http://www.aggienetwork.com/Exhibits/AggieVideo.aspx?QS=%252bzVVhZY82ydZxPiiX0oICQ5LtCQ7ASai4DlCfriFLgI%253d
I went to the Aggie Ring Office to get my ring resized and we discovered this little interactive display where the yell leaders teach the kids a yell, they practice it, and then it records them on a blue screen leading the yell. Then it makes it look like they are leading an Aggie crowd in a yell. So fun and cute! Then you can email a link to the video to yourself and it claimed you could share it on Facebook on the page, but that didn't work. Anyway, one of the benefits to living in College Station: we can go on campus anytime and discover new things that we didn't know existed.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Our AC Adventure
We finally have our AC back! Hooray! I forgot what a 76 degree house feels like. As I was whining about how frustrating this last week has been, God reminded me of how fortunate I am. On the front page of the paper was an article about people here in town who can't afford to have AC and how they cope in this heat wave without air conditioning. It made me feel bad for being so whiny and realize there are people out there who are worse off. That being said, now I'm going to whine and share my story.
As I said on my last post our air conditioning went out last Wednesday morning, we spent the day at my parents' house (me & Jordan at the ER) and the AC people came out around 3:30. Here is what they told us: "Your blower motor is broken and you have a rare, 1 horsepower motor. Most people have a 1/2 horsepower in residential homes. Normally we have these motors on our truck or at the shop. We don't keep those in stock since it's so rarely seen in homes. It has to be ordered." Lucky us! We have a rare part in our air conditioner that no one else has! Then they told us it would be 2 days to get it (probably on Friday). In the meantime they gave us a "temporary" solution. There is some switch on the motor that can change speed from low-med-high. It of course is on high, but they switched it to medium and got it to blow cool air. But on medium the air moves slower over the coils and doesn't blow as hard. We discovered that the air also only blew out of a few select vents. They said it was better than nothing and should keep us cool until Friday. But he said we had to keep an eye on it because it could stop working again and if it stopped blowing air and we didn't turn it off, then it would burn up the motor in the outside unit and we would have to replace the whole thing! So here's how our week went with this temporary solution:
Wednesday evening and night, the air did get down to 80 but never got lower than that and by morning it wasn't blowing air anymore and we had to turn it off. He had told us that we could turn it off, let it rest, then then turn it back on and it might work again. So on Thursday we had a dentist appt, gymnastics and several other errands to run. So we didn't have to be in the house much that day. When we got home, the temp was close to 90. I turned the air back on and it started blowing again on our "temporary" solution. This time the air didn't go below 83 at night. It was miserable and once again (this time in the middle of the night), it stopped blowing and we had to turn it off again.
I called Mom on Friday morning when I tried to turn the air back on again and we had a power surge and lost power for about a minute. I told her we were packing up to come over and to spend the night because I didn't want to take a chance turning it back on again. Our part was supposed to be in on Friday so I called when they didn't call me and got the run around from them the whole afternoon. First they said the part had been ordered and they couldn't find it. Then they had to trace down it's location. Once they found it, then told us they wouldn't be able to get out that day to put it in. They could come out Saturday morning or first thing Monday morning. "Monday morning!", I whined like a little baby. "NO, you need to come out here Saturday morn." So she said they would be out at 8:00 AM.
So Scot went to go meet them at 8 am on Sat. morn, but they didn't show up until 9:00. Then the guy working on it tells Scot, "This motor is not working for some reason." So he took the old motor and the new motor back to their shop to see what was wrong and try to fix it. In the meantime, Scot sat up in our house with no air and the temp inside had gotten up to 92 degrees. They finally figured out that our motor was apparently dropped by someone at the factory or en route to the AC people so that's why it wouldn't work (Lucky us!). So he put either the old motor or the messed up new one back in and said he rigged it to work "temporarily". Basically it was the same "temporary" solution as before. It would only cool the house to about 83 and run for about 12-14 hours before it stopped running and had to be cut off. But he made it sound like it would cool down to normal temperatures this time.
