One less thing to worry about...

The Keurig made it!!!!!  The big mixer did not...

It's the small victories these days, folks!  Anyone want a cup o' coffee??

BF to AF

In the past week, our life has completely changed.  It has been one of the most devastating, the most trying, and the most rewarding times, all at once.  They say people are their best when they are at their worst, and we have definitely seen that.

42 inches of water is a lot.  Especially when it is in your new house with everything you own.  But as the cleanup process began, and the stuff went to the curb, we could see that we have much more than the stuff. 

I am amazed by our families, our friends, and the people of Nashville.  In the last 8 days, we have...

• found a gracious new home - we're staying with Patrick's parents (and I'm not sure that Abbey the pup is going to want to go back to living with just us...)
• completely gutted our new house from the 5 foot line and down with the help of old friends, new friends, and people-who's-first-name-I-only-know
• had a visit from my parents and brother/sis-in-law who made a very quick long trek from Texas for mostly emotional support
• been offered more help than we know what to do with from complete strangers - Tennessee has shown exactly why it is the 'Volunteer State'
• slept on the floor of a stranger's house because we were trapped in our neighborhood - and met the most wonderful people you can imagine.
• been fed every single day by gracious restaurants and more volunteers - more help than you can imagine
• had complete strangers tear up and drag out disgustingly wet and muddy carpet and sheetrock for us
• learned exactly how fortunate we are to have the jobs we have - and why InfoWorks truly is a Best Company to Work For
• cried
• had every single piece of our stinky river clothes - every piece of clothing we own -washed by amazing amazing friends.
• laughed - thanks for the slightly inappropriate songs-about-rain filled CD, Beth
• cried
• prayed
• cried
• and hugged a lot of people.

On Sunday (5/2), after we evacuated to higher ground in the neighborhood to a stranger's house, a friend sent us a text message of a picture of the local news coverage of the flood.  Since we were without power and couldn't watch and since they had only been to our house once, we thought that surely there was no way they could have actually seen our house in the aerial footage...but they did, and this is what we saw:

Since the flood took my camera cord and my card adapter, I don't have any AF (After Flood) pictures to show you yet.  But, I do have some BF (Before Flood) moments that I was already planning on showing you before our lives completely changed - when things were a little more normal.

This is our Abbey now that she has a little lot more personality and energy:

I was also planning my first recipe post BF, so my guacamole recipe will be coming in the next couple of days...depending on how the contractor-lining-up process goes.

Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers; we definitely need it all now, and we know we'll make it through this, and when we do, we can only be stronger, right?

Meet Abbey!

This is Abbey.  (Yes like Abbey Road.  Patrick picked it.)

They said she was calm, but I'm pretty sure she's going to give  Yellow Dog from Funny Farm a run for it's money...

I tried to get some shots of her while she was exploring, but everytime I got the camera out, she thought I was supposed to be petting her and stuck her nose in it.  Maybe tomorrow.

And I'm hooked!

Thank YOU Google Suggest!

I would like to thank Google Suggest (you know, where you start typing your search words, and it trys to guess what you're going to type) for making my evening with this little suggestion...

Please note the very first suggestion:

But really, who doesn't want to know that?!?!?

You just can't make this stuff up!

Patrick: 1, Amanda: 4

I just beat Patterick 4 games to 1 in 301.

I just wanted that to be recorded somewhere.

Seriously an awesome night here at the Broughton house though!  Ridiculously nice weather.  Lots of wine time.  Met some fun new neighbors.  Short ribs and asparagus on the grill.  Lots of Patrick time (my most favorite!).  Good stuff!

Also, we bought a lawnmover - and yes it's electric - but we seriously have like 40 square feet of grass until the back grows, and it was only $75, so it'll do for now.  No making fun of the extension cord though.  I'll beat you up.



Now we just need a weed eater! 

Did I mentioned I kicked Patrick's dart-throwing butt?!?!?

For mom/mommy/mother/momma/JoNell/mom/mom/mommy/mom...hi!

I love this time of year!  Everything is pretty and bloomy.  It smells like fresh cut grass.  You can drive everywhere and sleep with the windows open.  Everyone is friendly and cheerful and just glad to be outside after hibernation.  Everything's just so fresh!!!  Love love love it!

Mom: I told you you should've come to see me now!  You're going to miss all the pretty trees...

Patrick won't let me have any of these trees because they are 'messy and smelly'.  He's probably right, but these two weeks a year would make it totally worth it.  For sure.

Also, what is this yellow stuff that everyone has called??  These are things I need to know.

Patrick's mad at me...

...because I just told him not to use the last box of Kleenexes (Kleenexi?  Kleenex?) in the house.  

Why can't my poor, little, sick Patrick use those Kleenex (I think it's like deer and fish, so we're going with Kleenex) you ask?  Well, I bought them because they match the bathroom...and I'm afraid they won't have that design anymore if he uses them all - which is a definite possibility.  And then I'd be sad that the Kleneex box in the bathroom doesn't match for our guests.  Plus, that's why we buy the soft TP...


I'm pretty sure he's not speaking to me at the moment...


Side note:   If you come to our house, please don't be afraid to use the Kleenex!