bad storms, superstitions, and a bad tempered bus driver

Wednesday we had some very severe storms to move through, the same string of storms everyone from the midwest to east coast saw either on Tuesday or Wednesday. We were under a high wind warning all day Wednesday into early Thursday morning. I am sure that a lot of you got to experience these winds and know exactly what I am talking about. Around 10:30AM Wednesday I was sitting on the couch folding clothes when I heard this awful shattering, crunchy sound. For a moment I sat there praying and listening because I knew the sound had come from a tree falling somewhere very near to my house. Once I realized that nothing had hit the roof I jumped up to see what tree had fell. About 20 feet from our back door the top of a big tree was lying there. For the rest of the day I was a bit worried because I knew the wind was only going to get worse and I didn't want to be sitting here alone and have one of the big trees fall through my roof on me so I kept an eye out and thankfully even during the worst of the winds later on there were no more trees blown over that close to the house.

Around 3:00PM things started heating up in areas northwest, west and southwest of us. Our school system closed about thirty minutes early so that the kids could get home before the storm hit but Bethany doesn't get home until 4:30PM each day and the storm rolled in here before she could get home and that is why I was standing outside taking pics, I was watching for the bus. The first pic is of the storm coming in, the wind was starting to really pick up right after I snapped this one. This view was taken looking west over my neighbors garage.














This second pic is right before all hell broke loose. The area that looks similiar to a funnel cloud isn't, although we had a tornado warning on us and rotation had been detected by doppler radar. I was on the porch when I snapped this pic where as in the previous pic I was standing in the yard beside the house. Within two minutes after this pic we had horizontal rain and winds that were wicked. Thankfully no major damage was done in our area and no one was hurt.














It is Friday the 13th and I am not very superstitious but I am married to an Irishman who will say he isn't but his actions prove differently. If we are driving down the road and a black cat runs in front of our vehicle Mr. B will mark three tiny x's in the top corner of the windshield, no matter what building/house/store..etc. he enters, the door he enters through is the door he will leave through, even though Mr. B does hardwood flooring and is on construction sites often he will not walk under a ladder or scaffolding no matter how far he has to walk out of the way to get around it. It is funny because he says Friday the 13th doesn't bother him however he doesn't get out much when it is Friday 13th, other than work of course and he tries to get that wrapped up early. Mr. B's birthday is March 13 and next month it will fall on a Friday, he will be a bit reluctant to go out and eat or do anything else until the next day.

My sons class is having their Valentine's party today at 1:30 and I am going in early so that I can chat with the principal about Ty's bus driver. This week she has chosen my son to pick on and I am fed up with it. Everyday this week she has had something hateful to say to my son and I am done with her. Wednesday Ty was trying sit down and the kid behind him kept pushing through and as Ty was trying to pull his foot out of the way the boy rushed through and tripped over it then said Ty done it on purpose when Ty's bottom hadn't even hit the seat. All the other kids on the bus tried to tell the bus driver what had really happened but the ill tempered woman wouldn't listen. She yelled at my son to tell her what he was doing and when he tried to tell her she screamed "shut up" before he could say five words to her. It really hurt Ty's feelings and he tried to appologize to the other boy even though he hadn't intentionally tripped him but the boy and the bus driver both yelled at him so by the time Ty entered through the back door of our house he had watery eyes and was very upset, he also had four neighbor friends with him who were right behind him and wanted to tell me what had happened. Yesterday when Ty loaded the bus to come home the bus driver started yelling at him again telling him he had better behave that day and then she grabbed Ty by the arm and told him to look at her when she was talking to him. When Ty got home he told me that the woman was either blind or dumb because he was looking at her when she roughly grabbed his arm. So, today I will be speaking with the principal about this woman and if something doesn't get done then Ty will no longer be riding the bus with this idiot as the driver.

Bethany, my13 yr old, rides the same bus Ty does except that she is picked up after the elementary kids are dropped off. She said this woman driving the bus is crazier than an outhouse rat and has written everyone on their bus up at least five times this year and some of the kids didn't do anything to get wrote up. Bethany said the driver was telling one young lady not to do something anymore and the young lady answered "yes M'am" and the bus driver yelled at her saying she was being a smart alec. Evidentally this driver has some problems and today the principal and I are going to address them because she isn't going to yell at my kids and grab them, I am not having it and that is the end of it.

