An Help Meet

God said in Genesis 2:18 - "I will make him an help meet for him" (KJV - the version spoken by Jesus) and so he created woman...

Some jobs just need "an help meet." Two or three weeks ago, Nancy and her sister Marcene went over to Fort Worth to visit with their dad while he entertained several friends of his from his days at Abilene Christian College. They seemed to all have a good time visiting and talking about the college days, and Nancy and Marcene enjoyed listening to it all. Well, when Nancy and Marcene proceeded to return home here to Murphy, they quickly realized that the air conditioner in our Tahoe was not working right - nothing but hot air was coming out of the vents.

Of course, I was given the wonderful news right away that Friday. But, I had other things more pressing that next day, Saturday (what they were, I can't even remember right now...), so come Sunday morning I hadn't yet done any investigating. Fortunately, the weather had turned cloudy and so a bit cooler, so we didn't "miss" the air conditioning that much going to church.

As we got ready to return home following services and Bible class, I spotted something hanging down under the engine compartment of the Tahoe parked there in the church parking lot. A quick kneel down inspection confirmed my suspicions that the belt which drives the air conditioning compressor had broken, and a remnant was all that was left hanging down.

Early Monday morning I got out and put the Tahoe front end on blocks to climb underneath and inspect things more closely. After sizing up the situation, I decided replacing the belt was a job I should be able to tackle without too much grief. So, off to the auto parts store I went for a replacement belt ($13.99). On the Tahoe, the A/C compressor has its own little belt, separate and apart from the long "serpantine" belt which drives all the other components on the engine (power steering pump, alternator, water pump, etc.). Both the long belt and the A/C belt loop around pulleys and idler/tensioner wheels to keep them on track, with good tension so that they stay in their grooves and do their thing. To remove these belts, you just get a wrench on the idler/tensioner wheel and pull against its spring far enough that the belt comes loose enough to remove it from around the various pulleys.

Well, the idler/tensioner wheel for the short A/C compressor belt proved to be in a very tight spot, and the length of its spring-loaded "arm" was very short. Those things combined made it difficult to pull it back against its spring to enable the new belt enough slack to place it through its pulleys. I tried various things before finally coming on a solution that worked - I needed to get "an help meet" involved...

I called out my very capable help meet (Nancy!) to the garage and had her push down on the A/C compressor idler/tensioner arm from the topside of the engine compartment using a 3' long crow bar. With her holding it down as far as it could be pushed down, I crawled underneath and fastened some strong plastic cable ties from over the idler/tensioner arm down and around the steering tie-rod below and then cinched it up to hold it in place. Once done, Nancy could then extract her crow bar and I could easily thread the new belt around the pulleys by hand. Once the belt was in place, I simply had to cut the plastic cable ties and the idler/tensioner wheel sprung up against the belt and securely kept things in place.

Nothing to it - as long as you have a very capable help meet like I have. She has learned a lot of "handy man" things in the past 37+ years. I'm glad I have her!

Tom

Sharing The Love

We have a friend in our Sunday class who works at a retirement village in our area. The building she works in is where the residents actually purchase their apartments. These folks are active retirees, with means, who no longer want the upkeep of a house and all the responsibility that goes along with that upkeep. It seems like a nice place to live!

They have an activities director and are always doing something to promote the social atmosphere of their building. An easy activity for February, of course, was a Valentine's Day get together. Our friend asked our Sunday class to sign individual Valentine cards to all the residents, which we did. We also had all the ladies at the Ladies Class luncheon sign cards so all the residents received two cards.

When we were deciding on decorations for our Ladies Bible class luncheon a few weeks ago, one of the hostesses suggested offering the decorations to our friend to decorate the dining area for their Valentine's Day get together. I stored all the balloon center pieces at our house this past week and yesterday several of the luncheon hostesses and myself along with a couple of others from our Sunday class met at the retirement village and decorated the dining area. We also helped serve the refreshments and distributed the Valentine cards and visited with the residents. It turned out to be a very enjoyable afternoon!

I can't believe the balloons have stayed inflated for over two weeks!

~Nancy~

You Gotta Be Flexible!

