Bride

Here comes the bride!  Okay, so not quite yet.  Actually - and this is a hopeful prayer - not for a really, really, really, really long time!  For some reason, Madison has been interested in the whole "bride" concept, including the veil and the bouquet and the slow march up the aisle.  She greeted Daddy when he got home, veil down and sort of dragging me to the kitchen where she asked me to lift her veil.  And then she kissed me.  Awwww!

It was one of those ridiculously loud and stormy nights.  "Wow, what a good night's rest," said nobody in North Georgia last night, ever.  It started around 1:00 am and continued until the sun rose, loud strikes of lightning and thunder, illuminating the sky rapid fire as if we were being assaulted with some sort of bombing run.

One source said seven inches of rain last night.  And that was devastating, considering our already saturated water table.  The reason for mentioning "devastated" is Flowery Branch, which has large portions currently actually under water.  McEver Road - a main road - is closed because it is submerged, and other roads are actually washed away.

Here's one road that we travel down all the time - although not this week, apparently.  We picture flooding elsewhere, but never really so much around here.  The lake is astoundingly full, of course.  Looks nearly menacing, actually.

A few miles north of this picture above is our church, which was above the water level this morning.  However, the power was off.  It was off for much of the peninsula, but this morning when folks were showing up, the fire marshal had instructions to have us all out - including the thousands of people that attend on a Sunday morning.  Most never made it inside.  Daddy was one of the guys outside under an umbrella informing people to wait in the parking lot for a sign that the power came back on, which people mostly did.  The evidence of this was when the power did come back on, a very big number of people marched confidently back into the building.  It was an interesting morning to say the least - the choir was outside under a covering, singing and keeping spirits up as the power crew was apparently getting things going.

As you might suspect, we were all very tired getting home.  The long day yesterday combined with the all-night firework show made for a sleepy afternoon.  We did have plans that involved movement, but for the most part, we were zonked.  Star Wars Weekends have started down at Disney, so Madison, Daddy and Mommy actually watched the Hyperspace Hoopla on our television.  And the Star Wars parade.  Both were pretty fun - made us wish we were down there, actually.  We read some books, and played a few games, and that was pretty much it for the day at the end.  It was a long one, but a pretty memorable one!