Irene Gold Board Review & Snow Day

I spent the entire past weekend in Board Review.  I was dreading sitting for so many hours and had no idea what to expect.  Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised because our instructor was hilarious and he really helped tie together all the material we've learned so far in our education.  Fortunately, the time flew by.  I took walks around campus during the breaks to help the sitting not be so unbearable.  It was hard not really having a weekend, though.

We had a snow day yesterday.  The count was 17 inches for Bettendorf.  Our neighbor, Doug, snowblew our walks and drive.  That was such a blessing, because, with Jon's herniated discs and my externa otitis (outer ear infection), it was hard on us to do it. 

Jon had gone out Tuesday night, while I was at the urgent care clinic getting my ear looked at, and had shoveled, which he really shouldn't be doing at all.  When I got home, it looked like it hadn't been touched because of the wind and the drifting. 

Before I came home from urgent care, I stopped by Hy-Vee and picked up some groceries and lots of bottled water, just in case.  I also got three movies from RedBox, which had hardly anything left.  We watched "Babies" with Lani in our bed that night.  She loved it.  It was charmingly done.  Last night Jon and I watched "Repo Men" which was really disturbing psychologically and violently.  That wasn't such a good rental.  Lani and Dartagnan watched an owl movie, "Legend of the Guardians" I think.  They liked it, too.

I also stopped at Walgreen's to get my prescription for my ear drops before coming home and picked up valentines for Lani to make for her class and some Smarties to put with them.  They also had in those yummy Reese's peanut butter cup hearts, so I got one for Jon, because that is his favorite.  Just driving home from Walgreen's at Duck Creek down Kimberly Road hill, which is a very short drive, was bad.  The snow was at least 6 inches deep and, if it had been plowed, it didn't look like it had.  I'm glad it was downhill to go home because I wouldn't have made it if it was the other direction.  By the time I did get home, the blizzard was in full swing.  I unloaded groceries, got the car and van parked behind the house, off the alley, in preparation for the plows to come by the front of our house where we usually park, and got inside as quick as possible.

To thank Doug for all his hard work, I made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies yesterday.  Lani helped me measure out the brown sugar and vanilla, and helped me beat the eggs into the mix.  She loves to "help."  Dartagnan delivered the cookies for me.

I knew I should buy extra bottled water, but had no idea why I felt that way.  Well, when Dartagnan woke up yesterday, he came out of his room and was standing in water.  We had a leak in a pipe somewhere in the ceiling, under the new construction Jon just did!  So Jon spent the entire day re-routing the water from the hot water heater.  It was not fun being without hot water almost all day, and having no water at all for a few hours, but we managed.  I'm so glad that Doug helped us out, or Jon wouldn't have been able to drive to go get the parts and would have had to walk to the hardware store, which would have used up valuable time (plus, the three copper pipes were about 10 feet long each, which would have been a bear to carry home in the cold and snow). 

I heated water on the stove and used it to give Lani a bath in the kitchen sink because we'd all stayed up and watched movies the night before, so she went to bed without her usual nightly bath.  She loved it!  She's not had a bath in the sink since she was very little, and she's a rather large two-year-old.  She didn't want to get out. 

Dartagnan helped me dig out all around the cars and under them, too.  We got them cleared off and started them to make sure they would start with no problem today.  He helped me clear the drive even closer to the fence so we could squeeze both in a little closer to the fence and a little farther away from the alley, in case a plow came through.  Wanted to make sure that we wouldn't get hit or lose a side mirror on the van.

We only lost electricity once, for just a few moments.  We were very thankful for that, too, because it was so cold outside that our house would have cooled down to the point of being unbearable within a few hours.  We had anticipated that possibility and turned the heat up higher than usual when we went to bed Tuesday night, so we'd have a "cushion" of warmth if we did lose power.  We do have a wood-burning fireplace, but it does not put out much heat and wouldn't have done us much good in a power loss.

I did a load of laundry with cold water, cleaned more of the living room, did some studying for Phys Di.  It was a overall a pleasant day for me; not so much for Jon having to plumb all day.  He was exhausted afterward, from having his hands over his head all day.

Looked at heritage/vintage roses on-line last night.  I think I would like to try growing some climbers on our fence this summer...that would be so beautiful, roses all over the fence...

Time for class.