Air Conditioning Isn't For Everyone...

This weekend Claude did what we usually do when we are leaving the house for a few days...he turned the temperature to a higher degree so the air conditioner would not kick on as much with no one in the house.

We got home about midnight Saturday night and Claude immediately dropped the temperature on the air conditioner to our normal temperature while I check phone messages. He did note that the temperature was way up in the 80 degree range. This was a lot hotter than what he left the air conditioner set for.

Ususally we begin to feel the change in temperature quickly. We did not feel that happening. We headed on to bed and thru the night it didn't cool off like it should have. By Sunday morning we knew we had a problem.

We headed off to Church and didn't get home until about 3pm in the afternoon. It was sweltering. Claude tried breaker switches and looking at the air conditioning unit outside. Nothing seemed amiss from what we know to check.

Sunday evening we were still at 85 degrees in the living room at 11pm. We had all the windows open and all 4 ceiling fans upstairs going to try and circulate the air.

Amazingly, we slept fairly well. During the night the temperature dropped to a more comfortable range.

We got up this morning and Claude called the air conditioning repair people. They assured us they would come out this afternoon.

Well, our cheerful repair guy showed up about 5:30pm. He and Claude discussed what had happened and what Claude had checked. Then they headed outside to look at the unit on the side of the house.

A bit later Claude came in with a bemuse and amused look on his face. He came into my sewing room and said, "You are NOT going to believe this." Now, knowing we have a repairman and a broken air conditioner, I begin to see HUGE dollar signs.

Then Claude informed me something had made a nest INSIDE the air conditioning unit outside. Whatever it was took the mulch from the beds along the side of the house and fixed up a nest that wrapped itself around all the wires and things. Claude said I really needed to see this. He also informed me the repairman had gone to his truck for his camera. I grabbed my camera and headed outside with Claude.

I couldn't believe my eyes.  This is what I saw.

There is a little hole at the bottom left corner with a red wire running into it. This hole opens into the big unit sitting on the concrete slab. There are some holes in the bottom of the big part of the unit so that rain water can run on outside the unit. We believe our little critter came in one of the holes in the bottom of the big unit when it was cold, worked its way up the top and found the hole into a warm spot with all these wires. Then it made repeated trips to gather the mulch from the beds along the side of the house to make a nest. The little guy didn't know he was doing this around 240 volts of electricity.

First our repairman removed the nest.

Then he found 'The Critter'.

Yes, that's right folks, we had a mouse in the control box of the airconditioning unit. Somewhere along the line he (or she) stepped wrong and zhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhttt...fried mouse!!!

Our air conditioning repairman just stood in the blistering heat after working all day in that heat fixing air conditioning units and said to Claude, "Well sir, you have just made my day!! I've never seen anything like this in my 12 years of working on A/C's."  He shared several stories of larger critters and bugs in various places. He had NEVER seen any of these make a nest in the control box before.  I'm sure in the A/C world this will be a great story to share and have braggin' rights to.

The capacitor was broken, a little work and $331.69 dollars later, we can now have air conditioning. This is an expensive little mouse!!

So..."What do air conditioners & mice have in common?"  Apparently...not much!!

Bugs, Birds & Burgers...

This weekend Claude and I were going to watch Hayden and Bailey a little for Andie and Michael. We left Friday morning and did a session at the Louisville Kentucky Temple, had a quick lunch and then headed to LaGrange, which is only about 8 miles from the temple.

Hayden was in school. Andie and Bailey were out with the Mom's Club at the Speed Art Museum. This gave Claude I time to get into our grubbies so we were ready to play.

It wasn't long before Andie and Bailey got home from their outing. Bailey was very happy to have Ma and Pa in her home when she got there. She had her lunch and then I headed up to get her ready for quiet time. Andie had a meeting at Hayden's school.

I got Bailey down just in time to head to the bus stop to pick up Hayden. He is in Kindergarten this year. This was great fun for Gramma to watch the little guy get off that big old bus.

