Life is here and it is now!

Redo VooDoo Booth

2010-09-02T12:54:00.007-05:00

I'm having a blow-out sale at my booth at the Antique Mall of the South located on Highway 51 in Ridgeland, MS. I've got some great things for your home, childs apartments or your game day condo! Go check it out .... just walk in and say " where's the Redo Voodoo booth"...that's the name of my booth!

Mark's 50!

2010-08-31T15:59:00.004-05:00

It's hard to believe that we are getting old so fast! Mark has hit the mile stone of the big 5-0!! I gave him 50 presents...about 8 a day for the week prior to his birthday, they were all black! haha... He loved coming home every day and finding his pile of black wrapped presents on the table! There was black beer, black pencils, black candy, black socks, black underwear, black golf tees, a black flashlight, a black pocket knife, black cookies, and on and on and on .... On his actual birthday he received his final three presents....a black I-Pad and a case and stand for it! His Mother made him a wonderful scrapbook with pictures of him from birth to the day we married! I think he had a great birthday! We were moving Ashton into her house in Starkville on his birthday, so his parents and my Mom and Tom and Austin and Ellen met us there and we had his party at a local restaurant with a black cake and black balloons of course!!

Ashton's House!

2010-08-31T15:36:00.006-05:00

Ashton is back at Mississippi State, all moved into her house in the Cotton District and Loving it! She has a pink and brown scooter ( too cute ) that she rides to and from class on and her dog, Kudzu is living there with her! She and her roommate Lauren are cooking and having friends over all the time. Could life be any Better?! haha.... I miss her terribly, she's my BEST FRIEND, but I'm so happy for her!!

June

2010-08-09T20:05:00.002-05:00

Summer is Here and so are the Kids!! and their dogs! hahaha....
Ashton is working as a Nanny for a 4 month old and a two year old. She adores them! Austin is working as an intern for Attorney General. We are excited to have them home!

May

2010-06-15T15:29:00.009-05:00

May ended with a trip to Mountain Home for Seth's graduation! Mark and I had a very relaxing trip away from the dogs. We spent Thursday night in Memphis and drove to Mountain Home on Friday. Sister had a few people over for dinner before the ceremony, then off to the school we went! It was hot, but lots of fun! The next morning we drove to Branson, MO...the guys ( Mark, John, Seth and Ryan)played golf and the girls ( Me, Sister and Lauren) shopped! When we arrived in Branson I saw this HUGE KING KONG in the sky...Amazing! The next day we spent in Mountain Home...scrapping...cooking out and swimming...at least Mark and John did, it started raining so Sister and I never swam!

2010-06-15T15:14:00.003-05:00

The Hydrangeas are blooming and they are BEAUTIFUL this year...It's hard for me to believe something this wonderful came out of my yard!

2010-06-15T14:54:00.010-05:00

Ashton's birthday always falls close to the May Canton Flea Market, this year since she was home from school and it was ON her Birthday we decided to go. Austin even drove home early that morning so he could go with us!!! It was hot, but we had a great time! Later that day Renee came by with Landry and they gave her a beautiful pair of engraved earrings, on the front were Ashton's initials and on the back were Landrys and Cohens names!! How cute it that!? Landry and Cohen are the children she's babysitting for this summer...she ADORES them! After they left we had Birthday Cake, opened presents and dinner.

2010-06-15T14:39:00.006-05:00

I know I've said it before, but I'm saying it again, I LOVE Mother's Day!
We spent the weekend in Port Gibson my favorite Place! We were blessed with beautiful weather and all of our kids being there...that includes Ellen! The fist night Austin and Ellen cooked and we ate on the upstairs veranda...it was beautiful! Ashton cooked lunch the next day....wonderful! We cut grass, watched movies, laid around and relaxed!

April

2010-06-15T14:30:00.006-05:00

I had Welcome Home Cupcakes ready for Ashton when she arrived home from College for the summer! I was so excited to have her home....I didn't realize how much STUFF came with her! haha. She spent the first several days at home ASLEEP!

2010-06-15T14:25:00.005-05:00

Ellen told us a while back that she had NEVER had a Dipped Cone!!!! So, when we saw a Dairy Queen in Jasper we stopped and got her one!!!! She loved it!

2010-06-15T13:59:00.008-05:00

For Austins Birthday and Easter we spent the weekend in Jasper with Mi Mi and Paw Paw! Imagine their surprise when we showed up with FOUR DOGS!!! Bless their hearts! We had a great relaxing weekend.

2010-06-15T12:56:00.008-05:00

April started with a new addition to our family...Brown Sugar, we call her Sug! She was a birthday present for Austin, but we later found out she was really for Ellen! haha...

Weekend in Port Gibson

2010-03-09T21:32:00.006-06:00

Mark and I enjoyed a relaxing weekend in Port Gibson this weekend. We watched a movie Friday night while eating bbq pork sandwiches. Saturday morning we left for a junkin road trip to Monroe, La. where we had a great time filling the truck with treasures and our tummies with yummy hotdogs and tater tots. Afterwards we visited a cookie store for dessert! On the way back to the Port we stopped at Walmart to get the fixings for dinner; hamburgers and sweet potato fries...Yum. While we ate we watched another movie while wrapped up in quilts on the couch. We didn't turn the heat on while we were there; there's nothing better than sleeping under and electric blanket,Ahhh.... It was a georgeous weekend... the daffodils were blooming in our yard and of course I picked them! On Monday I redid my booth completely. I'm hoping this will boost my sales!

My Favorite Jewelry

2010-03-05T15:22:00.004-06:00

Today I have been playing in my jewelry! I love to get it all out and touch it and try and make something out of each piece. I have completed two pairs of watch earrings and one necklace. I need a name for the necklace. It's an antique porcelin baby wired onto a lock facing which is glued onto a coin and then attached to chain on one side and an antique rosary on the other, the clasp is a bone buckle with a watch hook!! Give it a name, I dare you! ha-ha

These are pictures of all my stash! They are divided up by "my favorite things",
"silver stuff", "gold stuff", "vintage beads" etc..... Enjoy!

A weekend with Ashton

2010-02-21T14:18:00.005-06:00

Our plans were to go to Port Gibson this weekend and do some Junkin in Monroe Louisiana on Saturday. Ashton had originally planned on going with us, but we decided that would be a lot of driving for her and we would rather spend the weekend with her, plus she just wasn't that in to it. So we stayed home. Ashton and I decided to have a crafting weekend and went to Hancock Fabrics...they were having a warehouse sale! Ashton ended up buying herself a sewing machine!! She bought a pattern and some fabric and a really cute sewing book. That night she cut out the pattern and laid it out on her fabric, cut it out and started sewing. It was all a little more difficult than she had imagined ( me too )....woke up this morning and was a little overwhelmed with it all. So I suggested she put that aside and move on to a simplier project that she could finish today and take back to school with her. She decided to do a pillow with some applique work on it. I sat and made yo-yo's while she sewed. I had a great weekend spending time with her and she went back to school with her finished pillow!

Snow in February!

2010-02-12T16:01:00.003-06:00

An exciting thing happened today for Mississippi! We got over FOUR inches of snow....more snow than I have EVER seen in Mississippi! The only sad thing is that our kids are away at college and weren't home to play with us in the snow! Austin, in Oxford, didn't get any snow and Ashton, in Starkville, said they were getting some snow flurries, but she was still having to go to class! Mark and I have had a fun snow day...Mark has been working from home, thanks to the internet, and I have been crafting and taking pictures and shopping online! I LOVE snow days! Here are just a few of the pictures I took today! Enjoy!!

