Tawakoni Tales

At last!

2008-07-18T13:00:00.001-05:00

Well, the rumor is that we should close on the construction loan by the end of the month! The appraiser should be done with his part by Monday or Tuesday, then it goes to Underwriting, which should have their part done by next Friday, and then we move to closing! Woohoo!!

I cannot wait!

OK…the journey continues…or does it?

2008-07-03T09:36:00.003-05:00

OK…the journey continues…or does it?

I last left you all with the news of my father’s passing on May 31st. I flew to Syracuse, NY on June 13, and met Kristi there, and we drove to Auburn. The memorial service for my father was on June 14, and then we flew home on the 15th.

The memorial service was beautiful, my step-sisters/brothers did a great job of setting it up. It was emotional for me, realizing that he truly was gone. I did see cousins I hadn’t seen in 20 years, which was nice, but sad too – other than those cousins, for me, that branch of the family tree is gone. Dad was the last of three brothers to pass.

Kristi and I drove to Ovid, where my father’s family lived, and to Seneca Falls, where my mother’s family lived, and I showed her some of the things I remembered from previous visits. When you consider that my last visit was in like 1989, that’s pretty amazing – towns so small that nothing ever changes.

All in all, it was a whirlwind of emotions for me.

Fast forward two weeks:

We still haven’t begun building yet. The general contractor took so long to put in his bid, that the appraiser got backed up. Now watch, he’ll get his part done, and all the subs will be busy because they took other work while we farted around. Yes, I’m feeling slightly pessimistic. Trailer life is starting to suck, and I’m dying to get going, but it’s one delay after another. :(

On the other hand, Scott and I are looking at another wedding anniversary next week, and doing well, thank you very much. If we survive this trailer thing and rebuilding the house – I think we can survive anything!

Oh! And some cool news - One of the girls in the bird forum I used to hang out in read about the fire after I posted there, and she has a 2 year old Quaker Parrot she's going to give me! Of course, we can't take her until the house is built, but I'm very excited about it!

More later.

Bittersweet

2008-05-31T23:28:00.002-05:00

Last night, Shannon graduated from high school....We're so happy for her! Tomorrow, she starts her new job as a camp counselor and will come home on the weekends. We'll miss her a lot :(

Then tonight, I received a phone call telling me that my father had died from a motorcycle accident today. The doctors think he had a stroke.

I think I've had enough loss for the year. Everyone else in my life will please enter the large protective bubble over to my left.

Sigh

2008-05-28T21:03:00.002-05:00

I go through most days taking this whole thing in stride. We lost everything, but we're getting all this good stuff coming out of it, and that's a blessing. So is it really wrong to want it to be done in say...4 months?

Scott told me tonight that he truly believes it's going to be 6-8 months. I've been thinking October...we'll be ok. Now we're looking at what...Christmas? Oh.My.God!!

*sigh*

I bought my appliances last Monday. They're being warehoused until we can take delivery....but when I made that arrangement, I wasn't thinking 6-8 months. I don't know if I can get them held that long. I saved us a fortune by buying them when I did (no sales tax weekend, 10% off, and gift cards coming back to us). I'm just hoping the fortune saved won't be eaten up by storage fees.

*sigh*

This is a big setback to my sense of well-being. Trailer life is ok...my parents lived in a smaller trailer when I was a baby, but...come on...it's not the lifestyle I'm used to.

*sigh*

April was such a bad month....

2008-05-03T06:59:00.001-05:00

I've put off this blog entry as long as I could, because it's just too hard...April began badly, and never let up.

Scott's mom, Linda, had been in the hospital since late January, and the doctors finally said there was nothing more they could do for her without exploratory surgery, which they didn't think she would survive. So we found a beautiful hospice care and moved her over in the last week of March. On April 1st, she quietly passed away.

Our lives were just beginning to settle back down from the time off work and travelling back and forth to Fort Worth that Linda's hospitalization and passing entailed. On April 12th, Shannon and I went into Terrell to get manicures, while Scott attended a crawfish boil at a friend's house four houses down from us. They had just finished Shannon's manicure and my pedicure, and were moving me over to the manicure table when my cell phone rang. I asked Shannon to grab it, which she did. The next words she said changed our lives forever - "What do you mean our house burned to the ground??"

My eyes welled up with tears as I looked at her. "Katie??" She shook her head no. "Misty??" Again, no. The manicurist finished putting on my sandals and helped me to the checkout desk. As I handed over the payment, my knees buckled and I started crying. I just couldn't grasp that my beloved parrot was gone...our cat was gone...and our house was gone.

