Lost In These Moments

When is Winter Again?

2011-08-03T15:09:00.002-05:00

Whew! Is it hot outside or what?! It's 100 degrees outside right now. I'm not going to complain about all this heat because well, I've been sitting in my nice air conditioned apartment all day and it's quite chilly in here. I'm not going to dare turn the air up because I'm a baby and if I get remotely a little warm I whimper and whine and can't breathe. No joke. When it get a little stuffy or hot my nose and my air passage just closes right up and then I get a migraine. Is this just in my head or is this a legitimate condition I need to seek help on? :) Mayme, you're a nurse...should I be concerned? LOL! Oh let me talk to Mayme for a sec. Thank you for the belated birthday wish and I do want to play on Words With Friends so if you, or anyone for that matter, wants to play my username is janiren. I may regret sharing that. LOL!

I'm also not going to complain about the heat because it seems the whole country except for a slither of it is experiencing this heat. It's just seems unbearable. I feel so sorry for my husband and his co-workers. They work in a machine shop and it's not air conditioned. Only the office has air and so they have to work in all this heat. He says it isn't so bad because they have fans but all that does is stir up hot air. He comes home very sweaty, dirty and pretty stinky. I usually have to Febreze the house after he comes in. :)

On days like this I remember all those times in the winter when I would be freezing and begging for summer to get to here. We humans are never satisfied. So when is winter again?

Birthday in Nashville

2011-08-02T11:19:00.005-05:00

Friday was my birthday and to celebrate we headed to Nashville to spend it with my parents. I hadn't been back home since the wedding and it was a much needed trip. I've actually seen my parents quite a bit since I got married but I hadn't been back to Nashville. I can't tell you the feelings that went through me as the Nashville skyline came into view. It's such a beautiful skyline. I never get tired of it and we sure didn't spend enough time there. It was a short quick weekend trip.

Saturday night we met up with one of my best friends and we all headed to Demo's downtown. If you've never been to Demo's and are going to visit Nashville this place is the place to go. The prices are great and their food is delicious! I've never had a bad dish there. I'm so glad I chose to go there. There are so many restaurants that Nashville has that Tuscaloosa doesn't so it was hard to figure out where to go but I'm so glad I choose that place. We had a great time. It was like I had never left. I miss that place so much!

I did get a pretty good birthday gift....I got a job! It's only part time and not the ideal job, but its a job. I'll be working at a preschool/daycare. I'm not all that thrilled about it but the job market in Tuscaloosa pretty much stinks. I've put my application and resume in everywhere and nothing has been opening up. My sister (in law) called me last Thursday and told me that the daycare her kids go to are hiring some partime people and she was able to set up an interview for me. I was able to get the job and I'm so thankful for it because we really need the money but I feel like I'm taking a step or 10 backwards. This is exactly what I did in college and I wasn't so thrilled to be going back...especially when I think I'm the oldest employee there. Everyone else is in high school or college. Ugh! I'm also working until 6 every night. I'm not thrilled about that either. Oh well, it's something for now and I will get to see my neice and nephew everyday so that's a plus. It's also only 5 minutes from home so that is a plus as well. I just need to be thankful that I was able to get hired somewhere. I know the Lord knows what he is doing with me and my husband and I just need to trust Him.

Apartment Life

2011-07-26T14:12:00.003-05:00

After I read my blog post over a few times yesterday I made it sound like apartment living is just to terribly awful. It really isn't. Our apartment is quite nice. It's very spacious. All the rooms are extra large and we have a pretty huge walk in closet. It's just something we are not used to. I own a home in Nashville. It's a two bedroom two and a half bath with a dining room and eat in kitchen. I actually had to leave some of my furniture there when I moved to AL. Alan lived in a three bedroom house before we got the apartment. We are used to stretching out so it's been an adjustment for both of us to squeeze into this apartment.

We also live on the second floor which can be just torture for this out of shape body of mine. :) I can't go grocery shopping by myself lest I have to make two trips to the car to carry all the groceries up the stairs. I always make sure Alan is with me so he can make the two trips. LOL! At my home in Nashville my parking space butted almost completely up to my kitchen door so that has been a huge adjustment.

The plus side of apartment living is that we have no outside yard work to do! Woo Hoo!! I'm very thankful for that. We also have an awesome pool that is hardly ever used. If we didn't have that I probably wouldn't see my brother and his family near as much. Just kidding.

Speaking of the pool...my nephew, Luke, is the most fearless person I know when it comes to the water. He always wear his life jacket but he just swims all around the pool (including the deep end) by himself. Don't worry there is always an adult nearby. :) But yesterday he just cracked us up. Our pool, on the deep end, has a fountain. It has a ledge on it and the kids like to climb up on it and jump off. Jenny had brought a float with her and Luke decided he wanted to play with it. He grabbed it, climbed up on the fountain wall, and yelled, "Hey everyone! Look at me!" Once everyone did, he just jumped off the wall and landed on the float. That may not seem like a big deal but he is three years old. He jumped in 8 feet of water and the fountain ledge is probably 3 feet higher than the water. It was quite hilarious. When he landed he looked at everyone the sweetest little grin. He was so happy. He's so fearless. He'll try anything when it comes to the water. Of course, he's putting a lot of faith and trust in his life jacket that automatically brings him to the surface quickly. We had a great time.

But anyway, we actually love our apartment. It's our first place together and it is quite nice. We know we won't live here always. As soon as I can sell my house, we plan on buying one of our own that we can grow into. But until then, we will live here and cherish the life we are building together and make many memories in our cute little apartment.

Monday's Musings

2011-07-25T13:00:00.003-05:00

Today I just wanted to post a list of things I'm currently thinking....

1. It is way too hot here. I'm very much over the 100 degree weather everyday. I'm praying this heatwave ends soon. I'm ready for cooler weather.

2. I cannot keep enough sweet tea in this house. I made a gallon pitcher of tea on Saturday evening and by this morning it was all gone. I think I only had two glasses out of it. My husband is addicted. I will be buying stock in sugar soon. :)

3. I cannot, for the love of Pete, beat my brother in Words With Friends on my phone. We've played at least 30 games and I've only beaten him once. It's not that he just beats me but he slaughters me. I'm talking by about 200 points. Those darn 2 letter words get me every time. I will be him again if its the last thing I do! :)

4. I enjoy blogging and I'm going to try and blog everyday even if it's just a paragraph or two.

5. I really wish more people commented on my blogs. LOL! I love conversations and sometimes I think I'm the only one that reads this blog. Maybe I should actually tell people that I do blog.

6. I love Mondays! My brother and his family come over to our apartment and we swim at the pool and have dinner together. It such a sweet time with them and the kids.

7. I love the closer relationships I'm developing with my brother and sister (in law). We've always been close but since I'm around them a whole lot more we have been getting closer. I'm trying to treasure this time together because I know we won't always be able to live near each other.

8. I'm not so fond of apartment living. I loathe white walls and want to paint so badly. We also just don't have the room here. Most of our things are crammed in our storage closet. We are anxiously waiting until I can sell my house in Nashville so we can buy a house and spread out.

9. I'm headed home Friday. By home I mean Nashville. We haven't' been to Nashville since our wedding and since Friday is my birthday we decided to go home for my birthday and spend it with my parents. I'm so excited. I've missed it terribly. Thursday I'm celebrating my birthday with my brother and his family so having two parties in one week ain't too shabby. :) Coldstone..here I come!

10. I love reading blogs!! I just do. I think my life is so boring that I enjoy reading about other people's lives. They inspire me to try and do certain things.

11. I love strawberries. When I was younger I remember we used to go and pick strawberries. I told my husband last night I wanted to pick strawberries but had no idea if there is a strawberry patch around.

12. On the way to Charlotte last week we had to go through Gaffney. There they have a water tower in the shape of a giant peach...crack and all. My niece got a kick out of seeing the huge bottom (she's not allowed to say butt.)

13. After being in North Carolina, I think I wouldn't mind living there. I've always thought it was a beautiful state.

14. I miss my monthly women's Bible Study. I wish my church here had one. I miss that sweet time and learning from other women.

That's it. I have no other thoughts for today. We'll see what I come up with tomorrow. :)

Catch Up

2011-07-24T16:46:00.003-05:00

So after I posted I was back to blogging I was basically MIA for a couple of weeks. I guess I had nothing to say or really just didn't feel like blogging. I've been kind of down lately for the lack of job opportunities. I still don't have a job but I'm trusting that the Lord has the perfect one out there for me and I'm praying that I get one this week. That's my specific prayer.

This past week since I haven't been working I was able to attend the FWB National Convention that was held in Charlotte, NC. I didn't think I was going to be able to go this year because I thought I would be working. But it all worked out and at the last minute I decided to go. I'm so glad I did. I was able to see and spend time with my parents and I was able to see some old college friends that I hadn't been able to see in awhile. My husband wasn't able to go this year but we are hoping it works out where we both can attend. I'm dying to introduce him to everyone...plus, I missed him like crazy. The preaching at the conference was also excellent and I feel so refreshed and renew and have a stronger passion for the Lord and to do His will. I am a shy person by nature so it's very hard for me to just go up to people and start talking...even to people I know and have known for years. I'm so afraid that I'm going to say something stupid or just have nothing to say at all. I actually love to talk to people but it's something that is so hard for me and I have to really work at it.

The church I attend now has thing after the first congregational song called "Fellowship Time". It's where everyone walks around and says hello, gives hugs, handshakes, and just fellowships with each other for just a few minutes. I have yet to step out of the pew to join in. I have tried so many times and I just freeze. It's so hard for me to just go up to people and say even hello. I'm a dork, I know. :) I'm working on it and I need to work on it if I want to be bolder for the Lord.

This past Friday, my sister (in law) came over to my apartment and we spent the whole day laying on floats in the pool. It was a perfect day. We just relaxed and talked the whole day. Of course, I got burnt...even with sunscreen. The sun is just not my friend lately. Thankfully, the burn is going away little by little but it was worth it to spend that time with my sister (in law). I sure enjoy living near her and my brother and their kids. It's a special time.

What Is My Purpose?

2011-07-08T14:22:00.002-05:00

I've been feeling discouraged and blue lately. It has nothing to do with my new husband. We are so enjoying being married and I couldn't ask for a better husband. I am loving being married to my best friend. My problem is that I cannot find a job here in Tuscaloosa.

Moving from Nashville to Tuscaloosa has been a huge adjustment for me. I like Tuscaloosa. It's a beautiful town and they have everything you need. The only thing is it's not a booming place in the job market. I've applied for so many positions and nothing seems to be working out for me. Really in this town if you are not in the medical field or know someone you won't have much luck no matter if you have a college degree or years of office experience. That doesn't' seem to matter.

It's been a huge disappointment to me and I get so discouraged. I get on the computer everyday and submit my resume and application and nothing seems to help me get one foot closer to finding a job. My husband is so good through it all and he comforts me and tells me that the Lord has the perfect job for me and that we'll be fine. But when you seem to get rejected everyday it sort of does something to your confidence. It makes me feel as if I have no purpose and not good enough for anything. I know that it's just the devil getting to me with all my insecurities and I have to just trust the Lord has a plan for me.

I do have a few ideas of what I could do but I'm a little nervous and scared but what do I have to lose? I already don't have a job and my husband is pretty secure in his so why not be a little adventurous and start something completely different than office work. I enjoyed my previous job but making working in an office setting is not for me anymore. Maybe the world is supposed to be my office. I'll just keep praying and searching and trying new things until the Lord shows me what I'm supposed to do.

I'm Back!

2011-07-03T23:32:00.003-05:00

Has it really been since the beginning of April since I've blogged? What is wrong with me?! Oh wait! I was only in the last stages of wedding planning and the actual wedding (which was gorgeous if I can say so myself), not to mention that I've moved to another state and have been trying to get adjusted to my new life in Alabama. I've only been a tad busy and neglected this blog just a bit. My apologies, especially to my followers...all six of you. :)

I will say that I'm absolutely loving married life and I think I fall in love with my husband a little more each day. He has been so good to me and he even cooked me dinner today. He is sweet, kind and ever so patient with me. I will say again that the Lord knew what He was doing when He put us together. It has been quite an adjustment moving to AL. I miss Nashville very much. I miss the town, my old job, my friends, my church and especially my parents. It was a hard first couple of weeks. I still feel, at times, as if I'm visiting and that I'll be heading back home in a few days. I think once I find a job that will change and this small college town will start to feel more like home a little every day.

Which, by the way, is a huge item of prayer for me. I need a job. I'm currently without insurance and have wrapped myself in bubble wrap. :) It's so important that I find a job as soon as possible. I can't be put on my hubby's insurance because they don't pay for spouses. So I need a job for that and just for the pure fact that I'm getting bored sitting at home. There's only so much house cleaning and laundry you can do and since we are watching our pennies until I get a job I can't exactly go shopping. I really want to go shopping too because I really need to dress up bedroom. I'm satisfied with how the rest of our apartment looks but the bedroom is in seriously need of something. The bedding is perfect. I love it. It's read and gold and so beautiful and comfy but I have nothing on the walls and no decoration. Our furniture is a mixture of both was what we brought from our lives as a bachelor and bachelorette. So if anyone has any ideas on where and what I can get cheap and innovative ideas for a romantic and beautiful love den, please let me know. ;)

It's great to be back online and out of the craziness of wedding planning. I hope to get back to blogging regularly.

Happy 4th of July!!

Paradise

2011-04-07T13:35:00.004-05:00

A while back I told you that the hotel we will be staying at in Maui has a webcam. There you can view the whole grounds, beach and pool. I spend a few minutes everyday staring at it and daydreaming of being there. I especially like to take a gander at it when its cold, wet and dreary outside. While I'm not crazy about telling everybody where exactly we will be staying on our honeymoon I don't think too many people will be making their way there to crash it. :)

So to see a glimpse of paradise click here. Enjoy! I know I will be enjoying it in 45 days!!!!

Out Of The Mouth of Babes

2011-04-06T12:49:00.011-05:00

I know that every Aunt says they have the cutest, funniest, and most intelligent nieces and nephews that have ever lived. But I have to say that is especially true of my nieces and nephew. My brother called my dad the other night and told him a couple of very funny stories (or we at least think they are hilarious) of my oldest niece Anna Grace. Anna Grace just turned five years old and she is just plain hilarious. She is always coming up with these great one liners. She can keep us in stitches forever.

My sister in law had out patient surgery this past Monday. Her mom came to pick up Anna Grace and Luke to let Jenny recover from the surgery. As they were leaving Chad had told Anna to be good and to mind her Nana and Papa and to keep on eye on Luke. He then told her loved her and would miss her and to make sure she calls him everyday. Anna then put her hand on Chad's shoulder and said, "Dad. Be strong."

Not too long a go a friend of my brother was celebrating his 30th birthday. They all had gone out to eat and Anna was sitting between Chad and this friend. Anna was being all fidgety and getting up and down in her chair (this is a frequent occurrence with her). Chad had about enough of it and really got on to her about it in front of everyone. After Chad go on to her Anna Grace leaned over to the friend and said, "That was awkward."

LOL! Where does she get this?! She is just so cute! I'm so excited that I'll get to live near them and be more a part of their daily lives. Anna Grace has already asked if she can sleep over at my house. I can't wait! :)

Explosion of the Head

2011-03-31T09:26:00.004-05:00

I think if I had an explosion of the head I might feel better. I am still battling whatever this crazy head thing might be. I can tell that I'm getting better after taking Zyrtec for a few days. I've just recently discovered this drug and it has become my best friend. I love it! But since I'm taking this along with some medicine prescribed by a doctor for a small "issue", I'm feeling a little loopy and sluggish. It probably isn't the best combination but at least both problems are getting resolved.

