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!
de

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.

de

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.

de

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.

de

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.


de

Feel the Excitement

I haven't really had the time nor the energy to put into this year's political process. Been busy with other stuff. I've been a registered republican pretty much all my voting life and continue to be so. I'd have to admit I'm less than thrilled over the choices this time. Since this is my personal blog I'll tell you, I think Obama is the closest thing to a socialist the Democrats have ever put forth and that concerns me. I think his meaning of "change" actually means big, bigger, more expensive government, and more and more taxes and regulation. It certainly seems plain that in some arenas, mainly the financial sector, we've needed someone to penalize the greedy folks who made billions in selling subprime mortgages to folks that couldn't afford them and then resold them as great investments. Not everybody bought though. It seems that Bank of America bowed out of that arena early on and now is on top of the banking world and a good stake of Wall St. 60 minutes did a segment on BofA this week, pretty fascinating stuff.

I guess the lesser of two evils is McCain although the excitement level for his campaign is about like this picture I saw today. Enjoy! And be sure to vote early and vote often! lol

de

First Week Finished

Doug, our contractor finished his first week working on the house. We, Jared and I helped when we could, made quite a showing if I do say so myself. We finished all the ceiling sheetrock in the bayroom and in the kitchen, plus more on the bay wall, then we tore out the cabinet on the north wall in the bayroom. It got quite wet behind there and we were concerned it would continue to mold and get worse. Really looks weird not to be staring at the rafters anymore. It's a good thing. Here's a couple of pics of the former cabinet. We certainly are blessed to have someone we trust already working just 5 weeks out. I heard a lot of folks are still waiting for their blue tarps. I already got my roof done.

de

Gameday pic

Here's our official "College gameday" pic proving we were at the OU/Texas game on Saturday. Seems as though we were strangely surrounded and outnumbered by an ugly orange color. Longhorns facing the Zou this weekend. Geaux tigers.

de

Pics & Progress

Here's some pics of our favorite grandson
in his Sooners shirt. Some pics of the gameday.
Some pics of today's progress on the house. Yeah!

I think this was Noah's before and after the game reaction!





We put up radiant barrier on the rafters, three new ac ducts, (they dripped water when we checked them on Monday), and all the insulation in the ceiling.
Sheetrock starts going up tomorrow!

de