Since I am trying to make this my journal, I thought I would post a series of emails I sent to my favorite group of online ladies concerning my week so far.  Only one week from now, and I will be back in the arms of my sweet dh!  Oh, I can't wait!

———-Monday morning——–

Of course, dh just left for two weeks on Sunday morning.

We were making our way through the day today and as I was rinsing the breakfast dishes, the water started trickling…must be frozen I thought.  To make a long story short, I am now trying to locate an electrician because in the course of thawing the pipes, the well wires started melting!  We aren't sure what happened, if it was the well pump that caused a short, or something else, but we still have no water, and
all of the brakers are turned off except for the heaters until we can get an electrician in there to figure things out.

The kids and I are staying at my in-laws house, around the corner.  My throat still burns from the smoke, and the house smells awful.

Praise God that I smelled the smoke when I did (thank goodness for hyper-sensitive pregnancy nose!) and alerted the man who was thawing the pipes!  And, that we are all safe and our house is still standing.  We have no insurance because the house is not on a permanent foundation.  I dread the thought of what could have happened.

———-Tuesday morning———–

The electrician said that we were very, very lucky that the house didn't burn.  I gave God all the glory, but I don't think Jack was impressed…lol!  I told him that luck had nothing to do with it, but that God had protected us.  A few minutes later, after he had found more melted wires, he reiterated how lucky we were.  I am sure he knew what *I* was thinking again!

Jack, the electrician came first thing yesterday morning, and spent two hours replacing wiring.  $178 later, and we were back where we started Monday morning…still no water, but the pump tested fine so it was just a freak accident.  We stayed at my inlaws again last night, which was kind of nice anyway, so I could put the kids to bed and watch the Olympics!

We are supposed to be attempting to thaw the lines again today.  It is still too cold out (0 degrees) so we are waiting for it to warm up a bit.  Please pray about it, as I am *REALLY* nervous!  We are going to have walkie talkies and one person in each place, and one by the welder to shut it off, but I am *SO* nervous about it.  I am really trusting in God, but you just never know what He has planned!

Oh, and only the pantry stinks now…I have my work cut out in there!

———Thursday afternoon————

We are now home with electricity AND running water!  I can hear it trickling out the bathtub faucet at a constant reassuring rate!

After the electrician had fixed ALL of the wiring that had melted (much more than we first originally thought!) and had told me how extremely lucky we were that the house hadn't burned, I called our neighbor to see if he would come try thawing the pipes again.  He said he would be over at 9am.  I slept pretty well that night, but at 8am the next morning, he said that it was too cold, and we would wait for it to
warm up.  By lunchtime, it had warmed up, but I still hadn't heard from him, so I called, and his response to me was that he didn't think his welder would work unless it was above freezing!  I know it wasn't above freezing on Monday when we attempted to burn down my house!  Besides, this is Alaska!  We could wait another month before it gets above freezing!

I finally talked to dh on messenger and we decided to try to find someone else while we waited for the neighbor.  A friend had had to have someone come up from town, and it cost $350!  I tried to call them first, but couldn't get through, so I looked in the yellow pages.  I found one a little closer, so thought I would try them.  After I told them what had happened, she was still not really helpful, so I said,
“Listen, my husband is gone for two weeks, I have 5 children, and I am pregnant!  I need water!”  I was on the verge of tears.

She said, give me 20 minutes to call their thawing guy, and she would get right back to me!  Love the power of the sob story!  They said it would be between $210-250, depending on how long it took to thaw.  Also she said that he wanted me to know that he had a special meter that would show him exactly where the electricity was going!   Also, that he would put me at the top of the list in the morning, and he would be here between 8-11am!  The price and the fact that he had a meter to monitor the electricity sounded better, so I gave them directions to the house.
I felt SO much better about it!

I decided to go home to get supplies for dinner, since it seems easier to get things together when I know right where they are at home, instead of scrounging around my MIL's pantry and fridge looking for things.  I got out to the van, turned the key, and heard…click, click, click.  The battery was dead for some reason!  Oh, come on!  My dear sweet BIL jumped it for me…my hero for the day!

Anyway, he showed up at 9am, and after checking everything 3x's he started thawing.  It turns out, that the neighbor had hooked up on the wrong side of the dielectric union, which keeps the power from going the wrong direction!  No wonder it fried my wires!  It had no where else to go!

It only took about 10 minutes to thaw them, and then he only charged me $174!  I was SO thankful to him!  He was SO nice too!  He showed me exactly what he was doing, how his meter worked, etc.  I told him I would only have him do my pipes from now on!

I went back over to my in-laws to pick up our stuff and the kids.  As we were packing the car, the van was inadvertantly locked, while it was running!  This isn't funny anymore!!  Praise God that I had seen dh's keys by the front door.  One of my older sons rode his bike over to the house and retrieved the keys.  Praise the Lord that dh had left his keys, and in plain sight too!

So, I am home now, and glad to be so.  I'm scared to go anywhere or do anything!  Thank you for your prayers.  God definitely saw me through my trials this week.  I am praying for a respite now.