April 27, 2011

It started as another typical Wednesday morning. My alarm jars me a awake, and I push through the sleep induced brain fog, to solve the math problems that will give me 10 more minutes of blessed sleep. 15 minutes later, I force myself to slide out of bed, as I realize I now ONLY have ten minutes to get dressed, let the dogs out, feed them, crate them, do my hair, gather my supplies, and get to work at a reasonable time.  


I noticed it was really warm for 7:40am...


As usual, I dawdled a *little* and made it work 5ish minutes late. On the way over, our local radio host did bring up the possibility of sever thunderstorms later on throughout the day, which, of course, filled me with *joy*. 


Rainy days + Three dogs + Finals = Miserable me. 


I was shocked, when the Chief of our department, sent out a campus wide alert, about Tornados being spotted about sixty miles away. My first thought was: "Really? Its SIXTY miles away, why are we worried?" But I did get out and go into another room, to see what the Weather Channel was proclaim. Satisfied that we were just under Thunderstorm warnings, I went back to work. 


In fact when I left two hours later, the sun was shining, the birds were singing..(and it was hot as all get out) which quickly lulled me into a false sense of security. 


Oh those weather men. What do they know with all their radars and fancy equipment.... 


I thoroughly enjoyed a day of procrastinating, on the porch with a book, soaking in all the sunshine I could get, before laying down for a "quick nap". I don't normally take naps,but up with finals, you need all the rest you can get. It was during my repast that the rain started. First heavy, the lightening up when it came time for me to, once again, pry myself from the depths of my mattress and make hurry to class. 


I skipped out early, since all they were doing was watching our final Powerpoint presentations, and because the weather reports were starting to turn dire. 


And because I didn't have my laptop with me.. 


As I was driving home, is when we started getting Tornado warnings for surrounding counties..the rain was coming down in sheets, lightning cracked across the sky, starting fires.. and I was starting to get a little nervous. They don't get Tornados around here..right? 


It was around 8:00pm when the storm hit full force, my family, and friends were all in church when we heard the "THUNK". I had just gotten an update from Twitter that a funnel cloud had been spotted, about 30 miles away...and the only thing I could think was, the winds were so strong, it was blowing debris around. A few second later there was another THUNK, then with a roar, the HAIL came down with a vengeance. Our speaker who has a very loud voice, was yelling as he prayed for our safety. 


Children were freaking out, and some even dove under benches. All I could think about was, one the cars getting PUMMELED and my poor puppies all alone at home. 


Five-extremely-long-minutes later, the hail slowed down, and we all poured outside to see the damage.

Golf Ball sized hail 

Golf Ball Sized Hail on the Ground

 Of course all the cars had poc marks, and broken glass..but a couple were completely missing windshields.
The wind and lightning were crazy, at this point, so my father sent everyone on home... However I was far from ready to turn in for the night. At this point we were getting tornado warnings, and all I could do was pray  that we wouldn't actually get one, as I knew our trailer would not be the place to be. 


My roommate and I finally convinced ourselves, to abandoned ship (and TWO of my puppies!?!?!) and go hangout with her sister and roommate, in their slightly more solid structure...at this point, the Tornado warnings had stopped coming for our county, but were still every 2-3 minutes for outlying counties. 


If this had happened during the day, there would be some small measure of safety in being able to see, but not being able to see, or know really what was going on was terrifying.


At 10 pm, the warnings for our county started back up again, and all four of us, abandoned the house, and moved up to the church cafeteria, as it had no windows and was more stable than any of the four houses on our property. At this point, I made my friends help me gather up my other two, (having three dogs is kinda of a pain in times like these...) and we all migrated up to the cafeteria, where the rest of my family sat listening intently to the radio.   

Our Neighborhood Storm Shelter

We stayed up there for about another two hours, loosing power once, before calling it a night. Or morning. I stayed up for another TWO hours AFTER that, as lets face it, the warnings had ceased but the storm was still raging around us. I was NOT about to wake up, to my bed floating around in a dark swirling cloud. Could you imagine sleeping on wet pillows? 