So I've been knee deep (or maybe eyeball deep) in wedding mode lately and I was looking at my forever long list of things to do and get and I've realized that I only have a few items left to do until the week of the wedding. (Boy was that a long sentence.) And since it looks like I may be down for the count for about week coming up soon, this makes me very happy. It has been a stressful process of planning the wedding but it's been a lot of fun at the same time. I can't wait to see how it all comes together on the day. I am determined that no matter what happens on my wedding day all I care about it is getting married to the man of my dreams. Who, by the way, is pretty awesome.

I've been, not stressing, but more worrying about a cake stand. I know this seems like a minuscule item but do you know how expensive it is to rent or buy one of these?! My bakery wanted a $100 deposit just to rent it. I said, "Thanks, but no." I don't know if I told you but my fiancee is a machinist. A pretty good one too and since he has access to metal he said, "Hey baby! Don't worry your purty little head about a cake stand. I can make you one the finest in the land." Okay, so he didn't say it exactly that way but he did say he can make me one and it will cost us about a fourth of what it would have cost to buy or rent one. I love my handy man!

He started on it today and has been sending pictures of his progress. I might post it on here when he gets it all finished. I'm so excited! Who knew that a cake stand would get me all warm and fuzzy inside. :)

Ah-Choo!!!!

2011-03-28T14:25:00.003-05:00

This is how I've been feeling the past couple of days. I don't know what my deal is. A couple of weeks ago I was feeling like this and then I seemed to have gotten better. Then on Saturday I woke up weird and then it was down hill from there.

I've been constantly sneezing and blowing my nose. It is so raw and red. I dragged myself to work but everyone is staying away from me like I have the plague or something. :)

I don't feel bad really. I'm just sneezing and blowing my nose every two seconds and my eyes are burning and watery. Everyone says it sounds like allergies but I've never had allergies before and I've never been allergic to anything in my entire life. Maybe I've developed allergies. I've heard of people developing allergies once they reach adulthood. I hope not. I feel sorry for everyone with allergies if this is what they feel like every year. Ugh!

This weekend my family was in town so I took a few days off work and hung out with them. We had a great time and went to the coolest place I've ever been to for kids. I'll post about it another day. All I know is that I want to open one up run it because it seems so cool and fun.

Uh oh! I feel another sneeze coming on....gotta go! :-)

It Is Well With My Soul!

2011-03-23T14:32:00.002-05:00

It Is Well With My Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffett, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

It is well, with my soul,

It is well, it is well with my soul!

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;

The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,

Even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,

It is well, it is well, with my soul!

~lyrics by Horatio G. Spafford, 1873

Changed Plans

2011-03-22T11:11:00.002-05:00

Well, it's Tuesday, the day I am supposed to leave on my trip but instead I'm actually sitting here at work. Our plans for our trip to California took a severe turn Monday. I was going on the trip with all my co-workers and their spouses. This was something fun that we had decide to and had never done before. It was something we all had been planning and talking about for months. We were all so excited and even talking about it Monday morning when we got to work. Then the unexpected happened.

One of the men in our office walked in and as soon as we saw him, we knew that something terrible had happened. He asked us if we heard the news and we said no. Our boss's son had passed away late in the evening the night before from an apparent heart attack. We were just stunned. It was completely unexpected as this man was only 48 years old and in perfect condition. He even just recently passed a physical exam. Our hearts were just breaking for our boss and his family. I can not imagine what they are going through.

My co-workers and I got together and prayed for my boss and his family and then made the decision to cancel our trip. It just didn't seem right to go when our boss was hurting and mourning the death of his son. As disappointing as it is to not be able to go on this trip, canceling it was the right thing to do. The hardest part was telling my friend and travel companion that it was cancelled. She understood our reasons. We plan on rescheduling it but I'll already be married and living elsewhere so I won't be able to go on the rescheduled trip and unfortunately my friend won't be able to go as well.

So instead of planning and preparing for a fun trip, I'm preparing to head to the visitation later on today and the funeral tomorrow. It's such a sad situation and my heart just breaks for the entire family. He left behind a wife and a 13 year old daughter. So please pray for the Powell family this week and in the weeks to come.

California, Here I Come!

2011-03-18T13:04:00.002-05:00

Next week I get to go on a pretty incredible trip. I'm taking a train ride to Los Angeles, CA, and then spending a few days there touring everything and then flying home. It's going to pretty fantastic, I think. I have never ridden on a train before and we are going to spend 48 hours on this train. I'm staying in a roomette which is in the sleeping car. The train starts in New Orleans, LA, and then it goes through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and then California. I can just imagine the scenery once we get out in the desert. It will be an adventure, that's for sure.

I'm really excited about going to LA. I've never been there before. I've been to the northern part of California but never the southern part and since I'm a huge fan of TV and movies, I'm pretty stoked about this trip. We are going on a tour of all of LA the day we get there which includes, downtown LA, Hollywood and Beverly Hills. The next day we are going to the Ronald Reagan Library. I'm very excited about this. I've always wanted to go and I heard that they have Air Force One there that you can tour through. Pretty cool.

Another day we are going to Malibu. I've always heard that it's beautiful there and I'm excited to be able to walk around the beach for a little while. My friend, who is going with me, and I are hoping to do some celebrity sightings...ahem, Matthew McConaughey. :) Seriously, I don't really care about that so much but I'm just excited to be going in the first place.

I'm looking forward to this trip for a couple of reasons: 1) I get a break from wedding planning. I'm enjoying the process of planning the wedding but it will be a nice break where I don't have to make a decision on the smallest detail. 2.) I get to spend the trip with one of my best friends and bridesmaid. She and I have gotten so close and this will be a nice trip for us to spend together before I make the move to Alabama. I'm looking forward to the laughter and enlightening talks that we usually have when we are together.

This weekend starts another whirlwind weekend for my fiancee and me. We have our engagement pictures tomorrow and we are registering at a couple of places. I'm really excited about this. I love taking that little gun the stores have and shooting it at everything. I can be very dangerous with that thing. :)

Have a great weekend!!

48 Hrs...

2011-03-15T13:37:00.002-05:00

...is all I get to spend with my guy every week. That's it. Two whole days. I was thinking about this while I was driving back to Nashville from Tuscaloosa late Sunday afternoon. I had just spent the weekend there visiting my family and spending time with my guy.

We had just spent the weekend doing our pre-martial counseling and apartment hunting. It was a busy weekend and by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around I couldn't believe it was time for me to get back on the road to head home. It's always so hard when it's time to say good-bye. Especially when our good-byes are said at the gas station where I fill up my car for my return to trip home. It's not the most romantic place to kiss my fiancee good bye...especially when you have people who are looking at you and saying, "Get a room!". :) We have to cram so much stuff in our weekends together that it just flies by. I know that we aren't the only long distance couples and I know that we are actually more lucky than most since we do get to see each other every week. But this isn't about other long distance relationships...its about mine.

For fifteen months, Alan and I have been driving back and forth from Tuscaloosa to Nashville. That's four hours one way and eight hours round trip (longer if there has been an accident or construction). I actually did the trip distance on my car for the first time this weekend and from Tuscaloosa to my door is a little over 250 miles. That's 500 miles every weekend we are driving. Let me tell you, I know every exit between here and there and not because I stop at them (I don't) I just see them every other weekend and they have been engraved in my brain.

I can't tell you how many severe storms and snowstorms we have driven through this past year and a half. I'm terrified of storms and there were trips that I would pray the entire time for the Lord to keep me safe and my car on the road. I have felt the Lord's protection over both of us because so far He has kept us safe during our travels. The only horrible thing that has happened was Alan's little Acura broke down in Birmingham.

But after fifteen months of dating we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. In two months and one week I will walk down the aisle and marry the man of my dreams and all the long hours on the road, the nightly talks on the phone, the constant texting during the day and the long passionate kisses at the gas station will come to an end.

Did I get tired of all the driving alone? Did I get tired of never spending at weekend at my own house? Did I get tired of living in a suitcase? Did I get tired of driving in blinding rain and dodging tornadoes? Yes, I did. But you know what? I would do it all again tomorrow if it meant having Alan in my life.

Hobnobbing With A Country Music Star

2011-03-08T08:19:00.002-06:00

Saturday I got a text from a friend saying she had two free passes to preview The Lincoln Lawyer starring Matthew McConaughey and Ryan Phillippe and asked if I wanted to attend it with her. So not wanting to give up a free ticket to a movie or a chance to stare at Matthew McConaughey for two hours I quickly replied, "YES!"

So last night we met at the theatre and after going through security (including pat downs and metal wands and my purse practically turned upside down on the table) we quickly found seats off to the side and near the front. I had watched a trailer of this movie earlier in the day to remind myself what it was about and I had seen that Trace Adkins had a part in the film. I had no sooner said this movie fact to my friend when all of a sudden Trace comes out from the side entrance, gets a few photos made and walks in front of the audience. He was there to introduce the film to us. He said a few words and told us some behind the scenes information which were quite funny. He then walked to our side of the theatre, walked passed us and sat just a few rows behind us.

He had a very small part in the film...one scene in the beginning and a couple small scenes at the very end. When the opening credits started and Trace's name appeared everyone broke out in this thunderous applause and cheering every so loudly. Now I love Trace Adkins. I love his voice and his songs. I loved him on Celebrity Apprentice and I think he is a very nice and funny man. He wasn't a bad actor either. After saying that I'm so glad he only had a few small scenes only because of the ladies sitting directly behind me and my friend. Every time Trace appeared on screen they would start screaming and saying things and moaning. Although it was cute at first it got old very quickly (and distracting)and it took everything I had not to turned around and ask them to please moan and groan to themselves.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures of him since we were made to turn off all cameras and phones because the movie doesn't open in theaters until March 18. Overall, the movie was excellent, Matthew and Ryan were very very very good in this movie. It is a crime drama but it had some very funny lines in it. It did have some bad language a tiny bit of violence but it's more drama than anything else. It was an excellent movie and I was happy to see Matthew McConaughey do another drama. He hadn't done one like this since A Time To Kill (another excellent movie).

After the movie we walked out of the theater (behind our new friend, Trace) and was immediately pulled away but a news crew asking us our opinion of the movie and everyone in it. I was mortified. I've been out of hairspray for two days and my hair was not at it's best.

Ah, just a typical night in Nashville!

Woo Hoo!!!

2011-03-03T14:28:00.003-06:00

I'm interrupting your day today to say how excited I am that..........................
Ralph Macchio is going to be on Dancing with the Stars!!! Can I get a "Whoop! Whoop!"?

I love love love him! I had the hugest crush on him when the original Karate Kid movie came out. So as I watch this season's of Dancing I shall revert to my inner 80's child.

You may not go back to your regular scheduled day. :-)

Wedding Stuff

2011-03-01T13:39:00.006-06:00

I had a friend email me the other day and say she was surprised that I'm not giving any wedding details away on my blog. I had every intention of posting what I was doing and what colors I choose, the cake I got, the flowers I'm ordering. I had even written an entire post about the wedding and then I deleted the whole thing. I realized that I didn't want to give out any details. Not because I'm super private since any one that knows me knows that I'm an open book in most cases. I just realized that I wanted my wedding guests to be surprised I guess you can say.

I know that I have friends that read this who live in other states and won't be able to come to the wedding and want to know every detail. But I realize that I didn't want to give away so much detail and also I didn't want every post to be about the wedding. I always hated when a friend got engaged and all they talked about was their upcoming wedding. I'm trying so hard not to do that with everyone but yet I'm so excited that I do want to talk about it. Besides, I think my words won't do near as much explaining as pictures so I do plan on posting photos of the wedding on Facebook and on here after we get back from the honeymoon.

Which brings me to the real subject of my post today. I will tell you where we are going on our honeymoon. I had asked a few months ago where you all went on your honeymoon. Alan and I just had no idea at that time where we wanted to go that wouldn't break our bank account.

So after much talking and researching and planning we have decided to honeymoon in Maui, Hawaii!! We are so excited. I have been to Hawaii but not to Maui. I went to Oahu in 2008 but I went with a uh "friend" and her mother. It was an all right time. It could have been better. It was a busy vacation then. This time we wanted to go some place where we wouldn't feel as if we had to go to all these places and see all these things to make it worth our while. We just wanted to go to some place where we could just sit and relax on the beach or by the pool and maybe do a couple things here and there. After researching Maui and talking to others who had been there we realized that Maui was the place for us to go. Alan also got a great deal on air, hotel and a rental car.

The hotel we are staying at has a webcam and everyday I take a couple of minutes and open it up and stare at the beach and the awesome pool the hotel has. I especially do that on days and evenings when the weather is gray, raining and freezing outside. It makes my heart happy to know that I'll be there in less than 3 months...with my new husband!! I cannot wait!

My Calmer

2011-02-25T10:26:00.005-06:00

I'm more in love today than I was yesterday. Last night we had a pretty big nasty storm blow through my area. It was quite powerful. Every county had a tornado warning. I hate storms. I get so scared over the possibility of what could happen during storms that are predicted with tornadoes. When I say scared, I'm talking about nervous stomach and I didn't even eat dinner because I was too nervous over what "could be". I know, not very trusting in God that He will protect me. I was very trusting that He will protect me but the human in me still gets very nervous and scared...especially when I'm home alone.

I was on the phone with my guy when the storm hit and, bless his heart, he kept me calm the whole time. While he was talking I heard a popping outside my back door. So I go back there to check it out and the rain was coming down so hard and I could hear the wind just howling. I looked at the trees and they were completely bent over. The fencing that separates me from my neighbors were shaking back and forth violently and then I could feel my house shaking. All of a sudden part of the fencing blew off. I was like, "Um, Alan? I think there's a tornado outside my house." His reaction? "Cool!" Ugh, men! (Alan loves storms and everything that comes with it. Weirdo.) Anyway, I finally decide to back away from my glass window and try to remember to breathe. Alan though was so good about talking to me and keeping me calm by telling me a story about something and keeping my mind off the storm outside. It worked so well. As I was listening to him I got more intrigued by his story and the next thing I know the storm had passed and praise the Lord I never lost power.

I am more in love today with him than I was yesterday. He is so what I need and I'm glad the Lord had me wait this long for him. He is my other half and I can't believe that I get to spend the rest of my life with him.

By the way, there was a tornado that hit down the road from me and damaged the building I work in pretty good. It blew the loading dock doors (which are huge, metal, and heavy) to our warehouse off...frame and all. The ceiling in both the men and women's restrooms collapsed and a For Sale sign had pierced the outside of the building. The storm also ripped one of our security lights out and damaged the wiring in our building. Our area of town (Antioch) was hit pretty hard. Many trees had fallen on houses and cars and quite a bit of business signs have either been blown away by the tornado and straight line winds or they were twisted and mangled and spread across the streets. Luckily there were no major injuries or deaths in our area. It could have been a lot worse. I thank the Lord for His protection and also for my guy staying on the phone with me and keeping me calm during the whole ordeal.

Have a great weekend!

Creature of Habit

2011-02-23T10:17:00.005-06:00

So I've decided to pop in today and post. I actually may make this more of a habit than I originally planned. After blogging the other day I realized that I missed it. So I'll try to be more frequent but if I'm not it's because I'm drowning in wedding plans and all the good things that go along with it.

I have realized that I am a creature of habit. I'm sure we all are but I realized this a few weeks ago. My sister in law was set to be induced to have the baby on the 10th of February so I volunteered to come down the Sunday before and stay all week to help with the cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids so her and my brother could relax and prepare for Emma's arrival. Emma was such a big baby and Jenny was hurting so badly the last month and half of the pregnancy that I felt I needed to go down and help her out some.

Anyway, the weekend before, Alan was up in Nashville visiting me and I was able on that Sunday ride back with him to Tuscaloosa to stay with my brother and his family and become their servant for a week. It was so nice to spend a few hours on the road with my man. We always have such a good time when we are together and this was no exception. When I head down to Alabama to visit Alan I always stop at certain place coming and going. It's what I've done even before I met Alan and I was just visiting my family. So this is five years or so of stopping at this particular exit. Alan was going to keep going but I told him that we had to stop here and I couldn't stop at any other place. After he gave me the look like, "You are one crazy woman", he pulled over and I joyfully hopped out of the truck. (I actually mean I hopped out. He has no running boards on his truck and it's too high off the ground for my short legs. So I basically strap a parachute on my back and jump out.)

