No, not the dance (that's usually in the fall anyway), but for all of us to head home from Ronald McDonald House and Kartini Clinic and get back to our regular lives. This entailed me getting up early (I was out the door before 5 AM this morning) to head up to Kelso to get the house ready for all of us to come home tomorrow. I had to do the recycling so that the delivery guys could deliver and install the new clothes dryer. I also had to meet a friend at 8 AM to see what we needed for installing the new water heater he was going to help me pick up and then help me install. Lastly, I needed to do some cleaning around the house to make it a little nicer to come home to.
So, I got back to Kelso right around 6 AM, and luckily our house sitter is an early morning person too. He took off and left me to it. I got all the recycling packaged up, thrown in the back of the Pilot and dropped off in plenty of time to get back and be ready to start on the water heater project. As we were pulling away from the house for the water heater, the delivery guys called for the dryer. I let them know the regularly scheduled window between 9 AM and 1 PM would still work best (they were running early and wanted to know if they could come by). We made it to Home Depot and got the water heater and other pieces we needed to get it all hooked up, and then headed back home. Pulled into home to see the delivery truck there, so my friend from church (Steve Jones, thanks so much for the help today!) went in and started draining the old water heater while I handled the delivery guys and getting the dryer situation handled.
Once the dryer was done and the delivery guys were gone, and the old water heater was in the process of draining, we brought in the new one, unboxed it, sized things up, and then we waited.... and waited... and waited some more... a 50 gallon water heater takes a LONG time to drain... Once it was mostly drained, we hauled it outside, left in on the porch to drain any remaining amount out, and then we went through the process of installing a new one... You know how it takes a long, long, long, long time to drain a water heater? Well, it also takes a long... long... long... long time to fill one too... But got it installed, got it filled, Steve flipped the breakers and nothing blew up, and then we set it and let it run. I helped Steve get the old one in the back of his truck, and he said he would get it to the dump for me so I could get on with getting the house ready.
From there, while the water heater was heating up, I went and ran some errands (dog food, a drain pipe for the overflow valve on the water heater, and some LEDs for the bathroom), then came home and finished the last bit on the water heater, and then did some general pick-up around the house. Finally, I vacuumed and mopped all the floors (ALL of them, dining room, kitchen, living room, hall, bathroom, and both bedrooms). While this was going on, the water heater had come up to temperature, and I was running the washer through a drum cleaning cycle to make sure any sediment in the hot water lines was gone... Once that was done, I had to wash Amelia's bedding because it looked like a dog had been sleeping in her bed (and probably had been). Once that was done, I made Amelia's bed, made sure the dogs couldn't get back into her room, fed them, and headed back to Portland. I got back to Portland around 7 PM. LONG day...
While I was doing all this, Katherine and Amelia were entertaining visitors, going for a 3 mile walk to OMSI, spending a LOT of time in the Turbine room at OMSI, walking back, eating, and having a fun day, celebrating their last full day here.
So, it was a long day and I am tired, but feel better about all of us arriving at home tomorrow with the house (relatively) clean, Amelia's room ready to go, a new water heater, a new dryer, and time for us to get back to a regular life! Woohoo!
Thank you all for following our adventures. As I said before, I will keep this blog going as we travel through Amelia (and us) transitioning back to normal life and the struggles there. Thanks for the prayers, well wishes, good thoughts, positive karma, and all of those things. Our St Rose and East Hills families have been amazing support, as have the Chick Flick Women and other disc golf groups in the area. You guys all rock! Thanks!
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