Update and Thanksgiving

We have set a date! I never really realized how hard it is to set a wedding date until we had to actually make that decision. I always wanted a fall wedding and thought fall weddings were gorgeous but since we got engaged in the fall there was no way we were waiting an entire year to get married. We travel back and forth each weekend to see each other and we just couldn't bear another year of traveling so with that in mind, our wedding date has been set for May 21, 2011. That's a mere five months and three weeks away...but who's counting. :) We will get married here in Nashville at my home church.

I'm so excited but yet so nervous. There is so much to do. I have found my photographer and the person who will do my flowers. I also decided on a bakery but haven't had the appointment yet to design the cake. I'm looking forward to that. We have chosen our entire wedding party and the colors and bridesmaid dresses. I have not went looking for a wedding dress yet. I'm dying to though. I thought it would be best to just wait until after the holidays. We are always so busy during the holidays that I just want to get through it before the stress of the wedding really hits us. I feel like we have most of the big stuff decided on and booked. If you want specifics just let me know and I'll detail it out for you. :)

One thing we can not decide on is the honeymoon. We have no idea where to go. This is where I'm asking for help. We don't want to spend a whole lot for the honeymoon. We have gone back and forth on Hawaii, Cayman Islands, a cruise, etc. Where did you all go for your honeymoon and where do you suggest that won't cost us an arm and a leg? We are open to anything. I know that there are lots of websites where you can purchase all inclusive packages and all that but where's the best place to look that you can trust? We are open to going someplace tropical or even some place in the good ole United States. We want a place where we can have fun but yet romantic.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Alan and I didn't get to spend it together this year but thank goodness it's our last year for that. I stayed at my parents and my brother and his family came up and also my dad's older brother and his wife came down from IL. We had the best time. We laughed and ate and played games and ate and talked and ate. It was unusually warm for this time of the year but that didn't matter. We had a great time. Last night I helped my mom put up her tree and Christmas decorations and tonight she's coming over to my house to help me put up my tree and decorations. I can't wait! I love Christmas and all the lights. It's also the only time during the winter where I don't mind the cold. It's supposed to be cold during Christmas. It bothers me greatly when on Christmas day it's 65 degrees out. I guess that's the northern in me.

Big News!!

I'm engaged!!! Alan, the love of my life, proposed to me on Friday night. He surprised me by sneaking into my house while I was at work and then sending me all over the house by leaving clues every where just to end up in the living room with him waiting for me with Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me" playing in the background. It was so beautiful, sweet and romantic.

I'm so thrilled and happy I can't stand it. :) We haven't set a date yet but we are looking at spring or early summer. I have a million questions running through my mind and I have no idea where to start in planning a wedding but I'm going to love and savor every minute of our engagement. This is something that I've been praying for and dreaming about my whole life and I give so many thanks to our Lord for His promise in Psalm 37:4. Here are just a few pictures from our wonderful weekend.

Us the day after at Fall Creek Falls

The ring
The flowers waiting for me when I got home with the first clue.

Communists

How many of you live in a neighborhood that has a Home Owners Association? I never really gave much thought to HOAs until I recently had a run in with mine. I live in a HOA and I will never never never never never live in one again. Did I say never? Because I will never live in one again. I begged my boyfriend that when we get married to plese never live in a neighborhood with a HOA. He was in complete agreement. He never has like the idea of HOAs and since we will probably end up in the country (which is a whole other post in itself....can you picture me living in the country? LOL!) anyway once we get married we won't need to worry about them. But for now I do have to deal with the dreaded Home Owner's Association which equals....communists.

So here's the story. Yesterday I check my mail and I get a letter from them telling me that I'm not in compliance with an ordinance they have. (Side note here: When I bought my house I received a huge stack of papers giving me the do's and don'ts of the neighborhood. Did I read it? No...it was forever long and I had better things to do.) Anyway, they told me that my window treatments were not in compliance. All window treatments have to be white backed. In other words, if you are standing outside the house and look at the window all you should see is white. Stupid. I have white blinds on all my windows but none of my curtains have a white back. I leave my blinds down most of the time but will open them to let natural light in. I love natural light and use that as much as I can. Who wants to live in a shut up house all the time? One of my blinds in the living room is broken and I cannot open them up. I can raise it though which is what I was doing. I was raising my blinds about halfway. So by doing that you could see my curtains which, again, are not white backed.

So I called mister communist manager and asked him what his deal was. He explained that when he walked by my unit that he could see my curtains. I then explained that my blinds are not always raised but I do raise them because I don't want to live in a cave and I can't help how the curtains are made. He then proceeded to tell me that he didn't make the rules but he has to enforce them. I then told him that I don't have the money to buy new curtains and if he wants me to have white backed curtains than he can go buy them for me. He then responded with, "You said you have white blinds?" I explained again in plain English that I did and that usually when it gets dark I lower and shut my blinds. He said, "Well, then we have no problem and I'll erase this from your file." What? I have a file with the HOA? Crazy communists. But I won so I don't care. My neighbors, however, are not so lucky. They have the bamboo type blinds and they are being forced to change their blinds or get ticketed. Everyone has to have white blinds are curtains with a white back on them. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Now, I know that they have these rules so the neighborhood will stay nice looking and that the property value won't decrease by junky looking houses. I appreciate that and I accept that. It's nice to have the HOA to enforce the things that keep the neighborhood safe and pretty but white back window treatments? Isn't that a tad picky? Whatever, it turns out I'm not breaking any rules as long as I keep my blinds down.

Have any of you had trouble with your home owners association? I would love to hear the stories.

Catch Up

Well good grief!! Who forced me not to get on here and not blog about my life?! Oh wait, that was me! Oh well. Let's see what's been going on...not much. I took a very much needed week of vacation last week. During that time my mom and I went to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, TN, to shop, shop, shop! It was so much fun. We shopped till we dropped! We were so tired but I'm so glad that we went. If you ever go to Pigeon Forge you have to visit The Christmas Place. It's my favorite store there and we spent a good 2-3 hours there. I'm not joking. Love that place!

Alan came up this weekend and we had a great weekend together. Friday night we went out to eat and then we headed to Spring Hill, TN to visit a friend and then made our way to Rippaville Plantation to their corn maze. It was pretty fun. It was packed with people though and mainly teenagers. They would trampled through the corn to try and scare each other but what do you expect. They were just trying to have fun and I probably did that when I was a teenager. It was so beautiful on Saturday that we hated to stay inside so we decided to stay outdoors as long as possible. Then, of course, we had to watch the Alabama game that didn't come on until 8:15pm. Needless to say, I didn't make it through the entire game. :) Other than that nothing new is going on.

I went to lunch today with a sweet friend who works in my building and we got to talking about blogs and stuff and now I'm contemplating creating a new blog in addition to this one. It would be much different than this one though. I can't explain it though. It'll be just different. So stay tuned. This talk we had actually got me in the mood to write again. I use to write short stories and had a idea or two of a storyline for a novel. Today I got another storyline that I'm actually excited about and can relate to on so many levels so I might actually follow through with this one. I will need your prayers on it, if you don't mind.

I do ask that you pray for me and my family. I think 2011 will be an exciting and eventful year for us. Many changes I think will be happening. I actually can't wait to see what all happens.

Almost Trapped

Last night while I was getting ready for church I went into the guest room to get a jacket out of the closet. When I was standing at the closet I happened to glance back at the door frame and saw a huge black wasp! To say I died was an understatement. I hate wasps with every ounce of my being. It's my hugest phobia and why on earth are they still alive?! It's cold and it's been frosting here in middle TN this week. Shouldn't they all have died a violent death by now?!

Anyway, I screeched and panicked and thought I was trapped in the guest room forever. Finally I mustered up enough courage to run (literally I ran as hard as I could) and get my Windex and squirt the mess out of that little thing so I could kill it and flush its gross self down the toilet. This thing was like the bionic wasp. I sprayed it until finally it couldn't fly anywhere and when I would squish it with my photo album (closet thing to me) it would lay there a second and then pull itself back up and start crawling across the floor. I had to hit the thing 20 times before it finally stopped moving. I was shaking so badly afterwards it wasn't funny. That's how bad my phobia is regarding things creepy little things. I still don't understand their purpose here on earth except to paralyze me with fear.

PS - I hate living alone.

All 4 the Hall 2010

Last night I was able to attend a fundraising concert for the Country Music Hall of Fame. I went to this last year (which was it's first year) and had a great time but I didn't have any plans to go again this year. A friend called me up yesterday afternoon and said that her boss had just given her two tickets for the concert and wanted to know if I wanted to go along. Of course! A free ticket to a concert? I would have been silly...just silly...to turn that down.

