No house, but new furniture.

So, the whole house deal fell through. It is what it is. It wasn't meant to be and we accept that. We have moved on. We looked at several other houses today and have it narrowed down. I want to go look again just to be sure.

Although we don't have a house, we do have new furniture. We had purchased it when we thought we would be moving in, so we had to pick it up. We are enjoying it (as is Boo). It's very comfortable and will be ready to move when we find a house. (We also have a wedge piece and another sofa in the garage. There's too much to put in the house!) The "M" on the couch is the one I made to go in our living room.

FaLl CoLoRs

Since Ireland doesn't get a whole lot of color change, I thought I would walk around campus and take pictures of the beautiful colors of Fall cropping up all over. Enjoy!

Our New House

We went to the new house today to do an inspection. I took a few pictures but I was uncomfortable taking pictures of the house while the current owners were home. I didn't take any inside, just outside. I also got a picture of Moon's new truck so you could see that too.

Our well

Marine 5K Mud Run

So my friend Debbie asked me if I liked to run. I started laughing and said, "No, I don't like running, but I do it anyway." Then she asked me if I liked to get dirty. "Heck, yeah!" I said. Hence...the Mud Run.

Our team name was the Balled and the Beautiful. 6 girls, 2 guys. Front row: Michel, Hunter, Stephanie, Pace, Chad. Back row: Brad, Debbie, Me. And we were there to get muddy.

The mud run is a 3.2 mile obstacle course put together by the Marine Reserves in Knoxville, TN. The run starts out up a small paved hill then turns onto a grassy field marked off into lanes. The obstacles seem innocent at first with a few log hurdles you have to climb over, a little more running, a dry sand pit you have to army crawl through, more running, a slightly muddy zigzag, more running, thigh deep water you have to wade through (see left). But even at this point we were not that muddy. Then as soon as you left the water we were faced with an unbelievable incline probably only 50 feet long... but it was all mud. Not get your feet stuck mud, this was "lets make this a mudslide" mud. So this herd of 100 people or so are trying to get up this thing all at the same time. Some brave souls go at it at a run, smarter people walk and try to find safe footholds. I walked, yet my luck ran out. The girl in front of me landed on her knees and started sliding my way. I stopped her with my legs, but my legs didn't stay under me. So I was down...and kept sliding down. (First one of our group down, too.) The girl behind me wasn't nice and didn't try to help me up, so when she went to step over me, I tripped her (j/k she tripped over her own foot.) Finally, I was able to regain my footing thanks to a nice guy you lent me a hand. Not 2 seconds later, I was down again and sliding faster. Digging my toes in wasn't helping, so I dug my fingers in and I'm still looking for my right index finger's nail. (Kidding again) FINALLY, I got to the top with help from Brad, and the others were waiting on me with evil little grins. I think I made someone money, because I am sure they took bets on who was gonna fall first.

Well, the trail continued on a flatter note but was still slick after the rain the night before and the 300-400 pairs of feet that had trampled across it earlier. Then we came to Over Under. 6 telephone poles over a "Ima gonna steal yo' shoes" mud pit. First two you had to climb over. No biggie. (Though I do feel sorry for the girl who got a mud full of face/face full of mud when I kicked my leg over, but she shouldn't have been so close.) The last 4 poles were getting progressively closer to the mud, and you had to crawl under or the marines yelled at you.

By the time you got out of the mud pit, you had gained ten pounds on your feet, and you were still expected to run. So trot I did, for a little while. Then I walked, then jogged, then walked and complained, then jogged and walked. We came to the High Knees Tires, and surprisingly I didn't fall. Walked/Jogged some more, jogged up a hill to 3 giant PVC pipes with a thin layer of mud on the bottom to help slide through. Also, they had tiny jagged rocks that imbedded themselves in arms, palms, knees, or any other flesh they had the misfortune of meeting. I truly believe marines are sadists (though they didn't put those rocks in on purpose... I think). Another quick run downhill to another part of the lake we had to wade through, across a parking lot, into grass, to a shoulder high wall. I got over it first try. It wasn't pretty. It was spastic, but somehow I landed on my feet. More infernal running. Another mud pit to crawl through. Another big ass hill with less people on it (I didn't fall!). More walk/jogging. Army Crawl through mud with marines telling us to keep our butts down, and two girls (Me and Pace) telling them if they had butts, they would be having the same problem we were. A quick jog, under a one wire, to the last stretch. A quick wait for everyone to catch up so we could finish together. An older drill sargent yelling at us to "Pick it up! You had better not be slowing to crawl, there!" Me attempting to give said clean drill sargent a hug (he was very agile and only got his hands dirty). Me sprinting to catch up with the group and us finishing at 59 minutes and 10 seconds on the clock which translates to 55 minutes and ?? seconds from our start time. Not too shabby! We had a blast, got some pictures (Left: Debbie, Me, Pace), then all jumped in the lake to clean off as best we could. I would love to do it again next year, and that is the plan if our clinicals are in the area. Hope you guys enjoyed the play by play and the pictures! Love, Em