So we packed up our stuff and went home. We swam in the backyard all afternoon waiting for it to cool down and then ate dinner and after dinner when it still wasn't below 83, we figured it was doing the same thing as before. So we went ahead and slept at home, went to church the next morning, and then I said, "This is for the birds." and we packed up again and went back to Mom and Dad's again planning this time to just stay over there until the new motor came in (which was going to be Tuesday).
So Sunday through Tuesday we stayed at my parents' house and spent some quality time together and the AC finally got fixed on Tuesday (yesterday) and is now back down to normal temps. I tried to decide what lessons I should learn from this. I definitely appreciate my AC more. I decided I am a whiny baby and was setting a bad example for my children. I should give thanks in all circumstances. I should appreciate and help out my parents more. They were very gracious and loving and let us take over their house as if it were our own. I helped out around the house while we were there and thought, "I should do this more often." I also should find a way to reach out more to others and see how I can help people who don't have these common amenities that so many of us enjoy and take for granted. Well, if you haven't stopped reading before now out of boredom, thanks for reading! Hope your AC doesn't break this summer.
As I said on my last post our air conditioning went out last Wednesday morning, we spent the day at my parents' house (me & Jordan at the ER) and the AC people came out around 3:30. Here is what they told us: "Your blower motor is broken and you have a rare, 1 horsepower motor. Most people have a 1/2 horsepower in residential homes. Normally we have these motors on our truck or at the shop. We don't keep those in stock since it's so rarely seen in homes. It has to be ordered." Lucky us! We have a rare part in our air conditioner that no one else has! Then they told us it would be 2 days to get it (probably on Friday). In the meantime they gave us a "temporary" solution. There is some switch on the motor that can change speed from low-med-high. It of course is on high, but they switched it to medium and got it to blow cool air. But on medium the air moves slower over the coils and doesn't blow as hard. We discovered that the air also only blew out of a few select vents. They said it was better than nothing and should keep us cool until Friday. But he said we had to keep an eye on it because it could stop working again and if it stopped blowing air and we didn't turn it off, then it would burn up the motor in the outside unit and we would have to replace the whole thing! So here's how our week went with this temporary solution:
Wednesday evening and night, the air did get down to 80 but never got lower than that and by morning it wasn't blowing air anymore and we had to turn it off. He had told us that we could turn it off, let it rest, then then turn it back on and it might work again. So on Thursday we had a dentist appt, gymnastics and several other errands to run. So we didn't have to be in the house much that day. When we got home, the temp was close to 90. I turned the air back on and it started blowing again on our "temporary" solution. This time the air didn't go below 83 at night. It was miserable and once again (this time in the middle of the night), it stopped blowing and we had to turn it off again.
I called Mom on Friday morning when I tried to turn the air back on again and we had a power surge and lost power for about a minute. I told her we were packing up to come over and to spend the night because I didn't want to take a chance turning it back on again. Our part was supposed to be in on Friday so I called when they didn't call me and got the run around from them the whole afternoon. First they said the part had been ordered and they couldn't find it. Then they had to trace down it's location. Once they found it, then told us they wouldn't be able to get out that day to put it in. They could come out Saturday morning or first thing Monday morning. "Monday morning!", I whined like a little baby. "NO, you need to come out here Saturday morn." So she said they would be out at 8:00 AM.
So Scot went to go meet them at 8 am on Sat. morn, but they didn't show up until 9:00. Then the guy working on it tells Scot, "This motor is not working for some reason." So he took the old motor and the new motor back to their shop to see what was wrong and try to fix it. In the meantime, Scot sat up in our house with no air and the temp inside had gotten up to 92 degrees. They finally figured out that our motor was apparently dropped by someone at the factory or en route to the AC people so that's why it wouldn't work (Lucky us!). So he put either the old motor or the messed up new one back in and said he rigged it to work "temporarily". Basically it was the same "temporary" solution as before. It would only cool the house to about 83 and run for about 12-14 hours before it stopped running and had to be cut off. But he made it sound like it would cool down to normal temperatures this time.