Keith Urban was the host of the show and he didn't disappoint last night. He started it off with a 30 minute concert. It was so good! I could have listened to just him and would have been fine. (Side note-Nicole Kidman was there but I never saw her.) Anyway, after a quick set change he brought all kinds of artists to sing and they did awesome. They each sang two songs so Vince Gill (who I'm not a fan of really...but is slightly gaining my appreciation year after year) came out first. It's funny because all the other artists are dressed nice and looking all good but he always comes out in jeans and a Predators (NHL) jersey. Way to support your local team. Then after him was Martina McBride, Billy Currington, Miranda Lambert, Alan Jackson, Allison Krauss, Charlie Pride, John Mayer and Dolly Parton. It was so good. Watching Dolly sing "Jolene" was probably the highlight. What impressed me the most of the night was that Vince Gill and Keith Urban both stayed up on stage the entire time and played guitar for each singer and sang back up for each of them as well. It was pretty cool! I took pictures of each artist and even took a couple of videos but I was sitting on the club level at the back of the area so everything looked very small. But I still felt like I had great seats!

Oh! One unique thing about the night. We noticed that there was a interpreter for the deaf. I had never seen that at a concert before. I kept going back and forth from the stage to watching him sign all night. What was pretty funny was when Alan Jackson got up to sing. He sang "Chattahoochee" and watching that guy try to sign that song was hilarious. It was so fast and that poor guys had to be sore by the end of that song. What I want to know is how do you sign the line in that song..."hoochee cootchie"? I probably shouldn't have asked that out loud. Forgive me. :)

It was a late night but it was so much fun. The ticket price for the night each year is not bad considering what you get in the concert. The ticket prices are only $25. If you can and love country music this is a must see concert to go to each year.

What I Did Over The Weekend

My boyfriend likes to shoot guns. He collects them and he likes to target shoot and skeet shoot. He's been trying to talk me into going shooting with him for quite a while now but it was just something that never interested me. I grew up around guns. My dad and brother both hunt and dad taught me at a young age how to hold and shoot a gun. I just hadn't done it in years. Last month or so my dad, boyfriend, mom and myself went to a gun range to shoot some guns that Alan had brought up. Mom didn't shoot of course but went because her and dad were going to the store afterwards. I did shoot some of the pistols he brought up and I was pretty close to the bulls eye every time. I'm a pretty good marksman if I say so myself. :)

Well over the weekend Alan really wanted to go with him and shoot some of his rifles or shotguns. I have no idea what they are. Anyway, we both realized that I'm actually pretty decent at shooting any type of gun and have pretty good aim and can hit the targets most of the time. Alan used my phone to video me shooting so here is proof that I'm not too shabby. :)

Update

I'm sure that most of you that know me and my family have already heard that my brother and sister in law are expecting their third child. We are pretty excited about the announcement and a few weeks ago we learned they are having a girl. My niece, Anna Grace, is beyond thrilled that she's getting a baby sister. My nephew, Luke, however is disappointed that it's not a dog. He really wanted a dog. Ha!

I was talking to my sister in law on Friday and they have finally come up with a name for Baby Girl Donoho. This has been a huge debate since her and Chad could not agree on anything. My brother is quite the picky one but after much debating and talking they are naming her Emma Faith. I really like it. They wanted to keep the spiritual name going for the middle name and it goes along well with Anna Grace. I'm excited and I can't wait to meet her in February. She is already so much loved and wanted. It's funny because when Anna Grace was born you have this huge amount of love for her and you think you can't possibly love another one as much. When Luke came along its funny how that exact same of love you have for the first is there for the second one and now with Emma I already feel that same amount of love for her and I haven't even met her yet....and I'm only the Aunt! I can't imagine how I'll feel when I have my own children. :)

I had a great weekend. I spent it in Alabama with my boyfriend and his family. We had a very nice relaxing weekend. I loved it. It's good to be home though and I woke up to 45 degree temperature! It's awesome. I love Fall. The leaves are changing and there is a crisp in the air. I'm ready now for some bonfires, roasted marshmallows and hot apple cider.

Happy Monday!

Here and Lurking

Just dropping a quick note to say that I am here but I don't have much time to write today. I'm too busy working and browsing honeymoon destination websites even though I'm not getting married or engaged at this current time but it's still fun to see and plan and daydream for when I do get engaged in the who knows how many months from now. (That was a really long run on sentence, I think. Sorry.)

I had a fabulous Labor Day weekend which I'll tell you about tomorrow. But I just wanted to let you all know that I'm here alive and kicking. I'm still reading all of YOUR blogs every single day and lurking on all your facebook pages. Not really, but seriously, I am. :)

I changed the background of this blog but I do not like it. I wish I was more website savvy and knew how to pretty up my blog a bit. Any suggestions or tips?

Happy Wednesday and go to Bible Study tonight!

Alabama

Don't tell any of my new Alabama friends but I'm missing Alabama. (I don't want them rubbing my Yankee nose in it.) My boyfriend and I have been together for a little over nine months now. We try every weekend to see each other. Most of the time it works but we have those rare occasions where we both have something going on and so we skip out on that weekend. Anyway, we take turns every weekend traveling back and forth. Sometimes it works out where I'll head to AL two weekends in a row and then he'll head to TN two weekends in a row. The last two weekends I've traveled to AL and this weekend I'll be staying home and he'll be traveling up to see me.

To be honest, I'm a little sad about that. I've learned to really like that place and I love the church he attends. He attends the same church as my brother and his family and it is an awesome church. The people are so nice and friendly and they have really welcomed me in with open arms. I'm becoming less of a visitor. I've met some really sweet and awesome people at his church and am becoming fast friends with them.

It's hard though going back and forth from my church to his church. I love the preaching at both churches. Of course, I love my dad's preaching and I do miss it when I'm not there. But I love the music at my brother's church. He does an amazing job and if I have to be completely honest, it's hard going back to my church's music because it's not on the same level. It's good music, it's just not at the same level. So it gets a little hard going back and forth but I'm so happy that the Lord, for now, has placed me in two excellent churches. They are two totally different churches but they are both great churches. Naturally, no two churches will be the same but they both fit my needs and I'm getting so much out of the services at each place. I feel like a blessed woman.

Now, I know the question burning in your mind (or not) is where will we live once we get married. We have no idea and we don't need to really make that decision just yet but I do secretly know where my heart is at the moment.

Storms

I am not a huge fans of storms. I never really have been. Usually when I know a storm is coming I get myself home and where I'll be pretty much safe and sound. What I get so freaked out about usually is when there is a threat of tornadoes. The weird thing is when a tornado is in the area I usually go stand outside and try to find it so I really contradict my fear of storms.

When Alan and I started dating and I knew we were going to be traveling back and forth every weekend the only thing that made me nervous was the threat of storms. Alabama and Tennessee get huge storms and sometimes big old fat tornadoes. I knew the odds of both of us driving through storms were pretty good especially during the spring-fall seasons. This year though it hasn't been that bad. I really can't remember driving through sprinkles let alone huge downpours with threats of tornadoes. But this past weekend was completely different.

It has been so hot in the south that everyday there are isolated or pop up storms everywhere between Tuscaloosa and Nashville. I usually can get out of Nashville before they hit and and can time getting to T-town without hitting any of the storms but this weekend was not the case. I left Nashville Friday around 1pm and by 3pm I found myself near Cullman, AL and went through the worst storm I had ever been through at least driving by myself. I could tell it was one of those isolated cases but it was pretty scary. It was driving into a wall of water and then it was raining so hard that I had to put my flashers on and was driving about 10 mph. People were pulling off left and right but I just kept on truckin. I knew if I kept going I would eventually get out of it and when I got of it...I got out of it. It was a line had been drawn across the road and on this side was the big bad storm with lots of wind, lightning and huge claps of thunder and on this side it was dry as a bone and as sunny as could be. It was like going from night to day. Weird. I was glad I kept going. I had no other trouble the rest of my journey to Northport.

On the way back to Nashville I went through an even bigger storm before I even got to Birmingham. This one was so bad it forced me to get off the road and seek shelter. I was so scared and came close to turning around and heading back to my brother's house where it was safe and dry and sunny. The storm finally let up and I ventured back on the interstate to head home only to be caught in another storm about an hour and half up the road. I was so over these storms. This one was not really anything but some heavy rain and didn't have much wind, thunder and lightening like the other two. By the time I got to Huntsville my nerves were shot though. I was so happy to see that the clouds were separating and the sun was shining through. The rest of the way home was dry and clear and sunny and I made it home safely. I was thanking God over and over for keeping me safe while on the road. The whole trip reminded me of that song Till The Storm Passes By.

In the dark of the midnight,Have I oft hid my face;

While the storm howls above me,And there's no hiding place;

'Mid the crash of the thunder,Precious Lord, hear my cry;

"Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

"'Til the storm passes over,'Til the thunder sounds no more;'

Til the clouds roll forever from the sky,

Hold me fast, let me stand,In the hollow of Thy hand;

Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

Many times Satan whispers,

"There is no need to try;

For there's no end of sorrow,There's no hope by and by";

But I know Thou art with me, And tomorrow I'll rise;

Where the storms never darken the skies.

'Til the storm passes over,'Til the thunder sounds no more;

'Til the clouds roll forever from the sky,

Hold me fast, let me stand,In the hollow of Thy hand;

Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

When the long night has ended, And the storms come no more,

Let me stand in Thy presence. On that bright, peaceful shore.

