Warranty and Weather

Happy 76^th Birthday to Daddy. We celebrated with him on Sunday, October 27, at his house after church. Actually, it was an entire day of visiting family. Mostly because Brooke is selling cookie dough, but also because we like to take time to visit.  I will add that Brookelynn has done awesome with her cookie dough sales this year.

Monday, October 28, was another ball game filled evening for Brookelynn. Stroker and I went on FAITH visits. Afterwords, we went to pick up Brooke from her school and took her for her second dinner of the day. Cheerleading sure makes a girl hungry.

Tuesday evening, I cooked dinner at home. Mainly because we are always running out the door every evening and I wanted a night at home. We ate dinner, caught up laundry and tidied up the house a little. It wasn't an evening of rest like I would have loved to have, but at least we had an evening at home. At bedtime, Brooke hit the top button on her iPod to shut it off, and it stopped working. We messed with that for a while but just couldn't get it fixed.

Wednesday, October 30, was a beautiful day. Sunny and 70 degrees. Stroker took the whole day off from work because we had bounce houses to deal with. The talk of the day, everywhere we went was about what great weather we had and how it was going downhill for Thursday, Halloween. I called Apple today about Brooke's iPod since it messed up last night. Turns out the 1 year warranty ran out on Monday...of all the luck.
I spoke to about ten different people before being transferred to a lady who said she would try to go ahead and allow them to fix it under warranty. Thank you God for this lady who has offered to help us out.

Severe weather alerts were issued for Thursday, October 31, (HALLOWEEN).  Lots of places cancelled Halloween events entirely. This lightened our schedule quite a bit. Our church still went ahead with Trunk or Treat and Brookelynn still went to Ella’s Halloween party. Brooke dressed up as a Corpse prom Queen. 

Trick or Treat was postponed for Cookeville until Saturday night. The winds did get up a little and there was a few light rain showers, but nothing like the meteorologist predicted. Thank the Lord.

That finishes off October 2013

Overcomer

After church on Sunday, October 20, we loaded up and headed to Sparta. It was Madison’s 11^th birthday party. These kids sure are making me feel old here lately. 

It won’t be long until Brooke’s 12^th.

We also squeezed in a visit with Mildred, Bee and Nan later Sunday evening. I’m glad that we had a great day to visit family and friends.

On Monday, October 21, Stroker and I joined our pastor Sterl for FAITH visits in the evening. Afterwords, Stroker and I went for a quiet dinner at Chili’s. I love when he and I get to sneak away for these cozy dates. I like going out as family too, but sometimes it’s good to just have the two of us.

I spent Tuesday, October 22^nd on the phone with Charter Communications trying to convince them to give me a better rate on my phone, internet and cable services. I even went by the office thinking that if I threatened to go to another company that they would buckle and give me a deal that I could not refuse. –No such luck. They asked when I would like to have everything disconnected.  Fail

Katey and I went to lunch together on Wednesday, October 23^rd. We chit-chatted about usual girl talk. We wound up at Chili’s for lunch again because it was so good Monday night that I wanted to have the flatbread pizza again. We didn’t go to church Wednesday evening. I felt very tired and headed to bed by 5:45.

Stroker and I ran by the hospital Thursday, October 24^, to visit Chris Rittenberry. Chris had his blood pressure and heart rate sky rocket yesterday so they admitted him. Chris is a co-worker of Stroker and he also attends our church.

Brookelynn had a ball game Thursday night against Algood, so we were at Avery Trace most of the evening; until almost 9:00 actually. Before we went to the game, we went by Verizon to look at some phones. Although we are not huge fans of Brooke having a phone, we know that it would work out better to go ahead and give her one. She is always away from us. Either at cheer practice, ball games, sleepovers, stunt practice etc. Being able to call us when she needs us is important.

Our intention was to just browse phones, but they gave us credits on our bill to go ahead and take it that night.

Friday, October 25, was a cold day. We all pitched in at the office and made a big pot of chili. We grazed on that all day. We headed to Sparta Friday evening to set up the slide. It’s a little too cool today for me, but some people love the outdoors in temperatures like this.

Saturday, October 26, was the four year marker for Darlene cancer. We have looked forward to this day for a long time…4 years to be exact. I got Darlene an “Overcomer” shirt to celebrate. She came by and I surprised her with it.

Fall Break Week 2

It was my week to help with breakfast at church on Sunday (October 13) and I was also scheduled to work the sound booth. I was running behind that morning, so instead of my usual fresh baked cheese danish, it was sausage and biscuits form McDonalds. We went to lunch at Outback after church with some friends. We also had to drive to Monterey and Monroe again.

