Could have been worse...

Waters have receded thank goodness. Our city has really pulled together to help each other and its amazing to see!

While the rain was coming down, we seemed to have forgotten that 2/3rds of our household items were put into storage when we moved here. We have pulled things out since then but still had a very full storage unit. It's located behind our building.... remember the picture a few posts back showing the back of our apartment complex? The storage is just beyond that. So can you guess what happened? Yup- flooded!!! Jon drove over Tuesday night and our unit was locked where we couldn't even get in to unlock our door. WTH?!?!? So I went Wed and still locked. After talking to the lady (who was nasty in every way), she said there was some dehumidifyer that she didn't want stolen so she refused to let me into my unit!! Again.. um WTH??? Later that day I got a call to check out our unit to check for flood damage. Nice!!!!!! So I was able to get in and.. not a pretty site. Needless to say, about 2/3rds of that stuff was not salvageable. I mean our huge sectional, desk, entertainment center, BBQ, mattresses, huge barbie house, boxes of books, music, Christmas stuff, pictures, ALL our food storage.... I can go on and on and on with the little things. What we kept fit into the back of a small pickup truck (thank you Tim and Berta) and was able to be put into our friends garage (thank you Susie!). And while I'm shouting out, thank you Tim, Berta, Susie, Kristy and Allison for coming out to help us. And all the others who offered and called and genuinly cared about helping us.



The hardest to see damaged was my dads journal :( Thats priceless to me! And the kids blessing outfits.. they got wet but Im determined to save those.



Yeah it could have been worse. Always can be. But darn it.. this sucked!!!!!!! Even though it's just stuff, it's OUR stuff and it means something to us. Or it did...




This is the side of our "pile" with our bigger furniture that we just had to throw out because of mold.

Not Me! (and pics of my innocent *ha ha* children)

Ever have one of these days... ???

I love my children so dearly but I don't love their friend "Not Me"...

Not Me

I have a child
who is so bad
He makes me yell.
He makes me mad.

I hear him running on the stairs,
But when I look, there’s no one there.
He scatters toys across the lawn.
He sets alarms to ring at dawn.

He skips and bounces down the hall.
He knocks the pictures off the wall.
He takes the cushions off the couch.
He spits chewed food out of his mouth.

He jumps upon my just made beds.
He cuts the hair from toddlers’ heads.
He peels wallpaper from the walls.
He loses every. single. ball.

He picks the heads off all the flowers,
and turns the hose on them full power.
He leaves it running in the grass,
to make mud puddles in which to splash.

He tracks the dirt across the floors.
He paints with mud upon the doors.
He digs up flowers in the yard.
He bends his brother’s baseball cards.

He writes on walls with colored pens
And then he leaves the tops off them.
He pees on walls,
and floors and sinks.

It’s he who made the fart that stinks.

He tosses clothes around the room.
and mixes toys in with them too.
He fills his pockets up with sand,
and gum, and rocks, and rubberbands.

I find them later in the wash
sometimes stuck to clothes and socks

He is to blame for many wrongs,
not putting things where they belong:
The corner has a welcome mat,
a balled up towel, a coat, a hat,
some rocks, some sticks, a spoon, some glue,
a cup that has ants…
or at least it used to.

The soap he breaks in little bits.
And on the mirror, he always spits.
The expensive shampoo he likes to waste.
He paints the sink with blue toothpaste.

On all the jeans he rips the knees.
He pulls the branches off the trees.
Expensive tools he likes to borrow
He’ll return them… tomorrow

I confess sometimes I have to yell,
“Who DID this? Who? You must tell!”

I question children one by one,
“Did you do this?”
“I’m not the one.”

“Mommy, you must believe,
that’s not something done by me.”

“If not you, who could it be?”
The answer always is,

“Not Me.”

Not Me, Not Me, what a naughty child,
so destructive and so wild.
But I tell you, he is clever
I have never seen him. Never.

I might rethink my spanking stance,
And get him on the seat of his pants.
If I could catch him in the act,
I’d give his bottom several whacks.

