Happy Halloween!!

Just wanted wish everyone a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Be safe and eat lots of candy!!

32 hours

Hey y'all!! I was up for the above mentioned amount of hours yesterday!!! It was so worth it!!! I worked on Saturday night and was off last night, so I usually miss church and take a nap then do something fun in the afternoon. Yesterday, I just felt so good after work that I thought, "hey, I can do this." I quickly got ready and walked out the door on time for church. I didn't have time to grab anything for breakfast, so I ran over to the Sonic in town before getting on the interstate. I was starting to feel a little tired by this point, but I decided to push on. When I pulled out of the Sonic drive, straight in front of my car was a sign. I don't mean a road sign or traffic sign... I mean a sign from the Man Upstairs! With a beautiful bright blue sky as its backdrop, a tree stood in the distance. Not just any tree, this tree looked like it was on fire!! The leaves were glowing with a bright orange color brought about by the change of season. It was the first time this fall that I have really looked at the changing trees. Wow!! I had to stop and take a picture! Unfortunately, the only camera I had with me was on my phone, so the quality of the photo isn't that great, but it is still beautiful! I plan on going out of Wednesday with my camera, and capturing some of fall's beauty! It definitely reinforced my desire to go on with the rest of the day I had planned!

Church was awesome! Something about the singing yesterday was extra special... I guess other people had seen beautiful, bright, special trees on their journey that morning!! I was definitely in a more "thankful to God" state of mind. After church, I went to lunch with my "second family," Ricky, Stephanie, Kyle, Cara, etc!! Once again, I was reminded of how thankful I was to get to spend some time with these wonderful people.

I had been looking forward to Sunday night, since I bought the tickets back in September!! I went to see A Fine Frenzy last night at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville! I first heard of/saw them on Easter 2008. I was in Washington DC with my sister, and she surprised me with tickets to a show. I had never heard of the group, but I instantly feel in love with the music. I always keep a check on their tour schedule and was so excited to see they were coming to Nashville. So last night, my friend Meredith and I went to the show!

A very folksy group called Among the Oak and Ash opened the show. They were very good, and the front guy playing guitar was very entertaining. Next came one of Nashville's own, Landon Pigg, who has a popular song out now called (Falling in Love) Coffee Shop. He was also in a movie out recently called Whip It with Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore, and he played one of the songs from the movie. I enjoyed his show!! Here is a very blurry picture of him...

Then, A FINE FRENZY came out!! I had a great time watching/listening to the show. Unfortunately, my camera doesn't take good indoor pictures of things that are farther away. But I am determined to post one anyway. SO here goes...

I know, I know... I either need lessons on photography or a new camera!! She is in the picture though, and she has long red hair and is dressed in black pants, white button-up, and black blazer! The music was lovely!! If you haven't heard of her, go check out her website. http://afinefrenzy.com/ I like all her songs, but her newest single, Blow Away is really awesome!

Needless to say, by the time I got home I was tired, and I laid down at close to midnight. I got to sleep about 13 hours and wanted to sleep longer, but... who can resist this face??

Until next time, be blessed!! S =)

Ketchup!! or Catch-up!!

Good morning from Pleasant View, TN!!! It certainly is a pleasant view out my bedroom window!! The sun is shining, the sky is beautifully blue, and it is cold!! I am so excited that we haven't had any rain for the past two days!! I would really like to know how many inches we have gotten total since the beginning of September. It is a cool and crisp 48 degrees, and inside the house, it isn't much warmer!!! My inside thermostat says 60 degrees, which is a good temperature for sleeping but not much else!! Luckily, the gas people are coming today to turn my heat on!!!

So today's blog is going to start way back at the first of September when my Dad and Patty came for a Labor Day weekend visit. They live out in LA, and this was Patty's first visit to the Nashville area, so we did some touristy stuff. There are pics from our trip to the Ryman Auditorium and some from our visit to my aunt and uncle's farm. We also went on something called Duck Boat Tours. No pictures from that, but I will post the website for your viewing pleasure. Ok, so let's start with the Ryman....
Here is Patty, on stage, at the Ryman for a great photo op!

Another one of Daddy and Patty in front of the stage at the Ryman Auditorium

Everyone wants to take their picture with Minnie Pearl!!

We went on the backstage tour also, and we had an older lady who was a very colorful guide on our tour. She told us lots of stories about what it was like back then!! She said she remembers standing in line for hours outside of the Ryman waiting for tickets for that nights show! I sometimes wish I could time travel back to that period of time just for a few hours and experience what life was like back then. That same day, we walked up and down Broadway where most of the legendary bars are located. We ate some BBQ on top of Rippy's, which is a bar and grill that has upstairs outdoor seating. It was so nice to be outside and have an elevated view of downtown. We wanted to pass a little time before our Duck Boat Tour, so we walked down to 2nd Avenue and went in Buck Wild which has karaoke! It was fun, but just a little loud!! We finally got to go on the Duck Boat Tour at around 5 that afternoon. The DUK boat was used in WW2 and many cities have them being used as tour vessels. It is called DUK because it goes over land and in water, although I wouldn't want to travel very far in the water, because it doesn't go fast... at all!! Here is the website, for more information. http://www.nashvilleducktours.com/

The next day we had church and then went for a visit to Uncle James and Aunt Evelyn's farm. Here are pictures from that day....

Patty being given the tour of the back 40/garden.

Patty and Leah, the milk cow

Patty on a very old tractor which belonged to Uncle James's dad.

Patty lovin' the John Deere!

