What a day!

This morning I woke up, excited about my last day at the preschool.  As I've been doing for the past several years, I spend two days each week all summer in a classroom.  Today was the last day for the summer.  While I hate to leave this sweet place & go back to "big school" the rest of the year, I was looking forward to today.  It was a scheduled fun water play day.  The kids spend time outside, sliding down a giant slip & slide, splashing in a wading pool and having fun!  (And sometimes, their silly teachers slide down with them!)  I always make a point of spending extra time loving on all "my" kids in the class on the last day.  Every day with them is special & important, but when I know it's the last time I'll get to see them for the year, it's hard not to spend extra time doling out hugs and kisses and high fives and soaking up their sweet little faces one last time.  It's a bittersweet day of saying goodbye, not just to the kids in the class, but to the fun of working at the preschool for one more year.  But today I felt mentally & emotionally prepared and woke up ready to go!

But then life happened.

A few days ago, we heard the hot water heater making some funny clicking sound, but didn't think much of it.  Honestly, I should've gone and checked it then but sometimes older appliances make weird noises & you sort of tune it out.  That was the case with the water heater.  This morning, however, I realized that the noise it was making a couple days ago was probably a warning sign we should've checked.  When Savannah went into the laundry room to get something from a basket of clean clothes, she mentioned that someone must've spilled some water.  I thought it was odd that someone had a glass of water in the laundry room, but thought it might've been that someone dropped a wet towel after a shower.  Then she noticed another wet spot...and another.  I went to check where the water was coming from and it hit me that it was coming under the wall.  On the other side of the wall is, you guessed it, our hot water heater!  When I ran to check it I stepped in a puddle.

Sigh.

I called Larry, who had left at 5:30 am for an out of town training class for work.  Unfortunately he was far away with our Lowe's credit card (which means I had no way to pay for a new hot water heater, which I figured we probably were going to need.)  Then I called the next most important man in my life---my daddy!  Within a few minutes, he and my mom were on the way to my house.  Daddy is an incredible fixer & has replaced lots of water heaters over the years, so I knew he could handle the task.  He agreed to let me go on to work at the preschool and he would take care of the water heater.  We could pay him back later.  So with great speed, Samuel, Sarah and I finished getting ready & loaded up all our special last day of summer school supplies & left for the preschool.

Or at least we tried. 

When I put the key in the ignition of my mini van, it just clicked.  I may have uttered a word I've since repented for.  I turned the key again & got the same result.  I tried several times before I pulled the keys out and sighed.  Really?  TODAY?  The last day of summer school is NOT a good time for me to have to be absent!  I needed the van to start!  I tried one last time before giving up & calling my dad again!  He was 5 minutes away and agreed to check the van when he got here.

While he could jump start the van, there was no guarantee that it would start up again this afternoon when I left the preschool.  Or when I got ready to leave the orthodontist appointment that we had to get to immediately after school.  Or when I was ready to leave the music store we had to visit to get Sarah's flip folder & lyre for band.  Boy oh boy.  Before I knew it, we were on the parking lot of Auto Zone, $120 poorer with a new battery in the van.  Thank goodness for smart dads who know how to fix things!

I took my dad back to my house, picked up my kids & all my preschool stuff again and left him with the task of replacing the water heater.  I was about an hour late getting to the school, but I wouldn't have missed it!

Our fun water play time went off without a hitch and I was able to spend lots of extra time sitting in the floor, snuggling my sweet little friends, laughing and playing with them, hugging and high fiving, planting kisses on foreheads & rubbing noses with one particular sweet baby girl who loves to give "Eskimo kisses".

After a round of hugs and goodbyes this afternoon, I drove away from the preschool feeling quite blessed, honored to have been given the opportunity to be a part of all these little ones' lives this summer.  They're young.  They may not remember me six months from now, but I will remember them!  My life is richer for having taught them and gotten to know their parents.  I am grateful I had the chance to teach them this summer and look forward to coming back next summer.

At the end of the day, I am down several hundred dollars and I'm worn out, but what a great day!  Thank you to my mom & dad for coming to my rescue this morning!  And thank you to all the moms and dads who trusted me to love their babies this summer.  I can hardly believe it's over, but a new season is dawning and it's time to see what God has in store this Fall.