Cooking Out & Cooling Off

whew !...What an absolutely exhausting weekend. We have had an awesome past three days.
Saturday, started out kinda normal. The sun was shining and the mercury was rising. We decided since we didn't have an agenda for the weekend, we would host a Memorial Day Bar-B-Q at our house. So after lunch a Cheddar's, we headed over to Wal-Mart to gather up supplies and all the food. We planned to provide everything and asked people just to bring their swim suit, but a few people just wouldnt come empty handed.
Since there was a pic-nic with our church, we got extra ingredients for pasta salad so I could take a batch of it with me on Sunday. I made the first batch on Saturday night so it would be ready for Sunday.
Sunday morning started with church.  Afterwords, the family and I took a drive to Franklin TN to take a look at this years Saint Jude Dream Home. It was immaculate as usual. After spending the afternoon in Nashville, we arrived back in Cookeville by 5pm to attend the church picnic. We had a great time there too. This is the first church that I have attended that I feel "at home" with. Thank goodness we found this church, or better yet, thank goodness this church found us.
We were at the church picnic till 8:30 Sunday night. Brookelynn wasn't with us because we dropped her off at a friends birthday swim party when we got back from Nashville. We had to go back to pick her up after the picnic and her friend came home with us to spend the night.
Stroker and I prepared food until after midnight Sunday night just to be ahead on Monday.
This morning we got up early and set out the tents to try to establish shade for those of us that were not planning to get wet. We got the tables set up, the slide set up and even a bounce house set up before noon.
At 2 pm the guests arrived (all 47 of them ) and the kids all had a blast on the water slide.
The menu today, consisted of Hamburgers, Hotdogs, Ribs, Pork chops, Cowboy beans, 7 layer salad, Veggie Bars, Pasta Salad, Chips,Corn on the cob,sweet tea and canned drinks. Mildred and Nan brought Potato Salad and Macaroni Salad.



The pork chop and hamburger grill

 Nan was assisting with the ribs

 Zander decided that he liked the puddle that the splash had created just as much as the water slide.

Matasia, Zander and Jett decided that scoring points at Cornhole wasn't all that hard.

 Jaiden came in for a big splash

 Heather Scott and Libby

 Jett and Matasia standing in the Splash Zone

The cicada's were loud and obnoxious today, but we ignored them the best we could.

Work

Here is an image that we don't see often. Devin spent the afternoon helping spread sand for Paradise's pool. We are used to Devin dodging work, so this was a nice change.

Cicada's

If there is one thing in life that I absolutely cannot stand, it's bugs. These cicada's have me sooo paranoid. When I walk outside, I am scanning the lawn, peering into the tree's, watching my back and making a mad dash to the car. Hopefully I can get throught the next three weeks.

Tired

One thing that I haven't had much of this weekend, is sleep. Friday night, my throat hurt every time I swallowed. I woke up all during the night trying to swallow. Saturday, it got a little better and today it felt congested, but Friday night was the worst.
Saturday was a good day. A man came and bought a Brake that I had listed for sale for my brother. The deal that my brother made with me is that I was to get any amount that it brought above my brother's asking price. Guess what!? It brought an extra $475 to my pocket. Cha Ching !!
We also got to check out my niece, Katlin's, new car. A 2010 Dodge Avenger.

I had intentions of doing some touch up painting around the house this weekend. I made it to Lowe's and bought the paint and supplies, but never got around to painting.

We went to my mother-in-laws to pick up our other trailer and hung around there for a while Saturday evening. Sometime during Saturday night, Brookelynn crawled in the bed with us. I was too tired to get up and put her back in her bed, but too uncomfortable to get any good sleep.

Today, we got up at 7:30 and went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast before church. We also went to Sparta today. A thunderstorm snuck up on us around 2pm today. We had planned to go back to my mother-in-laws house for dinner, but never made it.

Did you check out the Herald Citizen Newspaper today? You can see the article with Brookelynn HERE

Five on Friday

1. I woke up this morning with a sore throat and it has bothered me all day. I don't know if it is my allergies causing drainage or if I am coming down with something. I have sprayed half a bottle of cepacol in my throat and ate a pack of cough drops, but neither seemed to help.

2. Stroker on the other hand, feels great. He had my car washed and vacuumed, then he waxed the whole thing by hand. Lucky ME !

2. I trimmed all the hedge around the house and Brookelynn helped me haul off the limbs.

I would show you how nice and neat they look, but I didn't take any photo's of them.

3. We also found time this evening to sit down for dinner at O'Charley's. It used to be our favorite restaurant, but not so much anymore.

4. Today was the last day of school for the kids. They are so thankful.

5. Brookelynn and I went for a manicure and pedicure to celebrate her straight "A" report card for the entire year and to relax before the weekend gets started.



Soccer Season

We went to watch Jett in his first soccer game this evening. We didn't want to be late, so I asked Jett last weekend what time his game was supposed to start and he informed me that it was at "eleventy". I also didn't know where the soccer field was in White County, so I asked Jett and he said... "it's in the big field, with all the grass". He cracks me up.

I think watching 3 year olds play soccer is too cute. I remember when Devin played soccer at 3 years old. Brookelynn was on a soccer team at age 3, but she had no intentions of getting out on the field LOL.