In that land where the tempest Never comes, Lord may I

Dwell with Thee when the storm passes by.'

Til the storm passes over,'Til the thunder sounds no more;

'Til the clouds roll forever from the sky,

Hold me fast, let me stand,In the hollow of Thy
hand; Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

Protective Sister

This past weekend my brother came up for a softball tournament and brought my niece and nephew along with him. (I might have mentioned this a couple of times.) Anyway, while my dad and brother played ball all weekend my mom and I played and took care of the kids. They were a blast to be with. I love those two kids with all my heart and they make me so proud to be their aunt. They are two really well behaved sweet kids. I could also be a little biased. :)

I have a cute and sweet story to tell you about my niece Anna Grace. On Saturday mom and I wanted to take the kids to the park to play but it was just way too hot to get them outside for any length of time. So we decided to take them to Chick-fil-A to eat and play in their nice air-conditioned play area. As soon as we got there they ran into the play area while we ordered their lunch, grabbed a table and got everything ready. When they saw that their food was ready they came out and ate their lunch. After they finished eating I told them that they could go back and play for a while. At this point we were trying to keep them awake. They were headed back to AL later on that day and my brother asked us to keep them awake so they would sleep on the way home. That was really no easy task and by 7pm with no nap you have pretty cranky 4 and 2 year old kids.

Anyway, we probably let them play for about 30 mins when we thought maybe we should get everything together and head back to my parents house. I could see that all the kids in the play area were playing together and they were playing some type of game. They all came down the slide together when I saw this 8 year old boy wrap his arms around my nephew's stomach and just kind of throw him off to the side. Well, my niece saw this as well and with all her might she shoved this boy and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Get your hands off my brother!" Then she just told him off good. I had seen this boy throw Luke so I started to get up and get the kids but evidently they didn't need me. LOL! I was really proud of my niece for sticking up for her brother. I got the kids and brought them out to our table and Anna was still yelling at the kid through the window. I had to calm her down. Then I bent down and told her how proud I was of her for defending Luke like that and that she was a good big sister for taking care of Luke when an adult wasn't around. Then all of a sudden she burst into tears. She was sobbing so loudly that the entire restaurant was staring at me like I had just beat the child. I asked her what was wrong and she just kept saying, "That boy was so mean to my brother and he was trying to hurt him. I couldn't let him hurt my brother!" It was so sweet but Anna was bothered by the entire situation. I looked over at Luke to see if he was okay and he was sitting there laughing with my mom and chomping on a waffle fry so he obviously was just fine.

Now the sweetest part was when we were driving back to the house Anna was still a little upset by the whole thing but she was calming down. She was still talking to me and mom about this boy and why did he want to be mean to Luke. She then looks over at Luke and says, "I'm sorry that boy was mean to you today, Luke." He looks at her and says with the sweetest smile, "It's okay, Sissy." My heart nearly broke. I teared up over the love and closeness these two kids have for each other. My brother and sister in law are doing a fantastic job raising these two kids.

I've also realized through this whole thing that if you mess with Luke you have to deal with the wrath of Anna Grace. :)

A New Beginning

I always have a hard time coming up with a title to my posts most of the time. I want them to be catchy and not something so simple. I want to capture someones interest just by reading the title so that they will want to read my blog that day. For you fellow bloggers, do you title your post before you write it or after? I always tend to title it after I write so I'm not pinned down to a certain subject. I've been reading some friend's blogs and they always write about one subject but I always tend to talk about two or three things in one post. I wonder if that's not how it's supposed to be done. I never post pictures so I wonder if my blog is really boring. Oh well.

Anyway, this weekend was very fun but exhausting. My brother and his kids came up for the weekend so he could play in a softball tournament. My sister in law couldn't come because she couldn't get Friday off of work but my brother brought his kids so we could spend some time with them. I took Friday off from work so I could help mom with them and spend some good quality time with my niece and nephew. We had the best time with them. They are just the cutest, sweetest, and most funny kids I have ever met. We just played, ate, watched movies, and laughed all weekend. It was so hard to see them go but at least I'll get to see them next weekend and the weekend after that (thanks to having a boyfriend who lives in the same town as they do).

I've been thinking a lot lately about my health. I'm not sick or anything like. A couple of weekends ago I got to go on a little road trip with my boyfriend from AL to TN and we got to talking about our family's health history. We both have diabetes in our family history but I also have heart disease in my family. That got me to thinking how I really need to start taking care of myself and that I really need to get healthier. It's not that I eat very unhealthy but I don't really eat that healthy. I do but I don't if that makes sense. I've tried to lose weight before but I've either quit after a little while or gained everything I lost plus some. I really do want to look better but that's not really it. I really really want to feel better and keep from getting the diseases that have plagued my family. My dad has gotten a huge health kick and if you haven't seen him in awhile you might notice that he's lost quite a bit of weight. Someone asked him this weekend if he was sick. He's not sick at all but he went on Weight Watchers and he hit the gym. He would go to the gym in the morning and then at night he would walk on the treadmill for about 30-45 mins. He was very dedicated and has lost almost 30 pounds. He looks great! So his membership ran out and he decided to rejoin but only if I would join up with him. So I did. Our membership starts September 1 and I'm actually looking forward to it.

I've gotten great encouragement from my parents and boyfriend. I had a good conversation this morning through instant messaging with a friend, who is also getting back into exercising, that was very inspirational and now I'm very excited to start this. I'm also going to learn how to cook healthier. My only problem is that I only need to cook for one or two people and every recipe is for 4 or more. So does anyone know of any good healthy recipe websites I can go to or recipes that only serve 2 people? I don't want to spend extra money or have all this food laying around.

I do ask for your prayers. Weight has always been a battle of mine and food has always been a lover of my soul. I want to have and keep this motivation to stick to this lifestyle change and slim down and get healthier. Maybe by going on here and blogging about it every so often it will keep me accountable. We shall see.

H-O-T Spells HOT!

I bet you didn't know that, did you? That's what its been here the past few weeks. Its been unbearably hot. Yesterday it got up to 102 with 115 heat index. Today it got up to 97 with the heat index 103. A good ole thunderstorm just rolled through and pushed the temperature down to 75. I went outside for a few minutes to enjoy the cooler weather. Although it was still a tad humid it still much better than the 100 degrees weather we've been experiencing. I can't remember a summer being this hot. I'm sure there has been but my mind is refusing to remember. But you didn't come here to read about the sweltering heat which it seems the whole country is dealing with right now.

Is it just me or does school start a whole lot sooner than it used to? Schools in the area are starting this week and next week. When I was in school (boy, do I remember my mother saying that) we didn't start until the after Labor Day weekend. Then we didn't get out of school until the last weekend of May or the first weekend of June. It seems as if they are getting out later and starting earlier. These poor kids today don't know have much of a summer. I remember when summers would come around they seemed to last forever. Now it doesn't seem like they last long enough to do anything. But it could be just me.

My brother and his kids are heading up to Nashville tonight. He's playing in the Master's Men softball tournament Friday and Saturday so mom and I will be playing with the kids the whole weekend. Jenny can't make it because of work. I'm a little bummed about that. I miss her. My parents bought a small pool for the kids so I imagine we will spend most of the weekend there. I can't wait. I haven't seen them since the National and I'm missing them like crazy. I've gotten so used to seeing them every other weekend that when I miss a week, I miss them terribly. My sister in law and brother when to the doctor the other day and the new baby is looking really good. They sent me a picture of the ultrasound and the picture was so clear. You definitely could make out the head and everything. I can't wait to meet this new little one. I'm already guessing that its a girl. We won't know until she's born. They decided not to find out. However, they did get a due date. It's February 20th. This will be the 4th birthday in February. Anna, Chad, and Luke's birthdays are all in February. It will be a very busy and expensive month from now until the end of time. LOL!

Stay cool!!

Good News!!

First piece of good news is that this will be an extremely short post today.

The second piece of good news is that I have discovered the most wonderful thing. I was paying on my car loan today and I decided to see how much longer it would take to pay the whole thing off. After calculating, I saw that I will have my car paid off in exactly one year!! Can I get a Woo to the Hoo?!?!?!

I can not believe it. Last year I finally paid off my school loan and next year I'll pay off my car loan. The only other big thing I will have to pay on each month besides your normal bills (i.e. water, electric, phone, etc.) is my mortgage payment. But does one ever really pay that off? I guess if you live there forever you can but I know that I won't be living in my home for the rest of my life.

But anyway, its such a great feeling knowing that my car is getting paid off soon and that will be one less thing to pay for. I'm trying so hard to get debt free or at least as close to it as I can. Thank the Lord for His provision and many blessings!!

My Tormenter

At the end of yesterday's post (if you read that far down) I mentioned I've been having a cat problem. I live in a townhouse and my home is in the middle of five units. My neighbor owns a cat. It's not an ugly cat. Its looks quite adorable but I am not a fan of cats at all. I don't wish them harm most of the time but I'm okay with never having to deal with them. For some reason now my neighbor has decided to make his cat, which was always inside, an outside cat. He sets two bowls out for its food and water which ends up in my section of the yard.

