Farewell Whittakers!

So our good friends and neighbors, the Whittakers, said goodbye to us on Wednesday for bigger and better things in the great state of Pennsylvania. The kids have had a blast playing with their kids over the last 2 years and they will be greatly missed. Here are some pics of the kids together on their last few days here. Carter loved riding Shelby around on the 4-wheeler. Harrison and Jake ran the rubber off their bike tires. (Jake is the boy on the left...our other neighbor Jack is on the right). We hope to take a road trip and visit them in the spring up in Amish country. We'll miss you guys!

Kara - update

Kara went back in to the hospital last night. She started running a fever so her doc wanted her to come in. She was admitted and will have a couple of days of IV antibiotics. She has an appointment at Vanderbilt on 10/7 for a consultation for the stem cell transplant. Her doc is also going to call MD Anderson to see what they have to say. She is still very tired but the nausea has subsided for now. I will update when I know more! Thanks for all the prayers.

Kara

Well, I spent the last 4 days in Knoxville hanging out with my sister in a hospital room. She was officially diagnosed with a relapse Friday afternoon and was in the hospital that night to start a new chemo regimen. She'll do 1 more round (5 days in the hospital) in 3-4 weeks and then do another scan. Then it will be time to head over to Vanderbilt or MDAnderson in Houston for a stem cell transplant. She'll be in the hospital for a month. It will be a tough recovery because her immune system will be zapped to nothing. She has a better attitude this time around and says "dying is not an option." Everyone keep her in your prayers!

Soccer season begins!

Harrison had his first soccer game yesterday. He had lots of fun and his team won 4-2! Go Purple Dragons!!!

Fall Decor

Okay girls, it's September and time to get those fall decorations out! This is my favorite time of the year and I love to pull all my decor out of the attic and celebrate the season. Too bad I'm about 6 weeks ahead of when Memphis thinks it should turn fall! Happy Decorating!

It wouldn't be fall without my Home Interiors Baked Apple Pie candle!

Tunica, MS trip

So I've lived in Memphis for a total of 5 years now and up until this past Friday night, I had never visited Tunica, MS. John and I were kid-free and I talked him into taking me down there. We ate the buffet at the Horseshoe Casino (which was really good!) and walked back and forth between the casinoes people watching and trying our luck at some slot machines and roulette. Roulette was my favorite! I played for 2 1/2 hours on not much money at all! We hads lots of fun and enjoyed our time with no kids! But don't worry friends, I promise I won't be heading down there while the kids are at school and John is at work (much! ha ha).

Pleasant Grove Baptist Ice Cream Social

This past Sunday night we visited John's parents' church and went to their annual homemade ice cream social/contest. We had lots of goodies to eat and had a wonderful time!

Our newest addition

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting out on the deck watching John grill our steaks when we heard this little noise coming from underneath the deck.  We started looking around and found this little kitten in the bushes by itself.  We looked around for the mom/siblings but we didn't see any others.  I called all the cat rescue places to see if anyone could take her but everyone was full.  I sent out an e-mail to see if anyone else wanted her but I didn't get any replies.  The kids have gotten quite attached to her and she seems to think this is home.  She's made herself at home on our deck and plays in the surrounding flower beds.  She's too cute!  John decided her name should be Dale since he was putting "Dale's" steak sauce on our steaks!  The kids didn't think that was girly enough so I added a "y" to her name to make it a little more feminine.  So meet Dayle!

I walked outside the other night and found her sleeping in one of the flower pots on the deck.  I caught her as she was about to jump down.

Nashville/Cookeville Trip

So we began our trip to Cookeville with a stop in Nashville at the Rainforest Cafe. None of us had ever been there so we weren't quite sure what to expect. I had read some mixed reviews online about the food but we decided to give it a try anyway. We had reservations for 8:00 but made it there by 7:15. We were worried we would have to wait but they took us right in! The kids absolutely LOVED it! I think Carter liked it the most. We are pretty sure he thought all of the gorillas and elephants were real. He stood up in his chair pretty much the whole time looking around and pointing at things. Here are some pics of the event:

After we ate dinner we had a little time to walk around the mall before it closed.  We didn't have near as much time as I would have liked but I did end up getting a shirt from the Petite Sophisticate Outlet and we got a cool UT wind spinner to hang outside.  We had planned on spending the night in Nashville and getting up early to drive on to Cookeville for the family reunion.  We decided we weren't that tired and we would go ahead and drive to Cookeville.  We rolled in to Cookeville around 10:30pm and checked in to the Holiday Inn Express.  It was a nice hotel and you would have thought we were staying at the Ritz Carlton if you asked Madison what she thought about it.   She and Harrison slept in 1 bed while me, John, and Carter slept in the other one.  Needless to say, John and I didn't get much sleep with Carter tossing and turning all night.  We got up the next morning and ate the Continental breakfast (which was surprisingly good!) and decided what we were going to do before the reunion.  We had a couple of hours to kill so we decided to get the boys' hair cut.  We drove around looking for a Fantastic Sam's type place (but didn't really see any) and stumbled upon a barber shop. John decided that's where we would take them.  He wanted to get their hair cut really short so that's what we did!  

We had a good time at the reunion!  The kids saw cousins that they only see once a year and had fun swimming in the pool.

We drove all the way back to Memphis that night and rolled in our driveway around midnight. We were tired but had a great weekend!