It's Who Is Beside You That Counts

The last week of August not only had it's ups and downs, but also had a lot of back and forth...to Nashville that is.

We went to Murfreesboro to Ansley's 13th birthday party on Sunday, August 23.  Thats another one that is growing up lightening fast. She is gonna be tall like her dad for sure. Sunday was more of a family gathering for Ansley's birthday, but hey...were family, right?  

fam·i·ly

ˈfam(ə)lē/

1. one of life's greatest blessings

2. a unit or group of people who love and support each other through both good times and bad.

Yep!  We're family. We don't get to spend as much time together as we used to, but I sure thank God for the  opportunities that we do get to spend together.  Like today, for example, our schedule worked out perfectly to get to spend time with the Brooks, visit a sick friend (Dalton) at Vanderbilt and purchase some last minute Titan's tickets while we were in Nashville.  

God is good to us (both me and you), and his timing is always perfect. Always.

Devin was with us on Sunday too. It was awesome to have the whole Hayes house together for an entire day. We are usually all running in different directions. 

I went to the Planning Committee Meeting on Monday, August 24. What can I say?...I like to know what the plans are. Especially if they are close to me. 

Tuesday, August 25, was a stressful day. Budgets, deadlines, spending outlines, number crunching etc. I was mentally drained by the end of the day, but hey...I got it done. 

It rarely happens, but I guess the odds were ever in my favor, because on Wednesday, August 26, the whole Hayes house loaded up and went to dinner together at Logans.  

That is two outings in one week.  Oh yeah...no pun intended that I used a Hunger Games slogan as a segue into a story about food.  Speaking of hunger...we left Logan's on a "not-so-full" stomach. As we were beginning to eat our food, Devin quietly pointed at the wall beside me and calmly stated "there is a roach crawling". I glanced over and spotted a baby cockroach making his way to our table.  I made my best effort to remain calm as I practically threw Devin out of the booth to get away from the roach.  The manager came over and smashed it right in front of us, but that somehow didn't help the situation AT ALL!!!  I can never un-see that.

From this day forward...I boycott Logan's.  I'm sorry, but I have to. 

I can't eat anywhere that bugs freely walk up to the table to sit down for dinner with me. I just can't. 

Maybe it effected Devin too, because he overslept on Thursday, August 27.  That never happens. Thursday evening, Darlene came by for a while to visit. We told her our Logan's story. I still have flashbacks. 

After Brooklyn's dentist appointment, Ella and Alyssa spent the night on Friday, August 28. We sure didn't go out for dinner. 

On Saturday, August 29, we made a trip (or two) to Spencer.  In between those trips, we drove to Gainesboro to attend a funeral. It was the mother of Stroker's friend, Dustin Kennedy.  

It breaks my heart to see people broken hearted. Seeing people cry, makes me cry. 

I only met Dustin's mom once...at Dustin and Lindsey's wedding, but you could tell that she would do anything for her Dustin.  It wasn't long after their wedding that she found our she had cancer. 

After the funeral, we didn't follow the procession to the cemetery, because we had to get back to Cookeville. 

We did take some extra time to have lunch/dinner while we were out. We went to Craw Daddy's, who has the the best bourbon chicken (by the way).  

Is that Bubba in this picture?  

What kind of expression is that anyway?

It makes me want to hear stories about a shrimp boat. 😂

There are not many Saturday's that the hubs and I get to take time for a dinner for two. 

I spent Sunday, August 30, with a feeling that I was coming down with a sore throat. After church, I took it easy and worked on the computer designing a safety sign. 

I ended August by attending a Board Meeting at the State Department for inflatables.  Just a bunch of talk about safety policies and dangers.  Sounds pretty boring, but it was business as usual for me. Devin rode to Nashville with me though, so I wouldn't have to go by myself. 

Rain, Games and Coupons

Although it rained all day on Sunday, August 16, we still had to head to Sparta after church to work. What a mess that was by 5:30 in the evening. Good thing I had a hair appointment at 6:30 because I looked like a drowned rat by the time we got back to Cookeville. 