But really I wish
That he’d just go.
And take his sidekick,
Ida Know.

Is that a rats nest???

Nope. Just Riellys hair after swimming... should be fun to detangle!! NOT!!!!!

Oh and check out my new shoes!! I got some running shoes for Mothers Day from my honey and after selling my Cricut (sad), I bought these bad boys! Thanks to ebay, I only paid $65 and that included shipping!

Calm after the storm

Looking out the window this morning, no one would have ever guessed what took place here over the last few days. The sun was shining and hardly any clouds in the sky. A little humid but definately not what I expected. It was a beautiful day. For us anyways. Downtown Nashville is a whole nother story! All the water was draining into the Cumberland Lake downtown causing it to rise and spill over. This is what our beautiful city looks like right now...















After all was said and down, over the weekend, Antioch had over 16inches of rain. A record.. an insane one at that!!

Here's an article of whats going on right now and the devistation this "event" (I hate it being called that) caused.

Thankfully, sunny skies prevailed Monday (May 3) in Nashville as the community attempted to bounce back from widespread flooding that has affected thousands of area residents, including several country music artists. Still, the high water will be creating problems for weeks to come for locals and visitors to Music City.

Overflow from the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville has heavily impacted Lower Broadway from the riverfront to Second Avenue and caused flooding in two major buildings -- the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Northeast of downtown Nashville, flooding of the river near Briley Parkway has hit the Grand Ole Opry House and the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.

A weekend storm system brought torrential rains and tornadoes that killed 21 people in Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen says it will be days before the full damage can be determined, but he is expected to ask for the Nashville area to be designated a federal disaster.

In downtown Nashville, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum was closed to visitors as officials evaluated whether to reopen on Tuesday (May 4) after experiencing a reported five feet of water in a mechanical room in a lower area of the building. Fortunately, none of the exhibits are at risk.

The situation was even more serious at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center after more than eight feet of water flowed into the building's basement. Although the main performance hall is not believed to be in any danger, a symphony spokesperson said it could be more than a month before any performances are presented there.

The historic Ryman Auditorium, located on a hill above Lower Broadway and the riverfront, has not experienced any flooding problems, although the Sunday (May 2) concert by the Goo Goo Dolls was canceled and rescheduled for Monday night.

In the Opryland area, some 1,500 guests and employees from the Gaylord Opryland Hotel were evacuated Sunday night and transported to an area high school after minor flooding of the parking lot and lower service areas of the complex. By Monday, some areas of the massive hotel were under 10 feet of water, causing hotel executives to express concern that it could be months before the complex is restored and reopened.

Although the extent of the damage to the Grand Ole Opry House has not been revealed, it was sufficient enough to move the Tuesday Night Opry to the War Memorial Auditorium in downtown Nashville. This weekend's Opry performances will move to the Ryman Auditorium, and Thursday's Opry Country Classics show will remain at the Ryman as previously scheduled. The War Memorial Auditorium and the Ryman are former homes of the Opry.

While many country artists are dealing with flood damage to their homes, others are experiencing problems involving their transportation and equipment.

In a message sent via Twitter, Chuck Wicks reported, "So many of my friends have been hit with the floods..keep them in your thoughts. Just found out my Bus/Trailer is Under Water."

Monday afternoon, Brad Paisley issued two Twitter messages, the first stating, "On the positive side everyone is safe. On the negative... I think all my road guitar gear, amps, effects, are under 3 ft of river." In another message, he added, "Not complaining though. Very very thankful to have weathered this. Prayers go out to anyone in these dire situations."

Dierks Bentley returned to Nashville following Friday's (April 30) performance with the Travelin' McCourys at Merlefest in Wilkesboro, N.C., and planned to appear Sunday in Knoxville, Tenn. Instead, he canceled the Knoxville show and Monday's concert in Charlottesville, Va., and spent his time trying to empty his flooded basement with a bucket. Eventually, he put together a makeshift pump to remove the water.

"Replaced bucket with hodge podge of leftover pieces from home depot," he wrote on Twitter. "It's been ransacked."

