Clint & I Highly Advise Against

purchasing a/c's from GE until they get their act together and start supplying the backs for the a/c cover.

Last night, we purchased a replacement for ours from Sams Club for $439. GE sells model AEH25DMH1 for $699 through their website and it has some nice features. Clint called today to have the part we thought was missing from the cover shipped to us and was informed they are no longer sent, because they are "not needed."


Oh yes they are! One little bump will damage those fragile little aluminum grills causing reduced air flow to the unit which will affect efficiency. If you have the unit in a first floor window, like we do, it's at high risk for damage. People can bump into it. Things can fall on it. Children will hit it with toys. Storms can blow things against it.

Not only does it leave the unit at risk of being damaged, it is ugly. It clearly has holes to install a back on the cover. This is yet another instance of "paying more and getting less."

Currently, we own 7 other window a/c units in our old farm house. Every single one of them, except this one, has a back on the cover. It's one of those things a normal person just expects to be included in the purchase.

Clint told the customer service agent that he would not have purchased the unit if he had known this. There were no pictures of the back of the unit on the box. He was told to "take it back." Easier said than done when it is already installed.

We are going to make a hardware cloth screen to fasten to the holes where the one meant for it should have been installed. There was no where on the box or in the manual mentioning or explaining why this part is no longer included. We will not be buying GE appliances in the future unless we can ascertain they have all of the parts WE feel are necessary beforehand.

Today is One of Those Rare Hard Days

I don't have many days that I would call hard. I believe that is due to teaching my children how to control their behavior (the increasingly rare thing called self-discipline) and also because I try to keep a positive attitude.

Hannah is teething. You can see two of those teeth in the picture above. She is working on the top two simultaneously and they are giving her a fit. She is also in a growth spurt, so she's hungry often. Clint and I have been woken up 2-3 times a night for a couple of weeks now. I tried to sleep in later yesterday and today, but it did not work. Clint doesn't have that option so he's feeling it...and we are both looking it! Our attempts to go to bed early have failed every night. So this afternoon, when he gets home we have something very special and very anticipated planned. We are going to take a nice, long nap together. We are at the point in where we laugh together at these hard days. Last night, we made certain we laid our heads down QUIETLY on the pillows since that seemed to be the main trigger to wake Hannah up. :-D

Younger moms and dads, when you have bad days come, and they will, remember they are normal part of parenthood. Babies teethe and go through growth spurts. Children get cranky when they are tired, ill or fed an improper diet. Other people fail and hurt us. Just slow down, thank God you have a spouse and children in your life and do what you can. Be quick to call upon the Lord for help and strength. It's OK to every once in a while take a day off and regroup. Some days I'll take a couple of hours or entire day and spend some time working outside in the yard or reading depending on my energy level.

You can't set a good example of how to live for Christ to your children if you are mean spirited because things aren't going your way. That is the mark of selfishness and immaturity. God uses these trying times to grow us in character. When you do fail, you need to ask God to forgive you, help you be better and then apologize to those you hurt. The humility it takes to repent and apologize is a mark of a sincere heart seeking growth and restored relationships.

Now, it is time for lunch and then hopefully the babies will sleep so I can do some reading with Caleb and Bethany ...and daydream a little about my upcoming nap!

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto His name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 29:2

Clint & Hannah

Hannah is a very easy baby. She rarely makes demands and will often wait to eat.
She has a sweet disposition, loves everyone in the family, loves to cut up and laugh (ALREADY!) and is easy going.
She has been a little doll and we are just head over heels in love with her!
We are so thankful to have her as a part of our family!
She's absolutely crazy about her Daddy too! She will stop nursing to follow him around the room or "call" to him to come back and watch her eat. He's a proud papa about that too!
She's getting up on her hands and knees now and then, so we expect to see her crawling soon.

Oh yeah, her "rainbow" hair that kept the OB nurses and every one else guessing about her hair color .....turned out to be blonde!!
Depending on what light she was in, it looked black, brown, grey, blonde, red or a mix.

Yep, Another One

Amanda found a male this a.m. in the barn.
I had Brandon do a clean up in the back yard and he found this Black Widow female with two egg cases. That makes 3 females and one male we have seen so far. :-(

Titanic Lifeboat

If you can go during a less busy day at the Mariner's Museum, you can probably get a cool shot of this lifeboat with the Titanic in the background. There is a picture of the Titanic on the wall to the left, but I was unable to include it in the shot due to other people.

Check out how Miss Hannah is looking at the camera in the bottom picture! It looks like we'll have another camera ham in the Asbell Family!