This particular thing is not even what I'm referring to when I say I'm a creature of habit although I can see where that may apply. My thing is that when I stop at this particular Pilot station I get the same snack. Every. Single. Time. It is the best snack in all the world but I can't find it in grocery stores...only gas stations or truck stops. Here it is:

I love popcorn. I think I get that love from my mom. She loves her some cheddar cheese popcorn. I'm a fan of all flavors. But there is something about this particular brand that really makes me want to run through a meadow of flowers. It's also gluten free if any of you are on a gluten free diet. They have many flavors: caramel, butter, white cheddar, jalapeno, red chili, and kettle corn. I've only tried the caramel, white cheddar and butter. They are all delicious but since my favorite all time flavor of popcorn is caramel that is what I always revert too and this is what I get to snack every time I go to Tuscaloosa and every time I head back to Nashville. If I don't get this...my weekend has been ruined.

It's Been A While...

2011-02-21T15:37:00.002-06:00

Hello, blogging world! I have very much neglected you the past couple of months. Things have been crazy busy and I honestly haven't had much time to blog in a few months. I don't think it will get much better until after the wedding. I don't think I realized how much little things go into planning a wedding. The big stuff is easy. It's the little things that can make your head spin. I have made lists upon lists of things we need to do before the wedding. But as of today we have 89 days until the wedding or 3 months exactly! I cannot wait! The time seems to be dragging but yet it is just flying by. I've had a few nightmares where my photographer hasn't shown up for the wedding and that some random guy cut up and served my wedding cake before the ceremony even started. I also had a dream where my bridesmaids changed the dresses I picked out. They changed them to canary yellow, sequenced and a halter top. That is so not what I have picked. My dresses are chocolate brown, one shoulder empire waist dress. They're beautiful and coming from Indonesia. But I've learned that every bride has these nightmare and my photographer has assured me she will be there.

Anyway, I'm posting today to say that I will more than likely be taking a sabbatical on blogging (as if you didn't already know) until things slow down a bit and I am a married woman and settled in Alabama. I did enjoy blogging and I have every intention of keeping up with it once things slow down some. My fiancee has a computer so I will be able to blog more from our instead of elsewhere. (I blog currently from elsewhere because I don't own a home computer or laptop. I know...how very 20th century of me.)

I may though pop in every once in a while to update on things going on such as my brother and his wife had their third baby a week and a half ago. Emma Faith was born on Februaty 10th weighing in at a whopping 9 lbs even and was 22 inches long. My sister in law was a trooper and did so well. We are ecstatic that she's here.

Please be patient with me as I swim through all this wedding stuff and after I get back from my honeymoon, I plan to be more consistent with blogging. After all, this yankee is moving further south (and in the middle of Roll Tide country) so I'm sure there will be plenty of stories to tell.

Stay tuned!

Update and Thanksgiving

2010-11-30T14:00:00.002-06:00

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!!

2010-11-08T15:17:00.004-06:00

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

2010-10-20T14:34:00.009-05:00

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

2010-10-19T14:30:00.004-05:00

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

2010-10-07T14:56:00.005-05:00

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

2010-10-06T09:18:00.003-05:00

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

2010-10-05T08:36:00.003-05:00

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

2010-10-04T08:53:00.005-05:00

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

2010-09-08T15:43:00.005-05:00

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

2010-08-26T08:27:00.003-05:00

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

2010-08-16T14:04:00.002-05:00

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

2010-08-12T14:32:00.006-05:00

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

2010-08-10T10:52:00.003-05:00

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!

2010-08-05T14:10:00.002-05:00

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!!

2010-07-28T13:53:00.006-05:00

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

2010-07-27T09:49:00.002-05:00

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

2010-07-26T14:37:00.005-05:00

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

2010-07-14T09:50:00.003-05:00

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...

2010-07-07T14:51:00.004-05:00

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

2010-05-17T13:56:00.003-05:00

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

2010-05-14T08:40:00.003-05:00

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?

2010-05-12T14:09:00.005-05:00

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

2010-05-11T13:47:00.003-05:00

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!

2010-05-10T09:03:00.004-05:00

***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

2010-05-06T14:41:00.006-05:00

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

2010-04-28T09:17:00.002-05:00

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

2010-04-21T10:53:00.005-05:00

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

2010-04-15T10:53:00.003-05:00

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

2010-03-19T08:17:00.007-05:00

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!

2010-03-17T13:20:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-12T10:59:00.002-06:00

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

2010-03-10T09:00:00.002-06:00

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. :)

2010-03-08T09:27:00.003-06:00

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!

The Perfect Weekend

2010-03-02T12:52:00.003-06:00

There are just moments in time that I want to freeze forever and really this weekend was it. We celebrated my nephew Luke's 2nd birthday. I wont' go into too much detail but he is just one cute kid and is just the sweetest thing to ever live. But I'm not a biased aunt or anything like that. LOL! Anyway, this weekend my family got together this weekend to spoil the kid rotten. I also got so spend some good quality time with my boyfriend since we hadn't seen each other in two weeks.

Friday night I got there around 7pm and we decided I would meet everyone at Logan's for dinner. But it was an hour and half wait to get in so they (my family) decided to try O'Charley's then Mellow Mushroom and after driving all over Tuscaloosa and realizing it would be a long wait no matter where we ended up they decided to just go back to my brother's house and order pizza. That was the very much condensed version of that story but there was frustration and the throwing of a cell phone in the car because some people kept changing their minds and others (me) was getting frustrated and tired of driving all over town after driving for 4 hours and was getting a little cranky and was done talking so I threw the phone where I couldn't reach it.

But finally we all made it to my brother's house and we had some awesome pizza and my frustrations melted away. Then on Saturday it was just a gorgeous beautiful day. The weather was just so springlike that I am now officially getting Spring Fever. Alan (my wonderful boyfriend) came over around 10am and we all just sat around and talked and played with the kids. Then Alan and I got bored so we took off for a few hours before the party started. He drove me over to where he works to show me the shop. Alan is a machinist and I never understand what he is talking about when he talks about his work so he took me there so show me some things. Nothing is really that much clearer but I do realize that what he does is something I could never do and that he works in a very dirty place. That place is so full of grease and grime and dirt. But it's a shop so what should I expect, right? But it was cool to see all those machines and he tried so hard to explain to me what everything did. I was glad to see that part of him.

After that we went down to the Riverfront and walked for a little while. It was so special to me. We just walked for awhile holding hands and talking...about everything and anything. Then we went down a path to where there was a tiny little beach and pebble area on the water and he tried to show me how to skip rocks on the water but every time I tried it my rocks would just plop down to the bottom. He could skip them for three or four times. I was proud. :) Then it started to get very windy and a little chilly so we decided to head back to my brothers since it was almost time for the party anyway. We had the party and ate hot dogs and watched Luke open his presents which consisted of cars, cars, and more cars. It was funny.

After that my parents headed back to Nashville, Chad and Jenny went to dinner with Jenny's parents and Alan and I headed back to his place to watch a movie and play some Rock Band. This boy has been trying to get me to play Rock Band since we first met and I always made excuses why I didn't want to but he finally wore me down and I played and I loved it! It was so much fun. I'm not so good on the drums but I can rock it out on the guitar. Later we headed back to Chad's and played some Wii bowling and tennis with Chad. Jenny had to give the kids a bath and put them to bed so she opted not to play.

Then on Sunday afternoon we just stayed at my brothers and watched Karate Kid II & III. I love Ralph Macchio! He was so dreamy. But anyway, it was just a perfect weekend. It might not sound like much and maybe it sounded boring to you but I just love doing a bunch of little things where you don't have to spend a lot or any money at all. I guess I just love the small stuff. It was the perfect weekend.

What more can you ask for?

Where Has The Time Gone? Part 2

2010-02-25T13:37:00.003-06:00

I'm making this a sequel to a post I wrote at the beginning of the month. That post was about niece turning four years old. Well this weekend her little brother, my nephew, will be turning 2. It's so hard to believe that he is already 2 years old. Of course, he never seemed like a baby to me. He always seemed like a little man. He's such a sweet boy. My friend Tammy calls him "hot" but that is so disturbing to me to call a 2 year old that so we'll just say he's oh so adorable. :) He is pretty cute. He has blond curly hair and blue eyes and gorgeous dimples when he smiles. He will be a heartbreaker when he's older, that's for sure.

I remember when he was born so clearly, just like I remember vividly when Anna Grace was born. His birth was so much less dramatic than Anna's and I was able to be there when he came home from the hospital. He was so tiny. But now he's huge! That boy is almost bigger than his sister. He will just eat and eat and then he wants to eat some more. LOL! He is all boy as well. He loves his cars and trucks and loves any type of ball you put in front of him. The poor kid is already a Cub fan but by force and now choice. :) It's cute. It's funny every time I see him he says,"Papaw, phone." I have a video on my phone of dad doing the claw to Luke. It's pretty funny and Luke knows it's on my phone and as soon as I walk in the door he grabs my phone and makes me turn it on and then he'll sit there and watch it 20 times in a row. The kid's got it the words on the video memorized as well so he says right along with it. It's pretty funny. He's so cute.

So in honor of my sweet sweet nephew, Luke, here are a couple of pictures.

This was taken the day after he was born.

This is my brother, Chad, with Luke at the beach this past summer on vacation.

It's kind of funny because Anna looks just like her daddy (and me so I've been told) but Luke looks nothing like him. Luke looks just like my sister in law but with blond hair. I'm going to try and take lots of pictures this weekend as I head down for his birthday. Last year I didn't get to celebrate his 1st birthday with everyone because one there were tornadoes everywhere from Nashville to Northport and I wouldn't have been scared out of my mind. Secondly, I didn't get to go down there because that was when my mother's illness started and it was pretty bad so my parent's nor myself went down there. I felt awful and I said that there was no way on earth I was missing it this year.

Again, he's such a sweet boy. We think that he will be just like his daddy in the music department. The boy can sing already. He's always on key and loves to carry the mic at church around with him. It's so cute. Chad said he will make sure he learns how to play the piano because he seems to be drawn to it and any other musical instrument he sees. So I think this boy is going to grow up to be like my brother. It could be worse. Ha!

Happy Birthday Luke! Jan Jan loves you!

There Was A Wasp In My House!!!!

2010-02-24T08:58:00.002-06:00

My house. MY HOUSE!!! My brand new beautiful ladybug infested house and if you've been reading my blog for awhile you know my huge phobia of those wretched creatures...wasps not ladybugs. I just loathe them and see no reason why they are on this Earth. But I digress. I came home from work and was about to turn on a lamp when I saw the ugly black thing crawling on my floor. Ugh! I shutter just relieving this whole experience. But my first instinct was to just step on it but then I just froze because of this certain thought. I work at a place of business that requires us (the women) to wear dresses or skirts everyday and I had just walked in the door so needless to say I was wearing a dress and about mid step the thought crossed my mind of "What if this wasp sees that I'm about to step on him and he flies up my dress and stings me in places I don't want to be stung." So that's when I froze and started whimpering like a little baby.

I automatically run for my Windex cleaner (because it coats their wings and they can't fly which then lets you step on it with no fear of them flying up to sting in places you don't want to be stung). While the cleaner is in my hand I thoroughly forget I'm a 30+ year old woman and act like a five year old and call my mommy. That's right. I call her and whine and cry about how a wasp is in my house and I'm about to die. She just laughs at me and tells me to get the Windex which then I informed that it was in my hand and she said, "Then just spray it you big baby." But by the time I got back to wear the wasp had been....he was gone! I was so not enjoying this moment. I looked everywhere and found him crawling on my blanket. My blanket!! The one I cuddle with at night watching the Olympics for the past week and now this gross beast was walking his skinny little legs all over it. Ugh! I shutter again thinking about it. So I finally muster up enough courage to spray the thing. I mean I sprayed him. I had a full bottle of Windex and now I think I have half a bottle left. I was making sure the little mutant couldn't fly anywhere! My poor blanket was soaked in Windex. So this wasp slowly crawled off the blanket and onto the carpet where I finally was able to squish the heck out of him. Then I realized that there was no one there to scoop him up so I grabbed about a half a roll of paper towels and scooped him up and but him in the bottom of the trashcan and covered him up good with trash!

I texted my loving, protective and comforting boyfriend to tell him I almost died because a wasp was in my house and he texted back, "You big baby, it only hurts for a minute if they sting you." We had words later. He did make up for it by saying that if he was there he would have taken care of the problem.

It was very traumatic and so I had ice cream.

Do You Think Jesus Had Perfect Pitch?

2010-02-15T13:03:00.002-06:00

My family is a musical family. Well, my parents, brother, & sister in law are musical. Me? Not so much. I can carry a tune and I do sing in the praise team at church and have done specials in the past but let's face it....I'm no Chad Donoho. But the thing about my brother is that he has perfect pitch. It actually makes me sick that he got all the musical (and athletic) talent in the family. But I'm not bitter. lol! Actually, as much as I do wish I could sing like him and hear music the way he does I'm absolutely proud of my brother and all that he has accomplished with his singing.

But anyway, last night I attended a meeting with everyone who will be involved in our church Easter program. I didn't think I would be a part of it because since I travel to Alabama on a regular basis now I didn't think that I would have the time to put into the rehearsals that is needed and required. But when the director comes up to you and point blank asks if you can be in it to sing a song, it's pretty hard to say no, so I caved and said yes.

Anyway, during the meeting I was sitting by a friend who will be playing the role of Jesus (I'm Mary the sister of Martha). We had gotten to the part of the meeting where she was asking if anyone else wanted to sing. My friend said, "Jesus doesn't sing." Now, the way he said it just cracked me up but I then got into a conversation with him about how I felt that Jesus probably could sing and I imagine he had perfect pitch. Why would he not? He was God and He was perfect. But my friend argued that Jesus probably couldn't sing because He was also part human so therefore maybe Jesus couldn't sing. But Jesus was perfect so I bet (well, not bet, but strongly felt) that He had a better voice than David Phelps and could probably hit any note on the scale and could sing any part written. My friend and I had about a 10 minute discussion about this. So my question is do you think Jesus had perfect pitch? Do you think that Jesus could sing? I honestly want to know what you all think about this subject?

Happy Monday!

PS - Is anyone else as excited as I am about the Olympics? I can't get enough of it!

Where Has the Time Gone?

2010-02-03T14:44:00.006-06:00

The snow has finally decided to melt and the roads are nice and dry so my dad can stop acting like Fred Flintstone. :) They are calling for it to snow here again this Friday but I don't think it will be anything like what we had here this past weekend. Luckily for me, I'll be heading out of town midday.

This weekend is my niece's fourth birthday. I cannot believe that Anna Grace will be four years old. Where does the time go?

Here's a picture of her when she was born:

And here she is on our family vacation this past August to Gulf Shores, AL:

And here's one of her and Chad since they both are celebrating a birthday this next week:

She has grown up so much. Now something that you either didn't know or might have forgotten was that when Anna was born she had to spend the first couple of weeks in the NICU. Her first night born she had acid reflux (which we didn't know she had obviously) and was getting choked and would stop breathing. She would turn blue. It was so scary and they had us all worried that she wasn't going to make it. They had us thinking she suffered a head trauma during the birth that was causing it. They finally realized that it was acid reflux and they just gave her medicine and she grew out of it after a year or so. Luke did the same thing although he wasn't in the NICU. He didn't have it as bad as Anna but he, too, grew out of it. Also, as little tidbit, Anna was born on my the third anniversary of my grandma's death. So now the date has a happier meaning to us than a sad one even though I miss my grandma terribly.

