One of My Favorite Things

Something exciting happened in Baytown this past week. The Blood Center opened a permanent blood donation location on Garth Road. I was excited to be one of the first to give. I've been driving to Houston to give for...well probably going on 20 years. I used to wait for a coach or blood drive here in town, at the church or somewhere, then I started giving platelets and have been doing that for at least 10 years or more. I don't keep all that in my head. There's enough clutter in there already. Anyway, I used to call the Blood center main office and talk to someone every few months about putting a location in Baytown. I even kept an eye out for a good location and communicated that a few times. Guess I just gave up, then, I'm driving down Garth Road and there it is on the building. They opened Dec 22 and I was the first one through the door. First time I was able to give since going to India more than a year ago. India knocks you out for a year.

Anyway, here's the link for the article from the Lake Houston Sentinel.

And a pic. Not all that flattering. But, if you haven't donated lately, why not start? Maybe I'll see you there. I'm going for 25 gallons now that I can give maybe once a week.

de

200th Post...29th Anniversary

Congratulations to me...or maybe a medal to my bride...or probably thanks be to God. NO, not because I reached my 200th post on blogspot, although that is an accomplishment. It probably seems like nothing to those who have been doing it a long time but to me...200 is a milestone. A milestone of rambling you say...I heard that but yeah, that is pretty much what it is most days. A much bigger more important day is that today is the bride and I's 29th anniversary...for real...today's the day. Way back in the day...the late 70's...79 to be exact...on the 22nd of December we got married in Muskogee OK, USA...my folks rejoiced (they'd gotten a terrific daughter in law who might be able to straighten me up some)...Kim's folks mourned, (for just the opposite reason) but that's another blog. It was certainly memorable. Friends and family gathered, I sang, Kim walked down the aisle and my dad performed the ceremony. Nice job dad, it stuck! We headed south after the ceremony and stayed the night in Okmulgee at the Hiway Lodge, thanks to my father-in-law. No, we weren't headed for the airport and Hawaii but to Dallas where we stayed with some of my sisters relatives for a couple of days for our honeymoon. Then back through Duncan, more "family" vacations, back to OKC to pickup some of my stuff, and finally back to Muskogee. Sorry, honey. The economy was suffering. I had no job yet in Muskogee. Kim did have a teaching job. It was one cold winter as I recall. But...we had each other and thank the Lord above, we still do. Congrats for putting up with me for 29 years. Here's to another 29 or 200...one at a time.

Happy Anniversary baby, got you on my mind!
Happy Anniversary baby, got you on my mind!

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Let the Moving and Cleaning Begin

We're finally done, well almost. I'd say we're 99% done with our remodeling from the storm after just over 3 months. Doug came today and we finally finished the floor and the trim around the whole floor. Yeah!! There's still a few minor odds and ends, some grouting, some outside trim and siding but that can wait a few more days. With that we can now begin to push the furniture back to where it goes and get the house back to normal. Along with that goes a good cleaning of everything because there's a layer of construction dust on everything and I mean everything.

Just about the time I got to feeling like we'd never get through I just have to drive through the neighborhood and see all the blue tarps still on peoples roofs. One neighbor just started rebuilding a corner of their house that took a big tree through the roof and I'm 99% done, so all in all we're really blessed by being this far along. Just in time for Christmas. We've not decorated for Christmas yet and probably won't do our normal thing but we are grateful we got done by now. So many others have not finished or are not even ready to start yet. It makes me count my blessings each and every day and be thankful. Gotta go now. Time to get the moving and cleaning going!

Merry Christmas everyone!
de

Hey, I Found My Sleep!

I know the title sounds pretty weird but truth is its not. In the days following hurricane Ike, I lost my normal sleep pattern, or it was rudely interrupted. I don't know what to call it, post traumatic stress or what. Something that big qualifies to cause some like that if you ask me. After the hurricane, until just recently I woke up around 5:15 am no matter what, there was no going back to sleep.

