DMV

It was time to renew my driver's license which was set to expire on my birthday in a week and a half.  I had been putting it off for a couple of weeks because of Etta's therapy schedule and because I didn't want to sit around the DMV for hours with a toddler, but Keith convinced me that I could do it quickly because there was a self-serve kiosk for renewals.  So, after a shower and make-up application (complete with eye liner) and breakfast for Etta we were off to Columbia to finally get my license taken care of.  20 fussy minutes and 5 quiet (asleep) minutes later, we arrived at the DMV.  The self-serve kiosk was out of order, of course. So, I took a number and we waited.  I kept Etta entertained with cheerios and goldfish and other random purse items like my camera, an old receipt and her sunglasses.  My number "A017" was called to window 6 after about 35 minutes.  Not too bad, but not a moment too soon! 

The very nice lady, who probably gets yelled at alot, took my paperwork and started the process on her computer.  We had a discussion about dropping my Class C back to a regular old Class D because I'm not driving a Primrose bus anymore and I didn't have my updated medical card anyway.  Then she asks for my birth certificate.  WHAT?  She points to the paper I had brought with me that had come in the mail.  I need proof of US citizenship?!?  ARG!  I was so frustrated!  But it was definitely my fault because I didn't read the whole paper.  So, I told the nice lady that I'd be back after naptime.  She totally leaned forward and half whispered to me that they are open until 5:30 and that I should come back around 4:00 because there usually isn't much of a wait at that time of day.  She tells me not to tell anyone.  Then, "no, seriously, don't tell anyone because then it won't be like that".  I very seriously told her I would keep her secret, but was glad to have a little something to chuckle about as we loaded back into the car to make the 25 minute drive back home.  On our way out of Columbia, traffic slowed because of a collision, so really it was more like a 35 minute drive home.

After lunch, a nap, a LONG talk with Deanne (no, seriously, we were on the phone for over 3 hours) and an after-nap snack, I touched up my makeup, grabbed my passport, and we loaded back into the car.  We drove the 25 minutes back to the DMV and parked in the nearly empty parking lot.  When we got to the counter where they give you a number, the nice lady from earlier told me to just come over to her desk.  I was SO relieved and grateful to not have to wait another 30-45 minutes!  She click, click, clicked on her computer, and sent me over to get my picture taken and out popped my new driver's license!  I think we were there a total of 20 minutes! Woot!  Then BACK in the car for the 25 minute drive home.  Poor E was strapped into something all day today!  So, when we got home around 4:30, we went straight upstairs to her playroom so she could get a little energy out before it was time to start dinner, eat, then say "nite, nite"

it's been a long day... annnnnd... I'm ready for bed! 

nite nite!

An Old Friend Means New Friends

In high school, I became friends with a boy named Ryan.  I graduated and went to Auburn.  A year later, Ryan did too.  Sometime during college, Ryan's parents moved to Myrtle Beach, and so did Ryan.  We sent sporadic e-mails, then kept up with eachother over MySpace, and eventually Facebook.  One October day in 2007, Ryan and I told eachother we were going to become parents in the same conversation.  It went a little like this:

Ryan- "Guess what.  I'm going to be a dad"
Me- OMG!  Congratualtions!!  How exciting!  Hey, guess what...  I'm going to me a momma!"

Etta was due about three weeks before Bella.  So, we excitedly followed eachother's pregnancy progress and then rejoyced over the birth of our daughters.  I still distinctly remember sitting in the parking garage at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital when I got the text message announcing Isabella's arrival with a photo of that sweet little bundle.  Then we used the incredible connection that is Facebook to watch eachother's daughter grow from infant to toddler.  Facebook also brought me closer to Ryan's fiancee, Shalissa.  We got to know eachother over late night chats.  One night, not too long  ago, Shalissa and I made plans for them to come visit us.  And then... they came!!! 

Ryan, Shalissa, and Bella arrived last Thursday evening (May 13th) with the plan to stay through the weekend and maybe longer depending on how the girls were doing with so much activity.  They ended up staying a week!  They left on Thursday morning because Ryan had to get back for work.  It was a sad day...