The Balled & the Beautiful

1st row: Michel

2nd row: Chad, Hunter, Pace, Stephanie

3rd row: Brad, Debbie, Me

Demolition Derby Results

Last night Moon, Josh, and Thomas competed in the Wilson County Demolition Derby. Moon was in the second heat while Josh and Thomas were in the third heat. Moon came out being a heat winner for which he won a trophy and a check! : )

Something on Thomas's car was too advanced and he could not gain any speed. He was being smart and instead of letting the opponents beat the metal off his car, he broke his flag to save his car. Josh, on the other hand, gave EVERYBODY hell. His car is junked! He made sure that every car in his heat felt his presence! He was missing a tire, which he had no idea, and was still able to give a great show. If one more person would have broken their flag before Josh, he would have been a heat winner. He wouldn't have been able to go back to the finals, but he would have at least gotten his entry fee back plus some. He had fun and that's all he wanted!

So, Moon went back to the final and made sure he made a name for himself! I am so proud of him! He kicked some butt and took names while he was doing it! If it weren't for the sandbagging and double teaming, Moon would have gotten a higher standing, but I guess it pays to be in good with the officials. (With that being said, you are not allowed to watch the video of the derby unless the sound is muted!) Despite the cheating, Moon kept on truckin' with a busted radiator and flat tire. He tried to push on, but a broken distributor cap (that was zip-tied on in the beginning) kept him from proceeding. No matter the circumstances, Moon walked away with 4th Place, another trophy, and some more money! He was grinning from ear to ear!

Getting down to Derby time

Moon and Josh are getting ready for the Demo Derby in Lebanon, and it's time to paint the cars. They didn't want anything extravagent, so I just painted their sponsors names and a few mementos. Here they are! (Moon - green/white, Josh - pink)

Cutting the Grass, the Joy of Summer

Well, I was at it again this afternoon. Being the good wife I am, I was cutting the grass so Moon didn't have to when he got home. (By the way, Moon has only cut the pasture once or twice this year and he has only cut the back half of the yard - under the trees and behind the garage - once this year. I have cut it ALL the other times...) Anyhow, Moon did get home as I was cutting the grass so he got in the pool to clean it. Now I'm on the side of the house closest to the road, so Moon can see me from the pool. Since Moon does not allow me to weedeat because I use too much string, he has to do the weedeating, but that takes any act of Congress! Trying to make the yard look as good as I possibly can, I go into the low area of the ditch to cut the grass there and I get as close to the edge as possible where the ditch is a little steeper. Today I had a difficult time trying to get the mower to back up once I got close to the edge. Because I was thinking, I turned the mower off and looked toward the pool to get Moon to maybe push me backwards. I could not find him and he did not answer to me calling him. My next plan was to enable the parking break, which I did. At that point, I got off the mower, got around to the side, released the parking break, and pushed with all my might. No such luck! Now I knew I was stuck, so I either had to let the mower go or stand there hoping Moon would soon appear again. I let the mower go and it went nose first into the ditch. (The mower was unharmed and works as good as it did before.) So, I walked up to the pool and asked Moon if he would help me push the mower out of the ditch. Now for some trivia.

When I asked Moon if he would help me push the mower out of the ditch, what was his FIRST response?

A. Did I hear you correctly?
B. Do what?!
C. Are you ok?
D. What happened?
E. Wait 'til Josh hears 'bout this!

Sadly if you picked E, you are correct! : ) Anyhow... Moon came down to the road, laughing, and pushed while I pulled and we got the mower out. I got back on and finished while Moon continued to laugh as he walked back to the pool.