We all had a great time while they were here, and I am looking forward to going out to LA for Thanksgiving to meet the rest of my "new" family.

The next off weekend I had my sister Misha down for a visit. This was another first timer, so we did some touristy stuff, but unfortunately, she took all the pictures, and I have no idea when I will ever see them. My friend, Leslie came up for a visit on my next weekend, and there are no pictures as proof!! I always forget to take or use the camera!! This brings me to my next set of pictures, which we will call The Incident...

I had a run-in with a deer, and we both won. He won because he did damage, and I won because he didn't do much damage!! I don't think it killed him, because I didn't see a corpse, but I imagine he had an awful headache. Here's more....

The next week, I went to the All For the Hall Benefit for the Country Music Hall of Fame with Cara. We got to see Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Vince Gill, Little Big Town, Dierks Bentley, Lady Antebellum, Jason Aldean, Faith Hill, and Taylor Swift all at the same concert!! It was pretty awesome for just $25!! Here is a picture of Cara and I waiting for the concert to begin...

And finally, this weekend, my Mom came for a visit! We had a blast as always, and we love to shop, so we did... a lot!! We were both worn out when we got home every evening! On Saturday night, my Sunday school class had an activity planned called Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and my Mom participated with me. A brief summary of the activity is a family signs up to either be guests or hosts, and everyone is paired up. However, the guests only have an address and so they don't know whose house they are going to, and the hosts have a number of people attending, but don't know who's coming to dinner! It is really fun. We went to Meredith's house, and I brought my camera, so here are some pics from that night...

L-R Me, Meredith, Tonya, Adam, and Rachel

Mom, Me, and Meredith

So there you go, it has been a very busy couple of months, and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. I hope everyone is keeping warm and having a great week!! Love to all, and until next time, Be BLESSED!!! S

The Good Old Days

I found out today that my cousin, Amy is expecting! Yay!! So in honor of that momentous news, I decided I would post some fun memories from my childhood, growing up with Amy and Emily. Amy and I are exactly 2 months apart to the day, so to say we were close growing up is an understatement. All three of us went through some rough stuff when we were young, and it was nice to know that we had each other! Here we go!!

• I remember all three of us outside under Meme and Grandaddy's carport playing with a Fisher Price Tape Player and Recorder. We would listen to the music on one side, which was usually kiddie songs, and on the other side, we would record our own masterpieces. One song in particular, I will never forget... "U Can't Touch This," by MC Hammer was our favorite for awhile. We would sing only the chorus of the song over and over, and Em would always interrupt and say, "Lemme say sunthin, lemme say sunthin... a nana nana a nana nana." If I remember correctly, we also put the recorder in the mailbox one time to see what kind of sounds were being made inside there. LOL!
• Another favorite pasttime of ours was riding our bikes in front of Meme and Grandaddy's house. They live on a dead-end street, so we were allowed to ride up and down the street as many times as we wanted. Emily would follow behind us on her bike, but it sure made a lot of noise. She still had training wheels on her bike, and she would go so fast that the training wheels couldn't hardly keep up!!
• I think the one thing we enjoyed most of all was playing with Barbies. Man, we had the biggest Barbie collection ever! I still haven't seen one to beat ours. We would completely destroy Meme and Grandaddy's living room while we turned it into Barbie Central!! We had a mansion, tons of car, pools, furniture, and about three big duffel bags full of Barbies and clothes. We used to run and steal some of Meme's washcloths and use them with books or magazines to make a bed and comforter for Barbie and Ken. We also were threatened within an inch of our life to clean up all of the mess, or Grandaddy would take all of our prized possessions and throw them away at the dump, no less.
• During the summer, Meme would always take us swimming. Usually, she would take us once in the morning and again in the afternoon. We only got to go twice, if we left when she told us to at our morning swim trip and took a nap after lunch. She would take her lawn chair, umbrella, and kitchen timer along with us every time. She would sit in the shade and set her kitchen timer for 30 minutes, which was how long we had in the pool. We were allowed to take one Barbie apiece to join in our pool fun. Ahhh, the memories....
• We weren't always over at Meme and Grandaddy's house, but most of my memories are there. On occasion, Aunt Anna would have us over to her house for tea parties! We really loved that. We would sit at her dining room table in those birthday party hats with the elastic bands around the bottom, and she would give us hot tea with cookies. My hot tea was mostly comprised of sugar and milk.... yummmm!

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this trip down memory lane. It made me think of two of my favorite girls!! I am off in the morning for 6 nights!!! Yippee!! Mama comes on Thursday, and I have a lot to do before she comes!! Can't wait to see her though, it has been way too long!

I hope everyone is enjoying this cooler, fall weather! The leaves are starting to turn here in Tennessee and everything is looking crisp and beautiful. Love to everyone!! Until next time, be blessed! S =)

Maggie's costume

Hey everyone,

Sorry, I know I haven't posted in awhile!! I have had the "kool-aid" house... this is what Aunt Evelyn calls the house that everyone wants to be at!! Every weekend that I have been off since Labor Day, I've had someone here visiting! So lots to tell... but I just worked 12 hours and wanted to post a few pics of Maggie's Halloween costume. She is so precious in it, and she will look even better on Thursday after a hair cut!

Here they are....

In case you can't tell, she is a banana!!

This is her "I really hate this, Mom" face!

More Maggie cuteness!

Ok, that is all for now!! Happy Fall!! Get out and enjoy this cool weather, if you aren't being drowned with rain!! Love to all!

Be blessed, S =)