What a day - in Gatlinburg!

In case you're wondering why we didn't post yesterday, it's because there wasn't anything of major importance to report.

That all changed today! This is the day the weather forecasters predicted "some storms." As of tonight, we've had everything from very hard rain, to lots of heavy wind, to beautiful calms and clear skies!

During one of those calms, the guys showed up with our new mattresses for All Decked Out. It all happened so fast that I forgot to take my camera. But here's what they did:

• Put a new mattress set in the lower bedroom (the new mattress went down the steps, but they hoisted the old one from the lower deck to the upper deck!).
• Moved the main floor mattress set up to the upper bedroom.
• Put a new mattress set in the main bedroom. And you are REALLY going to like this one. I lay down to test it. Good thing Phyllis was there to keep me from going to sleep!

They also kindly took the old mattresses to a city mission thrift store, so somebody else will get some use out of them.

Since we have friends staying at All Decked Out this week, we had to remake all the beds. That's Phyllis' department, and she's an expert at it! She's adding a new bright red bed skirt to the upper bedroom bed.


Then, we switched out the old glass-top and metal table and chairs for a new table and six wooden chairs - very sturdy, but much easier to move. Take a look:

As you can see, the new table is a little longer, so it can comfortably seat 8 people. We may add 2 more chairs, but there are similar chairs downstairs, plus some folding chairs in the main bedroom closet.

The old dining table and chairs will find a good home, because they're now sitting at Sweet Repeats in Pigeon Forge (a great place to find like-new furniture).

Speaking of Sweet Repeats, Gene and Michael have been a huge help to us - moving stuff around, delivering stuff, picking up stuff, etc. Here's Gene taking a well-deserved rest in the store...


...but not for long, because they soon loaded new bed frames for us (this is Michael loading one of the frames):


Bed frames? Yes, unfortunately, we had to replace the two queen bed frames today at Smoky Mountain Tower, as well as a ceiling fan. I don't know for sure, but it looks like some kids were enjoying jumping on the beds. They broke both bed frames, as well as the ceiling fan in the Queen Bonus Room.

Fortunately, our good friend, Mark Kalinowski, was available to help us today. In addition with helping with all the bedding moves at All Decked Out, he replaced the fan...


You'll love the new fan - with each blade being a different color. And it has a light, which the old one didn't have.

Mark got a lot of other stuff done, too - but we'll talk about that later (this post is already long enough). We're finishing the day watching the weather, because Sevier County has had a number of tornado warnings. So far, we're thankful to report that we've just had wind, rain and a lot of lightning. We are REALLY hoping - and praying - that we'll be able to start on the window repairs to the Tower exterior wall tomorrow morning. We'll let you know...