Happenings

Currently Listening to: Eric Whitacre The Complete A Cappella Works

with the Brigham Young University Singers, Ronald Staheli, Conductor

We are without water this morning, b/c of freezing temps. I am hoping the frozen line is somewhere out in the neighborhood, or at the main well in the area, and not in our house!!! (Update later in the day...it was somewhere else in the neighborhood!) Our youngest, not quite 12, fell on the ice this morning while taking out the trash cans with his older brother, who laughed at him instead of being compassionate and helpful (so *typisch* of him!). He was scraped up pretty good around his hip, and his hand looked as if it was starting to swell. I thought he'd sprained his wrist and/or his thumb, but after about ten or twenty minutes of lying on the couch with an ice pack, he was feeling better, and his hand or wrist didn't swell up. I put band-aides on a couple of his scrapes, and he is quietly playing Legos and avoiding school books :-). I am so thankful, because I have no car this morning since our 18 yo son had to use my van to get to work. His car (our oollllllddd van) has serious transmission problems that he can't afford to get fixed, but he is saving his money and looking at options for another used car.

We got a lot of rain from the arctic front, which was sorely needed from two years of drought. The temps in the upper atmosphere were around 60 degrees, so even though we hovered around 31-33 all day Saturday and most of Sunday, we only had ice accumulation on trees and some power lines by Sunday afternoon, and only in parts of our metro areas. Our lake levels are up significantly, though most of them are still low. Our yard, on the other hand, is almost totally flooded. We thought on Friday that we might get flooded in the house, as the water level rose up the foundation, because our black clay soil is beyond saturated. There is no good place or drainage for our water to runoff, sadly. The original neighborhood builders did not do a good job when some of the original homes were built here in the 80's. I guess they had fewer building restrictions, then.

Sunday night and Monday, our temps sunk below freezing, so conditions changed. Even with sanding crews out and about, the roads had a thin layer of ice on them in some places, making the tall, raised highways, bridges, and under the overpasses dangerous. Thankfully, we were still able to go to a field trip and a date night into the city this past weekend. But by Sunday night youth services were canceled.

Yesterday I got word early in the day that my mother went to the ER for chest and back pains. Mind you, they live in a rural town in Oklahoma, where the ice storm has taken a big toll. So they crawled to the nearest hospital, one small town over from theirs. From this rural hospital, she was sent via ambulance (which also crawled through the icy roads) on to Tulsa. Oh, the ache of waiting for news all day! Most of you know that task of patience, that expectancy inside while you must go on with your plans for the day.

The hospital said that mom's blood enzymes were good. She seems to be one of the few women who have some warning of pre-heart attack symptoms. My brother said most of her pain was in her shoulder blade and back. Her stress test today will be a drug-induced stress test, b/c she can't do the treadmill with her injured ankle that she busted in four places just about a year and a half ago. The doctor is thinking that they should be able to control her condition with with medication, which is what I was praying for!!

It's cold here, but we are getting used to it, and we know that it is much worse in so many other places.

Thinking of you all!!

Javamom