I'll start with what's been happening most recently. On April 28 Mindy and I started our journey to Logansport, IN. Why where we going? Besides the fact that is where Mindy's family lives we were going up to celebrate Kevin (Mindy's brother) and Trista's wedding. We want both of them to know we wish them all the best as they start their life together. Also, we're so glad you got your own place :).
We love you both.
Well I have come to the conclusion that blogging isn't my strong point. While I want to keep others informed I don't always want to take the time. Yeah, it's counter productive. However, I am determined to update more frequently. And if Mindy would post here sometimes it would help as well. She just needs to take a break from her MySpace account and post here. (Love you Dear :) ).
The last 2 1/2 months have proven to be quite busy. From my last post to the end of April, if my memory is correct we were home 2 weekends. Things have slowed down a bit and last weekend we enjoyed time with friends grilling some nice looking steaks.
We will try to post more info of what's been taking place over the last 2.5 months later this week. Tonight however, we will be out in town.
We just want to send a congrads to Morgan Kochenower for his engagement. We are most happy for him and wish him the best.
The following Sunday, we noticed that the linoleum was starting to bubble in front of the fridge. We didn't think much about it at first. Figured it was an air pocket after moving the fridge. Well on Monday when Mindy got home from work it had enlarged considerably. We poked it with a sick-pin and a little bit of water started coming our. Not good news. It was then we realized what was happening. We moved the fridge away from the wall again, and sure enough the value was slowly dripping.
Instead of dripping on top of the flooring, it was dripping behind the drywall onto the plywood and then rolling under the linoleum. You might not think a slow drip could push up the flooring, but we are now a believer. We cut a larger piece out of the linoleum and started pushing and vacuuming the water out. In total we probably had at least one gallon of water in the wet/dry vac when done.
If there was any bright side of the story, we didn't have to pull up the flooring as we were able to re-lay the linoleum under the fridge and the rest is no longer bubbling.
A couple of days later, we pushed the fridge back into place and though all was finished. You guessed it, it wasn't. That evening we started smelling something hot. We quickly suspected the fridge but couldn't figure it out. After a little bit of time we realized the cooling fan was not running. GREAT!
The next day I was able to buy a replacement fan and started to install it. However, pulling the fridge back out and upon closer inspection there was a packing peanut stuck in the fan blades. Once removed and plugged back in, the fan started without a problem.
Finally some good news, the fridge was fine.
So something as simple as the cat spilling his own water cause a leak and a scare of the cooling fan dying. Let's just say we are happy it's over.
It turns out a lot has happened this past month and I didn't have time to write about all of it this weekend. We definitely had a great time in NC over the New Year weekend. The whole Herman side of the family was able to make the trek to my parent's house. It was a full house with 15 from my parents to siblings to nephews and nieces, plus the four grandparents, for a total of 19, definitely full
While we enjoyed our time together, there were some low points from some of us getting sick. I suppose it started with Sarah (Mike and Julie's daughter). She had been sick while they traveled. Once in NC Sarah seemed to be better, but then Saturday Julie was sick followed that night by Mike. We tell Mike he brought it upon himself when that evening he said he never gets sick, yeah right.
While nobody else got sick that weekend, it continued to spread the next week. Both Mindy and I succumbed to the flu the next week. Mindy had it a little worse, getting sick on Tuesday feeling a little better the next two days but then relapsed on Friday. I was sick on Wednesday mostly healthy on Thursday and felt mostly normal on Friday. Since then we have gotten back to a normal schedule.
The other "major" even during January was trouble we had at the house and I have to blame it on our cat, Tippin. It started when Mindy arrived home from work one evening and found a puddle of water in front of the refrigerator. When I got home I investigated but could not figure out where it had come from. I cleaned it up and moved on. However, while I was looking under the fridge I realized that it probably hadn't been cleaned since it as purchased. So I decided I would clean it. The reason I blame the cat at this point is because the next day when I went home for lunch there was water on the flow again. However, this time there was a slight trail of water from Tippin's water bowl to the puddle on the floor. He had some how tipped his bowl just enough to spill his water on the floor.
That evening I and bought a fridge brush and started to clean. It was extremely full of dust and other items, some of them being a batteries, a calculator, markers and pens, plastic wrapping from food containers, and empty food boxes (similar to Mac & Cheese boxes). Making sure I cleaned thoroughly I moved the fridge away from the wall. Needless to say this is when the problem occurred. What we wouldn't realize was a small drip of water was now coming from the valve behind the fridge.
To be continued...
Its been over a month since our last update and there definately has been a lot happening in January. We are heading to NC this weekend for a special project. While I don't have time to detail what has happened last month, this weekend I plan to take the time and update it. This update will also include more photos from our New Years weekend with our family.
Last Thursday (Dec 22) we attended a Jim Brickman concert at the Tivoli in downtown Chattanooga. He performed with vocalists Anne Cochran, Mike Eldred, and Tracy Sliverman who also had his highly acclaimed 6-string electric violin. It was definitely a hit and was one of the other many highlights of the evening. We were lucky enough to get a "live" video conference with Kermit as he was tied up with Muppet's on Ice. They sang a lovely duo of "The Rainbow Connection" for us. In addition to the music there was a bit of comedy. Among other things he had to explain his unique body moments while he performs, which we won't even try to explain here.
He performed several songs from his new album "The Disney Songbook" along with several of his classics and other Christmas songs, it was his holiday tour after all. Overall, we enjoyed a wonderful evening of music and would highly recommend attending if you get the chance.