Mardi Gras

2010-02-09T17:10:00.005-06:00

Mark and I went to New Orleans with Trey and Courtney this weekend. We left around noon on Friday and met up with four other couples during the weekend. I had plans of taking GREAT pictures for my blog, but FUN interfered! Seriously it's just too much trouble to tote a camera around all the time!! We had a great time, with the parades, enjoying great friends and just being among all the SAINTS FANS during such an exciting time! We got home just in time to get in our comfy chairs, put our feet up and watch the game! WHO DAT TALKIN BOUT BEATIN THEM SAINTS, WHO DAT????

Pictures of Booth

2010-02-03T22:29:00.005-06:00

I moved things around a little and added a few things to my booth this week and a few of you asked for pictures ( okay, so just one of you...Michele ) LOL! So here they are! Enjoy, and if you see anything you just can't live without...remember, Antique Mall of the South, Highway 51, Ridgeland, MS...go by and check it out. When you go in say " Where's the ReDo VooDoo Booth?" hahaha...That would be awesome!!

January

2010-02-01T17:13:00.005-06:00

We started the month of January celebrating Ellen's birthday! She is 22 now! Hard to believe...

Mom and Tom got a dog!!!! They adopted him from the Madison Rescue League...where they were told that his name was Teddy, but he didn't seem to recognize that name so they changed it to Senator!! Which I think is much more appropriate!

Ashton and I took a painting class at Easely Amused with Susan and Nicole! It was a Pet Picasso class... where you paint your pet Picasso style. We had tons of fun and love our painting! Don't you think they look just like Lulu and Kudzu?!

The kids are back at college and I'm home along again! What a weird feeling... I've been busy trying to get my booth at the antique mall freshened up and get my Etsy shop up and running! Mark has been traveling alot, but we did manage to have a relaxing weekend in Port Gibson. We went on a day trip to Monroe, La and did some Junkin! I found several treasures that I am keeping, of course, and a few that I will eventually put in my booth. I got the cutest little typewriter that I paid $15.00 for and then had to spend $20.00 to get a ribbon! I also found a sideboard that we are using for a cabinet under our flat screen that we hung on the wall.Love it! It has great storage for all of the components that go along with a t.v. and also for scrapbooks! We still have to attach the thing that covers all the wires, but it takes us a while to finish projects like that! I've been to a couple of estate sale, but nothing really spectacular. I put our t.v. cabinet that use to be in our den in my booth at the antique mall, so if anyone is looking for one, go check it out! The Antique Mall of the South, Hwy 51, Ridgeland. It's black with some painting on it and has TONS of storage. It has doors, so you can hide your stuff away! I've marked it down drastically so that I can move more stuff in my booth!!
Tell your friends, and don't forget to visit my Etsy shop just click on the picture of Nola ( the blue bust with the hat on ) and she will take you right there!!

Christmas in Port Gibson

2010-01-26T12:12:00.010-06:00

We celebrated another fabulous Christmas in Port Gibson! Enjoy the pictures....
If you are reading these blog updates go to where I started with "Ashton moves into the dorm"....and read them backwards!!!

Girlfriends night out!

2010-01-26T12:00:00.004-06:00

The FOUR of us are back together! My three close friends went to BoneFish to celebrate Christmas...and celebrate we DID!!! We had a fabulous drink called a "White Martini"...it was like Christmas in a glass. We had a $210.00 bar tab! HaHahahaaaaaa. Our SWEET husbands picked us up!!

Christmas in Biloxi

2010-01-26T11:48:00.004-06:00

We celebrated Christmas with the Fulmer family in Biloxi at my Brother and Sister in law's house this year. The weather was beautiful and the food was great! Maybe this could become a tradition?!

Snow in Madison!

2010-01-26T11:38:00.006-06:00

It's always such a surprise when it snows here in Mississippi! Mark and I were at a party at a friends house when the snow started....yes, people were throwing snowballs and I was so tempted to do a snow angel!!!!

Christmas in Madison

2010-01-26T11:29:00.003-06:00

It's DECEMBER!!!! WooooHoooo!!!! I am rockin this blog stuff!!!! Remember Michele...this is for YOU!!!
I did very little decorating in Madison this year...I did not put up the big tree...I only did a little decorating on the kitchen island and the dining room table. It was awesome when it came time to put it all up!

Thanksgiving

2010-01-26T11:10:00.003-06:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Port Gibson this year! A dream come true for me!! I had the best time getting the house ready...we actually FINISHED painting the dining room. It's a beautiful pale pink with a pale pale blue ceiling! My mother brought the bulk of the food..I added a few casseroles and the rolls! After we ate we took our annual family portrait and drove to a few of the sights in Port Gibson...the Ruins of Windor and the Mississippi River. Good Times!

Maw Maw's 95th Birthday!

2010-01-26T11:04:00.003-06:00

This is my cousin Mike, Me and my brother Wes at my grandmother's 95th birthday party!

Spark

2010-01-26T10:50:00.004-06:00

I touched on "Spark" earlier in my blog and said I'd add more later...Here it is! Sister and I flew to Salt Lake City, Utah in November to a creative event called Spark! We had classes in jewelry making, scrapbooking, photography, sewing...we met so many nice and creative people. We had a wonderful time and hope to go again!

Kayak Mississippi

2010-01-26T10:42:00.003-06:00

Also in October, Friends of ours stayed with us in Port Gibson for the annual Kayak race on the Mississippi River. It starts in Port Gibson and ends in Natchez. Lynn and her brother Pard were the only two that participated in the race...the rest of us were there for moral support! It was tons of fun for us and lots of hard work for them, but I hope they will do it again next year!

Reid

2010-01-26T10:37:00.004-06:00

It's October now! September flew by with me home ALONE cleaning out the pantry and trying to reorganize my life....that's when I should have updating my blog! Anyway, back to October. Mark and I drove to Sumrall. MS to watch Reid play football. It was So Much Fun! Reid played great, it was an exciting game and they WON!

Austin's Hunt

2010-01-26T10:34:00.003-06:00

It's September now! Austin went on his first hunt in Oxford with a lot of his friends...looks like they had a successful hunt!

Larry's Birthday

2010-01-26T10:27:00.004-06:00

For Larry's birthday, Nicole hooked us up with a Limo....Susan prepared a wonderful bag dinner with iced down beer and we headed to Joseph's football game! You should have seen the looks we got when we drove up in the limo! We had a great time!

Nana visits Ashton

2010-01-26T10:20:00.005-06:00

Ashton's Nana wanted to visit her and see her dorm room so we took a road trip to Starkville. I was feeling bad because her walls were so bare so we added some stuff ..... you should see them now!... she has added much much more since this picture was taken. Remember we are still in August 2009!

Bid Day

2010-01-26T10:11:00.003-06:00

Ashton pledged Pi Beta Phi!

Ashton moves in the dorm!

2010-01-26T10:02:00.003-06:00

I know it's January 2010, but I am going to get my blog caught up to date for my most loyal blog follower! Michele, this is for you!!
It's August and Ashton just moved into the dorm at MSU....Move in day was Fun, Hectic, and oh so SAD! The first picture is of Ashton with her roommate Shelby Joe.

Booth Redo

2009-11-10T16:05:00.004-06:00

I redid my booth today and took in lots of new stuff! It took me almost 4 hours to pull it all out and rearrange the new stuff in....but I think it looks fabulous!

Spark and Booth Stuff!

