plugging away

I am going to finish that blanket, I will, I will. Right now, I am taking a break to let you all know that we are alive and that I will try to read your blog soon!!

I don't know how many of you remember that last year, Tim's car was in an accident and totaled. For nearly a year, we have been a one car family. Mostly, it has been easy. However, Tim really felt we should have two vehicles. He also felt that we needed one that would carry everyone when either of our parents came to visit. As a result, we saved for all those months and were able to make a substantial down-payment on a 2011 Honda Pilot

Water always finds they path of least resistance and we have had first-hand experience with that this year. If you look at the photo of our house in the header you see that our house has a large semi-circular window. When C was a baby, some kid shot it out and insurance replaced it (thankful indeed, am I for insurance the window alone was $3,000). Unfortunately, it cracked within the year and they would not cover it.

We could not afford to replace it and since it was double paned, we did not. However, we did know that sooner or later it would become a problem. The extreme cold of this winter has done the job. The condensation build-up between the panes - finished the crack. Then on those rare days when we hit 20 degrees F and the sun hits the window the frozen condensation thaws (We are experiencing an unusually cold winter - not record breaking but still brutal. In addition, we have above average snowfall).

Last week it found its way through and started dripping through the frame of the lower windows. Insurance still doesn't want to cover it (I understand their position, but I know my position) and our repair guy still hasn't come look at. I realize that nothing can be done until after the snow is gone and the weather stabilizes but it is very frustrating.

This week has been a roller coaster. On Monday, Mom called at 6:30 in the morning which scared me to death. I was sure something had happened to Dad. She was just calling to ask if they could come for a visit on Friday. We said sure! I was planning foods and making a few things on Tuesday and I was excited to call Dad and tell him about the slow-cooked pork I was going to make. I was just pureeing the onion marmalade when he called. I was tickled and told him that I was just going to call him and tell him about the food when he tells me "Unless you are coming here, I'm not eating it." He was in the hospital.

He had heart pain in the morning (on the way to work or at work - I am not clear about that) and it didn't respond to two nitro pills so he went to the hospital. They planned an angiogram for Wednesday.

Mom called on Wednesday and said that Dad's angiogram went well. The arteries they were concerned might block up are doing well and his heart is creating by-passes around the blockages they discovered in August. Blood work did come back and show that Dad had low sodium and the physician thinks that might be the cause of the angina because low sodium can cause what they call galloping angina that doesn't respond to medication so they are going to remedy that - it may help increase his energy level which has been very low lately. The doctor told them multiple times that Dad's heart muscle is still strong. 

Wednesday night added another layer of frustration to my life. The hard-drive on our laptop died. We've been having problems and for awhile it was overheating and we took it to OfficeDepot for them to look at but they said there was nothing wrong with it. It has continued to act up and we've been diligently studying the problem. Now we know what it is. Unfortunately, the girls school records were on it (and not backed up) and a finished but unburned photo shoot. So Peggy's photos are gone. I am going to see what can be done from a recovery stand point.  All the other photos and stuff on the laptop I can give up with a good attitude but I don't look forward to talking to Peggy today about her grandson's photos. They were his three month photos and he is supposed to start wearing a helmet. 

I took it to Office Depot and they couldn't fix it. I put a plea out on Facebook and a friend of mine (I can't believe I didn't think of her right away) said that she thought she could fix it. I brought it over there this morning and we will see how it goes. 

Yesterday was the first day of Good News Club at a local elementary. The girls and I helped out last year and decided to help again this year. I decided to teach the verse in addition to being a group leader like I was last year. It went well and I got the kids active using a ball while we recited the verse, it went very well. 

All these photos are photos I pulled from FB as they were on the laptop. I will lose everything from right before the trip to California forward as the last time I backed up was right before we went to California. All the CA photos are on disks in CA as I gave Tim's Dad copies so I can restore those. Some of the other photos are on Walmart's Photo Lab so I can retrieve lower quality images of those. The worst thing was the photo shoot. 

I am praying that Deb can rescue the information on the hard drive.