I usually attend Tuesday morning ladies Bible study at our church and way back in September I signed up to help with the February luncheon which was scheduled for February 1. Since the luncheons are on a Tuesday, that month's hostesses usually get the tables, etc. ready on Monday and my group of hostesses were to meet at 10 January 31st to decorate and make sure everything would be ready bright and early on Tuesday. When all the news stations started talking on Sunday about the weather that was coming beginning on Tuesday, we wondered what to do. Monday morning, it sounded like the rain/sleet/ice/snow would begin later in the morning and class would be over before things got bad. The class coordinator was called and at that time (8:00am Monday) she didn't want to cancel class. Soooo....

We met at 10 Monday and got everything all decorated and just as we were finishing up at 11:30, the class coordinator called and said she was cancelling class for Tuesday after all and would we be available to oversee the luncheon the following week. Hmmmm...

(The picture below was taken Jan. 31st.) We looked at each other, checked schedules, and said yes. Then proceeded to take pictures so we'd remember how everything went and then undecorate the tables. We left the bags that are the centerpieces of the tables intact and stored everything in the "bride's room".

As we all know now, cancelling was the right call because the weather system came in a lot earlier than expected and everything was iced over by the time everyone was waking up. They even closed the church office Tuesday - Thursday and area schools ended up being closed Tuesday - Friday. (And, the weather really put a damper on all the Super Bowl activities for that week leading up to game day.)

So, with the luncheon rescheduled for this week, my group of hostesses met once again this past Monday and redecorated the tables and made sure we would have what we needed for the luncheon the next day. Look at all the balloons in the picture below... out of 36 helium filled mylar balloons, we only lost 6 balloons! They lasted a week and a day!

Yesterday's luncheon went well and after being stuck indoors most of last week, everyone enjoyed being together and able to have a good visit.

And, its a good thing we all enjoyed yesterday since another winter storm barrelled through early this morning and iced everything over again!

~Nancy~

Colorado Sunshine...

As you can read from the prior post, old man winter has hit North Texas quite hard this week. It's as if we lived in Michigan or something! The weathermen (and most anybody you talk to, for that matter) are all ga-ga over the record breaking cold temperatures and the heavy layer of rain-turned-to-ice coating of everything earlier this week. Today, Friday, was supposed to be the day the temperatures would finally get back above freezing since last Monday night when the artic cold came in. However, I'm not sure that is going to happen today - it may be tomorrow. Last night we watched the weather and they were predicting a "slight dusting" of snow overnight, with points south and east (even as far down as Houston) getting 2-4" of snowfall. Well, that "slight dusting" turned out to be anywhere from 4-6" of Colorado Sunshine! See the beauty in this shot in front of our house...

Of course, being a native Texan and growing up in Corpus Christi, even 4-6" of snow is a big deal! It happened so infrequently during my lifetime, it doesn't take much to convince myself that shoveling snow off the driveway is a "fun" thing to do! It took me around 3 hours or so, but I got it done. Now if the sun will just come out this afternoon as predicted, I'll let 'ol Sol finish the job and dry it all off.

Cheers,

Tom

Brrrrr!

It has been unusually cold for our area this week. The weather system that came through early Tuesday morning left a glaze of ice and single digit temps (at night, anyway). And, today the state has been having rolling power outages which hasn't been fun for a lot of people. Our particular area has only had one power outage which didn't last long and we think it is because our carrier serves mostly rural areas so the demand isn't what it is in the denser populated areas of the county. We're on the edge of rural meets city.

Anyway, today the clouds have thinned and the sun is ALMOST shining! See the blue sky in the picture below? Its enough to make a difference on the dark shingles that the ice is beginning to melt from our rooftop. But, evidently the downspout of our rain gutter in the back (haven't checked out front!) is still blocked because water is spilling over making for some great icicles.

From this picture you can also tell most of our "snow" blew away leaving just the ice. Tom got out this morning with a shovel to try and loosen the ice on the incline part of our driveway but it wouldn't budge. It will just have to melt. I didn't get a picture of him working on the driveway. Sorry.

I just love looking at icicles!

I'm glad we didn't have any more moisture than we did because the temp is still way below freezing and it would be much worse than it is. Because of the ice, schools and businesses have been closed yesterday and today. Don't know about tomorrow, and the weather forecast calls for snow on Friday!

~Nancy~

Catching Some ZZZZ's

Our granddaughter is used to taking her daytime naps in a room that is very dark. Whenever she's at our house she doesn't nap very well and we think it might be because the room where she naps gets the afternoon sun. Soooo, I thought I would see if I could darken the room some.

