Do you think a tornado can stop Superwoman????

Do you think I would let 10 tornado warnings stop me??? Yes??? Guess again!  Life must go on, tornado warnings or not!!!

getting ready from Easter dinner

I have been taking a little break from blog writing.  Uploading all of those Vegas pictures was quite a task.  If you have been watching the weather, you know that the KY/TN (as well as the whole South) as been slammed with tornadoes since........I don't know........forever????  I know I had bad weather the night after I got back from Vegas and it has seemed like every day since!!!! I thought some of you might be a little concerned.  Well, we are just fine!!




When there is a tornado warning, I don't really get scared, but I don't want to be stupid and I  want to be prepared.  My bedroom is actually on the second floor by a huge window.  I know that isn't a good place to be during a tornado.  So, when bad weather is predicted during the night I always wonder what I should do.  (Go to sleep and hope for the best???) 


Early Tuesday morning, the weather woke me up and it sounded pretty bad (there was a tornado warning), so I went down a half bath downstairs.  It gets very cramped with me and my 75 lb. dog.

 



I have also become quite proficient at watching the radar and tracking the storm.  My county is very large, so I can also track the storm to see if it looks like it is coming to our part of the county.  Well, last night, I was keeping an eye on the radar and the storm was heading my way.

I got a great idea.....Instead of being awakened by the storm, I decided to be Proactive (not the face product). I put the capital in purpose as a joke, although it may not be a very good one!  :D  I decided to get my air mattress, sheets and pillows and put it downstairs in the hallway right outside of that half bath. (No, I didn't take a picture!) This way, I could go to sleep and not worry about waking up in the middle of the night and making a decision when I was half asleep. 

It started sounding kind of bad right when I was falling asleep, but I went to sleep knowing I was in the best safest place in my house.  I also knew that if it got really bad, I could dive into the half-bath.  It did storm, and got noisy, but not too bad.  I actually slept really well.  Much better than the night before.



Clarksville really hasn't been hit very hard at all.  There is a lot of downed trees, and broken branches, but we have really been lucky.  Many have been without power and Montgomery Co. even canceled school on Tuesday because of that.  I never lost my power, so that was great.  We've been getting word that Alabama has really been hit hard.  My thoughts and prayers go out to them.  I actually have Torch Mission friends that live in Alabama and I'm praying for them especially!


Sights around Clarksville:

You can see some of the damage caused by the strong winds.  I think the bigger concern is flooding.  Clarksville had the worst flood in a 100 years almost exactly a year ago.  You can see from my pictures that there is already lots of flooding.  While I was at my meeting tonight, I read where volunteers were filling sandbags.  Let's hope the rain stops!!!  More people die in floods than any other natural disaster.  (If I have my facts correct!!)

Random pictures from the past week:

I love me some delicious blackberries!!  0 WW pts!

delicious Easter dinner at my mom's new house

Here I am Monday.  I was on a quest for a Zumba class.  I found one at the local Baptist Family Life Center.  (Ladies' only!)  The instructor was awesome.  We ladies were rockin & booty boppin!!!!  It was great, although about 40 ladies were crammed in a small room. :/  I can't got back to Zumba till Friday night.  I have had two evening meetings this week! :(

Here's the latest Buffalo Wild Wings update.  The parking lot is almost done and they have a sign up that they are hiring.  Can someone tell my son that he needs to apply???

Some of my sweet second graders made this.  They know I have a blog and they wanted me to take a picture of it to put in my blog!!





I was going to end my blog with the song, "Blue Skies".  You may remember the Willie Nelson version.  Well, look what I turned up on Youtube.  This group is interesting.  It's called: Noah and the Whale.  Check it out!!







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Here's a picture that I found for you.....Here's to.....Blue Skies

xoxo PJ

Las Vegas The Final Episode

April 24, Easter Sunday  Have you ever watched one of those confusing movies where the story is told backwards???  I think I will do that with this blog.  :0)

I'm actually writing this on Easter night.  Today was not only Easter, but also my mother's birthday.  Nick and I took Cocoa and spent the night.  My son drove up from college and also spent the night.  That made it more relaxing.  We usually have to get back home to check on the dog.  The food was amazing and we enjoyed spending time with our family. 

 Nick's sister and dad were also able to join us for dinner.  We evidently drove through a tornado warning in Cadiz, Ky on the way home. Using my trusty IPhone 4, I was able to use my Weather Channel app to track the storm and see that we were in the clear.  We made it home with no problems and I think the rest of the night will be calm.  At least for now!!



