The First White Christmas In The Nashville Area in 17 Years!

This was our Christmas tree this year.  The first Christmas tree we've had in this house and we've been here more than 8 years.  That's because we've been going somewhere else to celebrate every year and I'd just been decorating our fireplace mantles.  But I hope we've started a new tradition of having the family come to our house for Christmas.  So I bought this tree on Black Friday and immediately set it up.  That's my "cry baby" to the left of the tree.  A friend from where I used to work made her for me years ago.   Can you see the snow out the window to the right?

This was the first White Christmas that the Nashville Area has had in 17 years and it waited for this special year when all of my Grand babies, my Mom and my precious in-laws were at our home!  This was also the first Christmas in 17 years that my in-laws were in Tennessee.  In the past they were in Florida every year, volunteering at Big Cypress just outside of Naples.  We were so glad to have them home this year and glad that we were blessed with a beautiful snow fall.

 The picture above was taken outside of our front door and the one below from outside our back door.  It was just beautiful, as you can see.

Sadly I got a call at 5 a.m. on the 26th that my brother's wife had passed away and we left at 3 p.m. to drive to Texas.  She was in Tennessee with us on the 4th of July and started feeling sick after they returned to Texas.  She was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given 6-12 months.  It was a shock that she was gone so soon, but a blessing that she did not have to suffer long.  My brother is having a rough time, as you can imagine, but he is a strong person and he has a good support system of friends around him.

We are all looking forward to a much better year.  2010 was sure a doozy!

Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year

Obviously I have not been posting on a regular basis this year.  I'm hoping to change that soon.  I'm in negotiations with this guy for a computer for home.  Only problem is that I live so far out in the country there is no cable.  I also can't get DSL and most other Internet services.  The market across the interstate has WiFi though, so I may start spending my weekends in their lounge so I can log on!  Guess I need to start developing a relationship with their management!  I wouldn't go hungry while there.  They have a Dunkin Donuts, a Backyard Burger and a soda fountain on site.

About the computer negotiations - I've never owned a Mac, but I'm leaning in that direction.  I know several people that own Mac Books and they seem very pleased with them.  I like the fact that they supposedly are only susceptible to a few viruses as compared to PCs.  And that they don't become obsolete as quickly as a Dell, which I've always worked on.  I love the photo program that comes with them, at least I loved it when the salesman demonstrated it to me.  I've got a whole bookcase filled with photos from my family and that of My Handyman's - we are the "family historians", that he assured me I could scan into it from the scanner that he said he would make me a great deal on!

How about it?  Any of you have/use a Mac?  Do you know of any good deals on them that I should know about?  How about photo scanner/printers?  Help me make a good investment -PLEASE!

Maybe once the negotiations are final I can get everything together and post regularly AND open an Etsy shop!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.  AND A WONDERFUL 2011!!!

This Is Our New Front Door

Installed! Isn't it beautiful?  

You can't tell from this picture, but the glass is beveled all around the edges.  When we ordered it we ordered fir, but the fir doors were back-ordered for 3 months!  So Lowe's offered us the same door in MAHOGANY FOR THE SAME PRICE! 

And it was available immediately!

So My Handyman pulled off the siding and took out the old doors (left), covered the space with plywood and put the new door in place.  I don't know how he did it by himself because, if you know anything about mahogany, IT IS HEAVY!



Getting a mahogany door instead of a fir door presented us with a new dilemma!



To paint or not to paint?

The original plan was to paint, that's why we ordered fir.

In the end, hard as it was, we decided to paint it.  I LOVE a red door and felt like a stained door, as pretty as it would be, wouldn't be enough of a contrast for me.

Looks like we're getting ready for Christmas, doesn't it?!  Won't it be pretty with a beautiful wreath!

My Handyman painted the plywood around the door to match the siding and to protect it from the weather until the replacement siding can be installed, which won't happen until the kitchen windows to the left of the door are replaced. And, as you can see, the trim was painted the same green as the trim on the rest of the house.  Kinda reminds me of the old Lincoln Logs that my brother and I played with as kids.

Don't you just love how one project ALWAYS leads to another!?!

My New Front Deck

I tried to find an actual BEFORE picture of this area, but it must be on my jump drive instead of my computer. Just picture some awkward, curved rock steps with a huge rock planter next to them, where nothing ever grew but weeds. WE (My sweet Handyman) knocked out the steps and planter and this is what it looked like before the building began. That pink string you can barely see is to help us keep everything nice and level.  Please ignore the lounge chair you see sitting out in the sun to the left.  That was my "taking a break" chair that I used while My Handyman was working on the details!