But anyway, every year at this time we head down to AL for a big birthday bash. It's not just her birthday but Chad's birthday is a few days after Anna's so we have started a tradition of celebrating both birthdays. We also have a big dinner on Friday for Chad and then we usually head to the park for Anna's birthday. So Friday at lunchtime, I'm headed to AL for that and to see my sweetheart.

It's been two weeks since I've seen him and it's killing me. We have tried to see each other every weekend with us taking turns driving but lately we've only been able to see each other every other week and it's just harder with each passing week to be apart. I'm telling you, long distance relationships are hard work but he's worth it. He's an amazing man and he's worth every bit of the hard work that goes into making this work. We text all during the day and then we talk every night so I feel as if we are doing very well. But it would be nice if we could see each other more often but at least we only live 4 hours away from each other and not longer or we wouldn't be able to see each other as much as we do. So to answer every one's question (which I get constantly from everyone at church and in my family), yes, we are doing great! We are still together and enjoying every minute of it. I'm so unbelievably happy and so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with a good, godly, hard working man. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Happy Birthday, Anna Grace and Chad! I love you!

What's In a Name?

2010-02-01T14:01:00.005-06:00

I can't remember if I've talked about this and I'm just that lazy to not go back and check so if you've heard this before...I'm sorry. :)

Our Ladies Prayer Group at church is currently trying to pick a new name after the strong encouragement of our pastor. Meaning, we have to change our name. At first I balked at this request. I thought it was working out for us quite well but we've learned that it actually is keeping some people from attending.

We had a recent attendee tell us that she wouldn't ever try us out because she thought all we did was chant verses and pray the entire time. Now we do read verses and we do pray but that's not all we do. We are a group of women who go through a Bible study, we take prayer requests and we eat. Of course we eat. What FWB get together doesn't involve food. LOL! But after she told me this it did get me to thinking about our name I realized that maybe we should change it as to not be identified as a group of women who sit and chant for an hour and a half.

At our last meeting, I talked to the girls about it and we all thought it would be a good idea and so we started listing names that we had either just come up with or names that we had found on the Internet. There are some very interesting ones. I won't list the ones I thought were a little too outlandish as not to offend anyone whose ladies group might be named this. But let me list a few and if you wouldn't mind to maybe comment on what you think about them or if you have an entirely different idea just let me know this as well. But first let me say that last week, I had put this as my status on Facebook to try and get suggestions and of course some were very, um, interesting (partly thanks to my pesky brother). A male college friend of mine ended up writing me a message on Facebook letting me know his thoughts and how I need to be careful on choosing a name. There were many other things he wrote and we had quite a discussion. I agreed with everything he said and so what I've done after his suggestion was to really think about the goal and purpose our ladies group. My main goal and purpose is for us to learn what the Bible says about being better women for Christ...learn from each other...pray for each other...encourage each other...get closer together as sisters in Christ...and glorify Him. That is what I try to bring to our lessons each month. So after thinking of our purpose here is a small list that I, along with a few others, have come up with. Let me know what you think.

Sisters
Women in Christ
Women of Rejoice (that is the name of our church)
Women's Bible Study (not too catchy but at least you know we aren't chanting)
The Ruth Group (I love Ruth. She's probably my favorite woman in the Bible)
Together (Someone suggested this but I don't want to step on WNAC's toes on this one.) :)

Those are about it. Not too catchy of names but my favorite on the list is Sisters. Let me know what you think and if you have a suggestion please let me know.

Happy Monday!

Bumper Cars

2010-01-31T10:54:00.002-06:00

Well, us, along with almost every other church in Nashville, have called off services for today. The roads are just way too icy. I learned that first hand this morning. It was quite an eventful morning all before 9 am.

Dad left last Thursday to go do a seminar in California and he flew back in to TN this morning at about 8 am. Since we called off services I went ahead and picked him from the airport. Now, being from the North I do have experience driving on icy roads but what TN has that IL does not have and that is hills and lots of them. That does make it harder even for the experience icy road driver. But I knew that I did know how to handle the car in case I had trouble. So at 8 am I climbed into dad's car and slowly made my way to the airport. I was so excited and proud of myself because I had no trouble whatsoever.

Now I'm putting in a little side note to TDOT here. When snow has fallen or is in the process of falling. Salt and brine are not going to keep the roads clear. You have to actually plow them. But you would think common sense would tell them that. Murfreesboro road was nothing but one huge ice rink and had not been plowed once since the snow fall we got on Friday. This is Sunday!! Plow the roads people! Maybe that's why Nashville has had at least 300 car accidents. You have got to plow the roads in addition to laying salt and whatever to the roads. Since Nashville is obviously capable of getting about 6 inches of snow and ice at one time you would think they would get enough equipment to handle this. But it's Tennessee and they just don't have the common sense it seems. Its frustrating.

Anyway, I pick dad up from the airport and we head back home with me driving. Again, I'm having no trouble at all and then we turn onto the road that my parents road is on. We make it up the first hill and then as we approach a road turnoff we see up ahead a car stuck in the middle of the road. So we decided to turn at the first street and go that way to our house. No problem. We start up the hill and realize that its a sheet of ice with no snow for traction. Dads car is a front wheel drive so I was pretty confident but when there is no snow for traction you pretty much can't do anything. so we start to slide a bit. I automatically stop the car and put in park and dad comes around to get in the driver's seat so I don't have to slam into someone else's car (which probably would happen as soon as we put the car in gear.) So dad gets in and put the car in reverse hoping that we can just slowly creep back down the hill so we can get back to the main road. Well, we start sliding backwards and fast. Dad had lost complete control of the car and now this is where it gets funny. I was laughing during the incident and laughing hysterically afterwards. :) We were headed for a house with lots of cars in the driveway and I knew we would hit a few of them. So dad opens his door (while pumping the brakes) and stick his other foot out the door to try and stop the car Fred Flintstones style. This was hilarious to me at the time and I still chuckle when I think about it now just two hours later. Well, obviously that wasn't working and miraculously the car spins a 180 so now we can see ourselves hurling towards cars and mailboxes. Dad somehow manages to swerve the car away from the other cars and we end up someones front yard. Of course, I was praying the entire time that the Lord would keep us safe and not to hit anything so the first thing I said after we stopped was "Thank You, Jesus!" Which dad thought was funny and started laughing. We both were shaking and laughing and amazed that we didn't hit anything at all and no one got hurt. So we get back out on the main road and decide to go up that hill because there was more traction and we just drove around the cars stuck in the middle of the road. There were people there helping them so we didn't need to stop and help. We finally made it home safe and sound and thankful my mother wasn't with us or she would have been freaking out!

Now I'm back at my parent's house, in my pj's watching the movie "Breakdown", where I plan to stay the rest of the night.

Happy Sunday!

And Nashville has come to a Stand Still

2010-01-29T12:36:00.002-06:00

Well the week long predicted snowstorm has finally arrived in Nashville. I first saw it snow around the 9 o'clock hour. Our building powers that be decided quickly that we should close the building and head home before the snow started to stick and the roads got too bad. That was fine by me. I always enjoy the occasional day at home of doing nothing but watching TV and reading a good book.

So now it's almost 1 pm and I've just had lunch and I'm sitting on the sofa watching "Yes, Dear" on TBS and watching the snow fall. It seems to be a perfect day so far. The only thing better than that is to have my boyfriend here to see but alas, the snow and ice have forced him to stay down in Alabama. But since he's not going to be here I've decided to make some homemade salsa that I saw on The Pioneer Woman's website. I've become obsessed with her and her recipes. I can't wait to try them all.

But anyway, the snow is beautiful and looks like we already have around an inch or two. They are predicting 4-6 inches by the time this is all over with tomorrow. That's actually a lot for Nashville. They showed the interstates on TV and the are a jumbled mess. I'm so glad I only live 5 minutes from work. But it looks like I'll be home bound for a day or two. I'm okay with that. I plan on spending the entire day in my pj's tomorrow. I haven't done that in a while.

Have a great weekend!

Snow...I love you, but please don't come this weekend!

2010-01-28T10:30:00.003-06:00

The weather people here are forecasting a winter storm this weekend. I have mixed emotions which lean more towards the sad and angry emotion. They are predicting that starting tonight or early tomorrow we are supposed to get freezing rain (ice) and then in the Nashville area about 2-4 inches of snow dumped on top of it.

I've stated on here that I love snow. I love the way it looks as it falls to the ground. I especially love watching it fall at night with the street lights shining on them. It's so gorgeous, peaceful and romantic. I love to make snowman and snow angels. I love to get involved in a pretty good snowball fight. I love the way it smells and how the entire city turns into a magical looking winter wonderland.

But good grief, did it have to pick this weekend or a weekend at all to make things messy?! Because of this blessed storm coming my ever so kind and handsome sweetheart won't be making is trip up to see me this weekend. We both feel that it's just too risky since there will be ice involved. I'm sad and angry and relieved. I'm sad because I won't get to see him and angry that the stinking storm had to come on a weekend instead of a weekday. I'm relieved because I've done nothing but worry that he would just be a macho man and try to come up and then something happen.

Of course this is all depending on if it actually does anything. Our weather people are not the most reliable weather people. They like to build people's expectations up just to see it come crashing down when not one flake will fall. We shall see.

Four-Wheelin'

2010-01-27T14:39:00.005-06:00

This past weekend I went to Alabama to visit my sweetheart and to spend some time with my family as well. Saturday we went over to Alan's parents house to spend some time with them, which they couldn't be any sweeter of people. They are so nice and easy to be with and I really enjoy my time with them. His parents live in a very small town outside of Northport and even though their neighbors are very close they basically live out in the country. They have a huge field behind their house and so Alan and I decided to go riding on his four-wheeler.

The only time I had every ridden one was in Hawaii and it was an automatic and we didn't go very fast. But Alan's ATV is a manual and I don't do manual so I had to learn. So we hopped on the four-wheeler and took off past the horses (which were gorgeous) and headed to the back pasture and woods. We had a blast. It was a lot of fun until he made me drive. It took forever to learn how to shift gears on that thing and when I did the first time I popped a wheelie and about dumped my man right off the back. He managed to hang on so I spared him from any broken bones.

It had just rained buckets down there the day before so it was completely wet and muddy back in the woods but we still drove through them on the trails and down to the creek. Then we decided to go to this small clearing and that's when we got stuck. I mean we got stuck in the mud pretty good. So he jumped down and told me to hold down the throttle and he pulled us out of the mud....my strong manly man. *swoon*. We went a little further and got stuck again! So we took advantage of the situation. (wink, wink) :) So Alan jumped down again and got behind the ATV and told me to press down on the throttle and he would push us out. We finally got the thing free and he told me to just keep going until I hit dry ground. So I did and just left him there. I felt bad because he had to walk through all the mud and water. But I had to keep going or else I would have gotten stuck again. After he caught up to me he jumped on the four-wheeler and we took off again making sure we stay out of the mud. It was so much fun and I can't wait to go again.

Here we are right after being stuck in the mud.

That's not a great picture of us so here is a better one we took the last time he came to Nashville.

Dizzy

2010-01-22T08:18:00.003-06:00

Not much to blog about today. Went and saw Avatar in 3D at the IMax last night and now I'm one of those poor chaps who got a migraine from it. I'm also trying to not to be dizzy this morning. But seeing that movie in 3D is well worth having a headache and a dizzy spell. Awesome!

Have a great weekend!

Can You Put a Yellow Bow On It?

2010-01-21T09:31:00.005-06:00

This week has been so busy in every aspect of my life...work, church, etc. It seems like I have something to do every night this week and work has just been a constant stream off nonstop work, which is great. Of course in the evenings, the busy nights are just places that I don't have to go to but I've been doing some fun things. I went to a hockey game Monday (remember Dierks Bentley, *swoon*) but tonight I'm especially excited. I'm going to see Avatar again.

I know that I have seen Avatar already with my sweetheart but we didn't see it in 3D. But tonight, I'm going to see it in 3D at the IMax. I'm so stinking excited about this. I bought my ticket off Fandango yesterday just to be sure I had a ticket. I've read online that people have gotten sick from watching it in 3D so I may have to take some Dramamine before I go. I don't want to get one of my dizzy spells which I'm prone to get from time to time.

I'm heading to Alabama this weekend to see my sweetheart and my family. I was talking to my almost four year old niece yesterday on the phone. I told her I was coming to see her this Friday and she was so excited. My heart just melted right there. Of course, the first thing she asked me was if I was bringing her a prize. Let me put a little side note in here. Ever since that child was born I, along with my mother, have made the mistake of bringing her and my nephew something every time we go down to visit them and we always have a little something for them when they visit Nashville. It's become an expensive little habit and one that she has realized. She knows that I always have something for her every time I see her. At Christmas my brother and his family spent Christmas in Nashville and the day after Christmas we headed over to my house because my sister-in-law had not seen my house since I had moved in. Now remember that this was the day after Christmas and my niece had just opened like ten gifts and had a houseful of new toys. As soon as my niece walked in the door she asked me in her sweet angelic little voice, "Janice? Do you have a prize for me?" I told her, "No, baby, I gave you all my prizes at Mimi's and Papaw's." Then her little shoulders slumped in disappointment. My heart broke because she was so sad. How dare I not think to have a prize waiting for her and her brother when they came to visit my house. I guarantee you that I will not be making that mistake again. I've spoiled that child so badly...but I love her.

But I'm her Aunt....her favorite Aunt...and of course I'm bringing her a little something. It is just a few heart shaped bracelets I found for a couple of dollars. She's such a girlie girl. But back to the story. I told her that yes, I had a prize for her and she asked me if I can put a bow on it. Since this beautiful angel has me wrapped around her little finger I said that I would put a bow on it. Then she asked me if I could put a yellow bow on it. I didn't question her so I told her I would put a yellow bow on it. I am wondering why yellow and I should have asked her about it because purple is her favorite color...then pink...then blue...then green. She schooled me on her favorite colors once before. It's very detailed. She cracks me up. She is the funniest little girl I have ever met and has my whole heart. So yes, I'll be putting a yellow bow on it.

My Dad is Officially Old :)

2010-01-20T08:18:00.004-06:00

I ran into my dad today. Not literally but I saw him this morning on my way to work. I was a running a little behind today because I had to stop at Kroger to get one of my bosses his stash of Diet Mt. Dew. He (my boss) is coming in today from out of town and if there isn't a cold supply of this drink in the fridge he always sends me out right then to stock up and grab a cold one at the same time. I don't have time today to make a run to Kroger in the middle of the day so I thought I would make the stop before work.

Anyway, as I was at the four way stop outside my building I saw a car that looked just like my dad's car. Then I realized that it was my dad and of course the phone was up to ear where it is 99% of the time. (What did he ever do before cell phones?!) I then realized that he was trying to call me on my phone but I didn't hear it. I was too busy jamming to music and had the volume up so loudly that I didn't hear the phone ring or hear that my handsome boyfriend had sent me his daily "Good morning, baby" text. Isn't that sweet? My boyfriend calls me baby...makes me warm and tingly inside. Anyway, I called my dad back as I parked my car in my work's parking lot facing the mall where I could see my dad parked. He had decided to go walking at the mall this morning. Which made me instantly think..."My dad is officially old." He has become a mall walker! LOL! Only old gray-haired wrinkling people walk at the mall at 7:30 in the morning! Just kidding, dad. (Remember, he discovered my blog a few months ago so I have to behave in what I say now.)

Anyway, dad is also a member of a gym just down the road and he so lovingly decided to put me on his family plan. Which is great because I don't have to pay for a membership to the gym. But as I'm talking to my dad his first question is when do you want to go work out. I don't actually remember saying that I would go work out...ever...but I'll give it a go. Seriously though, I do want to work out. I enjoy the thoughts of working out and feeling better about myself. I love the elliptical machines so I would take full advantage of it. The only thing is I just have no time to go to the gym. I'm doing something almost every night of the week and before you all say, "Get up and go work out before work" let me just say that I am not a morning person. It's (in my opinion) a sin to get up before the crack of dawn to do anything, especially to sweat first thing in the morning. It's just not right. I love my sleep and therefore I will get as much sleep as I possibly can so getting up earlier is out of question.