Storm update The days of my Spring Break are running together.  Forgive me, if I already mentioned this.  When I write my blog, it's like I'm telling an old friend a story!!!  I can't remember if I've told you or not!!  This past Wednesday, we had some severe weather through the night.  Here's some pictures of a bush in my yard and my neighbor's tree.

Easter dinner sidenote:  My mom did all of the cooking and it was awesome.  I contributed my strawberry cake and some fresh asparagus.  I always make strawberry cake because I love it and it's my younger son's favorite.  Someone asked me if it was from scratch and I thought I would add the recipe.  You start with a white cake mix, but you add other things including strawberries.


Patty's Strawberry Cake
1 box white cake mix
3/4 c oil
1 small box strawberry jello
1 c. strawberries (I suggest blending them in the food processor.  I usually buy frozen, but add fresh too.)
1/2 c water
4 eggs (This time I used brown cage-free!!  It was the best I've ever made. Ask my family!!)

Mix dry ingredients with oil and water. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.  Add strawberries.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.
Icing
1 box powdered sugar (Usually I try to measure from a large bag, but this time I had the 1 pound box and it was better!)
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 c strawberries (prepared the same as you did for the cake)



Friday was Earth Day!!  Here I am wearing my Earth Day t-shirt.  In second grade, we honor Earth Day during most of April, so I may still write an Earth Day post soon.  I promise it won't be boring!!  :)  I don't know, maybe Saturday was Earth Day.  lol, It doesn't matter!

Saturday, April 23:  I went to Zumba and then we drove to Murray.

If you have ever lived in Murray, you will recognize this sight.

My mom, my son and I had an early dinner here.  This was one of my dad's favorite restaurants.  He would go there for coffee every day at 3.  He did this pretty much until the end.  It's not our favorite place to eat because peole can smoke there.  My mom had asked my son what he wanted for Easter dinner and he said, "country ham".  LoL  Ham was on the Easter menu, but not country ham, so that's why we went to Marthas.  I had a cheeseburger and it was awesome!!

My son hates having his picture taken.  He never knew that I took this and he also doesn't know that I put this on my blog.  Don't tell him okay.  He doesn't read it anyway!!  :0)


Okay, now for more Vegas pics:


(Please,if you're a techie, please tell me a quicker way to add pictures to my blog!!!  I have to do them one at a time!!!  :/)




The Mirage (We didn't go in.)



The restaurant we ate at had cool cars on display.  I had my son believing that this was my rental.  :0)



The Venetian (I haven't been to Venice, so I don't know if this is realistic or not, but it was really cool!)

I am not sure which hotel this was in.

You may remember that we were window shopping and killing time until our 7:00 show.  Madame Tussads (sp?) was outside of the Venetian.  We didn't pay to go in, but we met Whoopie Goldberg and Harrison Ford outside!!!

:( Unflattering

I believe this was at Treasure Island.  At night, there is a pirate show.  We  "kind of" saw it from across the street on the way back tot he hotel.

This is the Fashion Show Mall.  The architecture reminded me of a spaceship.

Our show was at the Wynn Hotel.  It was very new and fancy. My research mentioned how the man who built this hotel was a legend in Vegas.  I guess in real estate.  I would have to look again to see exactly what it said.

Check out the cushy seats, this was our VIP seats.  We were not allowed to take pictures or videos during the performance.  I can't even begin to describe the show.  It was amazing and well worth the cost of the ticket.

The stage was down below us in the

 middle.  At times, there was water, trapeze artists dancers, divers, swimmers and lots of special effects.  It was too cool!!

We liked the Cirque de Soliel show so much that Nick got us tickets to one coming to Nashville in May.  I realize it will be totally different than the one we saw.

Long walk back to the hotel.  We logged over 5 miles and that was even with my pedometer turned off some of the time!!!

Arc de Triumph (looks like the real one!!!)

Last of all:  A short video

 As I'm finishing this up, I'm watching The Office on my DVR.  I'm shedding a tiny tear as everyone is serenading Michael Scott after the Dundie awards.  I'm truly going to miss Steve Carell.  I hope Will Ferrell will do a decent job in his place.  Noone can take Steve's place though!!!

http://youtu.be/-h-TgQvkY7U

Las Vegas Terza parte

Saturday, April 23:  I'm continuing to work on catching up on reporting about my Vegas trip.  You may have noticed that I changed my blog green in honor for Earth Day.  I have made my homemade strawberry cake for Easter dinner.  I'm actually at my mom's house.  My college-aged son is here, and we even brought our dog.  She is wearing "dog shoes" so she doesn't scratch my mom's new hardwood floors.  (See picture below)








Las Vegas Pt. 3  I'm continuing with Monday, April 18th.  Monday's plan was to go back to Tix4Tonight. Since we had purchased tickets yesterday, it qualified us to get in the VIP line today.  That meant jumping in front of the long line and saving additional $$$ for whatever show we purchased.

