busy...

i haven't been on here to post for a while. partly b/c i'm blogging elsewhere, which will remain a secret until further notice. there's a very small chance for chasing a certain dream, and a friend recommended that i blog about it..it's one of those things that could be a big blog if the dream turns into reality and if i document it just right. even if no one reads it, it's fun to write it all out. so a lot of my time has been researching and blogging. i'll let you know as soon as i'm ready to have others read it. :)

but we've been busy too. two weekends ago we had nothing planned. would've been a lovely weekend for some much-needed yard work, re-doing the porch banister, finishing out my garden for this year, doing some shopping. but instead, as you know, we got a little rain. so much for that. the next week was spent cleaning up from that. jared amazed me once again with his servant heart. any water that came in our basement (and it did) went straight to the drain and out, just like it was meant to do 80 years ago. every couple hours we pushed the water toward the drain and had zero damage. many of our neighbors weren't so fortunate. many simply got a few inches of water. several had sump pumps that quick working when the power went out, leaving them with a couple feet of water. when the rain stopped, jared single-handidly organized who had and who needed portable sump pumps and wet vacs. he then helped organize an amazing volunteer effort just for our little zip code area. in.cred.ible. but busy.

last weekend, jared's brother graduated with his masters in social work. his hooding ceremony was friday night, which was also jared's first day back at work after the floods. it was interesting going downtown for the first time since the floods, and many blocks were still in total eerie darkness. saturday was jared's niece's soccer game we were going to go to, the 2 hour long actual graduation, followed by a cook out for lunch. we instead spent saturday helping a nearby neighborhood clean up from the flood and skipped everything but the lunch. sunday we helped some friends pack up their house, piece by piece, hearing the stories of each item, in preparation for demolition and rebuild.

today is tuesday, we had an insurance guy come try to talk us into switching our home and auto insurance and buying life insurance. we need the life insurance, he's got some details to tweak before we switch our home and auto....

thursday is our FIRST FOSTER CLASS!! well, it's not actually a class yet, it's the informational meeting. but that kicks it off. every thursday from now until july 8th, we'll be learning that sexually abused children wet the bed, ignored children tend to hoard and, under no circumstances, are foster children to be given any sort of physical punishment. we've been through this before, but we'll go through it again in hopes of having a foster child in the fall!!

this weekend is our neighborhood's annual home tour. jared pretty much organizes this alone. toward the end there are 1 or 2 other people that help with the planning of it, but it's pretty much all him, and has been for the past 3 years. he swears that this is his last time going it alone. he's happy to help, but doesn't want to be the sole person doing it next year. i know he can't say no, so we'll see. friday is a preview tour for all the homeowners on the tour and a little party. saturday..all day long..is the tour, followed by a party for the homeowners and the volunteers who work the tour. it's exciting, it's fun, it's a lot of work. i'm always torn between wanting to jump in...and wanting to stay completely out of it b/c i know i'll get frustrated at a few people who can be counted on to criticize but not help work. so i gently prod him to make sure everything is getting done on time. when it comes to getting people agree to putting their houses on the tour, it comes down to out-right nagging. but we have a full tour of great houses this year and several others who have said they're on for next year. (so, of course, it will be easy for next year's organizer..maybe we'll keep it another year if all the houses are already decided, haha!) i take care of communicating with the homeowners and writing the blurbs for the booklets. jared gets all the advertisers, finds and coordinates volunteers to work the tour, designs the layout of the book, takes care of publicity (this year he even made a little video for youtube..an idea stolen from another neighborhood's tour), sends it to the printers (i'll probably pick it up) and personally hangs banners that advertise the tour. he runs his tail off the day of making sure everyone has what they need. the 1-2 other volunteers are people who photograph the houses for the booklet and take care of the catering for the parties. it's a ton of work and the day after, he breathes a huge sigh of relief.

much to his frustration, people have suggested that he postpone the tour due to the flood. even though homeowners have put a lot of work and money into getting their homes ready, even though everyone has agreed to go ahead with it. even though steeplechase and many other annual events have gone on, giving a portion of proceeds to the flood relief. the tour will go on. a portion of the proceeds will go to flood relief. it was just hard for him not to take it personally when he has done so much work already for flood relief. someone put it best when they said "the flood happened. whether or not we celebrate our neighborhood can not change that. so let's go ahead and celebrate it and donate to the relief funds."

anyway, if you're in nashville, swing by and see our beautiful Village, which is nashville's best-kept secret.

when the tour is over, jared will collapse, i'll be in the last week of the mother's day out school year, and on sunday, may 23rd, i will turn 30.

busy busy!!!