Toilet paper, bruises and half an apartment full of water

Malachi was playing in the toilet (with out consent of course) yesterday afternoon when I was doing dishes. When I finished a neighbor (Donovan, 15ish) came over to show me the Christmas cards and wrapping paper that he was selling for school. I heard Malachi whining in the back of the apartment, so I went to check what was going on. When I got to the bedroom my feet went out from under me and I fell on my left elbow and hip. I now have internal bruises and am waiting for them to show up on my skin.

The water was in the back bedroom, bathroom, and closet. I didn't get as upset as I probably could have because I immediately went into "fix it" mode. I asked Donovan to come help me for a sec. I stripped Malachi of his clothes and I gave him to Donovan to watch while I cleaned it up. After they left I stripped of my wet clothes and got into some dry ones. I started throwing my towels on the floor and assessing the damage. There was water, everywhere I was so scared about what was getting ruined.

Shortly after I started that another neighbor came over to ask a favor. I apologized for not being able to do it (going to be in China that day :)) and she offered to help, she called her daughter and had her bring more towels down. While our towels were soaking up water we started moving everything out of the bedroom and closet to our deck. I started picking up the towels and eventually my tub was full of towels and pillows that were either under or next to the bed on the floor.

She then went to get a mop and started moping up the water that the towels didn't pick up. The floor under the bed was so gross because I haven't cleaned under there in a year - so embarrassing.

She had to go prepare dinner for her family so then I was alone. I was completely overwhelmed, but I did ok. I brought Malachi to another home - one with a friend of his so they could play. She fed him dinner and let him play with Isaac for over three hours, it was such a big help. I spent that whole time washing and drying laundry. There was so much to be done! When John got home from school we got Malachi and put him straight to bed.

I eventually did five loads of laundry last night, one this morning and I have one more that needs to be done, but I'm out of quarters and that's after borrowing a bunch from Chris and Holly - thanks guys! I mopped the floor last night with my neighbors mop (side note: I've been using a Swiffer Wet Jet since Christmas and I think I wanna get a mop. I've never liked the stringy mops, but it did such a great job and it looks so much better then the wet jet, anyway...)

So basically I worked for five and a half hours straight last night relaxed a bit went to bed, got up early and started over again. I got up, showered, cleaned the bathroom (Wednesday chore) and did more laundry, put away the stuff that was in the closet and under the bed and then pigged out on cookies and watched Friends (of course I was also taking care of Malachi, feeding him and whatnot and I took John's car to the shop).

My body aches because I went to the gym yesterday morning with a girlfriend and did weights, then did all the work in the apartment later. After sitting down to watch a couple of episodes of friends getting up was pretty hard to do.

This really is filling up my time and helping for it to go by quickly - which I was afraid about.

China update: John talked to David Rigsby this morning. He and his wife are the ones in Qinhuangdao that we're going to stay with. I'm getting really excited to meet them. They're actually going to be in Beijing on the day we were going to their apartment so we're meeting them in Beijing and having lunch and then later that day we're going to their place. We might have a bit of shopping left to do for the trip but I don't think anything major.

I'm going to do Pilates, I hope it helps my soreness.