Everchanging...

So I know my life tends to get a little wild here & there... you just never know what's going to happen!

The other day when Andrew left for West Virgnia, we knew there was a leak somewhere in the house... there was a puddle in the laundry room. I did my duty and hunted it down! Turns out it was a hose on the hot water heater. One of the flexible copper hoses had apparently been slightly crimped when we hooked up the "new" (5 years ago) hot water heater... apparently over time that crimped spot had weakened enough to finally start spewing (yes, I said spewing - lots of pressure behind it!) and was slowly flooding the little hot water heater cupboard in the girls' closet, and it was seeping under the wall into the laundry room... so I picked up a new hose (braided hose this time - no chance of crimps), borrowed a friends pipe wrench, and with my oldest son's help, we changed out that hose last night...


I also picked up this really cool shelving unit from a friend of mine - one of those sets with the runners and wire drawers... she never even unpackaged it, having decided to do something else in her closet... so I had the entertaining time of putting the thing together... The only tool needed was a mallet. It's absolutely fabulous, though. I was able to go through the mountain that tends to grow on my side of the bed, and organize the whole shabang! It's awesome! (I'm not totally done sorting through everything that I unburied, but I should finish it if I just sit down & work at it for a couple of hours... it was a HUGE mountain of stuff )

There's never enough excitement in my life, though... so a friend of my husband's has wonderfully gifted some of his airline miles, so that we were able to get ME a ticket to fly out to West Virginia for a week with Andrew. How completely awesome is that? $40 for a round trip ticket... and it includes flying home on the same flight as Andrew. Talk about a fabulous working vacation. (He'll be the one working, I'll be on vacation... with SNOW! and NO TEENAGERS! It really WILL be a vacation! )

I have a list of things to get done before leaving on Saturday, though... and a list of things that I need to take with me... there's a kitchen in the place that we'll be staying, but I'm not sure how well-equipped it is, so I have to decide what necessities I need to take with me to cook in a possibly "less than ideal" set up. I know for certain that my husband will want Chicken Schnitzel at least one of the nights - his absolute favorite dish of mine... I know my "One Pot Wonders" always go over well, and are easy... and warm and filling which is always a perk... I know I'll have to put my supplies in my "check in" luggage, though... but I can't decide if I should take one of my good kitchen knives or not... I can take my little calphalon skillet for cooking the chicken & whatever other meat I want to cook. I need my meat tenderizer for pounding the chicken... decision, decisions!

It's time to rouse the children and put them to work for the day... laters!