mindy... here.

Hanging with friends tonight to watch my sis and her band tonight @ Kep’s Place - 9pm

Long Time No See

… or should I say hear?  Last post was October?  Shame on me.  I tend to go crazy with internet stuff - constantly on and writing or keeping up, then get burned out and disappear for awhile.

Yeah…  I’ve been MIA.

I went a little crazy end of December.  Adding two classes to my already crazy schedule took its toll on me and I gave up all communication with friends and family and became a hermit.  I have to work my tail off for good grades.  Never been graced with good study habits or the memory to retain too much new information.  I spent a lot of time studying and working on projects and the Christmas season sort of slipped away this year.  The tree didn’t go up until less than a week before Christmas, presents were wrapped on Christmas Eve and Chad did 99% of the shopping.  Cards didn’t go out this year, and on Christmas Eve I remember feeling a bit of a panic - “Oh my gosh - it’s here - it’s here!”

The worse part was selfishly letting myself be too wrapped up in everything going on to truly celebrate what Christmas is about.  Not presents, Christmas Trees, getting the right gift for loved ones or sending cards because that is what you do during the holiday.  I didn’t reflect enough on the fact that Christmas represents our precious Savior’s birthday.  I did of course think about it often.  But didn’t let it sink into my heart and live and celebrate that joy.  This was the biggest regret I have of my 2008 Christmas.  I know He understands and forgives, but I tend to be hardest on myself and want to smack myself.

My health hadn’t been the best in 2008.  I don’t like having to report this.  I want to be a ray of sunshine to friends and family, but it is what it is.  I guess I still need to learn that I need to care for myself better and be more aggressive in maintaining a less stressful schedule to keep myself strong and sane.  This summer I did get my medication for my Thyroid increased and am finally feeling better.   I can exercise without being exhausted afterward and getting the flu-like aches and weakness.  My stamina has been increasing.   It’s taken 6 months to build that up.   Right now I’m in the worse shape of my life and it drives me crazy.  I need a strong body to go with my child-like heart and am determined to be there again.  So often I reminisce about how I used to enjoy a challenging workout and feel rejuvinated afterward and want that so again so badly.

The great thing about new years is that you get the impression that you get to start over.  Never mind the fact that the turn to January 1 is just another day and not really a big change.  But man, it sure does feel that way.  For the pessimistic person I am, I feel optimistic and aggressive in taking control of things and making the best of the new year.

Hope this finds you and yours well …  :)

Miscellaneous from Mobile

Tonight is my last night in Mobile.  These last three days have gone by incredibly fast.  I meant to drive across the bay to Daphne, AL on the eastern shore to see our old house, but ended up staying in the hotel to work in the evenings.  I will just probably feel a bit sad to see it anyways.  I loved that house, and really liked the area.  It is always weird to see other people living there.

But now home is central Illinois.  And the saying “Home is where your heart is” is just so true.  My heart is with my family, so wherever they are happy, I am happy.  My former house is just a place.  And I don’t miss it here as much as I used to.

Being away from home is weird.  I miss my kids and husband, but it’s nice to just be able to take care of just me.  And when I get “home” from work, the bed has been made, fresh towels are laid out and the bathroom smells clean.  Not much beats that when you live in a house full of drywall and construction dust.

I suppose I should hit the sack.  My flight leaves at 6am, so I’ll be getting up pretty early.  I was just thinking about the fact that I hadn’t updated this thing in awhile.  Of course, I’m just rambling, so it’s not all that interesting.

I’ll post more pictures of our deck this weekend.  I’m anxious to see what Chad has gotten done while I’ve been away.

later gators!

Something Every Woman Should Be Able To Do

For the last month or so, one of the tires on our van has been slowly losing air.  It needed to be reinflated once a week.  Obviously, our construction-site-of-a-home has nicely contributed a nail to the aforementioned tire.  I can’t take it somewhere to be fixed, because Chad can’t stand to pay someone to do something he can do himself.  Just a mention of the shop sends him into fits.  I’ve nagged him to fix it off and on until he blows up about how he has a million things to do and doesn’t have time.