On Monday (October 14) Stroker and I took the kids to the iMax theatre in Nashville to see the movie Gravity. It was a good movie and the 3D effects were a lot better at the iMax. We had dinner at Famous Daves before heading home.

We joined Briana, and the family for dinner at Logans on Tuesday (October 15) to celebrate Briana's 19th birthday.  As we were leaving, Mildred received a phone call that the ambulance was picking Bee up because he was having chest pains. We spent a couple of hours at the hospital until they admitted Bee for testing. Brookelynn decided to spend the night with Libby, so I had to come home and look for Brookelynn some sleepover clothes. That went south quick. Her chest of drawers and closet was so disorganized that I wound up spending the next two hours sorting, folding and hanging her clothes. It was a late night to say the least.

We didn't make it to church on Wednesday (October 16) and that is very unusual for us. I was  tired and did feel  well. Brooke and I laid down at 5:30 that evening. It was a rainy day too.  Our roof was finally being put to good use.

The only thing that I feel like I accomplished on Thursday (October 17) was that I cooked homemade beef stew and cornbread.

Treasure came home with Brooke on Friday (October 18) and we all went to Amazing Acres after dinner at El Tap. We trudged through the corn maize, they jumped on what I call the "Bacteria Bubble" (because it looked disgusting), they played in the hay, but most of all they played tether ball. I think they played for an hour and a half of just knocking that ball around. We were tired, cold and hungry, but they just would not stop. I think we made it back home a bit before 10pm.

Bee got released from the hospital today. He has to wear a vest that will try to regulate his heartbeat.

We went Saturday to pick out Brookelynn's Halloween costume and she settled for a corpse prom queen. 

Devin went with us for  a little while, so the three of us had dinner at Fazoli's.

Fall Break Begins

Sunday  morning (October 6) started out with church. I also had a hair appointment on Sunday and I was long overdue for some highlights. My appointment wasn't until late that evening, so we went to  Sparta to spend some time with mom earlier in the day. I also stopped by to visit with daddy for a while too. It is awesome to have them so close together now. I can visit almost all of my family within one neighborhood.
The downside of Sunday is that Cletus is sick again. We think it could be an issue with one of the steak bones from Thursday night.

On Monday (October 7) Stroker and I spent the day cleaning out the window seals and cleaning windows at the house. We accomplished a few other cleaning jobs on our list too. We tried to get the kids involved since they are on a two week fall break from school; however, they just did not seem motivated. Wonder why?  
I had to make a trip to Sparta to pick up items from a consignment sale. I wound up arriving an hour and a half before the doors were open, sso I took a drive up Golden Mountain. That sparked up some nostalgia.  I used to travel that road daily when I was in high school to get to one of my best friends house, but Monday was the first time I had driven that road in almost 20 years. Wow...TWENTY years. I got back to Cookeville in time for dinner and FAITH visits with Stroker and our pastor.

Tuesday (October 8) Brookelynn had an orthodontist appointment which is not how a kid wants to spend fall break, but it just worked out that way. To help brighten the day, she asked Jalyn to come over for a sleep over.  I was tired from all the window cleaning on Monday, so I relaxed with a bubble bath before bedtime.

Wednesday (October 9) was the usual...Dinner at Logans followed by church. The womens group met seperately from the mens group this week. 

Thursday (October 10) was a bit on the mundane side too. Wal-Mart and home...blah, blah, blah.

Friday evening ( October 11), I picked Brooke up from school and we went through the McDonald's drivethru for coffee and an ice cream. The caramel mocha coffee was delicious; however, for the next four hours I WAS SICK. I got over it by bedtime, but we did not leave the house Friday night. 

We spent Saturday (October 12) on the highway...Monterey, Cookeville, Baxter and Monroe; then again.

The Roof Over Our Heads

The roofers worked until dark Tuesday night (October 1) trying to get the roof completed, but simply ran out of time.  As it started getting near 6:00, I had Stroker to throw some hot dogs on the grill for dinner. We offered some to the roofers, but they were ready to get home.

By midday Wednesday (October 2), the roof was complete. I love the way it looks...now bring on the rain!

We had a fellowship meal at church Wednesday night. I made some mac-n-cheese and everybody complimented it. 

We celebrated the new roof on Thursday (October 3) with steaks on the grill. We had dinner and relaxed at home with the peace of mind in knowing that we had a good roof over our heads.

Friday evening (October 4), we drove to Sparta to help set up for the Liberty Square Celebration that was to be held on Saturday. We all slept in on Saturday morning (October 5). It felt really good. We still haven't seen any rain to test out the roof, but we sure rest a lot better knowing that there will not be any drips. When we finally got up and got ready for the day, Brooke and I ran around town to do a little shopping.