Wonderful Weekend

Last weekend was Lindsey's birthday and we had a great time celebrating all weekend long! Mom, Dad and Reed were in at the beginning of the week, and we went to Jackson's while they were still here. Soooo yummy (with chocolate chip cookie dough egg rolls especially) and it was great to see our friend Nate working!

On Lindsey's actual birthday, we went to lunch with Robin and Genevieve for some O'Charley's. They gave her some of their ooey gooey caramel pie that is just about to die for. That night, we went to Old Spaghetti Factory with a big group of friends to celebrate! It so much fun to have a gigantic table full of friends. We had a blast and Linds got to test out her new birthday present from me on some more victims than me (I really don't like being in front of a camera...)! :)

Genevieve, Robin & I matched...sorta!

The gang's all here!

Saturday, Taylor played in Chattanooga so Lindsey got tickets from work. It was a great show, and seeing her headline just makes it more evident why she's as big as she is...she really is great at what she does! And her opening band was great too!

Sunday was another nursery day with our sweet babies, and the wrap-up of the Baggage series at church. It was a great series, but one I'm still trying to process... Now I'm really looking forward to the next series, for obvious reasons left to be unsaid. ;) After church, Lindsey & I met up with her mom, dad and grandmother for one last birthday celebration at the Cheesecake Factory. I'm thinking that it's going to have to become a Sunday lunch birthday tradition from now on, since that's where I went for mine too. Linds even got the Bikini Martini like I did. Soooo good! After a long week of going nonstop and a big birthday weekend, we were both exhausted after that and went home to hang out with the puppies...the perfect way to end a perfect weekend!

I Drove Out to the County Fair...

I'm a little delayed on several posts, but these pictures are too cute not to share. Cross Point had a "county fair" picnic a few weeks ago and it was so much fun! We couldn't have asked for better weather that day, and the food was delicious and the kids were so adorable dressed up in the costumes for the parade!

Here's one of our nursery babies at his first Halloween. Tried to get the entire family, but they weren't into it. So precious though!

What a great action shot of my favorite blue Power Ranger! :)

And finally here's someone right up my alley - a little pink princess! I watch her for her dad in between the first two services most Sundays. One of the most polite 2-year-olds I've ever met!

Ice, Ice Baby...

It's no secret I'm not a fan of being cold. I don't mind the 70-ish degree afternoons that make for perfect roll-your-windows-down drives, and of course I love all the beautiful colors of fall, but I just always miss being able to go somewhere without a jacket and being able to be in the water! I'm truly a summer baby.

Our sweet dogs love being able to play outside in the summer too, and I guarantee they're gonna miss getting baths with the waterhose on the patio (Paisley's favorite). Well, maybe not so much the bath part, but they love biting at the water streaming out of the hose. Another favorite is getting to come inside from a long, hot walk and eating pupcicles. Yes, pupcicles. They're really disgusting smelling - they come in beef, cheese & bacon flavors. Yuck! But Paisley and Rocket love them...it also helps that they love plain ole ice cubes too. ;)

Rocket actually gets the concept of licking popcicles!

Paisley, not so much...she just chows down!

All done! Such a happy little girl!

Miss Jackson, oooooooo! (I am for real)...

Today is my best friend in the entire world's birthday.

I know that sounds so cliche and corny and cheesy to say, but it is the honest-to-God's truth. It sort of dumbfounds me to think that there's one person in the whole wide world that I can, and will go to for anything under the sun. I can tell her anything and trust that it stays between us. That's a big deal, you know? Trust? It's a biggie for me especially. Sometimes it's very difficult for me to trust without a shadow of a doubt. Not to go into a sob story, but I've been let down by many, many people in my life that have said they were "best friends" before, but Lindsey is different. Sure, we have our disagreements and disappointments and have even let each other down before...but I trust her.

She's there for me when I need to gripe about work stuff. She's the first to take my side when something has gone on between me and any other person, but helps me see the other person's side as well. She knows when I want to be quiet and she knows when to speak up and tell me to straighten up. She calms me down when I'm upset and makes me laugh with her goofy fish face and lame Laffy Taffy jokes. She is quick to help me the second I ask for it (which isn't often, I'm not too great at asking for help), and even when I don't. She is the most likeable person I have ever met and incredibly easy to get along with, and has the most go-with-the-flow personality of anyone. And that's a great quality to have when your best friend is a major planner and very Type A. :) We compliment each other quite well...she picks up right where I leave off and vice versa.