This is true.

However - I believe that it’s more important that we don’t die in a completely avoidable car accident via a blown tire that we knew needed to be fixed.

Maybe it’s just me - but whatever.

When we couldn’t drive the van to Noah’s football game today because the tire was low again, I decided that today I would fix my first tire.  I watched him fix the last one, and I decided if he can do it, I can do it.

So today while Chad was working on the porch,  I drove the van out back to his shed where all his tools are, determined to fix the tire.

This is the first time I learned to appreciate Chad’s impact wrench.

I have had to put a spare tire on to replace a flat tire in the middle of nowhere many times.  It is a big struggle to get the lugnuts off with a wrench, and let me tell you - it is not easy.  So today, how nice it was to have the impact wrench to quickly zip those things loose.

After the lugnuts were loosened, I attempted to jack the van up.  I placed it under the van, pumped the jack, and nothing.  After a few minutes of jacking with it (GrOaN) I went to get Chad.  We found out that the jack is broken.

Although I don’t want to buy a new jack, I have to admit I was happy it wasn’t just my stupidity keeping the jack from working.

I banished Chad from the area after that.  He reluctantly left, looking worried over his shoulder as he walked away.

After jacking up the van with the stow away jack in the back of the van, I removed the lugnuts and pulled the tire off the bolts.  One thing I learned when changing a tire is don’t completely jack your car up before you’ve loosened the nuts, or it will spin while you’re messing with it.

I grabbed some 409 spray and started spraying the tire until I saw where the cleaner was bubbling up from the air coming out of the tire.  That’s a neat little trick Chad showed me.  It has to be a soapy substance that will bubble.

It took me 10 minutes to find the tire plug kit, and was only located after I asked Chad where he kept it.  ugh.  So far I’ve had to ask him twice about things.

Next step was to thread a piece of the sticky thread piece that I was going to be using to plug the hole into the tool you use to stick it into the hole.

With plyers, I pulled the nail out of the tire.  The air was gushing now!  Thank goodness that hadn’t happened while we were on the road.  *shudder*

I took the rasp tool, a pointed, rough sided tool that you stick into the tire most of the way in, then yank out to roughen up the sides of the hole, and made the hole big enough for the plugging material.  After that, I forced the plug 2/3 into the tire, then pulled it out while twisting quickly.  The hole was now plugged!

After cutting off the excess plug material, I put the tire back on, aired it up, and drove back up to the house.  Then realized I forgot the hub cap.

Grrrrrr.

So I had go back out to the shed, jack up the tire, reloosen the nuts, and put the hubcap back on.  Then of course put the nuts back on.

So I did it!  I fixed my first tire!

Ladies - we should all know how to do this.  It’s very nice to know that I can get this done by myself.  I must add that it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than paying for new tires.  The kit costs between $5 to $10 (although some can cost more) and fixes more than one tire.  Most kits that I’ve seen contain 5 or more plugs.

Who knows - next time I may just tackle replacing break pads.  They HAVE been starting to squeak a little…

Escape Artists

I should have heeded my brother-in-law’s words when he said that the goats we brought home from him and my sis were escape artists.  Are they ever agile!

We got a good douse of rain not too long ago, so I ran out to the barn to shut some doors, when I heard a commotion in the chicken pen.  I’d opened the door to let them in to get out of the rain, and they were in there making a ruckus.

So I go inside to find Billy, the larger of the two, up on the board we layed across the top of the coop for the chickens to roost on.  He was walking along it like nothing.  This board is not secured, and it was bobbing up and down.  I was sure he was going to fall.  Then he walks over and starts pulling the barn siding away from the side of the coop and tries to chew it up.

Pokey was on top of the laying boxes, getting ready to chew an extension cord that runs through there to turn on the electric fence.

So I chased them back out and shut the door.  I figure we’ve got some good work to do in there before it’s “goat-proof.”   They’ll survive getting a little wet.