let it snow!!

well, we made it to wichita on saturday morning despite the snow. justin drove from about 12:45 am to 6:30 am. I took over just after st. louis. i drove through kc and then it started to rain. the rain started to freeze, and then it started to sleet. once we got to just outside emporia, it started to sleet and snow. i got a little nervous driving after that, with all the trucks flying by and the highway getting slick. i woke justin up and made him start driving. it seemed to take forever to get to wichita from emporia. there was construction on the highway, plus all the weather. thank god at the last minute we decided to take my pathfinder instead of justin's little honda. the 4 wheel drive was so great! riley had never really seen snow, so she had a blast playing in mom and dad's back yard. once she realized what adam and dad were doing when they shoveled the drive way, she had fun "playing" with them while they worked. she kept getting in their way and adam would throw snow on top of her and she thought it was the best time ever. the wind had blown so hard that in one area of the backyard, there was hardly any snow, but a few feet away, there was a 3 foot drift! it was fun to watch riley jump in and out of the drift. she almost went in the creek once, but we called her back just in time.

visitors!

so a couple of weeks ago, kirk and marisa came to visit! it was so fun to have them here. marisa was interviewing with vandy for the pediatric residency program. we're really hoping they come here! :) they got in on thursday and i was able to take a late lunch and meet up with them after justin picked them up from the airport. they had a dinner with the vandy people, but we got to hang out a bit afterward.

friday marisa had her interview/tour all morning until 2:30 and i had to work, so kirk tagged along with justin for the day. all i know is that they ran a ton of errands-repaired amp pick up and the like. that night we went to virago for sushi. it was SO good and we had the table full. their presentation is so pretty! that night we played cranium boys vs. girls as always. the boys got lucky and won their first game against us EVER. so of course we rematched and the girls won the best 2 out of 3. then we played couples and kirk and marisa won by one card-so close!

saturday we were hoping to be outside, but it was rainy. justin had a morning rehearsal, so i picked kirk and marisa up and we got food supplies for the rest of the weekend. when justin got home we made homemade pizza. super yummy. herb, cheese and pepperoni for the girls and pineapple with choice of meat for the boys. we watched i now pronounce you chuck and larry. well, i watched part of it, got really tired and went and took a nap. then while justin napped (hey, we were up late AND early!) the rest of us went on a walk and to some antique stores, well more like a 60s and 70s thrift store that's next to all the antique stores. then we went to see some of justin's favorite players, pat buchanan and tom bucavac (however you spell that). it was good, but ridiculously loud. we had yummy chicken dinner so late, at about 10 pm! the boys tried to roll out and bake sugar cookies and they did a good job. very impressive!

on sunday justin played at cumberland church, so he was up early again! the rest of us went to late service and then the boys made chicken fingers while marisa and i watched ratatouille. that's a really cute movie. it cleared up a bit so we took riley to the dog park, but it was still pretty muddy, so we walked around centennial park instead. riley had fun chasing the squirrels. then we had to stop and get some ice cream! :) their flight left around 8:45, so we got them to the airport. we had such a great time!

some family pics

thanksgiving

our thanksgiving break started tuesday night at about 12:30 am, when we started driving. no, we're not crazy--or maybe we are. i needed to be in wichita on wednesday by 4:00 pm for a doctor's appointment. justin decided that leaving at 4 am and it taking 11 hours to get there didn't give us much leeway, so we drove through the night. (or, justin drove through the night. i started driving when the sun started to come up.) it worked pretty well and we didn't have to deal with traffic, so we may try this again for christmas.

we got in on wednesday about 11:30 am. we just sort of rested and recovered from the drive in the afternoon. i did bake my sugar cookies. that night we went over to adam and abbe's for dinner and got to see dakota and creyton. justin had never met creyton, so he was excited to see him for the first time. dakota was more concerned that riley wasn't with us, than he was excited to see us. justin got to hang out with matt wednesday night too.

thursday morning i started decorating cookies while mom finished up cooking. we ate lunch at noon with everyone. fifteen i think in all, not counting the three little guys. we had a fun time and it was fun to get together with everyone. nate loved riley, but it took dakota a little while to get used to her. he would ask her if she wanted to play hide and seek, then run into another room to "hide" and then call for her. once she figured out who dakota was, when we asked her where he was, she would go run to find him. they both loved it. according to him riley is "the best dog in the whole world."

