Cloudy day

So it's a cloudy day here in Winston County, but that's quite all right. I would much rather be here on a cloudy day than to be "home" on a cloudy day. Honestly, this is just as much home as Dadeville is. I'd prefer to live here, but that will happen in good time.

Danny and Linda left some crickets, so I think I'm gonna go see if any fish are biting. Then I'll probably grade a research paper or two.

Have a GREAT Saturday!

Whew!

The water pipes are fixed and there are no leaks. For now. The way we redid the pipes last year made it a WHOLE lot easier to make repairs this year, but it still was an all day job. The only reason it was an all day job was because it took three trips to the hardware store.

John and I both went this morning because we had to have the gas tank refilled, and even though I'm, like, super duper strong I couldn't load and unload the tank by myself. (Stop laughing...you don't know how strong I really am. OK, OK...laugh. It IS a 100 pound tank though.) Anyway, we got back and within maybe 30 minutes, we had the repair made. I turned on the water, and all seemed fine except that no water was getting inside the trailer. The pipes that were buried and that we didn't replace last spring had burst. Trip 2 to William's for 50 feet of 3/4" CPVC and fittings. Replacing that took maybe another 30 minutes. I eased the water on again only to hear John yell for me to turn it off. We both had brain farts because we didn't think about the buried pipe we replaced needing to be capped off, so water was rushing out from that. Trip 3 to the hardware store for a 3/4" PVC cap. (Yeah, I'm fairly certain I could do this myself if necessary.) Got that fixed in minutes, and I turned the water on yet again. "Turn it off!" was John's response. One more repair had to be made, but because we'd picked up extras of most of the fittings, I didn't have to make a 4th trip to the store. Yea!!! So the entire repair job took maybe a couple of hours, but because I had to make two extra trips to the store, it ended up being an all day job. That's one of the disadvantages of being out in the boonies. (Next year, John is getting a gift card to William's Hardware for plumbing supplies, and before we come out here, we're buying everything we might possibly need for repairs. LOL)

It takes about ten minutes to get to DJs, the nearest store, but they don't have a huge selection of plumbing materials, so we usually go to William's Hardware in Arley, and they're about 20 minutes away. By the time we go, shop, and get back, it's taken an hour. The third trip I made today was to DJs, but then I had to go to another store since DJs didn't have the PVC cap.

We've decided that no work will be done unless absolutely necessary the rest of the week. It's supposed to warm up by Friday, so maybe we can get out and enjoy ourselves. I have some elephant ears I'd like to plant. I got some more of the small bulbs to put out front, but I found three of the HUGE bulbs that I want to put in the back. I hope they end up being BIG ears.

John grilled pork chops for dinner...YUM! Dishes are done, and now we're gonna sit and relax.

Hope y'all have a GREAT day tomorrow. We will. =)

Weekend Update

No, this isn't a SNL Weekend Update comedy skit, so if that's what you're looking for you will probably be disappointed. I have a pretty good sense of humor (that is necessary with John as my husband), and I can be funny, but this isn't anything comedic. :)

We left about 5:30 Friday going to the lake. We'd probably been gone about an hour when I realized I left my GREEN BAG at home! Fortunately, we have everything we need at the lake as far as toiletries are concerned, but I haven't bought a hair dryer, brushes/combs, flat irons, etc. to leave up there yet. So, the hair was dried naturally all weekend long, which means it is C-U-R-L-Y and big! If John and I had decided to have a child, he or she probably would've hated us because his/her hair would've been HUGE! Anyway, not long after I realized my green bag had been left, Linda called to tell us the power was out and to give us the number so we could call and report the outage as well.

By the time we got there, it was about 10:15 (yes, it took WAY longer than usual!! Stops for gas, money, food, and one of John's new favorite stores--Hobby Lobby--will add minutes, or in this case 2 hours.) Still no power. We went to Danny and Linda's and visited with them and Billie for about an hour. When we got back to our place, we opened the windows in the bedroom. I felt like I was back at summer camp! Complete silence except for nature. No hum of electricity. Only crickets. I loved it! It took me no time to fall into the best sleep--until about 2:00 AM when I was jarred awake by the sound of the power company truck and a chain saw. They finally finished up about 2:30, and we had power.

John and the pups got up about 6 Saturday morning, which meant that I wasn't far behind. Whenever Bama is ready to get up, EVERYBODY should be ready to get up. And once his daddy was up, well, that was it! Fixed coffee and took my morning stroll down to the water. It was so calm and peaceful. Huge fish were jumping everywhere. About 7, John and I decided to fish for a little while. He caught two, but I wasn't so lucky. Linda walked over a little later, and then once Danny and Billie were up, we went to their place for a bit.

