Holding Onto Summer

It arrived...The first day...of the last year in middle school. I am in disbelief. Monday, July 27 was here before I knew what hit me.

I have got to stop blinking...it seems like every time I do, another year has passed.

Here is the first day of school for my 8th grader.

I ended my Monday at the planning commission meeting. I attend periodically to remind the city that flooding is an issue. I get frustrated that they approve more and more apartments to be built which consumes all of our our green space with structures, asphalt and concrete. It worsens the storm water runoff for the rest of us that live in the city. 

I sat up several inflatables on Tuesday, July 28. It just so happened to be the hottest day of summer. We were knockin' 100 degrees. I think I lost about 3 gallon of sweat that day.

My sister and and brother-n-law came over Tuesday evening. It was Darlene's birthday, so we all went to dinner to celebrate. Trent sent Darlene this picture of Dana. I thought it was precious.

 School was in full swing by Wednesday, July 29.  Still in shock though.

I noticed today that a channel and ditch had been dug to detour water directly to the intersection that already has a flooding issue. I contacted the city about that too. 

I went for a Microdermabrasion on Thursday, July 30. They are one of my favorite things.  Literally.

Dead skin cells are blasted and sucked off your face.

We ended the day at the fair watching Paradise in her pageant. she got first runner up. Wish Travis was still here to see her.

Morgan spend the night with us on Friday, July 31

. She is one of the Fab4.  So grateful for the group of friends that Brooke has. Morgan and Brookelynn went to watch the Cav's football game before they came home for the night.

Next year, Brooke will be part of that school for real. Still in disbelief.

I Don't Like Camera's

Saturday, July 18 was hot hot hot. We drove to Sparta, back to Cookeville and then to Monterey. Then we did it all over again. We sure were hot, tired and sweaty by the end of the day.

Sunday, July 19, did not offer any relief in the temperature either. After church, I picked up my mom and brought her over to our house for a little while. Stroker and I  sat up the water slide to clean and dry. We wound up tired and sweaty again by the time we got the slide clean, dry and put away.

Hard to believe it was time for the "Back to school bash" on Monday, July 20.  I'm gonna have to pay closer attention at events nowadays days. I can't believe the Upper Cumberland Reporter took and posted such hideous and embarrassing pictures of me at the B2SB.
I was only trying to help at the cheerleaders fund raiser table.  :/

When we left the school that evening, we headed to Chili's for dinner. While we were there, Stroker got a call from his aunt. She was sooo excited. She had been on the kidney transplant list for a while and she had got the call that a match had been found. We rushed through dinner so that Stroker could pick he up and get her to Nashville.

She spent most of the day waiting on tests Tuesday, July 21. It was a long day for her. At the end of the day, she received that bad news. The kidney was no good. She had to head back home and go back on the waiting list. How disappointing.

One of the churches here in town had a back to school bash on Wednesday, July 22. We delivered some bouncing fun to that.

Rain sat in on Thursday, July 23.  We ordered pizza a stayed in for the evening.

Devin used the evening to catch up on rest.

Friday, July 24 wound down a couple of other summer deliveries that we had scheduled. It is official, summer is winding down...whether I like it or not.

We sat on the patio and soaked up a summer night under the patio lights and tiki torches.

Try to ignore my fever blister...and Brooke's tongue isn't really touching her dad's head.

I tried to finish off the bottle of wine that I recently purchased.  I was gonna drink a glass each night, but I can't seem to acquire a taste for it. So much for a health benefit.

Brookelynn likes selfies.

Stroker's family had their annual reunion on the weekend of Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26. We took some canopies, tables and chairs to set up for shade and seating.

I called Daddy and asked if I could ride with him to the Turkey town decoration with him on Sunday, July 26. My Ma and Pa are buried there. I have never been to decoration there and wanted to go. Daddy picked me up Sunday morning and off we went. I'm so glad I went. The cemetery was beautifully decorated. I even ran into someone I know. Megan Brown. Apparently we are distantly related through the Boles family. Crazy how family just branches out all over this earth.

Check out how this entire family headstones all match.

Daddy talking to another man about history.

Great Grandparents

Me and my daddy.

When we got back into town, my friend Maleigha was patiently waiting on me. She, Mackenzie, Brookelynn and I had shopping plans for the rest of the day. And we sure spent the day well. We were all over Mt. Juliet and Lebanon. We made several attempts for the perfect shopping selfie. We even dropped the phone a time or two. All selfies aside...we had a great day and a great time.

On our way home we ran through a about a thousand feathers. 

We think it was a from a chicken truck...well, we hope. ;)

Friday to Friday

We had our standing Friday night dinner date with our church family on Friday, July 10. 

This one panned out a little differently though. I wound up with an achy stomach later. 

Brookelynn spent the evening packing everything she no longer wants in her room. 

She wheeled it to the shed on this trailer.

Saturday morning, July 11, started with a morning storm. After the storm passed, we spent the rest of the day working. Thank goodness my tummy troubles passed too. 

Disclaimer:...You never know what image you'll see on my blog.

