Wonderful Weekend!

This weekend has absolutely flown by, and I'm oh-so-glad that it's a 3 1/2 day week this week. Long weekend in S-Town!!

One day earlier last week, I had a last-minute babysitting job with my little man! As I've said many times before, he's my little sweetheart, my baby. But this day, he saw Lindsey first and her Fruitista Freeze drink (the new slushy-things from Taco Bell) and flew to her first and absolutely wouldn't come to me. He's so in love with her, it's precious. But he'll always be my baby! :)

Friday night, I made my way after work to the Wilson household! I haven't kept Pete and Brandi's 3 sweet boys before and I was really looking forward to it! We had a great time playing Mario Kart (of course!) and baseball (Jett had 3 homeruns!) and building forts in the living room! Here are Brewer and Gage in the fort, and the that adorable Brewer just getting waked up from his nap!

After Brewer went to bed, I had a special experiment ready for the older boys. They were so excited! Who am I kidding? I was so excited! We were going to make the Glowing Mountain Dew experiment that I'm sure most of you have gotten in emails. Well, after waiting all night and building up the anticipation, it was a total let down...or rip off, according to Jett. We were all really bummed, and I was convinced that I had done something wrong. I went to youtube to show the boys what was supposed to happen, and in the "related videos" field, there were about 5 videos showing how the original was a fake and used a broken glow stick. Boo! I promised Jett that if he'd let me come play with him again, I'd bring a really cool experiment that I tested first!

Saturday, Lindsey and I spent some much needed BFF time together and got in some retail therapy! Oh, how I love my best friend... someone's got to! ;)

That night, we went with some friends to see Wall-E. It was really cute! But I'm a sucker for all Disney movies (shocker there, right?) and enjoyed it even though I fell asleep in it!

Girl On TV

I very rarely watch commercials, thanks to the wonderful little thing called DVR. But I saw this one and thought it was too cute...it helps that it has Lauren ("LC") Conrad from Laguna Beach and The Hills in it! I totally want to be friends with her! :)

So Complicated, So Frustrated

**FYI: Venting post**

I don't understand how, for the first time in my life, I really felt like I was being led in a particular direction, only to be proven I was wrong. I just don't get why I could feel so sure and then it not be so. I'm just very confused and frustrated at this point. I'm really trying to be patient and listen to see what exactly it is that I'm supposed to be doing, but now I'm second guessing myself about whether it's God leading me in that direction or if it's just me convincing myself it's God. How do I tell the difference between the two? How do you (I) hear God? I, as much as possible, feel at peace about being wrong...it's ok. Things will work out in God's timing. I get that. I really do. But I want my decisions to be the right decisions, and what God wants me to do, in everything...from personal to professional and everything in between.

Bleeding Love...

My all-time favorite summer show (and it's climbing up the charts for my favorite period...) is So You Think You Can Dance. I've said before, I'm so blown away by dancers (especially this one...HA!), probably because I can't...and I won't dance. One of my favorite styles on the show is hip hop, and even moreso, the "lyrical hip hop" as one of the judges called it. From her very first audition, I fell in love with Chelsea Hightower (and a few others), and this week, she and her partner had a hip hop routine to "Bleeding Love." Let me tell you...it gives me chills every time I watch it.

A.Maz.Ing.

The video is long...it's the entire segment on the show with the intro, dance and then judges' critiques. But please please watch the dance, even if that's all you have time for. The actual dance itself starts about 2 minutes into it, and is only 2 minutes long. Love it! Definitely tickled me pink! :)

Baby, Baby!

This weekend was very crazy and baby-filled! :) Right up my alley! Ha! Friday night, I got to see my little man for the first time in about 3 weeks! It's so weird seeing so much of him and then going for a while without seeing him. He's changed so much and is so much bigger every single time I see him! First of all, he's talking so much more plainly now. He has the most adorable little mouth when he says "Mama" and "Daddy" and he's starting to repeat random things. He sang "E I E I E I" to me in the bathtub ("Old McDonald") and when I got on to Aspen and Belle, he copied me and said "Stah!" (Stop). Of course, he'll mimic me all day long but still grins from ear to ear when I try to get him to say "Whittie." That little rat... :) Unfortunately he walked right into the kitchen door frame when he wasn't looking and had a good little goose egg pop up on his forehead and even his "pappy" (paci) wouldn't soothe him, so we looked for a movie and found "Mehmo" (Nemo) and all the tears dried up! Look at this precious boy!

