We are a happy family!: Water Fun Day/Service Project

I have been collecting things for a little less than a year for a garage sale. I also knew that I wanted to go through everything that was in our crawl space, sort through things for the garage sale and move the storage to mouse proof containers. Then I got a call from my mom that her neighbor was selling a full size, upright, freezer for ten dollars if I wanted it. Well I was thrilled, we have been wanting a freezer for a long time and for only ten dollars, he was giving it away. However getting a new freezer did present a problem of where to put it. So my dejunking/reorganizing project got bigger.

My mom and family were all wonderful and decided to have a service day at my house to help organize the garage, put things into the crawl space, and move in the freezer. Which meant that I needed to be ready for them to come. So I spent a little over a week sorting and organizing. I made several trips up and down the ladder into our crawl space, moving all our water storage down, and moving other things down, as well as moving everything that was all ready down there up so that I could fix the storage, only to take it down again. It was exhausting work, my legs were beat from climbing up and down the ladder, my arms were sore from carrying heavy boxes, and my back ached from crouching over and crawling through the crawl space.

While I was carrying another load to the hole in my bedroom closet, preparing to go down the ladder again, I somehow lost my footing and fell down the hole, hitting my head, arms, and back on the floor boards and ladder, and then finally landing on my back at the bottom of the crawl space which was filled with rocks and boulders. I screamed the whole way down, and when I finally landed I continued screaming out of fear, and shock that I was okay. How I managed to fall and land on rocks without getting a concussion, or breaking a bone, or injuring my spine is a miracle, for which I am most grateful. Poor Grant in the mean time was stuck behind the boxes I had drop which had landed on the floor in my closet, thank goodness they did not come down with me. He was so concerned about me suddenly disappearing through the hole and screaming that he was also crying and shouting to me (as best as he could) "tuck, tuck, tuck" meaning stuck mom I'm stuck and I can't see you or help you. When I finally got over my shock and made sure that I was really fine I climbed back up the ladder, comforted Grant, finished putting the remaining loads into the crawl space, and then knelt in gratitude for my safety as well as the safety of my boys. I spent the rest of the day trying to finish off a few light chores. That was a Tuesday. On Wednesday I thought I was just fine so I continued to cross off items on my to do list getting ready for my family to come, by Thursday I was feeling the pain and feeling utterly useless, by Friday I couldn't even stand up for more than a few minutes without being miserable.

Then Saturday came and my family arrived to help, they worked a lot finishing up my projects, Jared, my dad and my mom set up our freezer, and my mom saw to it that I did not move from my folding chair. (I really hope that as I get old that I can enjoy the great health of my grandparents and still be active, because if I have to be confined to a chair or bed I might go crazy!) While we finished with everything Natalie, Kevin, Lindsey and Taylor got the swimming pool, and splash pads set up for the boys to play and we enjoyed a picnic. We spent about an hour enjoying the boys in the pool and the picnic and then we cleaned up and went to Dear Creek Reservoir to play in the boats. I sat in my chair the whole time :( and everyone else played in the water. We all had a great time being together, and then the wind came and blew my parents canopy up over the hill into a car smashing the windshield. We quickly cleaned up, came home, changed and had dinner in the back yard. It was a crazy day, but lots of fun! I am so grateful for the thoughtfulness of my family to spend a day helping with my house.