Mr. Butler Recieves His Wolf Badge

Last night at Scouts...
Mr. B pinning my pin on my Scout necklace...

So happy together...

The blindfolded maze...

Heat

We got the heater working again. To the tune of almost $500 working again.And at almost 6:30 last night.

The fuel pump went out, so no gas was getting to where it needed to be to make heat, or something to that effect. Not that it matters much, just so long as I have heat.

I'm Afraid to Ask...

because I'll just jinx myself, but, when's it gonna end?!?!?!?

So, here I am sick, and have no time off since I used all my paid time off last month, and just couldn't wait for the work day to be over so I could go home, take a hot bath, be warm, and go to bed.

Well, the stars didn't align for that to happen. I got home, but it wasn't warm. Early evening is usually when I get my wonderful hot flashes (yes, I LOVE THEM), but I just was freezing yesterday. I sat in the recliner with a blanket, but as the sun set, it just got colder.

Now, I know I'm sick, but I was colder than just sick cold, so I went to check the thermostat, and it was 58*, yes, you read it right 58DEGREES! In my house. What the??????

Yeah, the heater decided to not work AGAIN. Only this time, no amount of beating it, pleading with it, crying, complaining, or PRAYER would get it to run. So I got our tiny little, ancient space heater out, put it in the bathroom, shut the door for about half an hour, and then ran a hot bath. My hot flashes finally started, I ironed my clothes for work today, and went to bed. With about 12 blankets on me. Every one but J had about 12 blankets on them. Kirby even slept right next to us ALL night long (generally she likes her space)

So, when I woke up this morning (feeling just as crappy from this crappy cold) it was 55* in the house. We got ready and out the door in record time this morning so we could get to places where the heat actually worked.

J stayed home from work today to run a new line for the thermostat, and our Heating guy will be at our house around noon. If they can't get it working today, I may be staying in a hotel tonight.

Can You Answer These?

For FHE this week, we asked the following questions of our family. Everyone had to guess how the person being asked would answer before they could answer. Turns out, we know each other pretty darn well.

1. What is your favorite color?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What is your favorite movie?
4. What is your favorite TV show?
5. What is/was your favorite subject in school?
6. What do you like to do with your free time?
7. What do you want to be when you grow up?
8. What is your favorite animal?
9. What is your favorite holiday?

Here's the answers. See if you know us well, too...
1. blue, maroon, purple, silver, blue
2. prime rib, pasta, chicken wings,spaghetti, Swedish meatballs
3. ?, Gone With the Wind, Sweeney Todd, Wall-E, Marley & Me
4. CSI, CSI & CSI-Miami, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Sponge Bob Square Pants
5. Woodshop, graduation, German & Chemistry, math, computers
6. go hunting, read or cross stitch, skateboard & listen to music, skateboard, play with baby dolls
7. policeman, Famous; I wannna have groupies, a dinosaur man, professional basketball or football player, dentist and a school teacher
8. Dall Sheep, Scottie Dog, T-rex, dog and bunny, Scottie Dog
9. Christmas, my birthday or the day Wild Island opens, Christmas, all of them, my birthday.

How well do you know us?

Each question has answers listed in order, starting with J, then ME, then Big A, followed by Mr. Butler, and finally Louie Blue's answers.

I Spoke Too Soon

See the following post...cuz guess what? I'm sick...

Sore throat, achy and just plain yucky.

I hate Janurary. Everyone in my family gets sick in January, and I always seem to get it the worse.

Life So Far

Things have been really quite around our neck of the woods this past week. Which is good, and I'm enjoying it.

The doctor released me to full activity with the warning to just listen to my body; it will tell me if I'm doing too much. I have started to run again and I've decided to be in a 5k run in May, so running and Wii Fitting are in my daily schedule. I've felt really good, until last night when I was wrestling with Mr. Butler and pulled a belly muscle a bit. I'll be ok though.

The beautiful warm weather has come to an abrupt end. It started raining last night and it's cold, cloudy and yucky this morning. So, now I've been forced to find out that there are 150 days until the first day of summer, and 114 days until Wild Island opens. The count down has begun!

Big A had mid-term finals last week. He did ok. He could have and should have studied more, but he's got all A's and B's with the exception of a C in English.

Mr. Butler starts basketball tonight. They were supposed to start last Thursday, but the practice facility hadn't been secured, so we got postponed to this week. To say the kid is excited would be an gross understatement. Last week, he slept in his basketball shorts and shoes. The boy is a bit crazy. I wonder where he gets that from?

Not much going on in the life of Louie Blue. She's just eagerly counting down to her birthday.

J is continuing work on the shed. I can't wait for him to get it done so I can get all the taxidermy stuff out of the house. Oh, yeah, and so we can get all the Christmas decorations put away.

The washing machine has stopped leaking after J looked at it and tightened up all the nuts and bolts and screws he could find. And the bathtub is draining again, after J took the plunger to it.

Life is good. Let's keep our fingers crossed it stays that way; I'm enjoying the heck out of it!

6 Weeks

Well, it has been 6 weeks since my surgery now. I am feeling SO good now. Better than before the surgery, in fact. I'm super glad I decided to have it done, and that my doctor agreed with me and did the surgery.

I go in for my 6 week check up with the doctor this afternoon. I'm hoping he'll release me back to full activity. I'd really like to start running again.

Not to make anyone jealous or anything, but in the past few weeks (once the swelling and fluid retention from the surgery went away) I have been loosing weight, and I haven't had any physical activity. I guess I'm going to be one of those lucky few that get to have a hysterectomy, go on HRT, and get skinny again. I actually weigh less now than I did before the surgery, so I know I'll drop even more once I can start working out again.

