Plumbing adventure

OK. A plumber I am not. I thought it would be an easy thing to replace the faucet under my bathroom sink after all, you just take a connection off here and then replace it there (of course after the water is shut off to the area). Well, I didn't take into account the old plumbing in my house. I took everything apart (with a bit of coaxing to some of the old parts). I reassembled it just as it was before... Oh did I mention that it took a hammer and chisel to remove the old one?!? I put everything back together in order... easy stuff right? WRONG! When I reconnected the hot water the old valve started to drip. I thought it may not be too bad until I can put some putty in the leaky spots... Wrong again! It started to drip, then drip a bit more and then just pour a small stream from there. SO, I though we will just go on to the cold water and come back to this part. Cold water connected fine... only a minor setback with a thread that didn't want to match up but eventually I convinced it. Looks good for the cold so I turn it on as far as it should go. No problems. Then a slow drip from the NEW lead line. Then more of a drip. I look at both connections. That is not the problem. They are both dry. It is the NEW lead line that has a hole in the tube!! Today I stopped at Lowe's and picked up a new lead line. However, when I got it home I discovered that what I picked up from the area that said "Faucet lines" was actually a toilet line. The connector is not the same. I called it a day and will try again tomorrow when I have a bit more patience. I told the family that if I tried to do much plumbing around here, they would soon discover I have a whole new vocabulary :) Well, tomorrow is another day...

Cold... snow... I am seeing a pattern here. It was 10 degrees when I came to work this morning but I just keep trying to remind myself that in a few short months, I will be complaining about the heat. I will complain about the heat. I do every summer.
I'm looking forward to a short winter get away in Feb. Gma and Uncle Don and I are taking our usual mid winter/ Christmas present to each other vacation in mid-Feb. We are going to South Carolina and Savannah, GA for a 4 day weekend. Adam will hold down the fort at home with my friends Sharon, Melissa and Donna making sure he has what he needs, goes where he needs to go and is taking care of locking up, turning off the dryer, etc. that he needs to make sure of at home. Donna will probably stay with him at night too. She loves my dogs. Then, she can do whatever she wants during the day. He does fine by himself but there is no one who can be vigilant like Mrs. Trump used to be and it makes me feel better to have someone around at least some of the time!
I believe we will be going back to South Carolina in April for Easter and to see Angela, Lomax and Max before they leave for Europe.

Deep Freeze again today. Yesterday was moderately cold and today is just down right cold!!
I discovered last night when I tried to tap and hop on my leg that my graceful stunt Sunday night at my friend Kaye's house may have messed up my knee a bit more than I thought. It really seemed like no big deal. I was at Kaye's house where I will be house-sitting for the month of Feb. and we were going downstairs to play Mario Kart (her favorite Wii game). I was trekking down the stairs behind her and when I got to the bottom I missed the last step. Next thing I knew I was on my knees and spilling my Coke all over the carpet. Thank God for carpet!! I probably would have been pretty broken if there had been no carpet and padding. Instead it just gave me rug burn on both knees. I haven't had that kind of injury in about 30 years :) My workouts on Monday and Tuesday didn't bother me much although my knee felt a bit stiff. However, when I tried to tap dance last night, I began to feel just how many hops on one foot Judy puts in her dances!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I made it through half of class but the second half, I was just a spectator.
We have some really exciting Columbus news today... We are going to have train service between Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton and Columbus. I became hooked on train travel this fall when we took the train to NYC. It is convenient and allows the rider to enjoy the scenery instead of having to be focused on the road. The Amtrak connections in Cincinnati and Cleveland will allow us here in Ohio to go almost any place in the US by train! I can't wait. They said maybe by the middle of next year they will have the service operational. It will also make possible short weekend or even day trips to Cincinnati without having to drive. Gma get used to traveling by train... maybe then when we ride the bus somewhere, she will be asking "Where is this train taking us again?!?"
Here is my other good news from yesterday... I'm officially booked to go on a cruise with my friends this summer. Thomas and Michele, my friends from Australia will be joining me as well as Paula and Tim and the kids and Paula's sister, Sharon. I am hoping that Melissa and Donna will join us but I signed up to room with Tim's mother since his father just passed away and she really wanted to be able to join her family on this cruise. That solves a problem for both of us in the room-mate department. Also, since Don decided not to go it solves the what to do with gma issue!
I guess I better go to work now.

Going to Hawaii!