This is actually the side of our house, but we now use it as the "front door" because we closed in the front porch and eliminated the "real" front door. Besides, the driveway and garage are closer to this door and visitors can park on the drive and get to it without having to walk across the grass. Confession: We NEVER used the "real" front door anyway because you had to walk around the house, through the grass and up the porch steps to get to it.

This  (below) is the view from the drive as you approach the garage.  See that little square window to the left of the door?  It's gone now, but that was the corner of my new pantry peeking out the window.  If you are a professional building contractor, please look away!

Oh, and those red doors aren't there anymore either.  We have a new, more beautiful door now.  But that's for another post!  (Dear Gail: Is that the type of teaser you were referring to?)

Please excuse the quality of the following picture. It was taken with my phone and it was still a little dark outside.  However, this is the deck with the steps and flooring done and the support posts for the roof in place.

And here it is with the rafters and railing in place, but the roof wasn't on yet. That blue foot stool you see is for the king of the property.  Our Jack Russell Terrorist - Buster Brown.  He likes a nice soft place to rule over his territory!  It doesn't get to stay, but it's good for now.

And here, from another angle. Can you see the little added "touch" that My Handyman added to the rafters?  There on the first one?

Can you see it?

How about now?

That's My Handyman's interpretation of a fish head!  He ended up cutting all of the rafters to look like this!

Sometimes I just HAVE to let him use his "creative talents" too!

I just realized I don't have a picture with the roof on that doesn't reveal my new front door!  Guess you'll have to come back to see that one :)

A PEEK AT SOME OF THE PROJECTS WE'VE BEEN DOING

For my kitchen:

For my entry:

At my front door:

For my Library/Den:

We've been busy. Come back to see what we've accomplished.

Just to Let You Know What's Up - A BIG PRAYER REQUEST

As you probably have noticed, It's been a while since I've done a decent blog post. My heart just hasn't been in it. I've thought about closing down the blog, but rethought it and just decided to wait it out and see if I can get myself back to it. Here's what's up (it's been a "challenging year").

Daddy suffered multiple strokes beginning in January and we lost him in May. He was in and out of the hospital and nursing home, but we brought him home, where he wanted to be, and he died on May 12. He was just days shy of his 82nd birthday.

I had back surgery in February to repair a compression fracture. I'm doing fine for an old woman of 54. It's hard for me not to be able to do what I want to do when I want to do it. Most of the time I do it anyway and just try to be careful. I pretty stubborn that way.

My Sister-In-Law was diagnosed with cancer when she and my brother returned to their home in Texas shortly after my Daddy's funeral. She's been going through chemo, chest tubes to drain fluid off of her lungs, blood clots, swollen legs, loss of her hair, draining fluid off of her abdomen multiple times, etc. My brother has been trying to take care of her and run a business. We haven't been able to be there to help, but all of her family live close by and have been doing all that they can. She has her third chemo treatment next week and then they will do surgery. Apparently she had cervical cancer and resulting treatments a few years ago that we were not aware of and the radiation caused massive scarring, so they can't tell from the outside exactly where the cancer is, but it doesn't sound good. I am concerned about my brother and can't stand the thought that we may loose my SIL sooner than later. It breaks my heart. But she is going to MD Anderson in Houston, for treatment. It has an AWESOME reputation, so she is in good hands.

On July 28th we welcomed a beautiful new grandson born to my husband's oldest son and his precious wife. I've known these "kids" since they were in Elementary school, even before my husband and I married 11 years ago on October 23rd, so even though they are not blood relatives, I love them just as much as if they were. They also have a beautiful little girl who is only 21 months old.

Several weeks ago, at the age of 9 weeks, this precious baby boy was diagnosed with Biliary Atrisia and has had the Kasai procedure that is mentioned in this article that I've linked to. He developed an infection and it has been determined that the Kasai was not successful. He has been put on the "short list" for a liver transplant. If he was a toddler he would be able to get a portion of an adult liver, but at this age he must have an infant liver. This means that another family's precious little baby will have to die before little Thatcher can get a liver. Not only are we broken hearted over Thatcher's health, but over the fact that he can only have an infant liver. As you can imagine, his Mommy and Daddy are taking this very hard, as is the entire family. My husband has broken down on multiple occasions at the thought of his only grandson being so ill with a life threatening condition.