I drove us home as fast as I could - in fact, the Terrell Fire Department was behind us and I left them in the dust. They were obviously on their way to our house, but as slow as they were driving, I wanted to stop and tell them just to go back - they'd never make it in time.

We pulled into the community and manuevered around the fire trucks and saw the charred remains of the house. Scott walked up to me and put his arms around me and I just broke down.

When the fire had been put out, and the smoke had cleared, this is what was left:

We handled the things that needed to be done, but I don't remember a lot of the next few days. The Red Cross was there, and put us up in a hotel room for a couple of days until our insurance could kick in. They gave us a debit card with money to replace our medications and buy some clothes, and to eat with. Some friends took us out to dinner the next day and gave us Kohl's cards to buy clothes. Thank God for these things...you just don't know how bad it is to be standing there with nothing but the clothes on your back.

On Monday, our insurance company sent an adjuster out, who declared the house a total loss, and gave us a check towards the contents to start rebuilding our lives with.

The insurance company moved us to a nicer hotel until more permanent arrangements could be made, and we were there for 2 weeks.

A week ago, we moved into a 37 ft. travel trailer on the property next door. This is where we'll stay until our house is rebuilt.

This has all been incredibly difficult. I'll be fine, and then all of a sudden, I'll break down. I alternate between anger and grief, and then back to hope.

People have said I've been handling this so "bravely", but really, what choice do you have? You grieve for what you lost, and then you move forward.

The insurance company was incredible...we were treated with kindness and respect, and at the end of it all, we'll have a brand new house....one that will be specifically designed to minimize the risk of fire. The official cause of the fire was "electrical". We suspect that animals got under the house and chewed the wires...we saw a mouse fleeing from the ruins, could have been him. But the new house will have its wiring encased in piping of some type, so the critters can't get to it.

We plan on building a log home. The company we're going to use, Satterwhite, is located about 90 minutes from here and we drove over there last weekend and really liked what we saw. Their representative came out this week to see the land, and make sure that we could actually do it...and of course, we can. It's our hope that we'll be in the new house by the end of summer, at the latest. The official build time is 6-8 weeks from when they actually begin, and then of course, there is the finish time required to do the interior.

Our annual BBQ will go on...it'll just be a bit more difficult, but hey, we're up to the challenge :)

So, work has begun on clearing the land, in fact, they're almost finished.

Rusty has grieved for the loss of his friends....he looked in the ruins for days for them. But as we try to get back into our routine, we've started running him again, and he's coming around.

I'll keep the blog posted as we progress through the build.

A passing

2008-04-01T23:40:00.000-05:00

Linda Gail Carey
September 8, 1943 - April 1, 2008

Bad and sad news

2008-03-29T13:24:00.000-05:00

Scott's mom, as most of you know, has been sick for a very long time. This week, her doctors told Scott there was nothing more they could do for her.

We located a beautiful hospice facility that actually looks like an upscale hotel, and she was transported there last night. After being in the hospital for two months, where we all know that you just don't get any rest, she was utterly exhausted. She wasn't in the hospice for 5 minutes when she fell asleep. The RNs at the facility assured us that she would be kept comfortable - no more lifesaving methods - only keeping her as pain-free and peaceful as possible.

They are guessing that she has 5-7 days left, although with her bad heart, it could be less. We'll keep you posted.

Please pray for her peace.

We're still alive :)

2008-02-02T19:40:00.000-06:00

I've got to admit that I've lost the heart to post in this blog, knowing that every word is probably scrutinized for whatever reason by "some people", but I'm going to try to get over that ;)

The weight loss has finally restarted, after doing what I should be and seeing my doctor ;)

Life has been fairly quiet around our house. Shannon's doing great in school and racing towards graduation with alarming speed! She's driving now (with a permit) so loves going to the store with me so she can drive.

Scott and I have both been sick for the past couple of weeks, so even getting out of bed is almost too much excitement.

We lost Sammy the Cockatiel last weekend. He was 20 years old, so he lived a good life for a birdie. This leaves us with only Katie of the birds. I think she misses Sammy.

Rusty is all grown up now and just the greatest dog. We love him dearly.

So, that's about it for the moment. Everyone is stable and we're loving it :)

Killing God??

2007-11-09T09:10:00.000-06:00

http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

Just read it. I'm appalled.

For the first time in my life, I want to stand with a picket sign outside of a theater!

Please take a moment...

2007-09-10T18:19:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow morning, to remember those who died on September 11, 2001

A picture says a thousand words....

