Proud Wife

Since Chris has already told the story, I am just going to post the pics. I can say that I love him very much and am very proud of him and the other guys.

School days, school day...good old...what?

Well...school has started again. And we are off to an exciting year. The district has been rezoned and we have more students now than we ever have had. It is crazy! We had 4 deaths among our faculty before the kids came back. On our first day, before 10am, I had a student brought to the office. He was playing on the monkey bars and jumped off. When he did, he hit his chin on a bar and bit his tongue. There was a gouge in his tongue! But, he was not crying. We called his parents to take him to the ER. After that, I had 2 more come in bleeding. At the end of a very long day, and I was the only one left (besides administrators), I got a call from a frantic parent. Her child had been put on the bus by mistake. She had come into the office and the clerk was able to find out that the child was, indeed, on the bus. However, when she got to the bus stop, her child was not there. So, I had a panicked parent on the phone, an upset teacher in the office, and I can't get through to the bus garage to talk to the driver. So, I called our SRO in and explained the situation to him. He called another deputy and had them go to the bus garage and have them call me. We found out that the child had refused to get off the bus when her mom wasn't there. All was well and I got to come home.

Day 2
Well, another exciting day. Appearantly, there was one of the TBI's most wanted felons on the loose in Maury Co. He was convicted of child molestation in Hamilton Co. (Chattanooga). How he ended up here I will never know. Anyway, he was seen about a half mile from our school. The police were out, the TBI, the troopers, the helicopter, the dogs and heat seeking cameras. We went into a soft lockdown first thing in the morning. Luckily, he was caught within an hour and a half. He was caught about .2 miles from the school. Whew! It was a stressful, long day. It took me almost 3 hours to get through a $9200 deposit. I had some tight deadlines for Central Office, too. I am going to consider myself lucky to get through the rest of the week!

I hope that everyone is having a good (uneventful) week! I am just looking forward to the weekend! TTYL!

Our vacation

Ok, I hope all is well out there. I am going to warn you....this could be a long blog. As most of you know, Chris and I headed off on our vacation on May 20th. We left out Thursday morning for the first leg of our trip..Gatlinburg.

We made good time to Garlinburg. As soon as we got to the exit, we went to Bass Pro Shops. I bought jerky seasoning (which is in the dehydrator) and Chris got a new flashlight. Then we headed on up and Chris went to Smoky Mountain Knife Works and bought a new knife. We drove on to Gatlinburg and checked into the River Terrace hotel. Chris was not feeling well by this time. His allergies were really terrible. So, we walked to a little place on the strip and ate then we went to Walgreens and bought allergy meds and Kleenex with lotion. The rest of the night was quiet in the room. We got up Friday morning to head out to Lancaster, SC to the Shores' house. We took the Foothills Pkwy. I got some great morning pics. Here is one:

We had a fairly uneventful trip to Steve and Peggie's house. We did hit a streak of rain outside of Charlotte when we stopped at Chili's. (BTW, this trip took a little planning as I don't eat fast food anymore.) But, we got there and were greeted by a very happy Maddy, "mommy" and "mom mom". I can't believe how far Maddy has come! She is talking so clearly! I did make the mistake of trying to get her to say "sheep", though. :) We had a nice night. Saturday was Chris' birthday. Steve to Katie to look at a car and I went to get an oil change. We all had a good birthday dinner for Chris. I think he had a great time. Sunday morning, we got up for breakfast with the family before taking off for Hilton Head!!!

We had an good drive to the coast. We stopped once at a rest stop for a break and the weather was great! It was not quite hot with a breeze. We got to Hilton Head aroung 1:00pm and was told the room wasn't ready yet. So, we walked around the cute little shops, bought hats and went out to the beach. We forgot the sunblock for the couple of hours on the beach, but only got a little red. We finally got checked into our room at the Holiday Inn Oceanfront (which was a pretty nice place to stay) and changed for dinner. We walked down the main street and found a little place to eat called Kenny B's. It was an amazing little cajun place. You ordered at the counter and it was little! The food was incredible! The next day we went out on the beach some, but the weather was hit and miss the whole time we were there. One night we tried to walk on the beach and had gotten maybe a 1/4 mile and it began to rain. Then it began to pour. If we had pina coladas, it would have been perfect. Our hotel had a tiki bar out by the pool with a great view. We took off one day after spending some time on the beach and went to the Sea Pines area that included Harbour Town. We went to the top of the lighthouse and were treated to an amazing view! We also walked through a nature preserve there and saw the "Vanishing Swamp" and an Indian Shell Ring. On our final night, we booked a sunset catamaran sail. We packed a light dinner of fish spread, shrimp, fruit, crackers, cake, wine and beer and took off. It was so amazing! We both really enjoy sailing on catamarans anyway. There were about 15 people on the cruise. We took off and saw some amazing houses and boats. There was even a private island with its own state of liberty! We saw dolphins on our way out, too. That was a first for me, outside of an aquarium. When we got out into the open water, we could see Tybee Island. The sunset was incredible! On our way back in, a dolphin swam right by our boat and so did jellyfish! It was fun. I hated to leave the next day. We drove a very long time to get back home on Wednesday. Once we did, it began to storm and I had to go pick up Shiloh. So, that is the main points of our trip. Here are some great photos from Hilton Head.

