Thursday, January 20, 2011
I am sitting here, trying to decide what has happened that is important to write for the world to hear. Probably nothing, but here goes. We have had a couple of weeks of firsts in this household.
2 weeks ago, I traveled to Lincoln NE to help a friend who was having surgery. I ended up leaving on Saturday, as we were suppose to get a snow storm on Sunday. As it turned out, the Western part of the state that was suppose to get 6-10 inches got 2 inches, and the Easter part of the state that was suppose to get 1-2 inches got 7. Welcome to Nebraska. Anyway, I made it to Lincoln without any problems. While there, and before my friend got out of the hospital, I was able to meet up with some old friends (not friends that are old, but friends that I have known for a long time... you get the idea) and visit and catch up on our lives. My friend was suppose to get out of the hospital on Monday, but due to some complications, ended up not being released until Tuesday morning. Remember the "firsts" that I talked about earlier, well here is the first one. I headed out on Tuesday morning to pick up my friend. It was a bitterly cold morning. I looked down at my temperature gage to see when I would start getting some heat in the car. It was starting to warm up, so any minute I should start feeling the heat. A little further, and the temperature gauge is at 1/2 way to the hot mark. Ok, I really should be getting warm now. 4 blocks from the hospital, the bells and sirens start going off... "Coolant is over heating, Shut down vehicle now!" What! How can a car over heat when it is almost 0 degrease out? What to do now. I am at a stop light, no where to pull over, and if I do pull over how will I be able to work on the car when there is no room. And to top it all off, I forgot my cell phone at the house across town. Ok car we are going to get into the parking garage or die trying. I make it in, shut down the car, and walk on trembling knees to my friends hospital room, where I use her cell to call the husband.
Mark starts listing off the things that could be wrong. The most popular thought is that the thermostat is stuck. He tells me, "you can change it." Now those of you who know me, would agree with this statement, and for the most part I too agree with this statement, but not when it is 5 above 0, and I have no tools to work with. Ok plan B- go out to the car and check some things. I get to the car, and the first thing he wants me to do is take off the radiator cap... ok, there is not radiator cap. "Yes there is, I just saw it right before you left" No, I can't find it. "Find the resivore, now follow the tubes back to the radiator, and it's right there." I know where the radiator cap is suppose to be, but it is not here!" "It has to be...(long pause while his co-workers are talking to him) ok, the new vehicles don't have a radiator cap, it is the reserve tank cap that I need you to take off." Ok, that was easy. I take off the cap, and it has ice in the top of the tank. "Your radiator is most likely frozen. Here is what you need to do." Long story short, my friends dad ended up coming to pick us up, then ran me to the automotive store for "Cool-dex" antifreeze. After letting the car run for about 1 1/2 hours, it finally defrosted and got the new antifreeze mix in. I got up Wednesday morning with my fingers crossed and started the car. It ran fine and never overheated, which was good, since I headed home that day. All I can say is thank goodness for my friends father that stood out in the cold with me working on my car and for driving me around to get the stuff to fix it. You may be asking why the car froze up in the first place? Well, this is the vehicle that we got in Casper WY earlier this year, well that guy bought it at an auction in Arizona, and that may be why the antifreeze mixture was not correct. On a side note, I was not able to do much helping of my friend, but she is doing well.
The Saturday after I got home, Lexi had her first basket ball game. This would be the second "first" for those of you who are counting. We headed out to Morrill NE, about 1.25 hours away. Her first game was at 10:00 a.m. All I can say about their first game is that our team did not know what they were doing! Lexi fell on her knee towards the end of the game, and got a nice war wound to show off. Her coach told her there was no crying in basket ball. The next game was at 1:00 p.m. and the team really improved, but still needed some work. The last game was the hardest team of the day, but our girls were able to hold them to 10 points and really did well. From the looks of the other teams they have played together before, so I felt like our team did well considering they had only 4 practices and had never played a game. It will be interesting to see how they improve the next 2 games.