2009-11-09T17:55:00.007-06:00

I have been in Salt Lake City, Utah for four days and my booth is running really low, so today I worked in the garage all day getting some things ready to take tomorrow. This time I actually took some before pictures, I will take some after pictures tomorrow after I redo my booth! I had a great time at "Spark" with Sister, we met a lot of great people that we now call friends and I came home with my head full of great ideas and a lot of projects to finish! The weather was absolutely fabulous, it's a beautiful city! I will add more on Spark in my next update! I took tons of great pictures!

My Booth

2009-10-01T16:05:00.006-05:00

I know the last post was an update of July and today is October 1st. But all I have today is a few pictures of my booth. Things have really slowed down at the Antique Mall of the South, so get yourselves out there and shop! Remember ReDo VooDoo!

July

2009-08-25T18:48:00.016-05:00

July 4th weekend Mi Mi and Paw Paw met us in Oxford to check on the progress of Austin's house. We walked around the square, ate lunch and enjoyed Ashton's 4th of July cake.

The next weekend we spent in Port Gibson just relaxing before Ashton's wisdom teeth removal on Monday. Ashton and I cooked a yummy dinner...including cookies! We accidentally put SALT instead of sugar on the peanut butter ones...ha-ha. What a surprise that was when I bit into it!

For my birthday, Ashton made me a beautiful cake and Mark cooked. Mom and Tom joined us for dinner.

Mark and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary at an Animal Rescue fund raising party. We had a great time and did not come home with ANOTHER rescue dog!! Thank Goodness!! The next weekend Austin closed on his house in Oxford. It was so exciting!
After we spent a little while at the house we all loaded up and headed to Jasper, Al for the weekend. Kudzu celebrated his first birthday with presents, home made treats and happies for Lulu and Beau!

Ashton and I went to Oxford to help Austin move into his new house the next week. We brought a truck load from home and he and Ellen brought two truck loads from Starkville. We had the best time setting stuff up and hanging pictures...His house is wonderful!

I know, this seems like more than one month, but I promise we are still in July!

That weekend we celebrated Mark's birthday in Port Gibson. Ashton made Mark a beautiful cake and a party hat!

We had a big night with cake, presents, whiskey, champagne, wine and probably a beer or two!

Believe it or not, we woke up the next morning and painted the dining room PINK! I've been trying to pick out the perfect shade of pink for months and months and felt like I finally had it right and everybody was there! Austin and Mark also cleaned out the yuck that had been building up behind the fireplace for many many years. What a mess that was!

We still have to finish some of the trim and paint the ceiling a pale pale blue, but it looked AWESOME! It feels so good to have finally accomplished something!

This last picture is for the one person who leaves me comments .... you know who you are! These were georgeous spider lilys ( or Nakked Ladies) the same color pink as the walls. They were blooming everywhere in Port Gibson.

This was the longest most difficult post I have ever done, please leave me comments and let me know who's reading my blog. I would love to hear from you!

June

2009-08-25T17:16:00.004-05:00

I know I am so far behind in my posting!! I thought doing it a month at a time would make it much easier to keep up with, but again, I was wrong! ha-ha

The month of June was very relaxing compared to the previous months!

Austin went on several deep sea fishing trips with a few of his good friends he made at BSU. He had a wonderful time!

Ashton and I went to the beach with Nana and Tom for a few days....and poor Mark worked as usual.

2009-07-14T15:54:00.004-05:00

I started this blog for posting news of the Heath House in Port Gibson and it's been quite a while since I have posted anything regarding our house in Port Gibson so here goes! I've been looking for two years,since we bought the house for a table to put in the dining room and have found two that I really like. One was at an auction and I could not even come close to the final price and that didn't include chairs, the other one was at an estate sale and it was "sold" when I walked in the door! So finally I saw one online at an upcoming estate sale and sent an email asking questions about it and decided to go to the estate sale and look at it.....I liked it alot and ended up buying it and the chairs ( which at first I didn't think I wanted). I got it all home ( two trips to West Point, MS ) and after cleaning it up and steam cleaning the green seat cushions on the chairs,I decided that it would look really good in my eat in kitchen and that the one I had there ( blue seat cushions) would look really good in Port Gibson. The one I bought has six chairs and the one I already had had eight chairs, and can easily seat TEN! What a great decision, I Love the one at home in Madison and I Love the one in Port Gibson! What do you think??

May 2009

2009-06-30T18:44:00.016-05:00

What a wonderful busy month! Let's get started....

May started off with Austins graduation from MSU. Everybody was there for the celebration except Ashton, she was on a choir trip to Destin, Fl.

Austin changed before we went out to eat into his Ole Miss shirt! He sure let go of his bulldogs quickly!

The next weekend was Ashton's class day. It was held in the gym ( hard bleachers) and lasted THREE HOURS! Nana and Tom endured the whole thing, leaving a little early to save us seats at P.F. Changs for lunch. Mark and I surprised Ashton with a John Hardy ring. I had it wrapped in a vintage acrylic rhinestone studded purse!

That Sunday was Mother's Day. We decided since Austin had to work and couldn't come home that we would go to Starkville. Mark had a box of donuts for me for the ride there...YUM! Austin had planned a picnic on campus but it was raining so he set all the food up on his coffee table and had a movie ready to watch while we ate. For dessert he had a cookie cake with "Happy Birthday Ashton" on it, since he wasn't going to be able to be home for her Birthday! It was wonderful! After the rain, we walked around campus so that Ashton would be familiar with it in the fall. I rang a HUGE cow bell on campus! Kudzu was able to go with us and visit with Beau....

Wednesday, the 13th, was Ashton's 18th Birthday. We celebrated it at Fat Tuesday with her friend Betsey and Nana and Tom. She opened presents and had a cake! She got dressed the next day and wore her birthday earrings! Doesn't she look beautiful and all grown up!

The following weekend was Ashton's graduation. Sister came on Friday to be here for all of the festivities! Friday night, Nana and Tom threw Ashton a "Pretty in Pink" graduation party. Everything was PINK including most every one's outfits. Wes and Debbie, Reid and Tyler were there; along with Ellen and her parents Bubba and Carol and of course, Nana, Tom, Me and Mark, Mi Mi and Paw Paw and Austin.

Towards the end of the evening Austin surprised most everybody with a toast, with pink champagne in pink champagne glasses. The toast began with congrats to Ashton on her accomplishment and then he talked about the fact that it was his and Ellen's six year anniversary that night as well and it ended with him on one knee proposing to Ellen! It was so sweet and had us all in tears! And yes, Ellen said "YES"!

I know this is the longest post EVER, but there's MORE! haha.

Saturday was graduation day for Ashton. It went so smoothly thanks to Sister being here to calm my nerves and take all the pictures! It was wonderful having her here. We held up letters so Ashton could see where we were seated and to show her how much we love her! After graduation we went out for lunch!

What an exciting month this has been! Mark and I are so blessed to have such wonderful children and such a loving family. Austin is engaged to a wonderful girl and headed to law school in Oxford, MS. Ashton is 18 years old ( can't believe it) and headed to Mississippi State in the fall. I'm going to be sooooooo lonely come September!

April

2009-05-14T11:44:00.010-05:00

Things have been very busy around here with Austin and Ashton both graduating both having birthdays and Summer beginning! April started with Austin deciding to go to Law School at Ole Miss. He was accepted to all five schools that he applied to but is very excited with his decision to go to Ole Miss. I made him jump a tiny fence to get this picture of him on the sign ( surely they wouldn't kick him out this early) haha.... and the other picture is of Austin and Ellen in the Grove! We birthday shopped for Austin while there, he got new shorts and a belt, notice the outfit change!

