Floods

What a day today was. Busy as everyday seems to be the kids are getting better at getting up early and get out the door asap. Most days I start around 7:30 although today was a special day where I was asked to come in earlier so they could get off to a prework meeting. So I had a long day. I will tell you my typical day at work as a nanny/office helper. I end up feeding the kidlings breakfast as soon as they come down hoping that they are already dressed (not usually both of them) then wash them up and get them out the door and into my car to leave for school hopefully by 8:00 (we're getting better at it). We don't have too many meltdowns about no tv time or playtime in the a.m. I drop Nugly off at his school (full day JK) which is about a 20 min. drive in traffic to get him there hopefully before the bell rings. Then I am off to take Choo Choo to her school (half day preschool) by 9:00 (we are always on time for that one it's only about a 15 min. drive there). That's it for kids for me until lunch time so the parents asked if I would work in their office until lunch time. So off I go there where I get to relearn my alphabet by filing charts and documents in the right section (it's going to take me a little while longer to figure that out). Then I am back at the preschool to pick up Choo Choo who always has a smile on when she comes down the stairs and sees me. I take her home and give her some lunch and off she goes for a nap while I do some cleaning/kid laundry (I refuse to do the parents) and relax for a bit. She only sleeps for about an hour so it's not much time. Then I snack her and put her back in the car to go and pick Nugly up from school. When we get back I let them choose their activity (lately it's been riding bikes) and wait for mom and dad to return at about 5:30.

Although today was quite a different day, Dad was off because he worked a night shift and came home mid morning and was trying to clean out or something like that (I don't know too much about it) his fish tank (now this fish tank is not just your ordinary tank with cute little goldfish in it. It is a salt water fish tank with live coral, clams, starfish, etc. and he grows his own coral and has this whole system that I don't go near) So after he did that he went and slept all afternoon just like Choo Choo did (she's a great sleeper as long as the cat doesn't stay with her). While I was making muffins with Choo Choo Dad said he had to go out for a while so I went and picked up Nugly as usual and because it was raining they got to play inside with the trains and Hot Wheels (yes Choo Choo likes that more than dolls) I sent them down and was going to join them after putting the lunch bag away but Nugly came back up very upset and mentioned something about a flood. "WHAT A FLOOD?" so I went down to check it out and yup there was a flood. Apparently the huge fish tank was overflowing somehow. OK that's fine I'll just call Dad on his cell phone. It would have been fine if only he had it on. OK so then I'll just page him. Oh what's that I hear? "beep beep beep" that's right he left his pager at home with me. OK so now I am officially panicking. So I call Mom on her cell phone Hooray I made contact. So she drops what she is doing and races home. Meanwhile I call an aquarium store to ask a) is Dad there? b) how do I stop the flood? They tell me no Dad has not come in today and to pull the plug on the pump. OK I can do that, after a half hour of trying to figure out which plug goes to which thing. AHHHHH! Mom gets home and helps with the towels and searching for THE plug. When Dad gets home ...... Boy is he in trouble as Choo Choo told him often (hee hee hee). The flood wasn't the big problem it was mainly that he didn't have any way for me to contact him. I think he learned his lesson though. And I am pretty much a pro at this now because after 3 years working here I've dealt with 4 floods.