Fantastic Five

Well, it's about time that I posted pictures of Lawton's 5th Birthday party . . . it was only a month ago. :) I seriously got a little teary as I was uploading these pictures - seeing his joy and excitement - and five still seems so old to me! It's only going to get worse each birthday . . . my sweet baby boy. :(

After talking about his party literally every single day for MONTHS, and having all imaginable "themes" possible, we finally made him decide three weeks out. I think he made a great decision and we had a wonderful party - he chose a Lipscomb baseball party. Hmmm. . . his baseball team just so happens to be the Bisons (Lipscomb mascot), and his Uncle Brent (and baseball coach) works at Lipscomb, AND his birthday falls in the prime of baseball season, April 14!

On a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, he was able to throw out the opening pitch. Too bad it was the second game of a double header and they started 15 minutes early - everyone missed him throwing the opening pitch. No worries though - he had no idea that no party go-ers saw - and he loved every minute of it. He was so proud! :)

This was his warm up pitch - I took a picture of the actual "pitch" with my real film camera so I could zoom and actually get a decent picture (vs. my point and shoot digital . . .)

Emily was going to make the cake, but she realized that her plate was super full since she was in charge of a huge fundraiser the night before, so I had to make the cake with some pointers and a little help from her. Thanks, Em!!

Oh, and our menu? Hot dogs and Cracker Jacks, of course!

The real Bison made an appearance for the birthday boy!

Sis wasn't too sure about him. . .

Luke and Carolina had a BLAST playing with the balloons - they eventually escaped because the paper around the weights was torn up after they dragged them around so much!

This might be my favorite picture of Lawton and Hunter together - EVER.

Ummm. . . Can you tell he was a wee bit excited about his new Braves hat and t-shirt? I was telling someone tonight he might as well only have four shirts in his closet - his Braves shirt, Titans jersey, Predators outfit (see below) and his fall ball t-shirt. He has a closet full of nice shirts/t-shirts (some also sports themed), but he wants to wear these shirts over and over and over. It could be much, much worse - so I just go with it as long as they are clean. :) (and Chad and I like sports, but we are in no way sports fanatics . . . ESPN is never on, but yet he wants to check my phone all the time for scores.?)

Noni and Dandy gave him this cowboy hat because we went to the rodeo the very next weekend with them. He cocked his arm like this unprompted and I just love it - he cracks me up . . .

And his beloved Preds outfit - he has worn it every cool day since his birthday . . . but my favorite part of this pic? Papa J's happy face in the background. :)

After all the partiers left, we actually sat down and watched the game. It went into extra innings and was very exciting!

I love you sweet Lawton!!!

Historic flooding in my hometown

This is for the handful or so (?) out of town readers . . .

I'm not sure if any of my sweet friends in Texas and where ever you may be realize what has happened in Nashville, but I'm doing my part to spread the word to my little corner of the world because we have received almost no national news attention.

On May 1 and 2, we received record-breaking, (hopefully) once in a lifetime rainfall in the Middle Tennessee area. At our house, we recorded 16.26 inches in less than 48 hours!! Thankfully, we have been very blessed to receive no flood damage at our house and so far have had no interruption in water or electric service. (However, we are at a critical stage in our water supply and are on strict water conservation watch - only for drinking, food prep and washing HANDS.)

On May 2 and 3, the Cumberland River (which runs right through downtown) crested at an all time record high and flooded many communities, many of which never even dreamed that they would be in a flood plain and don't have flood insurance. The flood waters swelled and flooded the heart of our downtown, including many historical and major tourism attractions, including the Titans field, our downtown arena, the Symphony (which is only a few years old) and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Also flooded and destroyed is the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, Opry Mills (a HUGE shopping mall) and thousands of homes. Buses and trains for public transportation have been flooded and those services have been cut extremely back and/or halted.

For whatever reason, we have only gotten minimal news coverage, but the devastation is Katrina-like, only without the looting. There were hundreds, possibly thousands of water rescues from flooded homes and cars. Nashvillians are helping each other out, and because we have the "Volunteer" Spirit (we are the "Volunteer State"), maybe our "story" isn't that sensational and newsworthy.

Thousands upon thousands of people's lives, homes, and memories have been affected greatly and will have a lifelong impact because of the events of this weekend. Please keep all the families, businesses, and our city in your prayers - it will be a very long, hard recovery.

If you want to peruse some pictures of the devastation, you can click HERE for many photos and videos.