I'm going down, down, down in a burning ring of fire...

Well, okay, my mood, that is.

This weekend has been dumpy. D-U-M-P-Y. I'm not feeling very encouraged, and I'm struggling to be glad. Argh.

If something could go wrong, it did. Friday night, I froze all night. Seriously froze. I was so cold it kept me awake. I couldn't glean enough heat from Mike's half-dead body in the bed, and Dogg's half-dead body, either. Apparently, the cold didn't affect them. They both snoozed away beautifully. When we got up, we realized our furnace was click, click, clicking, but not turning on. Rats. Our neighbor came over that afternoon and checked everything out. All four diagnostic tests came back fine. It hasn't done it since. Why it struggled Friday night, I'll never know.

Saturday, Dogg was having fits... in his belly. I posted about his "conniption" on my last entry. Either way, he was wearing me out with his frequent need to go outside and make lots-o-noise. I'm not talking the barkin' kind, either.

Sunday. I hear strange sounds coming from my kitchen sink. Now, last time this happened, I forgot to turn off the water. This wasn't the same. This was BIG sounds coming from the sink... as I was pouring out an ENTIRE bin of soapy water. I heard it the night prior, although very minimally. I didn't think twice about it then. So, today. I hear the BIG sound. I wonder, "what could that be?" I ask Mike if he heard it. Nope. I poured again. I hear it again. It felt very much like the squirrel scene in Christmas Vacation. Mike heard it once, albeit briefly. I look down. Suds. I open the cabinet doors underneath the sink. Water EVERYWHERE. DEEP WATER. Everything was nearly floating. Mike hollers, "it's yours." Thanks. =) Apparently, the entire drain pipe disconnected. I had the downward pipe from the sink (I know, this is very plumber-term appropriate) with a straight shot to my cabinet. LOVERLY. So, being the handy type I am, I reconnected the pipes. Heck yeah! Then, Mike screwed the little screw part back onto the down pipe. Yeah, we're both quite talented. I'm very suspicious that one small girl, known affectionately as the 'crow,' might know something about this. My clean-up took every towel in the house. Even all of our washcloths, Noël-cloths, and hand towels. Fun fun.

Thankfully, though, nothing was of the money-fixin' type. Boy, would that have been bad.

Oh, gee... I'm forgetting my other mishap. I didn't make it to church. Why? Um, my keys were not in my car. I searched all over. I could not locate them. I checked pants pockets. I checked countertops. I checked in random non-suspecting spots within the car. No keys. Me Irish blood 'twas boiling. =) I had to talk myself down out of a bad situation. ie I had to talk myself from saying something very unkind to my hubby. Grace. Grace. Grace. All was well when Mike called me after my missed Grace Group. "What's going on?" Me: "Um, I have no keys." Mike: "Oh, I'm coming home." Me: "Okay. Bye." Apparently, the keys were under a little brochure Mack had brought home. Very easy spot. But, not the normal spot... IN THE CAR! Thankfully, God showed me grace and allowed me to not be angry and say unkind things to Mike. I didn't need to ruin my short time with my hubby.

So, next order of business. Beloved Flara. Dr. B calls again with a kind update. Basically, Flara has been failing her SiPap thanks largely in part to the ill-fitting mask. So, he wanted to try her on high-flow again. She failed that within half an hour. My poor little baby. So, she's on something called "Nasal SIMV." It's the cannula, but hooked up to the ventilator. She's not ventilated, so she's breathing on her own, but the machine will give her a puff of support with her breaths. I'm feeling discouraged because I feel like we've been in a backward slide for sometime now. I'm really afraid of the word "chronic."

Please, keep praying for us. Little Flara is tuckered beyond capacity from all of the overhandling during all of these adjustments and changes. I'm tired from the emotional strain of it all. Mike's exhausted.

Until next time...

Suzanne