The Big, Ugly, Black Lagoon

Sounds real appealin', right?!

About as much as it was to watch it flood into my living room.

Yep. You read that correctly--I had a muddy lake in my LIVING ROOM!!!

You know that Twilight Zone I jokingly mentioned...yah, I think it arrived.

So, here's how I wound up with the 'Big & Nasty' invading my living space. One day last week, after spending a lovely time out and about as a family, the rain that had been threatening to break loose all day, well...it did!

Now, I like me a good thunderstorm, including all the lightning and booming, especially as it is great "sleeping weather" {one of my FAVORITE past times! Grin} However, this was a bit extreme, even for me!

I was sitting on the couch reading to Clara, when the wind really picked up and you could hear the rain pounding down. Then it wasn't just rain, it was dreaded hail. Lots of it came down, fast and hard! When I was finally able to brave going outside, I found quarter-size ice balls all over our yard. Kinda of looked we had the remnants of snow hanging around. 

Before I got up from my huddled position on the couch in an attempt to keep my babies calm, we had more problems than just hail. Matt came into the room and was quick to let me know that I had a waterfall running down the wall, right behind where I was sitting! And yes, it was effectively getting the back of the couch all soggy! Obviously, we quickly set that right, shoving the couch away from our "little Niagra".

But, it just gets better and better. "Little Niagra" quickly turned into "BIG Niagra" as moments later we heard and saw a huge, yah, I mean a LOT of water, come gushing down from inside our chimney. I stood there frozen for a moment hoping to awaken from this very bad dream. I tell ya, I would not have believed it if I had not seen it with my own eyes! Quickly our adrenaline rush kicked in and I proceeded to rapidly yet gently shove my startled kids into their room so that Matt and I could try to control our newly created "Black Lagoon". Bad enough that we had water flooding through our living room, but it wasn't just nice, clean rain water. This was yucky, muddy, sooty, clean-out-the-fireplace-of-grime-while-you-are-at-it, black water! DOUBLE ICK!!

I am sure Matt and I made quite a sight as we hurriedly grabbed our furniture and tried to get it out of harm's way. Then I began to push the "Black Lagoon" out our front door with a squeegee. Yah, 1/2 of our living room was covered with a good inch or 2 of mess. I have never been so glad that we do NOT have carpet!! One of my first thoughts, as I was shoving the lake out of our door was, "Ok, Lord, I know that I really did need to clean and mop the floor, but this is Ridiculous!!!" I definitely got the hint!

So the best we can figure out is that the drain pipe that comes out right next to the chimney got plugged up by the hailstones, causing all the water to back up and overflow into our chimney. Yep, those cute little balls of ice aren't as innocent as they look!

 Never a dull moment!