Easter time!

I spent my first holiday on my on this Easter. It was pretty strange to even think about at first, but I was scheduled to sing in KidStuff, and I really wanted to attend Cross Point's Easter service. It was really a great day and weekend...now I just need to get my family to come to me next time! :)

On Good Friday, after all the storms finally passed, Linds and I headed to Murfreesboro because Will & Beth were going to be in town for the weekend. We got to spend some time with them and precious baby Maddie and watched a bunch of the storm coverage. We found out that our old roommate's parents' house is totally gone,  Lindsey's old house had a lot of damage, and another good friend of hers is completely out of his apartment. It's such a scary and devastating thing...On our way home the next day we instinctively got back on the road the way we normally do, only to be totally re-routed because of all the damage.

On a brighter note..It was great to see little Maddie and love on her! She's already changed so much! Saturday morning we dyed Easter eggs and Maddie chipped in. :) I had the Disney Princess kit (of course I did) and it came with princess bracelets...so we put them on Maddie as a crown!

Sunday, after an amazing Easter service at church, Linds and I headed home and gave the puppies their Easter baskets. We had taken them to PetSmart a few weeks before and let them "pick out" their new prizes, and while we were there of course we had to put the bunny ears on Rocket (Paisley would have none of it!)! It's so much fun to spoil them! :)

This picture cracks me up because Paisley looks so vicious as she was trying to get her new toy! 

Get Back Jo Jo...

It's the end Day 3 of the Mexico trip, 3 more to go. Halfway done! And gah, do I ever miss my best friend. Yes, I miss Lindsey...but I also miss this best friend too.

Mine and Jo's friendship almost started out as a joke. When I was working at my last job, she was on the road a bunch at the end of the year (when I started), and she would say "Oh don't you worry...I'll be here at the beginning of the year and we'll become best friends!" So I went on the road to a Jason show one weekend with a girl I worked with and barely knew...and came back with someone who truly is one of my absolute closest friends now.

After Friday's little escapade, I couldn't help but think of mine and Jo's very first adventure together. Neither one of us are fans of driving in inclement weather, but the weekend we drove to Lexington, KY, it came a freaking blizzard. No lie. Well, blizzard in comparison to anything else I've ever seen. As scary as it was to be driving in a vehicle that wasn't ours, in a place we weren't familiar with, & in that weather....it was an absolute blast. I still think back on that weekend and always laugh because it truly was one of the most fun weekends ever. It truly was the beginning of a great friendship.

Since that weekend, almost 2 years ago, JoJamie and I have just gotten closer. When I think of her, the first word that comes to mind is "loyal." Jo knows what it means to be a loyal friend more than anyone I've ever met & she expects that in return. I think that's made me become a more loyal friend because of her and I'm so appreciative of it.

Another thing I'm extremely grateful for is all of her great advice. Whether it's how to handle a work situation, what to do about silly boys or what shoes look best in a new dress...she's always there to help out any way she can. She is an amazing friend and I'm not sure what I did without her all the years before we met!

This picture is from shortly after becoming "BFFs" and our road trip!

Love you so much, Jo! Thanks for being an AWESOME best friend...and I can't wait for you to come home!!

Walkin' In A Winter Wonderland...

So this morning already started out pretty rough, but telling the story becomes a lot more humorous than it felt in the moment!

I woke up and took Lindsey to the airport for their company retreat in Mexico. Yeah, yeah...Mexico. Poor thing, having to go to the beach for a week, all expenses paid... But she's amazing and already blogging about why she likes traveling with me the best. :)

Rewind a little bit to last night. I went to see sweet Hudson and because of the weather, it took an hour and 40 minutes to get home from the hospital. I have to admit, I was so confused as to why, because there was nothing downtown, but as I got closer to Brentwood I could see how white the bare trees were even in the dark night. I took several pictures of the 2-3" of snow because I was sure it would be melted by morning, like most "blizzards" in Tennessee.

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Back to today, Linds and I made it just fine to the airport, so I was sure I'd be fine on the way home. Wrong-o! Again, it took me almost two hours to get from the airport to almost home. After sitting completely still in traffic and seeing two accidents, I thought I was home free. I had already driven on my road, right? I tried my best to make it up the hill, but I got stuck. Twice. Bless this sweet guy's heart, he had gotten his car stuck, and he was helping everyone who was having any problems. Namely me, because I was pretty much crying hysterically. After talking to Daddy, I locked up my car and was about to start walking the rest of the way home. Unfortunately, little Layla didn't really like that idea and she started running away without me in it. Yes, my car started sliding away from me after I had gotten out. I had already put my keys in my purse and had to dig them out really quickly, unlock my car, and jump in without slipping myself. Panic. Attack. Finally, after getting stuck just one more time, I made my way back down the hill and into a parking lot. Yes, it was farther away, but at least it's out of the road and away from other brilliant people trying to make it up and down the ice-covered hill. I walked on home, not thrilled to be walking, but so thankful I was safe. Did I mention all of this is in my pajamas?! No jacket, just fingerless gloves. I thought it would be a quick trip to the airport and then back to bed before work, but no... So since I was already frozen, I decided to let the puppies out to enjoy the snow (ironically enough, they hate the rain but love to play in the snow) and take a few more pictures since it truly was beautiful. Now...who's up for picking me up to take me to my car? :)

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!

