For the last 2 or 3 months, at LEAST, our "mudroom/scrapbook room/storage area" ceiling has had a leak. This is something that is easily put off, especially when buckets can be positioned amongst the junk to collect it. Well, when pieces of the ceiling start falling off, and chunks of white stuff gets tracked through the rest of the house by little pawprints, it's time to do something.

Before our vacation, I sent Reese up on the roof (poor guy is as handy as ...well, you fill in the blank). He patched up the spots he could see around a pipe-looking thing as best he could and came down. I wanted to get up there, but I was too chicken, being such a petite little thing, and I was afraid the wind might carry me right off the roof. (cough!)

But it only got worse. Much worse. By the time we got back from vacation, we were using 6 or 7 buckets and rain was coming down so hard in a couple of places that it was almost a stream.

I am NOT handy when it comes to house repairs. I'd just as soon buy a new house when something needs repair rather than actually fix the problem. But buying a new house was not possible today and this roof NEEDED to be fixed!! In FL in summers, it is customary to get hard afternoon showers every afternoon for a few minutes (it's lovely here this time of year) and I knew the wood in the roof would rot even more than it probably has. It was Desperation Time!!

While we were gone, Mark had purchased more leak-squirt stuff (you know, like cault tubes), but he was not available today to help, so it was up to me.

I borrowed a ladder from a neighbor. Spent 10 minutes getting it situated just perfectly and went up, down, up, down, up, down, trying to make sure it was in the PERFECT spot and trying to get my nerve up. Erik was happily splashing in his little kiddie pool in the driveway, happy as happy could be, and Nikolai couldn't resist the urge to watch me in my comedic performance.

I went inside to make sure all was well (what could be wrong? We were all outside!) and charged back to the ladder, determined this time.

I stiffened my lip, grabbed hold of that ladder and made it to the top (for about the 8th time!) and without really thinking, hoisted my big ol' -I mean, PETITE- self up there, rolling onto my side, right into a big, dirty roof puddle. But I MADE it!!! And it wasn't that hard. ...really.

Nikolai handed up my bag of supplies and I set to work. The roof on that part of the house is flat, so it was very easy walking around on it. I am quite sure I found the 18" long crack that was causing the trouble and I put a triple wide strip of black-gunk on it. Since I had more stuff in the tube thing, I went ahead and put it all over the place up there, on every crack I saw. I even put it on stuff that looked like it might think about being a crack someday! It was kind of fun, I had to admit.

The time came that I was really dreading though: time to get DOWN. I handed my bag of goodies to Nikolai, who was waiting below. I laid down on the roof, and peered over the side. With enormous pride, I looked him in the eye and exclaimed loudly, "YOUR MAMA CAN DO ANYTHING!!!"

Without emotion or excitement, he dryly replied, "All mamas can."

Not to be defeated, I said with resolve, "Not like YOUR mama can!!!".

Still not impressing him, I didn't care. I was filled with so much pride I could have burst. Little did I care that I was filthy dirty from rolling in that roof puddle when I first arrived. Little did I care about how wet I was. Little did I care that sweat was pouring off me like the rain poured in through the ceiling. I had stopped the leak!!!

I laid down again (in the same puddle that I was so familiar with) and swung my leg over the side. I easily found the ladder step, and with Nikolai's warm moral support, put my weight on it. Swung the other leg over, and carefully descended to the ground.

VICTORY!!!! I DID IT!! That darned roof has been leaking so badly for so long and I FIXED IT!!!

...of course, it hasn't rained yet, and we don't really know if I fixed it.

But I don't want to think about that just yet.