Finally, Live from Mississippi!

Hey y'all! I'm sitting outside the Mockingbird Cafe in Bay St. Louis borrowing their internet connection. Jeffy got a latte and is sitting in the car while I quickly upload a pre-written blog. It's pouring cats and dogs out of the sky. The rain started about 3pm...just in time for us to take a break! More will come over the next couple of days as we have some time to decompress over the Christmas break but for now, read on for some highlights from the last week.
was smooth and easy.

Flights were on-time and full! They were trying to bump people and offering a round-trip voucher to anyone willing to take a later flight into New Orleans…we refused. Arrived in NOLA early, all bags arrived and the rental car experience. It felt like a dream! Even have satellite radio in my van/SUV kind of thing. Loving it!

Work is plentiful. We have spent the last few days at two homes we’ve worked in before. In December of 2007 we worked at Mr. Pat’s house putting the subfloor in. Another group came in and put in peel ‘n’ stick tiles and some kitchen cabinets, some bathroom fixtures and worked stopped. It’s been sitting for the last couple of years with no money to finish. Mr. Pat’s niece, Tina, is moving into the house with him, so she’s investing in the house. Turns out, that peel ‘n’ stick tile, 2 years later, is peeling up. Lynn, Jeffy and Regina have spent the week over there peeling up the tile bit by bit.

There have been some creative ways of getting tiles off the floor. Putty knives, heat lamps, skateboards, hammers, lots of elbow grease...what's that? Yep, I said skateboards. Jeffy asked for something to scoot along the floor on with padding. Doug found the skateboard, we found a pillow and the result you can see below!

Lynn and Regina are coveting the skateboard. Ellen spent some time over there helping with the floor and her comment was that was the loudest she’s ever heard Regina…hammering up peel ‘n’ stick tiles. Laminate floors and ceramic tiles will go in as soon as the tile’s are up…that’s a job for next week!

Last December and April our groups helped get Captain John's house started. This time around we're painting the exterior of the house.

It’s been an amusing process. Captain John was sent out to get the paint…but when he got the paint he forgot which color it was and thought the color on the end of the swatch looked familiar. After priming the house the paint can was opened…Autumn Surprise is the color name…we decided, after putting a coat on the house that Pumpkin Pie was more like it. Yikes. Ben came over and put a stop to the painting of the trim and soon Ms. Sue was over with more color swatches. Now that was a fun conversation. Ben and Captain John look at the color swatches and say “I like this darker one over the lighter one” while Ms. Sue is saying “Well, Twilight Jungle matches the mildew better.” I had to step down from the paint bucket I was using as a ladder before I fell off I was laughing so hard.

What wasn’t said, though, was that the WHOLE house color was changing. Autumn Surprise aka Pumpkin Pie aka Sweet Potato Pie was out and Twilight Jungle is in. One side of the house is painted, one side primed, one half of a side primed and has a base coat of Autumn Surprise waiting for the top coat of Twilight Jungle and the back of the house hasn’t been touched yet.

Douglas has faced his fear of heights and been climbing around the scaffolding. Jolynn has braved the 3^rd level of scaffolding to paint the peak of the house. Bill has helped to assemble and dismantle the scaffolding (assuring us that the water rising up in the swamp wasn’t his fault) and has been piecing together which wire goes to which switch or outlet in the house. Ellen has split her time between flooring at Mr. Pat’s and painting at Captain John’s with a little time out to throw wood over the railing.

I’ve been busy caulking all the cracks in the ceiling of the porch and priming the hard to reach places on the front of the house…oh and Douglas made me get over my fear of nail guns…don’t tell him, but I still don’t like ‘em.

More stories to come later! Keep praying!