I have lots of photos, I’m discovering as I finish moving my stuff to my new house. Sometime between now and 2010 I must go through and organize them. Sigh. It looks like a big job. In the mean time, let me share some from my family’s Christmas in 2000. Note the stunning quality. I found 2 floppy disks with pictures from that Chrismtas. Yeah, the 1.44 MB floppy disk. Only 8 years ago and these was considered a semi-decent scan by Kodak. They were considering screen quality only but still, horrific quality. My DSLR takes pictures that are 3 to 4 MB each.

The whole crew.

Checking out Grandma’s new gazebo.

Dennis and Austin observing Chip’s rocket.

The infamous rides to Happy Acres store in the wagon.

Phil had a balloon/message project for the kiddos.

After the trip to Happy Acres with their stash of sugary things.

 Probably nobody but my family will appreciate these but I think they’re hysterical.  

And still we toil on. Step by slow (so it feels) step we get closer to the moving in stage. And yet we bump it off at least one more week. Maybe next weekend.

The hardwood floor is nearly finished and as I watched Chip labor intensely to lay it I asked Lois, “So, can we take the credit for ‘laying the floor’? and she said that would be a stretch. We did help though so that counts for something. The lady at the store where we bought it said if “we” do a good enough job she will let us do hers. 🙂

We are very delighted with the wood we got. I didn’t get a picture of the completed project as it was nearly midnight when we left Wed. night. I was too bleary eyed to see much.

Oh and it is COLD here. Laugh if you want but it got down into the teens last night. Keep laughing. We are on the edge of the tropical zone. And for 2 days straight the highs were in the 30s. With the sun shining full blast.

I won’t even attempt to write everything that took place since I last posted.

— Last weekend we enjoyed having two cousins move into the area and their mom and other siblings came along to help them move. Fun weekend! Took Annette’s senior pictures. This is the first ime I’ve ever lived in the same area as any first cousins. I’m excited about it!!

— Took some engagement pictures last week!!!! Congrats Ken & Carmel!

— Went to the Greyhound bus station in Atlanta to pick up Lena’s sister and aunt.

— Went to the hospital to see 2 new babies!!

— How could I forget…… I FINISHED THE 2007 CALENDARS!!! I think I’ve mentioned before that I like to procrastinate….. well, I got these done time to take them along to the NEW YEARS EVE PARTY!! (Yeah, I’m yelling. Feels kinda good.)

— Ordered a calendar using pics I’ve taken in the last year. I kind of threw them together so the layouts are not consistent from page to page. I will grit my teeth and ignore that for now. It was late so my titles are chintzy too. I’ll have to start earlier for next year. Know of anyone interested in a calendar with images from Impressions by Marylou? Here are the sheets:

Since I’m sure you’ll never get tired of seeing house pictures (ha ha) here are a few more:

 
Mama wiping out the fridge

 
Lois, our blind installer and all around (cordless) drill sargent. She put in all our door knobs too.

 
Chip and Michael figuring out the first board cuts.

Putting down glue for the floor. Nice cheap labor we had!!!

New Years Eve Party

Joe, the master oyster roaster

I ate one. It barely tasted like oysters. I’m not sure it that’s good or bad.

Well, that’s all for now. Hasta la vista. (I’m not exactly sure that means. My Spanish is sketchy to say the least and some of the things I know how to say I have no idea what I’m saying. I’m just repeating what I hear my sister say. Dangerous, I know.)

Update:  It was the 2008 calendars I made for the church. Those actually had pictures of church people and that’s partly what took so long to put them together. There were other procrastinators involved.

and other great mysteries.

Well, it’s not so mysterious, really. After all, I’m building a house and it’s December. That should be self-explanatory. I told someone that it always seems like by the first week of December, the month is half-over. I guess we let our schedules get fuller than they should. But what to say no to? My friends think I’m saying “no” at an alarming rate. But that doesn’t stop life from happening. So what has been going on? Thank goodness a picture is worth a thousand words. In this post, this will count for a whole dissertation.

 
Did he or did he not catch it? I can’t remember but it kinds bothers me seeing him hang there like that. The Montezuma boys came over last Saturday and played our boys (men in both cases). Our men lost but we’ll spare them the grief by not posting their score.

A baby shower for Lena and Marlin, who are expecting their first baby after 13 years of marriage.

Charity’s creative decor. The doll on the left belongs to Lena’s aunt Mary.

The weather has been quite warm. Right now it is raining for which we are tickled!!!! This picture was one I took one evening after work. There seemed to be a fog rising from the ground. It almost look eerie. Or ethereal.

Work has been very very busy. I said if it gets much busier I will have to hire a secretary for me! A little Christmas music and candlelight goes a long way to keeping things going there.

 
Or a new canvas for the wall. Recognize that picture? I got a 16×24 canvas wrap. The wrap is 1.5 inches deep. I bought an extra one for half price so now I need to find a market for it. This one is hanging in my office.

Playing with depth of focus on my camera. Our Christmas dinner is now history. Fun times!

Ginny and I are in charge of Ladies Night Out so we planned a Christmas Party. Neither of us were feeling to inspired but it all came together and I think everyone really enjoyed it. Myra helped us with decorations which was a tremendous help!! We had asked every lady to bring a small plate of food. Depending on the first letter of their last name, it was either 1. sandwiches 2. salty food (meatballs, quiches, pinwheels, chips, etc.) 3. something with dip 4. dessert/sweets. Well, we should’ve emphasized the SMALL plate in our request because the ladies brought large plates or trays of very fabulous food!!! We did not run out of calories that night!

We split the chairs up into three groups, thus encouraging easier conversation than a huge circle. We did not want tables since this was more of a fingerfood type meal. If we could’ve pulled off adding couches to the dining hall we would’ve. But alas, it looked like too much work.

We played charades, getting some serious laughs from the brave ladies who acted for us. Here Katy doesn’t realize she is a bride, kneeling before her groom, though she’s not supposed to be praying to him. They thought they were doing something with putting up Christmas decorations.

We also played a game called Commonalities and Uniquities. We divided up into groups of 5. For commonalities, we had to come up with as many things that we all had in common. Our group was laughing too hard to get much of a list together. We found out we don’t all have dandruff and we aren’t all constipated. Some of us obviously were, though, for that to come up. For the uniquities part, we had to come up with some things that were unique to only 1 person in the group. Then we read them to the whole group and they had to guess who it was.

Andrea, thanks for the link to the game. We were going to use it but ended up not playing it after all. Ginny did use it at the Choice Books banquet last week.

I did mention we’re building a house, right? Here are a few pics from today. I went over to seal the grout in the kitchen. Cabinets to be installed Mon. or Tues.

We did paint the front porch door black. Thanks for your many suggestions!!!

 
Our dining room light minus one globe. Notice the mystery spots on the wall. I was not using a flash and the spots were not on the walls. They only showed up on the pictures I took at this angle.

Looking from the dining room into the living room. Our house is built pretty much square, though it’s hard to tell from these pictures.

The tray ceiling in my room. Can you tell yet that we like green?

The tile around the tub/shower (more of my uncle Lewis’ handiwork!).

Lois’ bedroom has a tan suede paint which is beautiful but hard to get on camera. Looks a little like a canvas background. Hmmmm. Maybe a good backdrop for pictures. Maybe I need to find another chair though!!

Okay, that is a long enough post to last until 2009 or 2010 at least!! Hope you have a great week-before-Christmas. Don’t let your schedule do you in (like mine nearly did). Just say “no” (if you need to).