My problem with this cat is that it's all over the place. It lays under every car in the parking lot and is always lounging on everyone else's porches but it's owners. Every time I pull up, the cat makes a beeline to my car and then tries to jump in. I have to shoo it away every time. It then follows me to my door and tries to run into my house. One day I about got its head stuck in the door which would have solved all my problems but I would have had a mess to clean up. :)

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was talking to Alan at about 10 pm when I heard this pounding noise coming from my living room window. I was sure that someone was trying to break in so I went to go look out my front door peephole when I saw this little animal scurry into my front bushes. I didn't do anything since it ran away but a few minutes later I heard it again. So this time since I knew it was an animal I looked out my blinds and looking straight at me through the window (at my eye level) was that blasted cat! He was hanging from my window screen! I was livid! I pounded on the window and he finally fell down and ran away. I went out and checked the screen and he tore a few places where he was hanging. I haven't seen his owner yet to ask if he realizes his cat is tormenting me and hanging from my windows. Alan suggested I put a few drops of antifreeze in its water (which was a joke) but I'm not that cruel. As much as this cat is annoying me I could never harm him.

I haven't seen him since that night. He must have realized he really ticked me off and is staying away OR he's planning his next attack. We shall see. :)

Oklahoma City

Things have been pretty busy lately around here. Well, not so much now as the last few weeks. Today its been relatively calm...which I like because I hate to be too busy because it makes me sweat and I really dislike sweating. But that's a whole other therapy session. Just kidding. I don't go to therapy...yet. But I do hate sweating which is why I don't work out. But I need to start working out because I need to lose weight and because maybe some day I will have to wear a big white poofy dress and the Lord knows how I don't want to look like the great white whale on that day.

But anyway, the since the National Convention is now behind me things will be pretty slow and I'll be able to catch up on things I had to put on hold. I really enjoyed the convention this year. I was able to see and talk with some old friends I hadn't seen for awhile. Of course, facebook does help in keeping every connected better but it's still nice to connect face to face. I also learned that one or two more people read my blog. That made me excited since I didn't think anyone but a few read it. There was a small rumor going around that I was engaged. I had so many people come up and congratulate me on the engagement. I have no idea where that got started but to clarify...I'm not engaged. I even had a lady at my church yesterday ask me when the big day was going to be. I just laughed and said that I don't yet but as soon as I get engaged I'll be sure to figure that out. lol! But I'm happily dating the man that I will eventually marry but we are enjoying the dating experience for now. ;-)

Other than that the National was alot of fun and I enjoyed being in Oklahoma City. I had never been to OK so I was looking forward to it. Well, I had been to the OKC airport to visit a guy but that is a memory I'm trying to erase my memory. Anyway, we had a little free time during the week to go visit the OKC Bombing Memorial. It wasn't but just a few blocks from our hotel. I remember the day that happened. It was so sad to watch on the news but you don't really know how it was until you visit the memorial and the museam. It was very sad and you kind of leave there with a heaviness in your heart but it was a neat place to visit. I recommend everyone touring it at least one time if you are ever in the OKC area.

My parents and I decided this year for the National to drive to AL and ride a charter bus with my brother's youth group and the the youth group of another church nearby. It was quite an experience. They gave us a bus at first that stunk like rotten eggs but it was enough to seat all of us. (We only had 4o some ride down there but we were bringing back a few extra.) But because the smell was so bad they brought us a different bus. The only problem was that it was a smaller bus so we didn't have room for all the ones we were bringing back that we would have on the first bus. So we decided not to worry about it that day and figure out something later. It was a long 12 hour bus ride to OKC from AL. The air decided not to work on the way down there and it was rather warm. The bus company took the bus and put it in the shop to figure out what was wrong with the air. They decided that instead of getting a new 52 passenger bus that they would just rent a car for us to drive back behind the bus. So my sister (in law), nephew, mom, and my self drove the car. I'm so thankful we did because the air on the never got fixed and the driver decided he was in the Indy 500 and was weaving in and out of traffic. Everyone who rode the bus had gotten so sick because of the heat and the motion. I felt bad for them but so glad I was in the car even though I drove most of the way home.

But overall, the National was great a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the convention next year in Charlotte. I like North Carolina. I always thought it was a pretty state. When my parents were missionaries we traveled there quite a bit for itinerate services. I've always enjoyed going.

I promise tomorrow my post will be shorter and maybe a little more interesting. It's a cat story and they are not my favorite animal and I'm having a war with a cat next door. Stay tuned.

A Redhead, A Brunette, and a Rest Area

This past weekend I was in Alabama again. The only difference than any other weekend I'm down there was that my family was not there. My sister in law had a girls weekend trip with the women in her family so she loaded up the kids and brought them to my parents house for the weekend. My brother at the last minute decided to go up to Nashville to see my parents as well. I already had planned to go to Alabama because my boyfriend and I had plans to spend Saturday at the lake with some friends.

My brother came home Saturday evening but Jenny and the kids were not coming back until Sunday evening. I always leave Sunday afternoon to head back to Nashville. I didn't get to really see her or the kids at the start of the weekend. We knew that we would be passing each other on the interstate so we decided to meet up somewhere so we could all see each other for a few minutes. We kept calling and saying what mile marker we were at and then we both realized we were a mile from the same rest area so we decided to meet there. I pull up to the parking lot and get sort of confused. I gaze across the interstate just in time to see Jenny pulling up at the rest area on the other side of the interstate. I call Jenny and say, "Hey! Look across the interstate." She did and we both start dying of laughter. I waved at her and said, "We are idiots."

So I drove up to the next exit and turned around and met up with them at their rest area. I got out of the car and my nephew saw me and screamed my name and came running down the sidewalk and flung himself into my arms. It was so sweet. He kept saying, "Janice! You're here!" Then he gave me the biggest hug and sweetest kiss. My niece then saw me and did the same thing. It just melts my heart when those two get excited to see me. I love those little faces so much and I'm so thankful that I get to see them more often than I use to. I have my Alabama boyfriend to thank for that. :)

Anyway, we stayed there for a few minutes so I could admire my sister in law's belly. She is getting big for only being a few months pregnant. She looks so cute. We talked and got caught up for about 10 minutes then decided to hit the road. Luckily for her, she only had about 20 more miles to go but I still had a 3 1/2 hour drive ahead of me and it was getting late. (There were storms headed to Nashville and I was trying to beat them home.)

About an hour later I get a text from Alan (my boyfriend) that said, "So you had a blond moment there?" I had no idea what he was talking so I told him no and why was he asking such a question and texting me while he was in church. Shame! Shame! He called me after church and said that Chad told him what me and Jenny did regarding the rest stops. I didn't know it was such a stupid move but it really was. In our defense, I really thought it was one rest area that both sides of the interstate go to. I have seen those and just assumed that this one was the same. Anyway, this story probably wasn't that funny to you but we sure laughed about it and especially how both my brother and my boyfriend called us idiots. But if they want to pull the thread on the idiot factor, I do have whoppers of stories about them....but I won't. :)

Just in Case You Have Forgotten...

My name is Janice and I'm the horrible person that keeps up with this neglected blog that you all have probably forgotten about or not check anymore since I never update it. :) It's been awhile, I know! I can't explain the reasoning at all. I've become those that I despise. Don't you hate it when you read and check a blog everyday and they haven't updated it in like two months?! That's me!! I've become someone I talk bad about. Just kidding. I don't do that. But when I read a blog I really like and they haven't updated it in several days, weeks, months, years...I get aggravated. So to those that have gotten aggravated at me, I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you somehow.

Things here are pretty much the same. I'm still at Home Missions. I'm still in Nashville living in my new house (which I am still in love with). I'm still dating my Prince Charming from Alabama. No, we are not engaged...yet. We have been together for eight months now. It doesn't seem like its been that long but yet it seems like we've been together forever. But we are very happy and very much in love. No rings or dates set yet. Stay tuned.

To catch you up on what's been happening since May, our family to a vacation to Chicago over Memorial Day weekend. We had the best time, we went to Navy Pier and Sears Tower (actually Willis Tower but I refuse to call it that). We were only in Chicago for 2 days so we didn't have much time to do much. My dad and brother went to the Cubs and Cardinals game so us girls and the kids headed to Navy Pier where we shopped, ate and played at the Children's Museum. It was a fun day. I love Chicago. It's so beautiful there. My sister in law kept saying that she could live there. Sure she could, until they had their first winter and she froze her little redneck hiney off. After Chicago, we drove down to see my grandpa and my mom's sister and her family. Then after that we drove on down to Decatur to see my grandmother and my dad's family. It was a good but very busy vacation. I needed a vacation to recoup from that vacation.