Hayden was also really happy to have Ma there to pick him up. He is a wonderful little creature and is always FULL of words when you see him. There is so much new knowledge he needs to share and other knowledge he needs to be sure you remember. We had a very chatty walk to the Marx home.

He knew his routine and went right to it when he got home. I reviewed his back pack while he had his snack. We watched one short show and then he headed up to his room for a bit of quiet time.

This gave me a few minutes to use Andie and Michael's computer to check eMails. Claude got a quick nap.

Then the mini-Marx's woke up, Andie got home and the house was a bustle of activity.

Hayden proceeded to vacuum the family room.

And Bailey and I went outside to play while Andie fixed dinner. Claude tried to catch up on all those news magazines he gets that he was behind on reading.

Eventually Hayden found his way to the back door and Bailey sensed his presence and we made our way back into the house.

Andie prepared a great meal with a pulled pork BBQ that had corn in it. My, it was tasty. She will share that recipe I'm sure. It came out of the cookbook she has that tells you how to take one piece of meat, cook it up and then get 3 meals out of it. Excellent meal.

Somewhere in the evening, eagle-eye Hayden looked quickly out the back door and saw a caterpillar tucked in the handrail by the steps into the back yard. How that child can find such tiny things I'll never know but he consistently does that.

All I can say here is that this little caterpillar would 'fulfill the measure of his creation' over Friday and Saturday. The joy and wonder brought into Hayden and Bailey's lives by this little guy was a delight to watch.

During this last year Andie purchased a kit to raise butterflies and the kids went through the process with them and then let them go outside when they turned into butterflies. Hayden has a caterpillar that is named 'Fluffy' in his kindergarten class they are watching. So finding this little lovely on the back rail was just great fun. He was officially named 'Mr. Green Caterpillar Marx' by the end of Friday.

Hayden and Bailey found their bug catching stuff and made a home for their new pet.

Then our little friend stayed in the house for an evening of observation and joy.

Poor Bo was left to believe he had slipped down another rung in the family hierarchy.

I love this picture of Hayden really pondering Mr. Green Caterpillar Marx.

Hayden would check the little guy out every direction he could.

Hayden demonstrated how the caterpillar makes a 'J-hook' when it is turning into a chrysalis.

And when it was time for bed, Bailey pointed and Hayden read a poem from his kindergarten work to their caterpillar buddy.

The caterpillar would be placed on the back steps in the bug catcher for the night.

Saturday morning Mr. Green Caterpillar Marx was brought right back into the house. Hayden gathered new greenery and some sticks for the bug catcher. Then he carefully arranged everything in the bug catcher for maximum fun for his little green pet.

During the morning Hayden was getting ready for a haircut appointment. But there was still time to exercise this little green pet before giving him some quiet time.

Then Hayden gave one last straigthening of his new pet's living quarters. Andie helped Hayden and Bailey prepare some sugar water for him. A milk jug lid was placed in the bottom of the bud catcher and a medicine dropper was used to fill it with the sugar water Hayden & Bailey made with Andie's help. Then it was quiet time for this little green friend.

After Hayden and Michael got back from hair cuts we headed to Waffle House for a late breakfast. Well it probably wasn't late by the hour technically but we had been up for a bit. Bailey had been asking Michael all week to take her to Waffle House. This little lady was ready for her waffle. She wolfed it down in short order. Hayden did the same. We played Johnny Cash on the juke box and let him "Walk The Line" one more time.

Then Michael headed to the Marx home to cut the grass and after that to referree soccer and the rest of us headed to a park with a lake and ducks and geese in it. We had hamburger buns left over from the MusicFest food and we were going to feed the birds.

This is a pretty little lake and we walked around part of it. There is a series of bridges making it very picturesque.

Then it was time to get home for quiet time for the Mini's. Andie gave Michael tickets to dinner and music at a winery for his birthday. They were going to head out for that in the evening and Claude and I were staying to watch Hayden and Bailey while they had a 'hot date'.