But I will make it to the gym eventually but until then I will enjoy my breakfast of champions today: Cracker Jacks and a Mt. Dew...the real kind chock full of sugar and 290 calories.

Welcome to Smashville!

2010-01-19T14:37:00.003-06:00

Last night a friend and I went to the Nashville Predator's hockey game. She got tickets through the company she works for so we were able to park for free, eat for free (in their box suite) and watch the game for free...not too shabby for Janice. It was definitely an interesting night, especially since I know nothing about hockey. Well, I know nothing except from what I've seen on the Mighty Ducks and Miracle (which is an awesome movie, by the way.)

Let me start by saying that was the quickest and easiest time I have ever had getting to my seat at the Sommet Center. We were able to park in a church parking lot right across the street and enter through a special side door which was on the same level as where we were sitting so no stairs or elevators for us. Then when we got to the suite it was filled with food. We had chicken strips, barb-b-que, nachos, chips, popcorn, nuts, raw veggies and the biggest carrot cake I had ever seen. Tammy and I split a piece of cake it was so huge! We had gotten there an hour before the game started so that gave us plenty of time to eat and try to stay warm because it was freezing in there. A man and his wife in the suite with us went on a tour of the arena before the game and they were telling us that they were keeping the arena extra cold in there because the Canadian players complain that our ice is too soft. We played the Toronto Maple Leafs. The game started off well. No one was scoring for awhile then within the first period Toronto scored three goals. I was amazed at how many Toronto fans there were last night. I would say almost half were fans. But anyway, the game itself was boring. Only two fights (which is why I go to the games in the first place) broke out. The Preds lost by one point. It was disappointing. But while there we saw on the Jumbo Tron or the Big Screen that there were several Titans players there and Charles Kelley from Lady Antebellum was there. Interesting note about Charles Kelley that I found out just this morning: Charles is the brother to Josh Kelley who is married to Katherine Heigl of Grey's Anatomy and 27 Dresses. I thought that was kind of cool.

Right after the second period was over (which I did not know that they have a 17 min. intermission between each period) a man in our suite kept saying, "Dierks Bentley is right over there." I turned to look where he was gesturing and sure enough, Dierks Bentley was sitting with his wife about two suites over from where we were sitting. I was so close but so far away! I was too far to get a picture of him but close enough to make out his facial features. But I will say that he is so dreamy...a very handsome man. My boyfriend is okay with this. He's not jealous of Dierks. He knows that he truly has my heart...unless Dierks asks for it then he might need to worry. Just kidding....maybe. :)

But anyway it was so neat to see him. I rarely see any celebrities without seeing them in concert, etc. that it was cool to see them outside of their profession. So after the game we high tailed it out of there because we didn't want to be stuck in the massive traffic jam that always happens after an event at the arena. It took us a mere 3 mins to get back to the car and we were able to get out of the parking lot and back to the Bible College (where I had parked my car) before the people in the nosebleed section made it down to street level at the arena. Ha Ha! Hee Hee!

So the moral of this whole story is this: go to the Preds game because if it's boring as all get out (unless they score then it's exciting for a minute) you can gawk and drool over Dierks Bentley and any other celebrity who might be there. The game suddenly gets interesting. :)

The Kindle

2010-01-18T09:24:00.003-06:00

Last week a friend of mind had a birthday. Her family went in together and got her the Kindle for her present. I've heard about the Kindle for a couple of years now and had seen it on amazon. My friend was so excited and she brought it to church yesterday for everyone to see. In case you don't know what a Kindle may be, it is a device sort of like an iPod but a much bigger version. It comes with a USB cord and you can link it up to your computer and then download hundreds of books. My friend so far had downloaded The Bible, The Twilight Saga books and some others I didn't recognize. She said she will be using this as her Bible now since she was able to download her favorite version on it. It really is a pretty cool invention. But of course, I have my reservations about it.

For one, if you bring it to church what's stopping you from reading the other books during the sermon instead of trying to listen to what the Lord might want you to hear that morning. I don't know. It would be too much a distraction for me during the services.

Another thing is I love books. Plain and simple. I love the way they feel and the way they smell. You just can't beat the smell of books...especially old books. I guess I like the way the smell takes me back to my childhood. I just get very nostalgic when holding a book in my hands. It's a comfort. I can't explain why it's so comforting. So please let's save our childhood memories (or actually the things that trigger our childhood memories) and not resort to another techie gadget.

A third thing is....why do we need another technological gadget? Why does everything have to be computerized and, in their terms, made simpler? I don't need everything done for me. I'm a lazy person but I'm not too lazy to turn a page. Not everything on God's beautiful Earth needs to be transferred to the tech world. Now I love technology. I love my TV, my computer, my iPod, my indoor plumbing but when it comes to books, I want to feel the pages between my fingers. I love knowing that I am controlling the story with my speed of turning the pages. Besides, what would happen to the bookmark world if everyone went to the Kindle? I love bookmarks. That would be a tragedy if the world didn't have bookmarks anymore.

I know that using the Kindle instead of purchasing an actual book will save trees and blah blah blah, but I love the challenge I feel when I hold a book, a big fat book, and it dares me to try and finish it within a short amount of time.

I know the Kindle has it's advantage which are very very good, I might add. You can take it with it's hundreds of downloaded books with you on vacation or a road trip. It's perfect to take on a plane or to the beach and not have to worry about lugging 10-50 big fat heavy books around everywhere you go. That is a huge plus and that right there is why I would purchase a Kindle.

Lasagna and Avatar

2010-01-11T09:10:00.006-06:00

This weekend was one of the best weekends I've had in awhile. It snow flurried the entire weekend and it was beautiful watching it come down. It didn't mess up the road too much which was a good thing. But whoa it was freezing outside! I mean it was cold. As much as I love weather that reminds me of back home...I'm so ready for the temperature to move back up to at least the 30's and 40's. lol!

I attempted to make dinner for my boyfriend on Friday night. I shouldn't say attempted because I did make dinner and I thought it was pretty tasty. It was my first time to cook for him and the actual meal was really good but you would have thought I was burning the house down the way my oven and smoke detectors were acting. I made lasagna (and no it was not a frozen Stouffer's lasagna). But I have a brand new oven and I have only used one other time since I moved in so it still had that weird copper new smell to it and when the oven was actually turned on it the aroma was pretty powerful. I guess I also made the lasagna layers a little too thick because after being in the oven for awhile everything starting bubbling pretty good and it was bubbling over and so it was burning on the bottom of the oven. The lasagna itself didn't burn and it was quite good. I just need to not make the layers so thick so it won't bubble over. Then every time I opened the oven door the smoke detector would go off but there the thing is there was no smoke. So I don't know what all that was about. But to recap...the lasagna did not burn, it tasted very good and my boyfriend is convinced (I think) that I can cook. :)

Saturday we were going to go downtown to walk around and then eat at the Spaghetti Factory but since it was so cold out we decided not to go. But then we heard there were a couple of water main breaks downtown so I don't we could have gotten down there anyway so it worked out. Instead we went go see Avatar. Now I did not want to go see this movie. In the previews it looked so weird and not my type of movie. I'm not usually into sci-fi movies but Alan really wanted to see it so not trying to be a demanding and whiny girlfriend I agreed to go see it. (I wanted to see It's Complicated.) I'm glad that I did because it was a very good movie. We didn't go see in it in 3-D but now I wish we had. I think it would have been a little better but seeing in non 3-D was excellent. I have a friend who wants to see it so we will go see in at the IMax in 3-D next week or so. Now the movie does have spirits and stuff like that in it and some Christians have given some backlash on this movie but I'm grounded enough in my own faith to realize that this movie is in a fantasy world in the year 21something so I didn't give that a second thought. It was an excellent movie with beautiful colors and some really cool effects. I think it's worth seeing but I've got to warn you that it is a three hour movie. It didn't feel like it though. It just flew by its so captivating. So if you've got three hours to kill and need something to do go see Avatar...in 3-D.

Happy Monday!

Football, Movies, and Beds...Oh My!

2010-01-08T15:08:00.005-06:00

Well, the cold streak is continuing. It is freezing outside. It's just 18 degrees but it feels colder with the wind chill factor. It's been flurrying most of the day here and it's just been beautiful. I love winter scenes...not that Nashville has a winter scene going on outside but I do love to watch the snow fall. It's so beautiful and romantic. My boyfriend is coming into town tonight so we might just curl up on the couch and watch movies all night. It's just too cold to try and go out and do something. It'll be a miserable night. :) Just kidding.

Speaking of my boyfriend. I have chosen to date someone from Alabama so therefore he is an Alabama fan. As the whole world probably knew that the big game between Texas and Alabama was last night. I really don't care about football. I mean, I'll watch it if I have to but I don't watch it much and I don't even really know what's going on. I'm not opposed to football in the least. I just don't watch it much so I didn't watch it last night. I watched My Sister's Keeper instead. Oh, it's so sad and I cried all the way through it but its such a good movie. Great acting in it by Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin. But anyway, every time Bama scored I got a text message from Alan telling me they made a touchdown like it was the biggest news of the century. He was so excited. I didn't have the heart to tell him I could care less so I just texted back, "Great!" "Yay!" "That's so exciting!" "They're gonna win the game". See, I'm being a good supportive girlfriend. I'm just waiting until I have to actually sit through an entire game. Oh heaven help me when that day comes. :)

I'm so excited because a co-worker of mine asked me today if I could use a queen size mattress and box springs. I told her that of course I could! They have only had it for three years but it's just been too uncomfortable for them so they are going out and buying a new one this weekend! I'm so excited! All I have is a standard size bed. I may just put it in my guest room though. I don't have a headboard or a frame yet so it may just stay in my guestroom for now, which I'm totally okay with. I'm just happy because now I can actually turn that room into something. It's been a storage room since I've moved in and I'm ready for it to be turned into something cute and usable. My house is slowly turning into a comfortable place to live. I've decided that I want to paint. I met my neighbor the other night. She's a very nice young lady named Mia. I think she's still in college because when I commented on her wall color she said her sorority sisters painted her walls. It's a beautiful color. It's almost a orange-red color. It's beautiful, warm and cozy. That's what I want for my house. Maybe not orange or red on my walls but something that is warm and cozy. I've been looking at furniture lately online. I've been thinking of getting a new living room set. The set I have is from my parents that they had used since I was a little girl. It's still in great condition but it's just old and really not that comfortable anymore. I want a sofa that you can just sink into with a lot of cushions and pillows. I really like the neutral colors so I'll probably go with a brown color and then paint my walls a light brown or khaki color. To me those are very warm and cozy colors and then I can accent with brighter colors. I'm so excited. I can't wait to start everything. It'll be so much fun. Anyone want to help paint? :)

Have a great weekend!

Brrr...Snow!

2010-01-07T11:18:00.005-06:00

Oh my! What a whirlwind of a month December was! I was lucky enough to be off of work for two weeks for Christmas and New Year's. The downside of that was I got sick my second day off with a severe case of bronchitis that lasted the entire time I was off of work! I have never coughed and hacked as much as I did those two weeks. (That's a lovely image isn't it?) I'm still not quite over it yet either. I can still have a pretty good coughing spell at times but thankfully I am on the mend. I've been back at work for three days now and it's like I never left except for the thousand faith promise cards I have to key in and the 100's of orders I need to fill hopefully tomorrow. So if you have ordered something from Home Missions in the last few weeks...it's still sitting on my desk. I've been off of work clinging to life from a cough that I think has evaporated one of my lungs.

But anyway, for the past week our weather forecasters have been warning us that we will get a major snowstorm for today. They have been saying that we will get 2-4 inches of snow and that the roads will be terrible. School was called off and grocery stores were emptied of bread and milk (side note: why is it always bread and milk?). I wake up this morning and nothing. It hadn't snowed a single flake. Now it's "snowing" which in my definition is flurrying. The good news is that there is at least a dusting on the ground. So maybe we will get at least an inch. I hope so. I miss the snow. But man is it freezing outside! It's been so cold all week and I honestly forgot how much it hurts to be that cold. Since I've lived in the south for over 10 years I've gotten used to the mild winters. So since this cold Arctic air has hit Nashville my bones are aching I've been so cold. Don't tell my brother that I've become such a pansy, he would never let me live it down.

Happy Thursday!

Christmas is Weird

2009-12-17T15:12:00.004-06:00

Is it just me or is Christmas just weird this year? It's probably just me. I love Christmas though. I love the twinkling lights, the falling snow (not that Nashville gets any), the cheesy Christmas programs at church and even cheesier Christmas movies on Hallmark and Lifetime, the hot chocolate and the music. Oh how I love Christmas music. It's not Christmas until you hear Karen Carpenter sing "Merry Christmas, Darling" or swoon as Bing Crosby belts out "White Christmas" with that svelte voice of his. But this year is just plain weird to me.

I guess I should offer advice to never move during the holiday season. I closed on my home on November 4 thinking that I would get to move the next week. I had dreams of unpacking my boxes and getting everything in it's place before Thanksgiving and then as soon as I got back from Thanksgiving vacation I would put up my tree and unpack my Santa Claus collection. Then I woke up! I moved the Tuesday after Thanksgiving instead and have just now gotten my house just the way I want and now it's too close to Christmas to put up my tree and decorate for Christmas. I was excited about being in my new home before Christmas so I could decorate but sometimes life just gets in the way of hopes and dreams. Oh well, there's always next year.

But Christmas feels weird because I don't have a tree up. It's the first year ever in my life where I didn't have a tree up. It makes me miss my parents house. My mom always has their house decorated so nicely for Christmas but not me. Not this year. I haven't even watched White Christmas yet. I watch that movie at least 3 times during the Christmas season. I'm taking it this weekend to Alabama and making my boyfriend watch it. He had never seen it and all he asked me was if it was in black or white. I told him no but it was a musical. He didn't seem impressed. It's not Christmas until I watch that movie. He made me suffer through the movie Men Who Stare At Goats (on our first date) so I'm making him suffer through White Christmas.

Tonight I'm finishing up my Christmas shopping and then tomorrow I'm off to Alabama. It's my weekend to drive so I'm heading that way around noon. Then Friday night we are babysitting my niece and nephew as my brother and his wife take their youth group Christmas Caroling. It should be fun. I always have a great time with my niece and nephew and they are at that age that is so much fun. We just run and play until we collapse at bedtime. I love those little munchkins. It's hard to imagine our family before they came along. I wish my brother and his wife would have a slew of kids...just don't tell them I said so!

Happy Thursday!

O Holy Night

2009-12-16T15:33:00.001-06:00

Here is one of my favorite singers singing my favorite Christmas song.

*You will need to scroll down and pause my playlist at the bottom right of the page.

Blogging

2009-12-15T13:47:00.004-06:00

I am such a bad blogger. I'm sure that you have noticed that by now so why even mention it? It has become my opening line on my recent posts. When I first started blogging I was sure I would update it everyday and I would become this awesome blogger that everyone would love to read. Yeah, right....fantasy land there! Seriously, though I did intend to update pretty regularly if not everyday. But as time went on I was boring myself with posts and I would either get tired of typing or was incredibly busy at work (remember no internet at home) or just plain didn't have anything remotely interesting to say. But now that I actually do have things to say (i.e. new house and new boyfriend) I've pretty much been MIA. Well, I am saying (again) that I am intending (again) to update and become a better blogger.

I knew my family didn't know that I had a blog. I just never told them. But one day last week my father said, "I didn't know you had a blog. I've read some of it." Let me tell you that sheer panic went through me when he told me he found my blog. (He found the link through my Facebook profile page.) Even though this is a public forum where I get people from New Delhi and Switzerland checking it out the thought of my dad reading this made my mind scramble to all the past postings I've made to see what embarrassing things I might have said on here. I couldn't think of any so Dad, I apologize now for anything too girly or any embarrassing thing you might have read on here. :)

I knew of a few people who read my blog but not a whole lot and now I'm slowly finding out people are actually reading it. Today was our building's Christmas luncheon and a girl who works upstairs told me that she reads it. So now I feel like I must do a better job at blogging. After all, I do have things to talk about. Have I mentioned I bought a house that I absolutely love? Did I also mention I have a boyfriend who I'm crazy over the moon for? Those are topics soon coming up.

