Telling Time With Trees: the 2014 edition

No, I haven't forgotten about the blog, but life has been far too busy to keep up with the Diva Domain. I'm not ready to officially retire from my part-time writing passion though, so I'm going to make an effort to post at least once a month.  So here we go.  March 2014 - the annual Tree Picture.  

The weather this year made it pretty impossible to get a good picture the one or two days the tree was in bloom.  Mother Nature can't make up her mind, so when it warmed up at the end of March, about half the flowers bloomed on my parents' Chinese Magnolia tree.  Then the cold snap came and killed all of them, and then the second round of blooms came, and now the cold has gotten those, too.  All that to say, I'm glad we got these pictures when we did.

Here's Mommy, age 21, pictured with Bradley, age 5

2014

You know it's March when Kentucky fans are still wearing their Blue for game days

Mommy & her little kindergartner

And now for a walk down memory lane...

2013

2012

2011

2010

Here's a fun one:  the spring of 2008, I was 6 months pregnant with Bradley, so technically this was our first picture in front of the tree!

Easter 2008

Eat More Gator

I decided to delay Bradley's bed time on Saturday night and allow him to climb in bed with me and watch part of the Kentucky Florida game massacre.  Upon looking at the Gators' helmets, Bradley asked me why they had Chic-Fil-A on their heads!  It took me a split second to catch on to what he was seeing:

I have no idea how he knows what Chic-Fil-A's logo looks like by memory, but his comment cracked me up!

He wasn't really into watching the game (me neither, Bradley) so he kept asking me to turn back to "the hurricane."  There was a show on the weather channel about Hurricane Katrina.  A preschooler who's fascinated by hurricanes?  Yep, he's my kid, alright.

Snow Big Deal (oh yes it was!)

Yesterday's commute home will be one I won't forget.  I watched the snow start to fall downtown around 3 p.m., and within half an hour, the roads were starting to get white, and the tops of the roofs below were solid white.  I knew I was in for trouble and should have left at the first sign of bad weather.  Problem is, we've had so much snow this year already, that I was hesitant to leave early and miss more work for nothing.  As it turns out, yesterday was not "nothing."  I finished what I needed to do, including some crapy last minute stuff for an ungrateful person, and then I was out the door a little before 3:45 p.m.

After I hit the hour mark in my car, not even making it out of downtown Nashville, I settled in for a long evening.  The radio weather and traffic reports were so rushed and incomplete, that it only frustrated me, so I resolved myself to listening to cds to calm my nerves.  I made it through 3 cds during the drive home!

An hour and a half later, I made it onto the interstate.  At least then I started to crawl along at a steady pace.  5 miles per hour on the interstate, but at least it wasn't the gridlocked parking lot that downtown was.

Somewhere along I-65, and after nightfall, I hit the 2 hour mark.  The snow continued to fall, and I kept having to turn on my rear defrost to keep my back window clear.  I saw abandoned cars, and passed several wrecks along the way.

Pulling off I-65 around 6:30 p.m. was one of the happiest moments of my life!  It was then that I realized just how hungry I was, and just how bad I had to pee.  I think my nerves had kept both of those things in check til now.  It also hit me that I could have made it to Lexington, Kentucky in the time that it had taken me to get home today. 

Finally, at 7:15pm, 3 and 1/2 hours later, I made it home.  My friend Lisa wins the award for longest commute home yesterday, at 5.75 hours in her car, and Queen MAB went 3 miles in 3 hours.  Let's just say I made the executive decision to stay home today after dealing with that nightmare last night.

Snow Day

I awoke this morning to a winter wonderland, and was in shock that for once, the weathermen got it right!  Nashville got 3", we had 4" in Franklin, and Laura & George got 5".  Since southerners and snow do not mix, I decided to wait out the rush hour, and go play in the snow for a while instead. 

Bradley watched in fascination as Papa cleaned the snow off the cars and shoveled the driveway.  He's wearing his new Buzz Lightyear housecoat that was a homemade Christmas present from Grandma B.