I hope y'all have a great day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

a post on a Thursday?

Tuesday night was a devastating night for four Southern states. Tornadoes ripped through leaving a death toll of 54 all total. The deaths in each state are as follows... Alabama=4, Arkansas=13, Kentucky=7, and Tennessee=30. The worst of the storms hit between West and Middle Tennessee. I live in East Tennessee and fortunately the storms weakened before they arrived in the valley where I live. If you enlarge the map you will see a pink dot with a purple dot on top of it. The pink dot is the county that I live in and the purple dot is Knoxville. As I said the storms weakened before they got here so we ended up with basically just loud thunderstorms that dropped torrential rains and wind gusts hard enough to blow some trees down. I consider us very lucky after what happened West of us. The storms blew into our area just as Mr. B and I were leaving to take the kids to school at 7:15 AM yesterday. The sky looked absolutely awful but didn't turn out as fierce as they looked. If you believe in prayer then I would ask you to remember all of the families touched by those storms Tuesday night.

On a brighter note...Mr. B has been wanting a truck for about three years now but he hasn't been able to find the kind of deal he wanted on the model and make of truck he wanted. A few days ago we were out wasting time and stumbled upon a truck that had him drooling. He and I both are die hard Chevy people, we like other brands of vehicles but Chevy just happens to be our favorite. Mr. B has always loved the Z71 Chevy trucks with one little thing...he loves the ones that were made in the mid 90's. I kept telling him that if he wanted a truck it had to be a king or quad cab because we weren't going to waste money on a truck that would hold only two or three people when there are five of us in this family. We went back out to the dealership where the truck was Tuesday to look at it again. The truck is a 1996 Z71 king cab, it has three doors and we were both surprised at how well this truck has been taken care of in its twelve years of existence. The only flaw that we have found in or on the truck is a small scratch that is about three inches long on the tail gate. When Mr. B popped the hood we both couldn't believe our eyes..underneath the hood looked like it had just been driven off the showroom floor, it was so clean and the truck also had brand new tires on it which is a huge thing for me.

We asked the salesman if they cleaned the motor up and he told us no that the only thing they had done to the truck since its previous owner had traded it in had been to wash the outside after the rain we had last week, the salesman also gave us the previous owners name and number in case we wanted to call him (this was done with the prev. owners permission of course). This truck even sounds like a new one, when Mr. B started it the thing started right up and purred like a happy cat.

The only problem we had was for Mr. B to make the decision on whether to purchase it or not. I didn't think there would be any thought at all on the subject since it was exactly what he had been looking for but Mr. B isn't like most people. The price was below what we were looking to spend and I knew that he wasn't going to get a better deal. This isn't the first time that Mr. B has got cold feet at the last minute like that and I think I have mentioned that about him on here a time or two. In normal circumstances I let Mr. B work situations such as these out in his head before we make a final decision but just looking at him and seeing how bad he wanted that truck put me into motion. The reason he gets cold feet is because he feels guilty about purchasing anything for himself since we have three kids, the big thing for him right now is that our oldest child will be 16 next month and we have promised to take her to look at some cars next Saturday, I know that y'all surely understand that and I agree that it was a good thought but darn it, he has wanted a truck like that for forever. So with all of that being said let me tell you what I done. Before I start, have I ever mentioned on here that I can be very spontaneous at times? Well I was spontaneous enough Tuesday that I now own a mint condition 1996 White Chevy Z71! I bought the truck, that's right the truck is my name only and the only thing Mr. B's name is on is the insurance policy, of course he is listed as the primary driver of the truck because even though it is in my name it is his truck. Why did I do it? Because I love him , he deserves it, and I knew he would have talked himself out of it and I couldn't let such a great deal slide by, he tried to talk me out of it but he knew that my mind was set and there was no changing it.

So below is a picture that I got from the internet of a truck just like his. I haven't had time to take any pics myself so this will have to do until I start snapping my camera. Mr. B's truck actually sits just a bit higher than this one. It doesn't have the lift kit on it or anything but the tires are taller than the one in the pic and that is where my only problem comes in...I am very short so I have a hard time getting into the truck. What matters is that my husband is happy.


















Y'all have a beautiful day, be careful and God Bless!