Wear a Helmet!

It wasn't long after lunch today when I got a call from Darla that Kristin was being sent to the Emergency Room. Knowing how hard it was/is on my mom when Lacey & I are away and have to go to the doctor and she can't be there, I headed that way myself.
Evidently, Kristin had been goofing off the night before and hit her head against the wall. She didn't think much of it until today when she got of the shower and fell, not tripped, fell. She hit her head again and this time it hurt.
When Randy called her mom concerned, she sent them to campus medical services who directed them to the ER at MTMC. That was the first problem, they gave directions to the girl who was there for a head injury! When I got to the ER and asked to see her they had no idea what I was talking about. There is only one hospital in Murfreesboro so I called Kristin to see where she was at. "I don't know" was all she could tell me so I told her to put Randy on the phone!
Luckily, they weren't far. We got her checked in, sent her off for a CAT Scan and waited for the results.

"I'm going to write you a prescription for a helmet"

was all the doctor had to say when he walked in! Haha!

She had a concussion and he did give her some meds for the pain but made her promise to try to stay upright as much as possible. I.E. off her head.

CALLING ALL AVAILABLE HANDS!

The supplies are ordered and the date is set! Fence Building Party is May 2-3!

Everyone is invited and please remember to bring your Work Clothes (yes mother, that means you). Friday night we will have a cookout at the house to start things out. Saturday, after all the work is done, we'll be heading to Millers Grocery which is always a treat!

Anyone coming from out of town in need of a place to stay please contact me ASAP so I can block hotel rooms.

Memphis in 18 Hours

Talk about a whirl wind! When we were invited to Memphis to celebrate Craig's birthday, Jonathan and I were both thinking, "sure! We've never been". We had no idea the adventure we were in for.
When we left Friday night after a long day of work we were all starving. After driving mile after mile with no food options in sight, we finally saw our first stop; the Loretta Lynn Kitchen & Gift Shop. In the community of Buffalo and the town of Hurricane Mills (Her a cun), it offers a buffet, truck parking and free wi-fi; we knew it was the perfect place to start our story. Basically a shrine to the women her self complete with a stage and manikin that really freaked us out.

After we finally arrived in Memphis and checked into our hotel, our tour guide for the weekend instructed us to our first stop, Harriet & Ernestine's. The building was originally a hotel & sundry... or at least that was what the sign said. In reality, it was a brothel until 1990! Legend has it the place is also haunted but we didn't need to be told that when we walked in. Upstairs, in the back room is Nate the ghostly old man who has seen his share of the "goings on" in the building. He shared with us a little about the two ladies who ran it backed by the sounds of the out-of-tune piano which added to the ire feelings we all had.

It wasn't long before we were all ready to get out of that place and the next stop on the agenda. No trip to Memphis would be complete without a trip to Beal Street. The last thing I expected to see in downtown Memphis however were goats. Silky O'Sullivans, an Irish Pub/Piano Bar/Patio and home of the Diver and a couple goats. The goats were originally feed beer and given empty cans to chew on. Evidently, Animal Rights came in and said that wasn't the best idea and put a stop to it so now the goats just hang out.

Before calling it a night, we had to stop for some good fried food including a Skillet Fried Pie at Ike & Tina's table. This was the first time any of us had seen 3am in ages!
The next morning, we were off to the Peabody to see the Duck March. Word of advice, if you plan to actually SEE the ducks, get there two our prior and stake out your spot. We could hear the music but never saw the ducks until the March was over, ducks were in the water, and the crowds begin to move away. But, we were there.

Our next stop was the most controversial to all who we've talked to since. WE DID NOT GO TO RENDEZOUS. The ghost of Nate AND our tour guide Tyler BOTH recommended Corkey's over Rendezous! So, that's were we went. The food was great and we were all miserable for about a hour afterwards.

The five of us rolled our stuffed tummies into "Ernestine the Gumball Machine" as Tyler directed our tour of the city. Ernestine, as she was named after our visit the night before, is Steph's bright red Honda Fit - we looked like a bunch of clowns!

Tyler isn't really a tour guide. He is a friend of Steph and Craig's who has been living in Memphis for the last year but he did an excellent job showing us around. His tour was only briefly interrupted by the occasional Broadway singer in the car beside us.

This wasn't necessary the tour most people would pay to take. We saw downtown, the campus of U of M, Mud Island, and some of the rougher areas of town including. We saw wheel chair gangs, homeless people passed out all over the place, and one particular house with an old fruit basket hanging on a power pole as a basketball goal. This was the kind of tour that made you thankful for what you had.

Before leaving town we had to head out to Graceland. The last tour had already left so although we didn't get to see in the inside of the house we at least got to go through the gift shops and take some pictures of the outside. I've heard some stories about the interior decor of Graceland so I was surprised at how elegant the outside appeared.

We saw what we thought was a family reunion outside the E.H. Ford Mercury Dealership but then realized it was actually the E.H. Ford Mortuary!

As we get back on the interstate out of town, we had one last stop to make to see Steph's uncle. After getting some pretty crappy directions, we pulled a U-turn right in front of a cop. Neat. So, we had a run in the the Memphis Police to complete our trip! Luckily, the guy was really nice and let us go since it was Craig's birthday.

Still going

I guess its been a while since our last post... its been a little busy here. Basically heres what we've been up to the past week:
Our new GM started at the hotel, we had a little date on Saturday, worked in the yard on Sunday, killed Kristin & Randy in Taboo, and I had to explain what "Bow Chicka Bow Wow" meant to some of our older readers. : ) I had my first meeting as Architectural Review Committee Chair and we broke in Clint's new grill.
We are going to order our supplies for our new fence tonight so it will be here in time for our work crew to arrive... Ordering now to be safe since the ring leader can't seem to nail down a date for me.
I think that's about it. We've both been working some long hours so we're ready for a break. This weekend we are making a quick trip to Memphis which neither of us have been to before. It's a short trip but we hope to make the most of it and celebrate our friend Craig's Birthday while we're there. Kind of a last minute trip we just found out about on Monday.
We'll be back with pictures and a full restaurant review on the great BBQ places of Memphis.

Wedding Album

At our wedding, instead of having the traditional guest book, we decided to do things a little differently. We didn't want just a standard album either so we set it up so that we could combine the two.

A table was placed at the entrance with paper cards for guest to sign their names and well wishes to. Those cards were then to be placed in our own album intertwined with the photos so that when we look back and not only see the photos but the warm wishes of those who were there.

Since the wedding, we have been so busy we never really looked at the cards to see what people wrote until this weekend.

It was kind of funny, because I guess I didn't really specify to the girls how this was suppose to be done so the writing is on both sides of the cards. The other funny thing was what people wrote.

There were lots of "Good Luck"s, "Congratulations", and "Keep God First"s. The were also a few "Remember she's always right"s in the mix as well which I particularly enjoyed.

The one that stuck out the most though was from Brent McNew which read: "Bow Chicka Bow Wow"!!! Haha! Thanks Brent!