B and I, getting ready to go outside

Chateau Bradley with 4 inches of snow

Bradley's first-ever sled ride

Sledding down the hill after a big push from Papa. "It's not scary," Bradley kept repeating,

Bradley and I in our first big snow together

I tried to sled down the hill on our street, but there was too much powdery snow, and not packed down enough yet. I don't think I've been sledding since that random evening in college where a guy went down the William T. Young library hill naked and on skis, so this made me feel like a kid again for two seconds, until I remembered that I am an adult, and would eventually have to go in to work today. Boo.

Oscar, the wonder sleigh dog!

I did eventually end up going to work, but enjoyed delaying it for a while by enjoying the rare winter wonderland. 

Elmo's World

For Bradley's 2nd birthday party, I had everything planned to a tee for an Elmo's World birthday party at Tiger Point Park.  The kids would play on the playground, the adults could stay under the pavillion and nosh on snacks.  I had decorations galore, and had thought of everything- a magic marker to write names on drinks, coolers to keep the cupcakes and ice cream cold, extra toilet paper for the park bathrooms, and even a towell to dry off the playground equipment should a rain cloud pass.  I was stressed-out, but prepared!  However, no matter how much I thought I had everything under control, there was one thing out of my control... the weather.

What appeared on the radar as a few tiny rain blips before we left the house turned into a full on monsoon just as the party was about to start.  I began to field phone calls texts from party guests left  right as we tried to decide how to handle things, &  I remained in panic mode, beyond discouraged by the rain.

Bradley with Grandma Ann, Grandma B & Papa

Family photo- notice the pouring rain in the background, our soaking wet clothes, & windblown-decorations!

This face says it all.  I had wanted a picture-perfect photo of me and the birthday boy, and this is what I got... wet clothes, soaked hair, and a fussy boy not wanting to smile for the camera!  If there is one picture that represents the day, it's this one.

After 30 minutes of heavy rain, thunder, & lightening, we gave up and took down the decorations at the park and loaded everything in the middle of the thunderstorm back into the cars, and relocated the party to our house.  20 adults and 10 kids in my house on a rainy day was not my ideal party scene, but you know what?  Bradley had no idea what was going on, and so I'm sure he was happy no matter what.  The kids played inside and out back on the patio, the adults hung out, and everyone celebrated our little man turning two.

the party decor

Blowing out the candles... the cute Elmo 2 candle got lost in the shufle between the park & our house, so I settled for two regular birthday cake candles.

Finally the birthday boy gets what he's been asking for for weeks- Cake!!!

opening presents- a toy guitar

Family members caught sitting around amidst all the chaos- Laura, Ann, Mom &  dad

I hope someday soon we will look back at this party and laugh at the circumstances surrounding it. I'm not to that point just yet, however.

snow close!

Snow. It's not just a white rapper from the 90's. It's also a wintry precipitation, the bain of mid-atlantic-ers' existence, but something we Floridians (yes, that's right I said we), have not seen in a long time. While BFF Heather is still stranded in jolly London town after the Snowmageddon forced her to vacate DC early, and remain in the UK until after her and Jacob's scheduled departure date, I have felt like the only person on the planet, aka Facebook, who hasn't seen snow this year. Even Sarah Scott Holton who's in Dallas forcryingoutloud, is seeing snow today. But Hell and Florida just might freeze over yet.

According to several news sources, we are currently under a winter storm warning! Parts of my county in northwest Florida may see "significant amounts of snow, ice and sleet"on Friday that will make travel "very hazardous or impossible." The article goes on to say that closer to the coastline, where I am, parts of the state may see a "trace" of snow, or "an inch or more." Hey, I'll take a trace! I have always hated winters without snow, and this winter Florida has seen record breaking cold temperatures, and record amounts of days with below-freezing temps. So bring on the snow! A licky boom boom down!

On an unrelated note, this is my 900th blog post. Pretty amazing I think!

IDA... No!

