Yes, we are still alive and kickin!
Ed and I just celebrated our 30th anniversary on the 15th of December. He took me on a 7-day cruise with Royal Caribbean over Christmas as an anniversary/christmas gift. My what good tastes he has. With the exception of him not feeling all that great due to his sinuses, we had a great time.
Other updates on our family: Polly Aiken, Ed's mom, fell right before we left on our trip and broke the middle bone in her elbow. She had to have surgery and they put in a pin with a metal thread. She still has a terrible knot on her left eyebrow but overall is doing fine. She is getting home health care, per her docs orders, and physical therapy. Please keep her in your prayers as this will be a long healing process.
Misc. updates:
When it rains it pours at our house and when things go out of order/break they all go out at once......
1. My vacuum quite having any suction
2. Ed's computer quit working - and still isn't working after being taken in for repairs twice
3. Our internet and phone service went out three days before we left for the cruise (yes we paid the bills)
4. When we got back our tv in the living room was out
5. My microwave is on the fritz
After being home less than one week we bought a new tv and took our other one in today to see how much it will cost to fix it. It weighs 350 pounds so this was not an easy task. The man at the repair shop plugged it in and it worked! Ed and I felt like dummies so we brought it back home and it has been running ever since...... Our internet and phones are back to working...YEA! His computer is back in the shop, out of service contract date as it ended on 12/12/08 but they said they would repair it at no charge anyway as they have yet to repair it....YEA!!!
I guess that leaves my microwave and vacuum. I am using Katherine's vacuum and sweet-talking my microwave. Now my computer is running about as slow as molasses on a cold morning so I am waiting for it to go kerplunk!
All of this has taught me patience and reminds me that the little luxuries in life are really quite nice. You can live without them, but they sure make things easier.
I want to wish everyone a wonderful, successful, and prosperous new year. Make 2009 your best year yet. Make resolutions that really mean something to you. One of mine is to be a better person and not take the small things for granted or take others for granted. I want to be the best me that I can be. One thing I really want to work on is not sweating the small stuff rather focusing on what I can do to make a difference in the lives of others. I need to learn to lean on the Lord more and cast my cares on Him.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!! Sounds like you got a wonderful anniversary/christmas present! You have some excellent resoulutions that we could all work harder at! Happy New Year!
Happy Anniversary. Hope the tv repairman didn't charge you for plugging it in. My dryer was making a funny noise so I had a repairman come out and fix it. It was a dime stuck in the dryer drum making all that noise. It cost me $65 for less then 10 mins of work. That was one expensive dime. See your not the only one that does silly stuff.
Happy Anniversary to the both of you! Sounds like you both had a great one and a great Christmas. I am really sorry to hear about Grandma Aiken. I will have to send her something if I can. I haven't forgotten about all of you. In fact my goal this year is to see more of my other nother family. :) Right now I am on a new treatment that is making me not feel all that great but things could be worse. I lost a dear friend of mine in November to cancer. So things have been kind of up and down for me mentally. Anyway I love your resoultions for this year.
Mine are to get through this treatment and then be able to travel to see my other-nother-family and friends in the Houston area. I also want to get closer to God. I think that is something I see myself doing everyday but I want to be even closer to Him then before. I would like to be able to do the things a wife does around the house, clean, cook, etc. I pray that my health is better this year so that I can be there for others this year, since so many have been taken care of me, especially my husband. :D Last but not least I really hope everything gets back to working right for you two. We miss you all, and yes even the family members in Virginia. I hope you all stay warm and dry this week and have a great week too. Great to hear from you. I have missed hearing from you.
It is 1pm on Monday, Nov. 10th and I just finished one of the books you let me borrow: "Mountain of God." It was incredible. Very informative and thought provoking. Thanks for sharing. It is in my office at the building, so remind me when you can and I'll hand it back. (I'm 1/2 through the second book you handed me. Love the Evidences.)
Saturday was awesome. Duke, Duchess and I went to the Sacred Selections fund raiser event. Duke and Duchess were the petting zoo. I don't know about anyone else, but they were happy and loved all the attention. When they got home they slept! They haven't had that much excitement in a long time!
It was so good to see friends all gathered together for a wonderful cause. Really good to see Warren and Paula there. Warren and I looked for Le-a but didn't find her. (If lost on that read post below.) Kudos to Carol on a well organized event. Many, many thanks to the Murffs for offering their home to all of us. The weather cooperated and you couldn't have asked for a better day.
Yes, as Jen stated in her wonderful post, I did win the bid for a beautiful, hand-stitched quilt. What can I say, I have a weakness for hand-stitched quilts. I truly appreciate the art. I consider it to be a work of love and devotion. To me a hand-stitched quilt is a thing of beauty to be treasured and cherished but also a very practical item too. As much as I hated bidding against my wonderful sister in Christ, I really wanted the quilt.