The highlight of Monday, August 17 was touring the old house that Kurt and Lori Messenger were restoring!!! After dinner at...you guessed it...Shear Delights, we drove by to view the weeks progress. Two people were standing on the sidewalk looking at it, so we stopped to ask if they knew who was redoing it and if it was going to be a bed and breakfast. Turns out, they were the owners. They asked if we wanted to take a tour, and of course we said YES.  It was so amazing walking through that house. She has made lengthy attempts to keep everything original.  I can't believe the home was built in the 1800's.  Some of the detail work was amazing.  The last owner to live in the home, died in there. He was found later by a friend.  The previous owner willed the house to that friend. That guy locked the door and never looked back. 

Fast forward almost 2 decades, the Messengers made the purchase and had to go in and remove everything as it was. The newspaper was still by the mans bed where he had read it before passing. There was still meat in the freezer. Dis-gus-ting. 

I can't wait to see it when they get it done. They invited us back to see the finished product in a few months.

As for Tuesday, August 18, we cleaned and dried inflatables, hung a TV wall mount in Brookelynn's room,

vacuumed the car

 

and Stroker cooked spaghetti for dinner because he said he is tired of eating out.  

Well, my response was that I am tired too. I must be more tired than him because I didn't have the energy left to cook. 

We must be into Italian, because on Wednesday, August 19, we had pizza for dinner. It was a pretty gloomy day and pizza makes you feel better...it does me anyway. Especially Pizza Hut pizza. The greasy, crunchy crust is my favorite.

I had worked on a budget for the State Department all day, so I deserved a pizza and a couple of Tylenol too.

We tailgated at the football game on Thursday, August 20. We played White County. 

Alyssa, Mary, Ella, Brooke.

Mary spent the night with Brooke on Friday, August 21.

And Saturday, August 22 was not stop running the roads. We were beat by the end of the day.

I did manage to find a minute to do an extreme coupon run to stock up on Sprite and Coke this week.

Creating a Page

Church, lunch with Debi and Sterl at Chili's, and Brookelynn heading out to another sleepover (this time at Ella's) is all that happened on Sunday, August 9. Kimba got to go on a nice little ride Sunday evening. 

Although Monday, August 10, is Kevin's birthday, I took mom out to dinner. Maybe that was my gift to him. An evening without mom. Sounds callous doesn't it? Truth is, mom goes to his house every single evening. I'm sure he enjoyed a change of pace on his birthday. Mom enjoyed the change from the "same-ol, same-ol" too.

Another accomplishment (for a Monday)... I sat down before bed and finally created a Facebook page for the business. We have only been in business for YEARS. I like to pace myself I guess.  I'm not very familiar with it yet, but it is up.

Aside from that, here is a photo of Devin aggravating his sister today. Not sure when they outgrow that 

Brookelynn's new bed arrived on Wednesday, August 12. Stroker wanted to have it assembled before she got home from church. Once we got my stipulations covered...we began.

I told him that I WAS NOT going to rush through this and I WAS going to work at it in a calm and rational manner. I do not want to be overwhelmed with this thing (like he already is).  We began at 4pm.

It looked like this when she got home from church, just before 8:00. One of my favorite things about is that it has three built in drawers.

After the football game on Thursday, August 13, several of us ATMS familes met at El Tapatio for dinner together. We had a fun time and the girls loved it.

Sterl and Debi joined us for dinner at Shear Delights in Sparta on Friday, August 14. I really like that place. I eat there at least once a week here lately.

Saturday August 15 was all about business. It was one of those days where we run ourselves ragged. 4 counties that day...Jackson, Dekalb and Putnam, White. Devin made the run to Jackson county with me. Which turned out to be almost in Clay county.

The Sunday of Summer

It's true...It won't be long now until we are sipping pumpkin flavored stuff and raking leaves. Everybody is talking about how they are so glad it is fall.  Not me. I'm the one over here trying to squeeze out the last few rays of the summer sun.