I can't wait to go to Hawaii on Thursday! I feel very spoiled and blessed that God has allowed me to do this. And that Angela and Lomax are willing to have me when Lomax has only been back home for a month! It will be so fun to see all - especially little Max!

To Angela, Aimee and Andy.
I thought this might be a fun way to post pictures and keep a record of our family history. We can go back and look at what has and is happening in each other's lives as often as we want this way.

Snow... more snow! After a couple of days of spring-like weather, today it is snowing again. Oh well, like my southern mamma always says "can't do nothin about the weather except talk about it".
OK. My brother has the worst luck and the strangest problems. He is in the process of transferring his car over to Ohio for a myriad of reasons... the top one being it is cheaper to license it in Ohio. He was here the weekend before last and was going to switch from the Ohio temporary plate to an Ohio "real" plate. However, Ohio BMV doesn't have the title yet. So we did some investigating and were told that it has already been sent from his bank to the Ohio BMV. Capital One says "That was the original. Hopefully, it isn't lost!" ... Ya think?!?! Of course it will be Don's fate that it will be lost and he will have to jump through some kind of hoops to get it changed over!!

We didn't see the sun this weekend but at least it was warmer than the deep freeze we have been having. It was actually 50 degrees on Saturday and 55 yesterday. It rained yesterday though so it didn't feel much like 55. I did something that I can say with confidence I have never done in January before. I planted flowers. I bought some Narcissus that gma wanted in the fall and didn't get them in the ground before the deep freeze hit. So, I planted them yesterday. I doubt that they will grow this year but they will be there and hopefully, will grow big and strong next year. Who knows maybe they will surprise us this year too!!

Aricept

Hmmm... Aricept is maybe going to be quite the adventure. There are supposedly few side effects of this drug if you talk to a doctor. However, in talking with people who have had family members on it, there is a side effect of vivid dreams. I think that is what we experienced last night when I was awakened at 2:30 a.m. to "We don't have a backporch do we". I thought she must be talking in her sleep so I just ignored her but then it got louder "We don't have a backporch do we?!" So, I answered and said "No. No backporch". She mumbled something else and that was the last I heard of it. I asked her this morning what she was dreaming about and she didn't remember. Never a dull moment in the house of AKS, Inc. !!!

Made it almost to another weekend :) I love Fridays. Everyone has a most laid back attitude!
I did awaken to a "KABOOM" from the basement. I thought we were having a hurricane... then I realized pretty quickly that it was just hurricane Adam getting up early because he had to be at work by 8. He always hits the duct work in the basement when he stretches down there. It isn't quite high enough for him.
No exciting plans this weekend. Just the usual Special Olympics and church and house cleaning and laundry! I'm looking forward to the weekend anyway.

We had a nice long weekend. It is good to work for a company that recognizes so many holidays. I was off yesterday for MLK holiday. It didn't seem much like a day off but I was rather productive. First, Adam and I went to the gym and worked out. Then I went to Fran's house and cleaned up our mess from the weekend when Andy and Holliday and the boys were down. Then mom (Gma)had her mellon MRI'd. That was a longer proposition than I thought it would be. But the good news is that she made it through and didn't get freaked out in the tube this time. The last MRI was a nightmare because she became short of breath from claustrophobia. She freaked out, turned purple and refused to go back in the machine. OK who would want to go back in after that?!? We didn't have that problem this time though. That is one way memory loss works in our favor these days!!! She didn't remember the test from before or the fact that she had problems.
Ran into Rosemary and Paul from Special Olympics at the Grove City YMCA. They are the sweetest people. Paul has some kind of eye problem for which he has to have surgery in February and I feel so sorry for them because their only daughter can't make time to take her parents for this surgery. She is leaving 80 year old Rosemary to drive her 85 year old husband across town and find the surgery center at 5:30 in the morning!!! I understand that no one knows family dynamics except the people in that family but there seems to be less and less understanding in this world toward the challenges of the elderly!!
Saturday was a fun day with Andy and Holliday and the boys coming down for the day. We just hung out at the house and played games. Drew is becoming quite the 4 year old... a bit early :) 4 tends to bring with it the bossy and bull in a china closet curiosity. It is a fun and yet challenging age. Aidan at 5 months got his first tooth last week and seems to be relatively pleasant about it. He smiles and giggles (without anything coming out) all the time. I have to wonder if that smile will be as charming with teeth! I'm sure it will still melt my heart!!
Today is back to the usual grind. Nothing exciting going on and hopefully, it will stay relatively uneventful!

The Sun!

