We've had a flood of events the past several weeks, culminating in poison ivy (or something like that) on my face. 2 days into our family vacation we got a call from a very thoughtful friend who had checked out basement for us. He'd found nearly 4 feet of water down there. Jared drove home and spent the first portion of our vacation playing FEMA. After our vacation, my parents took our kids for a couple of days while Jared and I finished the job. It was a nasty mess down there. We lost a lot of stuff and it's been a lot of work. The basement is nearly dry, but the water table is still close to the level of our floor. Meanwhile my face slowly began to swell until good friends were having a hard time recognizing me. The doc said that it was some sort of plant reaction (like poison ivy but not) and he gave me prednisone, which has really helped. My house is still a mess, but the kids are home and napping and all is looking well. We lost a lot of stuff, some of it replaceable like my pantry goods and our furnace, and some not like our photographs. Our wedding pictures made it through and I'm happy about that. Catastrophes like this make me feel very content because my family is safe. Losing photographs I can handle.