I had gotten frustrated with myself earlier in the week and committed to a day of organizing on Saturday! I completely emptied my 2 desks and my entire closet. Let me tell you...I feel so much better. I tend to feel a little claustrophobic when things are cluttered and I have to straighten things up. After I was done with that, it was off to Bellevue for another babysitting gig! :) This time, it was to Nathan's house for the first time...a guy that I've become really close to at work. He and his adorable wife, Lori, have Garrett (almost 6) and Lily (just turned 4) and they are precious. They just got a Wii and haven't been sure what games would be good for their ages, so I brought Mario Kart for them to test out. It was a hit! Garrett was a pro at it once he got used to the steering wheel and Lily loved playing the Princess Peach at the mall (with the help of Lindsey on steering). :)

After 4 hours of sleep, it was back up and over to keep the nursery at church. Linds and I had our normal schedule, the 6-12 months babies, for the 9:00 service. They are so precious. I've been meaning to take pictures several times, because they grow up so fast and I get so attached to them so quickly, then it's off to the 1-year-old room with them! So here is one of our "regulars" while she was the only one there. She's such a petite little princess and always has the cutest clothes!

Then it was off to the 4-year-old room for "Recharge" for the 11:00 service. This is such a fun room to be in because there are so many different personalities and they pick up on everything so quickly. Here is the class with their "party hats" that they made.

Finally, it was home for a much-needed nap and puppy attention! But a great weekend, altogether, and already planning for the next one!

Hit the Road, Jack!

Well as many other bloggers out there are recognizing their dads for Father's Day, I get to do that and more! Daddy's birthday happens to fall around, if not on, Father's Day every year, and this year they were on the same day.

I've said, since I can remember, that when I make my millions (ha) or win the lottery, the first thing that I would buy is a Harley Davidson for my dad. Well, I can scratch it off the list, because I guess he was tired of waiting! ;) I would be too if I had waited for something for 30 years or better! So this Father's Day/birthday, he got the daddy (pardon the pun) of all gifts...his very own Harley! I was the first one on Saturday morning to get to ride it with him, and I must say, I'm in love too! (**just FYI, the matching pearl white helmets are intentional, although I really, really wanted a pink one...they were out...but the matching orange shirts were purely coincidental!**)

My dad and I are so much alike, it's not even funny. We both have the same type of drive, we're definitely into the same things (because skydiving is the next thing on our list to do!), we appreciate the same type of humor, we're both as stubborn as they come...you name it! I wouldn't rather be like anyone in the world! He is a great husband to my mom, and an amazing daddy. I'm so happy and thankful to call him mine!

Happy Father's Day and Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Oh whoaaaa, Listen to the Music...

My roll in CMA Music Fest this year was pretty minimal, but it did keep me on my toes and going nonstop!

Wednesday through Friday there were radio remotes. That's where the radio stations from around the country set up booths and the artists go from table to table to meet with them. A lot of the stations have their morning show guys come in for it and a bunch of the interviews are live...so needless to say, the day starts early. As in, meet the artists by 6:00am. I haven't seen 6:00 in the morning in I don't know how long! We stay there for several hours and it's a really fun thing, because I got to hang out with other artist reps, our artists and some of the other artists there while they were in between interviews. Just FYI, Juliann Hough is the cutest and sweetest thing ever. The rest of the day is filled with normal-day activities and extra interviews that stations are doing.

Each night I got to go to the LP Field shows. I wound up with 4 passes, so Linds and I went with Lori and one of her friends Thursday.

That was an incredible show, because Kellie Pickler, Jewel, Taylor Swift and Sugarland performed (among others) and Rascal Flatts was the surprise guest. The next night, Bree and our Murfreesboro neighbor, Stacy, went with us.

