Month: December 2018

Friday, December 7, 2018

It was another cold morning with another heavy frost. We stayed in for a while, until it stared warming up. Mike arrived last night and he and Lee headed back home this morning. We enjoyed having Lee for another week. Hopefully we will work with her and Mike down the road.

This morning we worked on laundry, grocery list, and business. Still a lot to get done before the end of the year. We made some cookies and went to the grocery store this afternoon. Also, Nancy and Gary returned today. So great to have them back!! Jeff called us today and the roofing material is in for Elsie and Bruce’s house. They had said it wouldn’t be here before we leave but now Jeff would like for us to try to get that finished. He moved the roofing to the top of our priority list. Flexibility. We do need to get the other two houses finished this week too. The stuff closing down a project is made of. We want to get it all done but we only have four days remaining.

This evening Cindy, and Bruce went with us to the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the Lumberton city hall. We were actually planning to head to the church but Cindy saw the announcement about the lighting on the evening news so we headed there first. There is a really large and nice Christmas tree in front of the Lumberton town hall. They had horse drawn carriage rides and music on the lawn in front. There is another beautiful Christmas tree inside city hall. Santa also paid a visit to the festivities. The mayor walked over and introduced himself to us. We told him were were with the NOMADS and started to explain what we were doing and he told us he knew exactly what we were doing and started thanking us profusely. After talking a few minutes he walk off and began talking to others and we noticed he was pointing at us. Turns out he told the others we were NOMADS and then the entire city council came over and introduced themselves and thanked us. The mayor then had us sit in the VIP section and during his opening remarks introduced us to all the people attending and they gave us a round of applause. So nice. Shortly there was the count down and the beautiful tree was lit. Fun.

 

After the lighting ceremony we headed over to Chestnut Street UMC to view the collection of nativities on display. Then we went by their Sweet Shop. The ladies of the church bake cookies and they are sold by the ½ pound and one pound boxes. You just pick up your box and browse through and fill your box with what ever cookies you want. They have a little of everything.  Since we really weren’t hungry and the team is having a cookie exchange this week, we just bought two cake pops and made a donation. The funds are being donated to the disaster relief fund. We drove around town to look at the Christmas lights and then headed back home. It was a fun day.

 

Thursday, December 6, 2018

It was 28 degrees with a heavy frost this morning. It was cold! So glad we weren’t working outside today. It’s cold again tonight. About time for us to head south. We really didn’t think it would be this cold while we were in Lumberton.

Lee shared with us for our devotion today. She used a reading from the Upper Room. Isaiah 40:27-32. She reminded us that God gives strength to the weary. Several of us felt that was an appropriate reminder for a NOMADS Friday (known to some as “Thursday”). Some of us are weary by this time of the week. The reading Lee shared was a story of a burned out caregiver. God is always there to see us through. Lee reminded us that the people we are helping usually have multiple problems, such as health problems and flooding, or financial problems and flooding or something else and flooding. We must share with them who gives the strength to make it through.

Since we completed Elsie and Bruce’s house yesterday, job assignments changed today. Anne and Gene went to Jim and Mary’s, Max and Cindy stayed at the warehouse to build a pump house cover for Jim and Mary, while Mary Ann, Dave, Bruce and Lee went to Jackie’s. Philip was under the weather and not working and Carol had to go back and see the therapist and orthopedic doctor.

At Jackie’s they were working on general cleanup, installing towel rods, shower rods, toilet paper holders, installing transition strips and mirrors. At Jim and Mary’s, Anne set nails in trim, cleaned and caulked. Gene installed the lavatory, the faucet, but when we turned on the water it leaked. After spending much time he found the faucet to be defective. Oh well, we will try another Monday. We also finished installing the base board. Max and Cindy built the new roof for the pump house including installing the shingles. It will get painted or stained Monday. It looks really good.

Tonight we all went out to dinner together since Lee leaves us tomorrow. This time we went to Village Inn. It is located down by the fairgrounds where our rigs were parked last year. We remembered going there last year after we got inside. They serve barbecue and seafood. The barbecue is not like Alabama’s, but it was okay. It was just too finely chopped for us. Most of the others got seafood and reported it was very good.

We accomplished a lot this week. We will all enjoy our weekend. Hope you do to.

