Athens:)

Friday morning I got up bright and early and headed down to Athens.  I wanted to go next weekend for the big Memorial Day singing but I have to work.  Plus, I really wanted to go to the preschool graduation.  Soon I won't know any of the kids and families that are there and I wanted to be able to go while I still knew most of them.  The kids still know me but since they don't see me very often the are kind of shy which is only natural.  I mostly went so I could see the parents that I worked with and love dearly.  It was pretty fun to be there.  And not nearly as stressful sitting in the audience rather than the front row trying to corral (corall?) a bunch of children.  It was the first time in five years I took pictures of a preschool graduation.  They were pretty stinkin cute:)

After the program it's always mass chaos.  So while I was able to talk to most everyone I wanted to see, getting up close and personal pictures with my kiddos didn't happen quite like I wanted it to.  I did get a cute one of Kenya.  She is the definition of spunky!

Saturday morning (bright and early again) most of us went up to the Tennessee fellowship center to get all the cleaning done for next weekend.  Not always a fun job.  I thought once I moved I wouldn't have to do that anymore.  I thought wrong.  But it turned out okay.  I spent most of the morning raking the sand in our volleyball court, getting a jump start on my summer suntan  burn.  I left from there and made it to Devin's last baseball game of the season.  He also had a spring program thing at his school that they invited me to.  At the end of the program, all the kids handed out a long stemmed rose to their moms.  He gave me his rose!  I felt really bad for his mom, although I really think she was okay with it, but I felt pretty honored too.  It was all I could do to not sit and cry and make a spectacle of myself.  The rose was supposed to be in the picture but the photographer aimed the camera a little too high.

The next few pictures are some that I took Sunday afternoon of some of the tornado damage in Athens.  This first house was brand new- nobody had even moved in yet.

Hmm..... farm much?

I had planned to leave for home right after church.  But then EVERYbody was going out to eat together.  Since people are coming and going right now doing tornado cleanup, it made for quite the crowd.  And I couldn't miss out on the party, right?  I thought as long as I got on the road by 4:00 it would be fine.  Then, while we were eating lunch, I realized I was just NOT ready to leave.  I kept hanging around and hanging around, ate supper and then finally left about 7:15.  I really wanted to push through and make it all the way home last night but I do know my limits.  From many past experiences of driving late into the night, I know that about 1:00 in the morning I hit a wall.  It's one thing if I only have thirty or so more minutes to go.  But when I knew I wouldn't get to my house until 3 or 3:30, and I was starting to get very heavy eyelids, and the rain was pouring down along with blinding lightning, I decided it would probably be wise to stop around midnight.  And they hold true to their word.

They left the light on for me:)  Thirty bucks, a night of rest and a hot shower later, I was back on the road again.  Good, good weekend!