The Tates: A week with my Sisters

So if you read the previous post you'll know that my parents went to Texas for 5 days for Rodney's basic training graduation. Well while they were gone, we kind of watched the girls, yes Lindsay and Karen are old enough to take care of themselves, but we invite them down for dinner once in a while so they won't starve or poison themselves on the food they cook. We invite them for activities like we went to Temple Square and Lindsay came along....so we watched out for them not babysat them.

Anyway Saturday it was snowing and Lindsay of course was freaking out! She kept calling and wanting help shoveling the snow, we kept telling her to wait until it stops snowing! Anyway there was a break in the storm so we headed up to help shovel snow. We helped because my parents have a really big driveway and the 4-wheeler wasn't hooked up to the snow plow to make it easy so we had to shovel by hand. Well we finished shoveling and Lindsay went downstairs to put her boots away and came up crying, or screaming obscenities, I can't remember. Anyway the basement had flooded!

I proceed to call my mother in Texas, they said they were cold because the wind was blowing...I had no sympathy for her because we were in a snowstorm and they were at Sea World. We started bailing water, Daniel talked to my dad, and we ended up shutting off the water....this meant that Lindsay and Karen were moving in with us until my parents got home Sunday evening if they weren't delayed by the storms.

So Lindsay and Karen came down and we had a sleep over the kids thought that was so fun! Sunday morning was not so fun: 4 adults showering, 3 children bathing, and all dressed, pressed and ready for church by 11. Our home teachers were able to meet my sisters, since they came over after church. For those of you who have been to my house, it's really not big enough for that many people. My parents came in Sunday evening, to no water at their house. So there was take out for dinner and work, work, work to no avail. They were no closer to figuring out the problem of the pipes. Monday goes by still no water. Tuesday, goes by still no water. My parents have alternated going to my grandmothers house and my house for showers. Karen and Lindsay have taken up residence at my house. Wednesday dad calls the city because he's dug a hole to the pipes out by the barn, because he thinks it's clogged or frozen out there (at first they thought it was the pump) The city says yes that pipe is the sewer pipe...nope they were wrong it was the Weber Basin Water Line. So that had to be fixed. Finally dad gave in and called Roto Rooter since it's been 5 days with no water. They come out and find that the pipe is frozen and that the pipe is only 18 inches deep. The reason why it froze is because the two girls didn't use enough hot water. Now dad is out there in his hole trying to thaw out frozen pipes. They went and bought charcoal briquettes (do you know how hard those are to find in the winter?) and lit them and had them burning all day to help un-freeze the pipes. Dad would turn the water heater up to scalding and haul buckets of hot water out to pour over the pipes. They would shoot hot water up the pipes to help melt the ice. Finally a week without water. The pipes finally thawed and the Julander house had water! Rejoice, rejoice! Hallelujah! It was quite a week. Nerves were tested...and what a week before Christmas....Yikes! Glad to have that trying week over with. Here's some crazy pics of life with my sisters.