Our Beloved Soldier

Since Dave is too modest to post this his proud wife will. A New York Times reporter spent some time with Dave and his crew a few weeks ago. Here is an article that shows some of the hard work and challenges Dave is facing everyday.

When Afghans Seek Medical Aid, Tough choice for U.S.

The 4th and 5th slides are also good pictures of Dave at work. If we're lucky Dave might expound/correct it for us. We love you, Dave!

Cinderelly

Rogers and Hammersteins, Cinderella was in Nashville for one night last month. They had a phenomenal Broadway cast for this fundraising event. I was smitten with the performance so much that I came home and searched for the Julie Andrews version on DVD. It has since doubled in price while in my Amazon cart. Figures.

What I really want to share with all of you is this picture of pure darling!

While shuffling into the last minute venue (the Nashville Symphony's home was flooded) there were a number of people in costume. I will refer to them as the side walk cast. They were decked out in Disney's Cinderella attire. While deciding how to get a Cinderella photo op without looking juvenile I spotted this moment of precious. It was off the charts adorable.

Side-walk-cast, Prince Charming, sat in front of us during the performance. I wanted to reach out and pet his sash so many times. Thankfully I resisted that urge and avoided being escorted out in shame.

Not to be left out here is our bundle of adorable:

After sticking on the hat before church I quickly took pictures assuming this moment wouldn't last. I present to you the first baby that doesn't mind wearing a hat. Well, the first baby I know of. She left that hat on all day. 4.5 hours to be exact. I was shocked! And delighted. She was adorable in every aspect. She has started dancing in the pew during sacrament meeting. It's slightly distracting yet still adorable

Hundred year flood part 2

My technical illiteracy put this video in a separate post.

Hundred year flood

Two weeks ago we had some serious rain. Something along the lines of 14 inches in 12 hours. Everyone upstream and downstream got hit by a super long front producing the rain. The flooding was extensive.
Baby, the menagerie and I are fine. The creek behind our home is far down the hill from us. We were high and dry through the ordeal.
Below is a shot of an intersection in Clarksville. In this picture there is a McDonald's , Shoney's, Hooters, Harbor Freight and many other businesses under water.

Our friends took the opportunity to break in a new kayak down the middle of Riverside Drive. Sam let me use these pictures from her facebook page. Thanks Sam. You guys are crazy awesome!

Riverside Dr opened up this past Sunday the 9th. It was closed a whole week. We were 16 feet above flood stage. Nashville was 14 feet above flood stage. Right now there is a massive clean up effort going on here and in Nashville. Nashville's freeways were hit hard. Here's a link to a traffic cam clip from one of the worst days.

Blooming Blossoms

While raving about how our flowers are doing this year to Dave he requested pictures. Here you go Love.
A woman in the ward gave us these two tone Irises. I love them! A sneaky white one made it's way into this batch as well.

Dave bought these Narcissus last year. They are gorgeous. This group is under our red bud tree. Which had some blooms on it this year. I didn't get any pictures of it. Bummer. I appropriated the red bud starts from an abandoned farm house our first year here. They have tripled in height in three years.
Dave sent this rose bush to me during his last deployment. They have taken off.

Again these Irises were a gift from a coworker two years ago. Thanks Bo! It's hard to tell from this picture but we've got five colors in this patch. White, pink, two tone purple, lavender and yellow. The yellow ones are still thinking about emerging. I guess they don't want to steal the show.

We will miss all our flowers when we move. It has been one of the perks of living in Tennessee.

The Cowboy

This picture is a little old but needs to be posted none-the-less. It was taken a few days before Dave left for his all expense paid vacation at an exclusive location in the heat and sun. Sully the ever faithful attendant would follow him to Toronto and back if given the opportunity. Which he demonstrated even after the horse stepped on his paw. In return Sully bit the offending hoof above the hock while Dave was considering which part of the ground would make the softest landing. Thankfully all involved came out unscathed.

We are growing

Baby started crawling last week!

Just in time for the new floor too.

Here are the pumpkins at 5 days and again at 9 days. I can't believe how fast they have taken off. We are going to start some more today and hopefully get them all in the ground soon.



Today I removed the little box the queen bee came in. She gets to eat her way out courtesy of a marshmallow I installed. If only it were like every time we moved. Welcome to the neighborhood! Now eat your way through the door.

The pictures are of the honey comb they built this past week. Too bad I had to remove it. It was in some valuable honey real estate.

And all these guys are still kicking around. I haven't killed any yet! All in due time.

There's so much life going on around here. It's great.