Ashton decided to go to her Senior prom this year with a large group of friends and had a great time! She's the beautiful one in the middle with the cream and brown dress on!

We had beautiful weather for Easter this year...this is a shot of the kids being goofy in their shades!

The weekend after Easter is the men's church group golf trip. They have been doing it for years and get excited like small children every year in anticipation! Courtney and Susie and I decided to do a small girls trip and go to Port Gibson for the weekend. It rained a lot and Courntey had just recently started walking after breaking both legs in a car accident, so we took it slow! We sat on the upstairs porch and drank and talked and ate and drank... I put Susie in Ashton's room not knowing that she was afraid of ghosts! oops! haha.... She spent the last night on the couch! She said there was just too much going on in that room! We went to the military park and did the tourist thing and also took a day trip to Vicksburg.

The month ended with Ashton's final choir concert!! BOOHOO!!! Pictured are a group of her friends that are also graduating this year and a picture of Ashton with her choir director, Mrs. Hunt.

May is going to be equally as busy!

Booth Redo

2009-04-02T21:45:00.002-05:00

I took EVERYTHING out of my booth today and totally redid it! I added three new pieces of furniture...it was a four hour job, but it was worth it! I'm sure everything will sell like crazy now! haha....

Jewelry!

2009-03-25T16:27:00.002-05:00

Ashton and I had crafts night last night and made lots of great stuff! I made several necklaces and earrings and Ashton made magnets for her magnet board for her dorm next year! I just thought you might enjoy seeing them! haha..

March

2009-03-25T15:04:00.004-05:00

April is just a few days away so let me catch you up on what went on in March.

It SNOWED!!! It wasn't much, but it sure was fun to wake up and see everything covered in white!

We did our yearly Spring Break trip with the kids. We are so blessed that they want to spend time with us!! There's no one that we would rather be with. This year we decided to go to Atlanta, GA. We always let everyone pick something they want to do and we all enjoy it together.

This year I chose the Scotts Flea Market. This has been on my to do list for many many years! I can't even begin to describe how fabulous it was...everything just seemed to go on forever!! It was raining and there was lots of just outside, so I've got to go back one day when the sun is shining! I finally got the mounted animal head I've been wanting for Port Gibson...we aren't sure what animal it is, but we named it "Woody" for the sweet man that sold him to me!

Ellen( who ended up not getting to go on the trip this year), chose the Aquarium, so we were still going for her. However when we arrived and saw lines and lines of school buses we decided the Ikea looked like a whole lot more fun. For those of you who have never been to an Ikea it's something to see!! We spent several hours there, we even had lunch, and left with lots of goodies and a pan of cinnamon rolls for later! YUM YUM....

Austin picked several outdoor type stores...REI, Orvis, Trader Joes ( a cool grocery store) etc... When we check out at Trader Joes everybody starting screaming and hollering ( scared me to death) turned out our total was an even number so we got to "putt for groceries". Of course I was very excited about that since we have such talented golfers in our family. Austin was the chosen one.....HE Missed!! Hard to believe!

We ate at some great restaurants; nothing fancy, but nothing we had ever been to before. A Mexican, Italian, and of course the Varsity!

Mark didn't really pick something just for him ( bless his heart), but he has a friend that insisted on getting us passes into the Apparel Mart. WOW!! Three buildings Six floors of the newest merchandise. It was a bit overwhelming, but yes we managed to find several very nice items!

Ashton chose shopping for a white dress for class day and a dress for prom. A Sephora store was also a must! Not only did we do all of that, but we also found a Bare Minerals store and a VENDING MACHINE that sold make-up!! Doesn't get much better than that for Ashton. The guys were off doing guy stuff..

We ran across some other great places and had to stop of course! Antique stores, a brewery etc... We had a wonderful time together....Lots and lots of laughter!

As soon as we got home there was still time for a visit to Port Gibson, Ellen was able to join us. The boys played golf while Ellen and I rode along. When we arrived back at the house we were greeted by Ashton outside on quilts with all three of the dogs! She had made them all flower necklaces, however, Kudzu ATE them ALL! We had a very relaxing weekend watching a lot of movies. Oh and we also hung Woody on the wall!! Yeah...

2009-02-24T15:46:00.001-06:00

February

2009-02-24T14:59:00.006-06:00

It's been such a busy February!

Mark and I have been on a business rewards trip to New Orleans where we visited a cemetery, a haunted house, bar hopped, took a cooking class, ate great food and had lots of laughs with good friends!

Beau celebrated his First birthday with cake and presents. He loved his cake and his camo neoprene vest!

Mark's parents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in Jasper with friends and family. We threw them a party complete with about 95 guests, a beautiful cake and flowers, great food and music, and a slide show of old pictures. It was lots of FUN!

Mark and I also enjoyed a relaxing weekend in Port Gibson!

Rearranging!

2009-02-02T08:28:00.005-06:00

Mark and I have been thinking about getting a King size bed, so with that in mind I decided to rearrange our bedroom.... It also began with a piece of furniture that I got an an estate sale this weekend. I was sanding and waxing the wash stand to put in my booth, but fell in love with it. The more I sanded on it, blues and greens began to show through, my two favorite shades. I also had stashed away in the corner of the garage a piece of scalloped trim that I'd been saving with the intention of taking it to the Port Gibson house.....SO....I asked for help, and no one voluntered, so I tackled it all by myself! I'm very happy with the results and may not get a king size bed for a while.

Christmas in Port Gibson

2009-01-05T18:24:00.005-06:00

This year we celebrated Christmas in Port Gibson! Austin, Beau and I arrived on Monday to clean and decorate. Austin was very handy and turned a chifferobe in the billiards room into an awesome bar! Ashton and Kudzu arrived on Tuesday. We drove to Vicksburg to get groceries and Austin and Ashton decided they needed "live" trees in their rooms. The trees were eleven dollars each, the decorations were another 30 dollars, the experience was PRICELESS! Watching them pick out the stuff and then making tree stands and decorating them was such a joy to watch! Mark and Lulu arrived Wednesday afternoon soon followed by his parents, Mimi and PawPaw. We had a very memorable Christmas together in Port Gibson....

Christmas with the Fulmer Family

2009-01-05T17:58:00.003-06:00

On the weekend before Christmas we celebrated with Nana, Tom, Wes, Debbie, Reid, Tyler, Ellen and Maw Maw. We had our traditional Gumbo, Yum Yum, played twister, Bingo ( with prizes ) and drove around looking for Christmas lights! We also visited a live nativity at Christ Methodist Church.

Madrigal Dinner

2009-01-05T12:06:00.003-06:00

Ashton's third Madrigal Dinner was Wonderful! MiMi, PawPaw, Nana, Tom, Austin, Ellen, Mark and I were all at the final performance of the evening. Ashton was seated front row and center this year since she's a Senior ( boohoo!!) The ad the put in the program this year had a picture of Ashton with her new dog Kudzu...we think he looks a little medieval!

Thanksgiviing

2009-01-05T11:39:00.002-06:00

Thanksgiving this year was spent in Mountain Home Arkansas with the Sullivants and the Clarks. We had wonderful food, great fun and beautiful weather!