We got Hayden and Bailey and Claude down for naps. Then Andie headed up for her nap. Michael was out referring soccer games. I got a bit of time to catch up on eMails.

We determined we would take Hayden and Bailey to McDonald's for dinner and to play on the playland equipment. It doesn't really take a lot of arm twisting to get little kids to go to McDonald's.

No visit with Pa (Claude) would be complete with these two little ones without Claude telling them "You're a pest!" and them returning "I'm not a pest...you're a pest!"

We left the Marx home at 5pm and returned home around 6:30pm.  The little ones were worn out and tummies were full. We had a quick show to slow down, then bedtime routines, then quiet for Claude and Sandi.

Andie and Michael returned about 10:30pm. We chatted a bit and learned what a fun evening they had together. Then Claude and I hit the road back to Sadieville. We got home about midnight.

And that is Bugs, Birds & Burgers in one weekend.

The Bible & The Temple...

I only had two more chapters to read in my Old Testament. The last two chapters in Malachi. Since were we going to be at Casa Marx for the next two days, I figured I would finish it when I returned home.

However, Friday morning Claude and I went to the first session at the Louisville, Kentucky Temple. We dress in white while in the temple and then back into Sunday clothes when we leave. I finished changing into my Sunday clothes faster than Claude this time so I sat in the foyer to wait for him.

Laying on the end table was the Bible. I picked it up and thought, "Maybe I'll finish those two chapters before Claude comes out." I opened to Malachi chapter 3 and began to read.

Malachi 3:1  "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts."

It caught me thinking I was in the temple and it is a place the Lord will come! It just felt so powerful.

I continued to read and got to Malachi 4:5-6  "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

"And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

What a set of verses to end my reading while sitting in the temple! 

We believe the temple is a place to make covenants with our Heavenly Father that need to be made with a physical body and as part of the earth experience. Because of this belief and the understanding that Heavenly Father is a just and merciful God to all of his children, he wants everyone of them to have the opportunity, if they so choose, to have the ordinance performed for them. We do this as proxy for our deceased kindred giving them the opportunity to accept or reject that work. We believe this is turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. I had gone through the temple as proxy for one of my own relatives that very day.

I'm grateful for having the Louisville Kentucky Temple so close. I'm grateful for those wonderful moments when we have a confirming witness of the truthfulness of the things we are doing. For me, reading Malachi's words about temples at the beginning and the end of those two short chapters was just a most uplifting start to my weekend and a confirming witness of temple service.

A Fairly Successful Day...

Today I had several things on my "really want to get accomplished today" list. I got all but one of them done. I'll tackle it first thing in the morning.

I now have my final load of apple slices in the dehyrator.  And I had enough apples for one more bag of slices in the freezer for pies. I'm done with apples for 2010. I have a friend with pears that are ripe on her tree and I will get some of those next week and see what fun things I can do with them.

I got Papa's quilt washed and hung out on lawn chairs on the deck to dry. This quilt is a special one. For my parents 40th anniversary I sent squares of white fabric to my sisters and had them get pink and blue craft paint. They placed their daughters hands in pink paint and pressed it in the center of a white square for each of them. They placed their sons hands in blue paint and pressed it in the center of a white square for each of them. Then they pressed the square with an iron to set the paint. The squares for each grandchild were returned to me and I made a quilt out of the squares. We then sent that to Mimi and Papa for their 40th anniversary present. It has all their grandchildren's handprints except Mike's. He was not born then I believe. There is a blank white square for him though. After a very careful washing, I determined that air drying was better than heat drying for this one-of-a-kind blanket. Then I was able to return it to Papa this afternoon.

I labeled all the clothes we got for Mimi this week with her name. I got them to the nursing home, cleaned out her two drawers and her closet of old stuff and replaced it with the new things.

I visited the bank, Papa's computer, and then Community Based Services to try and keep Mimi's coverage for the nursing home for one more year. This should meet all their requirements for this year. I'll call tomorrow to be sure Mimi's case worker got the paperwork she needed that I left for her this afternoon.

