Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Back to Normal

I'm back! We've had an eventful few days here in the Kennedy household. Let me preface this long story by saying that we live in an old house, around 60 years old, much like 95% of Birmingham homes. We LOVE our home and would not trade it for anything, but unfortunately older homes do come with the occasional sacrifice!

On Thursday morning after Hayes went down for her nap I was ready to jump in the shower and get ready for our day. I turned on the shower and waited for the water to heat up, and waited and waited. Freezing cold, so I turned off the shower and thought I would wait 5 minutes. So I came back and tried again and waited forever and finally decided something was wrong. I called Nathan and he said, well my shower was not very hot this morning so something might be wrong with the hot water. Hmmm...I had a sleeping baby and was on a race against the clock as usual to get myself ready in an unpredictable amount of time b/c I never know when my time is up with her nap. We had lunch plans with our preschool minister so I decided that the no shower/ponytail thing was just not a good option. So I jumped in as fast as I could and showered and washed about half of my hair before I was a frozen block of ice. I couldn't even get to the conditioner part b/c it was TOO excruciatingly cold to stay in there 1 more second. I jumped out and called Nathan immediately to let him know there is NO HOT WATER to be found anywhere in our hot water heater! Seriously this was some frigid, insanely cold ice water, the kind that is too painful to wash your hands much less take a whole shower in! Ahhh! So little did I know this was only the beginning of no hot water in our house for almost 5 days!!

We have a wonderful friend and neighbor who lives down the street who is always so receptive to help out whenever we have a house problem. He is awesome! He always knows exactly how to help and does so without any hesitation. So between him, his good friend (an electrician) and a plumber we had people in and out all weekend. In the meantime we were like a traveling family of gypsies taking showers at friend's houses! Many, many thanks to the Fill's and the Byrom's for letting us use your awesome HOT showers!!

Back to the people in and out of our house...every time one of the 3 came by to see what was going on, I would think Lord please let them be excited when they come out of the attic and tell us they know what the problem is. Well it seemed like many trips to the attic and back and no one had any answers whether this was plumbing or electrical and whether this would be a $100 problem or $10,000 problem, so we continued to wait (w/no shower by the way.) And by Saturday I kept thinking about how annoying and inconvenient this problem was (esp. with a baby that likes a bath), but how extremely small compared to what other people live like on a daily basis. I mean all the people in Haiti who are sleeping on the ground, with no food, looking for family members, no diapers or milk for their babies, no clothes, no medicines, just WAITING for someone to help them. And here I am, begging for hot water to come through our faucet just to make us all a little more comfortable in our clean house that is full of food, heat, blankets, clean beds, tv, computer, etc.. Seriously how SPOILED is that that we get SO used to our everyday comfortable living and one little thing throws it off and we think we just can't make it until we get everything back to how we think it is supposed to be. On Saturday I got a copy of the 31 days of praying for your marriage and how funny that the topic for Saturday was CONTENTMENT. God, teach me to be content whatever the circumstances. Phillippians 4:11. How appropriate that I needed to read and believe that very verse on that very day and how easy to forget that truth on daily/hourly basis. So it was like okay Lord you know our needs and we know that you will take care of this issue whenever you choose to work it out. We will be fine while we wait.

So Monday came and off we went to start our day at work/school and then when we came home around 1:30 I was so scared to try the water but I had a feeling it would work. So I turned on the kitchen sink and waited and it was cold. Boo. But I kept waiting and all of a sudden it turned warm, warm, then hot!! I was jumping up and down and acting like a crazy person and I know Hayes thought I was nuts. I have never been so excited in my life to feel hot water. And I will NEVER again in my life take clean hot water for granted!!

Such a long story and if you're still reading you are a real trooper, it's mainly for me to record so the next time I am feeling ungrateful I can be reminded of this. I will end w/a picture of Miss Hayes the active 1 year old. We've given her new adjectives that describe her, sweet and spicy! She fits both words to a T. She's hovering around the 18 lb mark so she's not quite ready to face forward in her big seat in the car. So in the meantime we're using it for an inside seat and toy and she loves it!



5 comments:

Anew+Afresh said...

So glad you guys have hot water now!! Don't ever hesitate to call us in the future! Love the pictures of Hayes!!...I bet she has a ball with that car seat!

Shireen said...

Yikes! No hot water would absolutely STINK, especially with a little one! Way to tough it out, and your friends were awesome to help out with showers, plumbers, etc!

So, little miss is ready and waiting for her new car seat!) I like that it's pink...how cute.

P.S. I could envision you jumping up and down and screaming your hallelujahs when the hot water was on! 5 days! No thank you! Whew...truly does humble us and make us realize how comfortable we have it!

Shannon said...

5 days with no hot water is a VERY long time and especially with a baby. Love the reminder of being content and also being comfortable in all that we have!

Hayes is so stink'n adorable. Would love to get together soon.Love ya.

lindseykennedy said...

Oh that Daisy is a hoot! I love love love her teeth. I'm glad you finally have hot water and yes, we do take these things for granted.

Anonymous said...

love to unsnap her and finger her pussy but from those snaps it looks like someone already has