Perfect Friday Morning

Today was one of those rare Friday mornings when Brent & I are both off work.  We slept until about 6:30 and then took the pugs on a walk down Fairmont Drive.  I took my camera so I could get some pictures of the April 15th storm clean-up progress.  Overall, the neighborhood is looking much better, but you can see how the landscape has totally changed.  I even get a little disoriented looking at some of these pictures, trying to remember exactly where along the street they were taken.

We headed out early; our first stop was Panera Bread for breakfast. Their breakfast power sandwich is so good + healthy, but it is also so very hard to order when you are staring across the counter at all of those gorgeous breakfast pastries. After Panera, errands. Then we found ourselves just driving around town.

We found ourselves in downtown Northport, which is possibly the most charming little town I have ever seen.  And suddenly we were at Mary’s Cakes & Pastries, a little bakery right in downtown.  We walked in, and the place smelled like heaven.  Seriously, heaven.  We bought a few small treats and they were so delicious.  We will certainly be back…soon!

Absolutely perfect Friday morning!

Bama Rising 2011

The Bama Rising benefit concert was held on June 14th at the BJCC.

It was awesome.  And I swear I didn’t go looking that bad.  The lighting is bad in the arena; just ask Kourtney.  I promise I wore makeup.

Note: These pics were taken when we were sitting in the wrong seats.  We got confused and parked ourselves in row “H” when we were actually row “J.” Still, we had fantastic seats!

Nineteen acts, five hours and thirty minutes of good music.  I mean, I never thought that I would get to see the COMMODORES live. Never! They were a last-minute addition to the line-up and they were so good.  We had a great time.

Other highlights:

The line-up included: The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bo Bice, Taylor Hicks, Alabama, Dierks Bentley, Rodney Atkins, Sara Evans, Martina McBride, Luke Bryan, David Nail, Sheryl Crow, Kelli Pickler, Ashton Shepherd, the Commodores, Jake Owen, Brad Paisley, Little Big Town, Montgomery Gentry and Darius Rucker.  Can you even believe that line-up? 

Christen’s Top 10 Highlights (in no order):

1. “Brick House” by the Commodores

2. “Anyway” by Martina McBride & everyone cheered after the first line

3. “If It Makes You Happy” by Sheryl Crow – sounded GREAT live!

4. “Country Girl” by Luke Bryan

5. “Sweet Home Alabama” by Bo Bice

6. “Dixieland Delight” by Alabama (and all of Alabama’s performances)

7. Actually seeing Alabama, Sheryl Crow, Darius Rucker & Martina McBride perform live

8. “Boondocks” by Little Big Town (and the blonde afro, obviously)

9. “Suds in the Bucket” by Sara Evans

10. The Blind Boys of Alabama singing “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “The House of the Rising Sun”

Brent’s Top 10 Highlights:

1. The Commodores

2. the t-shirts & diet coke in souvenir cups

3. being in relatively close physical proximity to some one who used to date Lance Armstrong

4. Kelli Pickler (she said “Let me hear a cheer from the Alabama ladies!”  And Brent, overcome and mesmerized by  her beauty,  yelled “Wooooohooo!”)

5. Realizing that the Commodores weren’t showing footage from 70s concerts on the screen….they just still really look like that

6. Montgomery Gentry’s American flag leather jacket that said “Try to burn this one”

7. Realizing that Sara Evans & Martina McBride are two separate people

8. All of the athletes/ESPN presenters

9. Whoopie Goldberg’s video message  All of Alabama’s songs

10. eating at Nikki’s West on the way there

The concert was over at 1 am(!) & we were back home by 2 am (!), in bed by 2:30 am.  Long night, but soooo worth it!  I have already downloaded several of the songs to my ipod…looks like country music is making a comeback in our household! ha!

April Tornado 2011

We survived our first tornado in Alabama!  I think this might be a rite of passage and now we are, officially, true Alabamians.

The tornado happened on Friday, April 15th, around 3:30-4:00 pm.  It does not appear that what hit our house & street was the tornado itself, but maybe just some strong winds. Actually, I was trying to makes sure I could get home from work, so I drove right into the storm, which was obviously not a smart idea.  I didn’t know it was so close, though!  No more than 2 minutes after I got in the house, the wind started blowing like crazy and I was scared that the dining room windows were going to blow out.  The power went out and me & the pugs sat in the hallway, listening to all kinds of thumps and bumps as branches were blown against the house.

It was over so fast and when it died down I looked out the front door and all I could see were limbs and leaves everywhere.  At the end of the driveway there two large trees uprooted.

Brent was still at work and of course my cell phone was going dead, but I talked to him briefly to tell him I was all right & sent some pics from my cell phone.  The next thing I know, a policeman comes to the door to see if I’m all right.  I walked outside with the camera and neighbors were walking up and down the road, checking on people to make sure everyone was okay.

This picture shows the minute Brent came walking up.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to see him!  Since the roads were closed, he had to park at the end of the road and hike in.

The picture above was taken at the end of our driveway, looking to the right.  The picture below was taken in the driveway, facing left.  I’ve never seen power lines completely down like that!

Zach is our neighbor’s mutt.  He’s a little slow, physically & mentally.  He likes to walk down the middle of the road & doesn’t even move for cars – they have to go around him.  If we didn’t have so many speed tables, Zach wouldn’t still be around.  But anyway, when I first opened the door after the storm, he was in our front yard, just making his way among the branches, no worries.  In the picture above, you can see him walking all over the power lines….in the rain.

This is our next door neighbor’s house.  As you can see, he’s stranded.  Those uprooted trees beside our driveway fell in his yard.

So, after we got out & surveyed the damage a little bit, we headed out to get supplies….flashlights & batteries & water & ice for the cooler.  We stopped at Cracker Barrel for take-out supper for me & Brent + our neighbor. We had a bit of a fiasco getting back to the house due to the roadblock that resulted in Brent calling the Tuscaloosa Police Dept. and asking to speak to a supervisor.  But anyway, we finally made it home & had a candlelight dinner.

We went to bed pretty much as soon as it got dark, because what is there to do with no TV or internet?  The city trucks rolled in right when we got into bed to clear all of the trees out of the road…so basically I got no sleep due to the combination of chainsaws + loud talking & laughing + Milly snoring like a freight train.  Plus it was stifling hot in the bedroom.  But you know, I didn’t even care!  I was just glad to be safe & at home.  Our power finally came back on the next night, around 8:30.  Clean up will take awhile, but we are grateful that no one was actually hurt.