friday adam and abbe and crew and aaron came over for potato soup lunch. they stayed around until nap time when they needed to head back home. mom and i did a little shopping friday afternoon after the crowds had somewhat died down. then around 4:30 we headed up to manhattan. we had another wonderful thanksgiving dinner with terri, jesse, josh, kylea, kit and joann. after dinner, us "kids" ran to target to look around and jesse did some shopping. we ran into sandie anderson and it was fun to catch up with her for a while. as we were talking, we mentioned that justin was going to be on a christmas special with mandisa and george huff on saturday night on the gospel music channel, but we didn't know anyone who actually got that channel so we didn't know if we would be able to see it. well, turns out her daughter, dee, has that channel! dee was able to record it and give a copy to justin. thanks dee!!

saturday we got up and drove out to overbrook to justin's aunt's house so we could see his dad's side of the family. linda cooked us a great lunch and then we had to go out and fire up the 4 wheelers. noah, justin's 9-year-old cousin, has his own now. as the boys were getting them all set, i was chasing riley around the yard. i stepped in a hole and twisted my ankle pretty good. it was nice a swollen for about a week and a half, but it's all good now. i know you were worried. :) it was good to see all the ostranders-i hadn't since last christmas! we headed back to manhattan that evening and got to see ben and kristin before dinner at old chicago-yum! i've been missing that in nashville. justin and jesse went and saw the mist. my kind of movie! oh wait...not so much. i decided to hang out with my friend, anne, instead. great choice! we spent a good 2+ hours catching up. i'm excited to see her again at christmas.

sunday we got up fairly early and headed out. we stopped in topeka to get breakfast with kit and joann (justin's grandparents-love them!). then we got on our way. three things contributed to our ridiculously long drive home. 1-the mizzou fans heading home after the game. 2-the chief's game traffic. 3-general holiday craziness. we were stopped on the highway more than once. not a fun drive! plus it was rainy most of the way. we had a great trip, if not a short one. we'll be back at christmas!!

baby jaiya

Sorry I've been a terrible blogger. I tried to start my Thanksgiving blog last night, but it wasn't working. So here's a snippet. We got to visit Ben and Kristin Duell for a bit over our break. I got to hold Jaiya and she's such a sweet heart. Thanks for making time for us guys!


We also got to play Ben and Kristin's wii. SO FUN! We tried out bowling, tennis and boxing. And sadly, I was super sore the next couple days. I asked for one for Christmas, so if we get it we'll have some wii parties. YAY!

I'll post more about our Thanksgiving a little later. Thanks for being patient.

tax evasion

so apparently we are tax evaders. we got a notice in the mail the other day saying we still owe the state of kansas $107. oops. neither of us realized that we never paid. well the check is in the mail. (no really, it is, i swear!) so we will soon be clear and no longer delinquent. it's really a great thing the tennessee has no income tax.

Suicidal Wife Tests Husband's Reflexes

This post is a response to the "Spousal Abuse" nonsense below. It's true that Anna, my mom, and I went out to lunch that fateful day. It's also true that when I took Anna back to work to drop her off, I did not pull into the little side street. I stopped at the intersection in front of her building. This is because I had precious little time to get Mom back to the airport and then hurry across town for a lunch meeting. Add to this the fact that there were cars behind me waiting for me to go when Anna got out, and you can all of a sudden understand why I hit the gas the second that my mom shut her door. Now, Anna knew all of this, and yet she still decided to step out in front of my car after I had started going. She'll tell you it was at the same time, but, I don't believe so. Furthermore, every other time I have dropped her off at this intersection, she has waited for me to pass because there has always been traffic behind me. Well, you can imagine my surprise when I made the slightest little contact with her leg. Yes, it left a mark on her scrubs because my car is very dirty and has a dirty rubber bumper, and yes it left a bruise because my delicate wife bruises from a stiff breeze. All this is to say, I'm not an abusive spouse!

anna's nano

"An anodized aluminum top and polished stainless steel back. Five eye-catching colors. A larger, brighter display with the most pixels per inch of any Apple display, ever. iPod nano stirs up visual effects from the outside in.