In other news, I'm going to be an aunt for the third time. My brother and sister in law are going to have baby number 3. Its still hard to believe and it didn't really sink in until I saw her last weekend. She already has quite a pooch on her. She is only about 2 months along but there is no mistaking there is a baby in there. They already have one girl and one boy so with this baby they are not going to find out what they are having. This will be a hard pregnancy on me since I like to buy either really girly stuff or very boyish masculine stuff. So I guess I'll have to learn to like yellow and green. My sister in law and I very close. We are like sisters and we tell each other everything. The only thing is she likes to tell me details I don't need or want to hear. For some reason she feels the Lord leading her to tell me the date and place where each child was created. After I hear this I jab a pen in my ears until they bleed and crawl into a fetal position. It's the only way I can cope.

Other than that, nothing new really is going on. But once again I'm going to challenge myself to update this more than once a century and come up with witty and interesting blog topics. Aren't you all so lucky?! ;-)

Weekend Recap

One of the hardest and most intimidating thing for me about writing a new blog is trying to decide how to start it. Just staring a blank screen is a very intimidating thing when you are just not sure what to write. But luckily, I do know what to write but was having a hard time starting.

Anyway, I had an amazing weekend. I went to AL and couldn't have had a better time. Friday night Alan and I had a regular date which, believe it or not, is hard for us to do. I can't explain it but when we actually go out a date date, I'm excited. So we spent the evening eating and watching movies. Splendid! Saturday we decided to spend the day on the lake. So about noon he picked me up and we spent the rest of the day at the lake. It was so much fun. I hadn't done that since I was a very little girl. Our family was never ones to go boating or fishing much or spend much time in the water. I wish we had now because it is so much fun. Now, one thing I had never done before was tubing. So Alan stuck me on one and he went very very v-e-r-y slow so I can "learn" how to tube. I don't think there's much learning to be done. You just lay on it and hang on for dear life. It felt like we were going at least 100 mph but I think we were only doing 20, which I learned that that is a very slow speed...like turtle slow. It didn't feel like it for me. So now that I've had my lesson I don't think he'll have mercy on me next time. These people in Alabama are serious about their tubing. It is their main goal so sling people off. I'm not looking forward to that. It was fun though and I can't wait to try it out again. Maybe.

Saturday night my sister (in law) spent some much needed girl time together. We went out for Mexican and then we went to see Letters to Juliet. It was a great movie!! I highly recommend it. It's funny and of course has a respectable amount of romance. It was filmed in Italy and the scenery is gorgeous. It made me want to go to Italy very badly. But anyway, it was nice to sit and talk girl talk and catch up on stuff that we hadn't had the chance to in a long time. I love my sister in law and am so thankful that she was the one chosen for my brother. I couldn't have asked for a better one.

Tonight I'm going out to dinner with a friend and we are going to eat at a restaurant that is participating in the flood relief efforts. Tonight many restaurants are participating in this "Eat Out For Nashville". Area restaurants are giving 50% or 100% of what they make tonight between the hours of 6pm and 10pm. I know it's not much in helping with the relief efforts after the major flood a couple of weeks ago but at least it's something. I'm telling you I'm so proud of the way this city has just pulled together and didn't whine and gripe and begging the government for help. They knew what needed to be done and just did it. Last week, Vince Gill hosted a telethon on a local channel and it raised $1.7 million for an organization right here in middle TN. Last night Brad and Kim Paisley hosted another telethon benefit concert on GAC. Tons of country music artists came out to the Ryman and performed and answered phones. They also raised $1.7 million. I know that Tim McGraw and Faith Hill will be hosting another benefit concert in June. It's just amazing how everyone is pulling together and just raising the money needed and its even more amazing that the money is going to stay right here in middle TN.

Happy Monday!

Country Music Hall of Fame

Last night I accompanied a friend to the Country Music Hall of Fame. She is a member there and was invited to go to an opening of a new exhibit in their museum. It was kind of swanky but yet very laid back. We walked in and they had the lobby area filled with tables and candles and rose petals. It actually looked like a wedding reception. It was gorgeous. They had two tables filled with appetizer type foods and it all was delicious. We ate ourselves silly. The dessert alone was worth going and the roast beef on a skewer. Yum! I'm so hungry now thinking about it.

Anyway, once we got there we found out that there was no formal presentation or program. It was more of eat, walk around the museum as long as you want and eat some more. So that's what we did. LOL! We had our dinner and then we walked the two top floors of the museum. It was pretty cool. I had never been to the Hall of Fame and I didn't know quite what to expect. They had clothing, CMA awards, Grammys, guitars and Elvis' car. That's right. His gold car and his golden piano are both there on display.

The new exhibit had pieces from Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, and Zac Brown Band. I really enjoyed, though, seeing the clothing and guitars from the earlier days. It made me very nostalgic. We started on the third floor and worked our way down. That is really the way to see it because the earlier stuff is on the third floor and then it goes chronologically down that way. They have a whole exhibit was Brenda Lee and an entire half floor dedicated to Hank Williams and Hank Williams, Jr. They also had a piece of the Hee Haw set there. It was very interesting.

The Country Music Hall of Fame was damaged by the recent floods in Nashville. Their basement was flooded and the Ford Theater had water in it from the stage up to the third row of seats. The rotundra was closed also. The rotundra is where they have the plagues of the artists who have been inducted in the Hall of Fame so I was a little bummed that we couldn't see but thankful that none of that was destroyed. It was great to hear that none of their artifacts from the different eras of artists were not damaged since all of those are on the second and third floors. After we toured the museum we found the dessert table (I didn't eat any before the tour) and sat and ate and talked. We stayed for a little while longer then headed home. I won't talk about how Tammy almost killed us on Music Row. That's for another day when I blog about bad drivers. LOL! Just kidding, Tammy....not really. I am going to blog about it someday. :)

I'm working a half day today because I'm headed down to T-Town. I wasn't going to leave until around 3pm but Nashville and northern AL are supposed to get storms and I'm not fond of driving in them so I'm leaving a little earlier to avoid the storms. I'm excited and can't wait to see Alan or my brother and his family. It's been two weeks since I've seen Alan and three weeks since I've seen my family. Normally that wouldn't bother me so much but since I'm constantly down there I miss them when I go a few weeks without seeing them. My niece and nephew are growing so fast and they are as cute as can be and quite hilarious. I'm so thankful that I get to see them more so I don't feel as if I'm missing to much of their growing up years.

Have a great weekend!

Music or No Music?

I love music. I love to sing it and I love to listen to it. I wish I had kept up with piano lessons but I took two years and quit when I was in elementary school. I do regret that decision now. I can play a little bit but I have to really work hard at it. But music has always been a big part of my life. If you know my family at all you know that it is a huge part of our lives. I grew up listening to Southern Gospel. We always went to concerts anytime that they were around. My parents were always a part of some type of singing group while I was growing up. When my brother and I were old enough they started having us sing with them. I was not a good singer when I was younger. Not at all. Ask anyone in my family. I basically had to teach my self how to carry a tune. My family really worked with me as well. My brother, on the other hand, is pitch perfect, the jerk. :) Just kidding. He is pitch perfect though. He's incredibly talented and is now doing a great job as the music director at his church. His wife can also sing. She is a soprano and has a beautiful voice. I love singing with Chad and Jenny. Sometimes when I visit their church the three of us will sing together and there is just something about family harmony. I love it! Before you ask...no, Alan can not sing. Bless his heart, he's tone deaf, I think. Don't worry he knows it and admits it to anyone. He tries though and I think I'm the only one that is blessed to hear him sing when we are jamming in the car to the radio. But I love it. I don't mind listening to his tone deaf self. I just sing along with him.

There's something about music though that just makes things so much better. It speaks to the heart and can minister in ways that otherwise seems impossible. When I found out that I could add a playlist to my blog I was pretty excited and so it's been on there pretty much from the beginning. I try to add a new song every time I post a new blog. I try to find a song that has to do with something that I've written. Sometimes I just add a song that I really enjoy or a new song that I had just heard on the radio or pandora.com (love that website). I recently took the playlist off because I was trying to add a video to a post but ended up just using a link but I kept the playlist off. Sometimes I'll leave it off if I have a video on here so it's not overlapping the sound of the video. I didn't put the playlist back on because I just forgot but it got me thinking...do you all enjoy the music playing or is it too distracting when you read the posts? I would love to know your thoughts.

Happy Wednesday!

PS - Today is Day 1 of my new life change way of eating and I've had so much water today that I literally have been in the ladies room around 10 times. No lie. I'm sure the buildings receptionist thinks I either have a bladder infection, UTI, or am stopped up. (Isn't that a lovely vision?) :)

Weighty Issues

Bunco was a lot of fun last night. Of course, it helps that I actually won a prize for most wins. I had 13 out of 20 wins. I was rolling double sixes left and right. Naturally, if you don't play Bunco you will have no idea what I'm talking about but I was excited. I've never had such a good night. But it was such a fun night with the girls...well, mainly girls. We had a few who couldn't make it and we couldn't get any subs to take their place so a couple of the girls had their husbands fill in and they were quite hilarious. It definitely made things interesting. Our hostess made the gifts a theme and her prizes were various work out items. I got two hand held 3 lbs weights and a travel mug. Other prizes were yoga mats, an exercise ball, push up bars (I said b-a-r-s. Some girls were a little dyslexic last night if you know what I mean. lol!) and I can't remember what else. But I love it when the gifts are a theme. It's so cute and creative. Anyhoo, it was a lot of fun. I look forward to these groups each month. Again, I suggest if you are looking to start a monthly girls night out...Bunco is a fun and easy way to do it. Don't play it by the instructions...that's boring. If you want to know how we play it drop me a line. I'll explain it. It's so easy.