Finally some sunshine!!! It is still colder here than in places where my friends are but it is supposed to reach 40 degrees today. That will feel tropical compared to the deep freeze we have experienced up to now in this area. We have had below normal temperatures since about 2 weeks before Christmas. We are all ready for a break. Of course, most of us are realistic enough to know that this most likely won't be a lasting temperature change since it is only the middle of January but right now, we will take anything we can get!

There was a slight scare in my mind yesterday as I realized, my niece Aimee was supposed to be in Haiti this week. It turns out they didn't leave yet and I spoke with her through texting last night and she is waiting to hear if they will be able to go on their mission trip or not. I'm sure in light of recent events that if they go, the mission will be quite different than it was originally intended. I know at least two in the group who are nurses so I am sure they could find plenty to do if they went there.

On the workout front, tonight will be my third night of working out with cardio and second night of weights this week. I will reach my goal by tomorrow with cardio and hopefully by tomorrow night with weights! Still am avoiding the scales but will be weighing in again in a couple of weeks. I'm going to try to get Adam to wowrk with me in the pool a bit on Sunday as he needs the strength training for his legs and middle body. Hopefully, that will help him get rid of some of his hip pain.

Enough excitement for today and this week. Hopefully, the rest of the week will be pretty much uneventful!!

Before we continue

I'm going to figure anyone who knows me knows the players that I am talking about but in case you need a refresher...

Here is my mother: AKA: Gma, mom or the birthday girl

Then there is my brother: Don

I think you can figure out which one he is in the picture above. (Hint: Gma is there too with me.)

Adam: My nephew who lives with me and my mom

Andy and family: Wife: Holliday

Hmmm... no pic available... maybe later...

Sons: Drew or Drewman

And Aidan (Too new to have a nickname yet)

Then there's Aimee my niece who lives in Washington State... we see her a couple of times a year along with Beverly (AKA Rie) and Bobby (niece and nephew who also live in Washington). (Hint: She is not the one sitting on the moose with the goofy smile!)

Angela and her husband Lomax

Picture to follow at a later date ...

and Last but not least Max or Maxman or Maxers or Maximillion or my personal favorite "Baby Mac" a name given to him by Drew.

Yesterday was a bit of a mental setback for me on the weight loss and getting into shape front. I'm trying not to dwell on the fact that according to the doctor's scales I have not lost an ounce! I didn't want to know about the weight thing but they don't really give a choice in the doctor's office these days.
I did work out yesterday and am still feeling like my clothes are fitting a lot better!! I need to keep focused on that. I won't see results on the scale for a while because you can actually gain weight while your body is building muscle out of the excess fat. Muscle weighs more than fat! Just keep going and the weight loss will happen gradually so it is lasting!

Otherwise, yesterday was more of the same... cold, cold cold!!
I had a nice lunch with Fran and we had a couple of good laughs. She was quite entertained with the story of the train trip to Chicago and also with my MP3 player.
Oh wait, I don't think I have written about the MP3 player yet. We were Christmas shopping... my mom and I. She wanted to purchase something for Don. Kohl's was having a good sale so we started there since it is usually a family favorite. We were looking at gadgets and electronics since pleasing him with clothes is sometimes a bigger challenge than I was up to. We looked at several things a Digital picture frame, an electric coffee mug and then I came across an MP3 player that was a reasonable price. So I said "Hey here is an MP3 player for $39.99." My mom never missed a beat, she says "An Empty What?!?". I fell apart right there in the middle of the store. I almost couldn't compose myself enough to check out at the store. We left without the Empty 3 player but decided on a portable TV for Don's many trips by bus and car to Ohio and other parts of the country. I can tell you I will never look at my MP3 player without thinking of my mother!!
Well, more later. Time to get back to work.