We cleaned and dried bounce houses after church on Sunday, July 12. 
Stroker treated us to hamburgers on the grill Sunday afternoon too. 
Sunshine, food from the grill and family. Three things that make it a Sunday Funday!
All the days activity wore him out though.

I took on yet another project on Monday, July 13. I decided to start sanding on the front porch post because they have been flaking paint for YEARS...I got off to a good start, but slowly declined in my eagerness to complete the job somewhere around 45 minutes  - an hour into it. 
Oh well... I've started. Lets take bets on whether or not it ever gets finished, shall we?

After I cleaned myself up, we went to Olive Garden for dinner. It was well deserved after I had sanded my arms off earlier.
On Tuesday, July 14, I took my Brookie to drop her off at Tennessee Tech for cheer camp. We located her dorm room, made her bed and made sure she had everything she needed for a few days of responsibility and readiness.  After I got back to the car, I took a few minutes to melt down, think about my baby growing up...and then pulled myself back together so I didn't look like a crazy person. 

I took mom to dinner on Wednesday, July 15, and we went to visit Darlene and Gary for a while. It was a nice afternoon; however, it didn't keep me from thinking about Brookelynn finishing up "day 2" of cheer camp on that big COLLEGE campus.  
Deep breaths...I'll be okay...really.
I had a massage on Thursday, July 16 to try to relax and ease my mind.

It was amazing, relaxing and soothing, but I still could not wait to get through the end of the week so I could check on my Brookelynn. 
Stroker and I went to Columbia Hill Baptist church later in the evening that day.

When Friday, July 17 finally arrived, I stood at the far end of the Memorial Gym and scanned all the hundreds of cheer leaders until I located mine.  I hung out for the awards and waited for the announcement of dismissal.  I think she was about as ready to see me as I was to see her. 
Those girls were tired, hot and ready to go home.

Stroker and I went to Bondecroft later in the day and we went to dinner with our church family.

Paving the Way

In the midst of all the chaos of work, parenting, being an entrepreneur, PCOS, the heat of summer and everything else that we encounter on a daily basis...we decided to hinder our lives for three days of not having a driveway to park in. We have been talking about pavement for years, but just never got to it. The hassle of estimates, preparation, and parking away from home was more than we had energy for.

Good thing there are plenty of parking lots around our house to help us out with the three vehicles, enclosed trailer and open trailer. 

Here are our before pictures.

Extra driveway 

And here we are with the finished product. 

Love that smooth finish. ;)

You know you are a mature adult when things like pavement are more exciting than shopping.

It also makes you a boring adult...but that is okay.

You Say June is Over?. . . . JuLyer

I began July 1 (Wednesday) 2015 with a little bit of change. I went to Lowe's to look at paint and project supplies. I went to Kirkland's and got some new bedside tables and a console table to match. I'll be honest, I love tables with drawers.
You can never have too much table space or drawer space to keep you organized. 

I had dinner with my hunny bunny at O'Charley's.
We even sat on the patio in the evening while the mosquito's had us for dinner.

 I hate mosquito's by the way (who doesn't). Is it just me, or are they immune to every repellent known to man? 

Brooke had Ella over for a sleepover tonight too. We all got hungry around midnight and made a Waffle House  run...on a Wednesday night. 😳

...and no, it was no ones birthday. 😂 

We were just delirious because it was so late.

We went to Stacia's for a cookout on Thursday, July 2nd. It was a rainy morning, but it cleared up in time to fire up the grill. 😊

Friday, July 3rd came with an unexpected expense. I had a low tire and when I went to have it fixed, I was informed that it was just worn out. Of course, if you replace one, you might as well get all four replaced so the wear pattern stays the same all the way around. So, I got four brand new, smooth riding, pocket emptying, safe traveling tires.  Just in time too, because the rain sat in by evening and the roads were wet and slick. Safety first when your taking your mamma to dinner, right?

It was still raining on Saturday morning, July 4. We stayed inside and rested most of the day. We had pulled pork BBQ sandwiches and watched fireworks from the Stevens Street Baptist Church parking lot once the rain cleared out. My sister and brother and law joined us along with Stroker's mom, brother and their 4 kids.

Slide the City has been here the last couple of days, but the rain has driven the crowds down quite a bit. 

I got up a little early to make breakfast for church on Sunday, July 5. 

We went to lunch with our church family after services. 

We visited Nan in the hospital because she has been sick with a virus or something for a few days now.

We hit the Bojangles drive-thru for dinner.

My hunny bunny grilled hamburgers for dinner on Monday, July 6. We ate dinner on the patio. 

Mildred came over and joined us for dinner too. Paradise, Jaiden, & Michaela jumped on the trampoline all evening.

We turned right around and went to Mildred's for dinner on Tuesday, July 7. Some people grated our driveway today too.

Wednesday, July 8 was peaceful. we went to Logan's for dinner and just hung out outside all evening. 

There goes Devin skating down the street. 

By the way...I've not fully accepted that he is grown yet. Oh how I wish I could raise him all over again. (insert deep breath here)