Lindsey has taught me a lot about friendships in the past 5 years of being best friends, and although we don't have it all right all the time, I'm glad to see that we know how to work through things together (for the most part). Most of all, I can be me with Lindsey...no holds barred. Be it happy, grumpy, sick, sad, silly, cheesy, geeky, baby, goofy...whatever. Here we are, in all our glory and perfectly "us"...a little pink Strawberry Shortcake and Rockstar.

Happy birthday to my very best friend. I love you very much...you're my person! ;)
ts=bread! HA

Five Little Pumpkins...

Last Sunday Julie and Tom were having some people from their church come to their house for a leadership meeting. Instead of keeping William cooped up in his room or stuck in the yard the entire time, I thought it would be fun to take him to the pumpkin patch! I had originally wanted to go to the one in Smyrna that Alison has talked about, but they closed too early. Instead, we headed to Gentry's which was a good deal closer. We got there right at 4:16 (fyi...they end admission into the activity area at 4:15, even though the farm doesn't close until 5:00 and a 20-month-old couldn't care less about the corn mazes...so we may or may not have had to sneak in without them noticing...) and got to have a good bit of time in William's favorite areas.

William loves animals and as I've posted before, loves making their animal noises just as much. How great that he woke up the goose that was sleeping by the door and it started honking at him! He squealed and squealed about it, and when the goose would go back to sleep, he'd say "Night night goose!" This was the very first thing he told Julie about when we got back to the house! :)

This is a new face...he does it all the time!

His next favorite thing to do was ride the tractors around and around. He's all boy!

All the pumpkins were "apples." HA! I would try to tell him it was a pump-kin and he'd say "No, apple!"

As soon as we got back to the house he ran to Julie and stomped his little feet over and over and squealed. That's his oh-my-goodness-I-am-so-excited move! After we told Julie about our fun afternoon, he ran back to his room and said "shoes? Shoes?" and picked up his red Crocs to put on. I've never in my life seen such a fashion-oriented toddler. He also loves the brown Polo he's wearing in the pictures...he cries when it's time to take it off!

Little Moments...

Today I got the opportunity to sit in on a music meeting with the group on our roster. We were meeting to listen to all the possibilities of songs to go on their next album and to pick the next radio single. The experience itself is always cool just because I know that not all labels include all the employees on that part of the decision-making process, but it was even better with the guys there. I was sitting in between two of them, and Rhean was on my left. There were two songs in particular that I saw the chill bumps on his arms. Not just because it sounded great (although it did), but because (well, at least in my mind this is the reason...so that's what I'm going to stick with!) he had written them. I at least like to think (and maybe I'm naive) that it's seeing the completion of a vision carried through. I can't begin to imagine what an amazing feeling it is to be sitting down one day and having your thoughts translated into song, and then hearing it for the first time. It's the little things like that that make me love this business, as crazy and messed up as it is. Seeing (or rather, hearing) someone's hard work in a (mostly) polished version and helping their dreams come true is the most rewarding part of it all.

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

This one has been a long time coming...sorry for the delay!

I've experienced a first I didn't ever expect. There was actually one cupcake at Gigi's I didn't like! Linds and I hadn't had our cupcake Friday in quite a while, so when we finally went the special for the day was "Flower Power." You just can't go wrong with me when it comes to a brightly colored cupcake with a flower on it (fyi...it was way prettier than my camera on my phone shows!)!

I was worried though...the orange icing could be orange flavored, and I was not ok with that...so I asked. "Oh no," I was assured. "It's regular icing colored orange!" Um. Nope. It was definitely orange flavored and not so yummy. I was terribly bummed. My dear sweet Gigi had let me down.

However, I had this cupcake the next day at sweet little Hank's birthday party! How adorable? And how cute is he?!

As you know from my last 2 posts, I was gone the following 2 Fridays, so I didn't go back to Gigi's for a while (but not because she failed me with the orange...yuck!), but I did go this week. My delicious Scarlett's Velvet more than made up for Flower Power (once again, picture doesn't do it justice from my phone!).

