Sharon Blogs About Our New Grandbaby Allie!

When our daughter, Katie became pregnant she asked if I would come to help her after the birth. Of course I agreed! John and I made plans around the delivery date but ended up having to scramble for an earlier flight since Katie developed pre-eclampsia necessitating a scheduled C-section because little Allie Rose was also breech and refused to turn even after a hospital procedure to try to flip her. John worked some magic and had me in North Carolina the day after Brooks, Katie and Allie came home from the hospital.

My plan was to cook, clean and do laundry giving Brooks and Katie the opportunity to bond with little Allie.  The first few weeks had to be lived completely downstairs in their 2 story home since Katie was not allowed to navigate the stairs while healing from surgery.  Thankfully they had given plenty of thought to arranging for living downstairs so we had a bassinet, changing table and sleeping arranged for the new parents on their sectional couches. I slept in the guest room upstairs.

Because Allie is absolutely irresistible,  it wasn’t long before I was asking to help with her care especially when the new parents suffered from sleep deprivation. Those early morning baby snuggles will be etched in my memory forever.  I know little Allie won’t remember my time with her but I surely will cherish it. Katie and I also had many priceless moments together while getting to know Allie.  Katie is a wonderful mother and never ceases to amaze me. Its heartwarming to see your baby with a baby!

Katie and Brooks are wonderful parents despite the sleep deprivation and through the confusing times when baby is fussy.  They probably could have handled it all on their own but I am so glad I was able to stay with them to take some of the chores off their hands so they could savor this exciting time. 

Toward the end of my eleven week stay, John came out for a week to meet Allie which was so wonderful as I REALLY missed him terribly.  Baby Allie took to him right away and loves him just as I do.  We really had a wonderful stay but it was time to let the little family establish their routine. It was also time for me to resume my beloved lifestyle at home with my husband who I have an even greater appreciation for after being apart so long.. We are just not meant to be apart. 

I took so many pictures of beautiful Allie and want to share them with you all just as we have done with our other two grand children Cameron and Adrianne.  Aren’t grandkids THE BEST?

NOTE:  We are currently in Waco, Texas until June 18th…

How to replace the end of the shore power electrical cord

About a year ago the plastic sheathing which protects the wires inside our 50 amp shore power cable came “unattached” to the plug’s end. Knowing that this wasn’t good I did some online research and found that most people were using gorilla tape to re-attach it.

One afternoon I decided I would use some acetone to clean the wires and sheathing up real good so the tape would stick better. I applied the gorilla tape being careful to keep it flat so water couldn’t get inside the cable behind the sheathing. Using black tape the job looked almost as good as new, but would it last?

After four or five months the taped plug-in re-separated. I once again took to the internet in search of solutions. The obvious one, of course, was to simply replace the end but how difficult would that be?

Finding no other viable solutions I ordered a new one. After reading about several replacements I chose the Camco PowerGrip Replacement Plug on Amazon because of its great reviews and I liked the large handle on the back of the plug to assist in taking it apart (especially from a 30 AMP adapter).

Once the replacement arrived through the mail it was time to put it on. I read the instructions carefully and they were very meticulous. The first task was cutting off the old end. I opted to use a hack saw with a metal cutting blade since I didn’t have a large enough wire cutter. Once the end was cut off the directions said to strip each of the old wires in a particular way:

Wire Color        How much wire  unsheathed         How much wire to strip to copper    

green                              3"                                             .75” or 3/4”
black                     1.875 or 1 7/8”                                 .625” or 5/8”
red                        1.875 or 1 7/8”                                 .625” or 5/8”
white                         1.5 or 1 1/2                                   .625” or 5/8”

Why they gave directions in decimals for the inches I have no idea because I had to convert them first. I used a box cutter to cut the sheathing down the three inches needed for the green wire and then used a wire cutter to achieve the lengths needed for each wire. Finally I used a wire stripper to strip the required amounts off of each wire’s end.

At this point one must be really careful to make sure to follow the diagram to put each wire in its rightful place. Then tighten each as much as possible. All that remained was to put the rest of the plug together and tighten the sheath collar real snug.

With the right tools this happened to be a fairly easy task in making our power cord as good as new! It was made even easier when the neighbor’s dog came by to assist…

NOTE:  We are currently in College Station, Texas until June 15th…