Wonderful Weekend!

Another great, and very hot weekend to mark the first weekend in August!

• No tax weekend! Although Linds and I didn't take full advantage of it clothes-wise as we typically do, we still did some damage. We both got laptops and cute outfits to go out with some friends on Saturday night. In the process of finishing my summer project list, I got some new office-type stuff for my room, since everything I had was hot pink and I'm now going with red as my accent colors. I also got a new dresser that was on sale (although that wasn't tax free, of course)!
• With the purchase of my dresser and desk stuff, now I just need to get my walls painted (blah), lighting figured out, finishing my bathroom and maybe painting my armoire. Still lots to do but getting closer!
• Saturday night, JoJamie had a friend from Florida in town and she wanted to show her around, so a bunch of girls went to dinner and then out afterwards. It was...interesting :) but it was fun to hang out with different people than normal...including darling Kari! :)
  
  
  

I have the greatest best friend ever :)

• We also finished our 1/2 bath (another check off the summer project list!) and kept Mickey for the week. Updates on both later!
• Finished up the Sync series at church...and what a great way to end an amazing series! I think the last service perfectly tied it all together, and actually made the previous services mean so much more. It's stuck with me all week long so far and I've been doing a lot of thinking about it. I love when things sink in enough to make you think continually. Lindsey and I also started our new schedule for the nursery...every other month, so we'll get to see our sweet little ones a little more often!

I sure love weekends but I sure don't like when they're over! Especially when it'll be the first week without an intern...and it doesn't look like we'll be getting one for the next semester. Boo.

Office Space!

There's a new Mix blogger and she posted a picture of her cubicle at work, and it inspired me! That, and there are of course, plenty of people in my family who haven't (and probably won't) seen my office.

I really do love my office. It's in the very center of our entire office space, so I'm kinda in the midst of everything, and I can see everyone as they come and go. And I love that I have a window. At my last job, there were like, 3 windows period, so we had no clue what it was doing outside at any given moment. One day there was literally a tornado coming...sirens going off and everything, and I walked outside clueless to the monsoon that was pouring down. Anyway, the one bad part to my window is that it's the only one in the entire building that doesn't open. So when I'm freezing (which is 99% of the time), I can't open my window to let the warm air come in.

Another thing I like about my office is that I have more than enough room, so I got to bring in some "fun" things to make it mine (and I still have empty shelves and tons of stuff from the girl who used to have this space). It was already bright yellow, so that was nice and cheery for me. Then I added my pink "shrine" as some of the guys in the office call it. It's not noticible unless you come all the way into my office, so when I'm working I can look at it and it has all kinds of stuff that makes me happy. :) (**please excuse the poor cell camera quality**) Yes, there are pink boxing gloves, a princess crown, and pink Disney Pez dispensers.

Then I have another shelf of other fun things, like pictures of artists I work with now or have worked with, and my pretty, colorful notebooks. I've found it's much easier to do the boring parts of work when you have things that are fun to look at!

Finally, here's a glimpse of my desk, and yes...a pink desk calendar and a pink, sparkly blanket!

Things you've probably already figured out but confirmed in this post:
I kinda love pink. :)

Lit Up the Sky that 4th of July...

For the first time in 3 years, I got to be home for the 4th. Although I was sad to miss out on the Nashville festivities, it was so nice to be able to spend a long weekend with my family.

Laurie (who just broke down to peer pressure and started her blog!), Lindsey, Sam, the puppies and I headed west earlier than expected and I got to make it home for a yummy tenderloin dinner! Linds and I watched Superbad (which was terrible, I might add) and went to bed.

The next day, Friday, we spent the majority of the day on the water, and although it wasn't the prettiest of days, it was nice to get to relax and catch up with the "lake crew." We went in a little early and grilled out at the Bradleys' cabin, then got back in our boat to head to the on-the-water fireworks...my favorite! It got really cold and rainy for a little bit so we piled on the layers for the boat ride...add sweatshirts on top of dresses to a day of the lake-look, and this is what you get! Not cute, but funny!

The fireworks were very sporadic, due to the gigantic monsoon that came in 30 minutes before, but once they got going, they were so pretty! I love watching the fireworks on the water, because they look like they're on top of you and the light reflected on the water is beautiful!

Saturday was a much prettier lake day and we got some good sun! Reed and Linds tubed, but I was super sore from the choppy and rough ride the day before so I opted for just a fun boat ride with Daddy while Mom drove.

We left Dry Creek just in time...storms were blowing in, and once again, we got a good soaking. Here you can see the rain coming in, right where we had just left!

We grilled out again Saturday night at Uncle Phil's :) camper, then left to see the Grand Harbor fireworks. They were more streamline than the Pickwick fireworks, but they all started looking the same after a while, so we headed back to the puppies!