I have more pics posted on Facebook. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing good. I might actually start posting more often!

I laughed until I cried...

I will update on our home projects soon, but I had to tell this story. Yesterday at work (we are on Spring Break) Mrs. Cook, Mrs. Perryman, Janna and I were eating lunch together. Something came up and Mrs. Cook told us the best story ever. She has a friend who has a friend who lives in Florida. The lady in Florida is a teacher and she has a grown son with Down's Syndrome who lives at home. He is at home alone in the day, but she calls to check on him. Last week, she called home to check on him. The call went something like this:
Mom: How's your day? Everything ok?
Son: I caught an elf and I've been feeding him all day!
Mom: What?!?!
Son: I caught an elf! I've been feeding him all day!
At this point, the mom thinks she needs to go home and see what is gonig on. When she gets home, her son is so happy and wants to show her the "elf". He has been keeping him in the closet and feeding him Cheerios under the door. Mom opens the door to find..... a human dwarf!!!! He was the census worker who came to their door!!! The son had taken him and put him in the closet!! We have yet to hear what happened after Mom came home. We are waiting to hear that. When I told Chris, he said, "You know that guy thought he was going to die!"
This is by far the funniest story I have heard in a long, long time! I literally laughed until I cried! Hope it gave you all a good laugh!
Follow up....Chris just called and told me he thinks this is an urban legend...bummer..

Let it snow..and snow..and ice...

So, first off let me say that I hope 2010 is starting off well for everyone! Ours has been a little crazy, but that is ok. Chris has filled you in on the flooring situation and we are really doing well. We need to do our utility closet, our bedroom and the guest room and all the trim. I am feeling good. We are finally over the halfway hump. Our visit to SC was good; cold, but good. I found a futon at the WOW! store that I want. We just staying in mostly, but it was cold! We had a nice trip up and back. I am glad we got to visit with Steve and Peggie. Work has been going well. Of course we have had our share of illnesses. This always happens when the kids get back together. Our most recent work hiccup was the SNOW!!!!

Beginning Monday, the forecasters were predicting a winter storm to come through TN. In Columbia, we weren't supposed to get more than an inch of snow. It was supposed to be a sleet/ice mix. (Notice I keep saying "supposed" to get.) I had to go grocery shopping Thurs night because we were out of food. That was a mistake! The "french toasters" were there. School was called off for Friday due to the impending weather. Friday morning was nice. No snow. Around 10am, it starting snowing. A lot. By 3pm, we had over FIVE inches of snow! Shortly thereafter, it began to sleet and get icy. Chris and I took Shiloh out in it for a while. We had almost finished the kitchen flooring by that point. :) Shiloh wasn't too keen on it at first, but when we started throwing sticks, she got into it. When we first went out, we started walking toward the fire pit and a rabbit ran out from under it and through the fence! I guess he was trying to take refuge from the snow! I made a nice BBQ meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner. Yesterday, we had a nice quiet day. It was nasty out and I knew that Chris might have a long day today. He did go out and dig his truck out, though! I made from scratch chicken pot pie for dinner. It was yummy! Chris left the house this morning around 15 till 5 and made it safely to work. I kept hearing things falling and smashing today. I went out with Shiloh and discovered it was the ice from the trees crashing down. It was beautiful! There was 5"-6" of snow with a frozen layer on top and all these pieces of ice on it. It almost looked like broken glass! I dug my car out and then took Shiloh for a walk up and down the street. She had a blast! I couldn't believe that I was ready to come in before my cold natured dog! We have had a nice quiet day today, as well. School has been cancelled for tomorrow and central office is closed, so I don't have to go into work. Chris and I are going to tackle the utility closet. Hope everyone is staying warm! Enjoy the new pics!