Tip Off 2009 - SEN10R year edition!

You and I...

We have been apart too long... it was nice to get re-aquainted this morning! Let's do it again tomorrow!

To blog or not to blog... UPDATED!!

UPDATED 12/12/2009!!!

I was trying really hard NOT to blog about this... but it is just part of my week I am not able to deny any longer. Because it's still not fixed!

The bathroom, 2 empty bottles of Drano, the shop vac, a plunger, rubber gloves, and a plumbers snake... any guesses?

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Yep, we have plugged up sinks in our mater bathroom... luckily the other bathroom is working just fine and this toilet is fine too... great blessings.

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Each day my strong silent mysterious man comes home late from working this crazy special project, to try another trick to clear the pipes. We have NO IDEA what is so tough that 4 days worth of snaking, Drano, and every other plumbing gadget you can imagine, hasn't budged it.

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So today my job was to boil water and keep the water in the drain hot all day long... we are thinking it might be frozen water in the pipes.

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To no avail!
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So since the teenager needed to do somethings to try and get back on his Dad's good side... I talked him into going down inside the dark creepy hole in my closet under the house and together with ALL OF OUR PLUMBING KNOWLEDGE combined, we tried to figure out which pipe it was. Me on top and him underneath (yes that was comical). Even more comical than us trying to communicate about something neither of us know anything, was just the mere effort of stuffing his 6 foot 3 body down in this tiny hole. We have very little clearance under our crawlspace; which secretly makes me very happy, because I have a phobia of someone living down there and peaking up at me through the heating vents.

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Finally it dawned on me to have him take a picture and hand it up to me... I still couldn't tell which pipe... none of them look the same underneath as they do on top. So I fed him down the hair dryer on an extension cord and had him blow on all of them in the central area to try and thaw it out.

Still to no avail!

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On his way back up out of the hole, I thought I would help and began to pull the extension cord up out of the hole ahead of him. I then hear a loud crack, thump (very similar to what I would think a forehead hitting a beam would sound like), and he screams really loud in severe pain (the hairdryer had touched his foot and he thought something HAD him). Funny, but no laughing about it until the lump on his head goes down please.

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So we still didn't get it fixed, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

I imagine in my head on Monday I am going out of town, and the weather is supposed to warm up... so I bet while nobody is home the frozen pipe will thaw revealing a crack that will leak and flood out my bathroom... because that will be the most difficult for me to fix over the phone, and the most fun to come home to. Uggggg!

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***12/12/2009 UPDATE***

It cleared!!

Friday morning before I went to work, I kept pouring hot water down the sink, then sucking it out with the shop vac, and then dumping the shop vac into a bucket, hauling the bucket into the other bathroom and dumping (this was my workout for the beginning of the week) and repeating over and over and over again.

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Still stuck.

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After I dried my own hair, I got a bright idea to take the sink apart and blow hot air INSIDE the pipe... I tried that for another 30 min.

Still stuck when I left for work.

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When I got home I started the process all over again... determination is my middle name! And it was already clear!

YAY!!!!!

(it must have been frozen water stuck inside the pipe... so weird).

I am SOOOOOO happy that is over!!

Maybe now the Christmas spirit can enter.

Oh Deer!

Oh dear... I mean Oh deer...

My biggest fears are being realized...
I might be a redneck...
I thought these were great outdoor decorations!

(I know that is sick... but I needed something to laugh about.)

My heavy heart...

Since my strong silent mysterious man has been gone so much, our communication is short and sweet, usually crawling in and out of bed and most through shared prayers, or the last two nights over plugged pipes (another blog).

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He mentioned something in passing about his company getting rate quotes on health insurance again, and the agent called him for some medical background on my pacemaker.

I asked what he told him... I couldn't even imagine how he explained it; since he WASN'T THERE when I got it!!!

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Well he is my husband and I have briefed him about it over the years of course, but really did he know enough to explain it to an insurance company? He said he told them about my "faulty valvue"... we just stopped right there. I am pretty protective of my heart, and I have NO FAULTY VALVYES... then I got to thinking about how that statement might impact the companies rates!! Ahhhh!!!

My heart was so heavy!

I don't want to be a burden on them, or cost more money.

They had to know the truth!!

Surely an electrical problem 25 years ago, would not be as risky as a forever faulty valvue!!

So I called my Doctor to get the medial term for, because after 25 years, even I forgot the technical name for it. I just knew it was like an ELECTRICAL short... the SA Node sent the signal for the heart to pump the blood, and the AV Node either didn't receive it, or didn't send it out to the ventricals. So my heart wasn't pumping enough blood and I would pass out.

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I thought it would be good to have this in my journal. In case we ever had to tap into this knowledge later on.

It is officially called "Neurocardiogenic Syncope with an aggrevated Atrioventricular Block".

I got the word back to the agent, and he was going to correct it with the underwriters.

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My heart is still just really heavy.

I have never felt like an outcast, or a reject.

My Doctors were great about telling me I could live a normal life, and since I was 19 I was determined to prove just that.

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But this morning I felt like I had to prove myself to some complete stranger... actually 3 of them, by the time I got off the phone. I felt like I was in a totally different catagory from everyone else for the 1st time in my life. That just stinks! One guy said to me, "we will see, I don't know if that will change anything or not?"

(Of course it will!! Is what I felt of the inside... but hung up really not knowing what they will determine. It makes me so sad and really heavy hearted.)

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I think this time of year magnifies any insecurities people feel. I think we have to be careful not to be offended. Not to let lonliness, or sadness, or problems increase through our perspective or lack of. And not to judge people, but have compassion, as we don't know what they might harbor in their hearts. Especially this season.

My Strong Silent Mysterious Man has been up to...

• installing millions of dollars in equipment
• at a high clearance security dam
• with non-english speaking chinese delegates looking over his shoulder
• watching every move of ever turn of the wrench...
• the entire month of December...
• 12 hour days...
• 7 day weeks.
• Important stuff!
• But we miss him already, we are only into week one.
• It's going to be an interesting month.

The Answer...

No matter how you say it, the answer is yes!

Snow...

We woke up to some snow this morning..And it's pretty cold.
17 degrees. Brrrr!

Future Missionary...

The teenager was carrying a backpack for me today home from church and someone told me he looks like a missionary already.

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I mentioned it to him, and I think it went to his head. He was posing for some silly missionary pictures.

I am pretty sure it's kind of like being a football player and you can't fake it!!! It takes more than a back pack, a tie and a cute smile!

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It is really awesome that he has has older cousins who have served missions and led such a good example for him that he see's it as one of the "coolest things" he has to look forward to right now! (We are so excited for you Jack... can't wait to make a guess and find out where you are going!!! He realized the other day that he will be gone on his before you get back from yours... that feels so crazy!!!)

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But please let Mom get through graduation from high school first, will ya kiddo?