The Toy Closet

We have a toy closet. It takes up two-thirds of the closet in the front bedroom. Many of the toys are ones I kept that belonged to our sons when they were growing up. Other toys we've added along the way for our older grandchildren. I think there is plenty to keep all ages busy.

This morning I introduced our youngest grandbaby to The Toy Closet. She is ALMOST walking but manages to get anywhere she wants to go by crawling very skillfully and confidently. Until this morning we've always kept all the doors to the bedrooms and bathrooms closed when she was visiting so she could crawl all over and stay out of harm's way. This morning I left the door to the front bedroom open and let her follow me down the hall and into the room with The Toy Closet. It was fun watching her explore. Before she comes again, I need to rearrange the closet some and move all the toys that are appropriate for her down on her level so she can help herself.

See the brown bear by her right foot. My Aunt Sarah gave that to us several years ago. When you squeeze his paws, feet, and ears, he quotes a Bible verse. Of course, Little Bit didn't know what the bear was saying, but she thought it was funny to have it "talking" to her!
~Nancy~

Friendship

My dad had a great group of friends when he attended Abilene Christian College and they have always continued to keep in touch through the years. They have rejoiced with each other during happy times and also grieved during sad times. This past February 18th, the ones who could make the trip traveled to Fort Worth for a day of visiting.

Lunch at El Fenix is always a good choice!

Looking through yearbooks and old letters.

It had been two years since they were all together and had a great afternoon catching up with each other.

After dessert, Dad got out his fiddle and played a few tunes.

Then Marcene and I joined him for a few verses of "Beautiful Texas".

Chauffeurs for the day! (the daughters)

It was a fun day and ended with everyone hoping to be back next year...

All Aboard!

As mentioned in the preceding post, Mom came up for a visit and spent a week with us. During that time she got to see the newest great grandbaby Teagan, and to see in person how much great grandbaby Charlotte has grown since Christmas. On Friday, 2/25, I drove Mom home to New Braunfels (in her car). In exploring my options for a solo return to Dallas, I checked out the Amtrak train service. There was one train headed back to Dallas (on its way to Chicago!) the following day, Saturday. My sister Louise had previously ridden the Amtrak from Fort Worth to New Braunfels (actually, the nearest "stop" was in San Marcos, very close by) after seeing her daughter Heather through the first week or so of motherhood with Teagan, so that she could visit with our mom.

Given I had plenty of time on Saturday, I opted to make my trip home on the Amtrak's "Texas Eagle". The price was definitely right at $29, which was but pittance compared to bus or airline fare. The drawback, of course, was the time it takes compared to driving one's self or flying. The tracks aren't good enough in most places to allow for faster speeds, so the journey is not the quickest. But, the amenities are nice with very large seats with multiple position settings and feet rests, etc. Each pair of seats had access to power plugs, so many on the train plugged in laptops or other electronic devices to watch movies or whatnot. I overheard one person ask if WiFi access to the internet was available, and the answer was "not yet." So, perhaps that will be an available feature in the near future. Personally, I plugged in my iPhone and watched our progress across the state of Texas using Google Maps and GPS, all the while listening to music from my digital library. The stops made on my segment included: San Marcos, Austin, Taylor, Temple, McGregor, Cleburne, Fort Worth, and finally Dallas.


Here are my brother-in-law, and my brother and sister-in-law seeing me off at the San Marcos station. The train arrived 7 minutes late, at 8:37.

Here is a shot out the window as we crossed Austin's Town Lake. The crossing is just west of where I35 crosses the lake. The Austin train station was just across the lake.

During the stop in Temple, I decided to grab me something to eat from the dining car. Choices for lunch included various sandwich flavors, burgers, pizza, and other items which were "microwave friendly." I don't know if the dinner menu offered actual "prepared" food or not, but for lunch, it was all pre-made. The cheeseburger I opted for was not bad, though not as good as a freshly prepared hamburger...

The train depot in Cleburne...

The Fort Worth skyline...

Travel between Fort Worth and Dallas paralleled I30 to the south. Here is a shot of the Dallas Cowboy's Stadium, between I30 and the train tracks...

As we were about to cross the Trinity River in Dallas, I got a good view of the giant "Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge" being constructed. This giant arch will have all the support suspension cables strung out each direction to support the road bed. (your government tax - and a lot of private - dollars at work...)

After crossing the Trinity, we turned to the south and came across the railroad bridge overlooking Dealy Plaza to the east. The curved road in the left of the picture is where Kennedy's car was located when he was shot...

The Amtrak train pulled into Union Station shortly after passing Dealy Plaza. I hopped off the Amtrak train, then crossed two sets of tracks and waited about 10 minutes for a Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail train to come along. This DART train then carried me to southern Plano to the stop at Hwy 75 and Bush Turnpike - some 6 or so miles from home. Nancy was waiting for me at that station and we toodled on home from there!

The ride was relaxing, and I spent most all my time looking at the countryside out the window and following along with where we were on my phone's GPS. The Amtrak train leg of the trip took about 6 3/4 hours, but the time passed pretty quickly - and I got to enjoy an experience I had never had in my long years on this earth!

Cheers,

Tom

Visiting

We enjoyed having Tom's mom in town last week. We were busy everyday in order to get all our visits in! Tom's sister had driven their mom up on a Friday then flew on home to Colorado the next day. She had been in Texas to celebrate the birth of her granddaughter by helping out the new mom for a few weeks. And, this was the main reason Tom's mom came to visit - meeting her newest Great-granddaughter!

Isn't she a doll? Just look at all that dark hair! Her name is Teagan. I'd never heard of that name before but within the first week of her birth I heard it twice! Where have I been?

We drove over to their house after Sunday lunch and spent the afternoon. Such a good visit! She was very co-operative and dozed off and on and let her great-grandmother cuddle with her for a very long time.

Of course, I had to take my turn... and count all her toes and fingers and tell her what a special little girl she is.
Thanks for having us! We enjoyed meeting your little girl (and visiting with you,too!!)!

Monday evening our son Mark, daughter-in-law Hattie, and their daughter Charlotte came for a venison supper and a few hours of visiting. We'd had Sunday lunch with them before heading over to meet Teagan, but it was at a restaurant and way too quick.

Tuesday we met Tom's cousin, Nancy, for lunch in historic downtown McKinney. Visiting with Nancy is always fun and after lunch we looked over her booths at an antique mall off the square. She and her husband are also in the process of renovating a house in the McKinney historical district that was built in the early 1900's. We drove by for a look see, but only from the car. We didn't get out since the workmen were working on leveling the foundation and we wouldn't have been able to enter the house. Can't wait to see how it turns out. Unfortunately, we didn't think to take any pictures while with Nancy.

Wednesday is Kindermusik day with our granddaughter. Charlotte enjoyed having her great-grandmother come and observe her class!On Thursday, Tom's cousin Dorothy came for an afternoon of visiting and catching up on all the family members. It's always a pleasure to spend time with Dorothy and hear all about her kids and grandkids.

Friday, Tom drove his mom home but detoured in the Georgetown area to have a leisurely lunch with cousin Glenn and his wife Elaine. Glenn always likes to tell us he is Tom's oldest living cousin!

We were so pleased Tom's mom felt like making the trip! What a blessing!
~Nancy~

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