All Things O!!

Say what??

2011-06-13T15:24:00.010-05:00

Ok, so this will probably be old news to those of you who have had babies before, but this is a new experience for me so let me vent/share. I am ever amazed at the things people will ask you or inform you about your pregnancy. Let me give you a sample with my inner thoughts included. Most of these came from people at work.

So how much weight have you gained? (Uhhhh...how is that any of your business?)

Your boobs are gonna get HUGE!! (Thaaaaaanks, just what I want to hear.)

You're getting fat! (Yeah, it's called growing a human.)

I never see you eat, how come you never eat? (Well, considering you don't see me every waking minute, you probably don't. Would you like me to keep a running tab and email you daily?)

Asked 500 bazillion times a day: How do you feel? (FINE!!! Ugh, stop asking.)

Same guy every time I see him in the break room: Bet you're ready to have that baby huh? (Bout the same as last time I saw you...yesterday. If I see him in there, I usually walk on by now.)

So what are you having?
A boy.
Is that a good thing? (How is a healthy baby a bad thing? Seriously?)

Ok, that's all for now. I'll leave you with a preggo pic. Just and I went out for our 6!! year anniversary and I had him take a pic.

What have we been up to?

2011-05-15T08:04:00.004-05:00

Well since I haven't posted in eons, I'd thought I'd try to give you a quick update...

Obviously, I'm pregnant (YAY!!) and we found out on the 11th that we're having a BOY and we couldn't be more excited! Yes, we have a name and no, we're not sharing yet. :) Yes, I'm feeling fine and no, you can't touch my belly.

Let's back up a bit though. Over spring break my parents made their usual trip down. They are a-mazing! They got so much work done for us. Landscaping and cleaning and odd jobs and buying me clothes :). They helped get my garden ready, cleaned out our flower beds, cleaned out our pond (a huge job), ripped out bushes and monkey grass. I mean ridiculous. It was great to have them here.

I've been working around the yard as much as possible and although, I do get tired quicker than usual, I've made some progress. I planted our vegetable garden along with a few flowers here and there, ripped out a little 2 brick high divider "wall" along the driveway and with the help of Justin have been slowly trying to get our flower beds in the front in working condition.

Justin is still traveling with David Nail and working quite a bit around town. He also been working in the studio a lot! He's played on Gospel singer, Mandisa's new album (everyone go buy it!) and recorded a track that will be on the next Footloose movie. Pretty awesome!

My wonderful Grandpa Elliott passed away on Easter Sunday night and so we headed home for the memorial service. It was so nice to see family, even if it was unfortunate circumstances. He suffered from Alzheimer's so we are so thankful he's not suffering anymore.

I also decided to tackle re-doing the bathroom since the nursery is still full of guitar gear, I though it would be a good project for me to keep busy. :) Anyway, the bathroom has bead board halfway up the wall and then regular drywall the rest of the way up. Well due to many factors, I decided to cut the bead board down about 4 inches and put up new trim at the top. I also wanted to sand down all the trim around the door and the baseboards and the remaining bead board because it was all a goopy mess. Well that of course, took much longer than planned and I can say I made a HUGE mess and was covered in dust for two solid days? Yeah, I was. Well the sanding and putty-ing is finally finished and I'm ready to paint, but BIG problem...we found MOLD!!! AHHHH! So frustrating. So Justin is going to try to replace the drywall where we found it because we're 99% sure it cam from a leak in the shower head and has seeped through the sheetrock. FUN! not. Plus, that's the only bathroom with a shower, so I showered at a friends last night and we'll see how long it takes to fix this issue. And maybe, if you're lucky, and I'm feeling generous. I'll post some before and after pics when the whole thing is done. :)

Ok that's it for now, I think you're all caught up.

Friday a thief, Sunday a King

2011-04-23T06:28:00.002-05:00

We sang this song for the first time in church a few weeks ago and I love it!

