Partylite Holiday Open House

Im having an open house Saturday Nov. 22 its a come and go between 5 and 8 pm. Scroll down to my post with the invites that I made. It will give you more details about the open house and how you can get FREE tickets for the Partylite drawing!

Here's the map dot that I'm from.... Orange Beach, Alabama!

I lived on the Bay that is on the bottom left corner of the Island.

This was the view only a 1/2 a mile from my house.

Where we swam in these in high school...... Even if we didn't know anyone who lived at that condo or hotel..... lol :)

Doing this was a way of life......

And to do some real fishing you had to have a real boat... this is a picture of a local deep sea fishing boat... my grandfather and step dads boat was a few feet smaller than this one. They have since gotten rid of it but my step dad bought another one that he is in the process of completely upgrading! I will be so excited to do some more deep sea fishing!

You looked forward to this event every year.... and you always stood in line for a Cajun pistol (it was a BIG roll that was filled with a cream sauce and seafood)!

Food vendors and people from all over came to set up their inventory! Handmade crafts, jewelry, clothes, live entertainment and all kinds of stuff filled the city beach parking lot for a weekend of food, fun, and shopping.

The boat races started a few years ago and attracted lots of fans about once a year.

Hurricane IVAN came through my senior year of high school and left us with this....

which was a 1/4 of a mile from my house (which was flooded b/c we lived on the water). We had a marina down our road and we ended up with 1/2 of their piers, trees, a small boat, swimwear shoes and souvenirs from a local Surf Style (across the bay), along with personal items that came from peoples homes. We stayed in Foley Alabama a few miles up the road from Gulf Shores and when the eye of the storm passed over the building we were staying in we had just enough time to step outside and see the stars and check on our vehicles before the rest of the storm plowed through. When it was all said and done it was a few days before we were allowed back to our house because the roads were flooded (or washed away) trees, power lines, boats and debris blocked the roads, and the city was doing an assessment of the damage. Once our zone (you have a sticker on your car to tell them what zone you live in on the island) could come back in it was sickening to see. When we go to our house it was heartbreaking! My room was on the bottom floor of the house which was flooded! We only had several inches of water (which is just enough to ruin sheet rock furniture, carpet, stuff in you closet, etc) but it was better than our neighbors that had several feet of water! The water and debris stunk so bad we had to open all the windows and doors and rip everything out. At night we ate MRE's (military food) and went to bed to the sound of generators in our neighborhood b/c you had to leave all your windows open. It was a while before we had electricity and phones but things like cable didn't come for months (unless you had satellite cable which we switched over to). Some people at school were without a home for months and had to live with friends and family. It took about two years for the city to really recover and this past summer was the first completely normal summer the island had seen since Ivan. My parents moved not long later. They moved off the island on the other side of the bay.



Usually the BIG gators were in the middle of the island on the state reservation land (the land was a little swampy) and sometimes you would find little ones in the back yard usually in the canal that we lived on. But this one (along with others) escaped from the zoo during the hurricane. He was found by a police man that was driving a little boat up Hwy 59.... and yes I said driving a boat up the road. Remember the roads and yards were flooded for several days.

The water line is actually almost a mile up the road from where the beach is.

This is all you saw down the beach front for about 6 months and then one by one they started tearing them down.

This was at the entrance of the road I live on and I'm pretty sure it was one of the boats my step dad and his crew helped recover. If you look to the right of that car you will see that their is still water on the road a few days later. That is a four lane rd and we had to take turns using one lane for about a week to a week and a half. And even about 10 months after the hurricane when it would rain roads and yards would flood b/c the storm drains were still stoped up with debris.


We saw these for days and military blocked of roads and entrances so only those that had a zone sticker could enter their road. This way people were not driving all over the city and this kept down the looting. Also, it kept people from going back to their house if it had not been cleared by the city.

This was only about a 1/2 a mile from my house.
This was a road between Orange Beach and Gulf Shores. It was the road I drove on at least once a day. You can see the tops of building covered by the water. This was the day after the hurricane and those are two story motel unity on the state park beach.



This was a storm that will always be remembered.

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well hello there....

my long lost friends! I got sick last Friday with a sinus infection and an ear infection. Can we say YUCK! I felt tired last Friday but by the time I woke up Saturday I felt like I had been run over by a mac truck! Through out the day I wondered if that truck would come back and just put me out of my misery.... but no luck. I laid on the couch in between helping Eric get the last of the carpet up.... and eventually I fell asleep. I slept most of the afternoon and that night I had to get myself up and put just enough makeup on and brush my hair so I didn't look like death before going to our Church's Trunk-or-Treat. When I got their I realized that I was in charge of the BIG inflatable jumpy thing (and no I was not contagious for those of you who had kids that stuck by my side most of the night waiting their turn in the jumpy thing). I had fun but by the time it was over and we helped clean up.... I was ready for bed once again! On Sunday Eric parents were at church and we had fun visiting with them at lunch. This week has been a little bit of a blur..... we have taken Halloween decorations down, moved furniture, cleaned a house, cleaned our own house, I cooked soup for a ladies night, and my cough is still around, oh and we are remodeling our counter tops in our kitchen (a simple and very inexpensive project that makes a world of difference until we can save up for new ones), and I painted 4 kitchen cabinet doors (2 of the doors have been feeling left out for some time now, when Eric painted our cabinets several months back he completely forgot about the ones over the stove. They now feel like part of the family and they are happy with their new look. The other 2 cabinets- well lets just say they were a make over gone wrong... kinda like a really bad hair cut. I tried to put some glaze on them and make them look antique..... well oil base glaze is goopy and it just doesn't look right.... so those poor things were the center of the funny looks and I finally covered up the goopy glaze with some plain white..... ) and this weekend we are going to a pancake breakfast for one of the teens and we are having company over for the football game. I'm also planning a PARTYLITE OPEN HOUSE! Check out the next post for details.

You're Invited!

Sidenote- I realized today that I mentioned nothing about puting my pretty invite on your page. So Im a bad blogger..... sorry! If you put my invite on a post on your page and refrence my blog you will get 1 ticket.... just make sure to let me know when you have done this! (So you can be entered even if you dont come or purchase..... although I would love to see you!)

I also realized that you can't see any of the WONDERFUL details on card number 2..... so shoot me..... at least I'm trying. If you want those details email me and I will send them to you. Trust me.... you want these details on how to get any item in the catalog at half price when you purchase $40.00 in product!