When we got up the next morning, the sun was shining the birds were singing as if nothing had every happened. Yet mentally we were all still reeling.. reading my twitter feed, I wanted everyone to stop and mourn with us, however life goes on... I feel for those in Alabama who got the brunt of the storm. 

Hail Damage to my parents car..and I don't have one. Woo! 

I'm thankful God saw fit to spare us, and all of our Alabama friends...


I was walking back to my house the other day, and looked all the trees surrounding my humble abode. Not one of them even bent during the storm. That my friends, is God's mercy, as right down the street a huge tree was UP ROOTED. 


Makes you look a life a little differently... 

God told Noah to build him an Arky....

But apparently forgot to give us in East TN that memo. Yesterday thunderstorms tore apart the area dumping inches of rain onto our fair town. Within hours streets were impassable, yards were flooded and people were stranded at work and school. Talk about flash flooding!! The last time I've been a town that flooded this badly, was when Katrina hit and that was only after it had been raining for DAYS!

The local news paper posted photos from around town here.

Via- Knoxville News Sentinel 

I was quite nervous about driving home, as our road floods even with just a heavy down pour, and while one of the roads did, the one I took hadn't, but boy was in for a surprise when I pulled into my driveway!

Neighbors Lake aka Yard

My front yard

My yard again

Yard part two....that water went up over my knees! 

I'd just went by Wal-Mart to purchase some rain boots, so I grabbed them and waded out into the water, Texas being my one and only water dog at the moment was right behind me and even took a turn around our new "pond". Don't worry, he got a bath later on, but it was quite funny. I don't know why I didn't realize that if he was SWIMMING that the water had gotten pretty deep, but I hadn't, and while I went to rescue a part of my dog's crate that had washed to the next street, um... I found out just how deep that water was.

Texas checking out the place 

There he goes!

Bye Texas!!

Of course this is just the beginning of the rainy season, I can only imagine what the rest of spring will look like!

November 27

Ok first question. 

WHO TURNED OFF THE HEAT?

Thursday I was rockin' my flip-flops and today, my toes were literally numb as I watched over the lost and found booth at the stadium. I could so do without winter time. 

Second Question:

How cute are they? 

I was called in for a last minute/emergency photo-shoot by my favorite photo-shoot-family. They had an appointment at a studio but had to cancel due to the KY fan traffic. So guess who got a call? 

I love.love.love photographing these kids! 

More Photos 

Third Question:

How you'd Kentucky Fans enjoy today's game? 

Considering we beat you guys 24-17! 

Oh yeah. 

Go.Big.Orange!!!! 

                          

miscellany Monday

{1} It was cold this morning. Like my neighbors/friend/roommates sister called to let us know that fact, which of course I'd already discovered as I ran the dogs out for the morning potty break. Yep! According to the radio it was 46 this morning. And as I look at my computer it says its.....gee only 54!! 


{2} Oh this weather fills me with nostalgia. I'll admit, there are times when I miss my family deeply. The way we were before, together in one house, busy, but still close to each other. Now its like we're in two different worlds. Its not bad, but I miss the carefree feeling. Amazing what three little years will change! 


{3} While I'm not a fan of fall weather at.all. I am a fan of fall food, and clothes! Hence my sudden obsession for new boots. I practically live in boots during the fall/winter. For now I have three pairs in my collection. 


{4} Speaking  of boots... I went with boots #1 cause the other boots I really wanted (#4) were out of stock, and I can't remember what was up with boots #2. But rest assured, if I stick to my budget this month, I will reward my self with another pair! 


