Update....

We spent almost all day yesterday dealing with basement cleanup. Yesterday afternoon a water clean up company recommended by our insurance sent 2 guys to our house to start extracting water from the carpet in the basement. They worked for close to 2 hours and extracted more than 200 gallons of water from the carpet. A few hours later 2 different guys came and set up a huge dehumidifier. Around 6:30 last night we got another really hard rain and ended up getting 1.5 inches in less than 45 minutes! We were nervous...but the sump pump kept working and we didn't get any new water in the basement! They returned at 8:00pm last night and put 13 high power fans in our basement to start drying things out. I had made chocolate chip cookies and gave them a whole bag of fresh from the oven cookies....I think I am now their new best friend! :) The fans and dehumidifier have been running for 24 hours and things are still really wet. Now the lovely damp, yucky basement smell has set in and spread throughout our house. YUCK! The guys came back to check and left everything running. They'll be back again tomorrow night (they also complimented me on my cookies) to check again.

While things were drying, I spent most of the day doing loads of laundry from things that had been in the basement - blankets, hand me down clothes, future garage sale clothes, and even a load of Barbie clothes (Yes...I washed the Barbie clothes - the box had been floating in the water and everything was soaked). I also emptied tubs of toys, dried things off, and then put the toys back away. I also threw things away and started making a list of things that are ruined. Kara - my stampin' up catalogs were destroyed, except for my current one. By 10:00 last night we were both in bed and fast asleep! Unfortunately, we got more rain last night, so neither one of us slept well. The reports are that we got at least 7.5 inches of rain on Monday, plus another 1.5 last evening, and more rain over night! Today has been hot and humid, but no more rain - thank goodness!

Now we wait for the basement to dry. Then they will come back and clean everything. The insurance adjustors will also come within the next day or so to see what can be saved and what is a loss.

On a positive note...Jacob's first day of 4th grade went well. He really likes his teacher and was excited about going back and seeing his friends. I took pictures this morning and will try to post them in the next day or so. Jenna starts on Monday. She can't wait!!!

Also, Becca's surgery went well yesterday. We did not get a chance to go see her last night like planned, but Chris went to visit tonite. Thanks to everyone for keeping her in your thoughts and prayers.