Holiday World...Round 3 (2016 Edition)

We started the final week of June 2016 at church on Sunday, June 26.

We drove to Rickman and Gainesboro afterwords. 

On Monday, June 27, we took a Tahoe load of girls to Holiday World.

It was the first time Brooke (and her friends) ventured out on their own to explore a park.

Darlene and I had the day to ourselves to ride.

While in line for a ride, I seen this shirt and really liked it.

 Brookelynn and her friends hit all the roller coasters.

Darlene endured a couple of roller coasters with me, but I rode a few of them solo.

While we were gone. Stroker trimmed the Bradford Pear tree. Although he knows better than to be climbing ladders and using saws while no one is home, he did it anyway.
Thankfully, he didn't fall out of the tree or cut off any of his own limbs.
Turns out, the tree looks pretty good too.
On Tuesday, June 28, I decided to do some re-arranging. I moved my dresser into our walk in closet where the rest of my clothes are.  The closet is plenty large enough for it, and now I have all my clothes in one place. Wonder if I can start calling it "my dressing room"?
I also made a trip to Sam's Club on Tuesday. That always turns out to be expensive.
By the time I moved furniture and shopped, there was no time left to cook, so we went to Cheddar's for dinner. It is quickly gaining popularity on my favorite restaurants list.
On Wednesday, June 29, after church, we tried out the new Bluetooth sound system (from Sam's Club) while we hung out and relaxed on the patio.
Summer nights on the patio is one of my favorite summertime pastimes.

Summer Rolls In

After church on Sunday, June 19, we went to dad's for Father's Day. We had lunch there too.

I got him a yellow convertible. He has always wanted one.

In order to stay within my budget, I got him the matchbox car kind.

Of course I had a hair appointment too. It seems that I have one every holiday this year.

I took mom to her doctor appointment on Monday, June 20. We went for milkshakes afterwords :)

That evening, I got outside and hung my new "Rain Lights".

I spent Tuesday, June 21st catching up on some of these blog posts. This stuff takes longer than you think. I love looking back over the years though. It wasn't the most perfect way to spend summer solstice, but I needed to catch up a little.

Church and Zaxby's was the only place we went on Wednesday evening June 22.

Friday, June 24 was busy for a Friday. We had three different stops to drop off equipment.

We had other obligations on

Saturday, June 25, but Brooke went to ride the boat at Center Hill with Gary and Darlene. 

We picked her up in Sparta around 5pm

Afternoon Showers

And, just like that...it was the start of another brand new week.

Sunday, June 12 was typical.

We went to church, followed by lunch with our church friends. This particular Sunday, we ate at Cheddar's.

We hung around the house for a while to wait on the people that were coming to buy our old refrigerator. After they loaded it and left, we went to Lowe's. 

I surprised Devin with lunch on Monday, June 13 I took a couple of snap chats while we ate. hehehehe. 

We went by Lee and Judy's to pick up a generator, but wound up hanging out there for a couple of hours. It came about a two hour shower that afternoon too. I suppose it is that time of year.

Brooke went to Nashville Shores on Tuesday, June 14 with Ella.

It came another evening shower on Tuesday too.

We went to church in the rain on Wednesday, June 15. The week just keeps getting soggier.

The sun finally came back out on Thursday, June 16, so Stroker cooked dinner on the grill.

I noticed that my Magnolia tree had it's first blooms.  I love it.

We made a trip to Bon de Croft on Friday, June 17 and made a trip to Smithville for dinner at the Rose Garden.

Saturday, June 18 was a crazy day. Not only was every piece of equipment that we have "out for the day", but we also had Grey's birthday party to attend. Somehow, we managed to do both. 

God is just that good.

Jeepin'

Maleigha picked me up on Saturday, June 11 for a Jeepin' adventure. 

We drove down to Granville and took a walking tour of the town.

The day was so relaxing and fun.

 It's not often that I have time to slow down and embrace the day. 

We had lunch out by the water at the local marina. We watched fish while we ate.

 Maleigha had the thickest bologna sandwich in the history of bologna sandwiches.

Too bad I didn't get a picture of that.

We circled back through Baxter and down to the 8th District (the bloody 8th) to see some great views of Center Hill. 

I really enjoyed the day of just riding and talking.

Every Day Matters

I can't believe we are in our second week of summer break already. 

My mom said something to me when I was a little girl (about 10 years old) that has stuck in my mind since the moment it left her lips.