Though the Earth cried out for blood

Satisfied her hunger was

Her billows calmed on raging seas

for the souls on men she craved

Sun and moon from balcony

Turned their head in disbelief

Their precious Love would taste the sting

disfigured and disdained

On Friday a thief

On Sunday a King

Laid down in grief

But awoke with keys

Of Hell on that day

The first born of the slain

The Man Jesus Christ

Laid death in his grave

So three days in darkness slept

The Morning Sun of righteousness

But rose to shame the throes of death

And over turn his rule

Now daughters and the sons of men

Would pay not their dues again

The debt of blood they owed was rent

When the day rolled a new

On Friday a thief

On Sunday a King

Laid down in grief

But awoke holding keys

To Hell on that day

The first born of the slain

The Man Jesus Christ

Laid death in his grave

He has cheated

Hell and seated

Us above the fall

In desperate places

He paid our wages

One time once and for all

When's that BABY due?

2011-03-16T13:31:00.002-06:00

OCTOBER 1ST!!!! I'm blaming my lack of blogging on this little one. :) He/she makes momma tired. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

utter failure

2011-03-03T11:52:00.002-06:00

Ok...so I've completely gotten off track with taking pictures everyday. Once I miss a few days, it's hard to get back into it. I'm obviously such a great photog.

We've been fairly busy around here taking advantage of the nice weather. I promise I'll post some pics of that soon. Like maybe even tomorrow. :)

catch up

2011-02-16T15:42:00.010-06:00

Feb 8:
I finally finished the pillow sham to go with the bed spread. Now if I could only find the motivation to finish the other one.

Feb 9:
The drive home from HELL! I left work at 4:00 and didn't get home til the time on the microwave. (It usually takes 30-40 minutes depending on how congested the highway is.) It snowed about 3 inches in an hour or so. It was really cold so it immediately stuck to the roads. Cue all of Nashville to completely lose their minds and all decide to leave work at the same time. The streets were a little slick, but nothing to freak out about. There are 13,000 people who work at Vanderbilt and I'm convinced they all left work at the same time. It literally took me an hour to go less than half a mile. I was beyond frustrated to say the least.

Feb 10:
They have snacks in the break room at work. Today I had fun playing Cheez-it scrabble with myself. Yes, I'm a huge nerd.

Feb 11:
Justin got back from a short run to California Friday. He took this picture of the sunset from up in the air. Did you know that Southwest paints their planes blue, red and yellow to mimic the sunset? Ya learn somethin new every day!

Feb 12:
I'm on a committee at work that hosts parties and plans luncheons and things. I'm in charge of our Valentine's Day party, so I started making sugar cookies today. We'll see if I have time to decorate them as complicated as I usually do. My guess is no.

Feb 13:
I think they turned out well.

Feb 14:
I was so surprised to see these waiting for me when I got back from lunch on Valentine's Day. Justin very rarely gets me flowers and never on V-Day. The card says, "bet you thought this would never happen..." Perfect! I love them-and him.

Feb 15:
I was so productive over my lunch break today. I filled up with gas. Refilled my empty windshield washer fluid and washed the car. Doesn't Pete look so shiny and clean?

Feb 16:
Today I was out running errands with one of the best co-pilots around.

quick trip

2011-02-09T22:24:00.008-06:00

feb 3
I found this bone for Riley at Walgreen's for only $2! She was so in love with it, she growled at Justin when he tried to take it away. Big mistake! She got in big trouble.

feb 4
I was in the den making birthday cards and Riley wanted me to pay attention to her and not my paper, so she crawled into my lap. Silly girl!

feb 5
Saturday our small group from church volunteered to do some painting at a local middle school. Afterward we had a chili dinner at our house. This little guy wanted to help me cook.

feb 6
Justin's great Grandma passed away on Wednesday at 91 years of age. She was ready to go and we're happy she's not in pain anymore. We drove to Topeka on Sunday and made it in time to hit up Justin's favorite restaurant there. I was pretty much totally grossed out, but the things we do for love-right?

feb 7
After the service on Monday we headed back to Nashville. We were in the car for longer than we were actually there which made for a very long trip, but it was good to see extended family that we hadn't seen for a long time! This is Grandpa Carson with all his grandkids minus one.

goofball

2011-02-02T21:18:00.006-06:00

January 30:
Sunday, we finished staining the floor. It still needs to be sealed, but for now it looks pretty cool. It's also very slippery...perfect for dancing like no one's taking pictures. :)

January 31:
Monday after my volleyball game, Justin made me a super yummy dinner. Steak, potatoes, zucchini and squash!

