What a Pain In the Neck

Wednesday, I decided to just give up and visit the allergist. 5 prescriptions later, I was breathing a bit easier. I managed to sleep through Wednesday night without waking up with a sneezing attack; however Thursday I developed neck and shoulder pain that drove me crazy all day. By 4pm, I decided to visit a massage therapist who just about finished me off. "Thumbs of Steel" is her nickname and I will never get another massage from her for as long as I live.  Not to mention that she talked the ENTIRE time. So much for relaxation. Several times she mentioned that my muscles felt tense. I was thinking "what do you expect? I feel like ground chuck and you won't hush".

This morning I woke up feeling a bit better, but as soon as I got up moving around, the pain started back up (along with soreness). I resorted to 'ol faithful Ben Gay and it has helped a little. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
Brookelynn went home with a friend after school (that little loafer). She is the total opposite of Devin. She is either with someone or has someone with her every weekend these days.
We told Devin that he could pick the dinner location tonight since his birthday is so close. Of every restaurant in Cookeville, he chose Bellacino's. He also decided to have a friend come to our house so they could sit up and play video games all night.

Bear is Back

Looks like all it took to find "Bear" was an extra set of eyes (and a thorough search).



Bear On the Loose

So, the weekend is over and a new week has begun. A lot can happen in three days. It kinda feels like a whirlwind, but here is the run down.

• I had a hair appointment and got a couple inches cut off.
• Brookelynn invited Cassidy  to a sleepover Saturday night.
• Devin's team won this weekend's basket ball game.

• I witnessed a 17 year old girl give her life to Christ. I love being part of such an amazing event.
• Brookelynn's new glasses came in and she loves them.
• Brooke said we had to eat dinner at El Tapatio so she could read the menu with her new glasses.
• My car got new shoes.
• Brookelynn lost "Bear" and we are both upset about it. Bear has always been with Brookelynn; he was waiting on the porch for her the day she came home from the hospital and has been with her ever since.

Bear has always been there at bedtime

Bear has always been there when she was sick.
He was there for potty training.
Bear has never missed anything. I can't imagine where he could be right now.

Ready to Set Sail

Spring isn't just calling my name...it's screaming mine. These cold dreary weekends are driving me crazy. Just five more weeks to sand and sea. We received a package today from Disney with itineraries, luggage tags, to do lists etc. which made us want to pack up and set sail. Today also happens to be the one year anniversary of the Disney Dream's maiden voyage.
The cruise industry is the main target by the media right now keeping the industry "on their toes" making sure that every move they make is with precision and well planned. Now that the Costa Concordia tragedy has happened, this is the safest time to take a cruise.  I am looking forward to visiting Castaway Cay. I am hoping for smaller crowds since it is Disney's private island and looking forward to the crystal clear water. It has only been eight months since we visited the beach, but I'm sure that the view from the sand is nothing compared to the view from the middle of the sea.

I like the video attached to this image.

Disney should have never sent this packet in the mail today.

Now I can't get any of my chores accomplished for browsing the web.

A Well Done Steak

Finally, a steak that is fully cooked. This evening, I went to the store and bought steaks, hamburgers and hotdogs. Stroker fired up the grill and got to work. He has a perfect record for never pulling anything off the grill with a pink center. He said that its a shame the only place he can get a well done steak is at home.
Speaking of undercooked steaks, the manager of Ruby Tuesday's called Tuesday night and apoligised for twenty minutes about our experiance last Saturday. He was truely upset and takes his job very seriously I could tell.

I have began preparing the car for its trip to Florida. I got the tags renewed two weeks ago, I took it for an oil change yesterday and Stroker has been checking around on prices for tires this week. I guess we will get those put on next week.
As for Devin's upcoming Birthday, we are still planning on cake and ice cream, but Devin has decided that he enjoys Holiday World/Splashin' Safari trips the best. So, his birthday adventure will be postposted until warmer days this summer.
Speaking of warmer days. . . my coat picked a bad time of year to tear. I pulled it out of the washer a couple of days ago and the lining was showing. Although this is the month that coats are needed most, this is the month that stores are running out of them. I spent Tuesday evening coat shopping and luckily found one that I liked.

Manic Monday

Monday was a bad day for me. There is no other way to put it.

• I woke up with a headache.
• Brookelynn got out food and wasted it all day.
• Grease ran off my meatloaf into the bottom of the oven and about smoked us out of the house. At least there was no fire.
• I had to turn off the oven, let it cool, clean the oven and then finish cooking.
• Stroker put the faucet back together backwards Sunday night, so every time I went to turn it on or off yesterday, I twisted it the wrong way.
• My computer decided to stop recognising the mouse and keyboard for most of the day. I have one question for Microsoft...

How am I suppose to click "install now" when uploading the mouse software? 

Hello !?

If the mouse already worked, I would not be installing the software... DUH!

• I also spent forty-five minutes on the phone with Epson Monday trying to understand what they were saying...unsuccessfully.
• Oh...and Devin finally ran across the news of the cruise ship that sank Friday night. He still declares that he is not going. Friday's catastrophe only makes him worse. I hoped that he wouldn't find out about it.

We watched a news report about it Monday on MSN.com... The report was followed by a Disney Cruise Line advertisement. How ironic.

The only good thing about Monday was that our new shower head is working out nicely. It's for the new master bathroom when it is done, but we decided to try it out in the main bath for now.



Weekend Recap

Brookelynn and I went out yesterday in search of new shoes for both of us and found some...yay!