Grandma and Grandpa COWS (Mark's parents) were able to come down for the game. They spent the night with us, then we all headed to Sidney to go to Cabella's. We got home about 1:30 p.m then they headed home. I worked on laundry for most of the day, then we invited friends over for supper.
Well, that should catch you up on what is happening. If I can get the cameras and the computer working, I will get a slide show on here for you.
Until next time.
2 weeks ago, I traveled to Lincoln NE to help a friend who was having surgery. I ended up leaving on Saturday, as we were suppose to get a snow storm on Sunday. As it turned out, the Western part of the state that was suppose to get 6-10 inches got 2 inches, and the Easter part of the state that was suppose to get 1-2 inches got 7. Welcome to Nebraska. Anyway, I made it to Lincoln without any problems. While there, and before my friend got out of the hospital, I was able to meet up with some old friends (not friends that are old, but friends that I have known for a long time... you get the idea) and visit and catch up on our lives. My friend was suppose to get out of the hospital on Monday, but due to some complications, ended up not being released until Tuesday morning. Remember the "firsts" that I talked about earlier, well here is the first one. I headed out on Tuesday morning to pick up my friend. It was a bitterly cold morning. I looked down at my temperature gage to see when I would start getting some heat in the car. It was starting to warm up, so any minute I should start feeling the heat. A little further, and the temperature gauge is at 1/2 way to the hot mark. Ok, I really should be getting warm now. 4 blocks from the hospital, the bells and sirens start going off... "Coolant is over heating, Shut down vehicle now!" What! How can a car over heat when it is almost 0 degrease out? What to do now. I am at a stop light, no where to pull over, and if I do pull over how will I be able to work on the car when there is no room. And to top it all off, I forgot my cell phone at the house across town. Ok car we are going to get into the parking garage or die trying. I make it in, shut down the car, and walk on trembling knees to my friends hospital room, where I use her cell to call the husband.
Mark starts listing off the things that could be wrong. The most popular thought is that the thermostat is stuck. He tells me, "you can change it." Now those of you who know me, would agree with this statement, and for the most part I too agree with this statement, but not when it is 5 above 0, and I have no tools to work with. Ok plan B- go out to the car and check some things. I get to the car, and the first thing he wants me to do is take off the radiator cap... ok, there is not radiator cap. "Yes there is, I just saw it right before you left" No, I can't find it. "Find the resivore, now follow the tubes back to the radiator, and it's right there." I know where the radiator cap is suppose to be, but it is not here!" "It has to be...(long pause while his co-workers are talking to him) ok, the new vehicles don't have a radiator cap, it is the reserve tank cap that I need you to take off." Ok, that was easy. I take off the cap, and it has ice in the top of the tank. "Your radiator is most likely frozen. Here is what you need to do." Long story short, my friends dad ended up coming to pick us up, then ran me to the automotive store for "Cool-dex" antifreeze. After letting the car run for about 1 1/2 hours, it finally defrosted and got the new antifreeze mix in. I got up Wednesday morning with my fingers crossed and started the car. It ran fine and never overheated, which was good, since I headed home that day. All I can say is thank goodness for my friends father that stood out in the cold with me working on my car and for driving me around to get the stuff to fix it. You may be asking why the car froze up in the first place? Well, this is the vehicle that we got in Casper WY earlier this year, well that guy bought it at an auction in Arizona, and that may be why the antifreeze mixture was not correct. On a side note, I was not able to do much helping of my friend, but she is doing well.
The Saturday after I got home, Lexi had her first basket ball game. This would be the second "first" for those of you who are counting. We headed out to Morrill NE, about 1.25 hours away. Her first game was at 10:00 a.m. All I can say about their first game is that our team did not know what they were doing! Lexi fell on her knee towards the end of the game, and got a nice war wound to show off. Her coach told her there was no crying in basket ball. The next game was at 1:00 p.m. and the team really improved, but still needed some work. The last game was the hardest team of the day, but our girls were able to hold them to 10 points and really did well. From the looks of the other teams they have played together before, so I felt like our team did well considering they had only 4 practices and had never played a game. It will be interesting to see how they improve the next 2 games.