February 1:
Last week I bought these beautiful flowers at Trader Joe's. They STILL look awesome!

February 2:
Today is my brother's birthday. He is an amazing man. He's a great father, a hard worker, and a guy after God's heart. I took this one last year when he and Dad came out to frame the studio.

i failed

2011-01-29T16:57:00.008-06:00

Well I didn't take pictures this last Sunday or Monday...or if I did, I can't find them and don't remember what they were. Let's just say that...yeah...I just lost them.

January 25:
Tuesday I spent most of the evening sewing. Justin took this one with an app he's trying out on his iphone. Pretty cool, I think.

January 26:
Tonight we made homemade pizza. We buy dough from Trader Joe's and you have to roll it out yourself. It's pretty fun, but next time I'm gonna roll mine out a little thinner. I made traditional sausage and mushroom and Justin made "the best Mexican pizza ever".

January 27:
IT'S FINISHED!!!!!

January 28:
Justin and I are training for my 3rd and his 1st half marathon. I really want to PR (personal record), so I'm going to have to be more dedicated. I really hate running.

January 29:
Today Justin and I are going to stain the studio floor. Wish us luck!

week in review

2011-01-22T18:09:00.009-06:00

January 17:
Our house is heated by propane. We've never lived in a house heated by propane before. Last year we ran out in the middle of the winter because we didn't know that we were supposed to keep track of how full the tank was. We froze for about a week. You think we would have learned our lesson. But no. On Sunday, Justin checked the levels and we were at only 7%. He called the company Monday morning, but they couldn't come to fill it up for a week. So again, we were cold for about a week. We had our space heaters going full blast! This Monday we finally got refilled and we're warm again!

January 18:
Tuesday was my sweet Grandma's birthday. I made these felt brooches for her. She got them in the mail today and hopefully she enjoys them!

January 19:
Today was my day off and Justin and I spent the day running errands. He was nice enough to go with me to Hobby Lobby so I returned the favor and went with him to Gruhn's Guitars. This is what our table looks like right now. I'm working on our bedspread and other projects so it's a little chaotic right now.

January 20:
I feel like I keep posting snow pictures, but we really don't get much snow here and it's been so pretty. Of course, school was canceled...again! I took this one once it finally stopped that night out the back door.

January 21:
Friday night we had girls' night. These girls are my best friends here in Nashville. Most of their husbands are musicians or work in the music industry so we all "get" each other and our lifestyles. I probably wouldn't make it without these ladies.

January 22:
Justin is traveling this weekend. He left on Wednesday night. They are playing in Connecticut tonight and I'm jealous because my best friend, Meaghan and her husband are going to the show. Justin sent me this pic of the stage.

A few of my friends and i are starting a Harry Potter movie marathon today. (Yes, we're huge nerds.) This little guy is hanging out with us too. He really wanted my camera. :)

the weekend

2011-01-17T15:15:00.004-06:00

January 13:
Typical night at our house: Justin on one couch with his Kindle and me on the other with my book. Riley usually goes back and forth between us trying to get as much love as she can. Our house is freezing (story for another time), so Justin pulled out his t-shirt quilt to keep him warm. I was snuggled up with mine too.

January 14:
We went out to Mexicali to see one of my co-workers play in a little 3 piece band. They sounded great and Justin was happy to eat Mexican 2 nights in one week! Nearly unheard of for me. Yuck. Also, the 14th was my parents 34th wedding anniversary! I'm a lame daughter and forgot, but Happy Anniversary anyway!