I sang with Papa at the nursing home.

I posted pictures on Facebook.

I had a nice dinner out with my hubby. We decided to return to Appleby's. Haven't been there in some time. We both ordered dinners that were chicken based. We decided to try an appetizer we had never had before. It was Won Ton Tacos. We got the pork ones since we were having chicken already for our meals. These were just delicious. I would highly recommend them. They would make a nice dinner in and of themselves. Claude and I both agreed Katelyn would have loved this appetizer. Yep...we miss her!!

So it has been a full but good day. I'm going to disconnect this computer from it's power source here in my sewing room in the basement and wander upstairs with it. I'll work on my Blog history while Claude and I watch a couple of TV shows together. I decided to copy all my Blog entries since I started my Blog and save them as individual Word files. I've got them all copied. Now I have to finish editing them.

So it should be a nice ending to a day that has earned a bit of rest at the end.

And Now We Begin Anew...

Monday I began trying to figure out what 'normal' now is.

My visiting teacher, Jessica Wilde, came for a visit. She brings her two little girls. This was their 3rd visit. The girls came in and as soon as I said, "Do you want to go downstairs?" this time they agreed heartily. They enjoy playing with all the grandmonster toys and Jessie and I can sit at the card table and talk. She brought me a wonderful air freshener for my birthday last month. I truly enjoy her visits.

I spent the afternoon with my parents.

First I met Papa at the nursing home and visited with mom as he finished feeding her lunch.

Next, we went to Papa's apartment to leave his car. I also took the opportunity to open the picture files I sent him the night before and save the ones he wanted. This frees up his mailbox for me to send the ones of the nursing home.

We had lunch at Arby's before going to Kohl's. We purchased new clothes and shoes for Mimi. I showed Papa Bonnie's trick of walking with those rolling baskets they have. He was so happy to learn this trick as it helped his hips not to hurt so much. He enjoyed helping me pick out some things for Mimi. He had also never been in Kohl's and found it an interesting store. He is not a shopper by nature but he was really cute with what he thought Mimi would like and what he wanted her to look good in.

Then it was back to his apartment to go over a Social Security issue that came in his mail.

I also collected his bank statements for a visit to a lawyer next week about matters.

Then we picked out and practiced songs for Wednesday to sing at the nursing home.

We also worked through some issues he was having with his Direct TV service. He tried to delete some channels with them to save on costs and then got a bill with the channels still listed. After printing some stuff from the Internet about their various packages, checking what he actually could see and could not now see on his TV, and then calling and verifying what transactions Direct TV had listed for him, I think we have a bit of a handle on the problem.

That done, I was ready to head for home. It was a full Monday, I was still very tired and I'm not feeling really perky and healthy. I took my computer upstairs and Claude turned on the TV. We settled in for an evening of me doing some computer work for Friends of Sadieville and Claude watching TV. I hit the bed at 10pm. That is least 1 to 1 1/2 hours earlier than my usual bedtime. But rest was what my old body wanted so rest is what I determined to give it as best I could.

Tuesday, today, started with a Friends of Sadieville meeting. I'm the chair of this non-profit group. We had a good, very productive meeting. We are planning the 'Comin' Home' event to celebrate Sadieville's 130th birthday. This will be an all day event on October 9th.

I had two visiting teaching appointments set up. Claude went with me as he is also the home teacher. We visited the Brunty's first. Then we visited Linda Speakes next.

We headed home about 3pm. I was just exhausted. We got home and I crawled into my bed and under my covers and slept until 4:30pm.

Tonight I'm getting this blogging thing caught up a bit. It is my journal and I really don't want to forget these things. I enjoy having this bit of my history to review.

I do want to include a couple of pictures given to me by Hayden and Bailey in tonight's blog.

Bailey gave me this one on Saturday, August 14th when we were taking care of her. She drew it herself. Not sure what it is but I really love the colors she has chosen.