Today, I have found an app on my IPhone that is a pedometer.  After we walked so far yesterday, I decided to actually track it and see how far we walked.  I turned it on and we walked almost 3000 steps just to get out of our hotel.  We get outside and we realize that I don't have the receipt from yesterday's purchase.................................

so..........I hoof it back up to the room and search everyone for the slip that had our discount code.  All I could find was our receipt that  would prove that I had purchased our tickets yesterday.  I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.  We arrived at the ticket stand about 10 minutes after they opened.  There was already a line.  I walked up to the VIP line and talked to one of the workers.  He starts shaking his head and saying he was sorry. 

 Another young girl walks up and he asks her and she says "Yes, let them in the VIP line!!!"   BINGO!!   We were able to get our tickets for Cirque de Soliel La Reve for almost half price.  We also paid a few extra $$$ for a discount  for dinner at an Italian restaurant close by called Dal Toro.  So that meant we had about 6 hours to kill on the strip.  What to do????  Well, there was plenty to see and lots of window shopping to do until dinner and our show.

Sights on the strip:

This guy had a monitor lizard from Australia.  You saw everything on the strip.



Paris, Paris (I went to Paris when I was a senior in high school.) This is very realistic!!!

Monday was more overcast and slightly cooler.  It was very windy, but the day was pleasant!

I'm pretty sure that this was the grounds of Caesar's Palace.  We sat in the shade and did some people watching.  Above you see an interesting shrine.  People were actually lighting incense.  We overheard a girl say she was saying a prayer about having a room tonight.  She was laughing, I hope she was joking.

Check out my new Merrills that I bought before the trip.  They were actually very comfortable.  We were probably logging over 5 miles a day, and they were really comfortable!!

I believe this was inside Caesar's Palace.  Every hotel had neat things to see.  I have forgotten which hotels were which.



Most of the hotels had cool shops and some were quite fancy!!

 

Caesars had a cheesy animatronic (sp???) show that was interesting.  My pictures don't really do a good job showing it.

(I found this picture that I took with my phone.  It continues to amaze me!!!!)

You may have heard of H&M stores.  They are very reasonably priced.  We had been in another one down the strip, but it wasn't near as cool as this one!!!!

Just to let you know, the regular rooms in Vegas do not come with a coffee pot, but conveniently most of them had a Starbucks three miles down in the lobby.  I always went and got our coffee.  This morning, I got myself some fresh fruit, but alas, I didn't remember to get myself a muffin. 

Here I am teaching Margare how to do a self-portrait.

 We were dragging and lacking energy.  We had planned to have a late lunch/early dinner. We finally found a place to get coffee and rest, we shared a muffin.  The pictures above are the view from our seat.  (This was right across the strip from where Nick and I stayed this past summer.) 

This is a really cool spiral escalator.  (Someone help me out, do you know where this is??)

I'm not sure if this was in the Bellagio or the Wynn.  I think it was in the Wynn where our show was.

We ate our late lunch at a very nice reasonably priced Italian restaurant named Dal Toro.  They seated us outside. (We were actually below the sidewalk.) The day had turned sunny.  It was very relaxing and pleasant.  We had probably walked 5 miles already by that time, so it felt good to sit!!!!  Our restaurant was across the street from the Wynn where our show was.  I don't remember what hotel it was in.

I think this was me standing by the canals at the Venetian.

I think that is enough Vegas pictures for now.  Stay tuned for probably one more installment.  Believe it or not, but, I'm not putting up all of my pictures.  I have MANY!!!

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday.  In case you didn't know, here is important Easter facts:
Top Ten Candies for Easter Baskets
Here are the top 10 brand preferences of kids 6-11 who eat candy!
1. M&Ms (60%)
2. Skittles (57%)
3. Hershey's Kisses (56%)
4. Kit Kat (54%)
5. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (53%)
6. Starburst (51%)
7. Ring Pop (50%)
8. Laffy Taffy (48%)
9. Hershey's Milk Chocolate (47%)
10. Push Pop (47%)
Source: Experian Simmons National Kids Study Fall 2006




Actually Easter is much more than eggs, baskets and candy.  Here is a song, to help us remember  the real reason people celebrate Easter.  Here's wishing you and your loved ones a happy, safe and peaceful Easter Sunday!!!


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xoxoPJ