Grandma and Grandpa COWS (Mark's parents) were able to come down for the game. They spent the night with us, then we all headed to Sidney to go to Cabella's. We got home about 1:30 p.m then they headed home. I worked on laundry for most of the day, then we invited friends over for supper.
Well, that should catch you up on what is happening. If I can get the cameras and the computer working, I will get a slide show on here for you.
Until next time.
Friday, December 31, 2010
What to do during a blizzard
What do you do during a blizzard? You may ask. Well, for this woman, she is sitting catching up on all the things that did not get done before Christmas. The short list is cleaning the house, and doing the blog. The long list is much too long and is no fun anyway, so we will ignore it! I am also glad that I am not a man. Particularly my "man". Mark was out scooping snow at 7:30 a.m., so he could get a vehicle out to go to town in. I am happy being the "kept" woman that gets to stay in the nice warm house, cooking and cleaning. As long as we don't loose electricity I will be fine. Since I did not get a Christmas letter out this year, this will have to be our late Merry Christmas to everyone.
Now, what have we been doing for the last month. Well, lets see, we have been running here and there, and pretty much everywhere, but don't seem to have gone anywhere. Oh, yeh, we had Christmas in there somewhere. Was that just a week ago? Wow, how the time flies. I know Pastor, Christmas is not over until Epiphany, but I had to get the Christmas decorations down and get my house back to normal. I did well getting the decorations down and put away, I only forgot one thing this year!
We had a very nice Christmas. Christmas Eve was spent at the church candle light service, then the 4 of us came home and unwrapped the gifts. Grandma and Grandpa COWS (Mark's parents) came down Christmas day. After church, we opened more gifts then had a nice meal. G & G stayed the night, and part of the next day. The girls had their Sunday School Christmas Program on the 26th, and other than Lexi not being able to say "register", they did very well, even though Kyra had to be an angle again! Not good for a devil child.
Mark and I headed back to work on Monday. The girls are out of school until Jan. 3rd. The girls did a real nice job of cleaning the house and doing chores before Christmas, but have been bums this week. What is up with that? Lexi has done some babysitting, and is suppose to babysit today, but not sure if she will make it in.
On Wed. after working at Kimball, I went through Scottsbluff on my way home. A store there was having a sale on furniture. If you will notice in the Christmas pictures we are lacking furniture in our basement. I sold all our old stuff this summer, and have not found anything till now. Anyway, I wanted a couch, love seat, and a recliner. They were out of the love seat, but since we were thinking of a sectional anyway, we decided to get 2 couches for the basement, and the recliner for upstairs (since it is small). Mark was home, so the question was how to get everything to Bridgeport in the least amount of trips. Mark said "I think you can get the recliner in your Bug" yes, the VW Bug. I said "well, I can try". The guy that was loading the chair for me told me "I was thinking how funny it would be if she drove up in that Bug, then you did, and I didn't think it was so funny any more." Well, to make a long story short, we did get the recliner in the back of the Bug, unfortunately, we were only able to get one couch in the Yukon at a time, so Mark had to make 2 trips to SB.
Today is New Year's Eve. We invited several friends out this evening, but not sure if everyone will make it due to the snow. I guess if they make it, but can't get home we have several beds, and 2 new couches to sleep on!
Hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year. See you in 2011
The Douthit's
Now, what have we been doing for the last month. Well, lets see, we have been running here and there, and pretty much everywhere, but don't seem to have gone anywhere. Oh, yeh, we had Christmas in there somewhere. Was that just a week ago? Wow, how the time flies. I know Pastor, Christmas is not over until Epiphany, but I had to get the Christmas decorations down and get my house back to normal. I did well getting the decorations down and put away, I only forgot one thing this year!
