Awakenings - Summer Setbacks

Jul. 7, 2007 - Summer Setbacks

Well, where to begin? I thought that this summer would start as any other. We'd finish our regular schooling, then finish up 4-H projects, have VBS, 4-H turn-in, send Brianna off to her mission trip in Canada and I'd have August to relax a bit and get ready for school once more. Summer is never fully "lazy" at our house, but it is generally different than the rest of the year and at least more laid back. I never knew just what I was in for when the calendar hit June!

Our plumbing issue became a $450 bill from a plumber who had to snake the pipe all the way to the sewer line. Work on the main sewers combined with a wrong elbow at the sink, not even sealed properly either, left us with gunk build-up.There was no way we would have ever gotten it cleared with draino and our 20ft snake would have never gotten through to the sewer line. With the wrong elbow attached, the plumber had to snake it from below anyway.

So then my oldest son was arrested. Yes, arrested. That's certainly every parent's nightmere! He spent two nights in the juvenille detention center. We spent two nights wondering what had come over him! He was arrested for stealing. He was at a friend's house spending the night and they decided to play a prank on the neighbor boy. That boy had done the same to my son's friend. They took his bike and some things from his car. In the morning, as they were returning the items, the boy's grandpa saw them with the things and called police. Explaining things to the boy and his family, the family decided not to press charges but the police still charged them with theft. It's a hard lesson to learn! Prank or no prank stealing is only stealing in the eyes of the law. When we were told what he had done we were shocked, especially since he was on a bike when he left here. It just seemed like nothing we'd ever expect out of our son. Even though it was wrong no matter the circumstances, we were relieved that his intentions were not to steal the bike to keep or sell. That makes it a little easier to swallow! Now he has a court hearing, on my birthday, and will have to endure probation. Eighteen years ago on my birthday I was seeing my son for the first time on an ultrasound monitor.

So then we had to take my husband to the ER and they found he had kidney stones. he went through that once before ten years ago but he passed it and went on with life. This time we were back and forth to the doctor and clinic for tests for two weeks. A urine test revealed high levels of a horomone indicating parathyroidism. It makes the body absorb more than normal amounts of calcium in the blood. He's probably had many, many kidney stones over the years that he'd passed unnoticed. Parathyroidism also messes with metabolism, either too slow or too fast. Always having been overwieght his whole life, thyroid problems were always in the back of his mind but no one would ever test because his "glands weren't swollen". They would just hand him info sheets on diet & exercise. Well, the doctor opted out of the surgical option for now and he is on a thyroid medication. In less than two weeks on the meds he lost 25 pounds and no more stones are forming in his kidneys.

Then we hit a heat wave, many days in the 90's, and found our air conditioning not working up to par. Set at 70 it was 85 in the house! We cleaned the coils, cleaned and sealed the ducts, had the blower motor checked, and still it was not working. As an industrial unit it never neads coolant added so we knew it wasn't that. We could feel cold air in the ducts, it just wasn't coming out! Finally one technician found that the second set of coils(we had no idea existed) were not only filthy but also covered by a filter that should not have been there and had probably been there since the unit was installed nine years ago! If we'd only known! We spent two weeks in jungle heat, trying to fix everything else on the unit, and we could have fixed it ourselves. Now at least it works better than it ever has!

So other than the above we have been busy with 4-H projects at home and with basket workshops, going to the pool, a few field trips, co-op planning for the fall, VBS prep, job hunting for my oldest son, and I have been trying to keep up with getting the other kids to summer jobs and keeping a handle on where they are all day! I'm ready for a vacation from our vacation! I just hope that August will lend me at least few days of quiet!

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