2007-07-17T17:45:00.000-05:00

Whew...busy summer!

2007-07-15T20:24:00.000-05:00

I know I'm horrible about updating, but it has been a really busy summer so far. We've had a ton of rain, and the lake level is so high that most of our dock is underwater!

We had our annual BBQ on June 30, and it was a blast. We had about 60 people...the food was excellent, the weather held out, and all in all, it was wonderful!

My weight loss surgery was five months ago, as of yesterday. I've lost 54.5 lbs, and seem to be holding there. I'd love to lose another 25, but I'm ok with where I am.

Everybody is doing well here...Shannon's having a great time living at the lake. She's been working full-time, babysitting. She's been saving some money, tithing some, and spending some...as it should be :)

Scott is, of course, in his element, smoking and grilling meat all the time, fishing, taking care of the yards (a full-time job!), and having a blast enjoying the summer.

So, we're doing great!

And today's word is...

2007-05-23T20:51:00.000-05:00

Main Entry: hy·poc·ri·sy
Pronunciation: hi-'pä-kr&-sE also hI-
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -sies
Etymology: Middle English ypocrisie, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin hypocrisis, from Greek hypokrisis act of playing a part on the stage, hypocrisy, from hypokrinesthai to answer, act on the stage, from hypo- + krinein to decide -- more at CERTAIN
1 : a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion
2 : an act or instance of hypocrisy

If the word fits....

Rusty

2007-05-10T20:27:00.000-05:00

Our puppy, Rusty, has grown into quite a handsome dog. He's very good...well, all except for digging in the front yard, for which he may die, if Scott ever catches him at it! :X

He's pretty smart too, except for the aforementioned, and has learned sit, stay, down, leave it, and is now learning to catch his toys in mid-air, so I shot some pics tonight.

By the way, if you ever see him riding around in the golf cart, don't laugh...it's his favorite pasttime ;)

Oops! Missed!

I can catch it in my paws - does that count?

Success!

And again!

What goes up...

Sheesh!

2007-05-06T06:32:00.000-05:00

Well, our golf cart got stolen in the middle of the night Friday/Saturday, and Scott spent yesterday trying to find it, and while I was trying to get Shannon ready for her prom and attending our HOA meeting (oh, you're looking at the new Secretary - not quite sure how that happened!).

Scott was able to discover that our cart had been stolen. They left it down the road about 2:15 when it ran out of battery, and 45 minutes later, it was gone, so we think someone saw it, trailered it, and took off. Kind of funny...while Scott was out looking for our cart, he found two other ones that had been stolen too. We know that two girls had stolen one girl's grandmother's car, and it was two girls that stole our cart, so we think it's the same ones. One girl got caught and is in custody. If they admit to it, I'll be going after her parents for the return of the money our cart was worth.

Of course, with the BBQ coming up, and the fact that we really enjoyed owning one, it was imperative that we replace it immediately. So we have a new (used) one. This one has a windshield, new seat covers, and it has a "truck bed", so we can haul small things with it. It's also gas powered instead of battery powered, so that's a nice change. It cost more than I wanted to spend, but from what Scott has been able to research on them, we actually got it for about $1000 less than they normally go for. I'll post pictures after the seats are done, and Scott has

Shannon looked utterly gorgeous for her prom. She's still asleep, so no idea how it went, but from the pictures on my camera, it looks like she had a great time.

This picture was taken just before her boyfriend picked her up:

Well, that was interesting!

2007-04-14T19:47:00.000-05:00

We had a nasty old storm come through the DFW metroplex yesterday, leaving tornadoes all over the place, killing two and hurting five others.

It came right for us out here in Quinlan, but the oddness of living on the lake continues - the seriously bad stuff went around us.

We got an inch of rain in about 10 minutes, a little hail, lots of wind, thunder and lightening, but no tornado, and it was over faster than it took to get here.

But you have to prepare for the worst, so the high school was opened to those who wanted to evacuate. All we could do was put the dog and cat in the bathroom, and the birds in the closet. We stood at the front door listening and watching. It was a helluva storm, that's for sure!

It's been cold, windy and overcast all day...definitely an odd Spring!

We got rain!

2007-04-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

We finally got some great rainfall - 6.45"! We're getting lots of run-off from the creeks and pastures around here, and the water is touching the dock. It's also supposed to rain again next week, but I doubt if it will be as much as we got the other day.

The house is all repaired from the fire damage, except for the storm windows in our bedroom, but they did get the inside windows put in. The AC unit is in, thank God, because it's been in the high 70s and low 80s for the past week.