That was another great show with Lady Antebellum, Carrie Underwood, Josh Turner and Faith Hill, with the amazingly beautiful Keith Urban. That show ran super late, so we had to leave early so I could make it to the Wildhorse for a performance by one of our new acts, Blake Wise. Unfortunately, because of traffic and the show running late, I walked in literally as he started his last song. He's amazing though, and we got to hang out with him afterwards.

Saturday I got to be on the fan side of things, and went with Pete and his adorable son, Jett, and his friend, Dawson, as they met Taylor Swift. It was so adorable and is one of my favorite parts of having a job in this business. You should definitely head to Pete's blog to see the video of the day. That night, we met Robin, Krista, Amber, Tiffany and Ryan for the Lady A fan club party.

Finally, after several late, late nights and early, early mornings, Sunday rolled around. Linds and I had our normal nursery day(6-9months for the 9:00 service), but we also volunteered for the 4-year-old class for "Recharge" for the 11:00 service, so it was a crazy morning. Then we each headed downtown because 2 more of my artists were playing at Riverstages. They were great, but very hot shows, but by 4:00, my Fan Fair 2008 experience was over! Of course, we're already talking about things to do and not do for the next year, because it'll definitely be here before we know it!

No fans were hurt in the making of this blog...

As many of you may know, last week was CMA Music Fest, or Fan Fair as it will forever be known to me. It wasn't nearly as busy of a week for our office as it was for most, but it still kept me going and had me worn slab-dab out by the time Sunday rolled around (just in time to get back to work the next morning). I'll tell a little bit more about what I did specifically later, but I couldn't help but sharing this hilarious pictures.

Only at Fan Fair do you see countless fanny packs. I saw Aaron Tippon for the first time in person, and he even had one on (but apparently he always does...). I love how this girl is trying to be slick with her fanny pack skills by making it just that...a fanny pack.

Only at Fan Fair do you see cameras flashing every 5 seconds...while their owners sport the laminates for the week, and the incredibly trendy fanny pack.

Only at Fan Fair do you see every color cowboy hat known to man (and please note that the hat at one point said something...but the majority of the letters have fallen off, so there's no telling what it said originally) and airbrushed t-shirts.

Only at Fan Fair will you see this: one Hannah Montana clip-in braid extension, and rhinestone tattoos that say "Chuck Wicks" and "I [martini glass] Joe"

Only at Fan Fair will you see Abe Lincoln walking around. Too bad Taylor Swift wasn't nearby to see if who was taller!

Only at Fan Fair will you see Jessica Simpson and other artists signing autographs and posing for pictures in the convention center for hours at a time (or 8 hours straight like Taylor did!)...and plenty of fans that wait that long and would even wait longer just for 45 seconds of the artists' time.

Only at Fan Fair will you see tons of super dedicated fans, no matter their...interesting fashion sense, sitting in the scorching heat on the hottest days of the year (so far) to see their favorite acts sing for 20 minutes at River Stages. I can laugh all day long, but they are the exact reason I have a job and it wouldn't be country music (or Fan Fair) without them!!

If You are What You Eat, In My Case, I'll Be Sweet...

I love Cupcake Fridays!!! This week - Gigi's Strawberry Shortcake. SO good (and cute, too!)

Belief is a Beautiful Armor...

Help me to live like I really believe You are trustworthy. Help me to abandon my
mythology where I believe I am more trustworthy than You, and so I live like I
believe in myself instead of like I believe in You.

“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:24 (NIV)

I believe, help me trust like I believe.

“Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason – a life of knowing Him who calls us to go.”

This is what I read today, at the end of the day, just when I needed it the most. I do believe. I do. I know the plan is right there. I'm just in the hurrying stages to want to hurry and see that it's working the way I want it to. And that not happening is a scary thing. But I do have faith. And I do believe. It's just really hard to do fully sometimes.

Hair of the Dog(s)...

