When I was a wee little girl, I would caution everyone that left our house “Uoo beeee careful out dere. Dis cold, dark and wainy” which translates to ”You be careful out there. Its cold, dark and rainy.”

I believe I will print out those words of wisdom and post them on the front door of the Starlite office. Except I’ll need to change the “out there” part to “in here.”

Ladies and gentlemen ladies, we had a flood yesterday in the Starlite office.

Here’s how it went down: around lunchtime, I left the office to go grab some lunch. I was gone for a mere 10, maybe 15 minutes. As I’m unlocking the door to get back into the office, I hear water running and realize that someone has left the showerhead running.

The only problem being that there is no showerhead in the Starlite office.

I raced into the office and was met with a good two inches of water across our beautiful hardwood floors. Because of the way the house slants, the water had not made it to the front of the house but was pooling in the back room… right where I had put my two puppies in their playpen before leaving for lunch.

You know that motherly instinct that Sophie and Melanie write about?

I found that instinct and I found it quickly.

Snuggles was barking, Cuddles was crying and they were both shaking — I’m not sure if it was from fear or from the cold water spraying from the ceiling fan and leaking through the ceiling. I pulled them out of their playpen, grabbed my cell phone and sent a text to some of our leaders that I needed help at the office and I needed it RIGHT THEN.

Cate, whom you may remember is on cheese-cleaning-duty this week, was the first to show up. She came running in the office, took one look at the water and uttered a few things that I won’t repeat on this family-friendly blog.

In the interest of full disclosure, allow me to admit that several of these same sentiments had poured from my mouth a few moments earlier when I realized that the water was pouring directly onto the supplies we had just purchased for our programs that start this week.

Which is a nice way of saying “Yes, I said a few naughty words as well.” Of this, I am not proud. I did, however, not say them within earshot of any small children nor any small puppies. Before you pull the splinter out of my eye, let me pour gallons of water into your office and then listen to see if I hear any hallelujahs flowing from your lips.

Before long, a whole bushel of volunteers had arrived along with someone from our utilities company. Cate and I had shut off both the water and electricity to the house, so there wasn’t much more he could do other than casually remark that there was a good chance that the ceilings in three of the four rooms in our office were likely to cave in at any moment.

It was, I’ll admit, just the reassuring words I needed to hear.

So, we began lugging our stuff into the front yard. Everything we could lift, pull or drag made it into the front yard — and quite unceremoniously if I might add. At one point, people began walking through our yard asking how much we were asking for our computers.

By this time, some of our girls had seized the opportunity came up with the idea of calling some of our male friends to come help with the mass exodus. J, C, W and yet another C showed up, ready to take control of the situation with their manly selves.

And the girls? They took control of the situation using the zoom feature on their cameras. Apparently watching boys crawl up ladders into our attic is more fun than SAVING OUR FILES.

Oh, I kid because I only wished I could do the same. Can’t believe I left my camera at home on such an important day of my life.

Moving on.

The rest of the story is kind of what you’d expect — as soon as we got everything onto the front lawn, the plumber tells me that it is safe to bring it back inside as long as I can get it to fit into one room of the house. While the boys began lugging it back inside, the girls began going through the piles of files looking for the information we need for this week.

Because? Did I mention? Our programs are starting this week?

As we were going through the files, one of the girls suggested that we sing a song to make ourselves feel better. Another girl piped up with the suggestion that we join together for a chorus of “When You’re Going Through H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks, Keep on Goin’.”

It was a sweet, tender moment in the Starlite office.

So, we have no usable office at the moment unless you count the backseat of my two-door car. The power has to stay cut off until everything is dried out which, according to our plumber, could take a few days. Meanwhile, we get the pleasure of going forth with our planned programs for this week including figuring out just where we’re going to put those high school girls that will be showing up for a dessert Bible study this evening.

Does anyone know where you can purchase a mid-sized Ark that has room for some high school girls and two adorable puppies?

This post was originally published on January 22, 2008.