{5} I've also revamped (as in re-formatted not redid) my 101 N 1001 list. I'm up to 30 out of 101 pretty good. But defiantly need to step it up! This week I'm working on my daily water intake and perhaps, getting up earlier than I normally do. *gulp* 


{6} New recipes for this month will be "Baked Potato Soup" and "Spinach and Artichoke Dip". Both are favorites of mine at O'Charley's and Applebees, and I'm dying to see if I can recreate a version that I like! Adding to my list of things I can make as well. And checking off another part of my 101-N-1001! 


{7} I haz cute puppies.

{8} Bad news is...looks like I"m headed to court after all for my citations. oh wait. I didn't tell you about those did I? Oops! Well a little thing really, expired tag and no proof of insurance. Cause in my home-state, they never asked for proof of insurance, so we never knew to carry it. But I got two of them in like three weeks. #notcool But it was recommended that I show them I have (will) taken care of my tag ($60 for a STICKER!!!!! AH) and did have insurance at the date of the accident/ticket and PERHAPS i can get off with just paying the court fees ($96.50 seriously!?!)

{9} What a horrible football weekend this was!!! What a stupid loss for the Vols!! Then my Titans failed me as well. I give up.

Seriously?!?!

R.I.P 

HTC HERO #2

July 2010 - September 2010 

{via HTC}

I hate myself.

Oh you want to know what happened? 

It was quite simple really, leave your touch screen $200 phone in the rain, its probably not going to work either. 

stupid.stupid.stupid.stupid.stupid. 

Did I mention stupid?

NOW WHAT!? 

Buy a THIRD Hero??? 

I love my android phones, I can't downgrade to anything less, and I can't upgrade without taking out a loan! ($500 for HTC Evo) 

What am I going to do without my phone AGAIN!??

*sobs* 

                            

*Phew

Hello Blog,
Are you feeling a little neglected? Good because that means I may actually have something of interest going on in my life. Mostly its just because I'm trying to limit my computer time, to about 4-8 hours a day. 


But lets play a little catch-up shall we? 
Friday - I love Bank-that-shall-not-be-named,  they send me these lovely "Available Balance" alerts every once in a while, to let me know how much is (or isn't) in my account at the moment. So when I get this email, I click it with dread, knowing that I am about to see a very low number. Imagine my surprise when I see a couple hundred EXTRA in my account. Apparently Financial Aid had some more money to send me and did so. Have I mentioned how much I love those guys?  No? Well...I don't really but it seemed like a good thing to say right here. 


Earlier this week, I'd  been in contact with another person interested in adopting Zipper, who just happened to fit the "No Dogs" bill we were looking for. While I know Zip is a great little dog, she is not great for my family, and I was immensilly relieved to be given the "go ahead" to get Zip to her. So we made plans for her to meet me on Tuesday to complete the deal. Woohoo!


But let me tell you this. I will NEVER EVER bring an stray dog into my house unless, I have a huge fenced in yard, and a separate area for the dog to reside. Since that fateful day in June, my household has revolved around Zipper, and keeping her away from my dogs. I think Zipper really is a cat, who just happened to land in a dogs body. That being said, I am a lot more open to the idea of fostering that I've been in the past, but alas, I have a four dog limit and already have enough to do with the Pompsters. *sigh*


Saturday - A day that will forever haunt me. Let me begin by saying I have an 18yo sister and a 15yo sister, who'd ASKED ME if I wanted to go White Water Rafting with them, and some of our NC and AL friends. I'd been waffling back and forth, because i wanted to go hang out but I didn't want too raft. Well they assured me it would be fine if I just went and hung out. 
Ok great. 
Then I realized that would mean I'd be riding with my 18yo sister, on a two hour trip. *gulp*  
No offense to any 18yo's but hey I was that age once, with my brand new licenses and I can say that I DID. NOT. REALLY. KNOW how to drive. But I realized she hadn't killed anyone just yet, so I could suck it up, and convince her to let me drive. and ride along. Little did I know how close i would come to death on this trip. I also didn't realize how hard it is for me to let my YOUNGER siblings be IN CHARGE.


