The End of the Mini Van

Driving the van in Niagara Falls, CA.

It was a day like any other.  Daughter has been the primary driver of the van for a while now.  We figured that the oldest car should be the one that is going back and forth to the Community College and now the 4 year college.  She walks a few dogs during the week.  All of her clients are located within a couple of miles of the house.

I was at work when I started getting text messages from her.

"The van seems to be handling weird.  It's like the power steering is gone."

"Walking Ben now, I'm going to try to drive the car home."

"Is the van supposed to be smoking?"

In good weather and bad....

Of course, I was not in the same room as my cell phone when these messages started coming in.  I walked back to my desk to find the above string of text messages followed by:

"Lots of blue smoke coming from van.  There was a large thump."

"I pulled over into the field.  Walking rest of the way home."

"I went over to the car with Dad after he got home.  It won't start again."

So, after I got home, I heard the rest of the story.

Our van dropped it's transmission on the way home.  After 150,000 miles, we decided that the van has lived a wonderful life.  We are not going to try to fix it.  A new to us car is in the works.  For now, we've got the van sitting in our driveway, waiting while we decide what we're going to do with it.

Loaded up to move oldest kid to Pennsylvania.

Overall, it's been an amazing car.  It's taken us to Canada and back.  To Niagara Falls.  Out to Minnesota.  To the Black Hills of South Dakota.  To Indiana.  On multiple field trips with the Girl Scouts, and on several very memorable trips with the Robotics Team.  I've had a good chunk of the kids from the high school in my car over the years.  One memorable incident involved one of daughter's friends swooning when she realized that she was sitting in the same seat that "Boy Gorgeous" sat in a couple of days before.

We've moved three kids in and out of college... and the oldest into his house at Grad. School.  I wish we could have made it a few more months.  We have another big move coming up next month.  I really would have liked to have the van to haul stuff. 

Oh, the memories we've made with that car!

New Year's Resolutions

In spite of everything else, I have been keeping this list of goals in mind over the last few months, and I've been working towards getting them accomplished!



1) Complete 12 Home Improvement Projects
This month has been a two-fer!  First, the plumbing under the toilets gave way.  We had to replace the pipes under the toilets.  MORE plumbing.  That damn copper piping keeps giving way.  There's still a lot that needs to be replaced - but I'm crossing my fingers that this is it for a while.  Second, the toilet in the Master Bedroom was running almost constantly.  We were at the point where we had to turn off the water to the toilet after every time we flushed.  Husband fixed that last weekend.  I'm ready to move away from fixing the bathrooms and plumbing and onto something else.  Like the roof - and adding a porch onto the house.
 

New Pipes in the basement.

The list to date:
1) Recover the kitchen chairs.
2) Add the knobs to the cabinet under the kitchen sink.
3) Fix the sewer line out of the house, through the basement wall.
4) Replace the baseboard heater in the hall bathroom.
5) Replace the lighting in the hall bathroom.
6) Re-enamel the hallway bathroom tile.
7) Replace the light at the bottom of the basement stairwell.
8) Paint the cinder block wall in the basement where we replaced the pipe.
9) Fix the running toilet in the Master Bathroom.
10) Fix the leaking pipes under the toilets down in the basement.  (Copper Pipes)


2) Lose a few more inches around my waist.
Honestly, I wanted to lose 2-3 inches.  How hard can that be?
Difficult.  Very difficult.
It really does get harder as you get older.



3) Get away with my husband - TWICE - this year.
Done!
The first trip was a long weekend to visit our oldest child at school.  (OK, that's a maybe..)
Second was the long weekend we spent in Princeton - he was up there for business, and I went up there for a long weekend at our own expense at the end of his official business.

We did get in a third trip - out to Denver for a Memorial Service.  We enjoyed ourselves, and had a great time catching up with family from all over the country.

Princeton

4) Lenten Cleaning Challenge
 Done!  40 bags in 40 days!  I'm looking forward to doing this one again next year!

