We're now in the stock market!

After all this recession talk, Ed and I started to think about how low all the stocks were and the potential to make a little money over the next 5-10 years. So we put some money in an account and bought some stocks! We're now officially "in the market!" If you have any good tips on stocks - let us know! We're beginners!

Wedding Planning Weekend

We went to Canyon Lake, TX with Paul and Christina to do some much needed wedding "re-planning" - and we got TONS accomplished! We didn't want to waste money on a hotel, so we decided to camp at North Park right on the Lake. The main goal was to find a ceremony site, rehearsal dinner restaurant, choose a cake and determine a catering menu.
Ed and I at the ceremony site...

Our campsite at North Park...right on the water, but also near nasty toilets!
Another wedding site option...more green, less blue
The wedding party layout at North Park

Sunset picture at the ceremony site
The Overlook Park where we'll be taking sunset pictures after the ceremony

So happy we have a nice ceremony site option!

And now for a couple funny shots of Paul and Christina...
I call this one "Facility Fee??!!?!!?"
And this is the new Country album cover for the the album - "Why won't you look at me during"

A note about blogging...

(From Terence of course!) HA! oh - and Ed and I are completely stressed from replanning a wedding, but hoping that we'll have some good decisions made by this weekend...

Gardening after Ike

Well, Ike hit our new little veggie garden pretty hard, but everything seems to have made it through and it looks like our peppers quite enjoyed it!

2 Anaheim Peppers starting to bloom...hopefully the birds and bugs don't take them!
Yellow Bell Pepper starting out...we haven't been very successful with the Bells yet...we'll see if this ones make it...
All the peppers...

Carrots just starting to come up - they're supposed to be ready to eat in November!

Squash plants - most were uprooted in the storm, but we're hoping they return...

And of course the bag that pulls it all together!

As we all know, it's all about the accessories!  

More Clean Up

After removing the tree from the roof, we had to pull it out into the street...which was no small task!

Yay!  It's not falling on the house!

Ed feeling very victorious...

Evacuating from Ike

Although Ike was a tragedy, we had a blast evacuating for it!  We left town Thursday evening to meet Christina and Paul at a cabin north east of Austin, TX.  It was absolutely wonderful and I could not imagine a better way to ride out a hurricane.  Sadly, we had to return to real life by Sunday.

Christina hiding out the in play house talking to family about the Hurricane... 

Ed just getting out the hot tub...trying to relax as we wait for the storm to come ashore...

Our Cabin was called "Grin and Bear It" - so you can guess what the Theme was...

The loft to the Cabin - this cabin was SOOOOO cute!

Surfside Beach Houses for Wedding

As Ike barreled through Houston, it hit Surfside Beach pretty hard and carried many houses into the Gulf of Mexico.  Unfortunately the main house for the wedding, the Seven Views, was completely destroyed.  At least half of this house was carried into the water and the remainder were left scattered across the beach.  The Surfside Beach website (www.surfsidetx.org) was excellent about updating the website with photos of the damage.  Below you can see the original wedding spot:

The collapsed house in between the triangle house and the blue house is, or was, the Seven Views house.  The brown house to the right is the duplex, which appears to have minimal damage from this view.  

Also - this link shows an aerial view of this area.  The first few seconds show the collapsed Seven Views House.  As you can see, not many houses around this area made it through.  

Surfside Beach Damage