Speaking of exercise, I have been wanting to start trying to lose some weight for a very long time. I had lost almost 40 lbs a few years ago but I ended up putting it all back on. I have always had trouble with my weight. I do believe its genetic. Looking at back at my family and extended family I can tell that it does run in the family. My brother isn't heavy at all. He's always nice and trim but he also works out and watches what he eats. He's always done that. He's always stayed active in school by playing sports now he goes running everyday and has a home gym in his garage. I think that if he didn't work at it he would be in the same boat as me and my family. My boyfriend is a workout junkie as well. He works out almost everyday and is trying to watch what he eats. He's a big guy. He's around 6'2" and has a little weight on him but not much. I quite honestly don't know how I snagged him looking the way I do but I'm so grateful that he looked past my weight when we met. He's so sweet though. He's all the time telling how beautiful I am. *Swoon*. I'm so in love! :) Anyway...I'm just tired of being big. Now, I'm not the two ton whale or anything like that but I do have a lot more weight than I should and I'm starting to tell how much I actually have physically. Which, I know doesn't make sense but in my head it does. :)

My dad goes and works out in the gym most days and my mom is wanting to lose weight as well. When she got sick last year and couldn't eat she had dropped a gobs of weight but unfortunately once she got her appetite back and her health issues went away he pounds came back on and then some. We both had gone to Weight Watchers and loved it. But this time around we don't really want to go each week to a meeting nor do I really have the money to go each week. It can get expensive. So this past Saturday I made a proposition to my parents and they both agreed. So starting tonight we are starting our own unofficial Weight Watchers meeting. We are going to weigh ourselves each week at the same time on a scale my dad bought today (isn't that funny?) and then probably talk about it for a little while. It's just like they do in the meetings. The only difference here is that we are paying money if we can gain weight. If we maintain from week to week we have to drop 50 cents in the jar. For every pound gained that week we are adding a dollar. Then at the end of the month whomever lost the most pounds gets the money to do with whatever they want. Mom and I realized that money was a huge incentive last time in losing weight and we thought we had to factor that in this time. Money wasn't the only incentive to lose weight but when you weren't losing weight or gaining weight and still paying that money each week it made you feel like a not good steward of your money. So why not change it up a little and actually get that money back...maybe. So we are trying this and seeing how this goes. Of course no one will see how much I weigh nor do I really want to see how much they weigh so we are on an honor system there but I don't think I'll have a problem with cheating. :)

So do any of you have weighty issues or had them in the past? What worked well for you in losing weight and keeping it off? I would love to hear ideas and plans that worked.

Happy Tuesday!

Shopping, Food, Bunco...Oh MY!

***Disclaimer*** If you are a male reading this (which I doubt there are any), you may want to just come back another day. This is all about shopping, curtains and food. :)

Since today is Monday I've challenged myself to blog every day this week. So we will see how it goes. :) This weekend was a pretty good one. Our family gave mom her Mother's Day gifts early because we all got her gift cards or money. We have a family vacation planned for the end of this month and she wanted to get some new clothes. Since I decided to stay home this weekend we decided it was a weekend of shopping. Saturday Mom and I made a run to Cool Springs to shop, shop, shop. It was a pretty fun day although we both got depressed shopping, but doesn't all women? NO? It's just us? Anyway, she found some cute clothes perfect for the trip.

We then made our way to Bed, Bath, & Beyond so I could finally buy my living room curtains. I have been dreaming of this day for so long and it finally happened. I was stoked. It took me forever to pick the perfect ones. Why does there have to be so many choices? But boy, does it get expensive. You have to buy the curtains (which only come one panel per package), the valances, the rods, etc. It all adds up. But it was so worth it. My parents came over Sunday afternoon and we hung them up and they look so good. I can't believe how different a place can look just by adding curtains. It changed the look of my house and it feels so much cozier and homey. I'm very pleased.

Saturday while shopping I was telling mom how I made some homemade pizza the other night. I usually make a BBQ Chicken Pizza but decided to make something different. Mom decided she wanted me to make a pizza that night so we made a quick trip to the store and got the ingredients. I usually buy the pizza dough in a can (who has time to make their own dough...not me). I usually get the classic kind of crust, you know the hand tossed or deep dish. But mom wanted to try the thin crust. It was so good. I'll never buy another type of crust. It was the perfect amount of dough. The pizza turned out great. It was just you're regular pepperoni, mushroom, bacon bits and black olives. It was very tasty. That's what I love about homemade pizzas. You can put whatever you want on it and it usually costs less than one you get from a chain store.

It was a nice weekend and it was fun spending some time with my mom. On our way to the mall Saturday we passed some damage left over from the flood and we both commented how we felt guilty not spending that day helping someone or anyone with the flood clean up. We know of some FWBs that have lost their homes or received severe damage. My heart goes out to all them and I pray for them daily. Luckily our church is just about cleaned up. They have all the carpeting and glue up from the floor and they are planning on picking the new flooring tonight. We are hoping it will all be done before next Sunday. We realize how very lucky our church really was. Just a half mile up the road there is a church with a huge whole in it from the floods and another one has lost everything and has been completely gutted. We have offered up our building on Sunday afternoons for one of the churches and I believe they will be taking us up on the offer once our floors are put in.

I've got Bunco tonight. I love my Bunco group and have lots of fun. If you ever are looking for a once a month girls night I do highly suggest you start a Bunco group or some type of game night. It's nice to step away for a couple of hours. A friend of mine and I are planning on starting another type of girls night with some college friends. We probably wont' do Bunco since Bunco is pretty committed type of game. But we do want to start some type of get together each month so if you are interested in this please drop me a line.

Happy Monday!

We Are Nashville

As most of you know Nashville received the biggest flood they had ever seen on May 1, 2010. It really is an undescribable feeling knowing and seeing your town almost completely under water. It's so sad to see places like Opryland Hotel, OpryMills Mall, The Grand Ole Opry House, and Downtown Nashville all completely submerged in water. Several of our FWB churches, including my own church, has been damaged to the rain and floods. Many of our FWB families have had their home completely destroyed or severely damaged. Even though the waters have started to recede the clean up will take months.

There has been huge frustration that the national media outlets like ABC, CBS, and NBC have not given us the attention that we needed or deserved. Thankfully, word is spreading slowly to people outside of Nashville. This video has made its way all through Facebook and gives you a pretty good picture of Nashville and it's spirit right now. (side note: when you see a pile of cars near the beginning of the video...that's a half mile from my church.)The wording in the video was taken from a blog. You can read the entire article here. I do have to say that I'm very proud of my town and the way that everyone has just pitched in and has helped each other. We are Nashville!

Scrabble

This past weekend I made another trip to Alabama. It was a very enjoyable trip, although it was a little boring at times. It came some severe storms that kept us inside most of the time. We spent the majority of Saturday at my brother's house. When bad weather comes my brother turns on the news and leaves it there. He learned it from out mom who does the same thing. I don't necessarily do that. When I hear the sirens I know I need to run for cover or in most of my cases, run outside to see if I can find the tornado. Until then, I'm watching a movie or reading a book or just doing whatever. I'll occasionally flip over to the weather to see what's its doing just to be informed. Anyway, Saturday I spent the day at my brother's and he had the local weather on all day long. I mean...All. Day. Long. It was a long day. :) I know that he just keeping up with it to protect his family but it made for a very long and boring day. Oh he was fine. He had his iPhone with all its neat little games and gadgets but those of us who don't have cool phones had to sit in boredom. So occasionally Alan and I would go take a walk or drive around.

My sweet boyfriend is an outdoors person and when he is stuck inside he's bored out of his mind and feels like he's wasting time. Me? I'm not an outdoors person because well, I hate bugs and all creepy crawly things. But I'm learning to be more outdoors and just run and shriek when a wasp or huge bumble bee comes within 20 feet of me. But anyway, I kept saying that we need to play a board game or cards or something before I start gauging my eyes out to have something to do. Our family used to be huge on board and card games. That's what we always did. We love our Scrabble. Chad plays it constantly on his phone with friends which should have been my first clue that I need not play this game with him. But he suggested that someone (definitely not him since he needed to monitor the weather, yeah, right) run to Wal-Mart and pick up a Scrabble board. So Jenny and I ran to Wal-Mart and got it. We ended up playing much later that evening after Jenny went to bed so it was just Chad, Alan and myself. Alan had never played it before so after brief instructions we started our game. It started off normal with words like hater and stowed being placed on the board. Now I was really excited when I formed the word toupee. I was stoked. I had never formed a word that big which should tell you something of my spelling skills. :)

But then Chad started putting down all these two letter words like jo and qi. What?! What is a jo or qi? He always prefaced his moves with, "I promise this is a word. I play scrabble all the time on my phone." Okay, one...don't be a bragger about your cool new phone. Second...my picture is not by the work gullible in the dictionary. Okay, it may be but I'm not falling for your shenanigans this time buckaroo. Then he always said that if we didn't believe him to look up in the dictionary which the only one they had was an online version on Chad's cool new phone. So you better believe I decided to call his bluff and look up every single word he put down. Shoot, they are real words. Needless to say that Chad skunked us by at least 100 points. But I'm not bitter....not about the game or his phone. :) Oh and he's not a sore winner either by any means. He totally did not rub it in our faces that he won with words we've never heard of that he found on his cool new phone. *I hope you are reading this with sarcasm but that is so how I'm typing it.* :)

What's the moral of this story? Break Chad's phone before you play Scrabble.

