Charleston South Carolina

Sunday was a big clean up day for Cookeville from the storm the evening before.  People all over town were cutting trees that had fallen and picking up debris from their property. We went to church Sunday morning and then had a rental. We drove around Cookeville and viewed some of the storms damage.

Thank goodness we did not have a lot of damage from this storm. It would have hindered us from leaving on our trip Monday morning.  We spent Sunday evening packing our bags.  Treasure came to our house to spend the night since we were leaving out so early Monday.
Just before 1 am Monday, May 29, 2017 Devin came into our room complaining of shortness of breath.  I knew exactly what that meant. An anxiety attack was setting in. He has probably been thinking about our trip and his job and mama and all the things that he worries about.  I got out of bed and went to sit with him for a few minutes to try to help him through it, but he couldn't relax as much as he needed to. I told him to lay down and try to get some rest. Thankfully, he has Mondays off.
Darlene and Gary arrived around 2 am and we all set out for Charleston, S.C.
We stopped for breakfast around 6 am and Devin called. He still wasn't feeling good.  I asked him to eat something to see if that would help and to lay back down for a while.
We arrived at Charleston around 10 am and started exploring the city.  We toured the Magnolia Plantation which took a few hours

 

 and we had dinner reservations at Poogans Porch.

I got another call from Devin as we were heading in to dinner. He said he felt worse. 

I told him that if he gets to the point that he needs to see a doctor, to call granny and she would take him. He said he would just wait.

We went back to our house (Charleston House) after dinner and relaxed for a while. Later we took a walk to get some ice cream.

Our house had a great location. We walked everywhere during the rest of our trip.

 We went by the theater where Noah and Allie went in "The Notebook".

 We actually seen several "Notebook" spots while in Charleston.

check out these beautiful window boxes 😍

The Battery, Charleston SC

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

White Point Garden

The Pineapple Fountain

We walked to the Battery, Rainbow Row, and shopping. 

The only time we had to drive, was when we went to explore the beaches.

All 3 beaches that we visited had a different vibe.

Isle of Palms (next 4 photos)

Folly Beach ↓

We had dinner at the Boat House one night

We seen the pineapple fountain, went to the Market, seen the Citadel and so much more.

We seen Folly Beach, Isle of Palms, Sullivans' Island

We had a great week. 

Devin finally let his granny take him to the doctor Monday night for anxiety medicine. After that, he was fine. 

We detoured a little on the way home and stopped by the Biltmore Estate again.

EF1

We went to church and Cheddars for lunch on Sunday, May 21, 2017. Cheddar's is probably my favorite place to eat here lately. Mostly, I am just burnt out on restaurant food.
The rest of the week consisted of Blood work, church class, El Tap, Brooke cooked Spaghetti Thursday night, Lunch on the patio at Craw Daddy's Friday and dinner at the Rose Garden Friday night. It was a pretty tasty week.
We had rentals on Saturday, but luckily the storm at 7pm didn't interfere with them. I first started hearing limbs hit the roof of the house. By the time we looked out the door, we could see that the trees were almost bent sideways because the wind was so strong. Before I could tell the kids to head for our "safe place", it was already over. We could see that trees had fallen and uprooted. We got in the car to drive around, but every other road was impassable due to downed trees, power lines, etc.
There were no tornado warnings, but I'm pretty sure that is what we experienced.

Everyone was talking about the storm at church Sunday morning, May 28. It was crazy at how fast it developed and then dissipated. Yet it left tons of damage straight across Cookeville.

We had one rental on Sunday, but the weather was great that day.

Treasure came over and spent the night with Brooke so we can get an early start Monday morning.

Cherish Every Day

I got up early on Sunday morning, May 14, 2017 and headed over to Sparta to place moms flower arrangement by her grave at 7am. What an empty feeling to wake up on Mother's Day and not have a mom. I had decided a few day's earlier that I was not going to let my circumstances affect everyone else's holiday.  We went to church as usual and had steaks for lunch at Gary's mom's (Judy) house.  Brookelynn went with me for lunch. Stroker stayed home. Later in the evening, I had a hair appointment, so I went just as usual.  I know there will be difficult days ahead, but as long as I keep putting one foot in front of the other, I will get through them.

We had two deliveries on Monday, May 15, 2017 so we started on them early. We took a drive out through muddy pond and the Mennonite community. We have some beautiful area's right here in our back door, we just don't always take time to explore them.
I cooked dinner at home on Moms Birthday, May 16. I thought about her all day. Wished I could have taken her out for lobster tail and had birthday cake. Those birthday traditions are tucked away in my heart to cherish.

Time has marched right on through Brooke's entire freshman year of high school. On Wednesday, May 17, 2017 Brooke attended her final day of freshman year. I know that she is excited and looking forward, but I just look at her and try to lock the image of her sweet little freshman face in my mind to hold onto forever.

Since school is out for the year, Brooke assisted me in two deliveries on Thursday, May 18, 2017.

She is quite the helper. Although she and I are girls, we can work just as hard and lift just as much weight as the next guy.  Never underestimate us.

We only had one delivery on Friday, May 19. 

After we got it picked up Friday evening, we sat on the patio and karaoke'd with Steve, Georgi, Mary and Brooke until 11pm.  It was a fun night.

After our deliveries on Saturday, May 20 to Sparta and Cookeville, I hung flower hooks on the patio.

