Out on the town

A couple of weeks ago my parents came to Nashville for the first time! We tried not to wear them out too much. I think they had a good time :)

This ol' fella welcomed them to downtown Nashville.

We got to go to The Hermitage--President Andrew Jackson's home. This is the back of the mansion house.

This is my mom and dad outside the front of the house. There is some renovation going on right now.

This was the original house until he decided he needed to have a more "presidential" residence.

We took them to see the Nashville temple.

Apparently I looked pretty good in this blue cowboy hat. (I don't see it.)

We had tickets to see the Grand Ole Opry, but the week before the Opry house flooded. So instead they did the show at the original Opry house--The Ryman.

It was a fun show and we got to see Alan Jackson!!!

Downtown Nashville on Broadway and of course, the telltale sign you are in Nashville--the Batman building.

We went to Portland, TN and bought some fresh picked strawberries and made a strawberry pie. Delicious!!

We had a great time mom and dad! Come back soon :)

Happy Anniversary

Because our anniversary fell on a Wednesday this year, we celebrated in increments. I surprised Rob with this early on in the week.

Part 1

It all started with this. Rob got a ticket to Italy! (idea and ticket complements of http://www.thedahlingdatingdivas.blogspot.com/).

Our culture was making playdough sculptures. Rob built a tank.

And a golum (you know what this is if you read the Fablehaven books).

He also made a puppy.

But the puppy didn't last long.

I took the easy route. I made Rob's favorite -- a doughnut!

Then I gave him a clue about what our cuisine was going to be for the night.

A yummy pizza.

Well, we ended up eating this one instead. It was super delicious!

Part 2

Rob's surprise for me came later in the week. He got us a night's stay at the Opryland Hotel!! This was the view from our window. The crazy thing about this was that we left the morning that all the rain started falling. Later that night they evacuated the building and most of the building ended up with at least 6 feet of water in it.

This is me on the balcony of our room. We had a great view of a waterfall.

This is what I saw as we walked into our room. Rob can be quite the romantic!

Flooding updates

Another dry overflow bed that is exceeding capacity and flooding people's backyards as it goes down.
A flooded backyard. Yes, that is a bench by that bush.
Come rain or hail or snow they always do their job. I was really surprised it tried to make it through there.
The flooded roadway this morning around 6:30. A beautiful picture showing how clear and sunny it is today thankfully. But those traffic cones nearly buried in the water in the middle of the road show us how much the water still has to recede and it's going to be a while.

Rob near the roadway this afternoon. The water will get higher then recede some then get higher again. Luckily at this point it will really not reach us at all.

This is the road around our neighborhood shown yesterday. The dry creekbed completely overflowed over the road and last night was rising 1 inch every 10 minutes. The fire department evacuated the people on the street just 1 down from us.

This lady's yard is now completely covered in water.

Earlier we had taken pictures of this lake that used to be a field. We had taken those pictures down in front of that fence. The water would now be over our heads if we stood where we had taken those earlier pictures.

This house is for sale. Luckily no one still lives here. We were in their back yard earlier in the day to take pictures. The water just rose so quickly.

Rob braved the cold dirty water to help these people carry out all their belongings. We checked with them this morning and there was at least 6-8 inches of water in their house. You can see the top of the fire hydrant (the yellow thing in the middle), but now it is completely covered and not visible.

New little rivers at our house

Our Little Monsoon in Nashville

We've had some crazy weather here in Nashville the last 2 days. In some areas over 20 inches of rain. We had a small river in our backyard, but luckily have not had any flooding or damage. Just a little damp carpet near a door that leads outside. We ventured out this afternoon to see our neighborhood and surrounding areas. We are counting our blessings that we haven't had to deal with flooding houses, no power, and damage that other people have had here.

This is an overflow area in our neighborhood that is normally dry and since this picture was taken, this has completely flooded over and has even covered the road!

This is a dry creek bed normally just one street down from us. The lady that has a house just to the right of this said she's never seen it this high before. A couple hours after this was taken the lady who lives here had to evacuate her home because the water level had reacherd her front door.

A downed power line split into 3 pieces. Also some downed trees just sheared off. This is near the mall just 2 miles from our house. We think a tornado touched down here this morning.

A field behind our neighbors house has now turned into a lake. The water level has now risen so that it has almost gone over the fence.


A car stranded near the on ramp to the freeway just above it.

A car stranded near the local grocery store a mile from our house. Another car (with the headlights) decided it would try to make it though. Brilliant!

The same car, headlights no longer visible, deciding that perhaps he can't make it afterall. Luckily he was able to back out of it.

An uprooted tree near the mall.