And it’ll wow you for hours. Play up to 5 hours of video or up to 24 hours of audio on a single charge. All that staying power and a wafer-thin, 6.5-mm profile makes iPod nano one small big attraction."

and it's all mine!!! justin surprised me with this last night. it's so fun! it's a just because present. he said it's because the transition to nashville hasn't been the easiest on me and he's been spending a lot of our extra money on his work. so, since listening music makes my day at my job go alot quicker, he wanted to get this for me! (secretly i think he wants to make up for hitting me with his car. just kidding. by the way, he thinks my version is biased, so if you want to hear his side of the story, by all means call him.) he's so sweet. anyway, just wanted to show it off. thanks justin!

i knew it!!

the library found my book. yesssssss! i knew i didn't lose it. it took them long enough. i checked it out on august 6th and it posted as returned on october 9th. ha! they tried to fine me 20 cents. i said no ma'am! i told the lady that i wasn't paying even 20 cents for a book that THEY lost and blamed on me. (in a nicer way of course.) i am vindicated!!

a day in the park

i AM a good baker, i swear

so a couple weeks ago my neighbor invited me over for dinner while justin was out of town. she sent me home with some leftovers. i figured in keeping with the whole southern hospitality thing, i should return her tupperware with some cookies or something. well, i did this recipe chain thing over email and got this great recipe for pumpkin cookies from my friend jenni. i thought those would be perfect to make especially for fall. i mixed them up and baked the first couple of batches. they were very weird. first of all, they didn't change shape whatsoever. they looked exactly the same when they came out of the oven as when they went in. and they tasted undercooked, yet somehow stale. justin said, you had to have done something wrong. i said, no! i know i followed the recipe. i can't give these to mary now!! they're awful. well i looked back at the recipe and i had forgotten something. i was so worried about adding the cloves and cinnamon and nutmeg i forgot all about the baking soda AND the baking powder. small ingredients, big difference. anyway, i tried again and they're MUCH better the second time. so, i'll share the recipe with you. just don't forget anything! :)

Pumpkin Cookies

* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder (very important)
* 1 teaspoon baking soda (also very important)
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour,
baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and
salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and
white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter
mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on
cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls sprinkle with sugar.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies. Eat up!

spousal abuse

justin hit me with his car on monday. it left a bruise. just a little one but a bruise none the less. let me fill you in. justin's mom was visiting for the weekend (i'll post about that when i get all the pictures) and so they came to eat lunch with me before she left. after lunch when dropping me off, usually justin pulls onto the little side street where he can park and i can take my time getting out. well, for some reason he didn't on monday. he stopped at the 4 way stop and told me to just hop out. i did and gave terri a quick hug before she left. by now there were a few cars waiting behind us. so, both justin and i being in a hurry, i started across the crosswalk in front of justin at the same time he started across. well he hit my leg with the corner of the car. not very hard, grandma. don't get worried. well he stopped really fast and i slammed my hand onto the hood and yelled, yes yelled, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!? it's about lunch time, so there are quite a few people out and about. a group of construction workers crossing on the other side of the crosswalk stared over at me. justin and i both looked at each other, shook our heads, and i walked on. he even left a little black mark on my scrub pants. you think i should press charges? juuuust kidding.

who writes in library books?

jerkfaces. that's who. seriously, i checked out margaret atwood's the haidmaid's tale and start on the prologue. which i find out is in past tense thanks to the reader previous to me kindly writing it above the first sentence. oh thank you SO much for telling me this is in past tense. if you hadn't written it there i would have been so confused! AND if you're reading this for a class or some sort of book discussion, fine, but put you notes somewhere other than in the margins and between the sentences. margaret atwood is an accomplished writer and the book was published without your commentary, so leave it that way. and underlining. i hate that every other sentence was underlined. and not neatly. half the time the stupid person tried to underline and ended up going right through the words. if you want to write in a book, buy it yourself. that's all i'm saying.

my crazy dog

So yesterday I decided to take Riley to the dog park while Justin was napping. If you ask her if she wants to go to the dog park, she knows exactly what you're taking about and runs right over to her leash and starts whining. As we get closer to the park she gets more and more excited. Yesterday, she got a little too excited. I had the window down so Rily could sniff the wonderful, yummy dog scented air. The street the dog park borders has a steep hill about as tall as me from the curb up until it levels off for the fenced in area. I was turning left onto the dog park street from the main street and getting ready to park along the curb. I was still going about 15-20 mph when all of a sudden Riley launches herself out the window! Because we were going so fast she nailed the side of the hill and couldn't keep on her feet so she rolled down the hill onto the street. I slammed on my brakes, threw the car into reverse, and jumped out to make sure she was okay. She's covered in grass and looking very proud of herself. I yelled at her and she knew she was in trouble so she cowered down. Well I got her back in the car and made sure she was okay, which of course she was, little idiot. Because, hey, if I launched myself into the side of a hill going 20 miles an hour, I'd walk away without a scratch too! Geez! So I put her on her leash and we get back out of the car and the lady who had pulled up to park behind me had seen the whole thing. She then proceeded to tell me that I had almost run Riley over with my back tires because of how she rolled down the hill. I could have killed that dumb dog! Well, I guess I almost did! Anyway, she gave me quite a scare, but she's fine, if not revoked of all window downage priviledges for a looooong time.