I took Devin to his basketball game today. Stroker decided to sit this one out. I finally took my camera to get a couple of shots of him playing. He scored 4 points today and I think I got a shot of him scoring two of them.

After the ball game and shoe shopping I gave the entire main bathroom a thorough scrub down from ceiling to floor. Of course that's not the typical way most people want to spend Saturday afternoon, but I feel good about it. I love having everything disinfected and sparkling.

I guess the Broncos are out for the season. They lost their game last night. Tim Tebow opened a lot of eyes this season. During the sermon this morning, our pastor told us that "John 3:16" was the #1 search on Google this past week. It is amazing how so many people in the world had to search it because they did not know what it was or what it means. Simply amazing.

School is out tomorrow for Martin Luther King day, so Brookelynn has a friend over tonight for a sleepover. We don't have any plans for tomorrow other than me cooking dinner at home for a change. The last couple of weeks have been full of disappointment at every restaurant. Maybe our expectiations have gotten too high. Ruby Tuesday's  was one our worst restaurant visits.

Ruby Tuesday's latest TV commercial states that the "Garden Bar and cheddar biscuits are included with every entree. We ordered the cheddar biscuits when we sat down at 5:10 and waited...and waited...the server said they were coming, so we waited some more and waited. He brought them to our table at 6:03.

The menu stated that you could order the steaks "Well Done: Cooked Throughout/No pink". Stroker said " should I try it? It says no pink". I told him to give it a try, so he ordered a steak "well done". You can probably guess the outcome...he had to send it back for having pink in the center. I think he has officially given up on restaurant steaks.

Although Saturday nights visit to Ruby Tuesday's didnt exactly leave us feeling full and content, we decided to give Cheddars a try after church this morning. I am officially declaring Cheddar's as our new favorite restaurant.

I ventured to Wal-Mart to get a few missing ingrediants to make meatloaf, mashed potatos, corn and cresent rolls for dinner. After spending an hour in the store picking up things that I suddenly remembered that we could not live without, I finally made it to the check out counter. When I told Stroker what I had spent, he said "this better be some good meat loaf". I hope I am still in the mood tomorrow to cook it. I think I am going to get an early start on it around lunch time tomorrow.

Hopefully we will have running water tomorrow. Stroker has decided to play plumber and fix a drip in the kitchen sink. So far all the water to the house is cut off and the kitchen faucet is in eight different pieces. These kind of things normally end in disaster for us...and it always starts as a drip.

I See You

There was a couple of appointments today, one being the eye doctor for Brookelynn. She has been getting headaches here lately when she reads too long.

The good news was that she doesn't need glasses all of the time.

The bad news is that she needs to wear reading glasses for a year or two to strengthen her eyes because she is straining them when she reads up close.

She picked out her frames and should receive her glasses in about a week.

There are plenty of other happenings going on here at the Hayes house, like my wisdom teeth, frozen water pipes for the first time ever, snow day, and my printer delima.

To be honest, I'm feeling kinda lazy and don't feel like typing all of the details.

Recuperating

Blogging has not been the top priority here at the Hayes House in the past week. Stroker has been recuperating from his head cold. Brookelynn spent Friday night at a friends house then had a friend spend the night at our house Saturday night.
Stroker, Devin and I went to O'Charley's Friday night to give them another chance, but left disappointed because they didn't get Stroker's "well done" order well done. He cannot handle pink meat and a lot of restaurants struggle with fully cooking their food.
I have been getting the paperwork together to board the ship. Devin has been glued to MW3 and Stroker has been busy following football stats online . Tim Tebow and his faith have been a big topic in football news the last few weeks. I for one am glad that Tebow demonstrates his faith publicly.
Sunday night he threw 316 yards in the game against the Steelers and his favorite verse that he displays from the Bible is John 3:16. Some people are suggesting that it was a coincidence, but the rest of us know that coincidence had nothing to do with it. We know who was behind it and who is in control of everything.
The situation reminds me of Mathew 5:10
That reiminds me of a headline on MSN.com this past weekend that read  " 7 Tax Reasons Not to Get Married". Being a married person, I thought I would see what I was missing out on, so I clicked the link to find out more. The subheading underneath the headline informed me that I did not need to bother to read any further.  My soul was not for sale, or available for a year to year lease. If you would like to read the subheading yourself, you can click HERE.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We have a long way to go, but I am excited to say that we have began our journey in the right direction as a family.

Since Sunday...

Stroker has came down with a head and chest cold. He went to the doctor on Monday and came home with five prescriptions.

He spent last night caughing in my ear and tossing and turning. Neither of us got any sleep.

   Tonight, he is caughing, yelling and throwing things at the TV because the Wolverine's are playing againt Virginia Tech at the Sugar Bowl.

Today was supposed to be the kids first day back to school from Christmas break, but it was cancelled  due to Monterey having some slick road conditions. No complaints from my bunch.

Smashville

Morning felt like it arrived a little earlier than usual today; Probably because last night ended a lot later than usual.
We spent the first day of 2012 attending church, taking a nap, and going to "Smashville" for a Preds game. Our Longhorn's gift card was burning a hole in our pocket too, so we took care of that at dinner.

Preditors Shirt: $20

Preditor's tickets: $125

Figuring out a Christmas gift that my son would truely enjoy: . . . PRICELESS

...and the Preditors won 5/4. Devin was pumped!
It was his first time attending a live hockey game and they even got a hat trick at the end.
That is a rare occurrence in hockey.

Hello 2012

This year, Stroker and I have made one resolution.

We plan to read the Bible through together.

As for any other 2012 plans, only He knows.