5) Post at least 12 book reviews on my Books for Teens Blog
I've been reading a lot of YA fiction this month!  Almost everything I've read has been a hit. 
You can see my blog here:
https://librarynut-booksforteens.blogspot.com/




6) Finish the Hallway Bathroom

9 years after the long nightmare began, we now have 2 working bathrooms in our house!
  

7) Participate in the NoSpenduary Challenge
The moratorium is over!  We still don't wantonly spend money, but our savings account is back up where it should be, tuition has been paid, and we're plotting our big home improvement project for next year.  Hopefully, that one doesn't cascade into a larger project like this year's project did.

Who am I kidding?  It's a home improvement project on a 40 year old house.  OF COURSE it's going to be more involved than we want it to be.  We need to add an emergency cushion onto the funding for that project when we start planning it out.



8) Learn another language.
This one was a great thought, but it never has gone anywhere.

9) 100 Things Every Marylander Should Do
One more!  I walked along Carroll Creek in Frederick.  It is a beautiful walk, through the heart of downtown Frederick and through the old section north of the city.  What a gorgeous walk!

10) Daughter's Quilt
Progress!  I am making big progress!  It won't be finished before the end of 2017, but it will be finished before the end of the school year!

Luna REALLY likes the quilt.

11) Clean Out Closet and Dresser Drawers

Done!  And the stuff I no longer need has been sent to Goodwill. 

12) Clean Out the Little Room in the Basement and Make it Usable
A little progress has been made.  I moved the wooden shelves out and into another room.  I put oldest child's stuff on those shelves.  These are the boxes of stuff that he wants to keep long term but just doesn't have the space for in his current apartment.




13) Work on Landscaping the Front Yard
Well, since our next big project is going to be replacing the roof and adding a front porch to the house, I'm not going to do anything with the landscaping until after the porch is finished.  This one will be a no go for this year.



14) Take at Least One Class through the ALA 
I finished the class!  I submitted two of the lessons that I wrote, and they have been approved as library programs for this summer!  Hooray!  It's going to be a great summer!  Even better?  I got a few more CEU's to add to the total number of hours I need to renew my teaching certificate.

Are you still working on your resolutions?  Have you made progress?

Plumbing Woes, Redux

This seems to be the year of plumbing issues.

Look at those pretty new pipes!

In spite of replacing the toilet, the pipe, and the plumbing out of the house to the septic tank, we STILL had a leak in the basement.  After calling out 3 plumbers, we finally found a plumber who was able to find the source of the leak that was filling a large trash can every day.  Now there's a story - the first plumber is from the company we have our home warranty with.  He told us to replace the toilet.  Since the toilet was new, we called the company that redid the bathroom and installed the toilet.  They said "It's not our work, we're not fixing it."  The third plumber is the same one who replaced the line out of the house this summer.  The whole thing sounds a little like a retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, doesn't it?


The third plumber spent an hour tracking back through the plumbing and finally found a hairline crack in the copper plumbing just below the toilet.  In addition to that leak, he found three other leaks.  (OH BOY!  More leaks!!!)


Keep in mind, it took over a month to find a plumber who was capable of finding this issue.  In the meantime, we were turning the toilets off when we flushed them, and then turning them back on again after we used them in order to fill the tank to flush the toilet.


Let me tell you, the fun never ends in this house.


Another $1,000 and I believe that we are leak free.  I've got my fingers crossed - because this house is full of copper plumbing, and I know that it can go at any moment in time.

In the meantime, I'd really like to put money into something other than plumbing.....

3 Months Later

How do I keep getting more books to read?

3 months ago, I accepted a full time job.  After 25 years of working part time, I decided to pursue full time work. 

It's been an adjustment, to say the least.

I've been struggling to get laundry done.  To get the house clean.  To get dinner on the table.  To get gas in the car (before I'm headed to work and the tank is almost empty), and to go grocery shopping.  How do women who work full time with little kids do this?  I have always been impressed by them and their superhuman ability to do it all.  I can now say that I am completely in awe of anyone who can work full time while raising kids.  You all have my complete adoration.