Here's the story, which I've told before, I think. The night of the storm Jared and I had finally fallen asleep around 2-3 am. (Kim was still awake) It had been a terribly long day leading up to that point. The power had gone out by 5 pm, much earlier than most folks lost their power. But we had a generator, a light, a radio and were making out pretty well and were dog tired. About 4:30 am Mike called to inform me that the "eye" was right over us and we had to see, so we did. In that eiree stillness I got out in my truck and drove around to see some of the damage and came back home. And we waited. Sometime around 5 or 5:15 am the back side of the storm came through and took part of our roof, let the rain in, and well, we're still not completely through with the work that needs to be done remodeling. I wish I could say we were.

Anyway, since then, I would wake up, wide awake, at 5:15, no matter what time I went to bed or what I did or drank or ate or didn't, just wide awake. Sometime in the past couple of week, I found my sleep again. I've going to sleep at my normal time 11-12 and waking up again at my normal time, 7 or even later. Yeah! Boy that feels good. No more waking up and knowing I might as well get up because I wasn't going back to sleep. I sleep right through. Hey, I found my sleep! It's a good thing.

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Kami home, Kim gone

Kami made it home yesterday afternoon from her 24+ hr stay in the hospital. Surgery went as expected. James took her home later in the afternoon with her mother close behind. Kim made it in by mid-afternoon and will be staying a few days to help out. Thanks to all who prayed. Thanks to God that it was not more serious than it was, it certainly can be. Guess its just me and Jared for the next few days. He's working like crazy at Best Buy. Going into town is nothing short of crazy. The closer to Christmas the crazier it gets. Think I'll just stay home. Hopefully we'll get the rest of the flooring in by Christmas.

Eventful 24 Hours

James calls me yesterday morning to let me know that he has taken Kami to the ER. She had called him feeling ill, weak, in pain, etc so off they go. Before the afternoon is in full swing they find out that her pregnancy, yeah I know no one said anything, was ectopic. (tubal) Not good. At some point the little one had not made its way to where its supposed to be, set up shop, and then caused problems. Again, not good. Before yesterday was over they had to take her into surgery and operate to repair the rupture, or break or problem. All that was successful and made for an eventful day. The good news is she's ok. This kind of thing can be potentially life threatening to the mom, it was not. She did not need a blood transfusion, which is not uncommon. They did have to remove the one tube, but the other is still good. I know this is a lot of detail but I don't get any readers that I really don't know anyway. The other bit of good news is that by about 1 pm I had already gotten Kim on a plane for this morning (on airmiles) to Albany. She should be there in about an hour from now and then an hour & 1/2 more to Cooperstown to spend the next few days with her girl (and James.) Kim, 3 hours late home yesterday from Corpus, had to do laundry, pack, some work stuff, answer the alarm at 3:45 am in time to get to the airport for a 6:30 am flight. The price of still being able to fly on points, 6:30 am was the flight time. We both slept in small bits last night and this morning.

Thanks for praying if you knew. If you didn't, give God thanks for watching over them all.

Minor side bit of news. The National Championship tickets came yesterday. It was an eventful 24 hours.

de

Recent Pics

Thought for today I'd just post a few recent pics of our NY trip and of the 4" of snow that fell in Baytown Wednesday evening. Unfortunately it fell at night and by morning a fair amount of it had already melted. But it was a sight to see. Very rare for Baytown.


On the Subway towards the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

Toy shopping at FAO Swartz, Liberty Island looking back at Manhattan



Rockefeller Center up top and on the ground


snow in Baytown!

Back from the Big Apple!

Sorry I haven't blogged for several days. The family and I spent the past several days in New York City, that's right, the Big Apple. I performed a wedding on Saturday at the Roosevelt Hotel for a couple whose parents are friends of Kim and I. We became friends when the brides mom, Diane, came to Baytown to run a Red Cross shelter after hurricane Katrina. You all remember Katrina, the storm you still hear about, the storm that brought so many NO residents to Houston, many of whom are still living hear on the Gov't dole. Yeah, that's the one, sorry, can't help it after going through Ike which lasted all of about 3 days on the national media front page but was every bit as devastating as Katrina. Sorry, I digress.

