It's been an interesting Christmas break so far. Still have a few days off, but I'm hoping to use them to gear up for school.
Christmas Eve, Thing 1 and I cruised to town and noticed a stick or something on the side of the road. I mentioned to her that it looked like the leg of a deer. We forgot all about it until the next day when we were returning home from Grandpa's. "There's the deer stick!" she announced, requiring us to let the rest of the car in on the conversation. iPastor, never one to stifle an inquisitive nature, pulled around so we could determine what, exactly, lay by the side of the road. Thing 1 jumped out to discover that it was, indeed, the severed foreleg of a deer. Ew! Of course, she picked it up and used it to tap on the van windows and gross out her siblings. Good thing it was frozen solid.
The bathroom reno is better than half done. They need to install the new pedestal sink and do the finish work. We opted for the heated floor and have not been sorry. Christmas Eve, I crawled into bed around 10. iPastor's work phone rang about 11:30 as one of his fellows called with a question. It woke me enough to decide to get up and use the bathroom. There was something blocking the door, and I pushed my way in to discover Things 1 and 2 sleeping on the heated tiles. I kicked them out; it's nice and warm in there, but not too soft. The cats remedy this by snuggling in on the towels the kids are all too willing to leave on the floor.
As previously documented, we visited friends on Saturday, arriving home about bedtime. We settled in for the night, iPastor making ready for work in the morning, and I planned to take the family to church. We hadn't been there for two weeks, as our two recent snowstorms had cancelled services and the Christmas program. We don't have an answering machine per se, so we have no little contraption with a blinking light to alert us to messages on the voicemail. It was not until I arrived at church the next day, with only one of the four cranky children, that I was informed that the rescheduled program would take place an hour later during Sunday school. We managed to get the kids where they needed to be, but it was not the calm, uneventful morning I planned.
Got some more puttering done around the house between family visits, and got ready for our annual game party, which was pretty much a Wii party, but who's counting. Yesterday dawned bitterly cold. I wasn't expecting the house to seem so chilly. I noticed the blower to the furnace groaning before it kicked in. I thought it didn't sound too healthy, but went about my business, heading out with iPastor for some errands. When we returned, I heard the groan again, but this time the blower did not kick in at all. A quick check of the thermostat revealed that I was not just cold blooded, the temperature in the house was indeed less than 60 degrees. I got on the phone with the local furnace place, who talked me through to determine that it was the blower motor, but they had none in stock and couldn't get any until Tuesday. I got on the phone with the people who had actually installed the furnace. They were further away, and also had no motors in stock, but they had someone there within half an hour to jury rig a different motor until they could get one in. Should have just called them in the first place, but I was thinking that the one 6 miles away would get the job done quicker than the one 25 miles away. I was assuming they'd actually want to do the job. The installers had originally gotten the bid because they bid a bigger furnace/central combo at $1500 less than any of the locals. Guess I'll keep taking my business there.
Today I had some quiet time in the toasty warm house to be thankful for what I have as the new year starts. 2008 was a helluva ride. A year ago we celebrated Christmas on this day with iPastor's mom, who had a headache and was feeling dizzy. She got her diagnosis January 16, and left us July 28 after a good fight, aided by family and friends crawling out of the woodwork to lend any sort of aid they could. It was well appreciated. In the meantime, I finally finished my degree and got a teaching job. We got some work done on this poor old house that's needed doing for ages. iPastor took a promotion at his day job. He's gotten away from his studies as we've dealt with life around here. He's had a tougher year than I. Here's hoping 2009 brings us experiences as valuable, but not quite so traumatic, please.