What's New!!

We have had so much going on and so much happening...it's all been great. I'm so excited about what all GOD has done! Where do I start? Mmmm...let me see. This is the beginning of my tree. A few days ago we went into the woods and cut down some pretty sticks. Well, they were actually large limbs from huge trees behind our house. Sis. Bridget, being the wonderful friend that she is to me, came to help me build my tree. I'm not sure she knew what she was getting herself into. Hee-hee-hee!! (And I didn't know quite how big my tree would turn out.) After we cut these branches, got a bucket, the special foam, and another nice container to put the whole thing in, we put the branches in the bucket. I got the spray foam...it expands at least twice its original size and then hardens. Well, Savannah took over my holding position and Sis Bridget stood there with her...for 45 minutes. We waited and waited and waited for that stuff to harden. Small oversight...it only gets 'TACKY' after that long. Not hardened completely. Ha! We ended up leaning it against the wall for the rest of the day and night and then went on to something else. This is one of my favorite pictures...Doesn't the flag look great? The kids are being very patriotic. Isn't this so sweet? He was so proud to get to use a real power tool. He worked and worked to sand this piece of equipment just right, for his Daddy. I love it! The pic doesn't show it, but it is shaking him terribly and he is holding on tight. It's so cute. He's really a very hard worker and likes to help. Here's the progress of the tree. By the next morning the foam had hardened completely and also overflowed onto the carpet about 2 gallons worth. Oh my!!! Geez, what a mess that was. We cleaned up the sticky stuff and got it up off the floor. I think the kids played football with one of the globs!! Ha ha! After I drilled about 45-50 holes in the branches, my arm was sore. Camille decided to finish the drilling. Thank goodness. Thanks Camille. She had it done in no time at all. Then we started to glue the ficus limbs into the holes. We needed to make one last sweep through the kitchen. Well, I think it's the last sweep. We will probably go over it all right before we open this week. Savannah, Camille and Garrett were taking care of that job. Every cooler, the deep freeze, huge stove and oven, all the stainless steel shelves/racks, and the sandwich prep station was disinfected and sanitized. We are using Cintas for all our supplies like that. They have installed tp, hand towels, disinfectants and sanitizers along with a few other things I can't remember. My husband's got it under control. He's doing a great job!! Anyway, the kids did all that stuff. It smelled better than before, when I thought it smelled better than that...that sounded funny. Isn't this a lovely clock!! This is kindof the look of the deli. Kindof nostalgic. Historical. Old reminisce-ish. If that makes sense. Not the usual, maybe out of the ordinary-ish. Warm and welcoming. I hope that is the feel of it anyway. When you come by, you can let me know if we were successful at attempting. I give God the glory for this whole venture. He is the reason we are even able to accomplish anything...isn't he!! He's a great and wonderful God! We are not done with the decor of the place as of yet. this is the only real decoration we have up on the walls...ha!! Like I said in an earlier post, "Decor is not high on the priority list." I am working on getting wall decor up and it is taking a while. I have met with the Arab Historical Society and got many pics to be copied and I am meeting again in the morning with the Hist. Soc. president and she has given me permission to copy anything I would like to. She said I could take any of their photos at the museum and have them copied. They have been so helpful. Actually, I have enjoyed meeting with these ladies. I know God has given me such favor with them. Ok, my husband wanted to publish this picture of my tree. We ended up drilling about 125 holes in those branches!! After the holes were drilled though, it only took about 1 1/2 hours to finish. I was tired and wanted to take a nap. Not a picture moment for me, but Grant wanted to take it anyway. I have a few more pics from the last few days and will post them soon. I'm tired for now.