Getting Out of the House

I spent Saturday, March 18th visiting my parents. I went by moms for a while and then visited with daddy for a while. Crazy how they are so close together. Crazy how my 95% of my family live in one neighborhood. Thank goodness I am in the next town. I like to visit, but I like my distance too.
We had to go to Livingston and Baxter on Sunday, March 19 after church. Other than driving around, we didn't do much else with the day.
I went home for lunch on Monday, March 20 and had lunch with Devin.  I also cooked a home cooked dinner after walking a lap around Cane Creek Park that evening. I love living so close to everything here.
I walked Cane Creek Park again on Tuesday, March 21, but we opted for El Tapatio for dinner.
We had 18 kids in our class at church Wednesday evening. I would have never guessed that Stroker and I would be teaching a youth group, yet here we are stumbling along week after week.
I went to bed early on Thursday. I was more tired than usual. I picked up dinner at Fazoli's around 5pm and that was all I could do for the day.
I managed to get in a lap at Cane Creek park on Friday evening before heading over to the Dipsy Doodle to meet up with our usual Friday evening crew for dinner.
Saturday consisted of driving to Livingston and Monterey. It wasn't to lengthy of a day so I went to the store and got stuff to make for breakfast for church.
I took breakfast to church on Sunday, March 26.  Me and mom took a drive down to Rock Island Sunday afternoon. I turned on Pandora and set it to "church hymns".  I like to watch mom sing to the old hymns that she remembers from her youth. Her little mouth just moves to all the words as she sways her little head to the music.
She likes to get out of the house and go on adventures with me. Sometimes we stop for a milkshake to take along for the ride. We got out of the car a couple of times at Rock Island to walk over and take a closer look at the water. She always talks about how much her family loved the country here in Tennessee.  She told me Sunday that she wished that her brother Jimmy could see the this (the waterfall).  She said she can't wait to hug his neck one day and see her mom and dad and brothers and sisters again.  I smiled and said "what a great day that will be huh mom?" She agreed.
She told me that she didn't understand why she was still here when all of her family was in heaven. She said that God must not be done with her yet. I told her that I was glad she was still here with me.
We ventured on and drove through some neighborhoods and back-roads with beautiful views.
I took her back home and told her that I had to get back to Cookeville because we had a teachers meeting at church at 5pm.
We had a fun day together and made some memories. She told me that she was glad that I got her out of the house for a while.

Savannah Smiles

We had such a big "TO Do" list, we had to hit the floor running each morning. That was a little harder to do on day two because our neighbors were up all night partying and kept waking us up. At one point, Stroker said "that's it! I'm going over there and telling them to quieten down!"  

And that's when you know that you are:

I told him not to be "THAT GUY".  He tossed and turned and huffed and puffed the rest of the night, but somewhere in there, he got an ounce of sleep.

Before heading out to Forsyth Park, a random guy knocked on our door and said his app was telling him that his phone was at our cottage. I politely told him that "it must be next door".  That ought to tell you the kind of partying that took place.

Anyway...we walked to Forsythe Park and looked at the fountain. The water had already been dyed green for St. Patrick's day. Apparently, Savannah is one of the nations largest St. Pat's celebrations.

We had lunch in town at a place called B&D Burgers where I tried alligator for the first time (and last). It would have probably been okay if I could have gotten past the idea of what I was eating.

We took the Trolly Tour after lunch because we were tourists and that's what tourists do.

One of my favorite stops was at St. Johns Cathedral

It was absolutely breathtaking both inside and out.

The Trolly Tour was a hop on and off tour, but we mainly stayed on. We mostly just wanted to find out if there was anything we needed to add to our list of things to see.

We made a dash into the Savannah Candy Shoppe on our way back to the car.

That is where Stroker discovered his new love.

The fresh praline cookies were ate up fast.  It didn't spoil his dinner though because we feasted at the Lady and Son's for dinner.

We were almost sick when we left because we ate so much...

Thank goodness we opted for the ghost tour that we could sit down and ride through because we could barely walk from eating so much. 

We did have to get out and tour a couple of stops. One was this haunted house with the creepiest kids room ever.

Brooke and Mary were a little nervous after the ghost tour, so Mary stayed at our place for the night.

The next morning we got a later start since we were still tired from the night of partying neighbors and the late night ghost adventure.

We didn't leave the house till lunch so we headed to an italian place called Corleones Restaurant.

It was okay...not our very favorite though.

We ventured out to Tybee Island for the day.

 

We also spent way too long in a gift shop there.

When we got back into Savannah, we visited the Wormsloe Plantation from the famous scene of Forrest Gump "Run, Forest. Run!"

We took another drive down Jones Street and drove over to the Pirate House for dinner.

Another fun day ending on an overstuffed stomach.

Our last day held one final "must eat" Restaurant.

The Funky Brunch Cafe.

You could even cook your own pancakes in the center of your table.

Brooke wanted to stop by SCAD bookstore to get a shirt after breakfast.

We were wearing down quickly at this point. We had tried to see, do, eat and go to dozens of places over the last several days. 

Home was starting to sound so relaxing.

Savannah Spring Break

We got up Sunday morning and it was cooler than we had hoped. Around 50 degrees. We headed on over to Clary's for breakfast.

The portions were way too large for one person to eat, but we ate what we could until we were stuffed.

We drove down Jones Street after breakfast. It is known for it's curb appeal and southern charm.

The brick streets add character to the street too.

We drove out to Bonaventure Cemetery and walked around.

