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).

 

Yup. I’m even good at putting off bedtime. But I did get my car cleaned out to within an inch of its life on Saturday and I did get my church calendar started tonight. I have the months nearly completed but have to do the pages with the pictures on them. I’m still waiting on pics so I guess I’m not the only procrastinator.

Lists – they’re amazing things that help me get done what needs to be done.

So, let’s have a brief rundown of the past and upcoming events for yours truly.

• The floor and shower tile is all installed thanks to my kind uncle and aunt, Lewis and Mary. Supper at Pelican Point was one way showing our appreciation to them and other family members, namely our parents who have put in many hours of painting, and our brother who lifted many heavy boxes for us and who has committed himself to helping us lay our hardwood floor. The other sister (who has also greatly helped with painting) and her family weren’t able to make it.
• Ate 5 oysters within a week’s time. On purpose. They’re better fried than broiled. Trust me on that one.
• Finally picked out the cabinet stain and counter tops. Came back to same laminate several times so decided to go with that, even though the finish is shinier than we wanted it.
• Shopped in Brunswick one evening.
• Watched the Christmas parade and then ate supper at a Mexican restaurant. Listened to football talk. Again.
• And again.
• No I’m not bitter.
• But it did bring up an interesting (?) discussion.

On the to-do list:

• Finish planning the ladies night out Christmas party. Btw, do any of you know of any games/activities that would cover the age group of 15-100. No, we don’t have any 100-year-olds but if we did they’d be invited.
•  Make 1.5 big pans of banana pudding for the company meal (low country boil and oyster roast) that we, along with another company, are doing for subcontractors and customers on Thursday.
• Watch our guys play the Montezuma guys in football on Saturday.
• Hopefully get a little sun.
• Try not to think of how bottle-necked my schedule will be at the end of the year.
• Go to Jax for a barbershop Christmas concert.
• Paint some more.
• Make more decisions.
• Take time to shoot a few more pics.

Here are some from last week:

 

 

mostly SOOC (straight out of camera) except for vignette and border

 

a little edgier editing: 

 

midnight sepia editing:

 

Btw, that is a vine that grows up walls, trees, etc. It has tiny little “feet” that cling to the surface of whatever it’s climbing. Usually the leaves are green and for some reason this is the first year I noticed that it changes colors as well. It’s outside my office.

Gotta quit procrastinating and get some sleep.

 

 

 “Color,” Ginny said, “I want to see some color.” Well, it is there now. We’ve had mostly favorable responses to the kitchen color and no psych evaluation mutterings yet.  A cup of coffee and a long stare at the walls will jolt anyone awake, we decided.

Looking from the dining area into the living room last Saturday:

 

The same view yesterday:

 

It’s hard to capture the true color in a photo. Even the different lighting throughout the day gives it a different look. It’s mostly a shade of orange and the living room is green. You have to see it to really appreciate it! Or not.

All the walls have a top coat and will get a final coat later. Now it’s trim and doors to work on.

We had good help over the past couple of days and we were quite tired by evening.

 

The family that was able to be here for Thanksgiving.

 

The beautiful decor Lois did for us:

Hope you all had a good day! May the counting of blessings continue……

 

What feelings do you hear when you see that?  (okay, that didn’t at all make sense but I thought it was funny so I decided to leave it in. So much for trying to do 2 things at once.) What I was trying to ask is: what picture does “community choir” bring to your mind? Think smaller version of Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. Well, maybe not. Maybe country version of BTC. Certainly closer to that than the Antrim choir. Anyway you picture it, it was a new experience for us.

Joe, Lois and I sang with a Community Choir last night at a Thanksgiving service at a local Baptist church. Let me give you a little more information on southerners: they tend to be quite expressive and even a bit dramatic. This carried over into the singing as well. All 3 of us thought we had loud voices but we had a hard time hearing ourselves even at full volume.

Most of the songs were new for me, so I had a crash course in learning them, as the first time I saw the music was at choir practise Monday night (not having thought to check earlier if there was music we could pick up ahead of time). Having learned to sing with shaped notes, it takes me twice as long to learn a song in round notes. I still mentally translate them into shaped notes as I go. I am in some things a perfectionist and hitting the right note is a big deal to me. But the music was loud enough to cover up any goofs, and lip syncing on the few praise songs I didn’t know was relatively easy to pull off.

Well, one goof wasn’t covered up by music. We had a dramatic pause at the end of the song. Music and voices were supposed to come to a complete halt. One dear gentleman sitting behind me missed the directors cue to watch him and we hit the pause and the bass man just kind of Ahhhhhhed his way down a couple of notes ’til we came in. I had to stifle a nervous giggle for I at times have anholy urge to laugh when things are tense. I’m sure the look on my face was perplexing to say the least!

The preacher really got Joe’s attention when he was talking how nice it was to have a community service with people participating from many different denominations. He said, “We are not in competition with each other. Competition is when the Michigan Wolverines play Ohio State Buckeyes…… and win!” Joe said, “I need to talk to him afterwards!”

He was the same preacher who had forgotten his notes and had to rush back home to get the key to go back to his church for the notes and rush back to the church where the service was held. He said, “I met Jesup’s finest tonight, but I explained to him where I was headed and he had mercy on me. My wife’s car will go really fast!”

It was fun and I’d do it again! This is their 9th year for this type of service so I’m sure I’ll have a chance to participate. I would, in the meantime, be in the mood for some excellent 4-part acappella as well. Where I didn’t have to feel like I was nearly yelling.