So I'll talk to you tomorrow...or not. We'll see. :)

Happy Tuesday!

The Pioneer Woman and Other Stuff

2009-12-02T08:01:00.003-06:00

I love to read blogs. I think I have about 10-15 blogs that I try to keep up with on a pretty regular basis. Some of them are of high school and college friends that I like to keep up with. Some are of people I have no clue who they are but they have a themed blog that I'm interested in such as cooking and baking or writing. I thought I was maxed out on my blog reading until a couple of weeks ago a friend suggested I read a blog by this woman named Ree Drummond. I'm sure some of you have heard of her but she dubs herself The Pioneer Woman. She's a woman who was a bona fide city girl who married a cattle rancher and now spends her days on a cattle ranch. My friend heard about her when she appeared on television promoting her new cookbook. So I wandered onto her website and let me tell you I have spent countless hours on there reading it.

She keeps up with several different blogs on her website such as her normal day to day blog, a blog on cooking, a blog on photography, a blog on homeschooling and a blog on Home & Garden. They are all pretty fascinating. She can tell a story like I've never heard. She's a fantastic writer who is completely hilarious. She has a section on there that tells of the love story between her and her husband whom she calls Marlboro Man. It's a pretty good story. I wish I could tell a story like she does. Read it. You'll see what I mean.

I encourage you if you have about 1,000 hours to spare, head over to her website and check it out. I think you'll enjoy it.

I am now officially living in my new house! I'm so excited. I closed almost a month ago but haven't really had a chance to fully move all the way in because November was a crazy month for me and my family. We just had so much going on that I could only move a few items at a time. But, praise the Lord, I'm finally finished moving in and my downstairs is completely put together. My spare room is my catch all room right now. Every box and container that I'm not sure what to do with is sitting in there. My bedroom and master bath is all put together until I can afford to purchase more furniture and pictures. So it's pretty much done for now. I'm so excited and it just feels like home. Usually I have a hard time adjusting to a new place and it takes me forever to falls asleep each night but last night I had no trouble falling asleep and I didn't wake up once until my alarm clock went off this morning. I have sheer curtains that I hang in my bedroom but I think I'll need to get some thicker curtains because all the parking lot lights outside my window. They are so bright and I like to sleep in an almost pitch black room so I think new curtains are in order.

Thanksgiving turned out pretty well. I wasn't exactly that excited about going to Illinois but I'm so glad we did. We got to stay with my dad's brother and his wife and we had the best time. My cousin and her family came over and we ate, played games and laughed so hard the entire time. We, of course, took time out on Thursday to head over to my grandmother's for dinner but we left as soon as we could to go back to my uncle's to play games. It was so much fun. The highlight of the trip though was while at my grandma's house, a tree limb broke of and fell straight through my parent's car windshield. It just shattered the windshield to pieces. Luckily, the glass repair people came over the next morning and replaced the windshield in no time and then we were off our merry way back to Tennessee. Good times!

It's Been a Long Time

2009-11-20T08:41:00.002-06:00

I got an email yesterday from a friend who said, "You haven't updated your blog in almost a month!" Yikes! Really? I didn't realize it was that long. I had meant to blog but honestly some days I just completely forgot. Other days I didn't feel like it and the rest I was just way too busy to blog. But a lot has been happening, that's for sure!

I won't go into too much detail because it's still so new (and I don't want to jinx it) but I have met someone. I met him through my sister (in-law) and brother and right now I couldn't be happier. So that has taken up some of my time. :) I may give more details at a later date but right now I'll keep it to myself. :) But since I've talked so much about wanting to find someone and patiently (or more like impatiently) waiting for him to come along, I, at least, wanted to share that I've met the most amazing man.

Side note: You know that he is someone special if I mention him on here because earlier in the year I was dating someone (for four months) who turned out to be a real bozo and I never said a word about him on here.

I finally closed on my home and am about 95% moved in. Now I was scared to death on the closing. Everyone was telling me that it so nerve wrecking and that I will feel as if I'm signing my life away, but that wasn't the case at all. It went so smoothly and we were in and out of there in no time. Even my realtor said that was the smoothest closing she had ever been to.

I'm not living there yet but I will probably finish moving in next weekend. I've been so busy that I haven't had the time to move. I've moved in stages which has been quite nice. I, along with my mom and my friend, Danielle, went over to my house this past Tuesday evening and rearranged my furniture and hung up some pictures and art work on my walls. It's starting to look so good. I'm very excited. However, I didn't realize how expensive this was going to cost. I know buying a home is expensive in itself but it's a brand new construction home. So I had to buy blinds for every window. The place didn't come with toilet paper holders or towel racks. So I had to buy those and all these little things tend to add up. I also had to get a refrigerator. They delivered it last week and it looks so cute in the kitchen. I'm excited.

I had a friend from church ask me if I had a dining set to go in the kitchen. I told her I had a dining room table that I put in the dining room/living room area but I had nothing in the kitchen. Well, I say nothing but I did set up my card table and chairs. I thought it would be cute in there with a tablecloth over it. My mother thought that was a little tacky, but hey I'm broke and needed a table in there. Anyway, I told my friend that I didn't really have anything for my kitchen area and she and her husband decided to give me their 5 piece kitchen table and their hutch for free!! Woo Hoo! I was so excited. I'll have to paint it and stain the wood but for free I'll gladly do it. People keep asking me on Facebook to post pictures but I just don't know if I feel comfortable posting pictures of my home and everything in it while I'm living alone. So don't be surprised if I never post pictures. That means, you will just have to come see me. :)

I was talking to my sister (in law) last night on the phone and she was telling me how happy she was for me. She said it finally feels as if everything is falling into place for me. I paid off my school loan this year, I bought a beautiful new home all by myself and I've met the man of my dreams. Three huge things that pretty much happened all at the same time. I told I felt the same way and then I almost said that it finally feels as if God is starting to bless me. The truth is, God has always been blessing me all along the way. He always made sure that there was a roof over my head, food on my table and friends and family that love me beyond all understanding. Even though money was tight at times, I never was late on any payments and my fridge was never empty. I have had a few bumps along the road (and will continue to have bumps) but I know that all those bumps has made me into the person I am today. I am indeed a blessed woman!

Good Food, Good Dancing, Good Life

2009-10-27T14:47:00.004-05:00

Last night our ladies at church had a blast! It was our monthly Ladies Prayer Group meeting and we are doing a study called The Mayberry Bible Study and its so much fun. Last night we watched an episode about Aunt Bee being tricked into taking an elixir that was 85% alcohol and her and the rest of the Ladies Aide at their church became intoxicated. It was quite hilarious. The lesson from this episode was temptation. It was so good and we had quite a discussion afterwards. It was a really great night. I mentioned yesterday that we were cooking southern food for the meal and the ladies went all out. We had fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, mustard greens, sweet potatoes, fried okra, sweet tea, corn bread, peach cobbler, apple pie and banana pudding. It was all delicious and I'm still so full from trying them all. Good times!

Tonight I have no plans but to relax and curl up on the couch reading a good book and watching Dancing with the Stars. I have to ask some of you who watch this show...what is up with the double eliminations two weeks in a row?! That's just seems a little drastic. They've already had one double elimination and they had another celebrity drop out due to an injury so why do they feel that they have to eliminate four more couples in the next two weeks. That seems a little unfair. I guess maybe they are trying to finish up before the holidays. Who knows?

I'm excited that tomorrow is my walk through on my new home. I had it inspected yesterday and I'm a little concerned though because they found a huge puddle of water in the bottom of the dishwasher and on the kitchen floor that has seeped into the carpet and probably the wood on the cabinets. I hope this doesn't push my closing back but I'm going to ask (or demand) that it all gets taken care of rather quickly. They also said that there were several tears to the linoleum in the kitchen. I am getting a little concerned about it all so can you all pray that things go smoothly during the walk through and that they will fix all the problems in time for the closing next Wednesday. I have never signed my name as much as I have already to purchase this home and I'm not even to the closing yet. My contract was around 40 pages and of course, I had to sign and initial every page. Then we decided to take care of all my loan pages before the closing to I just finished signing and dating every page there to mail back to them. I can't imagine having to sign more pages and of course, I don't understand a word that is written on those pages. Luckily, I have an awesome realtor who is unbelievable at her job and knows everything and can explain it where I understand it. I never thought I would purchase a home on my own but I am and I'm quite proud of myself.

Sweet Home Alabama

2009-10-26T08:47:00.002-05:00

It's official! The weekends go by way too fast but I sure had a great one. I took a half day on Friday to travel to Northport, AL, to see my family. We had so much fun. Friday night we went out to eat at this really cool Mexican restaurant called the Iguana Grill. It was stunning inside. They had stars that twinkled hanging from the ceiling. They had this round table that wrapped around a tree (not real) that went from the floor to the ceiling. It was really cool. My niece calls the place Tinkerbell's home. It looks like a place you would see in a fantasy. The food was really good as well.

Saturday afternoon after the kids went down for their nap by sister (in law) and I decided to get out and shop by ourselves. Jenny wanted to get the kids their Halloween costumes for their Trunk or Treat this Wednesday at their church. Anna Grace wanted to be a superhero so we got them a Supergirl and Superman outfit. They were so cute and they loved their costumes. Anna G didn't want to take hers off for anything. After we hit a couple of stores we decided to go the the U of A campus. There was a football game going on and since we couldn't get the tickets we thought we would get we decided to walk around the quad. Jenny really wanted me to experience the atmosphere. Oh! My! Goodness! That was truly an experience. I honestly believe you don't experience college football until you have walk around the campus of the University of Alabama on game day. There are vendors all up and down the streets selling every type of Alabama gear you can imagine and food vendors every where. It was unreal. Of course, we had to get a corn dog and funnel cake. The funnel cake was cool because they were cut into fries instead of all wrapped around in one big pile. It was much easier to eat and share. But walking around the quad was so cool. It was like one big tailgate party. People pay to rent a space and they set up these tents and tables and tables of food. They bring their flat screen TV's and their satellite dishes and they watch the game right there. You definitely can feel the team spirit. I honestly can say I appreciate the Alabama fans and their team spirit. It was so cool! Not cool enough to make me an Alabama fan. :) It was a great weekend and I'm hoping to get back down there in a few weeks. I miss my sister (in -law), brother and their kids so much. I wish I lived closer to them.

Sunday was a great day. I really enjoy going to my brother's church. The people are very friendly and the preaching is always uplifting and inspiring. Of course the music is always outstanding. My brother really does a great job. The choir sang a special and they did an awesome job. It makes me miss the days when our church had a choir. I really didn't want to leave Sunday but I had to get back in order to come to work today.

Tonight is Ladies Prayer Group and our second installment of the Andy Griffith Bible Study. The ladies really enjoyed it last month so I'm excited about tonight's study. To get into the theme of the Bible Study everyone is bringing a southern food for our meal. I'm bringing fried okra and I think I'm going to make some sweet tea as well.

I feel as if it will be a great week! Happy Monday!

Babies and More Babies!

2009-10-22T10:38:00.005-05:00

This has been a busy week. We had our missionary Boot Camp all this week. It ended this morning and all the missionaries are on their way to their respective homes. It was a great week. They were a great bunch of men and I believe they all are going to do unbelievably well in planting a new church. I have such tremendous respect for Home Missionaries. I've stated on here before that I'm a daughter of former Home Missionaries it is not a job for just anyone. It takes a special kind of person to be able to start a church from nothing and build it something great for the Lord. It definitely is a special calling. So I'm asking everyone to remember all our Home Missionaries in prayer every day.

I'm leaving tomorrow to head down to Alabama. I haven't seen my family in well over a month and I'm ready for some niece and nephew time. They are getting so big and my niece will be 4 in February and she is so grown up. You can understand her completely now when you talk to her on the phone. My nephew is starting to talk now. He's so cute. He's like a little man. He didn't stay baby long enough for me. Last night I got to hold newborn baby twins. They are preemies actually. The girl was only 4 lbs and some ounces and the boy was 5 lbs and some ounces. They were born last Wednesday or Thursday which is about a month before their due date. They are completely healthy and went home from the hospital last Sunday afternoon. My mom and I took dinner over to them last night and I got to hold them both. They were so tiny and light. Holding the baby girl was like holding a doll. They were so sweet and had lots of dark hair. I got baby fever last night and said out loud that I wanted one. Of course, my mother shot me this look like, "Don't even think about it!" Of course I had to tease her and tell her that I didn't actually need a husband to have a baby. I thought she was going to die right then and there. But don't worry...the only way this girl is getting pregnant is if it was another immaculate conception.

My sister in law called me last night to tell me to pack warm clothes this weekend because she might be getting tickets to the Alabama vs. Tennessee game on Saturday. Chad said he would stay home with the kids and let us go since I haven't been to a Bama game yet (they've already been once this season). Jenny is a HUGE TN Vols fan and we both hate Bama. I was teasing a friend of mine that I would be wearing my blue and orange gear to represent the Fighting Illini but then she reminded me that those were also Auburn colors and since Auburn and AL are huge rivals I might forgo the Illini gear (Oh how I miss the North). We'll see. I haven't decided yet. I'm just excited to spend some time with my family.

Oh - this song I have on here today by Queen has nothing to do with the post. I just like it and it reminds me of the movie The Breakup...awwe Vince Vaughn. :)

Happy Thursday!

My Ears Are Still Ringing...

2009-10-14T14:43:00.006-05:00

Last night's concert was unbelievable. It was so good and we had great seats. Just look how close we were to cutie patootie Keith Urban.

It was a good concert. There were a few glitches though. The concert didn't start on time. It was was about 20-25 minutes late and then after Keith performed for an hour they did a set change which lasted a whopping 55 minutes. Yes, I checked. It was pretty ridiculous. People were getting aggravated but once the concert got back up and moving it was pretty spectacular. You definitely got your money's worth and since me and my friends got our tickets free we aren't complaining too badly about the long delays. :) The biggest surprise to me was Vince Gill. I knew he was on the agenda and was not too happy about it. I honestly do not like his singing but listening to him live was a different experience. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him and I could have listened to more of him. Of course my new found liking of Vince Gill is not going to make me go out and purchase his CD's. It just means I won't be changing the radio station the next time one of songs come on (unless it's "Go Rest High" Ugh!). But anyway, the concert had a pretty impressive line-up...Brad Paisley (swoon), Dierks Bentley, (double swoon), Little Big Town, Lady Antebellum, Jason Aldean, Faith Hill, and Taylor Swift. Here's a couple more pictures from last night. Good Times!

Brad Paisley and Keith Urban

Dierks Bentley

Little Big Town

All 4 the Hall

2009-10-13T14:16:00.003-05:00

I'm so excited!!! I'm going to a concert tonight called All 4 the Hall. It's a benefit concert Keith Urban is hosting for the Country Music Hall of Fame. There will be many country singers there...Keith Urban, Brad Paisely, Taylor Swift, Little Big Town, Faith Hill, Jason Aldean, and Vince Gill. Some I'm not crazy about hearing..ahem...Vince Gill...but I'm still excited nonetheless. We were able to get great seats! According to the seating chart on ticketmaster we will be right by the stage. I'll be taking my camera so hopefully I'll be able to get great pictures.

Last night, I had Bunco and it was so much fun. I actually won for most wins! Yay! I got this beautiful dish that can be used as a veggie tray or anything along those lines. If you want to start a girls night that is fairly inexpensive but not quite sure what to do, I think Bunco would be the thing for you. It super easy and it costs $5 a month...at least that is what my group does. Other groups may do it differently. We don't play it like by the rules that come with the game. Those are very boring. If you are interested at all at anytime shoot me an email or comment and I'll be happy to tell you all how we play. It's so much fun. We laugh so hard every month. It's a great time to just get away from things and just have fun and relax. Good times!