So we packed up our stuff and went home. We swam in the backyard all afternoon waiting for it to cool down and then ate dinner and after dinner when it still wasn't below 83, we figured it was doing the same thing as before. So we went ahead and slept at home, went to church the next morning, and then I said, "This is for the birds." and we packed up again and went back to Mom and Dad's again planning this time to just stay over there until the new motor came in (which was going to be Tuesday).
So Sunday through Tuesday we stayed at my parents' house and spent some quality time together and the AC finally got fixed on Tuesday (yesterday) and is now back down to normal temps. I tried to decide what lessons I should learn from this. I definitely appreciate my AC more. I decided I am a whiny baby and was setting a bad example for my children. I should give thanks in all circumstances. I should appreciate and help out my parents more. They were very gracious and loving and let us take over their house as if it were our own. I helped out around the house while we were there and thought, "I should do this more often." I also should find a way to reach out more to others and see how I can help people who don't have these common amenities that so many of us enjoy and take for granted. Well, if you haven't stopped reading before now out of boredom, thanks for reading! Hope your AC doesn't break this summer.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
An Unexpected Day
Wow! I really haven't blogged in a long time! A year and a half - that's pathetic. The only reason I even remembered about my blog was my sister-in-law asked me if I write on my blog anymore. I really need to make it my goal to blog about something at least once a month. I'll see if I can stick to it.
Well, today was supposed to be a relaxing day. The plan was to get up and go pick up Jordan from his strength and conditioning camp (it's from 8-9 am) and then come back home and spend relaxing time with the kids at home and work on writing curriculum. It was anything but that.
I did go pick up Jordan from SAC camp, but when we got back home the AC was not working. It was making funny sounds earlier this morning and now it was completely broken. So I called the AC people and they couldn't make it out until between 3-5 pm. Luckily Mom and Dad live 2 minutes away so we packed up some stuff and I took the kids to my parents for us to hang out for the day.
One of Jordan's friends called and wanted him to come to the park to play for a couple of hours so I dropped him off on my way to Mom's house and told him I would be back at noon to get him. This was at about 10:15. So I went back to get him and he was sitting on the basketball court with several people standing over him like he had gotten hurt. I started to get out of the car to go over and he saw my car and got up and started coming to the car. He was walking fairly normally so I couldn't tell he was hurt, he was just walking slowly. His friend walked over with him and a mom who was at the park. He was crying and said he had hit his head on the concrete and wanted to go home and sleep. I asked his friend what had happened and he said that he had fallen and hit his head on the concrete basketball court, but that he didn't go unconscious. The mom told me his eyes were dilating normally.
After we got in the car, though, I got extremely worried because he was disoriented and confused and couldn't remember anything that had happened. When I tried to ask him questions, he couldn't remember anything that had happened today. So it was not just the events at the park, but he couldn't remember going to SAC camp this morning or the AC being broken or what he had played at the park. He was also nauseated and dizzy and had a huge knot on his head. I had driven back to Mom's house before I had discovered all of this, got him some water and then decided to take him to the ER. He was diagnosed with a severe concussion and all signs of anything more serious were not evident. He never threw up and while we were at the hospital his memory came back in bits and pieces. He became more coherent and was not dizzy, and returned to his old self. They checked many things to make sure he was okay. Before we left the hospital almost all of his memory had returned except for the actual fall and about 5 minutes after it happened. It was super scary! Reminded me of a time with his Papa when we were dating.
So we were at the ER from 12:30 until about 2:30 or so and we hadn't had lunch. So we went back to Mom's house and had some lunch. I got him some medicine and an icepack, then went back to our house to meet the AC guys at 3:30 and was there until 4:45. Went back to Mom's to get the kids, came back home and then we went out to eat for dinner when Scot & Jacob got home because the house was still really warm and we didn't want to heat up the kitchen and make it hotter.
