Merry Christmas!

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

This year brought a lot of changes for me personally and my family as a whole. I started my new job and lost two grandparents. In the midst of those changes though I have enjoyed the new direction I'm headed.

One of the perks of my job is that we get nice breaks for the holidays. Over Thanksgiving I was able to drive down the Arkansas to be with my family, it was so different not having my Granddaddy there, but it was still great to see my cousins, uncle, aunts and grandmothers. The day after Thanksgiving my great-grandma made pork chops and other goodies for us (because we were all starved after we had our turkey dinner the day before).

I think my brother Spencer was more jealous of missing the pork chops than he was of missing out on the turkey!

Grandma putting the final
touches on her pork chops.

The weekend after Thanksgiving Tulsa and Northwest Arkansas got hit with several inches of snow and ice.

Snow always puts our area in a tizzy, even if it isn't that much compared to other areas. For example, while we were complaining about our 5" of snow my brother Burns has moved to Montana where they measure snow in feet and the temperature was in the negative double digits.

Regardless, I didn't have to go to work on Friday since the roads around the museum and university were all coated in ice. Instead I stayed home and baked, napped and read. Pretty much the perfect snow day!

Can you find the street?

Notice the bowls full of snow for snow ice cream...

And of course I made snow ice cream...

On Saturday some girls came over for a crafternoon which was great. We all worked on projects that we had. Anything from knitting to quilting or embroidering. Perfect activity for the freezing weather.

Of course, the next round of winter weather was ice. I lost half my maple in the back yard the weekend before Christmas, but at least it didn't take down the power line or damage my fence, deck or house. And I should have firewood to last me forever once we get the wood chopped.

The morning after the ice storm I actually went to Salvation Army to help distribute Christmas presents and food. Despite the fact that we were helping load items in people's cars while it sleeted I was glad I decided to go help. One of my book club friends works for Salvation Army and she asked some of us to come and the weather meant we didn't have as many as we had planned, but those of us who made it got a lot done.

The fallen limb, you can see how
it is almost half the tree.

It was only after I got home that my power was out. Which really put a kink in Lydia and my plans for the afternoon. We intended to have a baking day at my house to get all the Christmas treats that we wanted to make done. Instead we played a game of musical houses. I packed up about five grocery bags full of baking ingredients to haul to my mom's house in Sapulpa.

We were only about halfway done (but luckily finished with everything we had already started making) when the power went out at Mom's house.

So we packed everything up again and went to Dad's house in Jenks. By this point it was nearly 11:00 and we were almost done for the day. We mixed the dough for apricot and prune horns and left it to rise overnight.

Of course, we only thought that was the end of the drama. I woke up Sunday and got started on the apricot and prune filling and rolling out the dough only to discover that Dad's oven had inexplicably stopped working. Which meant that we had no way to bake the horns. Luckily my power had been turned back on sometime the previous evening (which I was extremely grateful for since I didn't want to have to transfer the contents of my refrigerator again) so we packed everything up AGAIN and went back to my house.

Ridiculous.

Close up of the fallen limb.
Apparently the limb is mostly hollow,
a squirrel lost it's home.

We managed to get almost everything made and left Monday for my grandmother's house in southern Arkansas. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be allowed to stay for Christmas if we didn't get the buckeyes made for my cousins and brothers.

Gramma Getchell's Buckeyes

          2 cups peanut butter

1 box powdered sugar

3 cups Rice Krispies

1/2 stick Butter, melted

2-3 pkg. chocolate chips or baking chocolate

paraffin wax

1. Mix peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter and sugar in large bowl until well blended.
2. Shape mixture into walnut-sized balls. Makes about 60 balls. 
3. Melt chocolate and paraffin wax in double boiler. Using skewer dip balls in chocolate until coated and place on wax paper to set. Refrigerate until chocolate hardens. 

What do you know about ICE DAMMING?

We haven't gotten as much snow as we did during "snowmagedden" a few years back, but I thought our inclement weather lately was a good chance to share the Perryman family's experience with ice damming. Have you ever had to deal with this?

We moved into our new home in the fall of 2010. We immediately went into Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. We did our best at unpacking, but still it did not feel like home yet.

THEN the worst blizzard in Oklahoma history came upon us and our home suffered ice damming. It was shocking to have our ceilings and walls falling down because of water damage. We repacked our things, moved furniture to the center of the rooms, covered everything with tarps and so began our 2 month stay at a hotel. Eight weeks people. We learned A LOT.