We had a very nice Christmas. Christmas Eve was spent at the church candle light service, then the 4 of us came home and unwrapped the gifts. Grandma and Grandpa COWS (Mark's parents) came down Christmas day. After church, we opened more gifts then had a nice meal. G & G stayed the night, and part of the next day. The girls had their Sunday School Christmas Program on the 26th, and other than Lexi not being able to say "register", they did very well, even though Kyra had to be an angle again! Not good for a devil child.
Mark and I headed back to work on Monday. The girls are out of school until Jan. 3rd. The girls did a real nice job of cleaning the house and doing chores before Christmas, but have been bums this week. What is up with that? Lexi has done some babysitting, and is suppose to babysit today, but not sure if she will make it in.
On Wed. after working at Kimball, I went through Scottsbluff on my way home. A store there was having a sale on furniture. If you will notice in the Christmas pictures we are lacking furniture in our basement. I sold all our old stuff this summer, and have not found anything till now. Anyway, I wanted a couch, love seat, and a recliner. They were out of the love seat, but since we were thinking of a sectional anyway, we decided to get 2 couches for the basement, and the recliner for upstairs (since it is small). Mark was home, so the question was how to get everything to Bridgeport in the least amount of trips. Mark said "I think you can get the recliner in your Bug" yes, the VW Bug. I said "well, I can try". The guy that was loading the chair for me told me "I was thinking how funny it would be if she drove up in that Bug, then you did, and I didn't think it was so funny any more." Well, to make a long story short, we did get the recliner in the back of the Bug, unfortunately, we were only able to get one couch in the Yukon at a time, so Mark had to make 2 trips to SB.
Today is New Year's Eve. We invited several friends out this evening, but not sure if everyone will make it due to the snow. I guess if they make it, but can't get home we have several beds, and 2 new couches to sleep on!
Hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year. See you in 2011
The Douthit's
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Where once there was three
First of all, Happy Birthday to Mark! Not the best birthday for him. He looked in the mirror this morning, and said "man I am sure turning grey." His birthday breakfast consisted of a granola bar, then as we were heading to church we noticed that ours and the two neighbors mail boxes were missing from in front of our house. No time to investigate this morning so off we headed to town. At the end of church, the gal that was doing fellowship noticed that it was Mark's birthday, so announced in church that there were birthday brownies downstairs for fellowship time. After everyone was downstairs, another gal started the entire room singing to Mark. I made the comment that you could roast marshmallows on his face. We headed home after church, and luckily we had an extra mailbox, so Mark went to work putting up a new one. Not only did the fool that hit them break all the posts, but then he took the mailboxes with him. If he is caught, he will be in bigger trouble than just hitting them, as we and the neighbors all still had mail in them, we are talking federal crime here. And besides, our mailbox was a John Deere mailbox that cost a lot of money!
This last weekend I spent cleaning. I mean deep cleaning in the basement. It sure did need it! I also cleaned the play room and the room that Lexi vacated a few months ago. I have about 3 double arm loads of stuff to take to the dumpster, but think that I will wait for a little warmer weather. There is also a dead mouse smell that is coming from the play room closet, but after gingerly removing everything from the closet, I still did not find him. I think he might have died in the walls, yuck! Today after cooking the German chocolate cake, I need to finish the upstairs cleaning, then we will be ready for Thanksgiving.
Speaking of Thanksgiving... My folks are coming up from Texas to celebrate with us. The weather looks like it might hold for their trip, lets hope so, since Mom is bring the turkey. We are hopeful that Mark can get my Dad's tractor done so that they can take it back home with them, again if the weather and road conditions stay good. Mark has the engine put back together, all but the oil pump, which is what we are thinking caused it to start knocking right after Mark fixed it 2 weeks ago. I hope that is it, and it will run well for years to come.
Well, best go for this week. The Douthit's wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!