Last weekend Rocket and Paisley got their hair cut. After many expensive trips to the groomer's (and not looking the way I wanted it for the most part), and cute bows in Paisley's hair that lasted for about 30 minutes, I decided that I had the hair-cutting gene and bought a grooming kit. It's really not too difficult, and they're easier to manage than I had anticipated! This past time, however, Lindsey cut them and Rocket got a major summer cut. Paisley just had a little trim to get the hair out of her eyes. Aren't they just adorable (minus Rocket's scary eyes..)??

We Will Still Be...Friends Forever...

Going on through more pictures, there was a Mix cookout last weekend (yes, the one my car decided it didn't want to leave). I love the summertime when you can grill out! Linds and I just used her grill for the first time since we moved here...over a year ago. HA! Just to semi-justify, neither one of us knows what we're doing, and we had an older grill at our house in Murfreesboro, but we'd always get our other roommate's boyfriend to grill for us...and we were going to try one time, but there was a big, black spider with it's ugly red hourglass on it's back. I'm absolutely petrified of spiders, especially ones that can be lethal, and Lindsey doesn't particularly care for them, so we steered clear of the grill for a while after that (and after it was definitely "dead, dead, dead" in the words of 2-year-old Reed).

Anyway, back to the cookout. It was great because we all got to hang out outside and chat. Turns out (**ok, news flash for my parents...this will be info you aren't exactly privy to just yet**) Jessica, Rachel, Dinger, Lindsey and I all want another tattoo. We all know what we want (with the exception of Lindsey...) and were talking about it, and then we decided that we'd all get them together. Then it became a joke of what exactly we're getting....SO...

Rachel and I are are getting each half of a heart, with "BFF" on it

Lindsey is the end of an arrow, and Jessica is the tip! :)

So now you can imagine what it'll look like, all together. :)

We're supposed to all go get them in the next week or two, and no, I'm not saying (just yet) what and where I'm getting the real deal (as long as I don't chicken out). You'll just have to wait and see!

Sweet Little William

I temporarily lost my camera cord. Actually, it's still lost, but I bought a card reader so I could finally share some sweet pictures from the past few weekends with the main man of my life...little William! :)

This is something he loves to do when we're outside together. He even threw a mini-tantrum when I realized the car was locked and we had to go inside to get the keys! **I also must note that his mini-tantrums are just that: mini. And few and far between! He's an amazing kid!**

He loves his Aspen! And what a good dog, too!

William also loves bathtime! He loves splashing in the water, laying on his tummy and kicking and pouring cups of water over his belly and laughing! I like taking his bath toys and squirting the water on his neck and watch him squirm because it tickles! After bath, he'll run around with his little frog towel on his head and this night, he kept running in circles and turning his head so he could see the towel part flying behind him. He was a little chatty Cathy that night and wanted to read books before he got dressed. He's so funny because he'll be so quiet and then point to something and babble, like he's telling me what is happening in the story. That night, we read Good Night Gorilla, and he would "roar" every time we got to the lion. :)

They were in Florida this past week, and I'm pretty sad that I had to miss because of CMA Music Fest (um...Fan Fair), and maybe because I was just on vacation... ;) But I sure am ready for them to get back!

Something's Gotta Change

This song has been playing in my head every day since Sunday, and I'm so glad to finally be able to share the video. This girl is a-maz-ing. She literally is blowing my mind at how incredibly talented she is. I just played it for the guys in my office and they're raving about her, too. So if anyone can tell me what her name is, I'd so appreciate it!!

**Update** - Her name is Amanda, and you should definitely check out her myspace!

Somethings Got To Change from Matthew Singleton on Vimeo.


PS - update on car... poor little Layla is about to head to ole S-Town to get a new transmition in her. All in favor for starting the "Whitney needs to pay for her car" fund?

Got Me On My Knees, Layla

Because it's the middle of the night and I can't sleep again (Shai, I'll totally take you up on your offer if you're reading this!), and because I can't seem to think of anything else since I woke up an hour ago, I'm hoping this will take a load off my mind!