Anyway, Diane came and set up a shelter at Wooster Baptist church. Jason and I went down there to see how we could help and a friendship was struck. I performed her oldest daughters wedding in DC last summer and their next daughter got married Saturday. So, we invited A,& Noah, J&K, and Jared to join us for a few days and have a family Christmas gathering in NYC. So, that's where we've been the past few days, at 45th & Madison in downtown NY, about 4 blocks from Rockefeller Center and Times Square, two blocks from Grand Central Station. I may post some pictures but not sure I took very many. Kami took tons of pics.

All in all we had a great time, saw some of the famous sites and enjoyed NYC at Christmas. Boy it was good to get back home though.

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Oh yeah, Boomer Sooner!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Not much to post this Thanksgiving eve. Certainly we are thankful, everyday, not just one day. Thought I'd post a few recent pics from our trip to Forney and Norman.

Aaron, Noah, & Pawpaw With his Mimi


He loves to be outside. He helped dadda and pawpaw plant flowers.


We were there! Most exciting.

He sure is getting big these days.

Back Home From the North

I left home at 5 am on Friday to head north, where its cold. Picked Kim up at Love field and headed to Forney to see Noah and his parents. We spent the night there, were able to enjoy Noah's 2nd birthday party along with my folks and Kim's before heading further north to Norman. We bundled up warm and enjoyed perhaps the most fun college football game I've ever been to. It was truly unforgettable the way the Sooners manhandled Tech. Following the game we drove down to Duncan and spent the night there with my folks, went to church with them, at some lunch and then headed back to Forney, for another visit with Noah and company. We spent the night there and headed back south this morning. Went through a cold front on our way north, like to froze towards the end of the OU game. We woke up Sunday to much warmer weather. By the time we got up this morning in Forney another cold spell had come in. On the way to H-town we drove from the cool back into the warm. I'm sure it will be here sometime.

Boomer Sooner baby!
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For Your Holiday Viewing Pleasure!

Saw this on my neice's blog and couldn't resist.

Winding Down, Finally

Construction is finally beginning to wind down at the El-house. We began in earnest to really start cleaning up the construction stuff that has been stored in our living area, hammers, pry bars, tools, painting utensils, dropcloths, etc. There was no use in removing it to the garage until we didn't much need it anymore. We put new siding on the 2nd story on one side of the house. It took a beating when the roof flew off. The new countertop for the new cabinet arrives on Monday morning. All 8 rugs, rugs came back from being cleaned last night. Who knew we had that many rugs? Painting is 97% complete. I think there's always some painting to do, lots of little touch up here and there. One color would be so much easier but its not nearly as good looking as the contrasting colors we have so that takes a lot more time. All that's left is the rest of the Pergo floor. The insurance only replaced the damaged part so that's all we took up, until we got ready to put down the new floor we ordered. Looks wise its an exact match but not the locking, snapping part. Pergo conveniently changed the way it went together so it didn't match. All we could do was put down what we had and order more, so that's what we did. Lights and ceiling fan went up. All pretty exciting to get things back to normal. Time Christmas comes, hopefully we'll be 100% redone and you'll never know anything happened and it will all be new.

As frustatingly slow and dirty as it has been, I realize just how blessed we are to be at this point already. Our church building has yet to see a new piece of sheetrock or any kind of progress yet. Seems we still have a bit of mold that has to be taken care of and nothing can be started until then. On my way to the office a huge truck was pulling on to Post Oak with a full load of roofing materials for one of my neighbors. Many, many folks still are living with blue tarps and can't get a roofer to sneeze at them, much less a contractor who'll go to work reasonably. Many on South Burnet are waiting for someone to come and bulldoze the house they used to live in.