80's and Traffic

I've been on a big 80's kick lately. Big! Huge! (Name that movie.) I really don't know why I've gotten on this obsession lately but it's been kind of fun. I've always been a huge Goonies, Karate Kid, Back to the Future, Breakfast Club and Adventures in Babysitting fan. Every time they come on TV I always have to watch it even though I own three out of the four movies. I also love 80's music. I realized though that I hadn't watched as many as I probably should have. So I've been slowly catching up on some those. It's been fun and very nostalgic. It all puts me back in Salem, IL where I grew up and now I've had a little bit of homesickness for that place. I'll get over it soon. :)

Speaking of longing for some place I have found myself missing Alabama this week. I spent the weekend there and had the best time. My sweetie and I spent most of Saturday sitting at Lake Tuscaloosa with our feet in the water and talking about everything and anything. It was so peaceful and restful. I'm headed back down there this weekend. I usually don't go two weekends in a row but our travel schedule has been messed up because of this reason or that. But after traveling back home Sunday night I'm not really looking forward to going back. I mean, I want to go back to see Alan and my family but Alabama does not know how to plan road work.

Between Birmingham and Decatur I got stuck in traffic three different times! THREE!!! It was ridiculous. The first one was for construction. They merged three lanes into one. That was was terrible. Once I cleared that mess I got stuck again a few miles up the road. This one all the lanes were completely stopped and barely creeping. Then all of a sudden the roads cleared. There must have been an accident and by the time we got there it was all cleared up. Then a few more miles down the road I got stopped AGAIN for construction. I was getting so frustrated. When I finally cleared that mess I put my cruise on 80 and just dared a cop to stop me. I was tired and frustrated and just wanted to get home. I finally got home around 9:30 or 10:00. What should have been only a 3 1/2 -4 hour drive took 5 hours!! I was beyond ticked. But oh well. Those things happen from time to time. I guess it wouldn't have been so bad had I not gotten in stuck in traffic on the way to AL because of an accident. Why can't these people learn to drive correctly? Oh well.

Despite all the traffic issues it was an amazing weekend and I can't believe it's already Wednesday. The week is just flying by. I'm not complaining at all. :) Alan and I are suppose to take his boat out on Saturday for a day of fun in the sun but they are calling for rain so we are just going to wait and see how things go. But I'm excited to head back down there. The people in his church are so nice and sweet and they treat me so well. I'm slowly getting to know some of the people down there. It helps that Chad and Jenny are there and that I've been visiting that church for the past four years.

Oh! Anyone else ecstatic that Kate Gosselin finally got voted off of Dancing with the Stars?!? I'm sorry but the woman cannot dance and I'm all about watching the good ones. LOL!

Happy Wednesday!

Catching Up

Oh my goodness! I didn't even realize it's been almost a whole month since I've blogged. That's terrible of me. But you should be used to my lack of motivation and inconsistency by now. :)

Of course the lack of blogging might also mean that not one new thing is happening to me and thoughts banging around in my head are not really worth mentioning out loud or it could mean that I've just been so incredibly busy that I haven't had time. I choose to believe the latter even though the first is the truth. But anyway, I'll attempt to jot some things down today.

My new furniture did come in and I have to say that it looks GOR-GEOUS in my house. I love it! It's big. Really big...and comfortable. I had no idea it would be that big. My parents were gracious enough to hang out at my house to wait for the furniture since I was working and couldn't leave to meet the furniture delivery boys. But they (my mom mainly) were having a coronary in trying to get the furniture to fit and was calling me every 3 mins to give me an update and sending me pictures on what it looked like. I told her just to wait until I got home and I would help move things around but by the time I got home they had it all in place and I haven't moved it yet. It looks great! I love how big and comfy and full of pillows it is. Now I'm waiting for my tax refund to come in so I can go by curtains for the living room. Once that's done my little house will be so homey I may become a hermit. I love how Uncle Sam is paying for my redecorated home. :)

My sister (in-law) had surgery this past Monday. They thought she had endometreosis. She's had it once before and had the surgery when they were living up here in Nashville. She had been having quite bit of pain for awhile so they (meaning the doctors) assumed the mess was back and they wanted to go in and take care of it. They went in and she had none whatsoever. We were thankful to hear that but was a little puzzled over what was causing her pain. The doctor said that some of her organs were moved around a bit from her pregnancies so he went in there and put things back where they should and performed a DNC and everything went well. But other than being very sore she did very well. Her mom and dad stayed with them the first half of the week and now my mom is headed down there to stay the rest of the week to help take care of her, the house, kids...my brother. LOL!

I'm still with Alan. Things are going very well for us and we both couldn't be happier. Are we talking marriage? Yes and we know that we are the ones God has for us but we are just taking our time. I only mention this because we both get bombarded with questions on when we are getting married. We are just enjoying this time of being together. But it will happen and when it does I promise there will be a post with pictures, fireworks, and trumpets to let the world know that I'm finally engaged.

I bought four new tires yesterday for my car. Man, are they normally that expensive? But I desperately needed them. According to my dad and Alan, I was illegal driving on the tires. They had no grooves left on the tires. I guess that wasn't a very good thing. :) But I have four brand spanking new tires and now I feel like a responsible adult and now my family can breathe a little easier when I travel back and forth to AL. (I said they can breathe a little easier. I still speed. lol!)

I'm headed to AL this weekend to be with Alan and to visit my family. I can't go too long without seeing them and since Jenny had surgery I feel like I need to spend time with her. Of course she only uses me for my cooking skills. She has requested brownies a layered salad and homemade ice cream. I think I'll just do the brownies.

I think that catches us up on everything. How have you all been?

Happy Thursday (and Survivor night!! Woo Hoo!!)

I Have a Serious Problem

I know you are probably asking, "Just one?" I have many problems but the one to date that I can't seem to conquer is very troublesome. I can't seem to park correctly in a parking space. This was never an issue for me but it seems as if I couldn't park correctly if my life depended on it. If the space is straight I park crooked. If the space is slanted I park "straight" in it. It's weird and disturbing. It seems that the harder I try to park straight the more crooked I get. What does that say about my personality? I wonder if that means anything. :)


Anyway, I'm so excited. Last night I purchased new living room furniture. I'm very pleased with what I got and I can't wait for it to be delivered which won't be for a couple of weeks. Here's are all the pieces except for the lamps. I couldn't find a picture of them online.

I'm really excited about the tables because they have no glass in them!! I can not stand tables with glass on them. I currently have tables with glass on them and I absolutely loathe them! They are very 1980's and as much as I love 80's movies I loathe the furniture (and the clothes but that's a whole other blog) that was made during that era! But that's just my opinion and if you currently have tables with glass in them I mean no disrespect and do not mean to offend. I'm just stating my own personal preferences.

I'm so glad it's Friday but sad too because I don't get to see my man. He was asked to go along with some friends on a four-wheeler trip somewhere in the boonies of Alabama. I couldn't say no to that sweet and gorgeous face so I told him to have fun. Not that I could give him permission...I'm not that type of girlfriend. But anyway, I won't get to see him this weekend but that's okay because that just means I get to go shopping. See, it all works out. :)

Have a great weekend!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I've been a bad bad blogger this week. Nothing is going on really and nothing has really caught my attention that is blog worthy. But I thought I would drop in and waste a few minutes of your time. :)

My plea last week to get a friend to join me in a book club was a bust. LOL! She emailed me after she read it and said, "Subtle." So that's a no. Ha! That's okay. I will wear her down one of these days.

I had kind of a blah weekend. I think I really chalk it up to the fact that I had a migraine the entire time and no matter how many Advils I took, it just wasn't going away. I think my liver will be severely damaged if I don't go off those things but I have a hard time swallowing pills (meaning, I can't swallow them at all) and Advil tablets are the only pills that I can really get down with about 2 glasses of water. I'm a baby, I know. I choked on a marble and and a fireball candy when I was little and haven't been able to swallow pills ever since. I don't know the correlation between the two but that's the reason.