I've slowly been adjusting.

I've gone back to doing laundry the way I used to do it when the kids were little.  I run the clothes through the wash at night - I put it in before I go to bed.  Once I'm up and running in the morning, I move clothes over to the dryer.  If the weather is nice, I'll hang it outside before I leave for work.

I work Monday nights from 1 until 9.  I go grocery shopping on Monday mornings.  Lines are short, and while the stocking might not be all that I wish, I do manage to get most of what I need.  I've also been scheduling my appointments on Monday mornings.  It's nice, since I don't have to use my minimal leave in order to go to the dentist!

Dinner - I've gotten the hang of the Instant Pot and I've always had the Slow Cooker mojo.  I've been cooking enough for at least two meals, or enough to have left overs to take for lunch for a couple of days.  It's been years since I've done the "Cook Once Eat for a Month" thing - but I see that in my very near future.

Figuring out how to get to the gym has been my biggest challenge.  I have a tough time getting myself back out again after dinner.  It's dark and cold.  I know, that's a poor excuse.  I've tried going in the morning, but I just can't quite get myself over there and off to work, with breakfast in my stomach and lunch in my bag in a timely manner.   Figuring out how to make this consistent is going to be my "thing" for the next year!

Blogging has fallen by the wayside.  I am beginning to pick this back up again!  Having our Wi-Fi go down two weeks ago definitely put a damper on things.  Blogging isn't going to be regular again for a while, but I do intend to blog.  If you check in once a week, you'll see at least one new post! 

Instant Pot

Disclosure Notice: This post contains Affiliate Links.  

Do you have an Instant Pot??


I bought one a few weeks ago, and it has changed my life.  Since beginning to work full time, dinner has been hit or miss.  I get home from work around 5:30, and dinner has been as late as 8 recently.

Since picking up this most wonderful of appliances, I have been able to put dinner together before I leave for work - or even the night before.  I cover the inner pot with foil and put it in the fridge.  When husband gets home at night, he pulls out the pot, removes the foil and puts it into the pressure cooker.  By the time I get home,  dinner is ready!  Even better, there's left overs for the next night's dinner.  Success!!!!

I really am enjoying this gizmo.  Not only is it a pressure cooker, it's also a slow cooker.  You can also saute your stuff - IN THE POT - before you set it to pressure cook or to slow cook.  And the insert is stainless steel and goes into the dishwasher to clean.  No ceramic insert to wrangle into the sink and hand clean.

My Mom had a pressure cooker that she used frequently when I was growing up.  However, I remember many battles with the rubber gasket and the counter weight on the top.  The "chick-chick-chick" sound that it makes as it reaches it's target temperature and weight is one of those constant memories of my childhood and family dinners.  The Instant Pot doesn't make that "chick-chick" sound, but it does flawlessly and quickly cook just about anything.

Book Review: Horrorstor

Disclosure Notice: This post contains Affiliate Links

Hendrix, Grady.  Horrorstor.  2014.  Quirk Books.  Philadelphia, PA.

Imagine a store that is much like your local Ikea but named Orsk.  Imagine that this store is the same in almost every way except one – every fake door and window is actually a real door and window.  At night, once the lights go down and the people go home, the store becomes part of a different world.

Located atop a former prison known as The Beehive, Orsk is the new nighttime home of the house of horrors located within its walls.  The prisoners come out every night to continue the work they began as penitents so very long ago. 

One fateful night, a group of employees stays behind in the showroom to find out who has been breaking in during the night and trashing the store.  As the store transforms into an unexpected horror, the employees struggle to retain their sanity and escape with their lives. 

If you are looking for a unique horror story wrapped in an appropriately modern package, this is the book for you!

Author’s Website:

http://www.gradyhendrix.com/about/

New Year's Resolutions

Every year, I make a list of resolutions.  I check back on my list monthly, so that I am keeping myself honest about my progress towards my goals!

This year's list was somewhat ambitious.  I know I'm not going to accomplish everything on my list, but I think I'm going to get to a majority of them before the end of the year!