Finally back home now and think we will crash early tonight since I will probably be waking Jordan up periodically during the night to check on him. What a crazy day! Don't want one of these again. But I am thankful that Jordan is going to be okay and we have Mom and Dad to go to when our air breaks (which seems to be every summer). Tomorrow will be just as hectic, but a scheduled hectic not an unexpected, scary hectic.
Well, today was supposed to be a relaxing day. The plan was to get up and go pick up Jordan from his strength and conditioning camp (it's from 8-9 am) and then come back home and spend relaxing time with the kids at home and work on writing curriculum. It was anything but that.
I did go pick up Jordan from SAC camp, but when we got back home the AC was not working. It was making funny sounds earlier this morning and now it was completely broken. So I called the AC people and they couldn't make it out until between 3-5 pm. Luckily Mom and Dad live 2 minutes away so we packed up some stuff and I took the kids to my parents for us to hang out for the day.
One of Jordan's friends called and wanted him to come to the park to play for a couple of hours so I dropped him off on my way to Mom's house and told him I would be back at noon to get him. This was at about 10:15. So I went back to get him and he was sitting on the basketball court with several people standing over him like he had gotten hurt. I started to get out of the car to go over and he saw my car and got up and started coming to the car. He was walking fairly normally so I couldn't tell he was hurt, he was just walking slowly. His friend walked over with him and a mom who was at the park. He was crying and said he had hit his head on the concrete and wanted to go home and sleep. I asked his friend what had happened and he said that he had fallen and hit his head on the concrete basketball court, but that he didn't go unconscious. The mom told me his eyes were dilating normally.
After we got in the car, though, I got extremely worried because he was disoriented and confused and couldn't remember anything that had happened. When I tried to ask him questions, he couldn't remember anything that had happened today. So it was not just the events at the park, but he couldn't remember going to SAC camp this morning or the AC being broken or what he had played at the park. He was also nauseated and dizzy and had a huge knot on his head. I had driven back to Mom's house before I had discovered all of this, got him some water and then decided to take him to the ER. He was diagnosed with a severe concussion and all signs of anything more serious were not evident. He never threw up and while we were at the hospital his memory came back in bits and pieces. He became more coherent and was not dizzy, and returned to his old self. They checked many things to make sure he was okay. Before we left the hospital almost all of his memory had returned except for the actual fall and about 5 minutes after it happened. It was super scary! Reminded me of a time with his Papa when we were dating.
So we were at the ER from 12:30 until about 2:30 or so and we hadn't had lunch. So we went back to Mom's house and had some lunch. I got him some medicine and an icepack, then went back to our house to meet the AC guys at 3:30 and was there until 4:45. Went back to Mom's to get the kids, came back home and then we went out to eat for dinner when Scot & Jacob got home because the house was still really warm and we didn't want to heat up the kitchen and make it hotter.