I spent some time on Tuesday helping my retired neighbor put some shingles on his roof. He's about 75 and I spotted him standing on an 8' step ladder working on it and just couldn't resist. His wife was standing nervously on the ground, watching his every move, much like my mom would be doing if Poppie were doing the same thing. She does her best to keep him from doing that kind of stuff these days. Its really for the younger crowd. So, I grabbed my hammer and headed over to help. Truth is, I'm thankful and not just because its Thanksgiving, but because I'm so blessed. It's easy to get bogged down in your own stuff until you step back, see others situations, and realize just how blessed you are.

Headed today to Forney to see my little Noah on his 2nd birthday, then to Norman, then Duncan, back to Forney, and finally home.

Boomer Sooner,
de

Waiting for the Weekend!

Not all that much new to post here in H-town. The H-town heat finally broke for this year and we're really enjoying cooler, drier fall like weather. Got down into the upper 30's a night or two. Still haven't turned on the heat yet. Kami and James were in town this past week for the Gulf Coast Spiritual Growth Workshop. James was one of the speakers so he got a free plane ticket to come south. I hated that our house is still in mid-construction but it was great to have them home even if just for a couple of days.

Kim and I are headed to Forney this weekend. I took a Sunday off, one of my four allowed Sunday's off, and going to Noah's birthday party on Saturday. He'll be two on Friday but the big party is Saturday. He's growing so fast its just incredible. Aaron calls me last night to tell me that Noah wants to talk to his PawPaw, so its upstairs to the computer I run to talk to my favorite grandson on skype. He can't really a lot of words that you can clearly understand and he does ramble a full sentence from time to time...but he can say PawPaw really good. He wanted to know where Mimi was...I tried to explain she was off working. Can't wait to see the little booger on Friday. Maybe I can take him fishing again if the suns out.

Saturday, after the party,we're headed to Norman for the OU/Tech game. Yes, we had season tickets this year but haven't gone to a home game yet. Something about a storm named Ike and funds a bit tight this year, anyway we kept the Tech game. Sure glad we did. Looks like a good one.

The house continues on. Since we ran out of floor Doug is working on some other stuff right now. Replacing some siding on one side of the house. New countertop is coming Monday. Put the lights back up, hang the cabinet doors, some trim here and there, lots of misc stuff to do. Hopefully the rest of the floor will come this week. When that's done I'm going to cut him loose for awhile.

Oh yeah, Mickey Mouse is 80 today. Makes me feel old. Strangest thing though, Mickey doesn't look a day older.

Have a good day ya'll,
de

Paw Paw part duex

Kim and I are going to be grandparents again! How exciting. Aaron and Allison are expecting another addition to their little family. Lord willing and all goes well, next June another little Ellis will come into the world. And in the mean time we'll be practicing our ever improving grandparenting skills like "spoil em and give em back to mom & dad," "buy em terrible noise making things," "feed em candy right before bedtime," and "never tell em no," well you get the idea. Not really. We just pray for another healthy child to love, "and many more" as the birthday song goes. Mostly as the Lord wills.

That's today big announcement. Couldn't tell yesterday till Aaron told his sister. Almost messed that one up.

de

Wow, Busy Week!

Things are moving right along at the Ellis' household. It would probably go faster on our remodeling if we stayed home on the weekend and did all we could do. Instead we attend the Sterling HS football game, the A&M/OU game, and unfortunately, the Texans game. Two of 3 ain't bad though. This is our 3rd house remodel in about 5 years. We did the house on Honeysuckle less than a year before we bought the house on the bay and did that one. (We didn't know we were moving when we did)

