When Disaster Strikes...

It really started when we had a horrible snowstorm last Thursday. Schools were closed and many offices in town were closed. My university was the only institution of higher education open so I had to go to work although we were delayed an hour and a half. I dug my car and later my Expedition out of a total of three snow drifts in order to get out of my driveway but I made it to work on-time and picked up a Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks on the way. What was drifting snow quickly turned into subzero temperatures.

My washer and dryer are currently located in my Art Studio so it isn't always that warm out there as it is in another building next to our house. It was actually our woodshed that my husband rebuilt for me. The washer often freezes up during very low temperatures if we don't use it regularly so I did three loads of laundry Thursday to try to keep the water from freezing, but by Friday morning we were frozen and all I could do was wait for my husband to thaw it out. Seriously, I could have done it, but it makes a good excuse not to do laundry. Plus I had to work and get my daughter to the mountain. He had been out of town all week and wasn't going to be home until Saturday and our youngest had a commitment to coach for the ski race team on Saturday so we headed to the cabin.

My husband came home Saturday night and early Sunday morning he got to work on the water and some carpet cleaning. He thawed the pipes, started a load of laundry and when back to cleaning. He went back out to change the clothes and found the place flooded with five or so gallons of water. He'd forgotten to put the drain hose back in place.

I came home thinking that I might make some cards. I didn't feel well, but I was in a bit of a crafty mood. He told me that I should probably go out and see what the damage was to my scrapbooking paper before I got too excited. Sure enough, I had been stupid enough to leave some paper out on the floor when my daughter and I were getting ready to go to the cabin. We were going through paper to take some up there. Well, the damage included about half of my paper. I was able to salvage some of it as in many cases it hadn't reached the whole 12 x 12 piece of paper. I took out my trusty giant Fiskars paper cutter from Costco and began cutting the wet pieces away from the dry parts often leaving me with a 12x6 piece of paper. Unfortunately, a lot of my ski and winter paper was a total loss, but I was able to keep some of my Stampin' Up cardstock. Well, lesson learned. Put your stuff away. Isn't that what I tell the kids. Things don't get ruined if you put them away. Had I taken the time to put my paper back in the cabinet, it would still be here and I would have had some time to make cards on Sunday. Crafting will have to wait for another weekend.