We were waiting on our friends to arrive so we spent a few hours shopping on Broughton Street

We stopped for coffee at the Coffee Fox, but we don't recommend it.

When our friends arrived around 3pm, we met up for lunch on River Street.

Afterwords, we visited LuLu's Chocolate Bar.

We got checked into our cottage, unpacked, lounged around and went for a walk.

We had dinner reservation at "The Olde Pink House"

After dinner, it was back to the cottage to rest because it had been a long day.

Mid March

Chili's was the lunch spot after church on Sunday, March 5th. After lunch, I remembered how good Saturday's nap felt, so I took another one.  We ended the day with Faith Visits.
Mom had doctor appointments on Monday, March 6th so we spent the afternoon at both of those.

We wound up having a late lunch because the appointments were slow. Mom sure loves a good filet-o-fish. That has been her McDonald's pick for as long as I can remember, but today we had Sonic burgers. She loves a good burger from Sonic too. She has gained a little weight. She is up to 106 now.  While we waited on the carhop to deliver our food, we played with snap chat filters.

We play with snap chat a lot while we wait. 

She is always saying "Well Heather, look at that. What is that thing doing to me?" 

I usually share our snaps with Maleigha.

She snaps us back and  says "She is so cute. Tell Little Linda that I said Hello".

I got my car vacuumed out on Monday too. I also managed to talk Devin into a hair cut. Talk about a productive day.
Stroker rode to Nashville with Sterl to visit John Ward who had brain surgery earlier today.
I got the call on Tuesday, March 7th the my brand new sun visor was in. Brooke and I went to pick it up after work. Apparently, I have worn mine out because it will not stay wherever I adjust it to stay any more. It just droops down in my way when I'm driving. I am actually excited about getting a new one that works.

We also went by the hospital to visit Jason Johnson's new baby and then we headed to Cheddar's for dinner.
I went for a pedicure on Wednesday, March 8th and talked to the guy that is building a patio cover. We are just a few weeks away from shade.  This week just keeps getting better.
I had lunch on the patio at Craw Daddy's on  Thursday March 9th after ePlan training all morning.
We went to Sparta on Friday and had dinner at O'Charley's. We packed a few things for our upcoming trip.
Saturday, March 11 was rainy. We decided to leave for Savannah early since we had nothing else to do in the rain. It was 1:30 pm before we got on the road. We made it to Savannah around 9pm.

Till the Day I Die

We had concert tickets to the Toby Mac "Hits Deep" Tour on Friday, March 3, 2017.  

We have been excited for this night of worship for months.  I usually don't splurge on these kind of seats, but when Strokers favorite and my favorite (Mac Powell) are at the same concert, that is reason to by the good seats. 

Wow! were they ever worth it!  There were some great musicians and singers there tonight. 

It was a late night getting home because there concert didn't end until after 11:00.
We managed to get in the bed pretty quickly once that we got home.
We had to get up kinda early Saturday morning, March 4 to load a bounce house for Lennox's party. They came to get it kinda early because they had a busy schedule Saturday too.
We had two other bounce houses to deliver and then I took a nap because I was still tired from Friday nights concert.

We had dinner at the Rose Garden.
So far, I have liked everything that I have ordered there.

Routines

Have I ever mentioned that I do not like change?  

I Don't.  

There is a reason why I have only owned one home. There is a reason why I drive the same vehicle for over a decade and there is a reason why I never change employment. 

That reason is called ROUTINE.

I like the comfort of routine. It feels good to know what to expect. It's just the way that I am wired. Routine brings a feeling of calm...and I love calm.

Although my blog would put most readers to sleep at night, I want to document the time as it passes and the day to day life that takes place in our predictable little lives.

  My blog always consists of the same 'ol posts, week after week. We always attend church on Sunday morning, followed by lunch with some of our church family. We always attend church on Wednesday evening followed by dinner at Cracker Barrel. We have dinner with our pastor and friends every Friday night (usually at the Dipsy Doodle).  

I may not have a fascinating life by the standards of many, but it is the perfect life for me.  

So here goes, another post of the same 'ol same 'ol.

March 1st was on a Wednesday this year, so we all know how that went.
March 2nd was the night of Brooke's friend Mary's first home Lacrosse game. 

Stroker and I took Brooke and Treasure to watch.

It was a colder evening, so we mainly tried to stay warm while we watched.  

Brooke drove us to the game. She is driving us everywhere these days.  That has been hard to get used to.  Me being in the passenger seat is definitely not routine. Sometimes I have to remind myself to let go of both Devin and Brooke and let them grow.  As a mom, I want to make sure that they have everything in place, are prepared for anything and get through life painlessly.  Some of the hardest mom moments are the ones that you have to step back and let them make decisions, experience life, and learn how to make it on their own.

The hardest part of routine, is missing out on the new things.  

Most often, when life inevitably alters things for me, I wonder why I took so long.

Changes Coming soon

I look back on certain dates in the past to see what I was doing "on this day" last year, or two years ago...and so on.  All of my inquiries usually end in "wow...that was ___year('s) ago?"  

I'm not really sure how this turned into a date-stamped log of our daily lives here at the Hayes House, but it is.

I kinda want to get out of that kind of posting. Maybe just do a weekly summary instead of breaking down "What we ate for dinner" or  "We went..."  I kinda want to take time to log my toughts about stuff. Not just log stuff.

I'll probably keep going just like I have these past few years, or it will stop going altogether. Who knows.  As hectic and spontaneous as our lives are, this could very well be my last entry.