This last weekend I spent cleaning. I mean deep cleaning in the basement. It sure did need it! I also cleaned the play room and the room that Lexi vacated a few months ago. I have about 3 double arm loads of stuff to take to the dumpster, but think that I will wait for a little warmer weather. There is also a dead mouse smell that is coming from the play room closet, but after gingerly removing everything from the closet, I still did not find him. I think he might have died in the walls, yuck! Today after cooking the German chocolate cake, I need to finish the upstairs cleaning, then we will be ready for Thanksgiving.
Speaking of Thanksgiving... My folks are coming up from Texas to celebrate with us. The weather looks like it might hold for their trip, lets hope so, since Mom is bring the turkey. We are hopeful that Mark can get my Dad's tractor done so that they can take it back home with them, again if the weather and road conditions stay good. Mark has the engine put back together, all but the oil pump, which is what we are thinking caused it to start knocking right after Mark fixed it 2 weeks ago. I hope that is it, and it will run well for years to come.
Well, best go for this week. The Douthit's wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Catching up
I was thinking 2 weeks ago, that I would be an every 2 week blogger. Well, 2 weeks later and I am thinking if I can get this blog done once a month I will be doing good! Now I have to try and remember what has happened over the last month.
Now that I have read what happened the last time I wrote, I can catch everyone up.
Our $2000.00 well bill ended up being a $2600.00 well bill. We received the bill on Wednesday, and the guy called to get the check from us on Thursday. We hadn't even told the other households how much the bill was going to be. Everyone was able to round up their share, and we were able to pay the bill by the next week.
Unfortunately, that took the money I was saving to pay the tax/title and license on the Yukon. So have been saving and moving money around so I can pay that this week, to the tune of $1400.00. For those that don't live in Nebraska, that is the correct amount. When I first moved here I couldn't believe how much it cost either!
I discharged all my patients in Kimball, so have been working at the out patient clinic for the last 3 weeks. It is nice to have a break from the drive, but I am going to miss my mileage check at the end of the month, and with Christmas coming up, I will really notice it. I also miss seeing all the people at the nursing home.
Mark has been working on tractors. My Dad brought up his little Yanmar tractor in August. Mark tore apart the engine and after looking at the manual that was written in Japanese, he called a place to get the information needed. He ordered parts, sent back the wrong parts, ordered more parts, had to call for the right specs... but finally finish last week. Kind of. He was running the tractor, but still didn't like the sound, so reved the engine, and it started knocking! I am guessing that is not a good sound since he shut it off right away, came in the house and said I am not working on it any more! In the mean time, Mark went to the ranch to work on his Dad's 3010 John Deere. The transmission was bad. Mark pulled the part that was bad out, and then found a used part to put in. I get a phone call Saturday morning that goes like this:
Laura- Hello
Mark- What are you doing?
This is where I made my mistake
Laura-Nothing
Mark- Could you run by Bridgeport Tractor Parts and get a part for me, and then run it up here? Please!
Laura- Of course I can, I only have a house to clean
So the rest of the day was spent in the car going to Crawford and back. Then the kicker is that Mark can't get the part back in, without taking the entire transmission out of the tractor, so he ends up bringing the transmission home anyway. After he got home, we all loaded up in the pickup and went and cut 2 loads of firewood. The rest of the week was spent trying to get the transmission put back together which was not fun, but I will not go into all the details here. Suffice it to say there was a lot of cussing coming from the shop, and since I was out most nights helping Mark some of the cussing was coming from me! Mark finally got it done on Thursday. He took off work to work on the transmission, and also spend the day with his parents that came down for the Veterans Day celebration at school. Mark and Kyra took the transmission back to the ranch this last weekend, and the 3010 seems to be running well again. Now back to the Yanmar for Mark.
This last weekend was the start of deer season, so Kyra went with her dad up to the ranch, so she could help Grandma feed the guys and clean. She was so proud when she came home with $20 for all her work. Lexi spent Saturday babysitting, so I mainly had a quiet day to work on house work.
