Ice Storm 2010

Hello, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kelly Metaxas and I am the owner of this here blog. I find it kind of ironic that the last post was of a significant snow because we get so few and that is what I am posting about today. This year however it was primarily ice with a little snow thrown in. I didn't get any pictures of the snow/ice or the girls in it because we didn't really get out in it because ice is just no fun. Instead, I am including a picture of what happened to our house as a result of this ice.

We discovered this lovely huge spot in our garage that was leaking about 1:00 Sunday afternoon. My daughter saw it when she was going outside to shovel the driveway! That would have lasted all of five minutes if she had gotten there. As you can see in this picture, this hole is about the size of a sofa in length. It was just dripping when we noticed it and we were clueless of where it could be coming from. There are no bathrooms or anything to leak in that wall. The playroom is directly above that. So, we called our neighbor over because he used to do some plumbing work when he was in the service. We cut the sheetrock out so we could track the source of the leak. Apparently it is from the weight of the ice just sitting on the roof. Our gutters are clogged up with ice and so nothing was really draining so I guess the melted ice had to find somewhere to go. We really don't think we have a leak per se because we have never had any problems with that in the past. We have decided to just patch the hole and wait for another rain storm to see if it leaks anymore before we file a claim and search our roof for the leak. If we were to file a claim our insurance will likely go up because it will be our third claim. We filed for damage on our other house from Hurricane Elvis and then electricity hit our house about a year ago. We think our deductible is about $500 and it should be less than that to repair the hole.

So, that is my storm story of the Ice Storm of 2010. The schools were out on Friday because that is when the ice storm came. They are out again today even though the sun melted a good deal of it yesterday. The rural roads in the northern part of the county still have ice on them so we get a day off. The girls are excited. It is going to be hard to get them back in the groove because I don't think they have gone a full week since Christmas and they have a day off next week for President's day.

I am trying to take more and more pictures to improve my photography skills. I am going to try and post some of those pictures so I can track my progress. I hope to be able to see an improvement over time. So, for the future that will be my sole purpose of posting on this blog. Let's see if I can keep that up!

Winter Wonderland

Do you want to know when the last time was that we received a significant snow fall? By significant I mean more than and inch or two. It was in 1968. I was three years old and we had somewhere around 18 inches. Yesterday we had anywhere from 5-10 inches depending on what part of town you live in. At my house we got approximately 5 1/2 - 6 inches.

The Kids had an absolute blast playing in the snow, throwing snowballs, trying to make snowmen and sliding down hills. We bundled up and headed across the street to our neighbors where they have a huge slope in the backyard. The only downfall is that at the end of the hill you either stop or land in the lake. Thankfully we did not have anyone end up in the lake but we got close a couple of times.

I hope you enjoy this entry of photographs. Sometimes pictures tell the story better than words do. All I can say is that I am so ready for spring!

D-Now

Just a quick post to say boy have things been busy over the last several days. This past weekend we hosted nine 10th grade girls at our house for the whole weekend. It was for Disciple Now at church. They were a great group of girls which I was surprised about. I figured my house would get trashed, they would stay awake all night long etc. However, they left the house immaculate when they left and unlike other groups I heard about, they did sleep. Steve and I not only hosted but had to drive them back and forth to their worship location Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night. One of the girls that stayed at our house was saved during the event so that made it all worthwhile. Of course that had absolutely nothing to do with me. Their was a college age leader that also stayed at our house with them that led independent bible studies with them in addition to the worship segments they attended. Drama Queen stayed at someone else's house because they don't like to put your own children in your home. She really had a good time. Hurricane A was home for half of the weekend and now she is ready to participate in one herself but you have to be in 6th grade so she has a couple of years.

Sunday afternoon I took a nap because I was so tired. It's not like I didn't sleep or anything because I did. I guess with age you just can't be on the go that much and have the energy you did at that age. My wash got so behind because I did not touch it at all the entire weekend. I spent all day Tuesday washing clothes and finally got caught up.

I had drama practice last night and have it again tonight and tomorrow night. We are getting ready for our performance of Hee Haw on March 7. At rehearsal last night we laughed until we cried. I hope the performance ends up being as funny as we are trying to make it.

I give honor to my hometown of Loverlip, Mississippi, population of 1200. S-A-L-U-T-E!

Valentine's post

It was another exciting or rather busy weekend. Thursday night something rather unfortunate happened as one of the houses in my neighborhood caught on fire and is a total loss. It started about 2:30 in the morning and they had to call the Arlington and Memphis fire departments to help. Some of the firemen were hurt and sent to the hospital. The good news is that the homeowners were able to get out and are safe. I heard rumors that the family was actually getting ready to start packing the house because they were moving to another house in our neighborhood. I guess that means that the house had been sold to someone else. I don't know how all of that will workout but what a pain! The local high school will be doing a fundraiser for the family and our neighborhood association is also going to help them out in some way.