While they were here we had the best time!  It was so easy having them here!  The littles got along and the Mommas got along and the Daddies got along!!!  We went to the Nashville Zoo, Target, The Discovery Center, Target, Downtown Franklin, Cool Springs, and the Spring Hill Target.  HAHA!  Shalissa and I went one day and got pedicures while the girls were napping.  Keith and Ryan went canoeing THREE times!!!  Keith was SO excited to have a coanoeing buddy and Ryan was so excited to discover canoeing!  We never managed to make it up into Nashville (besides the trip to the zoo).  I hope they come back soon because there is still so much left to see and do!

We took so many photos and videos while they were here that I decided the best way to show them would be to put a montage together

SO

HERE

YOU

GO!!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

and here is another cute one...

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A Walk In The Park (?)

Etta had OT this morning in Franklin, we came home, she took an early nap (10:30-12:00), she ate lunch, we played, then we hopped back in the car and headed toward Nashville, stopped at Smoothie King, and finally ended up at Edwin Warner Park.  We were meeting a couple of our friends (Emily & Cooper and Julia & Piper) for a "hike" on the paved "old road" trail, but when we got there we were greeted by signs that read "Due to flooding- all trails closed until further notice" and some large sawhorses blocking the entrance to the trail.  :sigh:  I guess I should have called ahead...  We still managed to walk and talk and enjoy ourselves.  We were able to walk over to a tiny little pond with fish and turtles.  We fed the fish some goldfish, which made them happy.  Then we walked down past the parking lot and around a barrier to a paved walkway.  We turned around when we got to the end cause that smoothie cup was empty and I needed to pee by then!  Plus it was getting a little late in the afternoon and I didn't want to be too caught in rush hour traffic coming home.  It still took me almost an hour to get back home (after a drive-through stop for a sack of pulled-pork and slaw at Strouds in Franklin).

A few pics from today... (you can also head over to Em's blog to see a couple she took by clicking here)

Emily and Cooper

Etta, Julia, and Piper

Julia, Piper, Etta, and Cooper

Sweet Little Mame

Piper, Etta, and Cooper

Feeding the Clean-Up Crew!

Earlier this week, I signed up to bring lunch to the group working over at Granny and Pop's house today. Keith requested spaghetti and meatballs, so that's what I made! After Keith left, I got to work! Good thing I did, cause Etta wasn't easy this morning (I think it had something to do with her getting up at 5:30am). So, while I was doing this:

Etta was doing this:

And while I was doing this:

Etta was doing this:

and while I was doing this:

The little stinker was doing this:

So, we arrived about an hour later than I had planned.  12:30 was still an acceptable lunch time...

I don't have any photos of the spread because the piranhas came in and devoured ALL of that food in minutes!  I swear, I made enough for an army!  I think there were like four meatballs left in the bottom of the pan when it was all said and done.   

After lunch, Etta hung out with her Grandmomma

while I went to walk around so I could check out the damage/clean-up effort. 

Daryl and Keith cleaning in Pop's workshop.  If you look closely above Daryl's head you can see the pencil line where the waterline is.  Looks like it was about 6 feet!

One of these is not like the other...

See that gas can up there? The water placed it there!

Hard to tell in this photo bu that piece of rubber(?) is pretty high up in that tree.

The deck Pop built.  This is not its original location.

Layer of dirt left behind on this tree's leaves

Somewhere in there I put myself in charge of a mission to dig through the HUGE pile of stuff in the front yard for a quilt Granny had been making for one of Keith's cousins, Alex.  She seemed pretty upset that it was gone and I figured IF we could find it then it could be washed and completed.  This felt personal to me because Granny had JUST showed this quilt to me about 4 weeks ago when we were there for Easter.  She started it years ago, and she showed it to me when she was giving me a tour of her sewing corner down in the basement.  I think she felt inspired to finish it after I left that day, but it's gone now.  I think I dug in that filthy pile for an hour and a half.  That pile was dirty and wet and full of broken Christmas ornaments and other treacherous things and all of it smelled of gasoline/kerosene.  I, OF COURSE, was wearing flip flops!  Hey, I was only bringing food- I wasn't planning to work!  Keith's cousin, Michael, even helped me dig for a while, but we never found the quilt.  :(

Michael in the PILE.

