Random Ramblings

• So this week has consisted of mostly storms, until today. Yesterday morning, we even delayed our morning commute to the schools because of the tornado warning. SCARY !

• Devin got a new ipod touch yesterday and he has not laid it down since.
• Today, the sun shone and the skies smiled.

• We went to Logan's for dinner tonight.
• Found out that my nephew Braden has changed his birthday party to Saturday due to the chance of rain on Sunday.
• Now we only have one party to attend on Sunday...Libby's "pink-a-licious" party. Yay ! We won't have to rush to try to squeeze them both in on Sunday.

• Looking forward to next weeks "String Concert" with the musical entertainment of Brookelynn and her cello.

Zoo Adventure

The kids had the day off from school today, so we decided it was a good opportunity to take a family daycation. 

Our destination...the Nashville Zoo. There was lots to see, but we got tired at the end and skipped the elephant, giraffe and other safari animals.

Here is a 5 minute video of some of the things we seen today. Brookelynn was complaining of getting tired toward the end, so Devin went to her rescue.

You will have to pause my Jukebox (to the left) if you want to hear the sound in the video.

Happy Easter

Today was a great day ! It started with church, then photos at the park, then lunch at my moms followed by an egg hunt for the kids.  We finished off the day at my mother in laws for a home cooked Easter dinner (that was delicious).  

Who could ask for anything more?

Tiffany  - Kindal  - Braxton

Devin has outgrown the egg hunt, but he still patrols the yard to make sure nobody left any stray eggs.

My Favorite Faces

Our family

This one was too cute of Matasia running to get ahead of the others.

Brookelynn with her Easter basket

Delano - Stacia - Jett - Dash

That's all the photos for this post. I am very tired and ready for bed.

Saturday 7

1. When Stroker & I got up at 7:30 this morning, we found Brookelynn and Treasure had decorated the family room in streamer and homemade banners that said "Happy Birthday Kyla" (Brookelynn's Baby Doll).  Brookelynn had been telling me that her baby (doll) was turning one soon. By the time it was all over today, we had been to the party store for balloons and Wal-Mart for a little pack of six cupcakes. Stroker felt that it was all unnecessary, but I felt like it was great parenting on Brookelynn's behalf, so what the heck I figured...I decided to play along. I wish I would have taken some photos to share.

2. Stroker filled up the truck at 9am this morning. A whole $80 worth. At 9pm tonight, the gas light was back on. How depressing is that?

3. We went to Bucket's today at 3pm to eat, color eggs, hunt eggs and just hang out with family and friends.

4. Brookelynn won two of the four "prize eggs".  Yay Brooke !

5. Loaded up the truck with tables, chairs, and canopies to get ready for Easter at my moms tomorrow.

6. Treasure's dad came by at 6pm to pick her up, but she still wasn't ready to go home. Her and Brookelynn have the best time together.

7. The weather was awesome today. It was sunny and 80 degrees. I even got a little bit of a sun burn.

Prayer Requests

 This year, Good Friday and Earth Day fell on the same day. The day started out rainy, but by noon it was a beautiful day.

We got up early and went to breakfast at the Cracker Barrel.

Brookelynn and I dropped Devin off at the barber shop while we went to do some shopping at Wal-Mart to get ready for tomorrows Easter party and the one on Sunday at my moms.

When I got back to the barber shop, the owner came out behind Devin. I wondered if maybe the price had went up or what called for him to visit me personally at the car. To my disappointment, he informed me that he only had one month left at the shop. The owner of the building gave him thirty days to vacate the premises.  Seems that since the new liquor law passed, they are putting in liquor stores all over town.  So, the Barber shop that the guys in our family have visited for over a decade will soon be just another corner liquor store. What a shame. Dwight asked me to keep an eye out for a new location for him to move to. "Will do" I replied, followed by "I will pray about it too".  He gave a nod and grinned then said "Thank you" and headed back into the shop. So, when you say your prayers tonight, mention Dwight and his barber shop please.
Another issue that has bothered me this week is an eleven year old boy named Jaden that attended an elementary school here in town. I overheard a couple of teachers talking about how he will no longer attend our school system because he was placed in the custody of Child Services last weekend. At 2am Saturday morning, he found his mother dead due to a drug overdose. It breaks my heart to think about how horrible it would be to find the only family member you have in your life (let alone your mother) dead. Not only does he have to deal with the heartache of his loss, but he has to adapt to complete strangers and have his life completely displaced. Please say a prayer for him too. I can only imagine how lost he must feel right now.

On a much better note, Brookelynn's friend Treasure came over this evening for a sleep over. We all went to dinner and Erin and Ansley joined us. We hardly ever get a chance to spend time with them. Life is just too busy. Since Brandon is in Japan, Erin and Ansley were out keeping themselves busy visiting with family and friends.

My quote of the day

STROKER WON !

No, not the lottery (because we don't even play that).

I got a text from Stroker today around 2pm with a photo of an Easter basket that he won at work. He's not even sure how he got entered in the drawing. He said the only thing he has paid money for lately is when he paid to have my sister's name put on a relay for life shirt in honor of her. So, who knows how we ended up with it,... but I know someone who is going to be happy to open it.

Week two of April 2011

The remote control of life must be stuck on "fast forward" here lately because I cant get caught up on anything. 
After three days of calling around for price quotes, Stroker finally went and got a new set of tires on his truck Wednesday evening. That pretty much killed the whole evening and killed our wallet too.
Thursday evening, we met up with Keith, Heather, and Aysiah for dinner at El Tap. We don't get together with them for dinner as much as we used to because Stroker made me stop inviting them so much. He said that I was burning them out on going to dinner with us.
Friday, Stroker met me for lunch at O'Charley's. The whole day was nothing but rain-rain-rain, but lunch with Stroker brightened the day anyway.
The discussion at the dinner table (or I guess you could call it the dinner booth) Friday night was how China now owns property here in the United States. I guess Devin's class has been discussing the topic, so he wanted to share the news with us. We explained that since the U.S. is so in debt to China, that they now own certain portions of land in our county. Stroker commented that he thinks that China even owns one of our National Parks.  Brooklynn chimed in and said "I bet it is Dogwood Park". She cracks us up!