Tiny bit of background: For those of you who really know me, you know I haven't exactly had the best luck with cars. However, my little car now has been the best thing ever and I've had zero problems with it since I got it over 3 years ago. It's an older model RX300 with quite a few miles on it, but it isn't strange for a Lexus to get 200,000+ miles safely. That said, it's getting to the point to where I knew it may start having issues.

2 weeks ago, I was in the process of shipping the next Carolina Rain single, and taking 600+ packages to the post office to be shipped to radio. I got into my car, shifted into reverse....nothing. After all the guys in the office came down, listened (because it was running perfectly fine. It just wouldn't go.) & tried and whatnot, Jack finally got it going. I had him drive it for me, because frankly I was scared to death something would happen while I was driving by myself. Here's the weird thing...no more issues. I took it to have the codes checked and my CP friend Chris was going to help me out, but they said if it was running alright and no check engine light was on, then running the codes wasn't going to do anything, so I kept driving it.

Fast forward to our CP Mix cook out this past Saturday. Linds and I got in the car, cranked it... nothing. This time it wouldn't go in drive or reverse. Awesome. After thinking I was just going to have to leave it and have it towed in Monday morning, another CP guy came out and got it working. I still don't know what he did, but it was going, so I drove straight to the dealership (and it drove and shifted perfectly, FYI) in Cool Springs and left it that night, and another CP friend, Dinger, took us home.

I called this morning to explain what had happened, and they said it was the mass air flow meter, whatever the heck that is, and a battery was needed. Ok...I can handle getting a battery elsewhere. No problem. Granted, $400 is more money than I wanted to be spending on the meter-thingy, but if it was going to make me feel safe driving, then fine. So Lindsey and I both left our jobs an hour early so we could make it to the dealership to pick it up in time, I pay for it, they assure me it wasn't a transmission issue and things were fine, I even saw my car driving around the lot, and we leave.

I'm so glad I told Lindsey to wait and follow on me. (Reason #582 she's an awesome best friend).

As I was crossing Old Hickory and Edmonson (for those of you who know Nashville, that's not exactly a slow intersection at 5:45pm), my car just stopped going. It was almost like I had shifted into neutral. Thankfully, I had enough momentum to coast into a church entrance (with the quick fear of stalling as I was crossing the 2 lanes of oncoming traffic) and called the dealership back immediately. They said send it back. Um, duh. But how?! I've never had a car towed when I was conscious, so I don't exactly know how to do that. Call it a life lesson, I guess. But finally I did get someone out there, but not without dear, sweet Layla (that's her name. Get it? Layla the Lexus. Hence the title) pretending she was going to go again. I went about 20 yards before it stopped again and I coasted into the Publix parking lot. An hour later, I was watching her be towed back to the dealership, where hopefully they'll realize that the problems only got worse when they originally "fixed" it and cover all costs. Yeah, right...but Mom told me to be positive.

Sexy, Can I?

So last week was Bree's birthday...happy 2nd 21st, Bree! :) For her birthday celebration, we made plans to see the highly anticipated Sex and the City in Green Hills. However, by the time she sent the Fandango link information, the three 7:30 showtimes were sold out. Did I mention that this was on Tuesday, and we were buyting tickets for Friday?! So they decided to see the movie in Murfreesboro, and Linds and I Fandango'd our tickets for Cool Springs.

Now I must say that I didn't ever watch the show when it was on HBO. I know, I know. *GASP!* But I'm not really sure why, other than it just didn't interest me entirely back whenever it was. With that said, I love watching the TBS reruns at night to fall asleep to (nowhere near the same, I've heard).

So the verdict? It was fabulous! I was super impressed by the entire thing. They did a great job recapping in the the entire concept in the opening credits in case no one had ever seen it before, and it kept me thoroughly entertained..and that's hard to do! Especially for 2 1/2 hours! I've been to several movies on opening nights, and I've been to several that were Disney movies. Let me tell you, the theater full of small children squealing in excitement for the latest Pixar film paled in comparison to a theater full of 20-30-something (mostly) single women. They literally shrieked when the room went dark and the theme song started. There was clapping, lots of "mmhmm"s and tons of laughter. I caught myself laughing almost more at how into it everyone was. I loved it!!