Finally back home now and think we will crash early tonight since I will probably be waking Jordan up periodically during the night to check on him. What a crazy day! Don't want one of these again. But I am thankful that Jordan is going to be okay and we have Mom and Dad to go to when our air breaks (which seems to be every summer). Tomorrow will be just as hectic, but a scheduled hectic not an unexpected, scary hectic.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Duck Season...Rabbit Season
Well, let's see - where to start. My 10 year old, Jordan, is in 5th grade and he rides the bus after school from his school to my school. Last Tuesday after he got to my school, he told me that he needed to go to the computer lab to work on his Colonial Research Project (1st I had heard about it). He tells me that he has to research a topic from the Colonial times, write about it and do a presentation. Since he is in GT, he also has to make his topic, and that it is due on Friday. He had been working on it in class a little bit. Some of the topic categories were games, crafts & hobbies, food, & clothing. So Jordan had picked a food because he figured it would be easy for us to make it and chose Beefsteak Pie. He said that he thought it sounded like something easy and so his teacher found a recipe for Beefsteak Pie, printed or copied it and gave it to him. He handed it to me on Tuesday and told me that we had to make it by Friday. Before I go any further, I thought I would share this recipe that he placed in my unsuspecting hands (the red parts are the ones that cracked me up the most) so you could see what he thought I was going to do:
Colonial Beefsteak Pie Recipe
His teacher emailed me back and the beginning of her response was, "Oh, My!" Apparently, her student teacher had organized this project so she had the student teacher email me back. And the student teacher told me that she had encouraged the students, especially the GT students, to take home their top 5 choices of topics for approval by their parents so that we would be aware of any necessary food items or construction that would be required for this project. Ahh, so now the real story comes out. Of course, Jordan did not do this. He just says, "Here's my topic and here's what we have to make." He also tells me (after I emailed the teacher) that the teacher said if we couldn't get some of the ingredients, then we could leave things out or substitute ingredients. Oh, good to know, Jordan. Luckily the teacher allowed him to switch topics and so we made shrub instead. It is a drink consisting of cranberry juice, sherbet, and a slice of lime. Much better! So, duck season...rabbit season...fire!...didn't have to happen. :)
Colonial Beefsteak Pie Recipe
- 16 servings
- Prep: 30 min. Cook: 2 hours
- 1/2 pound sliced bacon, diced
- 2-1/2 pounds beef stew meat, cubed
- 2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) beef broth
- 1/2 cup red currant jelly
- 2 dressed rabbit (about 3 pounds each), cut up
- 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) chicken broth
- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 pound pearl onions
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 2 medium potatoes, diced
- 1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
- 1 dressed duck (4-1/2 pounds), cut up
- 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cold water
- 1 package (17.3 ounces) frozen puff pastry, thawed
- In a kettle, cook bacon until crisp; drain, reserving bacon and 1/4 cup drippings in pan. Brown beef in drippings. Add beef broth and jelly; cover and simmer 45 minutes. Cover rabbits with water in a pot; simmer for 1 hour or until meat falls from bones.
- Remove meat; set aside (discard bones). To beef mixture, add chicken broth, bay leaf, salt, pepper and cayenne; simmer 20 minutes. Add onions, carrots, potatoes and mushrooms; simmer 20 minutes or until tender. Remove bay leaf.
- In another pot, cover duck with water; simmer until the meat nearly falls from bones. Remove meat; set aside. Mix flour and water; stir into beef mixture. Cook until thickened. Add rabbit and duck meat. Cut puff pastry into 3-in. squares and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes; place on individual servings of meat mixture. Yield: 16 servings.
His teacher emailed me back and the beginning of her response was, "Oh, My!" Apparently, her student teacher had organized this project so she had the student teacher email me back. And the student teacher told me that she had encouraged the students, especially the GT students, to take home their top 5 choices of topics for approval by their parents so that we would be aware of any necessary food items or construction that would be required for this project. Ahh, so now the real story comes out. Of course, Jordan did not do this. He just says, "Here's my topic and here's what we have to make." He also tells me (after I emailed the teacher) that the teacher said if we couldn't get some of the ingredients, then we could leave things out or substitute ingredients. Oh, good to know, Jordan. Luckily the teacher allowed him to switch topics and so we made shrub instead. It is a drink consisting of cranberry juice, sherbet, and a slice of lime. Much better! So, duck season...rabbit season...fire!...didn't have to happen. :)
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Thursday, December 17, 2009
My sweet girl!
Wow! It's been a long time since I've blogged. Probably nobody even goes to my blog to read it anymore since I take so long between posts. Oh, well. It's mainly for me to remember and share memories.
Jordan had told us a few years ago that he wanted to live with us forever. He never wanted to get married and stay with us. We just chuckled and told him that of course he could live with us for as long as he wanted.
Tonight as I was driving home with Rachel and Joshua in the car, Rachel and I had a similar conversation that went something like this:
Rachel: "Mommy, when I get older I'm going to leave our house."
Me: "Yes, someday when you're older."
Rachel: "You & Papa are going to miss me when I leave."
Me: "Yes, Rachel, we will miss you a lot."
