had all of 10 minutes to get myself showered and ready to still meet our departure time. Knowing full well that I would later get barfed or pooped on by the babies in my clasroom I opted out of the shower and ran into the bathroom to brush my teeth. We share a bathroom with Samson the cat and of course this morning Sammy had a bad reaction to something he ate and the bathroom reeked of cat feces. Already running late I was not in the mood to clean up this mess but knew if I didn't it would still smell like this when I got home. I quickly took care of it and rushed to escort my two small children out the door. As soon as we were about to walk out the door I smelled a little something special and realized that Micah had pooped in her pull-up. When I asked Micah if she pooped she looked at me and said, "Ah...yeah."

Once we finally got out of the door we noticed that the ground was still covered with snow and after sitting outside all night on the street the van was covered with frost. I was not at all excited about cleaning it off so I went to get the girls in their seats first. I went to open Taryn's door and it would not open. I thought maybe it was frozen and tried a couple more times but nothing happened. I put Micah in her seat and let the van warm up while I scrapped the windshield. Taryn sat quietly on the sidewalk very bundled up in her car seat waiting for her door to open only to find that it still would not budge. I then decided to just push Taryn through Micah's door, which is no easy task, and get her in place and fix the door later but when I got into the van I realized that the door was actually opened a little. It would neither open nor close. I didn't want to start driving and have it suddenly open so I called school to tell them I was going to be late. My co-teacher was very understanding and told me she would be okay until I got there. I then called the principle, my brother-in-law Corey, to tell him I would be late.

Since I was still at home Corey asked if I could go down to the basement where we live and unscrew this pipe so that the water would not freeze inside. He told me he would have done it the night before but that I was already sleeping and he didn't want to wake me up. Thinking that it was very thoughtful of him I didn't think twice about helping him. I decided to drive the van into the garage to warm up and brought the girls back inside. Taryn was sleeping peacefully so we left her upstairs and Micah and I went downstairs to fix the pipe problem. I called Corey as I was looking at the pipe and he explained to me what to unplug. I thought I had the right one and started twisting. Corey warned me that there would be some water dripping but to just put the pipe in the drain. I started twisting what I thought was the right part of the pipe and some water started to come out making me think that I was on the right track when all of the sudden a very fierce and powerful shot of water came spraying from whatever I just unplugged. I started yelling, "Oh my word, oh my word!" as I jumped out of the tiny closet and shut the door. The water had hit the bulb so it was very dark in there and there was water shooting out and getting everything very wet. I quickly called Corey yelling, "Something is very wrong!" I opened the door while on the phone with him to try and put the pin back in that I had taken out. I couldn't get it back in because the pressure was too hard and that is when Corey heard the water. He said, "Is that the water?" I said, "Yes!" He said, "I am on my way!" I was already pretty wet but quickly put a t-shirt on and searched for a solution to the pickle I had gotten myself into. Micah was watching Dora right by the closet and was very worried. I kept opening the door to see what I could do and she would yell, "Shut a door Mommy! Shut a door!" Her eyes were like quarters and she kept telling me she was wet but she really wasn't. Corey called back again and asked if the heater was getting wet. I opened the door and saw water everywhere so I was positive that yes the heater was probably getting wet. Already feeling like a burden on my sister and her family I was not going to go out as the one who flooded the basement and ruined the heater. I said to myself, this is only water. Corey had suggested using towels so I went and got a couple of them and put them right on the pipe. I managed to divert the water so it wasn't hitting the heater. The towels were filling up fast so I asked Micah to find more for me. Even though she was so scared she still managed to find me two extra towels. I held up five towels for about 10 minutes while I waited for Corey to return.

When Corey got home he walked into the "water fountain", as Micah called it, and tried to turn off the water. He was still in his good work clothes and I knew he was about to get very very wet. He was twisting the knob but nothing was happening because the towels were in the way. They were very heavy and started to fall which made the water shoot out again so Corey and I jumped out of the closet and shut the door. Corey decided that he didn't want to get his good clothes wet, I was drenched at this point, so he strips down to his pants and t-shirt and goes upstairs to get his raincoat. He ventures back in but can't figure out how to stop the flow. Then I give him the pin that I pulled out and he manages to get it back in and twisted tight. That was enough to stop the water. He then unscrewed the part of the pipe that I was supposed to undo which ended up being only millimeters from where I was. In the end there wasn't that much damage. The light bulb was busted and there was a little hole in one part of the drywall but the rest of the closet was okay.

I did finally get my real shower, fixed the door on the van and got to work two hours late. Taryn slept through the whole thing and Micah talked about it all day. I don't think Corey will be asking me for plumbing help anytime soon! I also told Corey that if ever he needed to fix something in the basement that he could under any circumstances from this point on wake me up to do so.

Coming soon...Micah's version of the whole event!