CHRISTMAS TREE

OK, so while I was in Canton during Hurricane Ike, I went to a Christmas Store. They had really creative ideas and I quickly purchased a wire bucket so that I could recreate one of their beautiful trees. I really enjoy doing something different every year.

Getting that bucket into the tree was not as easy as I thought it would be. After taking it in and out several times over a 3 day time period, I finally called the store and had them guide me through it. Sylvia, recovering from her surgery, watched this whole process and on day three of trying to finish the tree, I announced that I was about ready to give up on the bucket. She stated that she would have thrown the whole tree out the back door three days ago. The idea behind this is that you can fill the bucket with lots of cute ornaments and even little presents for guests to take home. I was just charmed by that. However, the family was not. Each member that came over had an opinion and most were not favorable. The men were particularly harsh! Comments ranged from "It looks like a kangaroo tree", "It looks pregnant", all the way to "What the heck is that?" One son, after looking at it long and hard, stated that he knew that it must be the new thing in decorating, but what was it suppose to represent??!! Of course, Sonny absolutely hated it! I don't think that I am going to try again to do a "bucket tree" next year. One family member suggested that it might look nice under the tree with gifts in it. How boring!!!!

SNOW ON THE GULF COAST??

Ok, now I am writing what should have been December posts. My friend Dorothy says that after a hurricane, you always have a cold winter. Guess she was right because it snowed December 10!! Not just a little bit, but enough to look like a winter wonderland (for the Gulf Coast). I can't remember when we have gotten so much! It started coming down at about 6:00 pm and we stayed up until 1:00 am admiring it and taking tons of pictures. Much to our surprise, it was still there the next morning. So, we had a great time making a snowman and throwing snowballs.

What a great pleasure during the Christmas season.

HURRICANE IKE BONUS

There is always a silver lining to every cloud. So, Hurricane Ike was terrible, but he brought me a gift - I got a new table! Yes, this beauty is one that I have eyeing for two years. It is long!!!!! However, we need it with our large family. This picture is without the extra leaves. With those in, we can seat 12 - 14 at one table. Never mind that the person seating at one of the ends can easily reach over and open the front door and that the person at the other end has a view of the kitchen! Hey at least we can now seat you.

I love tablescapes and now I can play to my heart's content with the extra space! This is my fall tablescape. Notice the chairs do not match! Those go with my old table, but new chairs will be coming soon. I am patient and will find just the right ones on clearance. Who knew that chairs cost more than the table!!

PARIS ANYONE??!!!!

While I was waiting for our electricity and water to be restored after Hurricane Ike, I decided to visit Paris. No, not as in France, but as in Texas. Those of you who have been to our house, know of my love for Paris and have seen my collection of Eiffel Towers. However, this Texas Eiffel Tower is my new favorite. What better way to crown the Eiffel Tower than with a red cowboy hat.

My uncle Johnny and his sweet wife Mary Ann live in Paris, TX. I had never been to their home and decided it was definitely time to visit them and see Paris. What a fun day it was. They indulged me by taking me to see this Texas version of the famous landmark and several shops so that I could buy a Texas Eiffel Tower to add to my collection. Thanks Uncle Johnny and Mary Ann!

WE ARE NAKED!!!

Don't get excited!! It is our yard that is naked. Hurricane Ike has taken all of our trees! Here is Sonny spending yet another weekend cutting up the trees that Ike broke the tops off of. We waited to see if any could be saved, but they all had to come down. Jenny's special childhood tree, that was outside of her room, didn't make it. Sorry Jenny!

THE DIASTER

OK, so the date says Feb. 3, 2009. Maybe I am a little late but at least I am trying to catch up! So I am going to just pick up where I left off , which would be to talk about the disruption of Hurricane Ike in our lives here on the Gulf Coast. This is what Hurricane Ike left behind at our house. Doesn't look so bad does it??!! Well, this is the cleaned up version because I was in Canton for 10 days during all of this. I couldn't come back because we had no electricity or water. My sweet husband came home within minutes after the storm passed and cleaned for the next week. I missed our house and yard looking like a bomb went off and he could not take "before" pictures because I had the camera! Yes, we had more damage than we would have liked (water in 4 rooms), but we were so blessed. So many had very little to come home to. As you can see, our house is still standing and we just love the new "blue tarp" roof. It matches all of our neighbors!

SUMMER OF DISRUPTIONS

It has been awhile since I have posted. However, I actually have a reasonably good excuse. Our first disaster was our desktop crashed. Dead as a door nail!!! To make a long story short, we had no formal backup and some of our attempts at backup were just not adequate. I cried for one whole day over pictures that are now frozen on my old hard drive. I was also heartbroken over losing some of the recipes that friends had shared with me. So, if you know of any good and cheap techs that can get these pictures off of the old hard drive, please let me know.

Several $$$$$ later, we had the computer "redone" complete with a new external hard drive for back up. I couldn't work on the computer for weeks because every time I got on it, it was blank, wiped clean. Where were my Favorites???!!!!! I really stressed every time I turned it on. You never realize how much you have on it until it is gone.

While still in the recovery phase from that loss, the lap top got an Ad Ware bug. Those things are really bad! Back came the tech and after several days and several more $$$$ we had that back, up and running. We lost no data, just money!! There is always a silver lining.

After all of these tech problems, I got a much needed break. I traveled to San Antonio with my sister who was attending a conference. We had a "Girl's Trip" and had so much fun. I think I may have had more fun since she had to work. The San Antonio Riverwalk was so beautiful and one day we had a little "cool front" come in and were able to walk outside all day without doing a melt down.

Little did we know that this was just a lull before the real disaster came!