They decided they needed to leave at 7:00AM in order to make it to the Nantahala River by the 9:00AM meeting time, our friends had set. Which meant that I had to wake up at 6:00AM to get the dogs and I ready. Pompei was going with me, but everyone else had to stay behind. I should have known when at 7:15AM the arrive at my house, that this was going to be an interesting trip. Both sisters come busting in and head straight for my computer. 


Me: Do you have directions?
Sister 2: No let me look it up on your computer real quick
I go back to making sure I'm prepared, before coming to glance at the directions before we leave. Since I know Sister 1 will not before we get on the road. There were three options to get to the Rafting Facilities, two of which project 2 hours and 30 minute travel time, and the other was only two hours. My dear-dear-dear sister see's the shortest time, and begins looking for a way to print those directions. I on the other hand look at the roads and realize this is going to be a trip on a two lane road. 


Um...No. 


Me: This is just a two lane road, Sister 1, we won't make any time if we get behind someone slow. 
Sister 1: But we need to get there fast, we are already late, and I don't want them to be waiting for us. 
Me: But you can go faster on the highway, we can make more time there. 
Sister 1: NO we need to get there, lets go this way. 
Me: Fine. Whatever. Just email the directions, I can read them on my phone. 


Once in the car, I immediately pull up my GPS app on my phone, and begin trying to see if it will send us on an alternate route. No luck. 


Fine. Whatever. Suck it up Erin. So I sit back and try to enjoy the ride.  


The first stretch of travel is fine, we're in familiar areas...yada yada yada, though I do have some major issues with the distance (or lack thereof) she liked to follow people at, I try to make my criticism very positive and logical. 


"OMG SISTER 1, if you hit that person YOU WILL BE IN TROUBLE" or "SLOW DOWN we will get there when we get there!" or "...Um..those are brake lights, SISTER 1 SLOW DOWN" 


See? Very informative and positive. 


Then we get onto the two lane road, this has your typical Smokey Mountain curves, and sister 2 and I spent a lot of time, remind her how to try and slow down before the curve. Though why Sister 2 thinks she knows anything about it is beyond me. 

Yes honey you have been driving ...for the last couple of weeks.

Then we start realize that there are an awful lot of curves on this road, and whoa that is a steep drop off over there. I did notice there were a lot of Motorcycle activity but I was too busy trying to convince my sister to SLOW DOWN, and to QUIT ACCELERATING, since the curves were on top of each other, to pay attention to the warning signs. 


It wasn't until we got to the end of those extremely harrowing 11 miles that we all realized...we'd been on....THE TAIL OF THE DRAGON. 

*DUN, DUN, DUN*

{Image Credit}

To say I was freaked out, would not even come close to what i was feeling. Sister 1 and Sister 2, were very blase about the whole, thing because they are very inexperienced drivers, and had NO CLUE the different dangers we avoided due to God's mercy. Like This: 

{Killboy.com}

Tailofthedragon.com

Tailofthedragon.com

CLICK HERE to see a video of the road. If you are get car sick or motion sick easily, you may not want to watch. You don't have much room to any type of mistakes on this road. Its like a roller coaster minus all of the safety gear. I am willing to admit that perhaps roller coasters are safer than cars. But we made it, though I was literally shaking when I got out and kissed the ground. *No not really


They had a blast riding down the river, and Pompei and I had fun watching them float or ride past. :))
Group 1: Warren, Maegan, Kim, Jeffrey, Devin, Audrey and Patrick. 

Group 2 - Cassie, Mryna, Robyn, Westley, Walter, Grace, Kristen and Bro. W.C

This group was fun, as every-time they passed me, they were either floating sideways or backwards. 

Group 1 passes me first

Pompei playing in the water, as we wait for our other group to pass.

Hi Guys! Bye Guys!

Group 2 surfing the waves

Aaah PADDLE! PADDLE! 

