finally back to the blog

i know you are all wondering where i have been. i have no good excuse, except that between work and travel and work again, with sleeping and other life necessities to take care of, the blog has come last. until today! i even have pictures to share, too.

we were able to go to franklin (tn) last weekend to visit with family and take care of some odds and ends down there. it was nice to see our families and to spend time in tn together, since the last trip that was made, i made by myself. we left on thursday, thankfully, because (good) friday brought along with it some seriously nasty weather. we were about 30 miles away from a EF-4 tornado (that whipped through jay's brother's neighborhood... he is fine, thankfully) and had a coworker not swapped shifts with jay, we would have been driving down on this same day. check out pictures and info on the storms here. we visited with my family and jay's family and that kept us busy enough.

i don't have a ton of pictures, but here are a few that were taken...

sweet spooner, jay's (almost) 14 year old black lab

we spent some time sunday afternoon with my extended family. we ate dinner (at 2pm) and came back to my grandparents' house for some dessert and for the young ones to hunt easter eggs. it was great getting to visit with everyone. i snapped a few pictures here, too.

darling (second) cousins: (L-R) justin, jason, james wearing their "handsome clothes"

my aunt regina, who has way too much fun with her camera

my sweet grandmother



fun egg hunting... with the boys are lindsey (brunette) and haley (blonde), my (first) cousins

one of my grandmothers beautiful dogwood trees

we came home monday afternoon to some very excited dogs and some much colder weather. when we left tn, it was almsot 70 degrees. we came home to 48 degrees and rain. no fair! but the dogs didn't care. :) they spent their weekend with our neighbors kelly, steven, and harley and also some time with our across-the-street neighbors, sharon and her grandson, james michael. when i hopped in the shower on tuesday, this is what i stepped out to....

pardon the mess, but note cotton, then dave and barley on the bed. they weren't going to let me go anywhere without their knowledge and approval!

and then it was life as usual. back to work. today, we are enjoying sunny skies, warm breezes, and lots of time playing outside. hope your weekend is great, too.