yoga and mowing

the combination of the two has made me SO SORE!! MY shoulders and upper back are killing me!! Saturday morning I went to yoga with my friend Ciara. It was a good class, but I hadn't been for a week or two and whew. I'll be sure to go regularly now! We did so much of down dog and warrior 2 (see pictures for reference) and that alone would make you shoulders sore. Then I mowed the lawn because it looks like a jungle and Justin won't be home for another couple of days. So all that together made getting up this morning not the most pleasant experience.

Justin's in Canada with Sonicflood this weekend. They're in Toronto. He will get back on Monday morning around 9:30 and then he has rehearsal and a gig in town that night. He's a busy man! Then he goes back to Canada with flood on Wednesday to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. I'm jealous of all his travels. For this weekend they're flying in and out of Buffalo, NY and he said when they landed they could see mist from Niagra Falls. We are definetly going there some day.

harry potter

well, i have been sucked into the hype. i decided to read the harry potter books. i own the first one (it was a secret santa gift-thanks anne!) and decided to get the rest at the library. due to (a) everyone else and their dog reading these books so they are never AT the library and (b) me avoiding the library (see previous post) I decided borrowing the last few from our wonderful neighbors would speed up the process. It did. I was able to finish the last 3 books in 1 week. that's 1900+ pages people and why i'm a little tired today :) They are awesome. I share anne's views on how completely wrapped up you can get in the other world j.k rowling has created. kudos to ms. rowling.

anyway....at the end of the 6th book a major plot thing happens (i will not spoil it for any who have not yet read) and I totally gapsed out loud. justin looks over at me and say, "what?" i said," i can't tell you or it'll ruin it! but oh my gosh! oh my GOSH! i need to go talk to clayton and amanda!" (clayton and amanda = book lending neighbors) so needless to say, i react audibly when i read and jusitn gets a huge kick out of it.

so amanda and i went and saw harry potter 5 in the theaters on wednesday night, yes on a wednesday with the 4 other huge nerds that were there. i liked it, but as the books are getting more complex it's harder to fit it all into a movie without out making it ridiculously long (hello king kong! they could have cut an hour out of the dumb movie). so while i will go see the others in the theaters, i'm preparing myself for a little disappointment.

all that to say, i'm a harry potter fan.

library book fiasco

So I noticed on my library account that i have an overdue book. What?! an over due book? that can't be! i always return on time...or at least only a few days late. not a month!! so, i scoured my house and both vehicles and can't find it anywhere. if anyone knows me, they know i check out stacks of books at a time and also return them in this manner so there is no way i can keep track of them individually. i'm just hoping it's a glitch in the system (or an incompetent library return worker) and they really do have it somewhere. i went to talk to the library return people and they said they'll put a search on it. it may take a few days, and if they don't find it, i'll be getting a call. i really hope they find it, because up til now i have been an excellent library patron. i really hope i didn't lose this book!