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Another very cool, cloudy day, with sun part of this afternoon. They are now talking about some possible mixed precipitation later this weekend, but it probably (hopefully) will stay north of us.

Dave and Carol led devotion time today. So glad Carol was able to be back with us today. She even worked today. Her hand is slowly improving and we are thanking God for every improvement. Carol talked about Emmanuel. God with us. God IS with us, in us. What if Joseph and Mary were all blinged out and Bethlehem had been blinged out like Hollywood? How would the world have reacted? But that’s not how God chose to enter this world. He entered through people more like us and is now with us. Dave shared a reading from Max Lucado’s book When God Whispers Your Name. So good! It was about making your way through DFW airport and ended by reminding us even though life can be hard, we can’t give up because we each have a flight home we don’t want to miss. And always remember, Emmanuel, God With Us.

We discussed where each project stands. Hoping to finish Mary and Jim’s house tomorrow. Gene and Cindy were going back out there today to install trim and do some additional painting. The vanity has to be reinstalled as well. Dave, Mary Ann and Bruce (who we were also glad felt better and returned to work today) and Carol went to Jackie’s to continue work on the final items. Carol started the cleanup phase today. They were working to get left over supplies back to the warehouse. There was also caulking to be done in the bathrooms and shower heads to install. Lots of little things.

Lee, Anne and Max left devotion and went back to the campground to check out a power problem for Lee. We wanted to be sure everything was okay because it is suppose to go down to 28 tonight. She just needed a breaker reset and now she has heat again. We told her that if she has trouble tonight we will just put her on our sofa so she doesn’t get too cold, but hopefully her problem is solved. It all worked great because when we arrive at Elsie and Bruce’s they were just eating breakfast. They had both slept late. We were very pleased with the appearance of the ceiling we textured yesterday. It was dry and ready for paint. After moving the furniture again and covering the carpet really well, Anne and Lee painted the ceiling with Max’s help keeping us in paint and light. He moved ladders and lights so we could just keep on painting. We were through in time for lunch and by the time lunch was over, the paint was dry enough to reinstall all the trim. That too was a three person job but it went smoothly. The rest of the day was spent in cleaning, vacuuming, wiping down baseboards, etc. and then moving all the furniture back into the room. There were pictures to re-hang, and all the small decorative items to be put back in place. That was more work than we anticipated. However, when we were done, Elsie and Bruce were so happy. Elsie started crying when we were getting ready to leave. She was glad to have her house back but she didn’t want us to leave. We assured her we would see her again next week. We plan to do the Bible presentation and take them some cookies next week. It has been such a treat to work at this home of two precious elderly people who just need a little help. So glad God could use us to make life a little better for them. And so glad Elsie no longer has to worry about the ceiling falling on her head while she is resting on the couch. Today was a great day!

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Today was a blustery, cool day. The high was 56 with the wind blowing most of the day. No rain today. YEA!! The sun was out for most of the day. Hoping it will help dry up some of the standing water.

Anne and Max led devotion today using today’s advent devotion from Seedbed Daily Text. We talked a little about advent and then Jesus, our light and hope. We had some sharing and then our prayer time. Our prayer list is getting really long. So many people with so many health problems. Thanks, Gene for our music again today.

We all headed back to work at the same places we left off yesterday. Lee, Anne and Max were back at Bruce and Elsie’s house. We moved the TV out again and covered the floor with our tarp and then started sanding the ceiling. Some of us will probably be sore tomorrow from all the over the head sanding but in the end we were pleased with the outcome. If we were not going to texture the ceiling, we would want to do another layer of mud but with texture we will be fine with just the two. We were able to get a coat of Kilz on the drywall before we stopped for a late lunch. By the time lunch was over we were able to start applying the texture. We used a 3/4” fluffy roller to apply the drywall mud for texture and it worked fairly well. We worked late tonight in order to complete the texturing. Once we were started we didn’t want to stop until it was done. Hopefully we will be pleased with the results we see tomorrow after everything is dry. The living room is rather dark with no overhead lighting so we want to see what it looks like by the light of day. Elsie was happy with just the unfinished drywall so we hope she will be even happier once we get the textured ceiling painted.

We don’t know what everyone else accomplished today because everybody was already settled in their rigs by the time we got home a little after 5:30. We will find out tomorrow at morning meeting. It may be an ibuprofen kind of night tonight.