Thanksgiving Memories

We celebrated Thanksgiving Thursday at Emily's. We have celebrated Thanksgiving in that house for many years, with my Mom and Dad, my three sisters, and their children. Eventually we added all of our grandchildren. Last year that all changed.
My Mom fell in April of 2012 and, after surgery and a few days in the hospital, had to go to a nursing home My Dad passed away Sept. 20, 2012. When Thanksgiving came, my mom was not able to make it to Stephenville, so my sister had a small gathering at her house, and Les and I celebrated with our children and grandchildren. Mom passed away this July. My oldest sisters husband's health is very bad, and he can't make the trip here from Ft. Worth now. So, once again, we celebrated here, and my sisters gathered in Ft. Worth. Emily's husband's mother joined us, along with his brother and his family, so we had a big group.

The arrangement is totally random. Kids are not with parents, everyone scattered. So sweet. 

We celebrated Thanksgiving as we usually do...a huge meal, lots of outside playing and visiting, then scouring the Black Friday adds, then leftovers for supper. 

Melody and Aspen spent the night with us, in the guest room we finished up on Wednesday.

It is a very old fashioned room, using curtains that were my mother's and one of her quilts.  

Melody offered to keep Nora, so Katy and Kyle stayed at the Hampton Inn, leaving Nora overnight for the very first time. Katy put her to bed at 7:30, before they left, and she slept until after 7am, when Les woke her up!!!! 

For years, the girls and I got up early to shop on Black Friday. We did some actual Christmas shopping, but it was mostly a social event. This year, we didn't shop. The sales starting on Thursday night just sort of spoils it for us. We did meet for our traditional breakfast together. That is just about the only thing that we do, just the 5 of us, with no husbands or kids. We have the chance to really have in depth conversations. 

Friday night, we put up our Christmas tree, just me and Les. Today he put up lights while I did some things in the house. The funny thing is that I am not at all bothered with the change to tradition...not being with the whole family for Thanksgiving, not having it at my own house, putting up decorations by ourselves... change is part of life. I wish I had a picture of our early Thanksgivings. I have some, just not anywhere I can get to them. Here is one picture of our family about the time that we started hosting the big family dinners. Katy is 4 or 5, about like Kylie or Aspen now. A new generation! 

Hard Working Man

Well, a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I would really like to have the house almost finished by Christmas, which is the one year mark of the start of this project.
Since that time, Les has accomplished amazing things.
First, as he mentioned, we hired pros to do the tape, bedding, and texturing of the two quest bedrooms. That really helped speed things up. Les painted.
Then, there was a floor dilemma. We had been given laminate which we thought would cover two rooms. We put it in the master bedroom months ago. It looked good, and we were happy with it.
When we got ready to put flooring in the back bedroom, we found out there was not enough laminate do do it. The floor had vinyl tile which was glued down with tar paper under it. We scraped it off, but the floor was badly damaged, and it was not good hardwood anyway. We decided the huge time and effort to restore the floor would not be worth the effort, and may not work.
So, we needed to buy something. After much discussion, we decided the smart thing to do was take up the laminate in the master, put it down in the back bedroom, which will be mostly a playroom, and buy carpet for the master. Extra work, but the best thing to do. Les spent one day tearing the floor out of the master, and the next day he put it in the back bedroom, then installed new molding on the baseboards.
 With the extra bedrooms completed, we had the pros come back to repair the maser bedroom walls and texture. Les painted yesterday, and today, laid the carpet.
So, in the last three weeks, we had the bedroom walls repaired and textured, Les painted all the walls and woodwork in the three rooms, plus the small hallway off the kitchen, put the floor in the back bedroom, and, today, laid carpet in the master. Yep, he's a hard working man!

 
Painting the master bedroom.

The almost finished master. Just need pictures on the wall. 

This is the front bedroom. We will get the furniture in tomorrow. 

 This is the back bedroom. The floor looks great.

This is the small hallway that connects the kitchen, the bathroom, and the back bedroom. 

Great Work, Les. 

Progress Report for October thru early November

Posted by Les

                                                     Back on the Blog by Popular Demand

     Yea. I know.  I'm getting behind on my blog posts to keep you up-to-date.  Actually, I'm getting behind on the house makeover side of the ledger too.  One thing I've realized through this is how easy it is to regress from a work project mode into a glorified hobby mode.  I was happy just chugging along at my "whenever I wanted to" work pace, but the problem was that things were progressing much slower than first anticipated. I seemed to be spending more and more time explaining to people how slow things were going - rather than actually doing those things.

                   October Projects - Replacing rotten boards on the garage and more painting

                

            

                                              

                                          Reclaiming / Restoring the Butler Pantry Area 
                             

               

            

                                             Aiming at a "No Deadline" Target = Easy Hit

      For a couple of decades now, Bill Hybels has probably been the premier "voice of leadership," reaching out to the business/professional and church/ministry world of people who are in leadership roles but totally unaware of the pitfalls of leadership.  In his book, Axiom, he speaks about one of those pitfalls which he calls "The Danger of Incrementalism."  To summarize in my words what he warns leaders of, is that businesses, churches, and necessary work projects are not like a pot of stew that needs to simmer on low heat for an extended time.  Although that makes great soup, the "slow and steady" work strategy usually slips unnoticed into a "so slow you never reach a conclusion" syndrome.

                                                       Monotony Turns Into a Mandate

    Dec. 17 will be our one year anniversary since we started ripping things apart here.  Jeannette finally told me that she was hoping to speed the process up so that we wouldn't be living in a construction zone well into next spring because all the dust, debris, tools and materials have started to wear out their welcome.  She advised me that she really wanted to wrap this part of the adventure up by Christmas.  Yikes.  She also suggested that we call in a drywall contractor to help us achieve this deadline by redoing the tape-bed- texturing of our walls and ceilings.  This would be a big expense but probably the best solution.  So here we go, and I'll give you the nickel tour of what's happened lately.

                                               Call in the Heavy Artillery to Git er' Done

              

                                                                    

           

      Wah la!  Results.

      Even got the new light fixture installed
      that we bought back in April.

      Next up - finish painting the window trim and              doors, the start moving in the guest room                    furniture that has been in storage since                        December.

     The much anticipated Maxwell House Bed &              Breakfast is almost ready to start hosting our
     beloved overnighters!