Sunday was our Thanksgiving dinner at church. I made a turkey and rolls. I stayed and helped clean some, then Lexi and I headed home. Mark and Kyra got home around 2:30 that afternoon. I made soup and chili and bread bowls to put it in. The Strawn's came over for supper and we had a nice visit, it seems like forever since they have been over.
Winter has finally arrived here, so we have been enjoying all the firewood that was cut 1 1/2 weeks ago. Mom and Dad are planning to come up for Thanksgiving if the weather cooperates. One week to go!
Now that I have read what happened the last time I wrote, I can catch everyone up.
Our $2000.00 well bill ended up being a $2600.00 well bill. We received the bill on Wednesday, and the guy called to get the check from us on Thursday. We hadn't even told the other households how much the bill was going to be. Everyone was able to round up their share, and we were able to pay the bill by the next week.
Unfortunately, that took the money I was saving to pay the tax/title and license on the Yukon. So have been saving and moving money around so I can pay that this week, to the tune of $1400.00. For those that don't live in Nebraska, that is the correct amount. When I first moved here I couldn't believe how much it cost either!
I discharged all my patients in Kimball, so have been working at the out patient clinic for the last 3 weeks. It is nice to have a break from the drive, but I am going to miss my mileage check at the end of the month, and with Christmas coming up, I will really notice it. I also miss seeing all the people at the nursing home.
Mark has been working on tractors. My Dad brought up his little Yanmar tractor in August. Mark tore apart the engine and after looking at the manual that was written in Japanese, he called a place to get the information needed. He ordered parts, sent back the wrong parts, ordered more parts, had to call for the right specs... but finally finish last week. Kind of. He was running the tractor, but still didn't like the sound, so reved the engine, and it started knocking! I am guessing that is not a good sound since he shut it off right away, came in the house and said I am not working on it any more! In the mean time, Mark went to the ranch to work on his Dad's 3010 John Deere. The transmission was bad. Mark pulled the part that was bad out, and then found a used part to put in. I get a phone call Saturday morning that goes like this:
Laura- Hello
Mark- What are you doing?
This is where I made my mistake
Laura-Nothing
Mark- Could you run by Bridgeport Tractor Parts and get a part for me, and then run it up here? Please!
Laura- Of course I can, I only have a house to clean
So the rest of the day was spent in the car going to Crawford and back. Then the kicker is that Mark can't get the part back in, without taking the entire transmission out of the tractor, so he ends up bringing the transmission home anyway. After he got home, we all loaded up in the pickup and went and cut 2 loads of firewood. The rest of the week was spent trying to get the transmission put back together which was not fun, but I will not go into all the details here. Suffice it to say there was a lot of cussing coming from the shop, and since I was out most nights helping Mark some of the cussing was coming from me! Mark finally got it done on Thursday. He took off work to work on the transmission, and also spend the day with his parents that came down for the Veterans Day celebration at school. Mark and Kyra took the transmission back to the ranch this last weekend, and the 3010 seems to be running well again. Now back to the Yanmar for Mark.
This last weekend was the start of deer season, so Kyra went with her dad up to the ranch, so she could help Grandma feed the guys and clean. She was so proud when she came home with $20 for all her work. Lexi spent Saturday babysitting, so I mainly had a quiet day to work on house work.
Sunday was our Thanksgiving dinner at church. I made a turkey and rolls. I stayed and helped clean some, then Lexi and I headed home. Mark and Kyra got home around 2:30 that afternoon. I made soup and chili and bread bowls to put it in. The Strawn's came over for supper and we had a nice visit, it seems like forever since they have been over.
Winter has finally arrived here, so we have been enjoying all the firewood that was cut 1 1/2 weeks ago. Mom and Dad are planning to come up for Thanksgiving if the weather cooperates. One week to go!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)