Hayden made this one and gave it to me Friday, August 20th. I heard him over a phone conversation Andie and I were having last week saying he wanted to give Ma and Pa a gift for their pillows. We ordered them smooshie pillows that are body length. Hayden loved his and wanted to say thank you. Andie responded that he could make something for us. This picture was his gift to say thank you. He drew turtles!!! Yeah. He did a very good job of it also.

I'm sitting here at the end of a full summer, trying to find my way back to whatever the current 'norm' is, and just feeling very, very grateful for my family. Life is a struggle for all of us in so many ways. It is good to know that, no matter what our differences of opinion may be, we still love each other as a family. We still put those differences aside to celebrate and enjoy special moments with each other. For this I feel eternally grateful.

Now I'm going to sleep....AGAIN!!!  Do you think I'm going to sleep through my 60's???

Katelyn's Final Week in Sadieville...Part 3

Now it was time for some serious family visiting. We only had Saturday and a tiny bit of Sunday morning to be together so we needed to fill that time full with chatting, eating and playing.

Nissa cleaned out Paul & Aubrey's rooms this summer. She collected all the books they have out grown and brought a big box of kids books to Kentucky to share. Hayden & Bailey would take home the ones they wanted in LaGrange and the rest will remain here and be swapped out during visits. These books were a lot of fun during our visit.

What a great place to start a tussle is the love seat in Uncle Jake's lap. This started with Hayden doing a head stand on Jake's lap and ended with Bailey and Hayden wrestling on the love seat.

As long as you are small enough, every visit will include at least one horse back ride. This one was really a sparring match. It involved the living room, the dining room and the kitchen. Each of these rooms has something you can run around (the love seat in the living room, the dining room table in the dining room and the island in the kitchen. Lots of laughter and a very tired Katelyn & Nissa when all was said and done.

Summertime is the perfect time for homemade ice cream. This time we tried the Old Fashioned Vanilla flavor. It was a hit. Bailey loved playing in the left over salty water and Jake reveled in a beater to eat. What is there about getting the beater that is soooo much fun?

We made it outside and found the most beautiful clouds in the sky with the sun set playing with light and shadow on them. It made me think I should start a 'cloud journal'.

In the evening David would return Aubrey and Paul to their mom. She has missed them so much this summer and it was great to have them back in the house again. It came with its own set of drama due to a concern about bed bugs.  There was lots of hot water laundry and showers, and dark plastic garbage bags sitting in a very hot garage full of stuff till it could be washed. My, the things Nissa has to go through. But we got everything washed and cleaned. Then we tried to settle down for a bit of sleep. Long rides were going to occur on Sunday and rest was a necessity.

Sunday morning Claude fixed a big breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon to send everyone off with a full tummy. Nissa had 8 hours and Andie and 1 1/2 hours on the roads at least. 

Aubrey Anne, Katelyn & Paul

Even amidst the final packing and checking for things that might be left behind, there was still a bit of time for play among the cousins.

Hayden & Aubrey

Then it was time for one final shot of the grandmonsters. We have Hayden, Paul, Aubrey, Bailey & Katelyn. Oh my how everyone is growing up!!

The Thompson van headed off to Michigan. Then we headed inside to finish gathering and loading for the Marx van.

Then a final run of the remote controlled caterpillar (he actually went home with Andie this time) in the driveway. Bailey kept calling the caterpillar 'my Best Buddy' and her doggie. Hayden delighted in keeping the remote control and having 'Buddy' move and roll away from Bailey and laugh when Bailey couldn't figure out what was going on. This silly toy purchased at a yard sale in Sadieville has brought a lot of joy.

Then the Marx van headed down the highway. Lots of emotion with this quick weekend. Great to be together again. We'll take all the moments like this we can get.

Claude and I went in and just plopped down on the sofa and love seat and mused about the summer.

Then I got up and got ready to go into Lexington to visit Lexington 1st Branch.

Sunday evening Claude and I both crashed. I did try to get the pictures downloaded and begin to eMail them to family. But we just did quiet things for the little bit of evening we had left.