Over the last week my husband as been wrestling with a kidney stone. Up until Tuesday he has been in terrible pain and on meds for pain and nausea. It started with virus like symptoms, last Wednesday, which I will not elaborate on here other than to say he was having severe abdominal and back pain. Since he had been laid off for a couple of months and had JUST gone back to work, he attempted to go without medication on Monday so he could work. MISTAKE. He showed up at my office looking green and in pain, so I took him for the second visit to the ER. He is not in pain now, but we think the stone has moved to his bladder, which the Dr. said would happen. Now we just wait for it to decide to pass. Selfishly I was REALLY glad it wasn't a virus because I would have caught it. However, I have been really concerned about him and neither of us has been getting much sleep. As I've said before, he also has a pacemaker/defibrillator and stress is NOT good for him. So of course I've been worried about that too.

While all of the above has been going on, we've caught my now 80 year old Mother climbing up on a ladder, trying to clean out the gutters on her two story home. We've also found out that she has climbed in her kitchen sink to reach the curtains at the window above it so that she could wash them. Then back up again to put them up. When I asked her, "what would have happened if you fell?!! We might not have found you for hours!" She simply said, "well, I didn't!"

So my daughter and her family decided that it might be a good idea to move in with Mom, both to help her out financially and to keep an eye on her. My daughter's husband is in construction, so he can fix all the little things that need to be fixed that my Daddy wasn't able to do the last 5 years of his life. They have rented their house to a teacher that my daughter works with and are in the process of moving in. We've cleaned out the attic and closets of Mom's house and had 2 weekends worth of yard sales. There is still LOTS of stuff left and it is all stored in 1/2 of Mom's garage. I took off work for a week to help with the cleaning and it was EXHAUSTING. But I did learn one BIG thing: I learned to be a pack rat from my parents! I don't think they ever threw ANYTHING away! As soon as things settle down I'm getting rid of everything I don't need except for everything related to my genealogy research and family heirlooms. And not my fabric and yarn stash - yet.

In the middle of the moving in with Mom, my daughter and her family went on a long planned trip to Disney World in Florida, for a week, and left all of their "stuff" scattered around my Mom's house. They've got A LOT OF ORGANIZING TO DO! Mom is used to having things in pretty good order and she was not happy!

I had a birthday on October 13th.

My daughter's oldest had her 5th birthday while they were at Disney - October 15th.

Mom had her 80th birthday on October 17th. We took her to lunch and spent most of the day with her. We wanted to have a big birthday party for her, but with everything else going on we just couldn't make it happen.

My 11th anniversary is October 23rd. I'm married to THE MOST WONDERFUL MAN I'VE EVER KNOWN! God truly blessed me when I found him. He spoils me rotten and loves me despite myself!

I've not put all this down to elicit pity. I'm pushing through, though weary of all the "drama" and could really use some decent sleep!! I know God is in control, not me. I do have to say that I have trouble with all of this being "God's will!" The God I know is a God of LOVE. I just think all of this "stuff" is just LIFE and that God loves us through it all and gives us the strength to deal with it all.

I'm asking you to pray for our family and keep praying. We've got some really tough stuff going on and it looks like it's gonna get tougher.

Pray for little Thatcher and for his Mommy and Daddy. They are not even 30 yet and having to deal with so much.

Pray for my SIL, Nancy and my brother, Christopher and their daughter Lauren, who has only recently graduated from college and started her first teaching job. CANCER SUCKS!!

Pray for my Mom, Chris, who is only 5 months past the loss of her husband of nearly 60 years.

Pray for my daughter, Amber and her husband, Vince and children Ava and Zoe as they adjust to their new living arrangements with my Mom.

Pray for my dear, sweet husband who is suffering, not only physically from his kidney stone, but emotionally as well, as he worries about his son and grandson and the rest of the family.

And pray too for my in-laws, Joe, who is 83, and Darlene who is 79. They are such loving people and this is all breaking their hearts as well. I love them like they were my own parents and Darlene thinks of me as the daughter she never had.

Thank you for "listening."

Cleaning Out the Attic

I am spending this week cleaning out my parent's attic, closets, storage shed, etc. and we will be having a garage/yard sale. I will post the "better" stuff for sale on-line, either on etsy, ebay or craigslist. And maybe some here if I get a chance.

So far I have a vintage wicker doll/baby stroller, an antique wall phone, some scales, lots of Madame Alexander Baby Dolls and some old bed springs and other items good for those repurposers that are near by. No pictures yet, but I will get to that if/when I can. Post a comment if you have questions. I will only have periodic computer access, but will check when I can.

Back to cleaning!