Well, according to my blog I am!! What the heck, I am SSSOoooo far behind. I'm sitting in Canada right now writing this one. So much to catch you all up on!
So, to continue the story of Knoxville - After Conner’s birthday celebration at Top Golf, we went to Best Buy to pick up his birthday present. We all ended up playing with it that night!
Wednesday- celebrated Conner’s birthday some more, lucky kid! I took Conner & Sydney and Brady & Tiffany out for dinner. Good food, good drink, good conversation! Happy mama 😊.
Thursday - pickleball night. Tiffany and I got to the club early and played a few games, then Brady arrived and a little later Conner & Sydney. By the end, we all had a good time, was even able to volley back and forth a little (after Brady got out of competitive mode-ha ha). Sydney wasn’t so sure at first, but she is a better player than she thinks. You can tell Brady and Tiffany play competition pickle ball, phew, they are good. Conner was holding his own pretty well, I was impressed. Again, another happy mama night!
Saturday was hiking day after we all met for breakfast. It was supposed to be 3.5 mile hike but ended up being over 6 miles. At some point we switched paths and the one we ended up on went ALL the way round the range, not just a section of it! We were TIRED. Conner and Sydney brought their dog Cole and he wasn’t having it. Conner tried to carry him and then Brady did. 80lb dog is NOT the easiest and needless to say, Cole didn’t get a free ride for very long!
The following weeks, more work, dinners or breakfasts with the kids whenever we could and driving around looking at the countryside. For whatever reason, I never did contact a realtor to look at any land. Perhaps Knoxville is not going to be my new home, maybe something even better is out there, waiting for me to discover it.
Chattanooga – I had to leave my campground for a weekend that was already booked solid for a fishing tournament. Conner, Sydney and I took the opportunity to go to Chattanooga for that weekend. Brady and Tiffany both had to work so couldn’t make it. We ate great BBQ, went to Rock City and Lookout Mountain-Ruby Falls. So very cool. We had a good time, played games at night, had a few captains, it was fun.
Pickle ball injury – yeeks – it was ungraceful me that got hurt. On this particular Thursday night, we played outside and did a round robin version so everyone was mixed up. Brady had been telling me to “stay out of the kitchen” so I was hyper conscious of it. I was playing pretty well (for me) and I was getting all lined up for a great spike when all of a sudden I realized I was going to be stepping into the kitchen. I looked down, told my feet to stop, they did – the rest of me on the other hand…well it kept going, while swinging, which twisted me, and I went flying into the net. That’s not so bad. The bad part was the 3-inch square brace on the ground holding up the net which my right hip bone managed to land on perfectly. That and a scrapped-up knee, elbow and palm…I’m good, it’s all good. Everyone just stop looking, I will get up in a minute, as soon as this excruciating pain stops in my hip. EMBARASSING!! The Brady yells from the other court “Mom, what are you doing? Are you ok?” Well, that attracted everyone’s attention. Jeez-can I crawl in a hole now and disappear!?! I brushed it off, got up and continued to play. Not a good idea…but had to save face. I was SO sore the next day and the multi-colored bruise that showed up on my hip was quite amazing. I’m lucky I didn’t break anything. Such a klutz!
One day in April I drove up to Cincinnati to visit a few clients. I wanted to stop and visit them on my way to Illinois but our salespeople already planned a trip the week prior. So, I got up early and drove up for the day, only to repeat the same trip the next week. Oh well. It was great to meet these clients in person.
Easter weekend
Saturday - all the kids and I went white water rafting on the Ocoee River. It was 59 degrees and rainy…but we went anyway. We had a great time, a few of us lost our footing but none of us fell out, thank goodness. Unfortunately, the other raft with us had 2 older gentlemen and one did fall out. He was pretty shaken up over it, ingested a lot of water, but was a trooper and kept going.
Sunday – Brady and Tiffany worked again so I went to Conner’s and made ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, etc. So much food, they could eat for another week off of it! They all got some easter eggs with candy, sticker, money…you know, the usual stuff.
Farewell - I loved my campsite, right on the river. It was so pretty sitting out there, with the puppies in the morning, drinking coffee. I will miss it but I'm sure there will be other great campgrounds out there.
It is amazing how quickly a month goes by! I left the Monday after Easter. I will miss the boys, it was so nice to hang out with them. Back to Illinois.
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