January 15:
I actually took quite a few pictures today and it took me a while to figure out which one to use. We ran a some errands, Hobby Lobby (points to Justin!) for one and saw True Grit. Great movie! Later we went downtown to Gruhn's Guitars so Justin could look at a potential new acquisition (points to Anna!). Best pic of the day though, went to the amazing sky when we went on our walk. This pic does not do it justice!

January 16:
We got to go see our favorite comedian, Brain Regan at The Ryman. First time for both of us. It was a blast and super funny. My cheeks hurt for a while afterward.

Side note: I could not possibly do this without my trusty camera phone, so pardon some of the poor picture quality.

SNOW!!!

2011-01-13T13:00:00.005-06:00

January 10:Well this isn't a picture that I took, but I'm going to use it today anyway. While Justin was on tour this fall, they were given a bunch of nice, gold cables. They had to take pictures with them to put up on the website. Do you think he picked this one? :)

January 11:This was taken on Tuesday, it's now Thursday and school has been canceled all week in Nashville and all the surrounding areas. It's kind of ridiculous!

January 12:Wednesday my co-workers and I all went out to celebrate January birthdays. Since I'm the baker of the group, I was elected to make the cake-funfetti!

snow and lifehouse

2011-01-09T17:20:00.003-06:00

We got a bit of snow yesterday! Just a little bit, but enough to cover the deck. :) We're supposed to get 1-3 inches tonight. I guess that means schools will be closed tomorrow. (It's kind of ridiculous around here.)

Our church, Lifehouse, meets on Sunday nights in the YMCA. Tonight is our night to be on duty. Justin's playing in the worship band and I am doing coffee setup. We have a lot of young marrieds, most of whom are musicians. Sometimes we jokingly call it "Wifehouse" because all the husbands are out on the road and it's just the wives.

358

2011-01-08T08:57:00.003-06:00

So, every time I blog I always end up feeling guilty that I don't blog more or that I've skipped some important event. Especially since this is more of a "here's what we're up to" blog. I have a great computer, which I can't blame my lack of blogging on.

All that to say I'm starting over this year. I'm copying off my friend Jill and my cousin Laura. I'm going to try to take a least one picture a day for the rest of the year. (Since I started about a week late, it will be more like 358 pics instead of 365.) My pictures won't be nearly as cool as Jill's, but it will help me to look back over the year a little better, I think. I do look back on my blog posts sometimes, so this will be a good way to keep track of good ol' 2011. I'm not going to promise to blog everyday (or clog up your feeds :) ) but I will take a least one pic a day and post them as frequently as possible.

Quick side note before I post yesterday's picture: Thanksgiving and Christmas were great and we had so much fun hanging out with our families. I just don't have to energy to blog all about them. Too daunting. Ok, moving on.

January 7:
This is the design for the bedspread I'm going to make for our bed. Each number is going to be a different pattern of black and white. I stole the idea/pattern from my friend Anne. I pretty much just like stealing other peoples' ideas. I'm off to the fabric store today to hopefully find some cheap material!

my dad is awesome

2010-12-04T14:23:00.004-06:00

That's pretty much the consensus at the Ostrander house. While he was visiting he changed our furnace filter, the windshield wipers in Justin's car and hung pegboard in the garden closet section of the studio. He's the best!

My parents came to visit the weekend before Thanksgiving. Sadly, Justin was out of town for most of the time, but we still had fun. They got in Friday night and we headed over to the Nashville Night Market. (It's a new thing the farmer's market is doing about once a month. Some of the vendors come out from 6-8 on Friday night.) It was pretty cool. Sample city!! I wish we hadn't eaten dinner before we went. We could have eaten for free. We sampled some amazing apple cider, sausage, popcorn, sweets and other things. We also picked up our meat order from Weldon over at Emerald Glen Farms. They also had the best apple cider ever.

Saturday we went to Great Harvest bread. The manager gave us so many sample tastes of things, we were stuffed before we even paid for what we picked out. A stop at Whole Foods was a must as well as to Trader Joe's. That afternoon we also went to the Frist Museum so they could check out the Chihuly exhibit as well as "The Birth of Impressionism". The best part was the Children's area. :) We played with blocks, created our own stop animation, drew a mannequin from different angles and drew each other's faces through a glass wall with dry erase markers. This is my drawing of Mom. Not bad?