Progress in Port Gibson

2008-12-10T15:30:00.006-06:00

Mark, Ashton, Lulu, Kudzu and I spent a few days in Port Gibson recently. We went expecting it to be really cold and it turned out to be a beautiful, perfect temperature weekend. We watched all of the Indiana Jones Movies, made a trip to the Dollar General, went to Georgia's at the Depot and heard Lonesome Mel sing and enjoyed dinner,I finished a lamp I've been restoring forever, and I got the Christmas Tree up! Ashton and I tackled a project we've been wanting to get done; we stripped the Original wallpaper off the walls in her bedroom!!! Quite a Dirty Job! What an awesome surprise I found .... I was working on the area above the fireplace and found that it wasn't solid mortar, but was wood in one area....I found some hinges and a keyhole and discovered a hidden DOOR!! I was so excited I about fainted! I pried it open, scared of what might jump out at me, and found a small area with shelves inside....NO TREASURE! Darn! It was still very exciting! We didn't get started until Sunday and were so tired that we decided to spend the night and wake up really early Monday and head home so that Mark would get to work on time.

Maw Maw's Birthday

2008-11-19T09:52:00.004-06:00

My Grandmother turned 94 on Friday!! My Mother, Aunt Carol Lynn and I took her to lunch at Applebees. Maw Maw is just as sharp as a tack still. She makes sure you are taking the right turns to get to your destination, she always orders hot tea ( no matter what the restaurant) and wants to know what kind of cup it's going to come in....most of the time it's not fine china! haha... We had a great time catching up. I also redid my booth this week and Christmasized ( my own word) it!

October

2008-11-04T21:36:00.008-06:00

October was a very busy and fun month for us. It started with Ashton and I going on a road trip to Greenville, MS to visit a new dermatologist. I am directionally challenged and took a wrong turn and to our surprise we ended up in Arkansas, who knew it was so close!? However had we not made that wrong turn we would never have seen the Alpaca Farm!! We had to pull over and take pictures!
That weekend Mark and I headed to Port Gibson. We finally hung some pictures on a few of the walls ( who cares that they aren't painted!) We also hung drapes in the billiards room.

The next weekend we went back to Port Gibson with the kids, Mom and Tom came for the day on Sunday. We cooked hotdogs on the grill and rocked on the porch and took the driving tour of Port Gibson ending at the Mississippi River.

A few days later we were driving past Petsmart and saw the CARA people with puppies for adoption. Ashton and I fell for a puppy we named Kudzu! ( a weed that grows by the side of the road) Yes we are suckers for a puppy!

The next weekend we visited Marks parents in Jasper, with all THREE dogs! I'm sure they are still vaccumning up dog hair! We had a wonderful visit; fishing, shooting skeet, riding in the woods, and paddle boating.

The next weekend we were back in Port Gibson with Ashton and her friend Tori. The weather was beautiful so we rode bikes a lot! While we were there we saw a flyer about "Paint Day" that was to take place the next weekend, so yes we were back again!

This was Halloween weekend; Austin and Ellen arrived before Mark and I and were set up on the front porch handing out candy to the neighborhood kids! Ellen dressed up like Mrs. Heath and Austin was planning on doing Risky Business ( underwear and socks), but thank goodness it was too cold! They even brought Austiin's pumpkin he carved "Happy Hal". The Saturday morning was "Paint Day". Artists set up all over twon painting things in Port Gibson. We rode around on our bikes checking it all out! That night there was a wine and cheese part at Georgias and the art was auctioned off with 20% of the profits going to the Save Church Street fund. We had a great time, met new friends and left with THREE painting!

Creative Escape

2008-09-11T03:36:00.004-05:00

Sister and I went on our annual trip to Phoenix for a "Creative Escape"...for those of you that don't know, it's a scrapbooking convention. They say it's the cadillac of all scrapbooking events in the United States...over 10,000 women applied and only 600 got in! Hard to believe!! We had a great time just being together, but the classes were also great. I'm a really slow scrapper, so I came home with boxes of unfinished projects, but I also came home inspired to be creative; which is really what it's all about! I Halloweenized ( I know that's not a word ) my booth today and sold three big items while I was there! Yippie....

Back to School

2008-09-11T03:09:00.008-05:00

Going back to school time is always a sad time for me! Austin and Beau headed back to Starkville with the excitement of moving into a townhouse and Ashton headed back to high school with the excitement of being a Senior! Boo Hoo! What will I do next year???

Also in August, Mark and I took our good friends Trey and Courtney to Port Gibson. It was the weekend of the member guest at Moss Wood, so Mark and Trey played lots of golf and Courtney and I did our own thing. Courtney likes true life ghost stories on t.v. and was very disappointed when Momma and John did not come out to greet her. She mentioned a house in St. Francisville, LA that was known as the most haunted house in America; so I googled it and found out it's only and hour and a half away from Port Gibson. We took the tour and walked the grounds in hopes of seeing a ghost or two and I took lots of pictures hoping there would be a ghost in one. These two pictures are of Courtney holding the hand of her imaginary ghost friend and the other one is of the front of the house and if you blow it up really big and look in the front door ( the one with lights on either side) you can see the ghost of the two children that were killed there. They were killed after eating birthday cake laced with oleander! Look close; I'm not kidding! The girl is very clear on the left and the boy is not as clear on the right!!

Mark's Birthday

2008-08-25T16:46:00.004-05:00

Ashton made Mark a fabulous cake for his birthday. We had a party at home with Austin, Ashton and Ellen. After having Mark's favorite meal (hamburgers)and opening presents, we surprised him with a bag of candy with movie tickets inside for a late movie.

Our 25th Wedding Anniversary

2008-08-25T13:20:00.002-05:00

Mark and I celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary on July 23rd. It's hard to believe we have been married that long. Time goes by so fast....but what a wonderful ride it has been so far! I'm looking forward to many more wonderful years! We celebrated with Austin and Ashton and Ellen at Shapley's Restaurant.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-08-25T12:16:00.006-05:00

This year for my birthday Mark surprised me with a new truck...I named him Cowboy! We had planned a trip to Memphis with the kids so we loaded up in Cowboy. We were so comfortable...it's so nice having a vehicle we can all ride in comfortably! For our trip everyone picked something they wanted to do while in Memphis....Ashton picked going to the opening night of Momma Mia...Austin picked a really nice store that sold men's clothes and the Vineyard Vines Store....Mark picked eating at a BBQ restaurant that served barbeque spaghetti...and I picked the Memphis Flea Market! It was all lots of fun. We also had a great time on Beale Street at night! When we got home Mom and Tom had a dinner for me for my birthday! Mom used her headvase collection with flowers in them for the table centerpiece. Ashton made me the beautiful cake!

Corn Pickin' in Port Gibson

2008-08-25T10:29:00.002-05:00

Everytime we drive the trace on our way to Port Gibson and the corn is in bloom I have wanted to stop and pick some, but Mark has not let me! SO....When Ashton, Amber and I went in July we did just that! We didn't know that corn has a short window of time to be picked for human eating vs. for the cows! ha-ha... It was a bit ( a lot) hard, but we ate it and enjoyed it. We did worry about awakening to explosive diarhea, but thankfully that did not happen.

Another great time in Port Gibson!

Visit to Mountain Home

2008-08-25T09:56:00.003-05:00

Sister said the weather was cool and beautiful for June in Mountain Home, so Ashton and I decided to leave the heat of Madison and make a road trip to Mountain Home. For lunch on the way there we stopped at a gas station, that is now our favorite, and got great deli sandwiches and could not resist the T-Shirts!! We arrived in Mountain Home to the same Hot Weather that we left behind, but we had a great visit. We shopped and scrapped and went to the movie!!

Father's Day

2008-08-25T09:06:00.010-05:00

For Father's Day this year we got Mark a bike. After trying it out, Mark and Austin decided we all needed to ride to the tennis courts and play some tennis. Ashton however, didn't have a racquet so we headed off to Academy Sports. After the kids were through clowning around with a see saw we headed inside.