For those of you who are not familiar with Cookeville, Dogwood park is located behind the library. It's a nice little park, but I don't think it's something that China will be coming after. LOL
Saturday, was a gloomy and chilly day. I think it was Dogwood Winter, since all the Dogwood trees seem to be in full bloom. Brookelynn and I went to Kohls and picked up a few things, we also looked around at Ashley furniture to kill a little time.  We all drove down to Center Hill Dam to see how the construction turned out from when they refurbished the dam.

Sunday morning, we got up early. We planned to get dressed and head to IHOP, but just before we started out the door, Stroker took a look at LSN and found a good deal on a trailer. He text the guy with an offer and asked if we could come and get it; what do you know, he accepted our offer.
We scrapped the IHOP plans and headed to White County. After we got the trailer purchased, we went by my dads and dropped it off until we get the right size ball and hitch to fit it.
Once we got back home, Stacia brought Jett and Dash over for Spring photos. The pictures turned out too cute.

We finished up Sunday with dinner at Mildred's, and it was sooo good.

Situation on Sunday

We found ourselves in a bit of a situation on Sunday at the park. As we got out of the truck, I heard the hiss of air leaking out of the front tire. It didn't take long before the rim was sitting on the ground. Believe it or not, this was the first time Stroker or I had ever had to change a flat on a truck.

There the four of us stood. Stroker with the tire jack in his hands, me with the instruction manual in mine, and the kids standing around with confused expressions on their faces (LOL). We got the tire lowered from underneath the truck by following the simple steps in the manual, it was the removal of the spare tire chain that had us puzzled. After a quick phone call to my brother, we managed to get the spare out from underneath the truck.

All I can say, is that it was a learning experience for all of us. We were due new tires for the truck anyway, but letting go of almost nine hundred dollars this week for a new set has made me queasy.

Saturday 7

So, I am becoming quite the blogger slacker these last few weeks. Spring time keeps us busy outside. Once again, a week has passed with no spare time to post our happenings.

Monday, I had this strange craving to cook at home. Brookelynn and I made a run to the Wal-Mart to pick up a few things since out list had been growing longer and longer, and we also picked up salad ingediants, french bread and ingrediants for a pasta dish that was something like a dish that I seen Rachel Ray whip up on TV a few days ago. It turned out to be good...and we all at dinner at the table together.

Tuesday was sunny and warm. We spent the whole evening outside enjoying it; however, I did't feel compelled to cook two days in a row, so we went to Logan's for dinner.

Wednesday we Brookelynn and I went to buy her some new shoes. Her feet have had a growing spurt in the last couple of months. I also got the beds stripped down and washed. Must be spring cleaning mode kicking in.

Thursday evening was "Festival of Movement" for Putnam County Schools. The 3rd grade classes danced to the "HIP Hop Polka".  It started off traditional polka...

Then came the Hip Hop...

Friday I spent a few hours at Brookelynn's school taking pictures of the "Math Day" and in Brookelynn's class with her and some other parents that came by for "Math Day".  Brookelynn told me that every student who has a parent to participate, the students gets to spend "The Wheel of Prizes". Brookelynn won $5 on her spin. She and Treasure wanted to go to Dairy Queen for Blizzards after school to spend their winnings.

Saturday was a warm and muggy day. Brookelynn went to a girl scout event with Treasure. Devin and I spent the day at my moms. We hung out on the back porch for a couple of hours, then went out for lunch. We drove up to the cemetary where my grandparents are buried and walked around to look at some of the old headstones. I seen "uncle Wallace" walking around the cemetary with his dog too. Uncle Wallace isn't actually my uncle, but that was what I always remember him being called as I was growing up.

After we all got home from our SaturDAY adventures, we all went on a drive and then to Stroker's mom's till about 8:30.

I also want to make mention of Erin's blog. I have enjoyed reading about Brandon's Japan adventures these past 3 days. Totally different culture. Thank goodness a 12oz. coke dosn't cost $6 here or I would be in trouble.

Week in Review

Has it been over a week since my last post?!  Wow...that went fast.

It's gonna be a struggle to remember everything that has went on in the past week.
Saturday night, Brookelynn's friend Treasure came over for a sleepover and they played most of the day on Sunday.
Devin got to school Monday morning and had to call me to come back to get him after only an hour because he was sick. I took him to the doctor and found out that he had a sinus infection and fluid on both of his ears.
Tuesday, he was feeling better and went back to school. We joined Keith and Heather at El Tap for dinner.
Wednesday, Brookelynn and I went through some stuff that we decided to put in the consignment sale, then Heather came over for a while, so we took a break for the rest of the night.
Thursday, we finished up the consignment sale stuff.
Friday,...can't remember what we did on Friday.
Saturday, Brookelynn and I dropped off our consignment stuff at the sale. All of us loaded up and took a small road trip up through Whitleyville, Red Boiling Springs, and Moss. Seen some interesting sights. We finished off the night with pizza.

Today was a productive day. We spent the whole day outside.

We got both vehicles vacuumed.

I finally finished up the corn hole boards. 

Sat in the swing for a while and enjoyed the smell of cherry blossoms above our heads.

Brookelynn had me to hold her baby doll while she played with the camera.