Shows and Christmas are Upon Us

Sorry it's taken me so long to write. We went to Galveston's Dickens On The Strand show the weekend of the 1st. It was a GREAT show. THe most wonderful costumes and really really nice vendors. We stopped in Lake Jackson on our way to Galveston to pick up last minute decorations and the dreaded 10 lb fire extinguisher needed for this show. We ended up having to buy a 15 lb at Lowes for $60. But we were set. We stopped at Walmart and spent another $80 on shoes and decorations! I still didn't feel that I had enough to meet the requirements of the show but we were on our way.

It ended up being so much easier and less strict than the paperwork led me to believe. We were one of the nicer decorated booths of the whole show. Everything was absolutely beautiful. The kerosene lamps looked beautiful and although you couldn't see my jewelry AT ALL in these lights, I continued to sell Saturday night. We had the most wonderful neighbors as vendors.

We did very well that first day and Brett and I could sigh relief finally. The fire marshall casually strolled by and we asked him about the extinguisher. The 8 1/2 lb one from the park would have been sufficient. Oh well. We got a lot of compliments on our costumes which were HAND-sewn and purchased at the thrift shop here in Palacios. I did order Brett a $28 Bowler (Derby) hat from a company that we ended up not using because he found a GREAT hat at the Galveston Surplus shop on the Strand. It fit him better and really looked awesome with his outfit. It was a dark blue Greek Fishermans Hat. for $10. I hand sewed all my costume from the skirt to the hat. It was amazing how many people liked my costume as all these beautifully expensive costumes were walking around.

Unfortunately Brett and I didn't get a picture together that I wanted so badly. On Saturday night we drove back to the Galveston State park for the night and found a couple with dogs setting up their tent in our site. At 9pm, we had to make them move. It was terrible, we felt evil.

I sat and made a new wooden/painted sign for the booth and Brett relaxed in front of the tv. It was so nice to stay in a park where we had electricity and water. Much better than the Walmart parking lot.

We settled into bed around 10pm and were about asleep around 11pm. Brett got up and rushed to the bathroom. I woke up and asked him what was wrong. He was sick. I started to feel nausiated. I wont go too far into detail but soon we were both sharing the bathroom, sicker than dogs at both ends. We were up ALL night. Both of us felt like we needed to go to the hospital or at least some medicine from Walmart but we were about a 20 minute drive from anywhere and both of us too sick to drive at 3am. In the morning we decided to go back to the show and pack everything and head home and to the doctor. It took absolutely everything we had to get going. We were very late to the show and new we'd have to dolly EVERYTHING out of the show, about 15 min each way to the truck from our booth... We had narrowed the sickness down to a lunch we ate from an oriental vendor of chicken and rice. Brett had eaten most of it, I had one or two bites. He was MUCH sicker than I was.

After dragging ourselves into the cab, we headed toward Walmart to get some medicine... Getting out of the wretched camper made me feel a tiny bit better and I decided that I could just sit at the booth for the day. I dreaded the thought of packing up the booth in the middle of everyone and hauling all of it one load at a time through the streets. Brett was much sicker than I was and stayed in the camper for awhile while I attempted to set up the jewelry in the booth. Our neighbor, Mary, wanted us to call to talk to the show coordinators but we didnt see them. I sat during the show and did manage to sell pieces even though death had rolled over me. It was unbearably hot, too, and I was wearing 3 layers of hot clothing and a hot hat.

Brett was finally able to come to the booth. I started to cry as I had horrible chills and fever. For some INSANE reason, we stayed through the show till 530pm. Even while breaking down the booth, people were still buying from us. We did manage to eat half of a baked pretzel and some water and soda. After breaking down the booth, we both started feeling really bad again.

The camper was in an unlivable state. We started the drive home, not even knowing what we had made during the show. After getting through Galveston, Brett decided we needed to stay in a hotel for the night. He couldn't make it home and the camper was not livable... So we stopped at a Super 8 (sorry Dave) and crashed for the night after taking baths and showers.

That ended up being the best decision in the world for us. In the morning, we were still sick but managed to eat a small breakfast at IHOP before heading home. We stopped at Lowes and was able to return the fire extinguisher. We were going to keep it for the boat but the one we bought, of course, had been opened and someone had busted the tie on the handle. So we just ended up returning it anyway. So it worked out.