Both Saturday and Sunday we worked out in the studio some. Mom and Dad helped to clean out the garden closet and Dad hung the pegboard and helped me figure out the best way to hang everything on the wall. Justin and I had tried to hang the pegboard before, but our sad little circular saw wouldn't cut through the board. Turns out, no matter how powerful your battery is, the saw won't cut if every other tooth is missing. Oops. Thanks for pointing that out, Dad! :)

Justin came home Sunday early afternoon and we ate a late lunch before taking them back to the airport. After dropping them off, Justin said, "Your dad is awesome!" and I said, "He totally is."

Hotlanta

2010-11-17T21:04:00.004-06:00

Well, Atlanta wasn't hot but it was still fun! We headed out early Friday morning after dropping Riley off at her best friend, Tito's house. :) We pulled in around noon, just in time for Justin to set the stage. We were pretty much lazy all afternoon and didn't take advantage of anything Atlanta has to offer-lame us!

The theater the guys played in was a Fox Theater and was amazing!! It had a super cool balcony and the ceiling looked like the sky.

It also had sort of a middle eastern theme:

The guys played a great show! We stayed in Atlanta for the night and headed to Chattanooga Saturday morning. The drive was so pretty with all the colorful trees. The leaves are still on the trees further south. Chattanooga was the "wives show". Everyone on the gig who is married had his wife out to the show. That was really fun. Katherine (David), Haley (Kyle, bass player), Rana (Erich, drummer) and Erin (Josh, merch guy) all drove out Saturday. We also had some good friends make the drive to see Justin play. It was so fun to have everyone out.

happy fall, ya'll

2010-11-10T16:37:00.005-06:00

Ok, I know I've been majorly neglecting this blog. For the first time since moving to Nashville, we actually have internet in our house...that we paid for!! WOOHOO! So, that combined with the fact I just got a brand new MacBook Air means hopefully I'll be blogging much more often. There's a lot to catch up on. Let's see if I can hit the high points:

My little brother is married! YAY! We're all so happy to have Jessie in the family.

Justin is out playing with David Nail this fall. They're opening for Lady Antebellum on the Need You Now tour. And no...you cannot have tickets to the KC show.

I got to see my best friend, Meaghan on my trip to Connecticut. And....she's pregnant!!

This weekend I'll be with the band again (I even have a lanyard with my name on it. I'm kind of a big deal.) for a few days. The guys are playing in Atlanta and Chattanooga and most of the wives are coming to see the show. It will be lots of fun.

I'm so looking forward to the holiday season and it generally feeling like fall. Nashville's a little confused on that scene. The highs this week have been in the 70's. In November!!

2 important things

2010-08-17T15:29:00.002-05:00

#1 My brother is married!! I will do a big wedding post soon...promise.

#2 Justin was on national television!! If you live under a rock and haven't heard about this yet, you can watch him here and here.

my garden...

2010-07-27T08:06:00.005-05:00

...is amazing!! If I do say so myself. I have green beans, carrots, various herbs, strawberries, tomatoes, green bell peppers, jalapenos, cucumbers and zucchini.

Also, we are leaving tonight for Kansas. My little brother is getting married! I'm so excited. :)

bridal shower

2010-07-15T10:22:00.008-05:00

Sooo...I'm a little late in posting this especially since the wedding is only two and a half weeks away. AHHH!! So exciting! Anywho...I went home a while ago to help my mom and Abbe throw Jessie (future sis-in-law) a shower. We did a pretty bang up job, I'd say. It was really fun to see all the family come together. We've actually known Jessie and her family for a long time, like since before Aaron was even born. Basically Jessie's dad farms the land that was my great Grandpa's. It's kind of confusing unless I go into the whole story (which I won't unless you really want me to.) Enjoy the shower in pics:

My mom decorated the tables with vintage table clothes, pics of the cute couple, flower vases and CANDY! Each table was unique. Such creativity!