So in my last post I alluded to the powerful Category 2 hurricane Ida coming our way. No disrespect to those who've suffered through hurricanes before, but as an avid hurricane follower since I was a wee girl in landlocked Tennessee, I've been excited at the very real possibility of experiencing my own hurricane first-hand living here in Florida. After a very quiet hurricane season, last week I thought I was finally going to get my chance. And it was perfect- Brian was home from deployment, and this was a Cat 2, coming straight for us. No catastrophic damage likely, just wind and rain. And so I waited, and I watched the Weather Channel obsessively.

I have to say that Ida was underwhelming all the way around. I didn't even make the effort to go to the beach and take pictures of the waves because the ones I saw of what others took was not worth the trouble of getting Bradley out of the house and driving the 15 minutes there. Sure, it was exciting to know Jim Cantore was a few minutes from my house broadcasting live, but it was pathetic how they positioned him behind some wavering sea oats to show the powerful "wind" in the background.

My choir rehearsal Monday night got canceled, and Brian was off work Tuesday, but otherwise Ida was a big fat NO big deal. There was wind and rain Monday night, and of course by then she was downgraded to a Tropical Storm, so I have suffered through many thunderstorms that were far worse than the conditions we experienced here. So just in case you were wondering, we're here, safe and sound, done cleaning up our hurricane damage.

Dubs Down

I am still learning all the protocol for what is acceptable and not acceptable to talk about and write about concerning Brian's deployment, but last week we hit the 20 day mark of him being gone. In the long run, 20 is still a small number, but I feel like it was a good milestone to achieve. In my OCD-ness, it is a nice, neatly packaged set of 10, so that makes me feel like we've accomplished something. 20 days in reality feels like a lot longer though. It's hard to believe it's only been a few weeks, and can get discouraging when I think of how many days are still ahead of us, so that's why I count down to the next set of 10 days, so I can put another check mark in the box.

Thankfully, I've had 2 sets of visitors, first Ari, and then my parents and sister, so that has helped fill up my time. I'm still running 3 times a week with Jess and Kim, and I have still met my personal goal to get out of the house at least once a day. Brian has easy access to a phone, so he has been able to call me almost daily, and usually more than once a day. He's doing fine where he is, except that he has mentioned killing a lot of mice, and the food there being terrible.

Bradley is walking a ton now, so he is keeping me busy. More than once today he has appeared behind me out of nowhere seemingly, and silently, so I've started to refer to him as "my little ninja." I leave him in his room to play, and then BAM! out of nowhere, he's behind me as I'm folding laundry or at my feet as I open the refrigerator.

If you're keeping up with the tropics (and you know I am!), tropical storm Claudette dumped a lot of rain on us here, but nothing else to report, and it looks like we don't have much to worry about with Hurricane Bill in the coming days either. As always though, you can count on me, "Hurricane Bradley" to stay abreast of the latest tropical disturbance.

Hurricane Aftermath

Yes, that's right.  To be festive, we made a pitcher of Hurricane mix that we'd been saving from our trip to New Orleans.  We even got out swizzel sticks and straws!  What better night to make hurricanes than when we were waiting to see what Hurricane Gustav would do?  Amber and Mobes came over (Mobes is a nickname based on his last name, Mobley, but I have a hard time remembering to call him James when Brian's always referring to him as the latter) and we had a girls versus guys game of Taboo.  Guess which team won?  Sorry guys, maybe next time.  Or not.

Monday after the worst of the storm had passed us, me Brian and Bradley headed out to Pensacola for a little shopping.  Curiosity brought us over to P-cola beach to see the waves for ourselves.  This was taken around 4 in the afternoon, and just to give you an idea, the worst weather we had was earlier that morning around 6:30 am.  I can only imagine what the waves must have looked like then.

I will say that despite my morbid fascination with tropical systems, it's a little different watching the storm on tv from land-locked TN as opposed to watching the storm head right towards you on the coast.  It's very ominous.  Lucky for us (and only to my mild, and yes, sick disappointment) Gustav missed us.  And once again, someday I'll figure out how to get the fascinating weather-channel quality video uploaded to my computer.