We really got carried away shopping, we ended up with new racquets and MATCHING OUTFITS for teams. ha-ha After playing several games...rounds...?? we decided we LOOKED much better than we played! We had a great time.

Beach Trip

2008-07-25T21:08:00.007-05:00

The first week of June was our annual trip to the beach with Nana and Tom. The weather was absolutely perfect every day this year; we had a great time! I've included quite a few pictures from the week. Turn your volume up and enjoy the music.

Visitors...

2008-07-25T17:37:00.003-05:00

The month of May brought visitors to the Heath house. Ashton's friends Mary Kate and Andrew visited for the day and kept busy by riding bikes, playing ping pong, pool, and SPOONS! It was an especially hot day, so thank you for putting up with the heat! A few days later my friend, from college, Michele and her husband Dewayne visited Port Gibson. Michele was attending a conference in Natchez and drove up for the day. I love showing the house to people, I'm so proud of it! Hopefully they will all come back when it's cooler and spend more time.

Ashton's 17th Birthday!

2008-06-12T18:43:00.009-05:00

Ashton likes to celebrate her birthday for an entire week ( who doesn't?) so in honor of that we begin her birthday with Mimi and Pawpaw at PF Changs for dinner. We had a wonderful meal and a great time.

A few nights later we had a party at the house and Nana and Tom came. We cooked out on the grill and had a great dinner. Ashton got her bike that night ( we had her convinced that we had forgotten to pick it up! haha). I did NOT take a picture of Ashton with Nana and Tom....what was I thinking?? That's cake number TWO....

For her third and final party we went to Port Gibson for the weekend. Amber and Ellen were with us. We began the weekend in Natchez, where we shopped a little and had lunch at a great italian restaurant. When we arrived in Port Gibson Ashton and Amber headed off on the bikes...they went all over town! While they were off biking Austin decided to hide out on the upstairs porch and shoot some squirrels! He was very successful...he ended up with FIVE dead squirrels! yeah . . . Austin also set up a badmitton set with the help of his new friend Andre.
That night we had cake number THREE, a cookie cake, (yummy) and Pizza! Mark, Ashton, Austin and Amber played pool while Ellen and I tried to untangle the crystals that go on the chandelier...we got them all laid out and with the help of Ashton and Amber attached them to the chandelier...BEAUTIFUL ( There is still another strand to hang, but three of the attaching crystals are broken)...Beau was worn out, so we headed off to bed.
The next morning we got ready for our picnic ( another request from Ashton for her birthday).....The LAST DAY of Ashton's Birthday! We drove to the Battlefield Park and layed out quilts on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. It was a beautiful day for a picnic!

Mothers Day

2008-05-19T13:06:00.000-05:00

Mother's Day, Mother's Day, Oh How I LOVE Mother's Day!

My family always does such a wonderful job of making me feel special and loved on Mother's Day. This year it started on Friday! Let me start at the beginning.... I had an unexpected root canal on Wednesday and immediately went to work at the Cheshire Cat to get ready for the Canton Flea Market. Thursday was the Flea Market and I was at work at 6a.m.; ( I was taking two tylenol and two advil every 3 hours for the pain) the day was windy and occasionally rainy and we worked really hard to keep things from blowing away and moving things in and out from the rain. When I had time to look around I went to my favorite jewelry booth. I found a necklace that just spoke to me and I had her hold it for me until I could get back later to pay for it. Later that afternoon, Sharon headed back that way to pay for her piece and I sent a check with her to pay for mine. She came back a little while later and handed me my check and said that someone had seen my necklace behind the counter and had insisted that she sell it to her and so she had! I was so disappointed....By the end of the day I was in so much pain that I went home and went straight to bed. I had some prescription strength pain medicine but I didn't take any because I knew I had to get up and get Ashton ready for school the following morning. I was awake all night and sending emails to Sister telling her about all my pain ( her husband John is a dentist) I talked to John early Friday and he said to call my dentist and let him know what was going on and that I would probably need to go in for more drilling!!!! I called my dentist and he prescribed another round of antibiotics and a steroid and told me to take the prescription pain pill and called in a stronger one! I stayed in bed all day Friday zonked ( is that a word?) out on pain meds! Now, back to Mother's Day starting on Friday! haha..... Later in the day on Friday Austin came into my room with a present wrapped for me. He said he thought I might like to have it before Saturday because they were taking me to the Museum to see H.C. Porter's Katrina exhibit. I was so totally surprised when I opened the wrapping to see the NECKLACE that I thought had been sold!!! He had gone to the booth and bought it for me on Thursday!!! How sweet is that!!!

On Saturday ( I was feeling much much better, still taking meds though) Ashton and I went shopping that morning while Mark and Austin played golf and I went to Chico's to find just the right outfit to wear with my new necklace! I left wearing a new pair of jeans and a beautiful orange wrap! They had to cut the tags off me! haha.. We met Mark and Austin for lunch at Brent's and then went to the museum. It was a fabulous day and it wasn't even Mother's Day yet....

On Sunday we headed to Port Gibson. We cooked hotdogs on the grill and had a great lunch and then worked in the yard. Mark and I cut down tree limbs on a huge tree we thought we were going to cut all the way down until we realized that it blocked a view that we wanted to stay blocked! haha.... Austin dug a huge hole in the yard where we moved two hydranga's ( he found an awesome old ink bottle buried in the dirt) while Ashton and I layed on a quilt with Beau and watched. It was a wonderful wonderful Mother's Day. They also ordered me an awesome cruiser bike with a basket and bell, but it didn't make it in time for Mother's Day. I'll show pictures of that later with Ashton ( she's getting one for her Birthday!) What an awesome family I have! I'm a lucky lucky girl!

Beau and New Wicker

2008-05-19T12:10:00.001-05:00

I purchased this beautiful wicker from an estate sale...the fabric was not so beautiful, so I decided for a quick fix just to paint it. Look how Beau has grown! The wicker is on the side porch upstairs at the house now and sitting there offers a whole different look down the street and the side yard of Port Gibson. Just something else to enjoy while there!

April 2008 - Sister Visits Port Gibson

2008-05-19T12:00:00.000-05:00

Sister finally made the trip to Port Gibson. We had a wonderful lunch at Georgia's and spent the rest of the time at the house. We worked on our charms for Creative Escape and just enjoyed each others company. She is afraid of ghosts so we slept in the same bed, but unfortunately( I know that sounds mean..but I was kind of hoping for a little excitement) Momma and John were nice and didn't bother her. Maybe she'll visit again! Sister took some wonderful pictures of the house, I've posted a few.

April 2008 - Austins Birthday

2008-04-28T09:12:00.000-05:00

I arrived in Port Gibson on Friday morning to get ready for Austin's birthday weekend. Mr. May was hanging the chandelier in the front parlor that had been on the bed in the back bedroom for SIX MONTHS. He did not get it working, he was short a part, but at least it's off the bed and hung! YEAH....

For Austin's birthday Ashton and I made banners and put them all over the house, even over the front door outside.

While we were in New Orleans for Spring Break we got several things for the house! Mark bought me the blue bust for Easter...I named her Nola ( for New Orleans, LA) and I bought the hat for her at an estate sale. I LOVE her!

In preparation for everyone's arrival I cleaned house and changed sheets etc....while cleaning the downstairs bedroom and bath I hung cute new curtains in three bathroom windows and took down the yucky filthy blinds. I also spruced up the room with new pillows and lamp.

This picture shows the trophy lamp and pool balls we got in New Orleans for the "man room"...