Wedding cookies. The squares are monograms of their initals, A, J and D.

We made these paper fans to put over the mantel out of scrapbook paper.

Sisters!

Bride to be and the Moms.

The whole crew. Don't judge the camera angle to harshly. I balanced my camera on a folding chair and managed to fit everyone in!

Breaking the Silence

2010-07-08T13:09:00.002-05:00

A lot of you also read my sister-in-law, Abbe's blog. If you don't, she posted today about what they've been going through the last 6 weeks. Please just read and pray and be aware. It has been a very very difficult time for all of us. Please pray for them and encourage them.

All Doll(ed) Up.

Girl's weekend

2010-06-21T09:00:00.007-05:00

This is really late in coming, but I celebrated Memorial weekend with my college girlfriends in St. Louis. We were missing some of our group, but still managed to have a blast!!

We stayed at a bed and breakfast in St. Charles. The outside looked harmless enough...

but the inside was a little Victorian creepy. The girls decided they needed to try on some of the decor. :)

We went to the botanical gardens.

Saw a movie and ate some FroYo. Can you guess who's is who's?

And some got their noses pierced! I really wanted to redo mine, but wasn't sure I'd be allowed at work. :(

We had a fabulous weekend of catching up and talking and playing. Everyone's already planning on coming to Nashville next year. Yay!!

sleep talking

2010-06-01T11:50:00.002-05:00

So I talk in my sleep. Not always. But usually when I fall asleep on the couch watching a movie or when Justin wakes me up after not being asleep long. It been happening more often lately. I'm coherent enough to sort of remember it. Basically what I think I'm saying is not what I'm actually saying and so I get really frustrated when Justin doesn't answer me correctly. He emailed me the other day a conversation between the two of us. Enjoy.

you: so who was in the bag?

me: ummm...what?

you: (frustrated snort) you know...who's in the bag, and who's out of it?

me: (suppressing laughter) what do you mean?

you: (still frustrated) yes you know lol. (yes, you literally said lol)

me: oh wow.

you: (silence. you fell back asleep)

we are nashville

2010-05-12T14:03:00.003-05:00

i love nashville!! i'm amazed at how this city has joined together to help each other. we are now getting some national news coverage, but it took quite a while for the media to realize what a disaster we have over here. a blogger (who usually writes about hockey, i think) wrote an amazing article that was kind of a rally cry for nashvillians. it's become our slogan as we're getting through the tough clean up. check it out.

justin and i went out and helped on saturday. it was unreal. we completely gutted a family's home. we either packed up or laid out all their belongings depending on whether they were still wet or not. a couple guys were crawling around in the very small still soaked crawl space, pulling out insulation. nasty, nasty job. when we had to leave they were starting to rip up the floors and the drywall. the homeowners were overwhelmed with the amount of help they had. the man said, "i've never had this many people in my home for a party, let alone to help me clean up after something like this!"

we're still conserving water and hoping the other water treatment plant will be up and running soon. the river finally fell below flood stage a few days ago. (flood stage is at 40 feet and the river crested at 52 feet.) today the tide "loads of hope" trucks arrived and they'll be washing, drying and folding flood victims clothing using their own trucked in water.

if any of you want to help, you can donate $10 to the nashville red cross by texting "redcross" to 90999.

major damage

2010-05-04T08:59:00.007-05:00

Well, things are pretty bleak here in Nashville. You may not have heard about this, because the national news thinks there are other things more important. Nashville got over 15 inches of rain in about 48 hours. The Cumberland River, which twists throughout Nashville has overrun it's banks. It crested last night at 51 feet. It has flooded downtown, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grand Ol Opry, the Titans stadium and many other places. The Opryland Hotel has 10 feet of water in it and all the guests had to be evacuated. The death toll in metro Nashville alone is over 10, I think. Our house is fine, but the street behind us is still flooded. There are two water treatment plants in Nashville. One has been compromised due to flood waters and has been shut down. They are sandbagging the other in hopes to save it from being flooded as well. We are all being asked to conserve water.

