A Day at the Beach

From this
  
to this … I got up and got dressed as wanted to get over snap a picture of the finished work .. Alligator Alley is finished.  Looks and smells so much better.
 
After rinsing the truck and camper off we decided since it’s such a beautiful day that we’d head to the beach.

We saw an accident looks like a pretty bad one.  There was a man on the ground being secured on a stretcher.
 
some areas on the beach they are letting the dunes go back to their natural look.

Doesn’t the beach look so inviting?

We had another wonderful day enjoying the sand between our toes

before long it was time to head back home .. traffic was getting heavier
   

Getting ready for Christmas Program

I went over this morning to see if i could help out any and i got to see the kids practicing for their Christmas Program.

The kids love the camera and it was so much fun watching them

they enjoy getting into the rhythm

Temps have been in the 70’s and absolutely beautiful .. since i wasn’t needed i came home and decided to work on cleaning up my own home.  I’ve been keeping up with my laundry now that i finally got it all caught up.  I usually do a load or so a day and this way i stay on top of it.  We have changed our departure date.

Looks like the cement flooring is slowly coming along
 
It’s going slow .. but coming along .. once it’s done i will post the before and after pic’s .. smells so much better already.

This afternoon friends from Illinois came to visit us .. YES you read that right ... we haven't seen them for several years and we were excited and really enjoyed seeing them. Dave and Pam came over and we had a great time catching up .. were hoping to get to see them again before they head to LA and we head to FL.

Originally we’d plan to leave December 22nd and head back to Ocean Springs but we’ve been invited to the Christmas program and it’s December 22nd at 7 pm.  So we’ve decided to head out after Christmas when we will be heading to Florida.  We haven’t set a exact date.

Bethel School

Another beautiful day here in Mississippi.  I decided to get out and take some pictures.  I explored the church yesterday and today i explored the inside of the school
 
This school is a unique school … the ages of the children are from 2 weeks old to 8th grade.  The school has around 150 kids.  Kids start arriving around 5.30 AM until 5.30 PM.

Lunch time at school .. of course after lunch is recess!

they have a very nice fenced in play area.  There is a tall privacy fence around the entire outside playground and then inside is another fenced off area.  It’s very nice.
 
These kids were waiting to get their blankets for nap time .. the smaller kids have nap time from noon – 2 PM

they have a Christmas tree in the lunch room

Lunch room workers getting things ready for the next group of kids

There are several rooms that have these mats .. this is where the little kids take their naps at.  They have a TV and DVD player for those kids who do not sleep.

The nursey is so adorable!  I love this table and look how cute the rest of the room is
 
Here are some more of the rooms .. i snapped some pictures as i toured through .. looks like the kids are ready for Christmas too


This gym is very cute .. i love all the murals painted on the walls
 
Yes I am so enjoying spending time with these kids .. i’m such a pushover when it comes to children.  God has really blessed us to be able to spend time volunteering and witnessing to children through out the USA.

A Beautiful Church

Another beautiful day and I just had to get outside and do some exploring.  This church is huge.   It hold 300 people!  It’s a beautiful church.

There is 3 sections in the sanctuary
 
I love the ceiling and this stained glass is beautiful
     
They are setting up their displays for their drama they are putting on this weekend .. all i’m going to tell you right now is i can not wait to see it.

This extra lot is part of the church .. they have a huge area here
 
They have a large parking lot on the side of the building and in the back
 
Yes that is my home parked in their back parking lot.  see how huge it is?  We have all kinds of space and were actually enjoying being parked here by ourselves. 

the houses near by must have been rebuilt after Katrina and they are now up in the air.  Sure glad it’s not me that has to carry things up all those steps. 

The weather has been beautiful here and i am so enjoying the warmth .. hope your staying warm where ever you are.

The Work has began

I got up this morning and decided to head over and get some pictures of the work that’s beginning.  The mixing of the concrete has began.

Next the pouring and leveling
 
This is being done in sections and it’s going to take some time.  There is no way a concrete truck can get into this area or for that matter you can not even push a wheel barrel to the area so it’s all being done inside of this very narrow room.  3 sections were poured today and several more to go.
It was a beautiful day and the temps reached the high 60’s and expected to continue to warm up all week long .. yessss  .. i feel the beach in my future this week :)

I spent the day with my door and windows open to let the fresh air in. This is my kind of weather .. short pants and T-shirt was the dress code today.

