Wednesday's Ramblings

Hello Good Readers! And you not-so-good readers as well! :)

It's cold in the land of Kansas! My weather guru....a.k.a. Ma.....says it is supposed to get down to -10F either tonight or tomorrow night. Brrrrrr~!

Water has been restored. I was without it for almost four days! The water pipes froze up and it took forever to get the water flowing again! I've left the space heater on under the house to prevent another freezing of the pipes. The kitchen was a harzardous zone what with all the dirty dishes sitting around for four days. I was somewhat of a hazardous zone too without a shower for two days running. All that and more has been remedied with Ma's help. Laundry is now washing and a shower is in my very near future!
RJ did his best to get the water flowing again. He worked out in the cold, under the house putting the insulation back up that the plumber didn't bother to do even though he said he'd be back the next day to do. That was a couple months ago when we weren't worried about the pipes freezing up and didn't really give it another thought until there was no water coming out of the faucets. It was one of those "OMG we forgot to fix the insulation! No wonder we've no water!" kinda moments. Had the pipes burst from freezing, the plumber would have gotten a call and I'd have had some free fixing of my pipes cause it would have been his fault cause he didn't put the insulation back where he found it when he checked for the water leak. He didn't even find the cause of the water leak. RJ did. RJ fixed it too. But all is alright cause the water pipes didn't burst, thankfully! What a mess that would have been! RJ put heat tape and foam insulating rods on all the pipes under the house and I do believe the problem is now solved.
The Christmas tree is up and all decorated as of tonight. It's been up and with most of the decorations on it since Friday. Brenton and I put more little red balls on it the day before yesterday and then tonight Ma and I put the rest of the little red balls on it and a hundred plastic ice cicles as well. It looks really pretty! Now all that's left to do with it is go out to the shed and retrieve the angel that's sitting on top of a box in the west room out there.
We have snow on the ground. (And everything else as well.) It was so pretty Tuesday morning when the sun came up. The snow was pristine...not a mark in it till I let Fred out for his morning constitutional and he tracked all over the field between my house and Susan's. It snowed roughly two inches...not sure what the official amount was...I'm just going by what I saw out there...eyeballing it if you will. Wasn't a whole lot of snow but enough to let one know it did indeed do so! I really wish the camera was working! I'd love to show you all pictures of my space on this giant ball we call home. It has been bitterly cold since Saturday. And it doesn't appear as if the warmth of summer is going to return anytime soon either! I prefer the warmth of summer over the cold of winter. The older I get, the worse winter is to endure for this old body of mine!
And speaking of that... my back and hip are still bothering me. Not as badly. I haven't found my cane but it's OK cause I haven't really needed it too badly in the last few days. I sleep alot-which isn't really anything unusal for me-but I really wish I could change around the nights and days again. I'm up all night, sleep all day. Like a danged bear hibernating. I haven't been in my van to go anywhere since Friday. It's still sitting out by the backdoor instead of out front in the driveway where it should be. I've not needed to go anywhere since Friday. There was no sitting with the girls on Monday cause they had a ballgame over in Logan. I was asked if I'd like to go to Logan but no one called me on Monday to arrange if I was gonna go or not, so I didn't go. It's probably best I didn't go cause sitting on those bleachers would have done my back absolutely no good at all and I'd hurt worse than I do already.
I have had lots of company even though I haven't gone out to see anyone. Ma comes most days just to make sure I'm still alive and kicking and to see if I need anything. RJ was here four days in a row. Three of them to try to get water restored. Terah came with him one of those days and Brenton came with him another of those days.
It is official!!! I am going to be a grandma! The baby is due on the 4th of July. There is a possibility Terah could have twins. That is just a guess though... that's not official. I say there is a possibility because twins do run in RJ's father's family. RJ's grandma is a twin and there are other twins from his dad's side of the family. We will just have to wait and see on that. It is good news! Doc says all should go well. Brenton tells me he wants a little sister. I'm hoping for him a little sister as well.
I did something last night that I haven't actively done since 19 August 1999. I chewed off a fingernail. Some would say, well that's not such a big deal. But to me, it is a big deal! It means my life is way too full of stress at the moment! I used to chew those things down to nubs. If you're wondering how I can remember the exact date that I stopped doing that, it is because of the circumstances that led to stopping that habit. And that's what it is. A habit. I won't be chewing off anymore of them though cause I'm aware I did it and I don't like one little bit how that particular finger now appears compared to the rest of them! It's an ugly thing now. It will grow back though in due time. What I should do is clip the rest of them quite short so they all grow back at the same rate instead of having that short one and the rest of them long. I'll think on that and perhaps that is exactly what I will do.
I've been busy with artwork at night. What else is there to do when you've no water and everyone else is asleep, snug in their beds? It keeps me out of trouble so it's all good. Well, the artwork isn't all good but the time is well spent. I made four ATCs, two Chunky pages and finished two little books last night. I did some cleaning in the deskroom the night before last and spent hours playing word racer on yahoo games. I made 17 little books (we are talking tiny books here) on Sunday evening. Time goes by too fast somedays and I haven't a clue what I've done for the days not accounted for here. Surely it wasn't anything too awfully productive... I did read in my book one night this week. A book called The Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel. Fourth in a series of five. I won't start The Plains of Passage till after Christmas has come and gone.
Tomorrow I have got to get busy and make cookies. First I have to fire up that van and head to town for the ingredients I will need to make cookies. Ma said she'd come over and help me make cookies if I wanted her to. I like to bake cookies so I think I'll just make it a solo endeavor.
While cookies are making I'll be wrapping presents as well. They are strung out all over my bedroom still.
I'll be scanning all the pages and ATCs I've made over the last week here later this evening. I'll show you what's come out of the muse tomorrow...or maybe later after the scanning gets done.
Right now though... I need to get busy.
You all have a fantastic Thursday. Get you some holiday hugs. Give more than you take! I shall yak at you another day!
Peace
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