We began the last month of summer with a family get together at Golden Corral on Saturday, August 1. It is not often that my entire family gets together. Just holidays mostly. As a matter of fact, daddy was treating all of us for our "birthday" lunch. There was somewhere close to 30 of us there This year was a bit more relaxing than usual. Our rental was in Sparta and worked around our lunch plans perfectly.

Gary and Darlene rode with us back to Sparta later in the evening to pick up the waterslide. We also drove down by Three Island. to check out the locals. LOL

August 2, 2015 was another great day! We actually got to spend the evening at Gene and Sharon's church youth event. This must be what weekends feel like. I had forgotten over the years. "Weekend" is no longer a term in our vocabulary. We had such a great weekend. Thanking the Lord for sunny summer days to spend however we want to.  We ended the weekend with our Pastor and his wife at El Tapatio.

Monday, August 3, I went to my moms to pick her up and take her to dinner. We went to Shear Delights, which kinda sounds like a hair salon instead of a restaurant. Not sure who came up with the name, but the food is really good. Mom claims that she is never hungry, but if you take her out to eat, she always enjoys it. Kevin told me once that mom goes on and on about how I take her to eat at restaurants and how good it is. I had no idea that it meant that much to her. I'm glad she likes it.

Here I was thinking that it was an opportunity to get her out of her house for a while and a chance for me to visit without having to smell the cigarette smoke.  

We drove by this house in Sparta that I always like to look at. There are some people that are remodeling it, so I keep an eye on the progress when I'm in town. 

When I got back home Monday evening, we done some more patio sittin' to soak up the remaining summer nights.

Tuesday, August 4 had more physical activity that planned on.  A lady wanted to come look at Brookelynn's bedroom suite at noon, but once she seen it, she whipped out the cash.

 

I explained that it would take me a few minutes to strip the bedding, empty the drawers and clear off all the decoration from the top of the chest of drawers. She was okay with waiting. I scrambled around throwing clothes on the couch and everything else in the floor. When finished, Devin helped us load it all up in the back of her truck. It was a pretty warm day for moving. At one point, I had to stop and come inside to wipe the sweat out of my eyes. 

All this work because Brooke decided she needs a full size bed. 

The twin bed with trundle is apparently to childish nowadays.

I went online and ordered a new pedestal bed for her room, but it's gonna take a couple of days to ship.  I figured she could sleep on the couch for a couple of nights. Instead, she wound up right between us in our bed.  Uuuuggghhhh. No sleep for us.  I can't believe Stroker let her stay in there. Devin would have never made it through the night sleeping between us.

Wednesday, August 5 was pretty typical. We had dinner at Ruby Tuesday's for a change. I also talked to the people from Vaughn's today.  Brookelynn had Power Athletics right after school and then went to church until 7:30. 

The weather is still nice and daylight is still long enough that it doesn't feel like I should be in bed at 5pm just yet. Thank goodness. 

Thursday, August 6 held our first ATMS football game for the school year. We had to head out early because Brooklyn had to give out candy at school for school spirit. 

Initially, we thought we were gonna be in for a messy game because it had poured the rain all day. Just before kick-off....and I mean 2 minutes before kick-off, the skies began to clear. The ground was pretty soggy, but at least we were not standing around with umbrellas. Stroker looks like the "creeper" guy watching the cheerleaders. 

After the game, we all met up at Baskin Robins for ice cream. 

Friday, August 7 was the day that Heather Laws and I had dinner plans at Olive Garden. Now, there is someone that I don't get to see very often these days. dinner was good, and we got to catch up with each other (a little). I'm glad we scheduled the time, because these days, if it is not on my schedule....it never happens.

Brookelynn spent the night with Morgan Friday night. While she was out of the house, I took the opportunity to organize her clothes and closet. After all, everything was in shambles after moving her furniture out yesterday.

On Saturday, August 8, I finally got back around to the front porch post. I sanded for what seemed like eternity, but little progress happened.  

Morgan came home with Brooke to spend the night at our house.

The weather was nice, so we had pizza on the patio for dinner. I love the patio (in case you haven't noticed).