Keith found a treasure!

I didn't find the quilt, but I DID find this!

Me in the pile.

Etta and Daddy

aaand.... a video.  It's a little long and my narrative seems silly when I watch it back, but it may show things a litle better than the photos:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Flooding

This flood is just incredible! WE are dry and most of our family & friends are dry. Keith's Granny and Pop are not dry. Their house took on water on Saturday. The basement was completely flooded and they had 15 inches of water on the main level of the house. The Cumberland river has flooded, which floods downtown Nashville, the Titans' stadium, Opryland Mall, and Opryland Hotel (where we were married) which is under 6 feet of water. Vanderbilt Children's Hospital's basement (where all of the expensive radiology equipment is housed) and much of their first floor, including the children's emergency room were flooded yesterday, they are open for business today. Of course places near rivers and creeks have flooded, but the crazy thing about this is the flooding is also in just regular old places. Places like Vanderbilt just flooded from the sheer amount of rain. This event has broken many records for Nashville. It broke the record for rainfall in a single day, it broke the record for rainfall in two days, and it broke the record for the amount of rain in the month of May (and it was only May 2nd). IF this had been a snow event, we would have received over 13 FEET of snow in two days. Can you imagine?!?

So, I have been stealing borrowing video from the local news station so that you guys can see how widespread the flooding is.  They have had continuous coverage of the flooding situation since Saturday evening.  The national news channels are kind of ignoring this event because of other major events (oil slick in the Gulf, car bomb in New York City, and the new, insane law in Arizona).  The little montage I put together is a little long at 5 minutes, but I could have easily created one that was 30 minutes.  I feel like I just barely showed the event!  MOST people do not carry flood insurance (including Granny and Pop).  PLEASE keep these families in your thoughts and prayers.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A Day Off, A Birthday, and a Lot of Flooding

Yesterday, Keith took a comp day and we enjoyed the day as a family! We ran a couple of errands in the morning, including a trip to the T-Mobile store in Green Hills to get some things taken care of with our account. Turns out, the guy in the store can't do those things, so he called customer service for us and we took care of our account stuff over the phone AT the T-Mobile store. Yes, that's right- we drove all the way to Green Hills because I wanted to deal with the account in person and it turns out we HAD to do it over the phone! *sigh* Oh well!

Our day out also included a lunch stop at Chili's! YUM! Etta had fun with the crayons and was mostly well-behaved.

After lunch, we ran over to Wal-Mart for a couple of things and then headed home so E could take a nap. She was pretty tired on the drive home and I made Keith sit in the back seat with her to keep her awake. Then we got home, I put her down for a nap, and she never went to sleep! Grrr! She HAD taken a 15 minute nap in the car earlier in the day around 10:45, but usually when that happens, she'll still take a big nap a little later in the day. So, of course, she went to bed before 7:00.

So, today we woke to stormy weather. We had a birthday party to go to at 11:00 for our little friend Owen. On the way there we were surprised to see some water on the roads and some flooding in the pastures as we passed. One of the pastures that holds two horses normally was beginning to flood and the owner of the horses was out there trying to wrangle them and get them to a safer place.

Owen's party was great! He had A LOT of friends come and we all enjoyed the cake!

After the party, we headed back home in the rain. In the two hours we were indoors, some major flooding had taken place in the world outside. The parking lot of the YMCA on Concord had several cars under water (they were not under water when we passed by on the way to the party) and the roads/ fields had some more water on them. THEN, a few hours after we got home, we saw on the news that there was even MORE flooding. Interstates and secondary roads became impassable due to flooding. People were/are stranded.

The rain is expected to continue throughout the night and into the morning. Keith's grandparents live on Mill Creek. I spoke to Granny earlier and she said that Mill Creek was halfway up their back yard and the basement was already flooded. We all hope that there is not too much damage to their home or all of their treasures collected over the years.  
 
Oh, wow!  There was just a ticker across the bottom of the tv that said, "Breaking News: From the Metro Police Department: All off duty poice dept personnel are on standby for the next 12 to 36 hours."  Never seen that before!