Fantastic Friends and Fabulous Family!

The generous person will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered. (Proverbs 12:25)

Praise God! Our air conditioner has finally been repaired, so we’re settled back at home again. Even while we waited for the repairs, God continued to provide for us through the generosity of family and friends. JT and I are so very thankful for the family and neighbors who helped us beat the heat!

Last Saturday, when the air conditioner “officially” died and the temperature soared to 94 degrees, our neighbors Gary and Maureen blessed our family with a special treat. Their church was hosting Family Fun Day featuring food and games at a local entertainment center. Not only did they invite us to join them, but they paid for our family’s tickets as well! What a wonderful blessing from terrific neighbors!

Sweet Pea and Sugar Plum had a blast! They enjoyed tasty snacks, played skee ball, and had a marvelous time jumping around in and sliding down the huge inflatable bouncers. JT and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing our girls having so much fun.

After we left the entertainment center, we packed up our things and headed over to my mother’s house. She allowed us to stay with her for several days and nights while we waited for the air conditioning repairs. We thank my mother for allowing our noisy little family to camp out at her house for several days.

It’s great to have such kind neighbors and loving friends! The Thorpe family thanks you all! 

Keeping Cool…Somewhere Else!

The LORD will keep you from all harm, he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. (Psalm 121:7-8 )

I normally blog at home from the comfort of my favorite chair, but right now I’m sprawled out on my mother’s living room couch. A bit of drama unfolded yesterday, so we’ve all been forced to change location.

During the middle of last week, our air conditioner stopped working. A technician was finally able to get it running again on Friday. On Saturday morning, I was preparing to take the girls strawberry picking and JT was getting ready to leave for the barbershop.

I asked JT to strap the girls into their car seats while I ran back inside to search for the camera. A few moments later, JT came running into the house saying, “The air conditioner is on fire!” He grabbed the extinguisher and ran back outside and sprayed it while I called 911. Thankfully there wasn’t a large fire and the police and fire departments arrived immediately.

Another technician came later in the day to assess the situation. The air conditioner’s compressor is blown so we’re waiting for a new one to be installed (in the midst of an OPPRESSIVE heatwave!). Unfortunately, that won’t happen until Tuesday or Wednesday!

In the meantime, we’re camped out at my mother’s house. We spent the night here last night and we’ll be here for a few more nights. Thankfully my mom lives close to us and her air conditioner is working well. She has room enough for the 4 of us to stay and plenty of toys to keep the girls entertained.

JT and I are very thankful that we were home when the compressor blew! It’s very frightening to think about what could have happened to our home had we not been there. Thankfully our glorious God continues to keep us safe!

Photo: Courtesy of geoff.greene

Soaring High!

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

My husband has degrees in aeronautics and astronautics engineering, which makes him a real life “rocket scientist”! JT loves planes and in fact, if an airplane is flying overhead, he can always tell me what type of aircraft it is and who made it.

Recently, an air show was held in our area, and I knew it would be a fun family outing JT would especially enjoy. I had never been to an air show before, so I didn’t know what to expect. However, with JT serving as our guide, we were able to navigate through the many different aircraft displayed on the grounds and learn more about the ones soaring above us. While there, I learned a few unexpected things too.

Lesson #1: Some military aircraft are huge, really huge! Obviously, I knew aircraft had to be large enough to transport troops and tanks, but I never knew how huge some were until I saw these mammoth planes up close.

Lesson #2: An air show is extremely loud! When the Thunderbirds performed their maneuvers above our heads, I thought we were all going to go deaf! After listening to the roar of fighter jets, I realized just how loud and frightening a war zone must be! I was especially concerned about the children’s ears, so we purchased earplugs for them.

Lesson #3: It’s impossible to keep earplugs in the ears of a toddler! Thirty seconds after this photo was snapped, Sugar Plum yanked them out. We tried several times to put them back in, but it was a futile effort.

Lesson #4: Fighter jets fly fast. Sometimes, they move much faster than the shutter of our camera. Here’s an example of what happened when I tried to snap an F-16 soaring overhead. Notice the beautiful blue sky. Notice the poof of white clouds in the lower right hand corner. Notice the black speck in the center of the photo. That’s the fighter jet.

Our trip to the local air show was exciting and fun! We’ll definitely be looking to see when another one comes to our area. In the meantime I’ll look for better earplugs and give my shutter finger some exercise!