Since we have shutters, I don't have drapes or curtains to add the room darkening lining. HOWEVER, I realized since the windows were not very wide, I could find some spring curtain rods that would fit the opening.

Armed with a 50% off coupon from our local fabric store, I bought some room darkening drapery lining and made a panel for each window. It worked up really fast since that material doesn't fray so didn't need a hem on the sides or bottom. I only had to make the pocket at the top for the rod.
This is the window that needed darkening.

I've hung one side

Makes a difference, don't you think?
By the time I finished both sides, it was the middle of the afternoon and the sun would have been streaming into that room but it was really dark. The panels are super easy to put in and remove, so they'll only be in place when Little Bit is over.
~Nancy~

First Snow

Yesterday, we received our first snow dusting in the new house.

Tron: Legacy - Thumbs Up!

One of my Christmas presents this year was a DVD. A few days after everyone went back to their homes and we had some time to put things away, etc., I discovered a sticker on the back of the DVD. That sticker promised a free coupon good for up to $12 to buy a single ticket to see the new "Tron: Legacy" movie. Nancy didn't particularly want to see it, so I printed off my coupon from the internet and this morning I went to the first showing. I don't know that I ever actually saw the original 1982 Tron movie - but I did sort of know its premise and I had seen snippets of it from time to time.

Well, I may have to rent the original now, because the new one was really quite good! I particularly liked the use of color schemes they used - the good (white accents) against the bad (red accents), with powerful sound. And, the showing I went to was all digital 3D - and that really made some of the explosions come right out into my face! The ending was good - but I won't spoil it for anyone in case you haven't seen it yet...

Cheers,

Tom

1-1-11

Aahhhh, January. I know a lot of people don't care for January, but it's my favorite month of the year and has been for a long time. I began to appreciate January after our oldest son started school and about the same time became involved in playing soccer. It seemed that beginning with the school Valentine party in February there was always something happening with something else "right around the corner". March would bring spring soccer and Spring Break, April was usually Easter and a trip to New Braunfels, May found school winding down along with the end of the spring soccer season. But, no sooner than soccer ended, little league baseball began and if you were on a winning team, lasted until the first couple of weeks of July. July also found us celebrating the 4th at the lake with my family. Several years we camped in Colorado at the end of July/beginning of August. No sooner were we back from Colorado then it was time to get ready for School and fall soccer. Finding a good school/study groove in September was always a challenge, then getting ready for Halloween, then Thanksgiving and all the while running in the background was preparations for Christmas. And all of a sudden it would be January with nothing going on. No sports practice to get to, no school parties to prepare for... I loved it. And I love it still.

Yesterday we put away our Christmas decorations, and I've been cleaning house from our company so that we can start off the first full week of January with everyting in its place and in balance. I may even sit down and read my January magazines. After that, learn how to use my Kindle Tom gave me for Christmas. Maybe we'll have some cold weather and I can read and drink hot chocolate or cook soup. Or think about what we might accomplish this year and make some lists of things we want to do around the house this year. Whatever 2011 is going to bring, I'm glad it begins with January.
~Nancy~

Having Fun

It's been a fun time with the grandkids (and granddog!).

Around The House Part 2

One of the areas of decorations we've done for several years is Rudolph in his corner of the kitchen. The grandkids have always posed for a picture with him to see how they've grown during the year so I wanted to be sure to find a place for him in this house. I think he looks right at home here. The old ironing board that we use as a table didn't quite work until I covered it in the dark red checked material. I like the way it turned out.

It's fun to have the table set like we're getting ready to sit down to dinner. I like the way it looks when I walk by.

~Nancy~

Around The House

This is the table in the entry way at the frontdoor.

The Santa Claus collection that had been on the top of the piano in previous years looks nice on the sofa table that is being displaced by the Christmas tree. It looks inviting looking at it down the hall.

The Christmas tree greets anyone who ventures through the front door and keeps us company when we're in the family room. It took longer than usual getting it decorated. We ended up replacing all the strings of lights this year.

~Nancy~

Christmas 2010

Our first Christmas in our new house is shaping up decorating wise. Things are beginning to come together even though it seems like its taking a long time. I'll post pics as I get things set up. Meanwhile, here is the outside of our house. This picture was taken just after sundown and since we face west the windows are reflecting the western sky. But, I wanted you to be able to see Santa and Mrs. Claus and the red bows on the lights either side of the front door.
~Nancy~

Having Fun!