Guess what! It is going to snow again today! I'm so surprised. It has been at least 24 hours since any measurable snowfall! Oh well, as my southern mama would say "Ain't nothin we can do about the weather except talk about it" We do seem to talk about it a lot though.
Nothing exciting to write about today so I thought I would post a note about my perfect childhood today.
When I look back on my childhood and think about the stories I have heard from others about growing up, I realize how thoroughly blessed I am. My parents were not only married until the day my father died, they were happily married! I am fortunate enough to say the same about my maternal grandparents. Happily married "until death do them part"! How did they do that? Well one story I have heard about that is that they all waited until they found the right person to spend their lives with. They didn't get married to get away from their parents or even because they had to have children (or were already expecting them). They also had a good sense of how God played into their strong relationships. There was never a more "godly" woman than my grandmother. She lived out her faith and made known her desire to serve one lord, Jesus Christ, every day.
My grandmother took the words of St. Francis of Assisi quite literally. Those words are some of my favorites. "Evangelize continuously and if necessary use words!" I have heard from a number of people my age and younger that they had no idea of their parents' or grandparents' faithful lives because they were never told. I was never told what to believe by my parents or grandparents but I certainly got my faith from them. It was shared with me in the little things like watching my grandmother prepare meals for the family with love and meticulous care. It was things like them making me feel welcomed into the family by always listening to what I loved and dreamed. It was patient teaching in many areas not just religion. It was heated discussions around the table at Sunday dinner about the church service we had just attended together.
The other thing that I was allowed to do within my family was experiment. I don't mean with illegal things but I was allowed to attend religious services with friends that were not the same religion, I was allowed to test my independence and to return home to process all of the above!

I didn't realize that my experience was so unique until probably a decade or so ago. It was rather unnerving to try to count the friends I had with similar experiences... I got to 1!!

Oooh so cold!

I write tonight in the color of my feet if they weren't in my nice and toasty foot massager! It is going to be so cold tonight that I am worried about freezing my tail! I was good today though and drug myself out to take Adam bowling and also to go to the Y. That is two full weeks of commitment! I know they say anything you do for 21 days becomes habit so hopefully I am well on my way to that becoming reality!!! Can't wait to get that new hot body... it is on order but I think will be coming by slow boat from China as my father used to say.
Speaking of my father, I was listening to my favorite radio station last week and they were talking about someone who impacted your life in a positive way. That was definitely my father for me. We were very close and he was taken much too soon from this world. I especially thought of him tonight as I did some plaster repair work in my bathroom and was using this new kind of spackle that he would have loved. It was called "light spackle" and it certainly was. I had to think twice because it felt like I was buying empty containers. When I opened it, it appeared to be about like whipped cream. They said on the package that this was easy to use and no mess. They were right on a product packaging for a change. It went on smooth even over my rough walls and there will be no need to sand. I have to repair a couple of places, like the one that I stuck my toe in to see if it really was as quick drying as they said. Well, it may be but it wasn't as quick drying as I was expecting I guess :-P

Well, enough ramblings for one day.
Good night!!

Well, another day in the life. This one is cold and snowy. I wish I could say snowed in but I drug my butt out of bed and came to work today. Believe me it was definitely against my butt's will!!
However, eventually I was able to talk myself into going out in the cold and snow. It went something like this: "I could call in..." "You know you have way too much to do for that!" "But feeling like a truck ran over me is reason to call off." "Yes, but the winter is young and you know that when you call in and aren't really sick, you always end up getting sick!!" "OK, OK, Just another minute... or two... or three" Finally I was worn down. I drug out to the car, started it, cleaned it off along with the sidewalk and away we went. I thought well at least I have lunch plans and that will break up my day... wrong. They cancelled. Can't blame her. I wouldn't want to be out either!!

OK. I know winter just started but I am done with cold and snow. I am feeling quite exhausted from all the running and getting in and out of the car and house in the cold. I can't remember a winter when that bothered me as much! I guess I am really getting older. I'm not ready to concede old yet but I am officially middle aged whether my mind wants to go there or not!

On a different note, I have made progress about getting back into shape and losing that weight that has been creeping up on me for the last decade or so! I have made it to the YMCA to workout, walk or swim every couple of days for almost two weeks now! I'm also watching what I eat and keeping track of what I need to change in my diet. Slim and 50 is my goal. I have a few years until 50 but it can't hurt to start early!! One of the catalysts here is that my doctor diagnosed me with Diabetes and I am not going to fit into the fat, female, over 40 and in the family mold. I'm at least going to try to change the one that I have some control over!!!!!!!!!

The house of confusion marches on. Every day it is a new adventure. Mostly we just laugh it off like the train trip to Chicago where Gma asked every 5 minutes "where is this bus taking us again?". The good news is that the anxiety seems to be lessening as the holidays are a longer distance behind us. I think maybe the anxiety around the holidays is partly disguised grief. Most recently we have had issues with sleeping at night. Every night it is something different with the Bi-Pap machine... we can't get the oxygen hooked up, it won't stop screaming like a baby (and I do mean that-- if the mask has a leak, it sounds exactly like a baby screaming), or we forgot to put water in the chamber. Once settled in except for a couple of nights here lately at least we are able to sleep all night.

Well, time to sign off for tonight.
TTFN