It started pouring a few minutes after everyone had pulled their rafts out of the water, and climbed onto the bus. Pompei and I had parked quite some distance from the end point, and had to make a made dash back to the car. SECONDS before the rain came crashing down. On the way back to the facility, I made up my mind to either not giver my sister her keys or to make them take another route, even if it was longer. 


It took a while, but I finally convinced her to go the long route. And the ride home was much more relaxing. 


So that was my weekend, Sunday was spent at church and getting my house all set for this coming week.


But WOW, this weekend will be one that lives on in my imagination forever. *shudders*

I have no words...

I really don't.
I am sooooo tired.
All I've done today was write, and not blog post but this paper that I need to turn in Monday.
I've done more than that, but it FEELS as if all I've done, was read, write, cite and edit.
I am so not confident in this paper, but I'm just sooooo tired of working on it.
I'm really past caring what the grade is.
S'what I get for procrastinating.
I can't help it. REALLY.


Um.......


Actually I've gotten quite a lot of other homework done.
C,R, their niece, mother and I went too see a play last night.
Anyone read Ramona Quimby when they were younger?
This play was based off the first book in the series Beverly Clearly wrote.
It was very cute, and I got in free!
Despite feeling achy I had fun.


Today I was sort of stuck at home, since my dad and sister took the car, and then C left on some long shopping venture, then H & R both took off, which left my parents van...(15 passenger) and I HATE driving that boat. So the dogs and I spent lots of time between outside and in. I do like being able to do homework outside, its just so much more fun that way.

I attempted to recreate O'Charley's Loaded Baked Potato soup....but something back fired, I have this thing against following recipes to the letter..and well lets just say sometimes its good to follow recipes.
I'll try it again later.

C brought one of her co-workers home, to help her paint our kitchen. They got everything turn apart, and will start painting next week. We agreed to let her redo the kitchen, with help from me of course, and I'll take care of the bathroom makeover..and we'll both work on the living room.

I'm going to go get something to eat, so I'll leave you guys with some photos from this week:

Monday

{Pompei in front of the drink machines at school, gotta get in my daily dose of caffinee.}

Tuesday

{Pompei and one of the kids from church, he was a little frustrated that Pompei wouldn't chase the object}

{Neighbor H made these yummy pasteries and brought them over for me too try them}

Thursday

{My attempt to brighten up a very dreay day}

Friday

{Bubbles hanging out on the couch after a walk}

 

{Pompei poses as a reluctant flower}

Saturday

{Texas enjoying the sunshine}

{Before Pics of the Kitchen}

{C & whomever she's recruited to help her, will be painting the cabinets white and one day hopefully we'll get a stove!}

March 2

Dear March,
What part of "LOTS OF SUNSHINE" did you not understand? It was very disappointing to wake up this morning, to snow flurries/drizzle coming out of the sky; which did not improve my mood.
I was already way late for work by the time my alarm clock did not went off. Thankfully I have an understanding boss as I rushed in 30 minutes late.

Dear 2010,
What is up with all the gray and rain? I don't think there has been a day YET that I've been able to walk into class with sunshine, and blue skies. Do you know how hard it is to be motivated to do anything with this weather??


Dear Sociology Teacher,
I can completely understand why you don't like lecturing, on groups in society. The film you showed, really just confirmed a lot of things about human nature. Good people can turn evil, just because someone else told them to do something. But could you have picked a less...disturbing video? I mean yeah even watching people fake shock someone was unnerving but the "McDonalds Hoax"  and the other thing, which I don't want to remember was..just..wow. I felt nausea for at hours after I left, which forced me to go to Target. If you had NOT shown the video, I would probably be $70 richer at this moment. It also just goes to show you, you really don't want to know what people are thinking.

Dear Target,
I love you. Thank you for having your picture frames on sale, my room is starting to come together. Now if you would only put your bed sets on sale, that would be totally awesome.Oh yeah, and how could I forget the scarves for only $2.50 each. !?! I probably should return them...but that won't happen.