Now that she is mobile, she's really having a good time!

Two weeks....

can be a very looong time! That's how long I was down in my back.

"Down in my back." Now there's a phrase for you. It tends to conjure up an image of Grandpa McCoy limping around on the old tv show The Real McCoys. (Grandpa Who? What?) But, I was a little more than down in my back, I was flat on my back and incapacitated. I couldn't even roll over without my whole back going into very painful muscle spasms. Tom was such a great help! He took wonderful care of me.

It took two weeks before my chiropractor could finally get the offending joint to correct. And all the while I was alternating between ice pack and heating pad and taking ibuprophen for good measure. I am now doing well and back to normal living. Phew!

I will now be seriously doing my stretching exercises and walking.
~Nancy~

Mirror, Mirror on the Floor...

You may need to turn up your volume a bit.

Thunder Cloud

A couple of weeks ago we spied this thunder storm cloud to our east at sundown. The way the sun was shining on it made for a beautiful scene. I know the people that were under the cloud at the time probably didn't care how beautiful it was from our perspective! It turned out to have numerous lightning strikes and wind and rotation and was really a bad storm. After the sun went down, it gave us quite a light show with all the lightning flashes. Watching the flashes of light within the cloud reminded me of when we lived in Lubbock and would watch the storm clouds.

This 'n' That

Our granddaughter and I go to Kindermusik on Wednesdays. Since this past Wednesday was during the week before Halloween, the kids were to dress up in their Halloween costumes. It's kinda hard to tell, but she is a lady bug. She wouldn't keep her hood on so you can't see the antenna that made her look more like a bug. It kept her from being able to look around.


After Kindermusik, she stays the rest of the afternoon with us and is usually ready for a bottle and a nap pretty soon after we get back to our house. This past Wednesday was a little different. I gave her a bottle then put her in the bed and listened to her "talk" for a little bit over the monitor. When all was quiet for several minutes, I decided to peek in so I could give her mother an accurate nap time. Below is what I found! She wasn't sleeping at all! Not only had she scooted under the bumper (somehow loosening the tie) but she was playing on the slats with her feet. Too cute! She never did take a nap at our house that day.

I hadn't done any seasonal decorating since moving into this house. The summer was taken up with unpacking and finding a new home for everything. I just didn't have anymore creativity within me to worry about any decorating for the summer season. But, things are coming along so I got out some fall stuff. Below is sitting on the sideboard in the kitchen.

Being able to decorate the dining room table was a big milestone since that was the room where we parked boxes until they were unpacked and leaned pictures that needed hanging. Since this is one of the first things you see when you come in through the front door I was glad to get it set.

After hearing about my cousin planting lots of pansies in her yard, I decided to plant a few where we could see them from the kitchen windows and enjoy them even during cold weather (should we have any). Since we once again seem to have lots of rabbits in our yard, we knew we couldn't have them at ground level so opted for planters. At least we no longer have the pool for the baby rabbits to drown!

Hope everyone is enjoying the change in the weather!

Nancy

The State Fair of Texas

Did you know our state fair is the largest in the United States? I didn't know that until we went to the fair last week. We've lived in the Dallas area most of our married life and last week was only the second time we had been to the fair. Our first time was about 5 years ago when a friend from church won a blue ribbon with a photo he'd taken and we wanted to see it on display.

We rode the Dart train to the fair! It was so easy, too! Definitely the way to go. We didn't have the hassle of driving in the traffic on Central Expressway, finding a place to park, then walking a long way to the entrance gate.

We boarded at the Bush Turnpike Station which is about 7 miles from our house. It took us downtown where we changed to the Green Line at the Pearl St. Station.

After a total 50 minute ride, we were there! The Fair Park Station is RIGHT AT one of the entrance gates so we got off the train and walked right in. We had bought our tickets beforehand at Kroger so didn't have to stand in the very long line at the entrance gate. Not only were they discounted buying them at Kroger, but we were able to buy the fair ticket and Dart ticket as a combination. One stop shopping. Can't beat it.

Big Tex giving us his Texas Sized welcome!

We just admired the ferris wheel, didn't ride it. In fact, we bypassed all the rides and stuck with the shows and exhibits.

If you will look closely at the sheep below, you will see 4 horns! They are a definite breed of sheep featured in the children's petting barn. (We went inside even though we had no children with us.) We stopped for a BMX bicycle demonstration...
Saw a milking demonstration...
Admired all the blue ribbons...

