Back to Puerto Rico; Ministering Sattleys; Training Meeting; MLC; HOUSE FLOOD!!

Slowly the missionaries who had been reassigned to us for a while are getting called back to their original missions. This elder is on his way back to Puerto Rico.

He came to spend the night with us. Glen did his usual Mr. Nice Guy thing and was fixing him a French toast breakfast at 4:30 a.m. before driving him to the airport. I was on the couch in sick mode with my incessant coughing and needing to use the breathing machine around the clock.

I was sad to miss seeing Hermana Harker's cute family who had stopped by the mission office to see Glen.

The Sattleys, one of our dear, sweet senior couples heard I was laid up and they stopped by with some homemade gluten-free bread, some gigantic lemons off their tree and a jar of Manuka honey which is supposed to have great healing properties.

At that point I was willing to try anything to get some healing going on with these lungs. The bread was a wonderful treat for me and sustained me through that day and the next.

It was nice visiting with them for a while. So kind of them to take that time out of their day to come see me. Elder Sattley pointed out they were just doing what our new prophet instructed us to do--minister.

They were indeed ministering to me as they really brightened my day. It was getting pretty lonely with Glen gone all day and even some evenings as well.

Glen attended three district meetings three different days without me. 

He also had the 2nd new missionary trainer follow-up meeting which I also missed. He went out working two evenings with missionaries and got home late both those nights.

On Friday it was Mission Leadership Council all day. I was impressed he had thought to take pictures of the various meetings. Good for him!! I have felt so removed from all the missionaries and from missionary work.

These are all the missionaries who are part of the Mission Leadership Council: assistants, zone leaders and sister training leaders.

Glen was gone a long time on Friday. After MLC he had weekly planning meeting with the assistants. Then he went to the grocery store--actually two stores, Costco and Walmart--to load up on our weekly groceries. He had gone grocery shopping alone the week before as well. 

Two weeks of being a shut-in has been a drain on the both of us, that's for sure. 

It makes one appreciate the wisdom in being in a companionship. There is strength in being together. There is comfort in always having a companion by your side. When that is missing, there is a big void--in both companions' lives.

I was really looking forward to having Glen home on Saturday. No scheduled meetings. Little did I know first thing in the morning he started texting missionaries to see if he could meet with them. He's not one for sitting around twiddling his thumbs, that's for sure!

Good thing the interviews with missionaries were set for the afternoon, because when Glen came downstairs, he discovered the HOUSE was FLOODED!!!! 

 He got busy hauling out all the throw rugs to get them drying outside. He mopped all the standing water on the back part of the house in the hallway, bathroom and laundry room.

He had earlier discovered the source of the leak was from the water heater pressure valve. Water was spewing all over out there.

I was so hyped up on prednisone, which makes it hard to sleep, so it was suggested I take some Benadryl to help me sleep. This is how I feel when I am all drugged up on Benadryl...

In my drugged Benadryl stupor, I had been having the most wonderful night's sleep. I had coughed so much during the previous day that my body was relieved to get a reprieve from the coughing. Blessed sleep!!!

Glen wondered how I could have not heard the water spewing. He said he woke up in the night and heard water, but figured I was up doing laundry in the middle of the night again like the previous week.

He got on the phone with the Church to see about getting someone to come out to fix the water heater.

When the Church's handyman Steve came to survey the damage, he discovered Glen's whole office carpet was a soggy mess.

Glen carried some of the furniture out of there so Steve could use his shop vacuum to extract gallon after gallon after gallon of water from in there.

I was so thankful for the tender mercy that Glen was home all morning to help deal with this problem. But, time was ticking and he needed to get ready for the day. He was happy I had thought to fill up the water jug I'd found in the closet early on when we arrived here. 

I figured it could be used as part of our water storage if ever necessary. This day it was necessary!! Glen was able to shave and wash a bit to clean up for the day. What another blessing in our challenging day.

I guess the flood provided a bit of a bright spot for me. I have been getting tired of being home alone all day every day. This day I had Glen for half a day and our friend Steve was here working even beyond that. 

The door was left open all day for air circulation, so I went outside a lot. Just being beyond the walls of the home was a lift to my spirits despite all the chaos going on inside the walls of our home.

Glen had ordered me a finger pulse oximeter (as per Dr. Neuendorf's request) so I can keep track of my oxygen level.

Wondered if all the stress of the flood was helping or hindering my oxygen levels!

The industrial heater fan blew in the office all night long. It is feeling like a steamy sauna in here now!

Although still not breathing with great ease and still coughing some, we ventured out to attend a fast and testimony meeting this morning. It was wonderful to go to church and partake of the sacrament and listen to the members in one of the Vista wards sharing their testimonies.

I like to think it did my heart--and my lungs--some good. I had been cooped up in the house or at Urgent Care for nearly 2 weeks trying to recover from this illness. SHEESH!!!! That's a long time to be sick. And I was even sick before that as well.

Glen had been awakened in the night with a missionary having a problem which caused him to miss a couple of hours of sleep. He went up to take a nap in the afternoon and that is when I detected yet another problem...

THE HALL CLOSET AND EVERYTHING IN IT IS ALSO SOAKED!!!! HELP!!!! Why did we not think earlier to check in there?!?!?!?! When will this nightmare ever end?!?!?!??

Since there are no shelves in that closet, everything is stored on the floor. The carpeted floor. The flooded floor. The soggy floor. The needs-to-be-dried-out floor.

I neglected to take a photo before I started emptying out the closet. With everything that was in the closet. With everything that was soaking wet. Including our temple bags. Thankfully some of the seasonal decorations are stored in plastic bins.

That big box is the Christmas tree. The one we never have gotten out because we don't want to deal with the hassle.

Irony now is we have to get it out. All out. Air it out. Get another box. Put it away again. All the stuff we didn't have time to do at Christmas time. Still don't have time to do it at post-Easter/pre-zone conference week time!!

Our family room/my bedroom recovery room is now the storage room. 

The shelves have become the pantry with all the wet boxes airing out.

The dining room has all the plastic-covered holiday wreaths adorning it.

As Sarah so aptly commented on our recent circumstances, "When it rains it pours...er...floods?" 

One would hope tomorrow will be a brighter day.