It figures.....

that the day the following happens:

1 - Claire somehow throws a spoonful of sour cream into her hair at dinner

2- Sadie chooses to have Valentine cookies for her Family Home Evening, so we are up to our elbows in frosting, candies and cookie dough

3- Davis is getting nervous for his Valentine's Day Tea they are having the next day, which involves his whole class in nice church clothes having a "Paired up" tea and dance to teach manners and respect

4 - Mary Ann decides that rather than leave all those cookies at home where she will most definitely eat them herself, we should take plates around to some widows/lonely people in the neighborhood to finish off FHE...

Is the same day that we try to fix what is a small drip in the pipe under the kitchen sink. It appears it is just a valve that needs to be replaced; we can handle that, right? So at 6:30, amidst all the above, Dave easily shuts off the water, removes the valve, sees the break, says, "No problem, I'll just go to the hardware store and get a new one." And Mary Ann looks at him and says, "Hello, Preston...nothing is still open." And he drives off to prove her wrong. And he comes back saying, "Nothing's really open. Oh well, we'll just fix it tomorrow." And I look at him and say, "Well then put the leaky valve back on so we can turn back on the water." And he proceeds to try, but now a certain nut is refusing to turn one way or the other; it has somehow welded itself onto the pipe. Nothing is going on or coming off in any way. And Dave says, "Oh well, no water until tomorrow because now we have an open pipe." And I look at him like he is a Martian and say, "We can't go until tomorrow without water." And he says, "Too bad." And we call the landlord and their plumber friend will come in the morning, but I have plates of cookies that the kids are licking frosting off and taking to neighbors and a disastrous kitchen and thinking, "No pregnant lady can go pee less than 3 times between now and tomorrow morning." And then a saint of a neighbor shows up with Valentines and hears my stories and says, "My father-in-law has a supply store. He'll let me in I bet." And she comes back with Dave 30 minutes later with the right part. And we hug her and think we have been blessed for doing Family Home Evening. And then we try to put the new part on and we can't move the dumb nut backwards or forwards to get the new valve on; and now it's 9:00 and it's official that nothing is getting fixed tonight. And my kids go to bed with spitrag cleanliness of frosting, sour cream, etc, and I can't believe I am going to send them to school the next morning in this condition. So then I run across the street to another marvelous neighbor before it's VERY LATE and say, "May I please use your toilet so I can make it through the night because we've already flushed both toilets in getting the kids to bed?" And instead of looking at ME like I'm a Martian, they lovingly let me run to the bathroom, and then they load me up with four water containers full of water. And so this morning, we were able to at least brush teeth and wash faces before school. And Davis looks handsome in his dress clothes, even though he's fairly dirty underneath. And the plumber comes and fixes it in 15 minutes, but makes us feel better saying, "There's no way that nut was coming off. I had to cut the pipe and fit a new piece. But nice try. And you are VERY lucky because if that break in the valve had been a hair to the left, you would have had a full blown leak that would have ruined these hardwood floors in minutes." And I tried to imagine calling the landlords about THAT one. And now we're back to civilization, and I am clean, and my kitchen is clean.

Happy Valentine's Day. And don't you just LOVE wonderful neighbors that will bail you out and understand?