I do hope that this will become an annual event as it is for such a worthy cause and lots of fun.
This year I have seen some names that even I could not pronounce at school. I have been teaching phonics for 27 years and have a pretty good command of the English language...or so I thought.
How would you pronounce this child's name:
"Le-a" ???
Leah?? NO
Lee - A?? NOPE
Lay - a?? NO
Lei?? Guess Again.
It's pronounced "Ledasha" Oh yes...you read it right.
This child attends a school in Livingston Parish, LA. Her mother is irate
because everyone is getting her name wrong. SO if you see something
come across your desk like this, please remember to pronounce it correctly.
When the mother was asked about the pronunciation of the name, she said
"the dash don't be silent."
It has been forever since my last post. What a crazy month it has been. School got started and my assistant for the past two years decided to take a new job offer with a significant pay raise so I ended up getting a new assistant. Fortunately for me she is a wonderful lady that I have known and worked with. Upon entering my lab she decided to help me go through the things that had been left from it's previous inhabitants. I can't begin to tell you how much we cleaned up but now the lab looks great and our kids love it.
Now on to the really yucky news! IKE!!!!! FUnny how one word can cause so much emotion for soooo many folks. We were truly blessed and I really do mean that. Out properties were left in good shape considering what they endured. We were all safe and out of harm's way during the hurricane. We got our power back after 13 days and our phones back after 17 days. Our internet service came back within about 15 days. The grocery stores are still trying to stock up and so are the restuarants as they try to get in food. Power lines are hanging down on our street and about the time we got our power back on (Thursday night) we lost it again on Sunday night due to the tree trucks pulling the lines down while trying to carry out the tree debreis. Our power was returned the next day @ 2:50 in the afternoon. Needless to say, it is an on again, off again kind of power for many folks in this area. None of us are complaining as we are grateful for the power that we are receiving.
Ed and Kat drove all the way to Dallas to get a couple of generators so that Ed could sleep during the day and work at night and his folks, who were housing us, would have power to maintain the food and fans / lights. We actually lived almost like royalty as we had propane cooker and a pit to cook on outside. Yes, Ed's folks housed Ed, me, Kat, Karl, 3 miniature dachshunds (Duke, Duchess, and Duncan), and one very overweight cat named Charlie. Ed even brought back his oldest brother Mike from Dallas and he stayed several days to help out with the clean-up. His wife joined us later in the week.
One of the worst things that happened was that our uncle, Elmer Moore passed away on the day that the storm blew in. He actually married Polly and Sonny (my in-laws), Ed and I, and Kat and Karl. He was a gospel preacher for 57 years and dearly loved the Lord. His funeral could not be held until the second Monday after the storm due to Ike and the lack of power / debris. He will be missed by many....especially us.
On another sad note, my in-laws had a camp house down at Oak Island which is located near Anahuac but on the water. We went to see the damage from the storm and found our slab and house pillars. The house that had withstood Carla and Alicia was completely gone....as were the other bay houses that had once surrounded it. The water had risen up well over 20 feet ( approximately 26 ft.) and then the waves were up higher than that. In fact, the water was over the trees and then the waves began. The only things left near our slab were the hot water heater, a few jalousy window panes, a little silverware and some plates that you could eat off of. We actually found a couple of glass glasses with no chips or cracks in them. There was no roof, wood, appliances, linens, pots, furniture, etc...left! One of our trees had literally been ripped right out of the ground from it's roots and there was nothing left but a hole. I can't begin to describe the devistation that we saw on Oak Island that day....not just for us, but everyone. Lot's of folks lived down there and lost everything they owned.
We are not upset about the material losses as they can always be replaced. We are all saddened about the loss of the house that Ed's grandfather and family built. They had over 50 years of memories wrapped up in that house. We all used it for a vacation spot and fishing spot. It was a great place to get "away from it all" and let kids grow up during the summers.
It really makes me appreciate all that I have so much more. When I say that we are very blessed, I really do mean it. Sometimes we take for granted just how truly blessed we are. We need to thank God every day for all of our blessings as it is from Him that all blessings flow.
Martha, I am so sorry to hear of the loss of Uncle Elmer. My heart goes out to you guys and prayers. Also I wanted to let you all know I am sorry to hear about paw-paw's and grandma's house. That has to be hard and for all the other ones who lost everything.
Welcome back to pleonast nad tell everyone we said hello. Luv ya! *hugs*
I agree with ^ him on what he just said. I really look up to your family and how strong everyone is with all that is going or has been. Miss you guys and tell Ed hello from John and I.
