Trip to Mars Hill

This month we went to visit Jonathan's parents in a small town called Mars Hill, NC. It is about a half hour outside of Asheville. We had a good time and it was fun to drive the blue ridge parkway. It is amazing the colors and views that you can see. As Jonathan's mom stated most of the colors had already changed, but at the lower elevations they were still very visible as you can see. The higher we got up the mountain the less colors there were. It was a good time even though it was short. We hope that his parents will be able to come visit us soon.

Cy-Fair Fire Dep.

The end of October brought the annual Cy-Fair volunteer Fire Department bonanza and of course we had to go. They had demonstrations of how they extract people from car accidents with all the equipment. They set cars on fire. They had a dog that was able to sniff out victims that may be in a collapsed building. Then they had the whole history of the Cy-Fair fire department and all of the trucks too. The kids were enthralled with the Memorial Hermann Hospital medivac that showed up at the end. It was an all day show and I have to admit was pretty impressive. I am always enthralled with helicopters landing, always have been. So of course when it landed, I ran out and watched it, while Jonathan stayed in the firehouse looking at all the equipment. It was really interesting to see the things that my husband can do if he is on the correct apparatus when the time comes. Firefighters are truly amazing men and women and I am blessed to be married to one of those men.

Yogurt Cup

Ok, so it has been awhile. There has been stuff going on and we have had a lot of fun with Brownie our dog. She has developed a fond taste for my yogurt cups in the morning. She will follow me around or sit quietly while I finish the cup. She has also developed a fondness for the pudding cups and the fruit cups for our lunches. Unfortunately due to the fact that we are at work eating lunch, she doesn't get these cups much. Anyway, besides all of this we have finished the kitchen except for some small details that outside visitors would not notice. We are so excited and will be posting those pictures soon. In the meantime enjoy the pictures of Brownie and her Yogurt cup.

Hurricane Ike

Well Hurricane Ike hit hard on Friday night. Wendy didn't get much sleep due to the fact that the winds were very strong and gusty, Jonathan had no trouble sleeping right through it. We lost power about 1am on Saturday morning and it continued that way until about 1pm on Sunday. Not bad considering there are still about 1.5million people without power. We are one of the lucky ones in the fact that it didn't take long for us to regain power. Our neighbor who had a generator was able to plug our refrigerator into it, so we didn't loose any food. Jonathan got called into work at the firehouse on Saturday night, so Wendy went and stayed with some friends so that she wouldn't have to be alone in a dark house. Our home didn't sustain any major damage a leaning fence and tree, but other than that we are very blessed to have little damage. As you can see from the photo's some of our neighbors sustained major damage. The clean up continues as the city has asked everyone to clean up the tree limbs, leaves, and branches, and to bag as much as possible so that the waste crew will have an easier time cleaning up. We have finished with the front yard and are now onto the back. Mostly leaves and a few shingles from neighboring houses to pick up in the back. Again, we feel very blessed to have power, water, and no major damage. Thank you all for your prayers and continue to pray for those who lost everything, and those still without power and water.

Kitchen update #3

So into week four we went. We have a lot of stuff complete, such as, countertops, light fixtures, staining of all cabinets - excluding doors, painting, texturizing, and we have a microwave installed. We still need to put in the backsplash, finish staining the doors, and tile, but hey we are over half way done. I do have to say that there was one unexpected surprise in this project. The countertops had just been installed and we were joking about how the refrigerator was the only appliance left that was white. Just our luck...the refrigerator starting going out. So, since we figured it was the compressor a expensive part, we bought a new one to match the rest of the appliances. Thank you to Linda for her help on what brand to purchase. So Jonathan will have to pick up a few more shifts at work to pay for that little expense, but at least we got a screaming deal. Thanks for all the encouragement from all of you. We look forward to this project being called done!!!

Brownie and the turtle

This last week, I looked out the window to find Brownie had something in her mouth. Not unusual, but I figured I had better find out what it was. It was a turtle. Thinking that she has probably killed it, I put it in a bucket and waited to see if it was alive or not. After awhile, I heard noise coming from the bucket and realized the turtle was still alive. I moved the turtle to one of our recycle bins and then watched Brownie react to this new thing. Enjoy!! We have since returned the turtle to the bayou where he came from. I hear it is common after a heavy rain to get turtles coming up from the bayou.

Kitchen slide show