Austins favorite Birthday present wasn't the wonderful bike that Mark and I got him.....His favorite present was given to him by Ellen and her parents....A blonde lab puppy, named Beau! Aren't they both adorable!

Mimi and Pawpaw arrived in time for lunch at the club and 9 holes of golf. We had a great time even the though it was a bit chilly. They gave Austin a shot gun....he's 21, I could not say No! Nana and Tom arrived Saturday night in time for cake, a round or two of pool and puppy holding before lights out!

The next morning we had an awesome breakfast casserole, fruit and rolls. Mimi had her turn holding Beau. After breakfast we all headed out for a walk...Lulu and Beau included! We walked to the cemetery and up Church Street. It was a beautiful day.

After our walk we headed home to start lunch ( I know, you're thinking will they ever leave?! ha-ha....just kidding) Mark and Austin put hotdogs on the grill while Ashton babysat Beau! We had a wonderful weekend.

March 2008

2008-04-26T18:56:00.000-05:00

Susan and I went to Port Gibson the last day of March for the Heritage Festival. We had a great time, but I did not take ANY pictures!!! I know, hard to believe. We scoped it all out on Friday night ( where the booths were and where the food was etc.) On Saturday morning we got our breakfast and headed out on the upstairs porch to watch the "Dilla Dash" ( yes named after an armadilla, we asked!) What Fun! It starts with the really fast runners and then gets to the slower runners and then you see the really fast walkers and so on and so on and at the end it's the kids and disabled or older people! It's lots of fun to say " Good Morning ", and " Good Luck " and " Run Faster " to them! ha-ha. After getting showered and dressed we headed to the festival. We visited with the artists and shopped; I bought two great ferns for the urns at the front of the house. We got catfish from the First Baptist Church for lunch, which about this time Ashton joined us and Susan had to leave. Ashton spent the rest of the day and that night with me! FUN

Since I didn't have any pictures to post I thought I would show you pictures of things that happened in the month of March. My booth looked really good so I took pictures of it. We also went to New Orleans for Spring Break and had a great time!

Easter was also In March so included a picture of Austin and Ashton before we left for Church.

February

2008-04-03T09:13:00.000-05:00

After the expensive heating bill of January, I was the only one that made a trip to Port Gibson in February. I purchased an awesome set of wicker for the morning room and I made the trip ALONE to recover it. I arrived in Port Gibson mid morning on a Friday and set to work. I closed all the doors that open to the morning room and plugged in a little heater and my sewing machine and started pulling off the old upholstery. Before too long I realized I was going to have to redo the bottom fabric covering the springs, so I headed to Vicksburg to the Walmart for more supplies. When I got back to the house I picked the flowers that were blooming in the yard and put them in an old Mason jar on one of the new wicker tables. I worked for hours listening to my Ipod and having a great time! When it started to get dark I went into the kitchen and fixed my supper, which was great ( I took a picture of that too! ha-ha)...I also talked on the phone with Sister and while we were talking I heard the strangest noise from outside. It sounded like someone was under the window making a scary noise! I had all the lights on, so I turned them off so I could see outside and went from window to window trying to find out what was making the noise! I didn't see anything, so I thought Mark or the kids had decided to join me and were outside trying to scare me. I called all of them and they were definitely at home or where they should be, not in Port Gibson! I decided to call The Tinsleys, my next door neighbors, and let them know that I was going to be there alone for the night. When Bobbi answered the phone she was laughing, and said, " I was knew you would be calling!"......She had heard the noise also....and informed me that it was the neighborhood OWL!!! Well needless to say that was quite a relief. Soon after that I went to bed, I won't say that I had a great nights sleep but it wasn't too bad. The next day around noon Mark and the kids did show up. Mark and Austin tried out the new pellet gun ( to try and get the squirrels from nesting in the attic)... I know sounds mean, but they are REALLY a problem. Ashton read her book while trying out the wicker, and we had a great lunch at the Depot. I've inclued lots of pictures of the wicker, I'm so proud!

I forgot to mention the awesome farm table I found for the upstairs! This is for Sister and I to scrapbook on when she comes to visit! She's coming the first of April. This will be her first trip to Port Gibson and she says she's not spending the night unless she sleeps in the same bed with me and Lulu! ha-ha....

I apologize for my lack of blog knowledge!!! The pictures are not in the order that I wanted them and I don't know how to change them! sorry........

January 2008

2008-03-13T13:22:00.000-05:00

It's a the beginning of the New Year! YEAH... we are almost up to date!

The kids are out of school for Christmas break and we get busy painting the billiards room. This was a fun weekend, even though the kitchen is STILL not put back together and we have to eat out! It's amazing how much you can get done with lots of help.

After the kids are settled back in school Mark and I spend several weekends in Port Gibson and just about finish up the kitchen....painting the walls and cabinets, putting on new hardware, hanging curtains and a piece of stained glass in the window and getting the refrigerator and stove back in! We also found an awesome enamel top table that fit perfectly next to the stove for more counter space. I skirted it with black and white toile fabric and added some accessories and the kitchen is looking FABULOUS!

The kids come and we spend another weekend in the house and we are able to COOK in the kitchen and enjoy the billiards room. Oh, I almost forgot, Mr. May also got the new light fixture over the pool table wired and hung!

In case you are wondering, Was it cold in that big house?, YES! We bought a truck load of fire wood and tried to use our outdoor woodburning system, but it never got warm. We burned a half a cord of wood and Mark burned his new shirt Austin gave him for Christmas! haha.... So, we went back to the central heat. Our gas bill went from $10.00 a month to a whopping $300.00, for TWO weekends! I'm sure we heated the entire town with all the gaps and holes and lack of insulation.

I also included a picture of Mr. Tinsley, our sweet neighbor who always comes over and checks on us!

December 2007

2008-03-13T12:45:00.000-05:00

We've been busy with Thanksgiving and are getting ready for Christmas, at this point hoping to have Christmas in Port Gibson. Mark and I decide to refinish the Billiards room flooring ourselves and rent a sander...After two rentals and several days Mark gets the hang of it and did a fabulous job! I replaced a rotten corner of the room with boards from the attic flooring and did the sanding around the edges of the room. While Mark was sanding and then polyurethaning, I started laying down the new kitchen floor! This is finally PROGRESS that you can see!

With the pool table scheduled to be delivered on the 20th we realize that just getting the floors finished and a new rug down is about all that we can get done and that having Christmas there is not going to happen. On the 23rd Ashton and I put up a small Christmas tree in the dining room and decorate the front door. Mark and Austin play pool!

November 2007

2008-03-13T11:39:00.000-05:00

It's November the 5th and I'm driving to Port Gibson to meet Brian, the carpenter, who is starting work today! I arrive around 7:30a.m. and there are workers EVERYWHERE...the rotten part of the front porch has already been torn out, there are workers on the back porch and on the second story porch. I hired them to tear out and replace all of the rotten wood on the exterior of the house...then...as the day goes on and we are walking through the house he tells me he has a friend that is a painter who does plaster repair and that he's asked him to come and take a look....he also has a friend that's a roofer and he's also coming! This is great after not being able to get workers, but also sounding really expensive. NONE of these workers give estimates...everything is done on an hourly basis.

Danny the painter comes and he tells me that the plaster is not as bad as we thought and that it just needs to be patched, except a few small places, that need to be torn out and sheet rocked. This sounds great, so he starts to work the following day. They do not have the same work ethic as the carpenters and are very slow and making a huge mess. When they get to the living room they discover that this plaster is not holding as it should and that SOME will have to come down and be sheet rocked...it turned out to be the ENTIRE ROOM, walls and ceiling! CHA CHING!