Ariel view of downtown:

Wide view shot of Broadway, downtown:

The Grand Ol Opry:

One of the areas hit the hardest, Bellevue:

I-24:

i need a boat

2010-05-02T10:11:00.004-05:00

As I'm typing this, my house is shaking from thunder and I can barely hear myself think due to the sound of INCREDIBLY hard rain on my roof. Most of our landscaping in ruined. I'm so worried my garden is ruined!!

Yesterday my friend Rana and I were on our way home from a baby shower in Spring Hill (45 minutes away) and everyone suddenly came to a stop on the highway. We figured it was a wreck due to the rain. Well, it wasn't. There was water covering the highway across the barrier in the middle so high, it would have been over your head if you tried to walk through. We ended up turning around and going the wrong way on the highway after sitting in the parking lot that was I65 for an hour and a half. It took us over 4 hours to finally get home. It was a nightmare. At least we weren't on the other side of town. Look up "Nasvhille I24 flood" on Youtube and you'll see a video of a mobile home floating down the highway. Eight people are dead so far. I guess it makes my worry about our yard seem a little less important.

i need your help!

2010-04-26T15:16:00.006-05:00

Ok, all you creative types out there. Now that I've finally finished my CD shelf, I need some tips on how to decorate. What should I put on top? What should go on the wall above? Should I put anything in the really skinny shelves? We can move things around on the shelves themselves some too, if we need to. Here are some pictures of the rest of the room, so you can get an idea of the style.

This is looking into the den from the living room.

This is standing on the fireplace looking back into the room.

And again, the shelf and wall above. The door to the right is the storage/laundry room.

do it yourself project

2010-04-22T21:04:00.004-05:00

i bought this shelf at the flea market a while ago and just got around to finishing the project. when i bought it, it was 8 feet long!! I thought it would fit on this wall, but as you can see, it overlaps the storage room door. when the fam was here, helping build the studio, i had dad cut it in half for me. we shaved off about a foot, and now it fits perfectly! i drybrushed it with some golden yellow paint and viola! i still need to finish loading it up with all our CDs, but here's the finished project!

Justin's weekend

2010-04-16T11:37:00.005-05:00

This weekend Justin is going to

and staying at

and playing with

at the

grandma, maggie and wynonna

2010-04-15T10:54:00.004-05:00

I love them! Aren't they the cutest??

Totally met her last night.

i don't know the difference between lizards and frogs

2010-04-05T09:42:00.006-05:00

we have a pond next to our deck in the back that we've been cleaning out. it's really really gross and it's covered in inches of poopy sludge at the bottom. (yummy mental picture, huh?) i bought a pond pump to get all the water out and we'll be using it to make a little waterfall when it's all nice and clean. anyway....in the process of cleaning it all out, we've discovered that we have one ginormous frog. it's at least as big as my fist. really grosses me out. so, when i saw a bunch of little guys swimming at the bottom of the pond, i assumed they were tadpoles and we would have little frogs jumping around every where soon. they were still in the long tail, little back legs stage. well, i'm dumb. they're actually newts! so we're saving them in a bucket and are going to dump most of them in the creek down the street. there are just too many for our little pond. so i feel really smart now!

newt on the left, tadpole on the right

here's our pond, mostly drained and still full of yucky sludge.

hard work

2010-04-01T10:50:00.008-06:00

these pics aren't taken from the exact same angles, but I think you get the idea. Justin has helped some, mainly with the things I think are too gross, like fishing dead frogs out of the pond. But most of this clearing has been my blood, sweat and tears. Ok, maybe just sweat, but still. Eventually this will be a beautiful perennial flower bed. We are keeping the pond, but cleaning it out and eventually running a pump to a little waterfall feature that I found when I cleared out a bunch of the decorative grass (which I HATE!)

