Baking Day, Interrupted.

It has been the month of calamities. Last week my parents lost power for 36 hours, at the exact same time that my mom got flattened by the flu bug. Stephen and Susan were kept home from Boise, not only by a massive snow storm but the plague managed to blow them down one by one as well. I find it hard to believe that three short weeks ago, we were basking in an unseasonably warm 60 degrees, and now we are smashing record lows, forget about wind chill factor! Well. . .baking day did not escape without it's own tragedy. . .
I spent the early part of the morning tidying up and loading my laundry basket with all my baking supplies (including some already baked pie crusts!) meanwhile. . .


. . . my parents were sopping up buckets of water as a result of a burst pipe. My dad came downstairs about 6 am to find water gushing out of this whole in the ceiling:

They had to unload everything out of one room into the next, so that they could get to the carpet to suck up all the excess water that was soaking into the subfloor. . . .

The contents of the emptied hutch.
Thankfully, my brother, their resident plummer was just a phone call away. He came by, and within 1/2 an hour had that pipe tied off, and the water back on. . .The rest of the recovery, including the carpet and ceiling, will take several more days, maybe weeks. . .Fortunately, Kelly was willing to host our Thanksgiving dinner the next day and the whole affair continued without too much trouble.
And after the week before, I think my parents were just happy to have power, heat, water, and most of all, a son who knows what he's doing :) Yes, there was much to be thankful for, even so.