Now with the help of hurricane Ike, we get to do this one again. I say we, as if we are actually doing the work. I have been helping, which I really like to do as much as I can. Jared, I, and some others tore out all the stuff that needed to be removed. That was big and nasty. We helped to put in insulation, sheetrock, finish, and texture the sheetrock. Kim and I have done all the painting. That's certainly only a portion of what goes on but hopefully it saves us some funds and moves things along a bit faster so Doug, our friend and contractor, can concentrate on carpentry, which he does best. I like doing the painting and consider myself an excellent painter. I had a summer job once working for a local contractor and we did a lot of painting that summer. Always been pretty good with my hands. Looks like we may start on the floor tomorrow or the next day. Inside work, that's all that's left. We have to replace about 400 sq ft of pergo and some of the slate tile that got messed up. Then we'll go outside to replace some siding. Moving right along and we'll be glad.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a very exciting announcement!

de

Taking Time to Process

It'll take some time to sort things out after last nights historic presidential election. Truth is John McCain or any Republican had a better chance of a snowman surviving the Texas heat than they did trying to win this election in our current mess. Blame it on who you will, Bush, Wall street, Iraq, the economy or Bush, but Obama's win signals one of the greatest changes this United States has ever seen, the first black President. I was not certain I'd ever see that in my lifetime. Hey, I'm truly for the best qualified person to win no matter the color or gender. I'm still fairly certain Obama's wasn't the most qualified of the two but nevertheless the younger generations, blacks, hispanics, asians, and many other groups saw him as the chance to be the real agent of change for our country. He's headed straight on into a "good ole boys mostly white male" dominated culture that has existed for 200+ years. I hope he can bring them together to for Amerian like he claims he will do. I seem to recall that being one of W's great qualities, bringing both sides together. Didn't happen. Only got worse. I'm not totally pessimistic. I will always be a patriotic American. I love our country. I'm not thrilled about a lot of what it has become. Maybe this is a sign that everyone must stand up for what they believe in and be willing to do something about it. Many people did, for the first time and it has changed our country. I pray it will all be for the better. I know God was in control yesterday, today, and from now on. That's what I count on the most.

I'll close with what John McCain said in his concession speech:

And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.

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Not in the TV Picture!

Turns out my excitement about being on TV during the TNT broadcast of the Rockets/Mavs game...just didn't pan out. We did sit on the floor, right where I thought we'd sit. About the time we got to our seats in walked Mark Cuban and stood 5 feet from us, for 10 minutes, smiling, greeting folks, shaking hands. (I didn't offer to shake his hand) Not that I dislike him or anything. That was an exciting start though. What happened was we sat opposite the side the cameras shoot pretty much the entire game. The cameras sit on one side and shoot across the court towards the bench side of the floor. We sat on the same side as the cameras so the only time I made it on camera was briefly in the 3rd quarter when an end shot of the floor came up and we could see my rocket red shirt and bright yellow cap amongst the sea of blue.

It was great fun though, watching the Rockets pull away in the 4th much to the dismay of the entire crowd. There were probably less than 200 Rockets fans there. I sat the closest of any that I saw. Midway through the 3rd quarter the Mavs fans sitting behind me started pelting me with peanuts every time I stood up to root for the Rockets, which was pretty often. It was great fun. They were good natured about it and I wasn't terribly annoying, at least I tried not to be. Not sure Kim would agree.

Then we went to Aaron's to spend a couple nights with them and enjoyed Halloween with Noah and his cousins. They dressed up as the scarecrow (Noah), tin man, lion, and Dorothy and were a hit everywhere they went. Even had Toto, or Chester as he's normally known for awhile. It was a perfect night for trick or treating. I got to take Noah fishing his first time on Friday morning. He loved the fish but didn't want to touch it. It was great fun. I'll try to post some pics later. Would've been a perfect weekend had the Texans pulled out their win. Rockets, Sooners, Tech, Texans. Well, 3 of 4 is pretty darned good.