1) Complete 12 Home Improvement Projects

New LED fixture at the bottom of the stairs.

Husband spent much of the weekend on the roof.  He added a fan to the hallway bathroom.  (Evidently, back in the 70's, nobody needed to remove moisture from the air in bathrooms.)  The final step involved him cutting a hole in the roof to vent the fan to the outdoors.  He finished the job yesterday afternoon - leaving a long, thin strip of leg hair on the roof when it got caught in the adhesive he was using around the vent and the shingles.  You know, there are easier ways to remove unwanted hair!
 
The list to date:
Recover the kitchen chairs.
Add the knobs to the cabinet under the kitchen sink.
Fix the sewer line out of the house, through the basement wall.
Replace the baseboard heater in the hall bathroom.
Replace the lighting in the hall bathroom.
Re-enamel the hallway bathroom tile.
Replace the light at the bottom of the basement stairwell.
Paint the cinder block wall in the basement where we replaced the pipe.

2) Lose a few more inches around my waist.
Honestly, I wanted to lose 2-3 inches.  How hard can that be?

Well, I signed up for the dreaded Pilates class.  I am enjoying the class, and I am finally beginning to see progress.  I am down another clothing size.  I'm close now - so very close - to my final goal.

3) Get away with my husband - TWICE - this year.
Done!
The first trip was a long weekend to visit our oldest child at school.  (OK, that's a maybe..)
Second was the long weekend we spent in Princeton - he was up there for business, and I went up there for a long weekend at our own expense at the end of his official business. 

We did get in a third trip - out to Denver for a Memorial Service.  We enjoyed ourselves, and had a great time catching up with family from all over the country.

4) Lenten Cleaning Challenge
 Done!  40 bags in 40 days!  I'm looking forward to doing this one again next year!

5) Post at least 12 book reviews on my Books for Teens Blog
 9 Down!  I need to catch up.  I've done a lot of reading this month, but none of it has been from the Young Adult collection.  I need to see what I can do about that this month.

You can see my blog here:
https://librarynut-booksforteens.blogspot.com/


6) Finish the Hallway Bathroom
9 years after the long nightmare began, we now have 2 working bathrooms in our house!
  
7) Participate in the NoSpenduary Challenge
The moratorium is over!  We still don't wantonly spend money, but our savings account is back up where it should be, tuition has been paid, and we're plotting our big home improvement project for next year.  Hopefully, that one doesn't cascade into a larger project like this year's project did. 




Who am I kidding?  It's a home improvement project on a 40 year old house.  OF COURSE it's going to be more involved than we want it to be.  We need to add an emergency cushion onto the funding for that project when we start planning it out.

8) Learn another language.I have become ridiculously addicted to Telenovelas.  I understand less than 1/3 of what they're saying (colors, names, places), but I manage to pick up on more through context clues. 

9) 100 Things Every Marylander Should Do
Finally got one!

98) Drive Charles Street from Downtown Baltimore to the County Line

It's a beautiful drive, and shows the diversity of the city.  It would be nice to say I had taken this on purpose, but I was lost and saw Charles Street.  "Oh hey!  I've been meaning to take this all the way out!"  And so, I traveled the length of the street AND I found my way to a road I recognized so that I could get home again!


10) Daughter's Quilt
Progress!  I am making big progress!  It won't be finished before the end of 2017, but it will be finished before the end of the school year!


11) Clean Out Closet and Dresser Drawers
done!  And the stuff I no longer need has been sent to Goodwill. 


12) Clean Out the Little Room in the Basement and Make it Usable
No progress this month. 

13) Work on Landscaping the Front Yard
Now that fall has rolled around, I need to look at adding some bushes around the foundation of the house.

14) Take at Least One Class through the ALA 
I finished the class!  I submitted two of the lessons that I wrote, and they have been approved as library programs for this summer!  Hooray!  It's going to be a great summer!  Even better?  I got a few more CEU's to add to the total number of hours I need to renew my teaching certificate.


How are you doing on your resolutions?