The only side affects of the surgery and the HRT, both good and bad, that I've had so far are, Very dry skin (but, hey, I can buy lots and lots of lotion) an occasional hot flash here and there (but only seem to happen in the evenings), my hair and nails are growing like crazy, and yes, I'm LOOSING weight.

All in all, how I'm feeling now sure makes up for the few weeks of pain and suffering after the surgery. I know I will never regret having it done. EVER!

Wildlife

Sienna's ready for her Scooby Snack

The neighborhood watch...Big A and Kodi (and yes, Big A is wildlife)

The Tortotise and the Hare...

Spud's close up shot

Clawrisa wins! And, yes, she's going to lift some weights and play some b-ball now that she's won the race.

Yay for Us!

Santa brought us a Wii for Christmas. We wanted to also get the Wii Fit to go with it, but there were just none available. Is seems Nintendo didn't make enough to fill all the orders.

We have been looking. Everywhere. On line, in stores, etc. Everyday. Still no luck.

Until last night. In the Women's clothing section, up by the PRODUCE section at Wal Mart, there were 3 Wii Fits! We grabbed one.

Yay for us!

Shed Shots

A Few Photos

I tried to post pictures last week, but my home computer was being dumb, so here they are now...
Louie Blue and her Scottie Dog jammies from Christmas

Kodi "doll sitting"...literally...

Mr. Butler made this wreath in Scouts before Christmas and wanted me to preserve it in a photo on the blog for posterity...He did a good job. He had a little help from one of his leaders.

Big A playing big on the big Wii...

Mr. Butler loving Sienna

Big A and his bear skin rug. J did the taxidermy on it. It looks great. Big A shot the bear 3 years ago and it is just now done. Taxidermy takes a long time.

Scary

I am starting to feel so much better...so much so, that last night I came home from work, fixed dinner, cleaned out the fridge(not just throwing out the old stuff you can't tell what it once was, but took out the shelves and washed them), made cookies AND took Kirby for a short walk.

I have so much more energy since before the surgery. It's great. Wish I would've had the surgery many, many years ago.

Water

I don't know what it is about our little OLD home, but it loves to get leaks here and there and then repair itself.

The toilet leaks every now and then for a few days, then stops. The bathtub faucet drips sometimes, the kitchen faucet leaks when it's on around the base. Well, now the disposal leaks when you use it, so I have a bowl under it and try not to use it unless I absolutely must. Easy fixes, not that big of a problem to deal with.

The doggies and kids tend to leak from time to time, as well. Maybe even the parents leak, I don't know.

But, now, the washing machine has decided to leak. But it is no small leak, and it doesn't seem to be repairing itself.

As I said, our house is OLD. Built in 1953. However, our washer and dryer are not. Our laundry room is an outside room. To get to it, you have to step outside the sliding glass door and down 2 steps. The room is fully insulated and carpeted with 1970's indoor-outdoor carpet. What a pain it is when the washer and/or dryer decide not to work because the room is my "catch-all" room, is pretty small, and you have to take the door to the room completely off to get the machines in or out (after I move all the stuff that lives in there) Seriously, there isn't even enough room to pull the machine out and work behind it; it has to come out and the looking and working has to be done in the back yard.

So, I guess we're lucky the weather is nice and warm.

I did laundry anyways over the weekend because I needed clean clothes, and in so doing, I just added to the leak. At least I'm not worried about the ugly carpet.

Horray!

I'm all caught up!!! It only took me 2 days!!!

I'm good!

Extremes

Kim keeps blogging about all the snow she's getting, and here we are in Reno, yesterday, 61*! Set a new record for a high. I just got back from picking up a check from a customer and was driving down the freeway with my window down a bit. It's beautiful here, but the Sierra's really need some snow for our summer water supply!

I Forgot To Mention...

Big A took a Drivers Ed class over Christmas break. Monday and Tuesday of both weeks, from 8-3:30 at McQ, and he passed. Now he needs to drive more so he can get his license.

It's a requirement in Nevada to have drivers ed now. Back when I was learning to drive it, was an option, but I took it to get reduced rates on our insurance, and because the class was a blast. Mr. Oliver was the teacher, and he was one of the best teachers Dayton High ever had!

Anyways, way to go Big A! You're growing up too fast!

Another Day

Well, I made it through yesterday. I went home a bit early and took a nap; I was super tired and a bit sore. I was super busy, and still have a pretty big pile to work through, but, I did at least find the top of my desk. After dinner, I took a nice hot bath and went to bed early. I slept all the way until the alarm went off (man I hate that darn alarm clock). Now I'm back at it again. I predict I'll have the pile gone by Friday.

Mr. Butler and Louie Blue got new teachers in Primary on Sunday. Mr. Butler could really care less, but Louie Blue is SO excited about her teacher and her upcoming year in Primary. She will be getting baptized on February 28, and she will be able to start going to Activity Days for Girls. All she talks about is her baptism and getting her own new scriptures for her birthday. And she wants a new dress and shoes, too. She's got it all planned out.

J is working on building a huge shed/workshop in the backyard. He has the wall that will have the door in it ready to put up, but it's too heavy for anyone to lift, and I can't help, so it's just laying there. Anyone want to come over and help? It could be a "barn raising party". Ha Ha! I can't wait until the thing is done. It will give us some much more storage space. I also just love that my hubby is so good at stuff like this.

Blah

I had to come back to work today. I have piles of work to keep me busy for days and days. The rule around here usually is "For every 1 day off, it takes 2 days to get caught back up." So, 22 work days off, yuck...I can't go there. I just need to dig in and get to work!