Happy Tuesday!

Tired Already

2009-10-12T10:37:00.004-05:00

This is going to be one of those weeks. I can feel it already. :) I will be so incredibly busy the next few weeks it isn't funny. I have something planned every night this week. It's fun stuff, mind you but still I won't be home hardly. I have Bunco tonight...the All 4 the Hall concert tomorrow night (Yay!!)...church on Wednesday night and then Thursday night I will be going out to dinner with a friend. I have a $10 off coupon to a restaurant that we both LOVE and it expires that night so we are going to use it then. After dinner we are going to go through a corn maze that is supposed to be pretty spectacular. I mean, people get lost in this baby, so I'm pretty excited. Well that is the plan unless it rains. If it rains, I see a movie in the plans. All that is stuff outside of work. At work we are having a pretty extensive training seminar that will last all next for some of our missionaries so I have to get everything ready for that this week. Then a co-worker of mine and I are going to clean out the work room today sometime and rearrange some things. So I have a lot on my plate. Oh! I'm also making a trip to Alabama to see my family sometime this month.

I also have my home inspection and walk-through on my house this month. This month is just flying by. I'll be closing on my home before you know it. Saturday my mom and I went shopping and before we started we dropped by my house and peeked in the windows and to our surprise we saw that they have laid down he carpet and painted my front door! I was so excited to see that. That means that they are about 95% done with the house. We decided that day to go fridge shopping. I'm thoroughly depressed too! Those things do not come cheap. I have to get stainless steel and I realized this weekend that they are the most expensive out of all the colors. But I have narrowed down the style to two different ones. We will just see what I choose to get in the end.

As you all know I'm crashing at my parent's house until my house is finished and this weekend they will be gone to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg. Our church is sponsoring a couple's treat and they are attending. So I'll have the house to myself. That will be the first time that I will be completely alone since I moved back home. But at least I won't be entirely alone. Another couple in the church who is attending the retreat asked me to dog sit for them so I will have a little miniature Schnauzer with me. Last night after church I stopped by their house so I could meet the little tyke and she was just the cutest thing I had ever seen. She was so energetic! She made me miss Butler so much. He use to act like that when he was younger and I forgot how energetic and excited young dogs can be. The last few years of Butler's life was spent with him just laying around sleeping. He never ran around the house anymore or jumped up on the furniture. I think this little dog is going to make me want a new puppy that much more. I can't wait for this weekend.

Happy Monday!

Oh Happy Day!

2009-10-08T14:05:00.005-05:00

This is what I feel like doing today! After nine years, I have finally paid off my student loan. I couldn't be any happier than this moment. The weight that has been lifted off my shoulders is indescribable. So to celebrate I'm going out to dinner tonight. I think I deserve it. ;-)

It Is Well

2009-10-07T08:21:00.004-05:00

A year ago today I left for my vacation to Hawaii. It seems like it was forever ago but yet I remember every minute of that trip like it was yesterday. I can still feel the sand between my toes and taste the saltwater. I can still feel the sun on my face when I would sit beside the pool or on the beach. I can still smell the air when we took a tour to the ranch where they film all the movies and television shows. I can still see all the fish and sea turtles in Huanama Bay. I still remember what it felt like parasailing over the crystal blue waters of Hawaii and I can still feel the amazement I felt when I would see the beatuiful mountains raised high above the ground. It was one of the most fun and adventurous trips I have ever taken and I honestly hope I get to go again someday. This trip has bittersweet memories for me though as it marks the end of a friendship. I know that in all reality it is for the best for both parties but when you were so close to someone and then to lose that friendship still hurts. But God has given me a peace like I've never known about this and I've moved on.

But last night I was thinking about my trip last year and what all has happened in my life since then. I've gone through quite a lot. I know that everyone can say that they've gone through a lot in a year's time and last night I was thinking about mine. Some were good and some were pretty awful. I've had my heartbroken with no understanding and at the same time realized that I had to move back home. The thing about moving home is that a lot of people don't really truly understand why I had to move home. I did it for several reasons but the main reason was my mom became ill. I waited until my lease to my apartment had run out in May and then I moved home to take care of her and to take over all the duties of cooking and cleaning and helping her get better. That was such a dark and low moment for me. I had felt like the parent/child roles had been reversed. It was a pretty surreal moment. I had felt so helpless in that I couldn't make my mom well again. I tried to be there for her emotionally, physically and spiritually. I tried to be strong through the whole ordeal but I always felt like I was going to break into a million pieces at any moment. But through it all all was well. My God never let me down. He was there every moment for peace, comfort and to be my strength. I didn't always understand why we were going through all that with my mom and why He allowed her to be sick for so many months but I trusted that He had a plan and that He always had my mom and our family in the palm of His hand.

Now my mom is doing so much better and new exciting things are happening. I've just bought my first home and will get to move into it next month. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I'm going refrigerator shopping this weekend and quite excited about it. As far as friends go, the Lord always knows who we need in our lives the moment we need them and He has blessed me beyond measure with the friends in my life. I know that there will always be hard times and that we won't always know and understand why we are going through some things we go through but through it all we can rest knowing that our Lord and Savior will be there through it all holding us and guiding us. Now, I can't wait to see what the next year holds.

Fall Festival

2009-10-05T13:11:00.004-05:00

Saturday we had our church's annual Fall Festival. It's so much work to put it together and by the end of the day I was exhausted and sore but it was worth it. There were several glitches the day of but everything in the end worked out and it was a pretty successful day. Our church does this, of course, for our own people but we mainly do this as an outreach to the community. We had several visiting families tell us that they really enjoyed it and thanked us for having something like this for anyone to come to. They expressed interest in our church and I'm praying that we get some families visit our worship services as a result. I was so proud of our people. I'm not surprised at their friendliness, generosity and genuineness of compassion for everyone.

There were two big hits of the day. The first was a new inflatable bounce we rented. Usually we rent one of the small square jumps that people can go in and jump around. This year we decided to get a larger one that was an obstacle course. It was two lanes where you first climb up a wall and then slide down a slide. It was hilarious watching grown adults climbing those walls and hurling themselves over the top and down the slides. It was quite comical. The second hit was a fundraiser the youth group was holding. They sold tickets for people to "pie the pastors". It's exactly what it sounds. They had a line (a very long line) of people waiting to throw pies at our pastor and our youth pastor. It was hysterical. All in all the day was a hit and there were plenty of good times.

We had a great day in our worship services. We were pretty down in attendance but it was a good day. The sermons preached were very moving. Of course, just when things are going great Satan has to rear his ugly head. You can tell that Satan is attacking our church and some of our families. So our church must be doing something right if Satan is attacking. I just pray that our families remain strong in the Lord and can overcome some of these obstacles that Satan has thrown at them. I feel like I am one of them as I seem to be battling some internal struggles.

Since I had such a jam packed weekend, I am doing not a blessed thing tonight. When I get home I am putting my pajamas on, my hair up and get a blanket and snuggle into the couch to watch Dancing with the Stars and Castle. It will be a wonderful night. :)

Happy Monday!

October Madness

2009-10-01T09:12:00.003-05:00

It's the first day of October! I'm one happy girl. This is absolutely my favorite month out of the whole year. Sure, I love Christmas. Sure, I love snow. Sure, I enjoy the first of Spring. BUT, this is my favorite time of the year. The smell...the sights...the clothes! It's joyous!

Saturday is our church's Fall Festival. I'm still stressing about it a little but not as much as I was the other day. We had a meeting last night with all the volunteers and I was pleasantly surprised at how many people are planning on being there to work the booths. I think it will go fairly smoothly. Until then, I have so much to accomplished before Saturday. I have to make brownies, two cakes and buy a few liters of pop for a game. I'm looking forward to it being over. LOL! We are actually thinking that we might not do the Fall Festival next year for several reasons. But we want to try something new next year if the whole church agrees. We'll see. I think what some people have come up with for next year sounds fun. It will be a nice change.

I know you all are just dying to know the status on my house. :) Well, everything seems at a stand still. I think we've done all we can do to get ready for the closing. We are all just waiting for it to be finished. I have my walk through in 28 days! I'm excited and can't wait until then. Every now and then I drive over there and peek through the windows to see what they have finished. I'm proud to say that they have the microwave and dishwasher installed. They're so pretty. :) Now I have an idea of what kind of fridge to get.

I think the Lord wants me to have a dog because last night I dreamed of an American Bulldog. He was so cute. He was all white with black spots. He was adorable. I still miss my Butler a lot but I think I'm ready for another one. But even though I really want an American Bulldog I'm also thinking of getting another Yorkie. They are the sweetest dogs. I can't make up my mind. I'm such an indecisive girl. :)

Happy October!

Writer's Block

2009-09-29T14:51:00.003-05:00

For someone who loves to write and wants to someday make this a full time career, I'm doing a pitiful job at it. Let's just say that I'm having a severe case of writer's block on most days...especially with the blog I write for work. It's been about a month or over a month since I updated that one. I just can't think of anything to write about. That's the hardest part for me...coming up with something to write about. Once I get a topic, I can just write and write with no problem. I wonder if other writers have this problem? I wonder if it's just as hard for them to come up with a topic as it is for me. Of course with this blog I just don't seem to have blog worthy topics to write about.

Last night though, we had our monthly women's meeting at church. It went very well, I think. We are doing The Mayberry Bible Study Vol. 4. Each lesson consists of watching an episode of The Andy Griffith Show and then you discuss it afterwards. It's quite interesting. Each episode is about a certain topic. Last night's study was about values. This is just something fun and light to do until we start our main bible study at the beginning of next year. Our church is also having a fall festival this Saturday. It's always something fun for everyone but it's so much work getting it all together. This year we have had a few problems and glitches so we are thinking of not having it next year and trying something different like Trunk or Treat. It just all depends on how the fall festival goes this Saturday. I'm looking forward to it. Actually, I'm looking forward until it's over. Ha!

It's so beautiful out today. It's what I have been waiting for all summer. It's high of 69 degrees with beautiful blue skies. I think I'm going to go the park and walk on the trail today. It would be just wrong if I didn't.

Changing Seasons

2009-09-22T14:23:00.004-05:00

Today I ordered a soundtrack online and the coolest thing was that as soon as I purchased the song it was ready for download! I was so excited. I didn't have to wait a week to receive it in the mail. That's the second time that's happened. A few weeks ago I ordered a song and the seller e-mailed me the mp3 of it and all I had to do was download it and burn it to a CD. If everyone is starting to do this, I will be one happy gal. Of course all these places are still charging the same price which isn't fair since I'm having to use my own CDs but at least I don't have to pay for shipping anymore. So there is always good and bad in everything. Ahh, we are happy but never fully satisfied. That's sounds like a good devotion but I won't go there today. :-)

Nashville has been such a gloomy place these past few days or should I say these past couple weeks. I'm sure you've seen it on the news that this region is getting drenched. It has not stopped raining for days. Luckily it's not a nonstop rain this week like it has been but the sun won't come out which makes everyone's moods not the greatest. I love this type of weather but even I'm tired of not having a sunny day. It looks like fall outside with the leaves changing and the constant cloud cover and rain but it is so humid and muggy and just plain hot! If the weather was cooler than I think everything would be more tolerable. But as I read on someone's Facebook status the other day, "Thank you Lord for the rain. Help us not to complain for when it is hot and dry we will pray for it again." I liked that. It's so true. When it is so dry we pray for rain but when it rains we pray and beg the Lord to take it away. I catch myself doing that with temperatures. When it's blistering hot I pray for winter to come with the cooler weather and then when it's winter I can't wait for summertime to come with the warmer weather. Again, the whole never being fully satisfied thing again. I think part of it is I was raised in Illinois where there is a distinct difference in the seasons. I miss that.

I got exciting news! I have a confirmed date and time for my closing so on November 4, 2009, I will become an official home owner. Does it naturally come with heart palpitations?

I Bless Your Name

2009-09-21T09:52:00.011-05:00

Ever feel like everything you do or try to do is wrong and there are people right there always willing to point it out to you at every turn? Yep, that's been me this past week. I've been involved with a certain project (that is not work related) and no matter how hard I try to make it better and make it organized and run smoothly there is someone there to point out all my flaws and get angry with me at every little detail. I know that I can't please everyone and I don't try to but I just get tired of people not letting me be human. It seems like I can't have emotions, feelings, opinions or just plain make mistakes. Every time I have any of the mentioned actions, I get yelled at, snubbed or talked to like I'm a five year old. I just got tired of it so last night I resigned from all positions. Of course, I was told that I need to just think and pray about it but I've made up my mind. I know it sounds like I'm just giving up and quitting and I guess I am but I need a break...from everything. I also think this is what is best for the situation at hand.

I read a blog today about a person dealing alot this summer with fears and frustrations so they spent time out in nature camping and hiking. What is about being out in nature that makes you feel refreshed and renewed and closer to the Lord? That's what I do to renew my spirit with the Lord. There is a trail near my home that I hike when I need to relieve stress and frustration. There's just something about walking through God's creation with no phones, no sirens, no TV that let's you hear God. Without all the distractions you seem to get everything in perspective. Reading this certain blog today reminded me of Psalms 121:1-2. It says, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth." These verses were so comforting to me today. I've had so many frustrations, fears and stress lately myself that I felt like I couldn't breathe. But I know through it all the Lord is there beside me helping it through it all.

Thank you, Lord, for being my Rock and Comfort and Help in my times of need. I can't live without You. You are all I need and I bless Your name!

Where Were You?

2009-09-11T08:37:00.003-05:00

Do you remember what you were doing eight years ago today? Like everyone in our great country I'm sure you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing. I had been working at the FWB National Home Missions office for exactly one year. I was sitting at my desk working on my computer when my phone rang. It was my mother saying a plane had crashed into one of the towers at the World Trade Center. I really didn't think too much about it. I just figured that it was a tourist plane or something small like that. Then a little bit later she called again saying another plane hit the other tower and then she told me about the other two planes in PA and at the Pentagon. It was so surreal.

Our office turned on the TV and were just astounded at what we were seeing that day. Needless to say not much got done in our office that day. I'm sure not much work got done anywhere that day across our nation. At lunchtime I walked to my car and won't forget the feeling while being outside. The skies were so quiet and it felt so eerie. The sky was a gorgeous deep blue with not a single cloud floating by. It was a beautiful day. Airplanes fly over our building all day long because we are not too far from the airport but not a single plane flew by that day and the silence was deafening...signaling that something terrible was wrong. It was if the world just stopped that day. Of course for the next few hours we were glued to the TV as we watched the towers burn and then tumble to the ground.

I know it's been eight years but when I still stop and think about that day all the same feelings I had that day come back up to the surface.

Today I will remember those whose lives were taken on the horrible day.

Today I will remember the men and women who fought and died protecting our country.

Today I will remember those men and women who are still fighting today for our freedom.

Today I will not forget.

Fearful Sounds

2009-09-10T14:19:00.006-05:00

I wandered up the stairs alone with a clear purpose in mind. All other thoughts stripped except for the task at hand. The room was small and stuffy and a fine layer of dust covered every exposed area in the cluttered space. I spot the intended objects of my focus and set about doing what I knew had to be done. Halfway through my task, I hear something that makes me freeze in an instant. After a few moments of listening to the fearful sound, I cautiously and slowly turn my head from one side to the other to try and find the source of this horrifying noise. A noise that has made me so fearful it has caused me to forget about what I was doing in this cramped room and why I was even there in the first place. Realizing that the noise is not coming from around me, I slowly lift my eyes upward and there by the shadeless lightbulb I spot it. The very sight of it has made me go paralyzed and the noise of this creature is deafening. My stomach churns as I stare at this most awful looking beast and I suddenly lose my breath. My lungs automatically scream at me in pain as I try to fill them back up with air that just wouldn't come. Suddenly, by a power greater than my own, my mind clears long enough to remember why I was in this terrifying room. I quickly and quietly finish my task so I don't call attention to this evil looking monster less it comes after me full force and cause excruciating pain. I slowly creep to the edge of the room and quietly but swiftly sneak down the steps and slam the door shut locking in this horrible, terrifying,and grotesque animal. The emotions running through me at this moment were too many to explain. I realize what had just happened and thank God that my life was spared.

