Goodbye July

We had a hot dog luncheon after church on Sunday, July 24, but I didn't get to go because I went to the Turkey Town Decoration with daddy for the second year in a row. 

This year, Darlene came with us too. 

We also went to Matasia's birthday party at Brad's on Sunday. 😁

She turned the BIG 10 this year. A whole decade of being a great aunt. 

Monday, July 25 was the official start to 2016-2017 school year.  As if having our youngest child begin high school today was not stressful enough, I inflicted additional stress on myself to drive Devin's car (without him knowing) to the auto trim shop to have his illegal window tint removed.

Man-o-man...was he ever mad at me!  IRATE would be a better term. When he woke up and seen that his car was not in the driveway, he dialed me right up. When I told him the plan, he only got more perturbed. Truth is..sometimes "parents have to do - what parents have to do".

On Tuesday, July 26, Devin got up for work and drove my car. It was an attempt at rebellion, but I didn't mind. I would be upset too if someone took my car and altered it without my consent. I understand his anger. 😠

To be honest, it is nice to see some emotion come from him. He is always so laid back and quiet, that I was beginning to wonder if he cared about anything....turns out he does.

Anyway, I drove the "box Chevy" to work...and received a couple of compliments on the way. 

I even had someone ask me how much I would take for it.  I finally know what it feels like to be "Cool".

After work, I took Brooke school shopping (Round 2). For some reason it never really ends. This time, Mary went with us and we hit up a few boutique's.  

We had dinner at Logan's that night and Mary spent the night.

Wednesday, July 27 was the first full day of school. 

I got my hair cut short again and we finished the day with dinner at Cracker Barrel after church.

On Thursday, July 28, we went to dinner with Darlene, Gary, Stacia and the boys at O'Charley's for

her birthday. 

Stroker had the day off to sleep in on Friday, July 29.  He deserves a day to sleep in and rest. He works non-stop every day. If not in the warehouse, then he is working at something here at home. I'm glad he gets a break today, not that he will rest...I'm sure he will find stuff to do all day.

We both took naps on Saturday, July 30.  Hey...I deserve to rest too :)  I picked up Bojangles for dinner and called it a day.

Speaking of haircuts...Devin has stopped getting them 😲

Oh...and he doesn't like when I try to sneak a photo. 

I practiced my electrician and HVAC skills on Sunday, July 31 after church. I installed a new thermostat at moms. Bless her heart, she had punched the buttons completely out of her other one.

and just like that...July 2016 was gone forever 😥

Back to School: Freshman Year

It seems like, as soon as our plane landed back in Tennessee, we had to start gearing up for the upcoming school year. But, before we get into that, I wanted to mention the flooding we had on Saturday, July 16. It rained so hard and came down so fast, that we had water half way up our central heat and air unit. The cloud just came out of nowhere and dumped torrential rain right of the west side of Cookeville. 

Once it stopped, the sun came back out and the heat set back in. We had to call the HVAC guy to come take a look at our CH&A unit to ensure that it was okay to run. 

My sister stayed at our house that night too. You are never too old for a sleepover. 

My Sunday, July 17, began with breakfast duties at church, followed by Back to School Shopping with Brooke. 

Darlene stayed over at our house. 

Monday, July 18 was the dreaded "Freshman Orientation". Brookelynn dreaded it because it was at CHS which houses 2000+ students, Stroker and I dreaded it because our baby is entering high school. Where have the years gone? We made it through the evening and Brookelynn felt some relief after comparing schedules with her friends. 

With summer coming to a close, we had our usual back to school bashes to set up equipment for mid week. 

We ended the week on Friday, July 22, with dinner at O'Charley's with Sterl & Deb. Afterwords, we drove to Lake Tansi to visit Lee & Judy. 

I spent Saturday visiting mom while Brooke went to Atlanta to pick up her friend Mary from camp.

Los Angeles; Take 2

Our flight took off at 6:05 bright and early Monday, July 11.

 Once we landed, we hit lots of beaches. Santa Monica was the first one.

 If you have ever seen Hanna Montana the movie, part of it was filmed on the pier here.

We visited Venice Beach too, which hosted plenty of entertainment.

 The view of downtown LA from our hotel window.

 Malibu beach was also on our agenda the first day.

We didn't make it to In-n-out burger until day 2.  

It was a good burger :)

We visited our favorite equipment provider and walked through each stage of the process.

 Day 3, we went to Beverly Hills. Check out that look...she totally fit in with the snooty people there.

We took a four hour tour of LA which we really enjoyed a lot more than we thought we would.

 Day 4 was a day at Disney's California Adventure.

We visited radiator springs, watched parades, rode soarin', and seen mater.

 Stroker wanted to stop by the Staples Center. The Espy's were in full swing that night, but Stroker was more interested in photo's with the statues. We did try to catch a glimpse of some athletes, but had better luck with the statues.

The day that we were to head home, we spent on Hollywood Blvd. We shopped, ate lunch and roamed the streets until time to head to the airport for an 8:20 pm flight

This trip was sooo much better than the one in 2009.

Rainy Start to Summer

Woah Summer...pump the breaks. How can it be July already?

Probably because we are on the move ALL THE TIME.

Take Friday, July 1 for example. We traveled to Sparta (Bondecroft), had dinner at Shear Delights and visited dad.

Brooke went swimming with her besties on Saturday, July 2.

On Sunday, July 3, Stroker didn't come to church with me and Brooke.

He did go to his mom's to borrow their grill and some extra coolers.

We had a cookout on the 4th of July. It rained on and off, but we got through the entire cookout before the rain set in for the night. We watched fireworks from the church parking lot.

I spent the entire day Tuesday, July 5th just cleaning up the mess. I think we wound up with about 35-40 people at our cookout. 

The rest of the week hosted several more storms. It's just been a rainy couple of weeks.

I worked on my website Friday, July 8 with technical support until I had to abruptly end the call to pick up a piece of equipment early due to a tornado warning...Yikes.

Saturday, July 9 was a busy day for us. Driving and delivering all day.

We prepped for our big trip on Sunday, July 10. 

...and we took a quick trip to Bee Rock to put things perspective. 

Man oh man, our world sure is a beautiful view from up there.