Puddles. water heaters. and teenage boys.

Yesterday I was amazing. Lets be honest. I was planning a pajama day and not having to do anything. I decided I should at least wrap some gifts during nap time. Instead I did a little fix on our water heater. I had put both boys down for their naps and got out the bags of gifts to wrap while they were asleep. When I went downstairs to get the tissue paper box I stepped in a puddle. Puddles are ALWAYS bad when you're in a basement. There's never a good puddle in the basement. So I removed my soggy sock and started feeling around to see why there was a puddle in the carpet. (Not to mention crossing my fingers that jack had just spilled the squirt bottle when he went down to iron that morning) No such luck with the crossing fingers. It was a good 2'X2' square of soggy soggy soggy carpet in the guest bedroom. nice. I looked further in the room to make sure that was as far as the water went and it was thank goodness. Then the thought: "oh no. the water heater," comes to mind. I open the utility closet to find a large puddle on the concrete. A puddle you ask? yes. no drain by the water heater- it's by the washer and dryer-cause that's rational... Go figure we didn't notice that until now. Anyway as I'm sopping up water everywhere I realize that this isn't a fix that can wait because there's a constant drip coming from the temperature pressure release valve on the top side of the water heater. pajama day gone. I call Karen up to see if she can come listen for the boys while I run to the hardware store. When I get to the hardware store I find a lady 70 + yrs old and a teenage boy maybe 17 yrs old and ask for the part I need. (the ones my dad instructed me to get). The little boy jumped at the chance to help me trying so so hard to locate the correct parts. He obviously had no clue what I was talking about but was trying so sincerely to help out. (*note* my wedding ring is in disrepair so my hand was naked, and I didn't have kids with me.) Before he could ask me to the next dance a man that knew what he was doing asked if he was finding things okay. Phew. But thanks for the flattery of being attracted to a married mom of two. The new guy got me hooked up with all the right parts, loaned me the store's pvc cutters and sent me on my way to fix the problem. I went home did the little fix that I could, then went to return the pvc cutters to the store. You should have seen the sweet little guys face as soon as the gentleman that helped me started discussing something that brought up "my Husband shut off the sprinkler water..." The poor kid was crushed. The H word. sad. flattering. but sad. oh well. my dad's graciously coming to help fix the spout tomorrow even though he's sick as a dog. We're so grateful for his fix it help so often!