To simplify this story...I went up into the attic of the church last night to check all our signage for the Fall Festival coming up and a wasp was flying over my head. It terrified me to death since I have a HUGE fear of wasps...but wasn't that story much more interesting than the simple version?! :)

Houses, Hotels and Revivals...Oh My!

2009-09-08T09:00:00.004-05:00

Exciting things have been happening here lately. I have done something that I never thought I would do (or do alone) but I made the step and I purchased my own home. I haven't actually bought it yet. I have signed the contract and will close on it in the middle of November. It's a townhome which I love. I didn't want to have to be responsible for a lot of yard work my first time out so I thought a townhome would be a better route, plus they are a little more affordable than a single family home. It's a new construction home so I'm unbelievably excited that I will be the first one living in this home. It will be move in ready, which is what I was looking for and realized after months of house hunting that there are not too many of those out there. Some people just don't take care of their homes. While house hunting I looked at many HUD homes or foreclosure homes. They were not in the best of conditions and I just don't have the money to fix them back up. My realtor took me to this one home in LaVergne and it was a cute home but the last owners decided to take some things of the house with them like, the bushes, the gutters, the heating/air unit out back, and the kitchen. Yes, the ENTIRE kitchen...stove, fridge, dishwasher, sink, cabinets....everything! Did I mention they also took the gutters!! But they left the satellite dish attached to the house, go figure.

But I'm so excited about this new place. This was the subdivision that I really wanted to be in and it is close, work, church and my parents. I mentioned that it was new construction and that is why I have to wait until November to close...it's still being built! Actually it is built but they are not done with it on the inside. All they have done on the inside is the drywall is up and the ceiling is painted. They also have the floor down in the kitchen and the entry way. They just need to finish the flooring downstairs and upstairs, paint the walls and install the kitchen. I might post pictures but I want to wait until it's finished. I'm so excited but nervous all at the same time. I can't believe I'm a homeowner now.

My weekend went pretty well. I had a terrible migraine on Friday so I had to leave early from work and then later I went house hunting and found my incredible new home! My mom and I got this great offer to spend two nights at the Opryland Hotel. So we went and stayed last night and tonight. It's a little weird staying at a hotel in the town you live in but the hotel is very nice. I remember going to the hotel during college to walk around and take pictures with friends. It is a gorgeous hotel and if you ever come to Nashville it's definitely a place to visit even if you don't stay there. The gardens and waterfalls are absolutely stunning. So after work today I will run home, pick up my mom (who decided to spend the day at home instead of the hotel) and then head back out to the hotel to wander around and enjoy the sights.

This weekend will be pretty busy as well. My brother and his family are coming into town because our church is having a weekend revival and my brother is heading up the music. David Crowe, who is one of the directors where I work, is our evangelist and Chad will be leading the music and handling all our special music. So if you are in the Nashville area and would love to hear some awesome singing and preaching come on over to Rejoice FWB Church. We would love to have you. On Saturday night we are having a banquet for our church members and Aaron Wilburn will be bringing the entertainment. He is a Christian comedian and he is hilarious. I know he used to travel with the Gaither Homecoming crew for a while. David and Aaron have become pretty good friends. They met at a church where David was the evangelist and Aaron was the entertainment. So they've done a few things together like that and we've even used him for one of our retreats that we had in Pigeon Forge. I'm looking forward to it.

Happy Tuesday!

Life Lessons I Learned from Julie & Julia

2009-09-02T13:35:00.006-05:00

Last night was such an enjoyable evening. I met a friend for dinner at Cozymel's. I love that place. We always get the table side guacamole. They make it right there at your table. It's very delicious. I've never enjoyed guacamole but she encouraged me one day to try it and I loved it...as long as there is no cilantro in it. That herb doesn't agree with my palate too much. But other than that I do enjoy guacamole. After dinner we went to go see Julie & Julia. This was a very good movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love Meryl Streep. She can just transform into any character where you don't even see her...you see the character only. She sounded and acted just like Julia Child. It was amazing. I learned a few things actually from this movie. *If you haven't seen the movie yet and plan to, you might want to skim through this next part but maybe not. Not sure if I'll give anything important away or not.

My lessons are sixfold.

First of all, I learned that you pat your meat dry. Your meat won't brown well if it still has a wetness to it.

Secondly, Julia Child didn't get married until she was around 40 years old (so I still have hope). She had quite a love affair with her husband. They portrayed their romance very cutely (is that a word) in the movie. It was rumored that she and her husband were spies for the US government and they briefly mentioned it in the movie. It wasn't confirmed or denied in the movie and it was only made in one statement but I thought it was interesting that she was a spy.

Thirdly, I learned that I need more readers for my blog. The character Julie blogged her way through Julia Child's cookbook. She had so many reader and people making comments all the time. Maybe it was because her blog was more of a conceptual blog where mine is just a daily summary of what I have done and what I am going to do with my personal opinions and thoughts thrown in for good measure. What do I need to do to get more readers? Not that I have many interesting things to say that should warrant more readers but it would be nice to know that people are reading my blog and that I'm not just sending it out there into the unknown void of cyberspace.

Fourthly, food looks sooo good on the big screen.

Fifthly, I want to go to France.

The last thing I learned from Julie & Julia is that you never put people on a pedestal or if you do, never plan on meeting them or interacting with them in any way, shape or form. Julie had put Julia on a pedestal to where she created Julia in her mind to be perfect...the perfect wife, friend, and cook. At the end Julie finds out something about Julia that devastates her and with good reason. It broke her heart. (Julia Child was still alive when Julie did her blogging/cooking her way through the cookbook.) Julie thought they had so much in common with being stuck in their lives and that they had this common bond where cooking saved them from themselves and in turn that made them sisters even though they had never met. But Julie ended up being so disappointed because she had made Julia to be this person that she never truly was.

That is the way it is though. You see someone you've never met (i.e. celebrity, missionary, preacher) and you create this perfect person in your head. How many times have you had a deep fascination with a celebrity and then you find out something horrible about them and you are crushed? You can never look at them the same. They weren't the person you had created them to be. But the truth is, no one is perfect. We are all human and have human thoughts. (That's deep, I know!) We all get angry, can be judgmental, say things we shouldn't, and do things and go to places we shouldn't. We should never measure ourselves to someone else or try to emulate them. The only person we should strive to be like or imitate is Jesus Christ. He is the only perfect person and all we need to do is try and be more like Him and in turn He will help us be the type of person He wants us to be for Him.

So thank you, Julia Child and Julie Powell, for reminding me what is important and not to waiver on my goal of being more like our Lord and Savior.

By the way, the movie was excellent and I highly recommend you go see it.

Settlin'

2009-09-01T14:00:00.007-05:00

Is it really September 1st? It doesn't seem possible at all! In 10 days is my father's birthday and in 18 days is my sister (in-laws) 30th birthday. I can't believe it's the beginning of Fall already but I sure do love it! This is my favorite time of the year. The time where the air gets a little bit of a crisp to it and where the leaves start to turn to beautiful colors. I think Autumn is God's best work. Well, all God's work is best but there is something different about the Fall season. I always said when I get married I will get married in October. Could there be a better month? I don't really think there could be.

I had a fabulous weekend. Thursday night I went to dinner and a movie with a friend. We went to see the Time Traveler's Wife. It wasn't too bad. It had a few things in it that could have been left out and it was a little sad to me but it was a good movie. Saturday night I went to the Keith Urban/Sugarland concert. It was wonderful, fabulous, and awesome! I have pictures up on my facebook page if you hadn't seen it already. It was wonderful. Sugarland was just outstanding. I wish I could sing like Jennifer Nettles. I think she has one of the best voices out there. At least when she sings on stage (and dancing around) she stays on key...not like other blond country singers out there. :) Keith Urban was just the man. He was so good. I love to hear him talk. This was my first time to see him in person and he did not disappoint. He can play that guitar like no other...well, except for Brad Paisley. I believe he's a little bit better guitarist. But nonetheless, it was an amazing concert.

The highlight might though have been the drunk family sitting next to me. Notice the sarcasm in my typing. It was a couple who looked to be in their late 50's or early 60's and they had two young couples who I guessed were their two children and their significant others. They all came in with a full cup of beer each and before they had finished their glass someone would go make another beer run and fill every one's glasses back up. They had to have had at least three beers a piece before Sugarland (who sang first) were into their third song. At one point the man sitting right next to me spilt his beer all over him and part of my foot. Nice. Then he sang along with both Sugarland AND Keith Urban...badly! I didn't know that I paid to hear two concerts at the same time. They were a weird family and they got weirder the drunker they became. But in their defense, they were a nice family. They always said excuse me when they would pass by with their beer in hand. I hate alcohol! I just loathe it and will never understand why people want to drink or feel like they need it. I hate every aspect of it even if you drink in moderation. There are no excuses for drinking and no purpose. Ugh! Someone told me just this weekend that if you drink in moderation it's okay. What?! Do these people not read the Bible? Do they not read the FWB church covenant?! Ugh! Don't get me started. Also this person said that they don't say anything to people he knows that are drinking because they are a gluten and that's just as wrong. Maybe true but when you overeat you are only hurting yourself and when you drink you can kill an entire family. So don't give me that for not standing up to your principles or not standing up for what the Bible has to say. Whew! I've been holding that in for a little bit. I feel better now.

Anyway, tonight I'm going out with a friend for Mexican and then to see Julie & Julia. We have been wanting to see this for while and its the first time our schedules have cleared for us to meet up and go see it. I'm excited. I love girls night out. But after this, I'm done spending money for awhile. I'm still house hunting and as long as I keep going out to concerts and movies, I'll never be able to afford a house. I guess I need to start prioritizing.

Speaking of houses, Saturday I went to a seminar for a new loan that is out. I'm not going to mention the loan because it is so left-wing and liberal that I'll never endorse the company. But they have the best interest rates and they have this no money down and no closing costs. Then you can buy down your interest rate if you so choose. But if you choose to join up with this lender you have to sign a contract saying that you will participate in 5 acts of community service. These acts include demonstrations and civil disobedience. Uh-huh. Not for me. I am so conservative that there is no way you would see me out on a picket line. They have even gone so far as to throw furniture on bank CEO's and presidents' front lawn. They have busted down their gates before and trampled all over their yards. That's going a little far. The CEO of this lending company has been arrested more times than he can count and he calls himself an "urban terrorist". I don't think so. I am not going to support a company with these gorilla tactics so so I don't have to put money down on a house. It was insane, this seminar. I've realized there are some crazy people in this world.

Worship and NBA

2009-08-28T09:24:00.003-05:00

This is a funny video I found on YouTube. I especially love the scores they post at the bottom. Hilarious. Enjoy!

The Mystery is Solved

2009-08-27T11:08:00.003-05:00

Super T is apparently a performer. I guess he's call The Tyrone Smith Revue. You can check out his website here. He evidently played at Jenna Bush's wedding reception. Thanks to all my Facebook friends who knew what it was. I could have just googled it myself but what fun was that?! :) Kind of cool! :)

It's a bird....It's a plane...It's...

2009-08-27T09:18:00.003-05:00

Super T?!

I saw this bus on my way home from work last night and thank goodness I had my camera and I quickly snapped a picture before the light turned green. Now many things went through my mind when I pulled up beside this bus. The first thought being "The A-Team" and that's only because a friend in AZ saw a van that looked just like the A-Team's van earlier this week so naturally that is what I thought of but then I looked more closely at the emblem and it's shaped like the superman emblem.

So what is this Super T? Is it some secret government operative? Is it a mobile dog groomer? Is it the headquarters of where all dark superheroes meet and fight crime? Hmmmm. Very interesting.

But seriously...what is Super T? Even the license plate says Super T? Any of you Nashvillians seen this riding around town? Inquiring minds want to know. :)

Oh Yawn....

2009-08-26T08:31:00.003-05:00

I've come to the conclusion and even stated to a friend just this morning...I am boring. I don't know how many times I've told you all on here just how boring I am. What started my way of thinking today was this said friend and I were conversing back and forth about a blog we both read. This person is hilarious and leads a fascinating life. So I start wondering why I can't blog like that...oh wait...because I'm boring!! My friend was trying to be encouraging (well as encouraging as you can sound through an email) telling me that I'm not boring and that she loves reading my blog. For some reason, I can't quite believe her. :) So I'm here to remedy the situation. I am going to start being, or at least start writing more interesting things.

I think the problem is that I hate to make a fool of myself in front of people. I hate to think that people are thinking about me, "Man, this girl is stupid! She is such a cornball!" My mom tells me that I take myself too seriously. Perhaps I do. I probably do. I need to laugh at myself more.

By the way, I am a little bit of a cornball and a little cheesy. After all, I love The Osmonds! Aren't they known as the epitome of cheesiness? Which, for some reason, has always bothered me that people think that way of them. Why are they known as being so cheesy? Because they love each other and get along and that they have a deep faith (even if they completely miss the mark on that one) and don't drink, do drugs or even drink carbonated drinks? Whatever. It's not really a secret that I like the Osmonds. I have their music downloaded on my iPod. (Don't make fun.) But just because they are wholesome and good why is that being cheesy? But I digress....I like them. :) (and yes, Donny Osmond will be on Dancing with the Stars this season so you all know who I will be voting for.) Ha!

Anyway, I'm getting off point. I am declaring that I will no longer write the snoozefest of blogs that I've been writing and I really am going to try and blog more. I will find something interesting...so interesting that you will be like, "Man, I wish I had her life." Yeah, right. We will see. :)

Happy Wednesday!

Catching Up

2009-08-25T08:38:00.006-05:00

Is it really almost September? I can't believe how fast this summer has flown by. Yesterday's weather was absolutely stunning. It was beautiful and the temperature wasn't scorching. The morning time actually felt like it was Fall. I loved it. It has been a crazy few weeks for me lately. My family and I went on vacation the day after we put our dog down. It was an unbelievable week. We went to Orange Beach at Gulf Shores, AL. Now I'm not really a beach person but I did have a good time.

Tropical Storm Claudette barely missed us head on but we did get a lot of her cloud cover and she produced some mighty big waves for us. It made it fun to body surf. I tried but the waves were not my friends and I got tired of tasting salt water so I just reverted to working on my tan. It was so much fun watching my niece and nephew though. You could not keep my nephew out of the water. He was so fearless. I have a few pictures up on my facebook page. We decided to take family pictures on the beach but I don't have those up yet. It was just a fun relaxing time. It was nice to just get up whenever you wanted. It was great to not have to worry about the phone or time it was. I eventually just turned my phone off. I had told my work before I left not to call me while I was gone because I wouldn't be answering my phone and I didn't. I turned it on silent and didn't answer anyone's call or text. It was great! But now I've been a little swamped trying to get caught back up at work. It was worth it though.

Last night was such a fun night. Our Ladies Prayer Group decided to have a girls night out and we went to The Factory in Franklin and painted pottery at Third Coast Clay. It was so much fun and the place was playing Louis Armstrong music all night. We all had a great time. These are amazing women and I really enjoy spending time with them all. I put pictures up on my Facebook page if you are interested in seeing them. I love The Factory. It was just a cool place to hang out. I definitely am going to go and spend a day there. There were so many neat little shops and eating places.

Not much else is going on except this weekend I'm going to the Keith Urban/Sugarland concert. I'm excited about that. I get to hang out with a friend from college that I hardly ever see. We always laugh so hard when we are together so I know I'm going to have a great time.

Happy Tuesday!