enforced vacation

Looks like the weather will be nice next week and David has arranged a trencher rental for Monday. We could be getting back into our house soon, and we're pretty excited. We have enjoyed staying at the lake, sure, especially since David fixed the pipes here yesterday and we aren't having to run next door to use the bathroom or get drinking water or wash our hands or do laundry. The week long freeze was hard on lots of pipes in this area. We happen to live over 600 feet from the road and David is just redoing our water pipes for that length since we found out ours are under our concrete driveway for part of their length (brilliant). Somewhere along that length, there's a break. He dug holes for a while and didn't find it so we've opted for a redo. He's gotten the first 1/3 of the distance trenched and piped already and can do a good bit more on Monday since he'll have the whole day to do it. He ran the first bit mostly trenching after dark since he did it after work. Plumbing is wonderful and we are apt to take it for granted when it's working right. I can't wait to take ours for granted again.

Dennis loves it at the lake house so he's been happy about it. The square footage is about a third of what we're used to, so keeping him active is a chore confined in this smaller space. He woke me up this morning by climbing on my head and announcing "wake up, Mommy, it's time for school" and for just a millisecond my heart did that awful panicked ka-thump thinking I would indeed be late for school. Those days are long past for me, thank goodness, and now that I've typed that, my heart goes out to my brother who will soon be starting school again. I'm sure his kids will make sure he gets up and out on time.

Dennis has learned his entire alphabet and even though it is difficult to get him to recite it on demand, he entertained us with it tonight after bedtime stories and I heard him in bed singing it to himself after we tucked him in. We applauded big time when he got every letter right (and most likely would have even if he hadn't) and he said "thank you, thank you" and took a bow. He makes me smile a million times a day (in between episodes of pulling my hair out)--I think I just summed up in one bit there what it's like to raise a toddler!