Waffle House and Beyond

Well where do I even begin? This weekend was great. I had some friends come down to visit and we had a blast. It started out being about six people coming and by Friday afternoon there were 15. Last year we went to Waffle House right when people got here sorta on a whim. So we decided to do it again this year. What a night. I'm sure some of the stuff is "you had to be there" stuff, mixed with being really tired and slap happy, but we sure thought the night was funny. Within the first five minutes of being there, a waitress was on the 911 hotline phone and when she hung up we heard her say "Phyllis! Just come over here. The cops are on their way and they'll take care of it!" And that's pretty much how the rest of the night went. We sat at three differnt booths and some of the girls sat in the booth that one of the trouble makers had been in. During the course of the scuffle, he had ripped off his shirt sleeves getting ready to fight the other guy. And then.....

When the girls sat down they discovered that he had left his sleeves on the table. I guess he didn't need them anymore. But it was pretty gross. At one point we had a man stop by our table talking about how he had money and he didn't have to work this week because all he has to do is kill a man and then get his insurance. I mean seriously- how were we supposed to react to that anyways?

Our table had the best vantage point. Mandy and I could see everything that was going on and Dustin and Tony could see in the mirror if anything was going on behind them. A very interesting experience indeed. But after a good nights rest, we were ready to go Saturdy morning.

There were 17 of us total. The group brought a 15 passenger van and a car. Rather than split up we decided to all pile in the van for the day. It was a tight fit, but it made for some good times and some great singing!

Unfortunately this is the only group picture I got. You can't really see who's all there, but there we are in front of Cathedral Caverns before our tour started. That's the third time I've been there now, but it's just a good thing to do when people come. Something they wouldn't normally do. The coolest thing though, was when we got to the end of the tour at the very back of the cave. First, they show you total darkness. Like put your hand right up to your nose and you can't even see an outline of it. But while we were there we asked the tour guide if we could sing a song. So we all sang "Amazing Grace" and it was beautiful. Just being there, seeing one of God's great creations, with really good acoustics... it was really neat. And that got us going and we sang for almost an hour after that.

I was so excited to have some of my cousins come along. Kristi and Dustin & Mandy. I had such a great time with them here.

Five of us were teachers so this is our teacher shot. It was fun talking all about kid books and kid stories with others who were just as excited about it as me.

For supper we went to Ryan and Hope's house in TN. We ate, sang and played some games. There were a lot of Athens people there and us and I think we had about 40 total. Maybe not quite. It was a good time but we were very tired and ready to go to bed by the end of the night.

I am so thankful for everyone who came. I really appreciate the effort they made. I know it's a long drive and it's really easy to make excuses why it would just be easier to stay home. But it was really encouraging to me to have them down here. Yes, there were a lot of crazy times, but there were a lot of things that happend that have left me feeling uplifted and rejuvenated. So if you came and if you're reading this, thanks so much! I appreciate you all!