I still giggle when I look at Brookelynn's soccer photo. I had to work the day the pictures were taken. I thought I could trust Stroker to get her dressed that day. When the pictures came in, my first comment to Stroker was "Why did you have her socks pulled up to her thighs?".  He said he thought that was how they were supposed to go. I guess he didn't notice all the other players had theirs folded down over their shin guards. LOL

Daddy's were not meant to dress kids.

Wednesday wore us out

Yesterday, my mom had a doctors appointment that I took her to.  By the time we got out of the appointment, had lunch, and got back home the day was pretty much wiped out.
This morning started early. We had a full day scheduled with a trip to Nashville to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

The bus trip to Nashville went by pretty quickly.

This view kinda creeped me out.

 We had to wait a few minutes out front for our tour guide.

 This room was neat. It had plaques of all the country music inductees.

 These were only a small percentage of all the gold and platinum albums on the walls.

 The Schermerhorn Symphony Center was a real treat. I would love to hear the symphony play here. 

 We listened to two men show us the difference between a violin and a fiddle.

On the way home, we stopped off at Mt. Juliet for lunch.

 Whew, what a day...We are worn out.





Birthday and a Bathroom Door

Don't let the Title fool ya! Neither one have anything to do with each other. It's just that those are what has been happening here at the Hayes House for the last two days.

Sunday, we (the four of us) took my mom to lunch at Red Lobster because Lobster tail is her favorite dish. Darlene, Gary & Jett joined us for lunch too. After lunch at Red Lobster, we all came back to our house for cupcakes and ice cream. Mom's 72nd birthday is actually today.

Today, the contractor showed up to open up a wall and install a doorway into what will soon be "the master bathroom". It only took one day and a lot of wood to complete. The doorway turned out really nice. The door installation was actually phase 2 of the project. Phase 1 was when we had the hot water heater relocated from that bathroom. Phase 3 is ripping everything else out of that bathroom. Demolition is always the best part, but finding time to do it will be a task.

Oh yeah...I have a blog

Ok, so I realize that I have forgotten all about my blog for almost two weeks. Honestly, I can't begin to remember "the happenings" for the last two weeks. Mother's Day rings a bell. We spent last Sunday at church, then went to my mother-in-laws church service, then to my moms to deliver her yellow rose bush. We spent the afternoon on my moms back deck, since the weather was sooo nice that day. When evening rolled around, we headed back to my mother-in-laws for some grilled burgers and all the fixin's. (YUM)
It was definitely a go - go- go day on Mother's Day. We finally made it back home at 9pm.
This past week has really worn me out too. I would leave the house at 7:15 and get home in time for bed. Tuesday night, it was 9:15pm when I got out of my beauticians shop. The rest of the week was stressful too. Finally, yesterday, I got home early and the kids and I went to Cheddar's for dinner. Stroker said he wasn't hungry, so he stayed home. It felt sort of weird having dinner without him. I can't even remember the last time that happened. We do EVERYTHING together.
Just like our vows stated..."Till death do us part". Speaking of vows, have you seen the little slider to the left of the screen? Our ninth anniversary will be here in a couple of weeks.
Oh yeah...more good news, but first I have to lead up to it. It started a few months back, when I put our wedding CD in the computer to look at some of our photos. I waited,....and waited,...clicked the open button and waited, but nothing happened. The disc said it was empty. I took the disc to Photo Works to see if they could recover the photo's, but they too said the disc was empty. I have no idea how that happened.
So the good news...I called Disney Event Productions this week (because they did my photography and videography for our wedding) and guess what !? They still have our photo's on file. She is shipping me a new disc this week. Just pure luck that they still had them. She said they had cleared a lot of their files, but had not gotten to mine yet.
As for today, we all awoke to the crash and vibration of huge thunder. Seconds after it hit, we heard Brookelynn's footsteps heading to our room. It was around 8am, so we went ahead and got up shortly after.
The rain was pooring this morning. I thought the "Heart of the Cumberland" would surely have to cancel their Super Saturday events from 11-1pm. Just like clockwork, the skies cleared and everybody showed up to set up tents, booths, and bounce houses. The event was a huge success. The director of the program, Nanci Dalton even ran out of balloons for the balloon release at noon due to so many people showing up. The ambulance and fire trucks came for the kids to look at, the radio station came over, the Herald Citizen came and took photos, there were face painters, balloon artists, a petting zoo and lots more. The coolest part, it was right here at our house.  Poplar Grove Church cooked 300 hot dogs and only had thirty left at the end of the day, so it was a successful event. If you are not familiar with Heart of the Cumberland, you can find out more by clicking HERE

Brookelynn's Cello Debut

Tonight was Brookelynn's cello debut. The entire group of violinist and cellist were third and fourth graders. They sounded great ! You can check out their performance HERE. You will have to look closely to find Brooke as she sat right behind a music stand. She did get to come up front and center at the end to hand out appreciation cards to the teachers and faculty.

Finally found him

Just a quick blurb about today so that I don't get behind in blog land.

History was made yesterday, when President Obama made the announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed. We sat up until 11 pm last night watching the news. It took the U.S. ten years to get him, but we were persistent.

 The nation spent the day observing his death. 

In other news, I received this photo today of a tornado forming over the local theatre here in town from last Wednesday during all of the storms.

It looks real, but I don't know if I believe it or not.

This evening, Brookelynn had her final cello practice before the big "String Concert" tomorrow. We didn't stay for practice because we want to be astounded by all the young talent tomorrow. You are invited to come enjoy the concert if you like. Just give me a call for more details and specifics.