Friday night Steve and I went out for our Valentine's dinner. We went to eat at Hunan Pacifica a local chinese restaurant. I really like their food. The girls stayed home because Drama Queen was having two of her friends to sleep over. After eating we went to rent a movie that ended up not being very good. We stopped watching about 20 minutes in. I can't even remember the name of it. So, we watched a couple of episodes of King of Queens. We love that show!

Saturday I spent most of the day at my sister's house. My mother and I helped her to swap the kids room around and make room for the new nursery. We emptied drawers, shelves and closets, moved furniture from room to room and I even cleaned carpet. I was exhausted by the time I got home.

Sunday we went to church and then met our care group at Jason's Deli for lunch. I then took Libby to the movies to see Confessions of a Shopaholic for her birthday. It was a cute movie. Sunday night we went back to church to see the christian magician David Garrard. The place was filled with kids who were constantly raising their hands to be used on stage. Neither of my kids were picked this year. I think Hurricane A was picked last year. Drama Queen was sitting with the youth. She appears to have her first boyfriend which I am so not ready for. This boy asked her to "go out" several weeks ago and I know she told him no. ("going out" does not mean to go on a date, for those of you that asked "where are they going?" like I did. It just means to become one's boyfriend or girlfriend.) Well, yesterday he sat by her in the morning and evening service. He also brought her a box of candy, a poem that he supposedly wrote for her and a coupon for a free ice cream cone at a local ice cream place. Isn't that sweet? This boy even started chatting with Steve and I on Facebook this weekend! I think something is up. It embarrasses Drama Queen when I try to ask her so I have to figure it out by myself! UUGGHH! ( I am waiting on the phone to ring because I have not told my mother this yet!)

Today and tomorrow the girls are out of school for President's day. We had to work so they spent most of the day with friends. So, like last weekend, I had to go back to work to rest and rest I did because it was incredibly slow today!

Teachers and Doors can break my nose?

Last week I got one of those phone calls that as a parent you hate to receive. The dreaded, "there's been an accident". My heart drops when I hear those words from an assistant at the elementary school. Then she goes on to tell me that Hurricane A was hit in the nose by the Art teacher. Apparently Hurricane A's teacher had lost her spelling test and so she was out in the hall taking it again. She needed to go to the bathroom so as she walked by the Art teacher's room she was obviously walking to close to the door and when the teacher opened it to let her class out she hit Hurricane A in the nose. My sister is a teacher in that school and told me later that the Art teacher said she could hear it crack and just knew the nose was broken. Also the teacher was so upset that this happened that she had to leave and go home early. The office assistant that called me said that the nose was very bruised right away and was swollen. They put some ice on it and had her wait in the office for me to arrive. When I got there the swelling had already gone down and I did not see much bruising. It appeared that the ice had helped quite a bit. I looked at it and decided not to take her to the doctor since it looked a lot better than they had originally described to me. The next morning my sister called me before school started because the teachers were having a faculty meeting and the Art teacher was so concerned that the nose was broken. She was surprised that I had not taken her to the doctor because she "heard it crack!" Saturday when we were at the pediatrician's office for Bronchitis I had him look at her nose and he said at first glance it appeared to be fine but to bring her in again once all the swelling was down. It looks to me like it is just ever so crooked at the very end of her nose but I could be wrong. Dr. said it looked straight to him. So, I guess we will see.

Yesterday was one of those marathon days where you leave the house in the morning and don't come home until almost bedtime. After work I went to Wal-mart to buy valentines for Hurricane A to take to school Friday and also some for the kids. After that I went to church to eat and then to Drama. We are trying to work out all the details for our Dessert Theater coming up the first of March. We are doing Hee Haw. I am in charge of finding jokes to be used in the cornfield scenes. I have found some pretty funny ones. I am going to be in the Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me scene. I think it will be funny. I can't sing worth a flip but think about it, neither could those guys! So, I ought to be perfect.

After Drama I had a Personnel meeting to discuss some insurance changes. Nothing exciting there, actually pretty boring.

Today I met my mother for a quick lunch at Chick-fil-a. When you only get 30 minutes you have to throw your lunch down which is not a problem for me but for my mother who is a slow eater, it was hard to do. My mother is going to be helping my sister for a couple of days this weekend to get things finished up and ready for the new baby to arrive in April. With the recent passing of her father-in-law and all of the things they are having to do to help her, they have gotten behind on some things. I might try and help them out. They are literally moving all the kids around to different rooms and losing their playroom. She needs to get this done before she just doesn't have the energy to do it.

Bebe is on the way!

