9-1-1 Scare!!!

I went to Nashville the last week of September and while I was there, we had a scare at home. I was staying at the Marriott hotel by Vanderbilt and Annie was home alone with the kids. Ryan was staying at a friends house. Around 4:30am, I woke up to my phone ringing. I thought it was my alarm but then saw it was Annie calling. I answered the phone and she was whispering, saying that she thought someone was in the house because she could hear glass clanging together downstairs.

I immediately told her I was going to call David and I'd call her back. Ryan was about 15 minutes away and David & Mandy live about 5 minutes away. I hung up with her, called Mandy's cell phone, but they didn't answer. I hung up, called Annie back, and asked if she had called the police. She said she hadn't, so I told her to call 9-1-1 and I'd call Ryan. The Germantown police station is only about 2 miles from our house, so I knew once she got on the phone with someone, the police would be there quickly. I called Ryan and told him to get home fast!

I then called Annie back and she didn't answer. I knew that the likely reason was that she was on the line with 9-1-1 and couldn't click over, but the other part of me went to the place that no one ever wants to go (especially a mom!). I couldn't reach her for about 10 minutes and during that time, I had convinced myself that someone had taken Annie & the kids. I just cried and prayed and cried and prayed during those 10 minutes. My phone finally rang and Annie told me the police were there and everything was okay. R-E-L-I-E-F!

Annie said it only took a few minutes for the police to get there. When they did, they heard the clanking and went running through the house trying to find it. They checked all of the rooms and busted into Madison Claire's room with a flashlight - which caused her to wake up screaming. They finally found the culprit to be the ceiling fan in the guest room upstairs. It had gotten off kilter and was clinking together making the noise. Annie said she felt silly, but we were all really thankful it was just the fan and not anything more serious/dangerous.

I remembered that Ryan was on his way there and told Annie to make sure the police knew he'd be coming - I could just see them tackling him on the front yard!!! She was a step ahead of me and had already let them know!

As crazy as it was, it was a good reminder that life is short and we have to trust everything (especially our kids) over to the Lord. You better believe that I hugged them a little extra long when I got back to Memphis.

Go Defense!

Madison Claire loves going to Daddy's Football games! David, Mandy, Grayson & Addy joined us a few weeks ago. Aren't they just the cutest ECS fans!!

The coaches wives hill, where we camp out during the home games. I'm so thankful for these women!

As usual...the buddy passed out for the second half

Memphis Update

Well...we've been in Memphis for just over 2 months so I thought I'd give everyone an update on how we are doing as Memphians. We are still acclimating to this new area, but we've become regulars at a few places - Whole Foods, Pei Wei, Pure Barre, Humdingers, and our new favorite Deli Mexicana. It's a local true Mexican place - they get all of their food fresh each day from local farmers. It's really good (and unfortunately really expensive)!!

We've also found good shopping and become members at the Memphis Zoo & Memphis Botanical Gardens - both are great! We have not yet become regulars at a church - we are still searching and that's been frustrating. We also miss our friends in Nashville and being closer to home.

There is no new news on the house front. We are still in the Showhomes house and it's been just fine for us. The neighborhood is nice and convenient to just about everything. We have had a total of about 6 showings since we have moved in. Ryan continues to monitor any changes in the market for new homes and there isn't anything he is interested in right now. Boo! Please pray the right house will reveal itself to us soon! In the meantime, we are very thankful for this (rat-free) house!

My friend Julie Haley has moved many times and she shared that the 2nd & 3rd month are usually the hardest. Here is praying for everything to be all uphill from here!

Mommy's helper

Ashley Stiernagle gave me a recipe for Zucchini Carrot muffins and Ryan LOVES them. I thought it would be fun to let Madison Claire help me make them a few weeks ago, so here we are...making muffins!

Trip to Nashville

I had to make a work trip to Nashville in mid-September so Annie and I loaded up the kids and off we went for the week. It was good to be back, but it was a hard trip. There were a few times where things felt so "normal", like my old life, back a year or so ago before life changed in our house. I had a few tears and really missed Ryan while I was gone.

We stayed with the McSwains and Madison Claire talked her way into sleeping with them most nights (not that it took any arm twisting). Here she is asleep one night in their bed - just like a little princess. Ironically, as I type this she is upstairs in our house in Memphis screaming like a crazy person because she won't go to sleep.

Annie had fun playing with the sidewalk chalk outside of the McSwains - here Madison is posing with her artwork :)
Annie also got some good time with the buddy. He loves to be read to! So cute!

We met up with Anne, Luke & Lily on our last day and here they are...3 little monkeys

Happy Buddy

ECS vs. USJ

ECS played in Jackson, TN a few weeks ago so we all took a road trip to Jackson. Zack came over from Hendersonville and joined us for the game. It was a fun game...a really close one that we pulled out thanks to a defensive stop at the very end of the game! The McSwains took Madison Claire back to Nashville and Annie and I headed home to Memphis with the buddy. Here are a few pics:

I'm so thankful for the coaches wives...they have been a great blessing to me!
Ryan after the game
The buddy was sound asleep by the time we got home...