The Aftermath of Cold Weather

Well, it has been an eventful weekend. We really started our weekend Wednesday afternoon when Steven and Thomas were let out of school early because of a snow storm that we were getting. Then, school was cancelled on Thursday because of snow and extremely cold weather. They were already supposed to be out of school on Friday. They are off tomorrow for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and then on Tuesday for a special teacher in-service meeting. So, these boys have had a LONG weekend. I think that they have enjoyed it. They have done pretty good. I do think that they have gotten a little "cabin fever" from being inside so much. When the actual temp. is -10 (not including the wind chill) there isn't much you can do outside. They also had their first indoor soccer game. They were both excited and loved the fact that they were on the same team. When Steven came in and him and Thomas ended up playing right beside each other, Thomas just looked over at us and gave us a big smile. We were so proud of them (the team didn't win, but I loved seeing my boys working together and enjoying playing on the same team). After the game the coach came up to Mike and told Mike that Steven told the coach before the game that he will play anywhere they needed him and they could sub. him in and out whenever they wanted him to. We laughed because, that is just Steven, always ready to do what is needed and is pretty easy going(except clean his room that is or pick up after himself at home:)). Steven even got a handball and the ref. looked at him when he called it and Steven shook his head yes. He even told me afterward that he shook his head, he said he wanted to be honest with the ref.:) That's our Steven!
Along with those below 0 temp. came frozen pipes (the joys of living in an older home). Our washer pipes were frozen and our dishwasher pipes were frozen. The washer pipes were frozen for about 3 days, a good friend let me come to her house to wash some clothes (our dryer worked, so I could dry clothes at home). Well, as the temp. are warming up to a scorching 18 degrees:), things have started to thaw a little. Well, last night at about midnight, Steven came upstairs and woke Mike up saying that there was something going on downstairs. Mike went downstairs with Steven and opened the laundry room/back porch door and what looked like smoke was coming from there. Steven panicked and went to get the fire extinguisher and told Mike to use it. Well, it wasn't smoke from a fire, but the steam from the hot water pipe that were busted and hot water was all over the place on the back porch/laundry room. It was a mess. Mike just shut all of the water off for the night because obviously no place was open for him to get piping. So, he got up early this morning so that he could start working on it. After working all day in a cold crawlspace in the basement (remember, we have an older home), he finally fixed all of the piping and we now have water to the washer:). I did feel so sorry for him, he worked so hard and was so tired this evening that he went to bed early. I helped to run up and down the stairs for him while he worked. So, he made sure to insulate the pipes as much as he could this time:). I thought about how thankful that I was that I had a husband that could do this and did do it.
I have enjoyed my long weekend with my family, frozen/broken pipes and all:).