Catching up, again.

For those of you who check up on us regularly, I apologize for letting you down. I haven't written in almost a week! Thank you for not abandoning me!

I am home again from my 4 nights at my sister's house. The tutoring was hard work for all of us, but I hope that it was at least a little successful. I learned from my first day alone in a strange house that we had to get out and do some things, even if my kids didn't want to get anywhere near their car seats.

On Wednesday, we made the trek across the valley to visit with my sister. She fed us lunch, complete with chocolate milk. What a treat for the Collett kids. It's not that I don't allow them to have chocolate milk, it's just that I'm too lazy to make it very often. Andrea and I kept busy on different projects while the kids played. Rebekah didn't play. She just kept interrupting me. I was writing captions for pictures that I put into an album when I was in bed recovering from my foot surgery. So now my pictures are done through 2004! YAHOO!! You'd better be cheering for me.

On Thursday, Andrea and I took the kids to the childrens' museum. It seemed to me (and I'm sure it did to Andrea) that we were there quite a while. While Rebekah was ready to go, I had to drag Nathan and Leah away from all the fun. I felt a little sorry for them, but I must be firm! We need a childrens' museum here. I would buy a membership in a heartbeat. I would also buy a case of hand sanitizer. (Let's be honest!)

On Friday, I decided that my kids' behavior was such that I needed to cancel the last day of tutoring. Even Daniel was acting up at home. So I loaded everyone up and headed out of town in the middle of a snowstorm. We stopped at Grandpa's first. He fed us ice cream (in celebration of the storm?). Just in time for lunch! We stopped for gas once but otherwise drove straight home and arrived about 4 PM. Chad and Daniel were out to a movie and we just sat and recovered from the drive. While waiting for them to get home, I was heating some water for spaghetti and kept hearing some clicking. I thought it was just the heating element on the burner, but when it kept going after the stove was off, I realized it was coming from the fridge.

We thought that maybe it was the ice maker, so we turned it off. Still clicking (followed by humming). Fast forward to Sunday morning. I notice that the fridge smells warm when I open it in the morning. The milk is not as cold as normal. And what's this? There's no ice in the freezer! It's completely melted and everything has fully defrosted.

That afternoon we had some friends over to help us eat all the fish sticks, chicken nuggets and fingers and vegetables that are thawed. We enjoyed a nice time and bounteous buffet. They lent us some coolers and gave us some milk jugs of frozen water. That is now our refrigeration system...in the cold garage. So I'm not complaining because it did happen in the winter and we didn't lose much food.

The repairman was here today. The compressor is out, which is covered in the warranty (the fridge is only 2 1/2 years old), but won't be installed until Thursday because it has to be shipped. Lovely! At least it's covered and we're only paying for the service call. And another benefit...my fridge is VERY clean! Daniel (or was it Nathan?) even asked if we got a new fridge. I must have made that thing shine!

Through all this, we've been having problems with Daniel. He's been extremely emotional, withdrawn, touchy, tired, etc. and then he snaps out of it. While I was at the clinic with Daniel and Rebekah (yes, I'm helping to pay their power bill with my copay donations), he confirmed for me that Daniel's behavior is most likely separation anxiety. That makes me feel special, but really! We're praying for him and hoping he comes out of it soon.

So now I've got to attack the disaster that my house has become. And then I have to tunnel into my sewing room to finish my quilt block for Wednesday. I am the head honcho this month (lucky me) because the real honcho is going to be out of town. If you don't see any new posts for a while, it's for a good reason! REALLY!