We later found out that we probably had salmonella poisoning from the chicken we had eaten. We also found out that if you have chills and fever, you are supposed to go to the hospital. We were so insane not to go to a doctor and to finish the show. It was definitely one of the hardest things I've ever done. But we made the extra money we were needing. It took us about 5 days to start feeling normal again..We did report it to the Galveston Historical Foundation and they knew which vendor it was and was glad we had reported it. I did lose 2 lbs from it but I wouldn't recommend THAT as a diet plan. Geeesshhh!!

We were now able to order a lot of boat supplies needed to move onto the boat. I was also able to now buy Christmas presents, too. So we've been very busy this last week trying to get Christmas going and the boat. Brett has been working on the wiring for a week. He has gotten the engine panel installed and it works great- Dennis, once again, graciously donated some parts to us that Brett thought would take weeks for us to get. Our dream would definitely be delayed if Dennis wasnt so gracious to us in every way. We are forever indebted to him and our friends' and families' support.

Brett has gotten part of the galley built in and a lot of wiring done.

We finally bought another refrigerator. We had been living out of a tiny ice cooler for a month. It was awful. The thing weighed a ton, would collect water when the ice would melt, ruining a lot of food. If we forgot ice for the day,we'd have to throw everything away. Every other day, I'd have to haul the thing out of the hole- empty the WET contents and drain it outside. Then put ice in and load it back up. TERRIBLE TERRIBLE So we finally bought another bigger refrigerator. I am SO SOOOOO glad we did. It's SO nice having a place to put yogurt again...

I have been feeling down a lot lately as the Galveston show was my last show and I am now out of work and money. I also hate being away for the holidays. I am also turning 30 in a few days and did not meet any of my goals for this special birthday, the biggest one being to move aboard the boat. We still have about a month's worth of work before we can move aboard... So I decided to prod Brett and get a feel for what he thought about maybe seeing if we can get the engine running and take the boat out on Christmas as our gift to each other. At first he said we'd need a flex coupling ($200) and I had to give up the idea. But after some thought, we decided to make the coupling work we had for now just to putt around the bay. So we made a list of things to get for the engine to make it run. The biggest thing was the altenator- Charl had given us his old one. We took it into Presley's and they tested it. It didn't work. They offered to re build it for us and we accepted. But then I reminded Brett that he wanted a bigger one and why don't we just buy the one we want for a little more. So Presley's helped us come up with the best one and we ended up with a rebuilt one that had everything on it that Brett needed. It was more than we could really afford but we now have our altenator without having to jimmy rig it for one ride.

We purchased the other parts needed to get it running. We spent the rest of our money to do this but I think we both really needed SOMETHING like this to get our moral boosted. We were still able to get the plywood for the galley so he has a ton of projects lined up now. Everything has to get done, we just changed the order a little bit. Last night, I was able to get almost everything else we needed around here for the engine.

So hopefully everything will go alright and we will be able to take that boat out for a short motor ride on Christmas. I am SO excited about it. It really lifted my spirits finding out that Brett agreed to this and that it was definitely possible.

For Christmas, I put lights on the boat! I wanted to decorate so badly and I started to decorate the camper with my garland leftover from the show... Brett said "Why don't you decorate the boat instead?" So, for Christmas (before we decided to take the boat out), I got to go buy Christmas lights and we strung them up the stays and along the boom. It was SO fun and it looks so good- the pictures don't do it justice at all. It's beautiful though. A lot of people in the park like them. I put garland and copper poinsettas around the boom and a copper wreath at the bow. I bought two stockings and hung them at the bow too. Then I used my leftover copper clips and put them on the boat. It's probably silly but it was fun.

Well this one is super long and I am sure there is more to say but I am busy busy with Christmas stuff and jewelry orders. I hope everyone is having a good holiday season. I miss everyone horribly bad again. I'll try to write again, soon. I will try to get a bunch of our pictures onto my link under MY FAVORITES, MY PICTURES for you so you can see more pictures of the boat progress, show and lights.

Happy Holidays!