Anyway, I had a migraine and it wasn't going away. On Saturday my boyfriend decided to change the oil in my car since I hadn't had it changed and was about 3,000 miles overdue. But the process took a long time. We had gone to his parents house because that's where all his tools were. It was a windy, rainy dreary day. His parent's live in a small town outside of Northport. Their house is located on top of a hill and they have a carport/shop that is near their house. Well, as I said it was very rainy and freezing all day. But I stayed out in the shop to help Alan and when I say help I mean, I watched, Alan change my oil. Anyway, as we (he) were working on my car I could literally hear this huge gust of wind head up the hill. I had never heard anything like this before I seriously thought it was a tornado even though it was way too cold for one. Anyway, all of a sudden we hear this huge bang of metal and then the shop started shaking. I really thought the place was caving in even though it was a very sturdy building. Then I looked out the opening and saw a brick fall from the sky. Alan has a ski boat that he keeps at his parents house and has it set up right beside the shop with a tarp and a canopy covering it. The canopy was anchored by huge cylinder bricks. Well, this gust of wind picked up one of the bricks and threw it in the air and it crashed down on the roof of the shop and fell to the ground. The roof is a metal roof so you can imagine how loud it was. So we went around the side to check the boat and the wind had blown the entire canopy up and over the shop. It was one big piece of twisted metal. So we had to clean up all of that which took some time and didn't help my migraine at all. The migraine finally went away Monday morning. I guess this means its time to get my eyes checked again. I'm sure my eyes have gotten worse since my last eye appointment which was three years ago.

But the good news is that's it's St. Patrick's Day so I hope you all are wearing green. I am wearing green contrary to what people think. They are saying I'm wearing blue but it's a blue-green sweater. So it's in the green family and it so counts!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Book Club

One of my favorite movies is The Jane Austin Book Club. I don't own that movie and I need to make a note of picking a copy up the next time I'm at the store. But anyway, I absolutely love that movie. I'm not sure of why I love that movie so much except that I love the concept of a book club.

This week I was emailing with a friend back and forth regarding a book that I let her borrow to read. A couple of weeks ago we went to watch Dear John together. While we both loved the movie, I had told her that night that I loved the book so much more. She asked to borrow the book and then when she finished reading it we started comparing notes about the book and compared it to the film. While I loved the book better than the movie she loved the movie better than book. Now, do I wish she shared my sentiments about the book-movie comparison? Not necessarily. She had some good valid points for her reasoning and I feel I had good valid points on my reasoning. I loved the discussion (as much as you can through e-mail) and it got me to thinking.

What I loved about The Jane Austen Book Club is the fact that a small group of people read a book a month and got together to discuss the story and characters. They used their minds and imaginations and had intellectual conversations. Today's world is all visual now. We have a TV program for just about any story or genre you can come up with. We have virtual everything now where it's almost people telling us what to think and how to feel. I know that this doesn't apply to everything and everyone. But we live in such a virtual world that do people really use their minds? I know that they do but I hope you see where I'm going with this.

I love to read. I love to get wrapped up in a story and create the images of the characters in my mind. I love to visualize in my mind what their house, cars, clothing, and city would look like. As much as I love movies, I do prefer books ever them. When I read a book and then watch a movie based on that book I'm so disappointed. The characters and cities and situations are never what I had pictured in mind where I thought was a little better than what I actually saw on the screen.

I love the fact that books make me use my mind and make me think about things that I wouldn't ever before. I love the way they make me look at myself and ask what I would do if I were in that situation. I love how when you and a friend read the same book you are having personal face time with them and talking about what you got out of the story. This then lets you get closer to the soul of that friend and learn what they truly are about where you start to form a bond or closeness with that friend that you didn't have before. Your conversations go past the day to day business and clothes and small talk that you normally would have. I'm not saying that reading a book together is the only to find this closeness in friends and family but it's one way to do it. Or maybe I'm just trying to find the courage to and convince some friends (cough *Tammy* cough) to join me for a few months in trying out a book club with a few friends...no matter how busy you might be. That's another thing...who has the time these days? I'm just as busy as the next person but I think I could find time to squeeze this in.

Anyway, these are just thoughts floating around in this head of mine today. :)

Have a great weekend!

Sadness All Around

This has been a sad week it seems. I know that death is all around us every day and I know that it will touch us all in some way in our life. This week seems to be worse. I guess it started for me when I heard that Marie Osmond's son took his own life over a week ago. Now, I do not know the Osmonds personally but I am a fan. (That's right. I'm an Osmond fan and not ashamed who knows.) I think what made me so sad for them was the fact that they are so grounded in their faith but it's a faith that is so wrong. They seem to be unbelievably nice and sweet people and it hurts my heart to know that they are so far away from the truth but yet know the truth. Does that make sense? Plus, suicide just does not make sense to me. I just can't imagine being in a place where I think the only out is to kill myself. I know it happens and many people commit suicide every day but I just can't imagine what they are thinking in the midst of the act.

I'm assuming that most of you know that I work for my denomination, Free Will Baptists. I work in the Home Missions Department as the Administrative Assistant to Richard Atwood and David Crowe. Richard is the Director of Missionary Assistance and David is the Director of Development. I try not to talk about work too much on here since it is a National department and most of you that read this blog is a Free Will Baptist. I don't talk about it much because I don't want to get myself into trouble by saying the wrong thing or giving out too much details on certain things that happen within our department. But on Monday we did get a call from one of our missionaries saying that his wife's brother had died suddenly on Sunday. It was pretty devastating to them and so I'm asking if you will pray for LeAnn Ledbetter and her family. LeAnn and her husband Randy our missionaries to Salt Lake City, UT.

Then last night I was talking to my sister (in law) when I get a call from our General Director, Larry Powell. He had called to tell me that Richard Atwood's brother, Brian, had passed away from a heart attack in Huntsville, AL. Brian is the father of International Missionary to Spain, Brooke Turnbough. I went to college with Brooke and her brother Brandon. My heart goes out to all of them. Richard and his wife, Sandy, went to Huntsville last night to be with Brian's wife. It was a huge shock and we are getting many calls here at the office regarding it. Again, I ask for your prayers for the Atwood family.

Then, (I know the bad news keeps coming) I read online that the actor Corey Haim passed away early this morning. This saddens me almost as much as the death of Marie Osmond's son. The news reports say that he died of a drug overdose. I am a child of the 80's and so to see him pass away at just 38 years old was a shock.

So today feels so odd to me and I'm having a hard time trying to find a way to end this post. I guess it's just a reminder that the life is precious and we need to always tell the people around us that we love them. It's a reminder that we are here on this Earth for just a moment and we need to do all we can to tell people about Christ and to live and serve Him to the best of our ability.

I Don't Know What to Name This Post So This Will Have to Do. :)

I'm such a terrible blogger or at the least I'm a very inconsistent blogger. My dream is to blog everyday but sometimes I get too busy to blog but I try to blog at least a few times a week and last week I only made it to one day last week. But again, for the millionth time, I'll try to update more.

I had another great weekend. Alan (my wonderful and loving boyfriend) and I have gotten into a routine now when he comes up to Nashville to visit me every other weekend. Since we both work on Fridays and then he drives up we are both a little tired and don't want to go back out so we've gotten into the routine of my cooking dinner or ordering out and watching a movie. So on Friday I made a lasagna which was very good and I didn't have the fiasco as I did last time. Then we turned on The Informant. I was interested in seeing this movie because it takes place in Decatur, IL (my father's birthplace) and was the company ADM. My aunt worked there for years and my cousin is working there now. So I have a little bit of ties to the movie. But, oh mercy, that was a boring movie and we both pretty much fell asleep. I love Matt Damon but goodness that movie was not funny, it was confusing, and just plain boring.

Saturday we got up and browsed Home Depot. We went there with a purpose but browsed the light fixture section also with me dreaming of changing out all my light fixtures. I needed a new cord for my dryer and so we had gone there to get a new one and then my very handy boyfriend fixed it and now I have a dryer!! You just don't understand the level of excitement I have over this. I no longer have to drag my huge pile of laundry over to my parent's house every week. I guess I could have let everything air dry but really, I just didn't want to do that...plus I got a home cooked meal at least once a week. :) We then headed over to OpryMills mall and walked around and browsed some stores. That was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time and I mean A LOT of time at Bass Pro Shop. We spent quite a bit of time looking at the boats and ATVs. Alan had a speed boat now and we plan to use it quite a bit once the weather gets warmer. I'm excited about that. Our relationship started in the winter where all it's done is snow and have bitter cold temperatures (at least bitter cold for AL and TN) and we haven't really done much but stay indoors and watch movies. We both are looking forward to getting out do some boating and all that other fun stuff outside.

I realized after going back on some posts that I really don't talk about Alan a whole lot. I know that after writing post after post of how I longed to find someone that I figured I would write about that once I did find someone. But now that I'm in this relationship I find that I don't necessarily want to share too much about us. I mean I am crazy in love with this guy and I seem to fall more in love every time I'm with him and we have the best time together. So even though I'll talk about him from time to time I just won't share as much as I thought I would.

Oh! I watched the Oscars last night and I was very happy to see Sandra Bullock win for The Blind Side. It was such a great movie and she did an exceptional job. Also, I think Meryl Streep is so cute and I wish she could have won also. She is one of my top favorite actresses.

Have a great week!