Frozen Pipes

So I see a couple of my neighbors preparing for the deep freeze that was forecasted to hit us. I forgot to tell Mario until last night when he is crawling into bed at about 8:30 because he has to be up at 4 for an important conference call at work. He didn't think the pipes would freeze and so he drifted off to sleep. I recall my dad telling me recently that we didn't have anything to worry about here in Arizona about freezing pipes. So I too drifted off to sleep.

Fast forward to 4 am this morning and Mario comes into the room, turns on the bathroom light and when I enquire why, he says, "We have no water." Great! So now I am up at 4 am trying to research online what to do. We are from Florida. We don't know anything about frozen pipes!

We may have not been prepared with the pipes, but at least we were prepared with water storage. I quickly went to the garage, removed all the junk on top of our huge water barrels and began to boil water to use for our pipes.

Then I called my dad to tell him he was wrong, pipes do freeze here. He offered some suggestions which worked immediately to clear the frozen pipes. I felt so bad for Mario having to leave. I know he didn't want to leave me early this morning with no running water to fend for myself and the kids.

It looks like the pipe leading to the sprinklers has a leak so we do have some damage and I don't look forward to telling the landlord that we didn't prepare his pipes last night. My dad said it was his responsibility to cover the pipes, but I think we should have taken care of it. Lesson learned for next time. At least I had my water storage ready.

Update: Even those that covered their pipes had them frozen. In fact, many still don't have water. So I think I was very lucky to know about the problem at 4 am so I could fix it before it froze any further. Now are gas is out also, so no heat in the whole area. Maybe school will be canceled tomorrow.

School Librarian

This week I get to pretend I am the school librarian at the elementary school. I tried to scare Eric by telling him I was filling in at the middle school library. The horror of having your mom at school with you! I am not quite sure what age that starts to be a kid's worst nightmare (at least for a boy...I think Erin would love it.)

At least my two little boys are excited about me being at school with them. Too bad I am still sick with this dumb cold.

Bribery

Zach handed this note to me as soon as I walked through the door last night from my date night with Mario. We thought it was funny and a smart move on her part or else she'd lose her $5 pay for babysitting.

January 30, 1994

Seventeen years ago today I met Mario at a Singles Conference in West Palm Beach. We have been planning a night out to celebrate. But then I came down with a cold and not feeling great. So we will probably go out for dinner but come straight home for ugly cake and a movie.

I can't believe that I am old enough to be married almost 17 years. But, what a wonderful 17 years it has been!

Golf N Stuff

Tucson, Arizona isn't my favorite military assignment. We find that without a beach (or grass) there's not much to do. So we resort to going to the movies too much. Saturday started out as another boring day here in the desert. We did get the house clean and then I suggested we go to Golf N Stuff. Mario had never been because we went while he was deployed. This time we got the kids armbands so they could have unlimited rides and mini-golf for 2 hours. They had a lot of fun. Nathan even played laser-tag twice which surprised me. Zach and Nathan (and a few other kids) ganged up on Eric and soaked him on the bumper boats.

Overprotective Parents

I will be the first to admit, I am an overprotective mother. I would almost call myself an overprotective mom to the extreme. But I have met some of those moms and I don't think I go quite as far as they do. Eric started wrestling this semester at his school. I can't even go watch. I am afraid that he may get hurt. Mario has seen every match so far and it stresses him out, but he still goes to support. I feel bad because I like to support my kids in their sports, but I just don't think I can handle watching wrestling. But at least I let him wrestle. Some extreme moms probably wouldn't let their kids wrestle. In fact, some may not even let their kids attend school at all, let alone participate in after-school sports.

Yesterday the kids had a half-day of school. Eric came home and asked if he could go hang out with some high school friends from church. One is 14, the other 16. My first reaction was no way did I want him hanging out with a 16 year-old that had a car. Nor did I want him going to his house when I knew that neither parent was home. I called Mario for back-up. He provided none. I guess it is my fault. I have been telling Mario lately that we need to cut the strings a little with Eric because we don't want to send him off to college/mission after being coddled all his life. I wanted to take all those talks with Mario back. I didn't want to send my little boy off with a 16 year-old. Mario is the Priest Quorum adviser so he knows Stone well. So he thought that Eric should be allowed to hang out with them. I quizzed Eric and asked what they would be doing. He said going to lunch at McDonalds, Subway, or Chinese. Well, we have all those places within a 2 mile radius of my house. So I agreed (only because Mario told me to.) I told Eric to call if they decided to do anything afterwards. I went up to take a nap and then came down and watched a movie with the kids. Eric didn't call and I was getting a little worried. How long could lunch take? He finally came home towards the end of the movie and when I questioned what took so long, he said they went all the way into town (20 minutes away) to go for Chinese at a buffet. Good thing I didn't know that before he left or I would have said no way! Eric had a great time hanging out with his friends and I guess I am glad he got to go.

I want to let go of Eric, but it is so hard. I want to bubble-wrap him. I don't think I would be as worried if it was Erin hanging out with girls. It is the boys I don't trust. I trust Eric, but not any other boy. I think back to my childhood and I thought my parents were overprotective, but in reality, they weren't. They let me and my siblings have cars and we drove all over the place. We could say we were going out jet-skiing for the day and they would say, "Have fun." I can't even imagine saying that to Eric. I would want all the details like what parents were going, was he going to wear a life jacket, what time was he returning, etc. Not to mention he better call me every half hour to check in. I do remember when I returned from hanging out with my friends, my mom would have 20 questions waiting for me. Now as a parent of a teenager, I can understand why. Mario told me yesterday on the phone, "Make sure you have a list of questions to ask when he gets home." I may outdo my mom and have 30+ questions. My kids always call me a detective. I love it.

I think that is why I am only meant to have 4 kids. I see parents with 6,8, or 10 kids. They are so relaxed. Nothing seems to stress them. I had my dentist tell me the other day that his 7 kids build forts in the desert...barefoot. He says they step on a cactus and they just pull it out. Now I do let my kids walk through the desert and play with the air-soft guns back there. So maybe I am not too bad. I do know some extreme parents that won't let their kids step foot in the desert.

I guess I need to find a balance. I am really sad that Eric is growing up. I think I need some classes to help me deal with my anxiety as I try to make it through these teenage years.

Wicked

Mario and I took Erin to see Wicked. I heard it was amazing, but it was even better than I expected.

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