Oh yeah, got my insurance check. Now all I gotta do is figure out how to get my mortgage company to endorse it, so I can spend it.

later, de

Look for me on TNT

Kim and I are headed to Dallas tonight. Our first stop will be to attend the Mavs season opener against the Rockets. So, why do I say "look for me on TNT?" Well, I got some incredible tickets for tonights game from my best friend in Jr Hi and Hi school, Ken. I don't mean good tix, I mean incredible tix, on the floor, 2nd row from the floor I'm pretty sure. I thought we were trading, a pair of my OU game tix for a pair of his company owned tix to the Mavs. Turns out it was anything but a fair trade. So, we're sitting courtside, actually row 3. There's the VIP row, AA, then BB where we're sitting. Maybe I'll have a chance to headbutt Mark Cuban, or at least see him. Here's a link you can go to and see a 3D view of our view tonight. Find sec 108, row BB then see a 3D view. It's gonna be awesome. Check it out and look for me, I'll be in my red Rockets shirt and a bright yellow cap I bought in St Thomas. Then, we're headed to Forney for Halloween tomorrow night. I hear that Noah's going in a group with him as the scarecrow, his cousins as the tin man, the lion, and Dorothy. Guess I better go find me a costume. The Wizard, what do you think? Should I?

thanks as always for reading and thanks Ken, for the tix,
de

P.S. Our house is coming along nicely. Still very dusty and dirty and still aways to go but we're making progress. Another couple of weeks and we should be done, I hope.

Happy Diwali!

That's right, Happy Diwali, well yesterday officially. It's India's version of Christmas but totally different. It's the festival of lights, happiness, giftgiving, and forgiveness. This time last year we were in India, post Kim's two surgeries, enjoying the local Diwali festival and celebrations. Actually it was a few days later into the first part of November but Diwali bumps around much
like Easter does for us. No, we're not Hindu or anything remotely connected to Hinduism but, its a significant time that will always be special to us. We ate at an Indian restaurant yesterday. We promised we'd dress in our Indian clothes and go out to eat. With the house and everything that's going on with that, we just didn't have the time. Lord willing, next year. We'll light a candle, thank God for our many blessings, and remember Diwali as something special.

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Cool but messy today!

It was downright cold this morning. Yeah, I know, not really cold, maybe 45, but I could see my breath first thing on my way to get the morning papes. All the sheetrock is finally up. All the joints have been taped and floated. Today we sand! Boy its going to be messy but that's the drill, you gotta sand before you can texture. Hopefully before the day is over all that will be done and the ceiling will be stomped. That's what you call the technique to texture the ceiling. When that dries, then the painting can start. Think I'm going to leave the sanding to Doug and his son and head to the Depot for ceiling and wall paint and make sure I've got everything I need to paint. Then next week, we start rehanging the trim we were able to save and adding new for what we couldn't save. Then more painting. It's looking very much more house like than it has in weeks. I'm still thinking three more weeks to get where we need to be but much progress has been made. Now all I need is the insurance money. Hava good Friday.

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One Year Ago Yesterday!

Kim reminded me that it was one year ago yesterday when I left her in the operating suite at Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai for her first of two surgeries. I'd been so busy with trying to help our contractor out at the house and keeping up with everything going on at the church, I plum forgot. Boy, that's a nice feeling, for Kim to be pain free for long enough that I tend to forget how bad off she was just one year ago. Truth is, you never really forget. I know she never does. But it is nice to actually think about it less and less. She's doing just marvelous, except for nasty cold thing she's had for a couple of weeks now. Hipwise, she couldn't be any better. I'm always thankful for the blessings that came our way through that whole experience. The folks at Wockhardt, Dr Malhan, all the prayers for us, the financial help, the blog comments, so many in our church family at Lakewood who were there for us, and most of all our family. And oh yeah, I'm thankful for all you who thought I'd lost my everlovin mind, for keeping it to yourself or at least not sharing it with me.

There's no telling how many people have been blessed by Kim telling her story everywhere she goes. You were a part of that. It's been quite a year since that day in Mumbai. Not one I really want to repeat in lots of ways, but as the saying goes, "no pain, no gain." We have truly gained by leaps and bounds this past year.


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