captain bubble beard

labor day

so i'm about a week behind in my posts, but at least you're still reading them! over labor day justin and i decided we wanted to go on a hike somewhere, so we got on the tennessee national park website and found out that there are tons of state and national parks in tennessee! and a bunch within a day trip driving distance. we decided on fall creek falls because it was a little under 2 hours drive and we could take riley with us. we got up fairly early and packs up our backpacks and loaded up. on the way there riley had a great time with her head out the window and her lips pushed back by the wind. she looks hilarious!
it was a great little hike. beautiful hills/mountains (i don't know how big they have to be to be considered a mountain). we were about 1200 feet up. we parked and started at cane creek falls and then hiked over to fall creek falls. at the very beginning of the hike you have to go over this suspension bridge that can only hold 6 people at a time. luckily while we went across no one else was on it. Especially for Justin as he had Riley pulling as hard as she could on the leash so she could get to me on the other side. the hike was great! not too hard seeing as how we haven't done anything like this in forever! and there were a bunch of overlooks and overall beautiful scenery. when we got to the falls, the water was kind of pathetic, seeing as how we're in a drought. which we hadn't considered before. so we decided against the hike to the base of the falls because the pool at the bottom was pretty pathetic. one of the guys there said we really need to come back when we've had rain because it's pretty spectacular. we hiked back to cane creek falls and dropped our packs off in the car. we took riley back to the cascades for a little swimming. we could have swam too if we had known it was an option, but we didn't bring our suits. there were quite a few people out enjoying the beautiful weather. the water was so clear and it was the perfect temperature. justin capped it off with a wonderful sushi dinner. yummy. we had a great day and so much fun! on monday we just relaxed and lazed around the house most of the day. we also saw transformers. i was a little skeptical, but actually really liked it. i was laughing at just because when one of the transformers came on screen for the first time, he leans over to me and says, "that's optimus prime!" he was such a little kid and so cute!

doll boys

these boys are the greatest!! i love them so much.

hour of power

Well, the hour of power with Sonicflood finally aired. If you'd like to watch it, check it out here. Justin is on quite a bit. You can see me sitting in the very back if you strain really hard. No, not really! :) But I'm there! Anyway, check it out!

racecars and blue guitars

So, Justin's new guitar came in the mail today. Well, I guess by the UPS! He's really excited about it. It's a Duesenberg and it's really cool. I like it because it's blue and it looks like a racecar. It's sound is sweet and jangly according to Justin. Whatever that means! :)

He's had some great gigs over the past few months. He got to play a few shows with Aaron Shust (the "My Savior Loves" guy), Shannon Brown (hit single "corn fed") and he's getting ready to go out with Michael Olson again. This last weekend he was very busy. On Friday night he played in Alabama with Jamie Fox and got home around 1:30 am. On Saturday morning he had to be at the airport at 9:15am to go to Ohio with Flood. They played a concert and he didn't get to bed until 2:15am and had to get up at 4:45am to get to the aiport. He got back Sunday morning at 7:30am and had to be at church to play by 8:30am. Needless to say Sunday afternoon he was napping. (I was too, I'll never miss an excuse to take a nap!) We had a lazy afternoon to catch up on sleep and he's back at it again this week! Rehearsal tomorrow and back on the road this Thursday. We're planning a little hike over Labor Day so I'll keep you posted!

what are the odds

So, I spent hours-literally hours- cleaning mine and Justin's cars inside and out yesterday because the weather girl assured me we wouldn't get rain for at least a week. What did it do last night? RAINED! I guess I should have washed the car sooner-we needed the rain.

from one to two

well, i finished this project a while ago, but i just now got pictures of the final product. some of you may have heard that we had been searching for night stands. Let me just tell you, it's reather ridiculous what they charge for a few pieces of wood stuck together. So, one night we were walking Riley and in the alley I saw a sofa table sitting out for the trash. I freaked out, telling Justin, oh my gosh! we have to take that! we can make it into nightstands! Justin, not being as excited as I was, agreed. We chopped the table in half and I sanded it all down-by hand-not a fun process! Then Justin cut the legs down, because they were too tall, and I decided it would be better to take them completely apart because we were adding legs and a supporting piece so they would stand up properly. Then I primed and painted them. So, here's pcitures our process of making one table into two awesome nightstands!

great weekend

We had a great weekend! It was the first weekend in quite a while that Justin didn't have to work. On Friday afternoon, my boss took the whole lung team out to Bosco's for drinks and appetizers. We stayed for a few hours and then Ciara (my work friend) and I decided we didn't want our evening to end yet, so we went on to Bricktops, a newer restaurant. We called our boys and they came and joined us. We had a good time just talking and letting Mike and Justin meet and get to know each other.