Political Outrage in the SouthernBelle home

You like the title of this post? Well, you will have to wait because I am going to wait an talk about that last. It's called the teaser. Ha! Well, there really isn't much going on around here but I wanted to post so this might be rather boring. We are having some rather warm temperatures this week and it is also pretty windy. We are expecting some severe weather tonight and tomorrow morning. I hope we don't get any tornadoes or straight line winds.

See that wasn't much of a wait was it? My husband is pretty passionate about his political views. We are republican and needless to say not so happy about our new president. OK, so you know President Obama has this stimulus package that he is working on right? Well it is all over the news that America is now getting nervous about the direction of all this. Well Steve is VERY angry about the whole thing. When I came home from work tonight he was on the phone with his brother who gets just as excited about things as his brother. I could tell by my end of the conversation that they were furious with things. He was so worked up that he was talking to anyone that would listen including our girls. So, we decided we were going to Baskin Robbins after dinner. Steve changed clothes and put on his Palin 2012 t-shirt. This was going to be the first time he has worn it outside of the house. When we arrive at Baskin Robbins there are two other men talking. One was African American and the other was Caucasian. They obviously both work at Federal Express as does Steve. I kept waiting for him to join in on the conversation because he talks to EVERYBODY. I even said as much and he said that he wasn't in the mood to talk. It must have been all the yelling he was doing earlier about Obama. Well all that changed when the African American turned the conversation to politics and the stimulus package. He was talking a bit louder than he had been earlier. He was saying things like Obama was going to turn this world around and how great the Stimulus package was going to be. At this point I looked at Steve and said "Don't join the conversation now!" Well for what good that did. All of a sudden Steve is saying "Palin in 2012, Palin in 2012!" The African American says "Ain't gonna happen dude!" They said several things back and forth and I don't even remember it all but I just glared at Steve and gave him my look of "ZIP IT!" Thank goodness the conversation did not last long. The Caucasian guy finally said "Well I am Republican also." So, the African American says that he voted for both Bushes but was sad for our economy and wanted to vote for a change. After that he said he needed to go.

I guess time will tell what happens to our country. I just hope it will be good for my kids!

Weekend Whirl

This weekend was a busy one. It started Friday night with a Valentine's party with our Sunday School class from church. We went to the Monday's house where we had a really good meal catered from Coletta's. It's funny to look back now, but I had Coletta's twice this weekend and it was totally unplanned. Actually it was an Italian weekend. More about that later. At the party we played some games after dinner. The first one was really like an icebreaker. Each couple had to fill out this sheet once they arrived that told about how you became engaged, where you spent your honeymoon etc. They gave away gifts to the couples that had the most interesting stories. I didn't think ours was that interesting but I guess someone did because we won a prize for the way Steve proposed to me. I guess instead of interesting it was more funny. We dated for nearly 4 years so we talked about marriage a lot in the last years. One night we went to the mall and went into a jewelry store and I found a ring and Steve found a ring so we bought them. Later when we left the mall, we pulled up to a stoplight in front of the mall and Steve said "Well I guess I should propose to you now. Will you marry me?" I just laughed and said "sure". That was it. Very exciting huh?

The next game we played was Family Feud. Steve and I both played but nothing very exciting happened during that game. As a matter of fact both of our teams lost. Next we played our annual "Not so Newlywed Newlywed game". Steve and I were chosen to play. As usual all couples have arguments about their answers. We were not disappointed during this game either. One of the questions asked to the wives was "Which of these does your husband hog from you? Covers, remote, computer or bathroom?" My answer was covers because I seem to yank and pull all night long. He does also steal the remote but most of the time I watch TV in the bedroom because we like to watch different things. So, I didn't count that very much. So, of course his answer was the remote. We got into a friendly discussion about whose answer was correct.

Of course we did not win. We had several other friendly discussions on other questions that he got wrong again! When will he learn that I am always right?

Saturday I began the day by taking Hurricane A to the doctor. She had bronchitis. After having pneumonia a couple of months ago I was hoping this cough had not turned into pneumonia again. It seems like I have heard that once you get it you are more susceptible to it. I will have to make sure and not let her colds or cough go too long without medicine.

That night we went to Mommas to celebrate my niece's birthday. She turned 11 and was so excited. She got a whole new spring wardrobe in one sitting. That's the good thing about having a birthday in February. Spring clothes have just come out and you get the first pick of them before they are picked over.

That night Hurricane A slept over at her best friend's house and Drama Queen had her cousin over because she wanted to go to church with us on Sunday. After church I had a Lead Team luncheon where we also had Coletta's catered in. Yum Yum! And this was after we had spaghetti Saturday night at my mother's.

This weekend was warm outside so the girls were playing outside a lot. We played softball in the backyard . We pitched and threw balls to the girls for practice. Hurricane A wants to play ball this summer so she needed to start practicing.

Well, after that I needed a nap on Sunday afternoon and it felt good. Now back to work to rest!