STORM DAMAGE

There are two or three trees on the roof at Mother's house. This one is on top of the sun porch.

This is a oak tree uprooted on the creek bank. I seems as though the storm went right up through her yard.

It is hard to tell from looking at this picture, but the hole under the trees is 4 or 5 feet deep and about 10 or 12 feet across.

The tree was completely over the whole house. These limbs were from the two trees in the back yard. Wayne and one of his son-in-laws got the limbs off the top of the house so he could patch the leaks. Now there are so many limbs on the ground that you literally can't make it around the house. We were very lucky that no one was hurt and that the trees didn't completely crush the house. Robbie made these pictures the morning after the first storm went through.

Today was the first time I actually saw live pictures of the devastation from the tornadoes that went through our area. It is unreal that so few lives were lost. Mark's best friend and his wife lost their home, car's, pet and everything they owned in the storm that hit Tony Alabama. They had planned on staying in their house and waiting the storm out, but at the last minute decided to go a relatives house that had a shelter. Thank God they did. Their home was totally destroyed.

The houses, businesses, churches and schools can be rebuilt. The lives of loved ones cannot be replaced. The ones of us who were untouched are thankful for being spared from this horrific act of nature. Continue to pray for the people across the south who lost family members and homes that they can over come this tragedy and become stronger.

BRIDAL SHOWER'S AND BATHROOM REMODELING

Oh Well!! I have been putting off posting for the past few days because I have been having trouble downloading some pictures that I wanted to add to my blog. Seems as thought that want be happening until I buy an adaptor for the computer. All the pictures that we made at the shower were made with either Monica's or Tracy's camera and their memory card is a 4GB (what ever that means) , and apparently is not compatible with my computer. It's not that I didn't try everything in the book to get them to download. Monica left her memory card with me, I took it to work and downloaded the pictures to the work computer, with the help of a student that had an adaptor and emailed them to myself. I could pull up the pictures up to look at them, I made a file and saved it to desk top, but it would not go onto my blog post. Then Tracy sent me her memory card and I tried again. Same thing. So by the time I get pictures from the shower posted Mark and Paige will have grand kids of their own. Things like that can really make me come unglued.

John's bathroom project is coming along pretty well. We will probably be going to Johnny and Tracy's for our shower's for quite a bit longer though. John can figure out just about anything, but if we were building a whole house I'm afraid we would be in big trouble. After falling through the floor joist twice already and getting horrible sores on both knees from crawling around on the floor, he is pretty stove up right now. I feel so bad for him, but it is one of those things that he wants to do by himself and like I say, I'm about as much help as a one armed paper hanger.

It seems ever thing is coming quickly to a head. School will be out in about 18 working day and there is so much to do in the mean time. The wedding will be June 4Th and that is about 6 weeks. I have to find a dress, make arrangements for the rehearsal dinner and probably stuff I haven't thought of yet. We are looking forward to seeing family and friends that we don't get to see very often. The best thing for me is that I'm not the Mother of the Bride. ( Not that I wouldn't love to have Paige for a daughter). But after having three daughters and one son get married, I'll take another son's wedding every time.

I have to post this little tribute to Granddaddy from Matthew. This is a little speech he gave for scouts the other day.

My favorite person in the world is my granddaddy. What makes him my favorite person you might ask? We find some of the coolest treasurers together. Not the kind you find buried int the sand, or at least we haven't found that kind yet. But the kind of treasures you find in old attics, garages, dumpsters, thrift stores and auction.

Anytime I have ever asked for something, he has managed to find it. Some of the things I have asked for and we have managed to find are an old electric typewriter, a Indiana Jones fedora and leather jacket, an old cassette recorder, a stop watch, and an old smokers pipe. these are not the kind of thing that you can just pick up at Target... these are antiques.

My Grandaddy who was also a boy scout, has always been a collector, but he started out as a boy collecting stamps and coins. I think I learned to love collecting from him. I don't just collect one kind of thing , I like to collect interesting things that catch my eye.

Granddaddy always says I have a good eye for antiques. And I can always seem to talk down the price of something I really want. Over spring break I spent the week with my Granddaddy and MawMaw and I found a Porshe 356 model that was made in Italy. They wanted $10 for it but I talked them into taking $5 for it.

While I really enjoy finding treasures, the very best part is spending time with my Grandaddy.

Thank you Matthew for making Granddaddy's day.

SO MUCH TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME

My spring break is winding down to a hopefully nice long weekend. We stayed pretty close to home the first part of the week. The weather was kind of nasty and I had a couple of doctor appointments. After my evening at the ER on Friday night, I figured the week was going to be a complete bust, but things got better as the week went on. We went to an auction on Saturday night. This was up in Loretto TN. at Old School Antiques. It is in what use to be the Loretto school house. The auction is held on the second and forth Saturday of the month. The attendance is picking up quite a bit and there are lots of bargains to be had. Sunday was cold and miserable so after church, I spent the afternoon rolled up in a blanket doing absolutely nothing. Monday we had our taxes filled out and on Tuesday I had a doctors appointment. I had promised myself that I would accomplish tons of stuff, like cleaning house a bit, get the yard mowed, so far I'm batting ZERO. I'm getting ready for Mark and Paige's shower so on Wednesday I made some cakes and stuck them in the freezer. I found this really cute recipe for a Sunflower Cake. You make a single layer cake with chocolate icing and put Twinkies around it and drizzle chocolate on the Twinkies and it looks like a big Sunflower. Then I made a punch of heart shaped red velvet cakes (small) and I will put a dollop of cream cheese icing on top. I guess you would call it a Hearts and Flowers theme. I will try to remember to post few pictures when I finish them. On Thursday Emily was going to go home with a friend, so we didn't have to pick her up at the bus stop. We decided we would take a short trip. So since it was my vacation week, John took me to Tunica (The Casino Capital of the South). I am so dumb. I don't know why I love going and throwing my hard earned money away. I guess I must have an addictive personality. Anyway we drove down on Thursday afternoon, checked in around 4 PM and played the slots until around 11:00. We had a free room and some discounts on food. John won a couple of small jackpots and won $100.00. So we spent about what most people would spend on a really nice evening out. On the way home we stopped in Southaven and met Paige. We went over and John got fitted for his tux for the wedding. Then we went to the Bed and Breakfast where to wedding is going to be held. It is a real pretty area, so I think the wedding will be beautiful. I will have to start praying for good weather since the wedding is going to be outside. After leaving there we drove over to Mark's work place and stayed just a few minutes. We drove in and got home around 6:00. I came in turned on the computer and sat down and started to write this blog. John is taking a nap and I'm trying to figure out what we can get into tomorrow. To be continued.......