Stormy Super Tuesday

Lots of storms came through last night. The worst were west and north of us. We're fine, As of late last night Michael, Debbie & kids were fine. It's not daylight yet so I don't know what it looks like outside, but we have power and all, so there's probably just some branches down around here. There were tornadoes over near Michael's, but hopefully everything is okay out there. All the storms are east of us now so today will be better.

Yup, we're watching. What a great game. I'm hoping Green Bay wins. What a great Superbowl that would be!
It's cold here these days. Only in the high 30's or low 40's. After watching the game-we'lll take our weather over that.
Jim got a job offer last week, I'm still looking. Other than that we've just been puttering around doing stuff that needs to be done. The dogs are still growing, still the cutest puppies around. Laura was here over her winter break. We went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Hermitage, and of course The Wildhorse. It was good to see her. Both kids will be here in March. That will be a lot of fun. Jim's family is coming here for a week in April and hopefully my father will find time to stop by during his southern journey.

Ahh, the dog days of December

Yup, yesterday was golf weather. It actually got up to about 76. We tried to work on the house, but kept hearing our golf clubs yelling "take me for a drive!". So we did.

We are now working on the living room - it's coming along nicely and should be done by the end of this week. We would like to be able to put up the Christmas decorations soon, so we're moving right along.

Everything is going well here. We're enjoying the area and feel like we're making good progress with the house. Keep in touch!!

We spent a whole day at Texas Roadhouse

On Tuesday we went to Texas Roadhouse in Hendersonville to help build a "Home in a Box". Texas Roadhouse has partnered with Habitat for Humanity to build houses in New Orleans. Habitat has created a "Musicians Village" and have a unique way to involve people countrywide. When we got there Tuesday (about 10AM), there were various stacks of lumber in the parking lot. It was all cut and marked, and ready to be assembled. There were about 30-35 people there and we split into groups and started assembling windows and doors. We gathered the necessary pieces and nailed them together. When those were done, we started on the walls. We framed all the interior and exterior walls, then temporarily assembled the house in the parking lot. They took pictures (which we're waiting to get) and then we disassembled it and put everything into two trailers that headed for New Orleans. The New Orleans Habitat for Humanity will build the house sometime in January. (The leader of this group from the Roadhouse said she has the address it's going to built at, so if anyone goes to New Orleans we'd love to see pictures of the completed house.) It was a great day and a great way for us to get involved with Habitat down here It was a one-day commitment, and a lot of fun. We look forward to getting involved more after the holidays. It was good to get outside for the day and meet some people and have fun. The ribs for lunch and beer afterwards were just bonuses - enjoyable bonuses!!

While Jim Wrestled the Snake........

Remember Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom? Well, anyway, it was only a plumbing snake. Our kitchen sink was draining very slowly, so we bought a drain snake and went from the sink down, and then into the cellar and about 20' to the T in the pipe. There seems to be 30 years of sludge in the pipes and only a small opening for the water. So after a couple hours of that, and no real progress we called Roto Rooter. It's good now. We have this beautiful new dishwasher that we'll want to hook up some day, so it's good to have the drain working. We're making great progress on the kitchen and bathroom. The bathroom is going to look great. The kitchen will be spectacular. Every step we make in there, we look at it and say "Wow, that looks great". I'll let you see it when it's done. The weather is just starting to change, until yesterday it was in the 80's and 90's. The rest of the week is forecast to be mid 60's, then back up again at the beginning of next week. We could use lots of rain but that's not in the forecast. Hopefully at some point that will come. Gotta get to work! Have a great day!

Meet Jake and Rusty. They're 6 weeks old and absolutely adorable. Rusty (in the back) is a little larger, squarer body shape, and nappy fur. Jake has the look of a tradition golden retriever, and is about a pound lighter than Rusty. They've been with us for a week and have reminded us what sleep deprivation is. Of course we're tearing apart the kitchen at the same time, so we've been keeping busy. All here is well, let us know how ya'll are doing.

Time flies when you're having fun.....

I don't know how long you thought it would be before we started renovations, but whoever had their money on 19 days wins!!! We decided to start on the kitchen right away and hopefully have it done by Thanksgiving. We've gotten a good start. Jim has most of the lower cabinets built and I've got a coat of primer on them. Appliances and counters have been picked out and we're ready to get started. We've been focusing on getting guest rooms ready so there's plenty of room whenever anyone wants to visit. We're ready! We're going to look at a couple of boats this weekend - I'll keep you posted on that. Tonight we're watching the Red Sox/Yankees game. It's the bottom of the 6th, so far so good. The weather has cooled considerably so we're able to get outside and enjoy the yard, maybe soon we can even go golfing. Hope everyone is doing well. Keep in touch!