Saturday we slept in and just we pretty lazy in the morning. Justin worked on songs for his gig next weekend. I met Marianne at the YMCA so we could lay out by the pool. It was so relaxing except that the water in the pool was really hot and not too much of a change from being out in the air, which we needed because it was close to 100! And the water tasted salty which was really weird. Oh well. That afternoon, we went to a graduation party. Paul, an intern with Sonicflood graduated from MTSU. We went to help him say, Yay! I did it! And in only 6 years! On Friday my wonderful co-worker, Harriet, gave me here Titans tickets for Saturday night. Who can pass up a free football game? Not me! We found an awesome parking space-go Justin!-and then walked over to the stadium and up the 500 switchbacks to get all the way to the top where our seats were. Thankfully we were on the west side, so the sun wasn't in our eyes. This is not from Saturday, but it's a view from pretty much where we were sitting. By the time we got all the way up to our seats we were so thirsty and of course you can't bring in any outside drinks. So Justin being the great husband he is, went to get us something to drink. Well, they only take cash and he had none, so he had to go all the way back to the ground level to the ATM and wait in a huge line to get cash, then walk all the way back up to our seats. WHEW! It took him about 30 minutes. And then our lemonade was 5 bucks....5 BUCKS! We left at half time because the game wasn't very interesting and it was only 3-0. Plus Vince Young didn't even play. On our trek back down, we realized what a beautiful skyline Nashville has with the Cumberland River and all. Then, we went to see The Jack Silverman Ordeal play at 12th South Tap Room. He's kind of fusion jazz. Anyway, it was really good.

Sunday we got up late and just laid in bed and read our books. We headed out to the lake around 11:30. It was great! There was absolutely no one there and we let Riley just run around without her leash. She doesn't go far and she really good at coming when she's called. She loves fetching sticks we throw her in the water. The water was the perfect temperature and it was a beautiful day! We went to a different spot than we normally do, and it was really nice. After we had been there for a while, this guy in a wheelchair wheeled himself down to the edge of the water and got out of his wheelchair. He didn't have any legs. He put on goggles and starting swimming away. He was amazing! He swam out so far we almost couldn't see him anymore! Then he came back, lifted himself back up into his wheelchair and hand-wheeled himself back to his car, and there's no path or anything. Wow! Go him. When we got home, Justin worked on songs some more and I did laundry-exciting, I know. We decided to try a church called Village Chapel, because it meets at night and then if Justin has a weekend gig, he'll usually be home in time to go with me. We liked it and the pastor's pretty cool. We'll see how we like it. So, all in all it was a great weekend!

i heart my dog

isn't she so pretty?

happy birthday to me

First of all, thanks to everyone who sent cards or called me or facebooked and all around made me feel special on my birthday-love you all!

So, my mom came for the weekend and we had a fabulous time! she got here on friday night and we went to blockbuster and rented girly movies. (justin was out of town it saturday noon-ish) we watched because i said so on friday night and then stayed up talking til almost one. i also opened my presents right away. i got steel magnolias from aaron (one of the best movies EVER), some awesome framed pictures of me and dakota and creyton from adam and abbe, some cute soaps and a magnet and money! from grandma and grandpa. mom and dad got me my water shoes and helped pitch in for my new kitchen knives, which i'm super excited about!

saturday we got up early-for a saturday at least-and on our way to the farmer's market we decided to stop and tour the library. stop laughing our library rocks and we both like them. then we went to the farmer's market and loaded up on fruit and veggies. we took riley to the dog park but it was so hot we didn't stay long. we picked justin up from the airport around noon. he was really tired because they played in nebraska in the middle of nowhere and had to do alot of traveling to get to the venue. in the afternoon mom and i did some shopping. yay for her being here during the tax free weekend! we went to cumberland transit and got some tevas for her and water shoes for me, then to fabu (a cute little botique), and the steve and barry's to check out sarah jessica parker's new line. side note: can i just tell you, this is the 3rd time i've shopped her new line and i LOVE it. the clothes and cute and cheap. that's her slogan "fashion is not a luxury". ANYWAY...saturday night we were all tired out so after a wonderful dinner of lamb-burgers (that's right lamb, i got it at the farmer's market and it was really good) and squash we watched the devil wears prada.

sunday we decided not to go to church, so we got up later and just hung around. mom and i went to bed bath and beyond to pick out my knives. they are WAY more expensive than i realized, but we had a really nice and very knowledgable man helping us. mom also came with me to run some errands like walgrens etc. we went to baja burrito to get las paletas (mexican gormet popsicles) which are amazing. both got pineapple kiwi and because of a mix up mom got a lime one for free! that night we all went to stoney river legendary steaks! for dinner. and the waiter gave mom a really funny look when he realized she wanted her sweet potato as her entree at a steak place. it was wonderful and i ate way too much. then we came back home and had our cheesecake from the cheesecake factory we had picked up earlier that day.

monday i had to go to work, so mom and justin came to get the tour and meet my co-workers. mom's plane left at noon, so justin took her to the airport. i had a great weekend!