We had decided to cook-out Saturday for Mother's Day, so Mom and Dad, Connie, and Tim and Tisha came up, too. We had the best time! I've said it before, but I'm saying it again. I have to be the luckiest person in the world because I got the greatest family when I married John!! My mom and dad feel like they are a part of the Vest family, too, so that makes holidays even better because we don't have to split our time between families, which is hard since John and I don't live in the same place as either of our families. While the "guys" talked fishing and who knows what else, the "girls" sat and discussed books, recipes, and tons of other stuff. It was a very interesting conversation. Thanks Billie, Linda, Tisha, and Connie (Mom, too) for...everything. :)

After everyone left, John and I just enjoyed the quiet of the lake. We went out and fished a little more. He had one bite--it had to have been a really good side bass--but he lost it. I had two little nibbles. Oh well. It just wasn't my day for fishing. We went in and started watching the race, but I was exhausted (thanks to the 6 Benadryl I took throughout the day) so I fell asleep pretty early. About midnight, the storms began. The lightning was a constant flash, and the thunder rumbled continuously for about 45 minutes. To me, that was really soothing. The wind was a different story. Through the window,I could see the trees being whipped around. That wasn't so soothing since our lakeside "McMansion" is a 12X48 mobile home!! It finally moved on, and I was sound asleep again.

We didn't get up quite as early this morning. After being awakened two nights in a row, it was a little easier to sleep in, if you call 8:00 sleeping in. Coffee, walk to the water, ahhh--a beautiful day! Then, a little work. Anyone who thinks that lake weekenders don't do anything except vacation doesn't know what he or she is talking about because there is no vacation. Every time we're there, we have to do in one day all the stuff that we can do all during the week at home. We did the hardest part today so we won't have quite as much to do this weekend. Hopefully, we can get the yard cleaned up really well so that we CAN begin enjoying it more and working less.

The hardest part was loading up and coming home. Everytime we're up there, we enjoy ourselves so much, even if we are working our bums until they are dragging the ground. There is just nothing like hearing the sound of the water or watching the sunlight or the moonlight reflect off the smooth morning or evening lake. Even though we've lived in Dadeville just over 14 years, our little spot in Winston County feels more like home every time.

Weekend at the lake

Another wonderfully relaxing weekend at the lake. Well, maybe not all THAT relaxing. Everyone who "weekends" at the lake--any lake, really--will tell you that there are very few weekends that are spent JUST relaxing. We've come to know that very well.

A couple of weeks ago we stopped by to check things out on our way from Hartselle. We were going to turn the water on so we'd be able to use bathroom while we were there. You can probably guess--a pipe had burst. John got all the stuff so he could fix it this weekend, or so he thought. What should have been a quick 30 minute project ended up taking about 3 hours and two trips to DJs for extra plumbing supplies. He DID get it fixed, though. We checked all the faucets inside, and they seemed to be okay. The trap under the kitchen sink wasn't though. It had a leak. Trip number 3 to DJs on Saturday morning. That's fixed, too.

When they put in the rip rap, the line for the satelllite got cut, so that was project number 2. John got that taken care of yesterday, but when we went to make sure it worked, the receiver wasn't picking up. He had to make a trip to the top of the hill to call the company to have them reset the box. So now we have TV again. He still has to bury the line, but I think we're going to rent a trencher to do that so we can get it deeper than we did before.

We got my elephant ears planted, so hopefully the next time we're up there (next weekend I hope!!) we'll see some beginning to pop through the ground. I want to plant a few other things, too, but that may have to wait.

Our final project was to "decorate." I know that our trailer isn't much, but we want to make it OURS, and I think we've got a pretty good start. All the things we bought at Hobby Lobby last week will be used in our house when we finally get to build, but for now, they are making the trailer look MUCH better! One thing I hope to do this summer is paint. It really shouldn't take long. After all, the trailer is only 48 feet long and 12 feet wide. Then again, any project that shouldn't take long usually does. :) One thing that I really like about our tiny place is that it takes NO time to clean! I can clean the entire trailer in about the time it takes me to vacuum our house.

I got ALL my bib cards and note cards graded. I started on them about 8:15 yesterday morning and finished about 6:15 last night. That is 10 hours!! I didn't spend the entire 10 hours grading--I schedule short breaks after every 5 sets so that it isn't so overwhelming. I'd guess I probably did spend about 8 hours, though. With no TV at the time, no internet at all, and a cold day, my breaks were much shorter than they would've been otherwise. I knew I HAD to get those done, though!

The pups had a great time, as usual. Both of them slept all the way home and are sound asleep on the couch now. I doubt we'll hear much of them before morning. And even then, they probably won't be waking us up to go out at 4:15, either. :)

It's been a LONG day, so I am going to call it a night myself. Only 7 weeks until summer vacation. I think I can make it.