The Magical Mystery Tour...

Last weekend, I was covering a show for one of our regionals. This doesn't happen a whole lot, and this was the first time I actually was covering the show all by myself. I found out at noon on Thursday that I needed to leave that night for Knoxville (I had already planned on being there at some point Friday and Saturday, but the Thursday part was brand new addition), so it started off kind of in a rush, but it was smooth sailing from there.

My artist is the spokesperson for the Air National Guard, so first thing Friday morning, we took a 3 hour tour (a 3 hour tour...sorry, couldn't resist) of the Knoxville base. As we got to see all the different parts of the base, we got to go into one of the airplane hangars. The Knoxville base is a refueling base, so the plane we went on was a KC-135 and I actually got to go down into the "basement" to see how it is they actually refuel. It was all really interesting, and I learned a great deal. And those guys were so, so nice. I don't know much about any military branch at all, but apparently they give away coins to different people? I still don't understand this tradition (although I know it's bad if they don't have at least one on them at all times), but they were so sweet to give me two! They're beautiful, and I really appreciated the gesture.

Later that day we had soundcheck at the venue, and then I took her to WIVK, Knoxville's country station. Laura did an on-air interview, and then we went back to the venue for the show. This is a fundraising event for a local college and they have what's called a balloon glow. It's a 2 day event with hot air balloons and each night they have 30+ balloons that surround the pond and sync up to music with the fire (I have no idea what the technical term for what this is called) that lights up the balloon. It was really pretty, but because it was cold, rainy and a little too windy, only about 8-10 balloons participated and the music was cut short. Laura played her show and had meet & greet afterwards and my day was done! It was a really great experience and I enjoyed getting to finally cover my very first show!

This is in the cockpit of the KC-135. Right about this time, Laura & I heard her single being played on the radio for the first time, which is in honor of the Air Guard. It was a very cool feeling to hear the song that was written for them with them.

This is where they lay down on their bellies to control how to connect to the smaller planes to refuel...just by looking through that one tiny window. I got to lay there and pretend I was! :)

This is from the balloon glow that night. It was so pretty!

Girls On The Beach...

Two weekends ago I got to take an extra day off since I'd be on the road the next weekend. Best way to spend a day of you hadn't been planning on? On the beach, of course! Pretty last minute, Lindsey, Laurie and I decided to leave late late Thursday night to meet our friends Justin and Tanner. We stayed just outside Destin and had a really relaxing weekend. Perfect little getaway! :)

I love candids.

On our first day after about 2 hours of sleep. It was a cloudy day, but it wasn't the offices!

This is my bff.

Hi boys.

Yes, I'm the 24 year old that loves playing in the sand still.

The 5 of us at the Red Bar. Laurie felt right at home with the chandeliers! :)

I love these 2. Lots.

Ice cream in Seaside. Thanks, self timer.

Justin and I were shorts twins. I made him stand like that. :)

So Laurie and I woke up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning we were literally the only ones on the beach. It was too cold at 7am, so we went back to the room after 45 minutes. But how beautiful?! Pure bliss.

So after next to no sleep the night before, and an early morning, we crashed in the sand. But we made handy little sand-pillows to be comfy. :)

This picture makes me laugh. :)

The girls on the slide..that quite plainly said "Do not climb." I'm such a little rebel. Ha.

Our last night out. If you look carefully, you can see a wedding being set up to the left (one of 2 that night). Photo credit goes to Lindsey, the human tripod.

Here's the bride of above said wedding. I stalked her because her bouquet was beautiful. I'm pretty set on a beach wedding now, thanks to her.

After dinner, we went to play putt-putt! :)

I won. Don't let anyone try to tell you otherwise. Fair and square, too. :)

On the way home Sunday, we stopped at Peach Park for lunch. Laurie and Lindsey hadn't been so they tried some of the famous peach ice cream. I got my favorite - caramel cake!

Destin is the perfect little getaway. I haven't been in several years, but the beach is always nice and clean and there are plenty of things to do. I had a wonderful time with great friends, and definitely didn't want to come back home! I'm determined the next trip to the beach will include the puppies. I want to see Paisley in the sand!