The banner contest seems to be a hit!!

I have received multiple entries, and can’t wait to show you guys the amazing artwork!

You still have time to get your entries in!!  I have a class tomorrow, as well going to be busy the rest of the day and Saturday, so you can get them in!!!

For those who are wondering how I am doing, I am getting there.  Luckily Quilting seems to be the antidote to me needing to be busy while trying to settle my mind.  My Muse is slowly waking back up.  She was traumatized as much as I was by the sheer horror of what was going on around me.

There are piles of people’s lives out on the curbs everywhere you drive.  The only exceptions being either the lucky few who did not get flooded, (And I mean LUCKY few.) or those that have already had their lives picked up by the trash companies.  It seriously breaks my heart as you drive around on your errands and see the sheer amount of damage of people throwing away things that mean something to them but are growing mold on them from the flood.

Bleach is the #1 commodity now.  Sadly for the houses, since a lot of the items are cloth and so on or wood that was left too long in water.  NOT from the owners, but from nature.

All in all, it has been one of the experiences that drive home a couple of things.

• Houstonians (which is the city and the surrounding areas) are some of the most helpful people to their neighbors.  Strangers out helping strangers, not caring who or what that person is.
• It has taken a long time, but I am finally proud to be a Texan.
• Your life matters more than belongings.  As my Hubby’s uncle taught us, money can’t be taken with you.  It’s only money, and people are worth more.
• And you can rebuild from any catastrophe.  With hard work and determination.

I have to clean house, then work on the last step of my middle nephew’s Spiderman quilt that I am making for Christmas.  I have a Batman quilt next, so it will be interesting.  I have fabric coming in for my sister in law’s quilt she asked for, as well as tons of fabric for my own quilts.  I also will try to make my brother and his wife a quilt.  Then Christmas will be done except for my mom and dad.  Also my in laws, but M hasn’t come up with anything yet for them.

But I will be starting to work on the food blog here shortly,  I figured that it would be the ideal thing to get back into working on a computer again. It needs to be done, as well I am looking forward to completing that chore.  Then I should be getting close to starting to write again.

My hubby has pointed out that this might have been a good thing to happen.  Now I have a hobby that I can do anytime I get stuck on writing, letting my muse work out the issues so that I can write easier.  It is also helping with the depression since I am still working on something which doesn’t make me feel worthless when I can’t do anything. Though I fully expect to have days with me stuck not doing anything due to the bouts of depression.

For now, I am going to clean my house since I am feeling up to it.  Then either work on the binding of the quilt or if M is home, working outside together to get rid of more of the damage.  WE have to figure out how to take the top off the pecan tree since it is now dead dead. (It had some greenery up there in the form of small leaves, but that is all gone now.)  The good thing is that the rose bush that was taken out by the neighbors when they cleared the lot next door is coming back with a vengeance.  Thank goodness, since it has the best smelling roses!

We mostly have damage from items sitting too long in water, which killed the grass in some areas, wood that floated in from other places, that we had no place or will to get cleaned up.  And we have the garage that took some time to look over, though we expect that we will be finding damage for awhile on that one.  We already lost cement in bags.  Hubby didn’t even think about that stuff until I mentioned it.  We also lost my Christmas tree.  Which never occurred to either of us until yesterday.  It sounds so petty next to the sheer loss of others here in Houston and in FL, but there are many good memories wrapped up in that tree.

It may sound petty, but there are still items in the garage that are from M’s and I’s lives in Tucson, that we are waiting for when my parents move out to bring in.  Sadly, over the years we have lost more and more of that life, which is sad since a lot of our wedding stuff and other memories are being thrown out that I had painstakingly bought or made for our homes in AZ.  WE had been very short with money, so a lot of the things I had from then were carefully bought to make an apartment a home.  Thankfully, some of the more precious things have been brought in, the afghan my grandmother made me was the latest item brought in thanks to my great aunt (yes the same who we rescued) giving me a quilt rack.

It may be from me losing those items that make me so sad looking at other people’s piles of their lives on the curbs.  But it reinforces the idea that for all we lost, we have our lives to build new ones.

So I am off to work on cleaning since I will have my grandmother spending time with us this weekend while my mother and I work on quilts.  Plus I need to put away the last of the Harvey supplies.  We still have water sitting out in the living room.  In case others needed it, we wanted it to be close to give out.  However, since Houston has claimed to have the water situation fixed in all areas, I think I can put it away now.

Too bad, I seem to have ALOT of water!!!!!

I wanted to let you guys know you are not forgotten.  The ladies in the Kittyinaz Group have reminded me of the NCIS/twilight story that I started and I frankly was mad at myself for not doing more of the chapters!!  But it just a reminder that I do listen to you guys and my muse is peeking out with little snippets of ideas.  She has brought out Damon for a second, as well as Eric and Sookie from IND.  Who knows what can happen?

I look forward to posting the results for the entries, and don’t forget you can enter.  Just click on the top Banner to be taken to the page.

Kittyinaz