Freezing

The first week or so of January was so so cold.  There were a couple of 1 hour delays (which I really enjoyed) and one school day canceled.  Last Monday school was canceled and we thought it would be fun to go over to the church to play in the gym.  We went inside and saw that another family was there too.  After playing for about 10 minutes the fire alarm started going off.  Back in the Fall our building had some ongoing issues with the pumps for the water/septic system. Therefore, when the alarms went off we weren't really that concerned even though the pumps had supposedly been fixed. I mentioned to Mark, (thinking it was just the pump again,) that he better call the fire department because they would be responding to the alarm. He went outside to call and they said they would be over shortly.  I did a quick walk around the building just to make sure I didn't smell any smoke.  The alarm repeatedly telling us to leave the building and not re enter was getting to me.  The fire department showed up and did a walk around the building.  I did another walk around the building and saw a fire fighter outside the library.  Once I stopped and listened I could hear water gushing into the library.  Mark got the door opened and this is what we saw: (You can see it best by the lights and then the floor)

A sister in another ward showed up around the same time as the fire fighters. It turned out that her brother is the East Coast Building facilities manager and he had asked her if she could stop by the building and let him know what was happening. Mark and the firefighters went up into the attic to try to locate pipes and turn off the water.  Along with the other family at the church we tried to remove as many items as we could from the library.  All the electronics and copy paper.  We grabbed all the trash cans from the classrooms and positioned them under the biggest leaks.  It literally felt like it was raining inside the library.  Because there was so much water in the pipes it took a long time for the water to stop coming through the ceiling.  It turns out that a pipe right outside the library had burst because it was so cold and then warmed up some.

The fire fighters and the facilities manager commented that they had been seeing this all over Albemarle County and the East Coast. It was not the afternoon I expected when we went over to the church but I am glad we could help out.  Mark is the acting Bishop this year so all these kinds of things will be his responsibility.  2 weeks down, 50 to go.

At home we had some winter themed fun.  We made snowflakes out of coffee filters and a fun snowflake snack.  I did both of these activities in preschool and previously with Jared and Lydia and it was a fun way to spend an afternoon.  Jared had a harder time figuring out the snowflakes this year which was odd because he did great last year. It was a bit more frustrating for him than I expected it to be but he did manage to make one or two snowflakes.

I cut hearts in this snowflake and Lydia was impressed. 

Jared was much happier with the snack we made. 

Lydia's birthday is in less than 2 weeks.  Hard to believe she will be 6 years old.  Six is kind of the age where kids just don't seem that little anymore.  She can do all kinds of things, is pretty independent and is physically not that small. They just seem older to me once they turn 6. We spent some time looking at cake ideas online and have a good plan for what she wants.  We will do our usual traditions and then since her birthday is a Tuesday a friend from her class is coming over to play and have cake after school.  It will be fun to celebrate the great kid she is. Now we just need a huge snowstorm so we can go sledding because really if it is going to be this cold I would really like something to show for it!