Rachel(starting to get teary-eyed): "I'll be sad when I leave your house."
Me: "You don't have to leave if you don't want to. You can stay with Mommy & Papa for as long as you want to."
Rachel(wiping her tears, voice cracking): "OK. I don't want to ever leave. But I won't be the same me."
Me: "It's okay. You'll just be bigger. Mark still lives with Grandma & Grandpa and he is a big boy. He is about to move out of their house now because he and Sarah are getting married and he wants to live in his own house with Sarah. You might meet a boy one day that you want to marry and that would be the only reason you might want to leave our house."
Rachel: "No, Mommy. I'm never going to want to marry any boy and leave you."
I just had to get it down in writing so I can show Rachel what she said when she decides to get married one day. If only their sweet words could last forever!
Jordan had told us a few years ago that he wanted to live with us forever. He never wanted to get married and stay with us. We just chuckled and told him that of course he could live with us for as long as he wanted.
Tonight as I was driving home with Rachel and Joshua in the car, Rachel and I had a similar conversation that went something like this:
Rachel: "Mommy, when I get older I'm going to leave our house."
Me: "Yes, someday when you're older."
Rachel: "You & Papa are going to miss me when I leave."
Me: "Yes, Rachel, we will miss you a lot."
Rachel(starting to get teary-eyed): "I'll be sad when I leave your house."
Me: "You don't have to leave if you don't want to. You can stay with Mommy & Papa for as long as you want to."
Rachel(wiping her tears, voice cracking): "OK. I don't want to ever leave. But I won't be the same me."
Me: "It's okay. You'll just be bigger. Mark still lives with Grandma & Grandpa and he is a big boy. He is about to move out of their house now because he and Sarah are getting married and he wants to live in his own house with Sarah. You might meet a boy one day that you want to marry and that would be the only reason you might want to leave our house."
Rachel: "No, Mommy. I'm never going to want to marry any boy and leave you."
I just had to get it down in writing so I can show Rachel what she said when she decides to get married one day. If only their sweet words could last forever!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Out of the Mouths of Babes!
Well, each of my children always has something funny to say. More when they're little, but sometimes the older ones too.
Jacob has gotten old enough that he doesn't have too many funny slipups anymore. Joshua is young enough that he still doesn't say many words, but his facial expressions are hilarious. He'll give a look sometimes that is like rolling his eyes, but he droops his eyelids really low and glances out of the corner of his eye at you. Then he laughs very loud and runs away.
Jordan and Rachel gave us a couple of funny kid-isms to share again.
First, Jacob was saying (for some reason I can't remember), "I've fallen and I can't get up!" - the quote from that old commercial. And Jordan said, "Is that Shakespeare?" Jacob pretty much fell out on the floor laughing at him.
While Jacob & Jordan were in Houston a couple of weeks ago, I was trying to get Rachel to help me with something and she didn't want to do it. I said, "I'm doing all these fun things with you. Today I took you to the park and Children's Museum and tomorrow we're going to the Bounce, and how do you repay me?" And she said, "I don't know! 50 dollars?"
Jacob has gotten old enough that he doesn't have too many funny slipups anymore. Joshua is young enough that he still doesn't say many words, but his facial expressions are hilarious. He'll give a look sometimes that is like rolling his eyes, but he droops his eyelids really low and glances out of the corner of his eye at you. Then he laughs very loud and runs away.
Jordan and Rachel gave us a couple of funny kid-isms to share again.
First, Jacob was saying (for some reason I can't remember), "I've fallen and I can't get up!" - the quote from that old commercial. And Jordan said, "Is that Shakespeare?" Jacob pretty much fell out on the floor laughing at him.
While Jacob & Jordan were in Houston a couple of weeks ago, I was trying to get Rachel to help me with something and she didn't want to do it. I said, "I'm doing all these fun things with you. Today I took you to the park and Children's Museum and tomorrow we're going to the Bounce, and how do you repay me?" And she said, "I don't know! 50 dollars?"
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