Hello Everyone!
I haven't forgotten about you. I cannot believe how quickly 2 weeks goes by. It seems like yesterday since I sat down and wrote the last post. What can I say? Time flies when your having fun.
This post and title was inspired by a couple of friends. We were talking one night, and I started remembering all the things I had intended on putting in the last post about our trip to Louisiana but completely forgot about by the time I sat down.
Of course I don't have any pictures of these events, but I am sure you will survive. One thing I forgot about was our crawfish lunch...yum! I am ready to head back just at the thought. After we left, Greg said we should have gotten a picture of our feast. That was a grand idea, except for the one minor thing of we didn't have the camera. When we were leaving "The Crawfish Hole No. 2" (yes, that is the name of the place) someone was so gracious as to back into Pawcaw's truck and dent in his not quite a year old Toyota Tundra. Poor Pawcaw was so disgusted. On a more fun note, John Reagan got his first taste of crawfish, and he loved them. He chimed in with his usual, "I like this. It's good!"
The main thing I forgot to write about was the weather. The first night we were there tornado warnings were out for a good portion of North LA, and as is typical in LA we lost power that night. Greg and I discovered the next day that a tornado had hit the high school just a few miles from my parents. Since my parents don't watch the local news or check the weather, they didn't have a clue. We called them on our way to meet Pawcaw and Nana and told them to turn on the news and see what was going on. That's sad when your children from Tennessee come down and tell you what is going on only a few miles from your house. Jumping ahead to our second night there, more tornado warnings and more lights out. The third night...you guessed it, more tornado warnings and more lights out. I remember this night very vividly. Greg was out late for meetings, and my mom and I were out in her "playhouse." She has her own little building in the backyard with her sewing machine, embroidery machine, candle stuff, etc. We were out there sewing, and the wind started blowing extremely hard. We decided it was time to head to the house with John Reagan and Evie. I still had to get Max inside. He was tied out on a tree. I wasn't going to get him until I knew John Reagan and Evie were safe in the house. Fifi was stressing me out because she wasn't moving fast enough for me. Once we got them inside, I went to get Max. It was pouring down rain, and as I was untieing him I could here trees cracking just a short distance away. Needless to say I was freaking out. It took me a while to calm down after that event. We were all fine, no major damage, no tornadoes around except the one that hit the school. We survived without electricity, and we came home to have this take place in Murfreesboro just 11 days later.
...I know all of you here in TN know where these pictures were taken, so you can skip the narrating. The captions are for family and friends who only know Murfreesboro according to where we take them.
This is along Stones River and the greenway that runs beside the river. Greg and I used to frequent the greenway when we lived closer to it. This is along Thompson Lane where you used to turn left at the BP to come to our old house.
An aeriel photo of one of the many subdivisions hit by the tornado. This is Tedder Blvd. which was off of Haynes. Instead of turning left onto Regenwood, if you turned right you would be at Tedder.
This is actually close behind our house. We go through this subdivision as our back roads to Sam's. You can't tell much from this picture, but this house actually had a car over-turned on their front step. There were 3 teenagers at this home at the time the tornado hit. They all made it through safely.
This is our subdivision...the street right behind us, but 2 blocks over. An 1800 square foot house was picked up and sat on top of the house beside it.
This is off Osbourne Lane. I don't think any of you in LA will know where this is. It's actually off of Memorial a mile or two down from the VA headed toward Murfreesboro.
I believe this is Wilkinson Pike that runs along part of the battlefield. This is the area where the yellow Victorian house is that Nana and Fifi admire. The Victorian is still standing with a good deal of damage, but compared to this picture, it has minor damage.
If I'm not mistaken, this is the close-up of the 2 houses in our neighborhood.
This is only a very small portion of the photos and the damage. The tornado has been classified as an EF-4 and damaged around 840 homes. They are estimating $41 million in damage. The praise in this is all the lives that were spared. There are so many stories of God's mercy through this. We have also seen how great our community is through this. It is amazing the response of the people and how well prepared the city and county was for this. Within 30 minutes to an hour of the tornado, the police were everywhere blocking the hardest hit streets. People were out already cleaning up. The electricity was back on for everyone in a matter of days, and if you could have seen some to the power lines and poles, you would be extremely impressed by this. For the first time in the 5 1/2 years that Greg and I have lived in Murfreesboro, we were without power. There is no way to explain the preparedness of Murfreesboro. If you would like to check out more pictures, you can go to
http://www.dnj.com/. On the main page you can scroll down and just under the large picture of tornado damage is a link that says "More Galleries." There you can check out all the Aeriel photos and also photos by subdivisions...The Blackman Area (where we are), The Riverview ares (close by where we used to be), The Compton Lane Area (by the VA), Thompson Lane, and more.
On a better note, I also have a couple of pictures from our Easter service. Greg and I love the Easter services at WOC (World Outreach Church). They are awesome! The church goes all out for Easter, and services are held at Murphy Center, which is the basketball/everything arena at Middle Tennessee State. Every year, there is also a headliner musician or group. This year it was Charlie Daniels, who actually attends WOC. His story is that he performed at WOC's Easter Service about 6 years ago, and he and his wife loved it so much they started attending. Of the 5 Easter services we have been to, Charlie Daniels was by far the best.
Here is Charlie jamming out to "I'll Fly Away." Wow! That's all I can say about it because it was so great. The man knows how to get down to "I'll Fly Away."
This is the Sunday morning crowd. There is a Saturday night service and a Sunday morning service. We haven't heard the official number yet, but there were between 7,000-8,000 at each service.
Just give me a day or two to recuperate from this loooooooong post, and I will have some more pictures of John Reagan and Evie for you.
Love,
Brandi
What a great mower he is! Daddy has said from the day he was born that it would only be a matter of time before John Reagan got the job of yard mowing. He would even joke with others when John Reagan was only a few months old that he had had John Reagan out mowing. Daddy didn't realize how quickly that day would come. Sorry for the blurring pictures. Be praying for a new camera lens, PLEASE!
A couple of days after all the hard yard work, John Reagan decided he should take it easy and go for a leisurely drive. I thought Evie needed to experience her first ride with brother behind the wheel. After all, she needs to learn now what men drivers are like...lol. She will get plenty of practice with that before we know it. John Reagan driving a car...that is a scary thought. I'm jumping ahead way too many years right now. Back on track, here is Evie taking her first ride in THE Arctic Cat.
She was ready for a nap. It actually wasn't brother's driving that was causing the face. Thank God for seat belts though.
Before it got too hot to wear winter pajamas, I put John Reagan and Evie's "long johns" on them one last time. Of course, this was the last time Evie wore hers.
I had to get one full length picture because I just love them in their somewhat matching set. Then I had to give you 2 close-ups, one with Evie making a cute face and one with John Reagan making a cute face. I couldn't get them both looking and smiling at the same time.
Talking about trying to get a good face out of both of them, Evie's 9 month pictures were today, and we couldn't get the girl to smile for anything. Five different people (including mommy, daddy, and John Reagan) tried at different times to get her to smile, but nothing until we went outside. Then she just wanted to play with the grass. The girl knows how to make us work. She is not easily entertained.
