Mother's day

I had a very nice Mother's Day. The kids gave me my gifts on Saturday evening - a Beverly Lewis book, a gift certificate to Bath & Body Works and flowers. Jenna made me a new mousepad for the computer. They also got some death by chocolate ice cream that we all enjoyed. On Sunday we went to O'Charley's for lunch after church. After we came home I sat outside to enjoy the warm sunshine and read.

May 2010 Floods

April showers didn't bring May flowers this year....it brought more showers....more like May floods. It started raining early Saturday morning and at times it came down in buckets. Steve and Jenna were at church, I took Seth to the high school for band and then went grocery shopping and came home to unload groceries and clean. Because I was busy cleaning, I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on outside. About 11:00 a.m., my neighbor Kim, who lives across the street from me called and said, "I know now why we have flood insurance." I looked out my front window and was shocked by what I saw. Her back yard backs up to a common area and there is a creek that runs behind the common area. It had flooded over and water was covering the entire common area and into the back yards of all the houses on the opposite side of the street from us. The water was rushing water and we were amazed at the speed it was traveling. The weather played havoc all day. When I went back to the school at 1:00 to get Seth, I drove through another deluge of rain. We got soaked running from the school to the van. (I only had one umbrella and we had to use that to keep the trumpet dry!) We had one tornado warning in the afternoon. Jenna was across the street playing with Kim's kids, so she stayed there and was in the closet with the kids for protection. Seth and I were in our mud room (our only "safe" place) with our bicycle helmets on (only we forgot to put our shoes on). We decided since we were in the laundry room we may as well fold the two baskets of towels that had just been washed! (Steve braved it and didn't get into the mud room with us.) Thankfully no tornado touched down near us. Our church was supposed to have a dinner at night but cancelled it because roads all over town were flooded and closed. Thankfully we live close enough to the church that Steve was able to drive over and get us some to go boxes for dinner! Church this morning was cancelled too. We woke up at 5:30 to the tornado siren going off but so far no bad weather has come our way and we haven't even seen any rain yet (but I think that is fixin' to change by the looks of the skies). Now we're waiting to hear if school is cancelled for tomorrow. If they cancel for two flakes of snow, I'm sure they'll cancel for flooding. There are some parts of our county that are in bad shape this morning. Thankfully for our neighbors the water in the common area receded overnight, but if more rain hits today, I'm sure the water will be in their backyards again.

Kids' Music City Marathon

Jenna completed her third Kids' Music City Marathon on April 23, 2010. Kids grade K-5 thru 6th have an opportunity to participate in this event. They have six weeks to run 25.2 miles on their own then they go to LP Field the day before the Music City Marathon to run the last mile together with kids in their grade. This year Jenna ran with fifth and sixth grade girls. There were only about six girls from her school in fifth grade who ran this year and Jenna finished second among those girls. She ran with her friend Lindsay and Lindsay finished first from their school. Jenna enjoys running and is looking forward to trying out for the track team when she gets to middle school next year.






Allison, Jenna and Lindsay get ready for the race.


















Jenna and Lindsay head to the finish line.

















Jenna shows off her medal.

Last Weekend of Spring Break

It's been a great spring break with lots of gorgeous spring weather and the kids are enjoying their last weekend of spring break. The South Carolina Gamecock baseball team is in town for a weekend series at Vanderbilt. Last night we went to the game and the Gamecocks won 3-2. We are going back for game #2 today at 2:00. It's supposed to be a gorgeous, sunny afternoon with temps in the 70's....just perfect for sitting outside and cheering on our Gamecocks! After the game today Seth is going to head to a youth group bonfire. The rest of us will head home to help get Steve ready for his trip to IN on Sunday. He'll be leaving Sunday afternoon and will be gone for a week for work.

Spring Break

So far we have had an absolutely gorgeous week of weather for spring break. On Monday we took advantage of the nice weather and met my sister for lunch at one of our favorite cafes - City Limits. We enjoyed sitting outside on their patio for lunch. After lunch we went to Edwin Warner Park to go hiking. We chose to do the 2.5 mile hike through the woods. It got a lot hotter than we had expected and a lot hotter than what had been forecasted. Thankfully we all had our water with us. We all enjoyed the hike and the scenery. After the hike we went to my sister's house to hang out for the rest of the day. We enjoyed the first grilled out burgers of the season along with good homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner. (Steve came up after work to have dinner with us.)

On Tuesday, Jenna had a hair cut appointment at 11:00 so we packed lunches beforehand, went to her appointment and then met friends at the park for lunch and to play. Thankfully there was a nice breeze so it didn't seem quite as hot as it did on Monday.

Both kids will be working some the rest of the week. Seth will be kid sitting this afternoon and Jenna will be working for a friend from small group for 2 hours this morning and again Thursday morning. Seth will work for her on Friday morning. I'm so thankful that the kids have opportunities to earn some extra money and get into the habit of tithing, saving, etc.

We are all looking forward to the South Carolina Gamecocks being in town this weekend for a baseball series at Vanderbilt. We are planning on going to the Friday night and Saturday afternoon games. We were planning to go to the Sunday afternoon game as well, but Steve has to leave that afternoon to go out of town for work.

Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. The kids were off school for Good Friday, so we went out to lunch to celebrate the beginning of spring break and then we did some errands. Friday night, our small group met at 6:30 at a Civil War battlefield sight here in Spring Hill to remember Good Friday. It was a very special hour remembering what God did for us so many years ago. The hour ended by each family taking communion at the top of the hill right before sunset.

Saturday started out as a rainy day but by noon we had blue, clear sunny skies. The kids worked on cleaning their rooms in the morning while I did grocery shopping and then we all just hung out the rest of the day. It was a gorgeous day, so I did as much as possible outside.

Easter Sunday was another gorgeous spring day. We went to church and had a wonderful service. I'm so thankful for the talented singers and musicians who make up our worship team. After church some friends from small group came over for lunch. In the evening our small group got together for a dessert and game night.

And Down the Stretch They Come

The kids have entered the home stretch - the last nine weeks of school! Didn't they just start yesterday?! Seth will be wrapping up his first year in high school (at least 5" taller - or so it seems - and with his learner's permit in hand) and Jenna will be wrapping up her last year at the elementary school. Steve and I went to a parent meeting for the new middle school and we're excited that Jenna will be opening a brand new, state-of-the art middle school when her class enters in August.

The kids will be on spring break starting on April 2 through the following week. Right now we don't have a lot of plans. We are planning to meet Sharon on Monday to go hiking, but other than that there is nothing on our calendar for that week - which is nice. I hope the weather is nice so we can be outside a lot.

I'm actually looking forward to summer break this year since we've had such a busy school year. It will be nice not having to keep up with schedules, homework, band, fundraisers, etc. Steve will have to travel some for work this summer - going to Michigan, Wisconsin and maybe Maine. We're going to try to get back to South Carolina at some point this summer. Jenna is planning to go to a Christian day camp the last week in June with some other kids from church. Seth was planning to go back to Fargo but unfortunately we think that trip is going to be cancelled due to low numbers. He will have band practices throughout the summer and is planning to go to Centrifuge at Union University in Jackson, TN with the youth group. I am looking forward to our family vacation in July - we're going back to Perdido Key on the panhandle in Florida.