The BEFORE

PART ONE

I woke up and headed to the kitchen to fix breakfast and immediately noticed a huge brown stain on the ceiling about 3'x3'--it was dripping. Then I looked over at the kitchen table and see that it is covered with water from another leak. Since it was it was dripping only in those two rooms and it happened to be above the two bathrooms, we were confident that a pipe froze and busted.

We turned off the water and waited 2 days for a plumber to arrive at our house--because all 20 that we called were snowed in and could not make it to our home. While we waited things only got worse. The kitchen ceiling fan began pouring water in a stream, the light fixture over the dining room starting streaming and room by room, water started dripping out the ceilings.

Here is what was weird, since we had no damage to the second floor, we could not figure out where the water was coming from.

The plumber came and tore a hole in the kitchen ceiling and confirmed that it was not a pipe. He said to call a roofer. We did and he suspected that we had "ice damming". We headed to the internet and after looking at pictures and seeing how the rooms were being effected we did indeed have ice damming.

Basically ice damming is where solid ice prevents water (the snow that is melting) from running off your roof. Instead, the water is forced up under the shingles. The water was running down the walls and pooling on the first floor ceiling.

PART TWO
We called our insurance company and they had a restoration team come out to take a look at it. We decided to go ahead with the removal of the wet sheet rock and we were totally shocked.

Here is what we saw in every room wall and ceiling...

OUT ---> and  OUT   ----> and MORE OUT ---->

Then they began covering everything with tarps from top to bottom.

Dining Room

Bathroom

Then they started tearing it out!

This is our kitchen ceiling.

Dining Room

Living Room: wall and ceiling

Foyer: wall and ceiling

Home School Room: wall and ceiling

In the end, all rooms but two had either a wall or ceiling removed or parts of both.

Another Disaster Strikes
Some of you know of our raccoon saga. We found out when we moved in that we had raccoons living in our attic. We had them removed, but they left behind tons of damage to the insulation and piles of feces. We knew that we needed to have it all removed and replaced, but just couldn't jump because of the expense.

As the guys started tearing everything out, they noticed the soggy poo insulation and they had to stop. Raccoons carry a bacteria that can cause meningitis and even kill you. They returned in protective gear to suck out all the old funk in the attic, remove the final ceilings, blow in new insulation, re-sheet rock, trim and paint every room.

Our insurance covered most of this damage. It did not cover any roof damage as it was a new roof and was installed to code. It did cover the removal of the insulation and putting new in, but not the sanitation. It covered all the inside construction work. And the cherry on top for me, they had the carpets cleaned once the job was done. Hallelujah. All in all, after we paid our deductible, Adam and I felt that we have been very well taken care of by everyone involved and we can see God's provision and working all this restoration of our home for our good.

We could not stay in the home due to raccoon feces, fans blowing and other construction issues. We expected to have a little vacation; the kind where you don't have to wash your own towels, which I like very much. But as I mentioned above that mini-vacation extended into a two month stay.

The After

During that time we had two major family crisis', everything broke and really, I could go on. But the Lord sustained us through it all.

And my reward feels sweet. Here is my new kitchen!

We went with bold Sealskin colored walls and in my dining room, I painted the scripture, "He brought me to His banqueting table and His banner over me is Love." It is indeed feeling like home!

The Perryman's live in Tulsa, OK with their three children and Natasha blogs about life, home, cooking and more at: http://perrymanfamily.blogspot.com.

Winter Wonderland

We experienced a white Christmas in southern Arkansas for the first time that I can recall. My grandparents live on about 60 acres near Hope and on Christmas Day we looked out to see snow coming down--a big change from the years that we've worn shorts and t-shirts to play outside on Christmas. Luckily the roads were clear for the drive home the next day. Snow is a beautiful treat when you have no where that you need to go.

My cousins ran outside for a photo shoot as soon as they realized that it was snowing. My mom and I waited until the ground was white.

Ollie came to Arkansas for the first time this year. As a result he got to experience snow for the second time. I don't think he's any more fond of it now than he was during the blizzard Tulsa got a couple years ago. At least it wasn't as deep this time.

Ollie wasn't sure what to make of the snow.