Scott's been busy working on getting the lawns in shape, and Shannon decided to repair the kettle in our front yard to a darker green, with a white border. She hasn't gotten the border on yet, but when she does, I'll get pictures.

Kristi and her family were here the past two weeks, but I didn't get to see very much of them - as it usually is when they come. But I did get to spend a little time with her and the kids. I'll fly up there later this summer (since I still have a ticket out there in cyberspace, due to canceling my trip right after my surgery).

It's been pretty uneventful around here, for which I'm glad. We go to work, Shannon goes to school, we hang out in the evenings, church on Sunday. We did go to a wedding last night (utterly and totally beautiful service and reception), but that's been pretty much it for social outings lately.

I'm having issues with my camera...not sure if it needs to be replaced or if it can be repaired, but a decision needs to be made soon on it...I'm not thrilled having no camera!

More later :)

A few pics

2007-03-05T08:19:00.000-06:00

Photobucket wasn't cooperating with me last night, so I threw a couple of pictures up on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7226099@N06/

This wasn't how I planned to spend my day...

2007-03-03T17:38:00.000-06:00

Since Scott and Shannon had gone to Oklahoma for the weekend, I had planned to take a little nap and then get up and go to Walmart to stock up on groceries. Little did I know that my day was not going to go quite that way.

About 11:00 this morning, I'm laying in bed dozing, and I hear some rustling between our house and the one next door. Since it's pretty windy, I don't think much about it, and didn't think much about it when I smelled smoke - just opened my eyes and didn't see smoke in the room, so I just figured that because it was windy, I was smelling the fireplace, and I dozed back off. A few minutes later, I'm smelling smoke again and just about the time I decide I better get up and check it out, Rusty starts barking and there's serious pounding on the door. I threw on my robe and went to the door and our neighbor from two doors south of us said "I think the house next door is on fire!!!" I look over to the north, and sure enough, I see smoke and flames and so I tore back in the house, threw on clothes, let Rusty out of his crate, tried to grab the cat, grabbed the birds instead, grabbed my purse and keys and got the hell out of Dodge. Linda had already called 911, but we didn't have any trucks coming, and the fire department is only 5 miles down the road.

One of the guys from down the street realized that the flames were headed for my propane tank, so he ran over and turned it off, then grabbed a hose and started watering down the side of our house, and the grass and trees between the two houses.

By the time the first truck got here, the house next door was 70% engulfed in some very serious flame and it was apparent that there was no putting it out, so they started focusing on saving our house. We have a metal roof, so they had to pry the roof up, because the eaves were on fire. Watching this made me wince, but I'd rather they did it than not!! Then they turned their attention to the woods behind us; which were developing small fires here and there. After they had dragged every available hose up the hill and connected them, it became apparent to me that they weren't aware of the access road behind the hill, so I told them about it and they went up there to shoot water down the hill, instead of trying to shoot it UP the hill.

After it was all over but a few hot spots, which they are still working on at this time, the house next door is completely gone, our house has two broken windows, four sets of melted mini-blinds, a busted up roof and edge piece, and some water and smoke damage. The siding will need to be painted. We lost the wood privacy fence, and a few trees probably will not survive the damage...but our house is standing and in good enough condition to sleep in!!

Sadly, the house north of the house next door took more significant damage than we did. They lost a two story apartment behind their house, and the siding on their main house pretty much melted, but the house was saved. I don't know how much internal damage it received, but it's pretty ugly on the outside now.

I have to tell you - all of the fire departments around here are volunteer fire departments....and these guys were AWESOME. A couple of them, before they got too insane with the water, ran in the house, disconnected my computer and moved everything into the living room...my desk and everything on it, my filing cabinets, my printer, my computer and monitor...everything they could get their hands on and move, so that they didn't get water damaged. How freaking awesome is that?!? I want to thank the Quinlan, Kaufman, Terrell, South Tawakoni, Able Springs, Elmo and Lone Oak Volunteer Fire Departments for doing such an incredible job and saving my house!!

The neighbors are all aware I had surgery two weeks ago, so they were likewise incredible - feeding me, helping me up and down the hill (after the 2nd trip, I was wiped out), and putting plastic over the broken windows. We are truly blessed for the friends we have made in this community.

Pictures will come when my computer is set back up and I find the connector cable for my camera.

*yawn*

All in all...I'd rather have had a nap!

Life is great!