We decided that since the walls were being done that we would go ahead and take up the damaged wood floors that were over the original wood so that we could have a Billiards room by Christmas!

The roofer shows up on the third day and of course he says we need a whole new roof! We decided to start with the tin roof on the back of the house. When they start the job they discover that the previous roofing materials have been stuck down with lots and lots of tar and the removal of all this is going to DOUBLE the price! haha....

By the 15th of the month everything that's getting done at this point is done. After many days of driving to and from Port Gibson and a few tears it's time to start the clean up!

2008-03-05T09:58:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to show off some more of my stuff. I've been on a roll lately! I'm redoing my booth right now so I'll show pictures of that later. The ones I'm showing today are from last week....

October 2007

2008-03-03T09:05:00.000-06:00

Here it is October and this is what's been done....Mr. Tinsley, our sweet neighbor, has put down a new subfloor in the kitchen for us, we have started priming the walls and cabinets and we have removed one of the two ranges that were there and both of the vent hoods. MARK ( yes, Mark has become quite handy in Port Gibson) installed a new venthood. We moved the refrigerator and range out into the hallway so that the new floor could be put down. I've included a picture of the back bedroom light fixture that I talked about in the previous entry, it actually wasn't hung until October, remember I got it in June...( my electrician is very very slow, but he's a sweetheart) We do have fun time when we are there as well, I haven't talked much about that. We went to Natchez for the Balloon Race over the Mississippi River, which was beautiful, and we decorated the house for Halloween. Also at the very end of October I got the name of a carpenter out of Louisiana that actually showed up on a Saturday to peruse the situation and AGREED to start to work on the following Monday!!! That's where November starts...

Chandelier

2008-03-02T11:49:00.002-06:00

Okay, back to getting caught up. It's June 2007 and we are on vacation in Destin, Fl. I found an awesome antique store, called Antiques on Holiday! I walked around with my mouth open for a good 15 -20 minutes trying to absorb it all, then I went to business! I found two perfect light fixtures for the Port Gibson house. One is a chandelier for the dining room ( I took the fixture that was there and had it moved into the morning room), and the other one is for the back bedroom. Getting them home ( especially the chandlier) was quite a feat! A Big thanks to Tom for having the patience to work it out! The fixtures sat in the house for well over a month before the electrician got to hanging them, but it was well worth the wait! Beautiful

Jewelry...

2008-03-01T10:29:00.000-06:00

I just finished a few pieces of jewelry and wanted to show it off! It's in my booth at the Antique Mall of the South, in Ridgeland, MS if anyone wants to run right down and buy a piece! ha-ha I also included a picture of a chair I just finished re-doing. I wish I had taken a before picture to show. There was no seat or back, just a frame! Notice at the very top of the chair there is a rhinestone necklace, so prissy! It sold the first day in the booth, Yeah for me!

Summer is here

2008-02-26T08:36:00.000-06:00

It's the end of May, and school is OUT! It's Summer, time to really start working on the house. Austin and Ellen join us and we start priming the walls in the morning room, hanging anaglyptic wallpaper on the ceiling of the kitchen, pulling up the kitchen floor to reveal that not only do we need new flooring, but we need a new subfloor! We got a lot started, but it will be quite a while before we see any real progress or actually return to do any work. I thought during the Summer we would get so much done, but Austin and Ashton both have Summer jobs, so school starts again and all that's been done is having the house pressure washed. Which turns out was a huge waste of money! Oh well... Getting workers has turned out to be harder than I ever imagined!

Ghosts?

2008-02-12T09:47:00.001-06:00

I know everybody is wanting to know, Do We Have GHOSTS?? YES! During the first months that we bought the house and during our first visits, we had several encounters. The first night I stayed ALONE in the house, I slept ( or at least tried to) in a recliner in the middle of the room with a very small t.v. that I had borrowed, sitting on a small table in front of me. Lulu, our dog, was right by my side on the floor. About 2a.m. in the morning I hear her in another bedroom growling in a low growl that I've never heard her do before. All of the hair along her backbone was standing straight up! This happened every time she was there ALWAYS at 2a.m., in the morning. On another occassion I was sleeping in the room where Lulu was and there was a lamp on the table next to the bed and I felt something pass between me and the light. Lulu doesn't go with us every time and on an occassion when she wasn't there we had shut our bedroom door, at 2a.m. one of the blinds in our room FLEW off the window, I guess they didn't like us closing our door! Ellen our son Austin's girlfriend was sleeping one night and felt someone sit on the bed next to her, and our daughter Ashton ( her room is the most haunted room) felt the presence of a man pacing back and forth all night in her room. Needless to say she will not sleep alone when she is there!

We also had a few months when everytime we went to the house there were bats!! The first one was dead on the floor, but that night we had been out and when we entered the house there was a bat FLYING around! Mark and Austin chased it into a garbage bag and released it outside. Ellen and I were laying on the kitchen floor! On another occasssion we were eating lunch in the dining room ( we had not shared these bat stories with Ashton, afraid that she would not visit the house again) and Ashton was sitting eating and looked at the window and said "What's That?" and Yes, it was a bat hanging upside down from the curtains!! haha..... We found several more dead ones, one I kept in a jar! I finally had had enough and thought I'd talk to the ghosts and see if they could help....I'm NOT kidding. So I sat down in the most haunted room upstairs and explained to them how much I loved the house and really didn't mind them being there, but could they please help get rid of the bats......I'm NOT kidding when I tell you we have not had a bat since!!!!

Easter

2008-02-11T16:59:00.000-06:00

For Easter weekend Marks parents joined us in Port Gibson. The flowers in the yard were blooming ( which is always a great surprise to see what is actually planted ), but unfortunately it was quite cold and we were not prepared for that! We walked to one of the cemeteries in town and took pictures, played games and also celebrated Austins Birthday.

House Cleaning

2008-02-11T12:04:00.000-06:00

The next day we started the cleaning. We scrubbed the kitchen, and pulled down all the yucky drapes and threw out the dirty rugs ( don't worry none were old or valuable). It started to feel like ours. We left after a few days returning two weeks later for the Heritage Festival. During the festival there are local tours of homes and graveyards, horse and buggy rides, a venison cook-off, music and artists. There is also a 5K run that goes right past our house. We cheered them on from our porch! Fun....

Moving Out

2008-02-10T22:05:00.000-06:00

March 14, 2007. The day after we closed on the house the moving van showed up to remove the previous owners belongings ( including over 200 huge rubbermaid containers). We negotiated to keep most of the furniture in the house, which was FABULOUS! Austin was a great help - he sat on the porch and kept up with the comings and goings of the day, and also had time to write a poem which perfectly describes how we feel about the house.

Leaves fall down from tall, aged oaks,

moving truck brings questions from folks.

Are ya'll coming or going? Are there things for sale?

But to us, it's not the furniture, it's the house that's the tale.

When you buy a house this old, many will ask "why?",

but it represents a way of life, a time that's since gone by.

Hospitality and charm, all the South has to give,

this is what this home is, and how we want to live.

As we scrub, clean and build, restoring Heath to her prime,

we're not just healing the surface, we're skipping back in time.

So when you see that soft green manor, and oaks so tall and twirled,

know that this is our retreat, from the busy life of the world.

Let's get up to date...

2008-02-10T22:01:00.000-06:00

On March 13, 2007 ( after many months of negotiations) we purchased the Heath House...Yeah! I wanted to have a blog to be able to share the changes and progress as it is being made....so now that's it's up and running I need to start at the beginning to bring you up to date.