Tornadoes

Tuesday night the weather forecasters began to warn us about a large storm heading for the south and to prepare ourselves for possible severe weather. I am always a sceptic when it comes to this, because they seem to cry wolf a whole lot, but when I looked at the radar and saw the storm stretching from Nashville to Tulsa, I figured it may get pretty bad. So Carter slept in his pack n play in our room and I kept an eye on the radar on and off all night. We don't have a weather radio, so this was my only way of knowing what was going on. The storm was extremely slow moving and I finally gave up checking it at about 3:30, because I thought it was bunk. At about 5:59 a.m. our house began to shake and the wind sounded extremely nasty. I jumped up and told Brett to take Carter to the bathroom right away because it sounded like our house may come down. I have to say in all the bad weather we've had, this was the first time we ran to our "safe place" and we were actually concerned we may be in danger. Even two years ago when an EF-4 tornado came past our house, we weren't home when it happened.

The wind died down in about 10 seconds and all seemed clear. After I stopped shaking, I went to make coffee and looked out the kitchen window to see one of our large trees completely uprooted and laying in the neighbors' yard. It actually looked like it was laying on their garage, but it turned out one of their own trees was laying on their garage. Either way, it destroyed their fence, took down some of their trees and clipped their house. Whoops!!

All day long storms kept coming through our area, but the worst of them hit just south of us on the TN/AL stateline as all of you probably already know. I believe 33 people died in TN and much more in AL, MS, and GA. It's really sad. We surveyed our neighborhood and surrounding areas and although it looked really bad, it was mostly just trees down. There wasn't much structural damage. We had minor damage on our house and just have a lot of yard work ahead of us now. Here are some pics that Brett and I snapped.

*Our Backyard*

*The next door neighbor's yard*

*Around Murfreesboro*

Feel Accomplished

Remember that T0-Do list I posted a few weeks ago? At the time I was feeling very overwhelmed with how much Brett and I had to do now that Spring was rolling around. Well, we've managed to knock some big projects off that list and I'm feeling much better. The first project we accomplished was having a garage sale. I really didn't want to mess with it, but am glad I did. We got rid of just about everything we put up for sale and we managed to rake in a good amount of money. Of course we spent most of the money buying the 24 new screening trees we planted in hopes they would grow 15 ft tall and block out our creepy neighbor. My dad planted over 100 trees at his house, so he rented a power auger to dig the holes. After Brett got done helping plant my dad's trees, my dad brought the auger over to our house and dug our holes. Then the next weekend my brother came and helped Brett put in our trees. I had to work that day, so I wasn't able to help. (Not that I would've anyway, since I'm conveniently pregnant). Here's the beginning of the trees going in. I have yet to post an after picture.The next project that got crossed off the list was finishing Carter's big boy room. I buckled down and painted (with plenty of ventilation I might add), put together all his new furniture, and put up his Dr. Seuss decals that I made through UpperCaseLiving.com. Here are some pics of his room. If I can manage to find my regular camera, I'll take better pictures.

I am so glad that project is done. It was a big one. Carter loves playing in his new room, but I have yet to decide if he loves sleeping in it. The last couple nights have been really horrible when it comes to getting him to go to sleep, but I'm not sure if it's the new room or the new teeth he's been getting in. Poor kiddo. I just love the fact that his new room is big enough to hold a lot of his toys, so they don't have to be in my living room anymore.

Now the next project we have tackled is staining our deck. That's something we hadn't done since we moved in and it was in bad shape. Fortunately I didn't have much work for my mechanic at the dealership the past couple days and while I was trying to scrounge things up for him to do, a light bulb went off in my head. Why not pay him to stain your deck? It would definitely be worth it. So Brett prepped the deck by bleaching it and Jack was there this morning to start staining it. So by the time I get home tonight, I will have a newly stained deck. So excited. And for a couple hours this morning while Jack got started on the deck, I installed the new skimmer on our pool and got the new filter and pump pretty close to operational. I just have to get sand for the filter and we'll be in business.

The only major projects we have left this Spring is to rock part of our backyard and put together Carter's swing set. I guess we can accomplish at least one of those things this upcoming weekend. Did I mention I've only gained 5 lbs during this pregnancy so far? It's no wonder, right?

So what are some of your DIY projects?

Drum Roll Please....

It's that time. 20 weeks and an ultrasound. We went in this morning with my bladder full of way too much water and the tech was once again running an hour behind. Lovely, right? After I had gone to the bathroom twice and still felt like I was going to flood the waiting room, they finally called me back. That's when the tech told me that I didn't need a full bladder and I could go empty it. Are you serious?!?!?! So why have I always been told otherwise? Or better yet, why didn't the nurse tell me that when she knew I was about to pee my pants? Anyway, enough about that. The baby appeared to be completely healthy and also quite stubborn. He/she kept his/her legs crossed for 30 mins. Finally he/she revealed she was just being a lady, because SHE's a GIRL!!! We are so excited!!!! One, because we wanted a girl, two, because this may mean I never have to be pregnant again!!! One boy, one girl. Sounds good enough for me. Now it's time to hit up Target and Old Navy, because I'm in need of some dresses. Anybody need boy clothes? I have boxes and boxes that it doesn't look like I'll be needing!!