Fay-ked Out

I know you're all thinking by now that no blog means the Tropical storm blew us away.  Hardly.  Fay was downgraded to a tropical depression by the time it got here, giving us a smattering of misting rain, and a few wind gusts and that was it.  Never fear though.  As we speak, Gustav and Hanna (Montana) are churning in the Caribbean right now, so who knows?  Maybe my lifelong dreams of being in a hurricane will be realized before you know it.

The Fayte that awaits us

Hey yall!  As I sit here typing this, Brian is making us breakfast, and I can hear the wind gusting outside the window.  It's an overcast day and the heavy rains are on their way.  Yes, we are ready and waiting for Tropical Storm Fay- my first ever Tropical Storm experience.  I saw on TWC this morning where Jim Cantore was at Panama City Beach, where so far the beaches were still relatively calm.  Apparently there were even sandbags at a local park for residents to go and pick up to prepare for Fay.  Admittedly I was kind of excited at the looming storm ahead, even though since we don't live right on the water, we have no need for the sandbags.

I'm not sure what to expect from this storm, but I have my raincoat and video camera ready, to bring my own weather channel fantasies to life.  We'll see what kind of a camera man Brian makes!  So far the three of us are safe and sound in our little house and don't plan on getting out in the torrential rains (don't worry Mom!).  This is Amanda Vilendrer, Tropical Storm aficionado, signing off!

It's here!

Get excited people, it's upon us- the most highly anticipated beginning of an era...

The start of Hurricane Season officially begins today. Click here to get all your updates during the coming months. I am excited that the possibility of fulfilling my lifelong dream of being in a hurricane is within my grasp. My dad tells me this s a sad dream to have, but it's a dream nonetheless! At any rate, for those of you who share my obsession or even mild interest in the tropical storms, this weather channel link above should be bokmarked on your homepage.

the Big Blizzard of '08

Beggers can't be choosers I suppose.  We wound up with about 2 inches of snow in Franklin.  Not exactly the 6 inches that I was hoping for, or even the 4 inches I would have settled on, but snow nonetheless.

We bundled up and headed outside after breakfast on Saturday morning only for it 

all to have melted by lunchtime, and today, Sunday, it was in the 50's here!  Crazy Tennessee weather!

Christmas in Dixie

Ask me just how much I love walking out to my car on this sunny day in mid-December with short sleeves on??!! With this crazy warm front going on, we have the potential in Nashville today to break a record high with the predicted high of 75 degrees. As Carrie Bradshaw would say, me likey!

r.i.p to my favorite season

Don your black sweaters today as we officially mourn the loss of a dear, dear friend. Early this morning at 12 am, Summer 2006 officially passed on. Summer was a wonderful season who brought out bronzer and suntans in the best of us. Summer beckoned us with her warm rays of sunshine and invited us into sparkling pools. She was complimented best with fireworks, bathing suits, iced tea, fresh homegrown tomatoes, ice cream, and watermelon, and celebrated many holidays with us such as Labor Day and Independence Day. Summer is survived by its cooler family member, Autumn. Rest in peace summer. We shall miss you.

a bit of randomness for the afternoon

He's baaaa-ack!! According to the weather man this morning, El Nino is back to wreack havoc on our weather patterns. Which as you all know, is Spanish for "The Nino." (Anyone know how to do the tilda on blogger?) Guess this little annoying weather pattern is responsible for this yucky fall-like day here in Middle Tennessee. Many of you know my feelings are less-than-fond for the fall, so I'm siting at my desk here today lamenting the end of summer. I am excited, however, at my impending transition from a caterpillar to a butterfly with Derelicte tonight! It has been far too long- just call me Kunta-Kinte, cause I've got Roots!

On a totally unrelated strand (pun intended) I purchased the new John Mayer album Continuum last night and I cannot stop raving about it. (Well, I could, but why would I want to?) If you're a fan of his, you'll love it.