2007-02-16T18:23:00.000-06:00

I had my lapband surgery on Valentine's Day. If you want to read more about that, head on over to Life in Texas, because that's where I'll be posting about my journey.

It's been great around here lately. Scott's daughter is living with us now, and she's a joy to have around. She's helpful, cooperative, funny, and just a great kid...we're delighted to have her with us.

Scott's been sober since December, and that is likewise a joy and a blessing :)

We're still praying for rain, because the lake isn't up nearly enough. I'm positive we'll get it though! (Faith...whew!)

As soon as I can move around good again, and we have some sun, I'll take some pictures of Rusty - he's gotten to be a big boy! He'll be a year old next month - now if he'd just get past this chewing stage! He seems to especially like wood, which concerns me :(

Anyway, life is great! As we move into spring, I'm sure I'll be posting more. When it's winter and you're more or less housebound, there's not a lot to write about ;)

More rain!

2007-01-28T15:51:00.000-06:00

The rain we've gotten has helped a LOT, but it's not nearly enough. It brought the lake up to the same point on our beach as it was when we moved in a year ago last month. Actually, I just looked at the pictures from last January, and the water is up higher than it was in some spots.

I'm putting up some pictures, especially for Cathy :)

This time last year, there was no water this close

So yeah, while we're grateful for what we've gotten, we definitely need more! It was last March when we got all the water that lasted through Spring, so we're hopeful!

What a strange week it's been!

2007-01-20T22:19:00.000-06:00

Winter has hit Dallas with a vengence! We've had rain, sleet, snow, and I've spent more hours on the road in drive time in the past week, than I care to think about!

It's pretty unusual to look out our front door and see this:

Yes, that IS snow down on the beach. I know it's not much, but around here, it's enough to screw up the roads for days...and it did. This picture was taken last Monday (which fortunately, I had off). Last Wednesday, we got more sleet and snow - and it took us 3.5 hours to get to work! It has rained off and on all week, and has been raining slowly and steadily today (just about an inch is all)...but we're hoping the lake will come up another few inches as all the water on the roads and in the creeks makes its way down to the lake.

Counting down the days to my lapband surgery, but I swear, if I hear "but you don't weigh that much!", one more time, I'm going to scream!! If I didn't need the surgery, I sure wouldn't be putting myself through this. (So, if you love me, for God's sake, please don't say that to me!!)

Scott and I are attending church again, and starting 2/1, will be living on a very strict budget. We'd like to have all of our credit card debt paid off within a year, and my truck paid off 2 years after that. We've been reading Dave Ramsey's books, and on February 24th, will be seeing him live in Dallas. We're really excited about the prospect of being out of debt, and spent several hours this morning laying out our budget for February.

There are other things going on with us, but those aren't for publication. Suffice it to say, our lives got suddenly very busy, but this is a good thing!

That's it for now. Until next time...

Scheduled for surgery!

2007-01-06T10:25:00.000-06:00

I've been working towards having lapband surgery since last March, having put back on all the weight I lost on Nutrisystem a couple of years ago. They make you jump through a lot of hoops to have this surgery, but apparently I performed correctly, because I got the insurance approval and will be having surgery on Valentine's Day, of all days.

I'm excited - but also a little scared. I'm determined that this is going to work for me! Hopefully by summer, I'll be wearing bathing suits again!!

Just a little behind!

2006-12-21T15:29:00.000-06:00

I've been getting chewed out for being so behind on posts, so here's what's been going on.

Let's see -

Jonah has been returned to the SPCA (which is no-kill). As wonderful as he was, our original reasons for giving him up still stood - he was far too big for the house.

Scott and I have both given up smoking cigarettes, although he's still smoking those little cigars, Black & Milds, and I seem to be unable to control myself when I'm in social settings where others are smoking, but do just fine any other time. I'll be working on that one!

Part of the reason for not posting was that the lake had receded to the point where it was a mudhole - which was very depressing! We got some really good hard rain the other day though and it brought the waterline back to the level it was before the really hot summer weather started, although we didn't see that until this morning. (This is not to be mistaken for the actual "lake level". This is only the waterline as it relates to the shoreline at our house.) Rusty's outside running around now, happy to see the beach looking like it used to :)

I'll definitely do a better job of keeping this blog up, I promise!

Certified Texan

2006-10-14T22:30:00.000-05:00

You'll often see bumper stickers around here that say "I may not have been born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could!" I need one :)

But today, I became a certified Texan, when I signed the papers on a 2007 Ford F150 pickup truck! I never thought of myself as a truck kind of gal...but the more I drive it - the more I love it!