Free Makeup Time!!!

If you have a Rite Aid near you, read on...

Pull out those RedPlum coupon inserts, find the 4/11 one and clip out the covergirl buy 1 get 1 free coupon. Hopefully you're crazy like me and have multiple inserts for this day because I get the redplum every tuesday and then garbage pick the ones the other residents throw away (I'm not above digging for a good deal)...
Anywho, take those coupons to Rite Aid this week and snatch up some FREE Covergirl makeup! Yup.. FREE!!!!! They have a sale of b1g1 this week anyways so using that coupon makes the one you have to pay for free too! They both have to be the same price though so keep an eye on that!

So today, I got 14 items of makeup and 2 pks of gum for 1.70. I also used a $5 off $25 coupon I got for signing up on line for some wellness deal and that paid all my tax. My total before sale and coupon was over $125!!!! Basically the 1.70 was for my gum.

YEAH BABY!!!

Awesome Night- Due West release party

I have been so blessed to have become friends with some amazing people since we have moved to TN. And because of these people, I feel like no matter what struggles we have to deal with to be here, Nashville is our home.
So last Thursday, I got the priviledge to attend the Due West cd release party with my friends Susie (whom I have been friends with for yrs and was reunited with after coming to Nashville) and Berta (who is the wife of Tim from Due West). These 2 ladies whether they know it or not, have made such a huge impact on my life these last 10 months. So I was very grateful to be able to share this night with Berta as she watched their dreams come true!
Due West is an amazing group. I'm not just saying that because I'm friends with the Gates and because Brad is from my home area. I became a DW fan a few months after meeting them after listening to a cd sampler. I was hooked! They are GOOD!!! So it was so fun to watch them rock it out on stage. Then to make is more exciting, they invited up Billy Dean and sang a song with him! Talk about a rush!!!
If you haven't checked out their new website or got their cd yet, I highly recommend it. www.duewest.com

OHHH and I got a free t-shirt. So what can I say?!?!?! :)

Enjoy some pics from the night.

The cake Berta made for the release party. Hey- does it count if I blow dryed that board it's sitting on??


Due West

Showing his roots!!!


Billy Dean!

Susie, Berta and myself


Im surprised my face isn't as red in this pic as it was right after I took it.

Billy Dean, Brad Hull, Jason Deere, Tim Gates, Matt Lopez

We're not underwater.. yet!

So if ya'll have been watching national news, you may have notised that mother nature hasn't been so kind to us here in Nashville the last few days. In fact Im sitting here at 9:15am and it's so dark outside, you'd think it was closer to 8pm! It's pouring as it has been for the last 2 days. Needless to say, we have flooded pretty bad! We're stuck in our complex which luckily is on a bit of a hill so we're safe inside here. But if we try to leave, thats another story!
I-24 right next to us is covered in water along with many cars that have sadly succumbed to a water grave for now:(. We watched big tractor trailers driving through the flooded interstate causing huge waves and the stuck cars to bounce all over the place hitting each other. Another time, a school house trailer got loose and was also floating down lake I-24 and just fell apart. I may be able to post that video. It's so weird to think thats happeneing just a few hundred yards outside our front door. The road that leads to my precious Happy Hour Sonic is also flooded so I can't get there for who knows how long.
But we're safe and sound in our tiny crowded apartment with stir crazy kids and cabin fever parents!

Enjoy these pics of our city under water!


This is the back entrance to our apartment complex. Lakeside view anyone??

Luckily this isn't the sonic I go to but from the sounds of it, mine isn't any better. Devistating!

This is the 24.. can't remember if this is by bell or briley pkwy but either way, yikes! But such a pretty picture eh?

The interstate



This one in a backyard in La Vergne. That poor town is considered a disaster area... they had to shut the whole place down yesterday!


Now thats what I call a car wash!!!

The I-24 by our house... i think you can see the school house after it has fallen apart. It's the pointing thing sticking out of the water on the right side.

I'm sure you get the point:)
And below is the school taking a swim but not making it far!!