Other things we did but didn't get a picture of was a great demonstration by horseman Robert M. Liner, inspection of most of the cars in the 2011 model car show, a couple dog trick shows, a bird show, and a diving show whose skit was written around a couple of pirate captains in the Caribbean. The diving show was good, but the opening music they used was from the first Indiana Jones film! We were both expecting the music from The Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

And, the Pig Races! The man in the blazer running with the pigs is from the Fox Sports Southwest broadcast team and was filming the segment to be shown the next day during the Baylor vs. Texas Tech game. (We tuned in to the game on Saturday and sure enough, there was the pig race!)

We had a fun day!

~Nancy~

Lovin' This Weather!

The weather has been great lately with the lower temps and drier air. For the past couple of nights we've even slept with our bedroom windows open and it felt so nice! For some reason, we didn't do that at the other house. Not sure why.

We've kept our season tickets to the high school football games, even though we no longer know any of the kids on the field. It's a fun thing to do on a Friday night and we enjoy it. The people who have the seats on our left and right go to our church, so that's fun. There are two football fields for our school district and last night's game was at the field that is just across the greenbelt next to our neighborhood. We WALKED to the game! It was such a nice night and we knew it would be easier than if we tried to drive there and get into all the traffic, especially the traffic leaving after the game.

I know it's probably going to warm up some and also be humid again, but we're enjoying it while it lasts.
~Nancy~

Bouncer Extraordinaire

Bouncing Baby... (you might need to turn up your volume some)

Tom

Legos At A Higher Level

One of the fun things I participated in this summer was the 2nd Annual Cousin Camp. It is a summertime get-together of my sister's grandkids for them to be together and have fun and maybe learn a little something along the way. I was invited to tag along and take pictures.

We did so much in the four days the kids were together! One of the neat things we did was go to the Sue and Frank Mayborn Cultural History Museum Complex on the Baylor University campus in Waco. The entire museum is great and well worth a visit. It is also very "hands on" for kids.



We were lucky enough to visit the museum while there was a "traveling" Lego exhibit in residence! If you or your kids enjoy working with Legos... well, I'll just say you really, really, REALLY would have been WOWed!

Besides the intricate displays like the knight and dragon below, there were several areas set up for the kids of all levels to build their own masterpieces.

Lifesized knight built entirely of Legos. I was surprised it wasn't behind plexiglass or had a fence around it or something!


The dragon above is made of Legos as is the critter in the treasure chest.

We could have stayed in this one section for hours!

It was a fun start to exploring a fun museum!

Nancy

YUM!

Kroger had Honey Crisp apples today! They are the first ones I've seen in the stores this new crop season. If you've never had one, try one this year.

Nancy

Playing with Jed and Meeting Peter

We were able to spend some time with Tom's niece and her family. We enjoyed meeting Peter and playing with Jed in the backyard.

Table Talk

We invited Mark, Hattie and Charlotte over for a venison "back to school dinner". Charlotte really got into the dinner conversation!

Talking and Rolling

Charlotte has begun to say lots of things, we just don't know what they are yet! Oh, and she's become expert at doing the rollover thing, too - at least, in one direction (back to tummy)... She loves turning over, but doesn't LIKE being on her tummy. Guess she'll have to work on tummy to back now!

Nancy

Family Room

In this house, there isn't a built in cabinet for the TV. It was explained to us by the builder that choices of tv size and additional equipment are so plentiful now, a built in cabinet was an "option". Since the house was already built and finished before we found it, the builder "opted" not to build a cabinet and just left the area finished out like the rest of the walls in the room.

Below is a picture of the living room taken by the builder and included on the flyer for the house. It shows the recessed area for any TV equipment.

Armed with measurements and Tom's trusty tape measure, we shopped every furniture store we could think of and found a piece of furniture that would fit in the space and hold all our stuff. When the TV cabinet came, Tom worked ALL AFTERNOON getting everything put back together. Soooo many wires! But he did get all situated and checked out and working by supper time.

Here is a picture of all the wires pulled through the back. Most of the wires had to be lengthened and Tom also took a little extra time to tag all the wires as to what piece of equipment they belong to. Hopefully, that will make any rewiring/redirecting in the future a whole lot easier!

At last! Everything in its place! I'll probably add some greenery on either side of the top speaker to make it not so obvious. ~Nancy