It's a "Dirt"y Job

Two dump truck loads of dirt arrived Tuesday, March 24.

Our plans are to start our yard over...from scratch. The dogs think it is there new playground.

Wednesday, March 25, we removed all the landscape rock by the front porch, raised the ground with our new dirt and reapplied the landscape rock. In the midst of that, the new dog made a run for it and we chased her for twenty minutes.

Ella came home with Brooke on Thursday, April 26 for a sleepover. On Friday, March 27, they went to the movies and then spent the night at Ella's. Those girls are inseparable.

Stroker spent all of Saturday, March 28 on the bobcat moving dirt all over the yard.
By nightfall, we had almost every blade of grass buried.

He continued playing in the dirt on Sunday, March 29, after church,
 while I went to Savannah's baby shower at church.

Stroker finished up the yard just before dusk.

Brooke spent some time on the bobcat too....(while I was away at the baby shower)

Tea Time

So, my pal Amy and I decided to do a second round of Detox Tea. It's a 14 day tea-tox. Our first round was back in November. There is a morning tea that gives you energy for the day and an evening tea that "cleanses" or in my case last night...almost kills you.
Everything was going great...I had my morning tea and felt good all day. I had my evening tea around 2pm and went on with my business, even took the dogs for a walk at Cane Creek Park. By bedtime, I was wondering why I was feeling no signs of the tea kicking in. So, around midnight I woke up and felt the tea in its beginning stages. I was already in the bathroom when I started feeling really sick. My tummy felt nauseous and hurt all at the same time.  I began to break out in a cold sweat. I even began some breathing techniques to help with the pain.

Next, I hear Stroker at the door asking  what in the world fell? I had no idea what he was talking about because I had not heard anything fall. So just as I was answering him with a confused "Huh?' I realized I was laying on the floor.  "Oh...Um...it was me...I must've passed out" I said as I pick myself up.
I am still  in disbelief that tea made me so sick that I passed out on the floor. thank goodness that I did not break my nose or anything else as I fell flat on the floor. I did scratch the top of my head on the scales that sit against the wall across from the toilet.
I'm gonna have to chill on the tea-tox for a while. It's gonna take a few days to get over my "black-out" episode.

Spring Break 2015

Its a rare occasion, but Devin joined me and Stroker for dinner Friday night, March 13 at Ruby Tuesday's. Brooke was at at sleepover at her friend Alyssa's, so it was just the three of us.
Saturday, March 14 was a rainy day. I made some Beef and Cabbage soup to take to church for a luncheon on Sunday afternoon.. We didn't get to stay for the soup luncheon Sunday, March 15, because we had to head to Byrdstown right after church. We also worked on cleaning up the shed on Sunday. Our yard was beginning to look a little like "Sanford and Son" there for a minute.

Monday, March 16 was Sunny and 70 degrees. PERFECT weather. Although it was the first day of Spring Break, I took a road trip to Murfreesboro and shopped all by myself. That was a nice experience. No one rushing me around and no one asking me to buy everything they set there eyes on. I got back early evening and worked in the yard the rest of the day.
Brooke went with her friend Ella to the Knoxville Zoo on Tuesday, March 17.

 I called a fence company about getting an estimate on an extra gate around back at our house.
I took a second trip to Murfreesboro on Friday, March 20, but this time I took Devin and Brooke. Just as I expected, Brooke came home with a dozen shopping bags. Devin came home with the one item that he set out to look for. Those two are complete opposite.
I went to Sparta on Saturday, March 21 and visited with mom for a while. I visited with daddy too. Stroker and I went out driving around to look for a new shed for the yard. It's hard to find one the size that you want AND the color that you want. I think we are going to have to get one custom built.
We  packed in as much as possible on Sunday, March 22. We went to church, then to Sparta, Morgan came over to spend the night with Brooke, Stroker grilled burgers and I had a hair appointment. It was a packed day.

Thursday's 2

Two good events happened on Thursday.

1. Kota, formerly known as Yoyo, came home today. She has been all over this yard. She even thought she was gonna get to come inside. Quick reality check for her. Kimba is a bit stressed out about sharing, but she'll get used to it.
   
   
2. The cheer banquet (ice cream social) took place tonight. Those girls put in a lot of work this year. They deserved a full out banquet, but settled for the cake and ice cream. 
   

Nnnnooooooo!

I have screwed up this stinkin' blog. My photos are gone and I don't know how to get them back. I've spend numerous hours trying to correct whatever went wrong. I'm so disappointed and gravely depressed about it. I've been journaling our day to day lives here since 2009. How am I supposed to deal with this. I am sick. 

Yo!

We have discussed getting Kimba a friend a couple of times here lately. Part of me feels like she deserves a friend while part of me isn't ready to move on from Cletus just yet. It's not fair that Kimba has to be in the yard alone all the time. But it wasn't fair for Cletus either. By the time Cletus had to share the yard, it was too late in life and sharing the yard with Kimba mostly just stressed him out. I miss Cletus...a lot.
Although no dog will EVER replace Cletus, today we took a step toward moving on. We visited the animal shelter and found Yoyo.  Not a yoyo, but an energetic husky named Yoyo. Stroker got excited at first glance. We took him into a visitation room and played ball with him for a while before deciding that Kimba and Yoyo should meet. We drove back home, loaded up Kimba and took her to the shelter to visit who might be her new best friend.  They got along really well. Mostly sniffing and chasing each other around that 8x8 room. Kimba was nervous, but I think that was mostly because all dogs know when they are in the animal shelter.
So, we decided to adopt today. A 1 year old husky named Yoyo. The Hayes House newest addition.
It'll be a few days before Yoyo gets to come home. She has to go "under the knife" next week to be spayed first, but she'll be in our yard by the end of next week.

I Think Were Alone Now

It was my day to help with Breakfast at church on Sunday, March 1.  I made my usual cheese danish and took some chocolate milk. After services, I went to Sparta to visit my momma for a while and also visited with daddy. How blessed I am to still have both of them to visit, to talk to, to share with and to love. God is so good to me.  What better way to spent a Sunday.
Our kids on the other hand have no desire to spend time with their parents. They have outgrown us. It is a stage that we all go through...Kids need their parents, then they want nothing to do with their parents, then realize they can't make it without our parents and finally our parents need us.  It is a well designed circle. The only problem, is that it takes us our whole lives to really see the importance of having each other. By the time we see the "big picture" and appreciate it for what it is, we are all old.
My point is, Stroker and I had dinner alone at Logan's on Monday, March 2 because the kids didn't want to hang with us. Brookelynn went home with her friend Devin on Thursday, March 4 because Brooke is a social butterfly and we can't keep her still.
By Friday, March 6, we resorted to having dinner at O'Charley's with friends our own age. We met up with Sterl, Debi, Lee and Judy. I also spent some time on here (the blog) fixing the issues with my photo's not showing up. I almost lost my mind dealing with that. My niece Tiffany had to go back to the hospital again today. She is having fainting spells and numbness now that the baby has been born. That is some scary stuff.