Christmas Spirit

I spent the month of December before Christmas in a decorating and baking flurry. I bought a rosemary tree at Reasor's and wrapped red ribbon around it for my table centerpiece. And a big red pot to plant it in.

I modified an idea from pinterest where you take a pretty cake plate and use garland and glass ball ornaments to create holiday decor. On pinterest they used a tiered serving tray.

I made "crack", a recipe from my gramma that is so addictive. It involves lots of butter, saltine crackers and chocolate.

I also made sugar cookies with crushed peppermint in them, cherry coconut candies, buckeyes and apricot horns. I also made a few prune horns since my dad prefers those for some reason.

Most of my recipes turned out in the end, but I had a few challenges throughout the process--mainly with the horns and the cherry coconut candy. I won't get into the details, but by the time I finished those candies I didn't even want to try one. I froze a few in case I finally decide I want some by spring.

Everything was a big hit with my family though. If the buckeye recipe didn't make so many my brothers and cousins might have come to blows, luckily we didn't run out!

I set up my nativity scene, which I still love. Jim Shore makes some of the most adorable pieces, I only wish I had the full size nativity instead of the miniature since so many of the pieces on his site are too big for my set.

I put up my tree! I also culled my ornaments and gave away those that I didn't actually care for--although I opted for just lights and the star to decorate this year. I really like the plain white lights and I just bought the star for the top so I've enjoyed showcasing it.

When I first got my tree a few years ago I didn't have any ornaments. My mom and grandmother both gave me some of the ones they didn't use anymore. However, I've collected more over the past few years. I'm going to try to build my collection with pieces that mesh well moving forward.

I had a lot of fun shopping for everyone this year. I got some great gifts, mostly things I needed for around the house. One of my cousin Macy's favorite gifts was her American Girl doll. It made me wish I had brought one of my dolls and the clothes I've got stored in my attic so we could have played with them. 

A Few Miscellaneous Pictures

I'll end this post with a few random pictures that I took over the holidays this year.

My mom's neighborhood has a flock of wild turkeys.
They made me wait while they crossed the road.

My gift for Macy. A lady at one of the
courthouses I go to makes and sells them.

Ollie finally calmed down on the drive home,
the whole way to Arkansas he kept
jumping around the car every few minutes.

These lights make me wish I had a central walk
so I could do something similar.

Special Touches

So before Tulsa was shut down by the blizzard I invited friends over for Saturday evening. Being unable to make it into the office this week I've had some time for a few projects on my list.

Check out my new centerpiece:

I bought the tray for $10 at TJ Maxx. Originally I meant for it to be in the bathroom, but it didn't fit the space. The stones and candles were items I already had around the house.

I also have been working on the binding for a quilt I began piecing THREE years ago. I finished the piecing and added the backing a long time ago, but the binding and some detail work needed to be done before it is finished.

I also filed a huge stack of papers that I just hadn't had the time to organize and add to the filing cabinet. As a bonus I found the missing key card to my office. Hurray for not needing to pay for the new card!

Of course I've also been taking care of chores like sweeping, dishes and laundry. And getting some stuff done for work. I'm glad I had the foresight to bring stuff home to work on, plus I'm able to remote into my work computer to grab files or emails I might need. I was hoping to be able to drive to work by Monday, but now it's snowing buckets again. And I hear through the grapevine that we're expecting even more Sunday night or Monday and again Wednesday/Thursday.

On the plus side I now have icicles hanging from my roof, that means that the snow started to melt at some point. Right?

Blizzard...the "B" Word

I figured since snow is on everyone's minds today I would share a few pictures from Tulsa.

Breakfast in a Blizzard is Snow Ice Cream.

Someone did not make it safely out of the neighborhood.

Despite the car serving as a warning, Spencer decided to try
to make it to Wal-Mart for milk and other necessities.

Braum's was OUT of milk last night when I went. OUT OF MILK, they're a DAIRY store!

I'm guessing about 14"

Oliver wanted to go outside too, I figured he wouldn't get too far in the snow.

He didn't.

He kept trying to walk behind the bushes since the drifts weren't as tall, but he would get stuck when he got to St. Francis. He couldn't figure out how to get around it.

So Spencer rescued him. Repeatedly.

And then did this (and I made him do it again for video, such a great mommy I am):

FYI, we never did manage to get the car out. Enjoy the weather from home folks!