She, my dad and I were at Hurricane Boat Dock (for no particular reason) when she told me to 

"enjoy this day...because it would never be this day again". She said "we can always come back and do the same things, but it will not be THIS DAY".

For a while now, when I say my prayers, I thank God for today (and mention the specific date) because the days go by so quickly that if I don't intentionally acknowledge the what day it is, before I know it, the whole week, or the entire month is behind me and all I did was blink.

So, in this blog, you will notice that I mention the date quite often.  

I acknowledge the insignificant, boring and unappealing happenings of our daily lives because everyday is filled with events, whether they are extraordinary or mundane. I want to look back and reminisce on everything and every life that I had the privilege to be a part of.

So, with that thought, I'll begin my journal (blog) entry for Monday, June 6, 2016.

We had to dry some of our equipment from a shower they got caught in over the weekend.

Afterwords, we attended an office party (Curriculum)  at Cane Creek  Park. To be honest, I kinda dreaded it. That is my insecurities and introverted personality coming out of hiding. 

It did not take long after we arrived for me to realize that I was glad that I came. We made a couple new friends and had a whole lot of laughs. Dinner was great and so was the company.

Tuesday, June 7 hosted another day of equipment drying and cleaning. 

Brooke, Mary and I  had salad lunches at Walnut park, because summer time salads at the park is one of my favorite lunches.

Wednesday, June 8, was a different story. I stayed in all day. 

Although I was not up for adventure, the church across the street was sure gearing up for some afternoon fun with this creation.

I knew I had to pick myself up quickly because everything falls apart when I'm out of commission too long. I got up and got back to business on Thursday, June 9.  We even got a new refrigerator and microwave that day. The downfall of that story is that we like to have never gotten that huge refrigerator through the front door. We practically had to disassemble it to bring it inside. 

We finally got it in its place. We got the microwave up too. Now we can move out the loaner one that we have been using.

We ended the week with Relay for Life at Tutco on Friday, June 10. We didn't win any BINGO games, but we ate a good dinner and had plenty of cotton candy and sno cones. I seen a lot of people that I hadn't seen in years. I also felt like an Alzheimer patient when I couldn't remember some of their names.

DC Day 3

Friday, June 3, 2016

DC Day 3

The Day Began at the World War II Memorial 

It was followed by the tour of the Holocaust Museum.

In a word...Sadness

We toured the section called "Daniel's Story" where we walked stages if his life depicting his childhood, the changes in life as he knew it before and during concentration camp and losing his family. This museum is depressing, but something we all should see for ourselves because it was a reality to so many.

We moved on to the Capitol after the museum. We toured several floors and sat in the congregational hearing room for a short period of time.

We finished the day at the Smithsonian again. We seen the Hope Diamond there. 

I think we have soaked in more sight seeing in the last three days than we have in the past 5 years combined.

DC Day 2

Washington DC, Thursday, June 2, 2016

Day 2

We visited the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception

Talk about an amazing place...wow.

I wanted to just hang out there for the day, but there was too much else to see.

We drove around DuPont Circle

Went to the Washington Memorial

Walked through the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial

We walked the waters edge by the Martin Luther King Memorial

and visited one of the Smithsonian's.

The Natural History One.

Day 2 was just as busy as day 1, but we sure were learning a lot.

Washington

As the sun came up on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, our eyes were opening to a brand new city, in a brand new state. I have been wanting to visit Washington DC for some time now. What better (and more emotional) place to start our tour than Arlington Cemetery.

We waited to see the changing of the guard.

We stopped at the Marine Corps War Memorial

Followed by the Lincoln Memorial, 

 Reflection Pool and Pencil Memorial

We proceeded to the Korean Veterans War Memorial

We walked down the street and the back alley of Ford Theater where Lincoln was assassinated.

It was getting late in the day, but we headed over to the White House.

As exhausted as we were, we made one final stop at the Pentagon.

The memorial there brings a chill.

Elegant and simple, the Pentagon Memorial serves as a timeline of the victims’ ages, spanning from the youngest victim, three-year-old Dana Falkenberg, who was on board American Airlines Flight 77, to the oldest, John D. Yamnicky, 71, a Navy veteran, also aboard Flight 77 that morning.

 Each of these benches represent a life lost. 

There is a running water pool underneath each one. 

There were 184 souls lost to the terrorists attack that day

That was where we ended day 1 of trip. Eight stops on the first day is quite productive.

So far, I was loving this educational vacation.

Back at the hotel, hot showers and soft beds were calling our names.

.