May Flowers

We ended up having the Bradford Pear tree cut down completely on Monday, May 1, 2017. After all, there isn't much left of it anyway. It was windy today, so it is probably best.
We had two rentals on Tuesday, May 2nd. Weekday rentals isn't usually a busy day, but sometimes it works out that way.

Jimmy Johns was running a $1 sub special today too. We stood in the line for one. So did five hundred other people

Amanda and I met Paula K. at Cheddar's on Wednesday, May 3, 2017 for lunch on the patio. I love lunch on the patio this time of year. The sunshine and the warm breeze feels so good. The weather has been so nice these last few days since Saturday nights storm.
I was tired on Wednesday. Stroker took a picture of me when I dosed off on the couch.

Our church class still continues to grow each Wednesday. Who would have ever thought that Stroker and I would lead a youth group? I would have never expected that of me. We sure have a good time and have made lots of new little friends. 

We keep the same routine each week after church, we head over to Cracker Barrel for a late dinner....actually, we order breakfast.
I had a dentist appointment on Thursday, May 4, 2017.  I dread the dentist more as an adult than I ever did as a child. I have a cracked tooth that I am eventually going to have to have crowned. I keep putting it off as long as I can.
I went by Kevin's for a visit when I left the dentist office. He is sick with bronchitis or something. He stays sick quite a bit. Stroker and I had a delivery to make at 4:30 in Sparta before heading back home for dinner.
We had to pick up a rental Friday evening before heading to dinner at the Dipsy Doodle. It was a pretty day outside. Out house looks different with the Bradford Pear tree gone from the front yard.
I'm gonna miss that little tree.
It started raining on Saturday, May 6. God blessed us with an indoor rental that day. The rest of the day was for relaxation. We tried to sit on the patio since it is covered now, but it was almost too cool outside to hang out.
It was my Sunday to bring breakfast at church on Sunday, May 7, 2017. I usually make a cheese Danish or fruit and some chocolate milk.  Sometimes, it works out that I have to work the sound booth on the same day as breakfast.
We went to Olive Garden for lunch after church with some friends. Although we were stuffed from over eating, I decided to work on staining the new patio cover. I worked at it for hours. Stroker took out an extra ladder and helped for a couple of hours too. We finally finished it up.  It wore me out and had me speckled with redwood stain.

Monday, May 8 was stressful. I had a budget due on ePlan. That always stresses me out.  So, to relax, I hung some cute patio lights under the patio cover. I also made a flower arrangement for Mother's day to place beside moms headstone. I made it with yellow roses and a butterfly. I wish I could show it to her. She would love it.

We had the tree stump grinder come and take the stump out from the Bradford Pear on Tuesday, May 9, 2017.  I can't handle stumps interrupting the flow of the yard.  It's an OCD thing I guess.
Anyway, I picked up dinner at Bellacino's, Stroker got the yard mowed and we had to make a trip to Lowe's at 8:30.  At least we are convenient to everything.
On Wednesday, May 10th, Brooke had to give a description of a kid at school. He was going around saying that there was a shooting going to happen the next day. The school finally figured out who they were looking for with surveillance camera's.  Brooke's description didn't help them any because she didn't pay much attention to they guy when he walked by her group.

We ended the week at Logan's for dinner with Gary and Darlene. On Saturday, May 13, we drove to Silver Pointe, Sparta and visited Dad. 

I ran inside moms house to retrieve her Direct TV card to mail back. I felt so uneasy about taking that card. My heart was telling me that mom needs her Direct TV because she watches it all day. But my mind had to step in and remind me that she is gone and we no longer needed TV at her house. One thing I know for sure. She burnt that card up watching so much TV. See where the chip almost melted through.

Ending the Worst Month Ever

I made a new recipe on Monday, April 24. Stuffed Shells. 

It was pretty good (if you ask me). Everybody else kinda liked it too. 

I didn't cook on Tuesday.

We had church on Wednesday evening and played outside with the kids for about 15 minutes with parachutes and foam lawn darts. They had a great time. 

We went to dinner at Cracker Barrel with Deb and SP afterwords.

I went to lunch with Maleigha on Thursday, April 27, and never went back to work. We rode around Buck Mountain and back roads until time for me to pick up Brooke from school.

I spent the evening getting started on staining the new patio cover.

Stroker and I had dinner with Maleigha and Mickey at Hurricane Marina on Friday, April 28. It was good and the views were gorgeous. We had a great time and it was nice to get my mind off of everything else.

Saturday, April 29th was a beautiful day.  Erin, Brandon and Ansley came for a visit. Erin brought me the sweetest picture frame in memory of my mom. I'm gonna put the picture from Rock Island in it. The day was really nice. We hung out on the patio for a while and Erin told us about her "Mam's" declining health. It reminded me a lot about some of the same symptoms that I seen in mom these last few months.
Kenny Cat was feeling friendly. Stroker says it is only because I feed him, but I know Kenny loves me.

Later on in the evening, I storm came up and the tree out front broke again. This time, it came right at the house.  We were not home at the time. We left to go make a pick up just before the storm hit.  Brooke called us to tell us that a tree fell on the house as we were on our way home.

We spent about 2 hours cutting the limbs and piling them up.

Just like He always does, God protected us. Although the tree fell on the front of the house, the window didn't break and the roof wasn't damaged.

Thanks God.

Brookelynn left us a letter on the refridgerator Saturday night because we wouldn't run back out to Burger King at 10:00pm

On Sunday, April 31st, we closed the month with Church, Grey's graduation and our Pastor's 60th birthday party.

Although it was a good day...I am ready to see this month be over.