Happy Birthday Tyson

WOW .. today is our oldest son Tyson birthday.  He turned 28 today .. oh my I'm getting old.  We haven’t done much this weekend.  It’s been a lazy relaxing weekend for us .. after our stressful week.  I needed a weekend to just do absolutely nothing and just relax and that is what i did.
We went to church this morning and then a needed trip to Wal-mart to get the things i have forgotten the last 2 trips.  YES .. i got everything this time around :)

I’ve spent my entire weekend watching Christmas shows .. i love them .. I know I've been spending all month watching them and guess what .. i plan to finish watching them all month long :)

I spent a bit of the morning Saturday changing the way my blog looks .. i wanted to dress it up for Christmas .. how do you like it? 

Trying to relax

Today would have been my father in law birthday.  He was a wonderful man and he is deeply missed.  Our oldest son carries his name in his middle name.  Hubby has thought of his dad often today and still misses him very much.  We miss you so much and know that you are in heaven with no more pain and suffering.

Well after a very cold night of sleep.  Hubby got up and hooked things back up and got some heat going before i even attempted to get out of bed.  Hey, i wasn’t the only one who didn’t get up until he got us some heat .. the dogs wouldn’t even poke their heads out from under the covers when hubby yelled for them to go potty. 

Once he got our home warmed up using our furnace and a electric heater.  I got up and before i knew it he was growling for me to get some clothes on so we could run over to Lowe’s to get the needed supplies.  Hmm last night he was growling i would have to call and have someone come fix it.  He made some calls this morning and found out that there is no one in the area that can come to us .. we have to pack up and go to them .. guess he decided he would try fixing it first instead of packing up.
Wow, wiring is expensive! 

After our trip to Lowe’s hubby went to work on replacing the wiring and then the GFI receptacle.  Come to find out when hubby went to work the lug nuts were very loose on the one wire that was the culprit of starting this mess. Were praying this was part of the cause and we will not have to have a new convertor box .. were talking some bucks if we do.

Once that was all done and we tested things out and they seem to be working okay and there is no sparks at all now.  Hubby says we will have to keep a very close eye on things and until we know for sure were on conserve electrical mode.  He told me that means i can not run a electric heater and a electric appliance at the same time.  I will have to bit the bullet us our propane furnace when I'm cooking. 

Later in the afternoon we needed to just get away, hubby needed to escape today being his dad birthday and my nerves were in an up roar with all the excitement.  So we took a trip to Gulfport to visit our friend Steve.  Of course i insisted we take the dogs with us as i was still concerned of fire.  Hubby grumbled but he knew there was no need to argue as i was still not sure about a fire wouldn’t break out and he knew i was not leaving my babies.

We met Steve at Island View Casino for dinner.  I was in no mood to cook.  (I think my cooking 3 days in a row caused our horror .. think I'm being reminded that I'm retired and have stopped cooking? or i have to use propane to heat with if i cook?)  Oh those both sound like good excuses. 

While we ate and visited with Steve we left the dogs in truck nestled in their blankets. We heated the truck up pretty good before we left them in there.  It actually wasn’t bad outside, a bit on the cool side.  Steve left after dinner as the retirement home was having a dance and he loves to dance.  Hubby went out and check on the dogs to make sure they were not getting cold. We decided we needed something to take our minds off the past few days.  What better way then pressing a button on a slot machine.    Hubby won 30 dollars at the view and so since the dogs were sleeping so good and I needed a drink .. man they salt the food at those places.  We decided to stop by Hard Rock Casino and walk around.  We decided to play a bit and hubby hit another 50 bucks of course we couldn't go home just yet .. Yes you got it we played another machine and hubby hit it for $40 .. I only had a hit for  $5 which isn't bad for a penny machine:)  I decided to stick with the penny machine tonight after the past few days i've had .. i played 5 cents at time .. i used $2 to make $5 and cashed out with $7 .. not bad huh?  Hubby played the quarter machine 1 quarter at time ahd his total win after deducting our meals for the night was $80!  Not bad huh?  We ended up with free meals and more money then we left home with.   The entire time we were playing i wasn't worrying about our home and he wasn't thinking of his dad.  Yep, Casino's can do that .. of course if you do not have money to lose then you shouldn't go to one because they will take it and not even say thank you. 

We got home around 10 PM and i was praying that our home was just like it was when we left it.  I was thrilled to see it was and now came the big step of sleeping in it with everything on.  Hubby and the dogs had no trouble at all going to sleep.  Me on the other hand .. I had trouble getting to sleep as my mind would not shut off so finally around 12.30 AM, I took a sleeping pill and by around 1.30 AM i was asleep.  Of course we purchased a fire alarm that sits on the sink right above the convertor box for that just in case.