Mariner's Museum 2

http://www.mariner.org/

Mariner's Museum

http://www.mariner.org/

"We Are The Only People I Know

who can go to McDonald's and buy $1 hamburger for everyone in the family and come out with a "grocery sack" of burgers!" ~Clint

Must Be Comfortable

On weekends, we allow the children to "camp out" in the den together.
This is how we found Bethany asleep! :-)

New Study Finds Dinosaur Models Are Too Thick

http://www.icr.org/article/4775/
by Brian Thomas, M.S.

Dinosaur reconstructions in museums worldwide may all be too large, according to new research published in the Journal of Zoology. Researchers revisited the 25-year-old statistical formula used to estimate dinosaur mass, based on fossilized skeletal information. The old formula is “seriously flawed,” according to study author Gary Packard.1

If the new formula holds up, it strengthens the feasibility of the Noah’s Ark account in Genesis, which has already been thoroughly established.2 Not only would Noah have taken on two skinnier-than-previously-thought juvenile representatives of each of the larger dinosaur kinds, but his family would have been less burdened with feeding requirements during the year-long event.

The new predictions of dinosaur size may also alleviate a longstanding conundrum over herbivorous dinosaurs. How could the large dinosaurs, such as Stegosaurus and Apatosaurus, have eaten enough food to support their massive bodies when they had such small mouths on their tiny (by comparison) heads? Perhaps they didn’t have to eat quite so much after all, if their bodies were actually substantially less bulky.

How off was the old mass-estimation equation? According to this research, today’s dinosaur models depict dinosaurs being twice as massive as the new estimates say they should be. The fact that such a remarkable difference in mass estimation has gone unchallenged for so long illustrates how tenuous paleontological reconstructions tend to be.

The old formula has had a widespread impact, having dictated perception of dinosaur sizes for the entire Western culture. If something so basic can so easily be misconstrued from the physical evidence, what other misinformation is being spread? Without being able to base depictions of early earth history on the trustworthy information from the biblical record, reconstructions of dinosaurs’ lives and times will forever inhabit a near-fictional realm.

Snake Removal By Brandon

The snake became quite mad once we put it in a container.
It struck at the sides which gave our younger children a good lesson on how fast a snake can strike.
This juvenile probably came from the "Big Mama" black snake Clint allows to live in his workshop.
Big Mama's lived here longer than we have! I've seen her and she is BIG.
Clint has been in there right next to her and she just leaves when she sees him.

How do you like my baby boy?
He's turning the ladies' heads every where we go now.

Just a lil' ole black snake!

When I cleaned out the flowerbed last week, I put down landscaping fabric for weed suppression.
Brandon kicked up a black snake while weed eating in the orchard and it went right under the weed barrier.
Brandon caught it so we could relocate it some place it is not likely to give me a good scare.
I don't act hysterical around snakes and will even handle them, but I do not like surprises!

Amanda found a second black widow spider near the same location as the first. We have been here almost 14 years and have never seen one before and now we have found two in two weeks. I speculate they came in some firewood we brought home. I am taking steps to lower their numbers: cleaning up all I can, keeping the grass down, drying out damp areas, natural pesticides to cut down on bugs (their food source) and of course, looking for egg sacks to destroy whenever we find one. Some of the adults will die in the fall, so it will be safe to handle the firewood this winter. Some of the adults can overwinter and survive a few years.

If there is an egg case present in a black widow spider's nest, she will aggressively protect it which means you are more likely to be bitten. Use caution! "The most dangerous place in the world is between a mother and her children!"

Turn Old Mini Blinds into Fabric Shades

I found this nifty idea through Econobusters. If you have or care for small children, mini blinds are dangerous because of the cording. Be sure to use a cord keeper, clip and tie them shorter or tie them up out of reach of small hands.

http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2009/02/make-shades-out-of-mini-blinds.html

More Picts from the Party 2

Amanda cutting up with me.

These are the items that came from the diaper bag (baby care set) we bought her which we saw as a possible chocking hazard. You are your child's first line of defense; don't rely on the CSPC or manufacturers. These went right into the trash.

Brandon stood up half an hour so he could hold the popper toy in place on Hannah's bouncer seat. She kept trying to get at those colorful balls!

Miss Em wore herself out!

More Picts from the Party

Emily found some presents!

Emily laughing at the pull along dog.

Emily laughing at the dog. Clint laughing at Emily. I caught the boys "helping" her open her new baby doll's diaper pack. :-)

Brandon laughing at something I said.

Emily's Birthday

Emily enjoyed her birthday party, but not the singing! I guess you could say she was "moved to tears" by the Birthday Song!
She did like the Lady Bug cake and asked for seconds!

Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Emily's Birthday

Emily turned 2 today!
We are so thankful for our fun loving character of a daughter! She adds joy to each day!
That is the Lady Bug cake we will serve at her party. Amanda and I baked and piped (frosted) it this morning.
I am not very good at piping frosting, but the children don't mind at all!