Groundhog Day

On Feb 2nd, I introduced my crew to Punxsutawney Phil, homemade.  After Googling, we found this great  Family Fun idea complete with photos and instructions.  And we had . . .

SUCCESS!!!

He looked so cute and we really enjoyed putting him together.  Mind you, no one in our family likes coconut, but I didn't have to go to the store even for the mounds bar.  Hmmm, kindof makes you wonder about our preparedness lifestyle doesn't it? 

Speaking of preparedness, I'll go ahead and share my favorite story on that subject.  About a year ago, I heard this loud whooshing sound coming from the garage.  You might think I would go investigate right away, and had I been in THAT frame of mind, I might have, but I didn't.  Instead I proceeded to get the kids ready for school, eat breakfast, brush teeth, get dressed, and walk out the door to load up the bus.  HOLD EVERYTHING!  Why is water coming out from under the garage door?  Hmmm, I guess I'll look into that when I get home.  La lee la, hum de dum.  I DROVE OFF!  Can you believe it?  I can't either.  An hour later, when I got home, I decided I better check into that whole water deal.  I'm so thankful that the garage door doesn't really seal at the bottom. 

I do wish it only went the one way, but today we're being thankful. 

The water heater had . . . well, the whole thing was just falling apart.  Water was gushing from everywhere and, again being thankful, I stepped DOWN into the garage to shut off the valve.  Having great friends, I was glad for times when things went wrong with their plumbing.  Otherwise I would never have known that such a valve existed.  Also glad for the step because otherwise, our house would have been as flooded as the garage.

See, when I was growing up, we just made a phone call and some guy showed up to fix whatever was wrong.  Usually, it was some guy I'd never seen in my life, and most likely never would again (they always fixed it right the first time and we moved A LOT). 

Anyway, that day, I was so glad to know about said valve.  Now about a year before this mishap, my great friends (really great), Scott and Dianna, replaced their water heater for a Rinnai and gifted us with their slightly used, 50 gal. tank.  As much as I'd love to have a Rinnai, I don't really use enough hot water to justify the expense.  So the 50 gal. tank sat in my garage teasing us about the space it was using without paying rent.  And we just grinned back, knowing someday . . .

Have you ever arrived at the end of the money before the end of the pay period?  Well, it wasn't quite awful, but it was quite inconvenient to have the old water heater spewing for all it was worth.  But I smiled anyway.  Someday had come and we were only inconvenienced at the whole process of moving one tank to it's final resting place and another LARGER (thank you guys so much, D & S) garden tub filling ALL THE WAY TO THE TIPPY TOP tank onto the platform. 

So there you have it, two successes in one post, neither having anything to do with the other except, preparedness.  You had to have known I'd talk about it ;-)