And So It Begins....

This message was sent to me and with just a couple of switches, I want to share it with all of you:

As we move into the New Year, we look back on all of our struggles and triumphs of 2008 and realize we have much to be thankful for. Let us give thanks for our families, our friends and our health. Give thanks for those we love and for those that love us and have loved us. Remember with a happy heart those we lost and celebrate those that are still with us. Let us pray for soldiers that are defending our country and their families, those that have lost their jobs or their homes. No matter what your political orientation, let us pray especially hard for the new President to give him the courage, the strength and the wisdom to lead our country into a new era of prosperity and peace.

While we make our New Years' resolutions with true determination to stick with what we want and know we can achieve, remember that our resolutions' success or failure do not define who we are. We are defined by our actions.

Please join me in this coming year to strive to be kinder, more giving, to laugh more and cry less and to live life to the fullest no matter what the circumstance. Remember that to have a friend, you must be a friend....and to you, my friends, I wish you all a Happy & Healthy 2009!

~*~

A 3 Minute Celebration....

We've Got Lots To Be Thankful For...

Wishing you & yours a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!!

Love Them Rubber Biscuits...

We didn't actually plan it this way, but after a long first day of floor staining, we needed to get out of the stinky house and take a break. We had gotten tickets to a concert that we couldn't wait to see and they have a restaurant there, and dinner and music was just what we needed! Where? The House Of Blues at Downtown Disney! So, one center cut pork chop, some wild mushroom pasta and a piece of chocolate mousse cheescake later it was almost show time....







Oh...didn't I tell you what the concert was? Here's a hint.....

Hmmm...don't know yet? How about these brothers in this cop car....anything?

No...not these brothers.....

These Brothers.....!

What a great show...all of the classic Blues Brothers music and some new stuff thrown in. The show was Sold Out and I was surprised to see a much younger crowd...guess the parents of those kids passed along the Blues Legacy! They were selling the new CD after the show and Zee Blues (Jim Belushi) was signing each and every one...very cool guy. I think seeing this sold out crowd would have made Jake very happy...

It was so great to see Dan Ackroyd in his Elwood Blues role..lots of dancing and harmonica playing and he never took off his sunglasses..not once! Elwood's not moving quite as fast as he used too, but he is one slick guy.

If you've got an extra minute, and you're a Blues Brothers fan, click on a couple of the songs in the player. They did them all and it was the 1980's all over again...okay, okay, I'm old...whatever. :)

A woman once asked Elwood if he and Jake were police officers. Elwood answered..."No Ma'm...we're musicians."

Knock On Wood

And so it begins! The floors are in and being prepped for oiling as we speak. There are some uneven edges and there has been one very quiet guy here all morning planing down the edges so nobody gets bumped. And, he is using little pieces of sandpaper and hand sanding the entire floor. No kidding!!

Anyway...here's the entry foyer...(no baseboards yet)






the steps up to the living room......

the family room......(these walls are very textured...3 kind of a sand color with a shade darker glaze and 1 dark green with a black glaze. I know, but it's neater than it sounds)

And out of all of these boards, this is my favorite. We used it in the foyer right as you come in the door. It's pretty long, but I had to show you the close up of the saw marks and nail holes! Love those. Now we have 3 more days of oil..one coat per day...and hopefully carpet & baseboards next week. Dare I say...almost finished??? Ack.

New foyer light...just a touch of saloon, right??

And since I can't get any of my Fall or Halloween stuff out, I made this cool box for one of my Ebay winners. Look at this little girls face...priceless! She looks like she wants to beat the snot out of somebody...

So, there you have it...another day and a bit of progress. I hope, I hope, I hope.....

Gator Country (and I don't mean Molly Hatchett)

Busy day yesterday...floor installation guys, woodworking guy, electrician guy...busy, busy, busy! The Hub came home at his usual time, and was just sitting down on the back porch to do his afternoon crossword puzzle and sodoku (nerd alert). Then I hear him ..."Hurry! Hurry! Look out back...look out back!"

I look out our bedroom glass door and here's what we see....uh, yeah. 6-8 feet of Florida gator, heading right for the beach! He came in a bit closer after this was taken, but from here, we were about 100 feet or so from where he was. This is taken from the deck that is off of the upstairs bedroom.




There had been some otters playing in this shallow area and we saw the fins of some big shallow carp, but he just sat there. After about 10 minutes, he turned and headed back out to the deeper part of the lake....no luck this time.

Kinda creepy, but this lake is full of people on jet ski's and tubes all the time. We have a boat, but there isn't enough money anywhere to get me in that water...or any water, actually. Just remember...in Florida, if there's water, there's gators.

Oh...and sorry for the Molly Hatchett crack. For those of you that get it, it's pretty funny, right?? :)