BEFORE

AFTER

i'm addicted

2010-02-17T09:30:00.002-06:00

i told justin it was because i didn't have video games growing up, but I LOVE THIS GAME!! it's really fun because justin and i can play at the same time instead of going one at a time. it took us a while to figure out how to work together without accidentally killing each other. good marriage teamwork? i think so. i should video us while we're playing sometime. we go from yelling at each other to laughing our heads off. pretty comical i think.

i'm still here

2010-02-17T09:24:00.005-06:00

sorry, ya'll for the lacking of posts here. sometimes i got through stages of not wanting to blog, feeling like i have nothing to say, and wondering if anyone even reads this. i do know that my mom, grandma, meaghan and anne at least do. so cheers for you!

we went on a cruise. it was a christian music cruise...and it was still fun! haha. just kidding. not about the fun. it was. anywhoooo...i don't feel like writing a big post, so here are some pics. (if you wanna see more, check facebook.)

a christmas in pictures

2010-01-18T12:01:00.010-06:00

well here's my christmas recap...finally. since it's been so long, i decided to post in pictures. i don't have them all on this computer, so i didn't post some of the ones i wanted to, but here are the highlights:

the traditional advent was read and the candles were lit.
cousins and their kids. that's a whole lotta boys! little maggie's out numbered.
creyton wants to be like uncle justin.
aaron and jessie got engaged on christmas eve!!
family fun time
we got stuck!! luckily a nice man drove by and pulled us out.
noah's buried!

Hawaii!!

2009-12-31T10:56:00.010-06:00

Well we had an awesome time in Hawaii. We had quite a few travel woes on the way out there and on the way back, but that's a whole other post. Let's just say we got to spend an unexpected night in San Fransisco that turned out wonderful thanks to the flexibility of our friends. Justin got home from Africa on December 15th at 5:30 pm and we headed out for HI at 8:30 am on the 16th. Poor guy! At our stop in SF we got to hang out with Kevin and Nikki and Jill and meet Preston.
We had a great time of catching up. I forgot how deep and thought provoking Nikki's questions can be. :)

We finally arrived in Honolulu on Thursday at 2:00 and hit the beach. We had a great view from our hotel balcony. You sort of had to lean over to see, but it was still great. It was a very relaxing trip with not much planned which was great!! Thursday night we went to the best sushi place ever! You basically let the chef bring you whatever he decides to make. We ended up eating a 13 course meal! It was amazing. best. sushi. ever.

Friday we got up early and went on a 5 mile hike on the north shore. It was so cool and very pretty. Whitney, Bob (WB radio rep), George (WB radio rep), Laura (George's fiancee), Justin and I all made it the whole 5 miles. It was Bob's first hike and we were proud of him. The path was pretty steep at times, but worth it for the view at the end. That night, Justin played an acoustic set with Whitney for about 30 minutes. Not a bad trade off for a free vacation, I'd say! We also went to Benihanna, one of those Japanese steak houses where they make the food in front of you. Justin had never been to a place like that, so that was fun. We both had pretty much the best steaks of our lives. So yummy!

Of course, I can't go anywhere without getting hurt. Before our hike we stopped at a grocery store to get some supplies. Across the street from the store was the beach and a small tide pool with a bunch of big rocks. Justin, Whitney and I decided to go climbing out on the rocks. I was jumping out to where Justin was standing and slipped on a wet rock and went down HARD! My left hand/arm was all bloody and my leg and lower back had some pretty huge bruises. I was soaked too. Luckily between me Justin and Laura, I was able to change clothes and make the hike anyway, but still it was pretty rough. (This picture is from the end of the day when I took the bandaids off. Most of the blood had dried by then.)

Saturday we just lazed around and hung out on the beach. The fruity drinks and fresh pineapple sure did spoil us! Justin and I walked around the beach in the morning and did a little shopping. The Hilton was crazy, you pretty much would never have to leave if you didn't want to. So many shops and stores. That afternoon Justin and Whitney rented kayaks and I took a spin in Whit's. I couldn't do too much though, because my hands were still messed up and the salt water stung!

Sunday was supposed to be our last day (thanks to United, we stayed an extra night) so we just lounged around on the beach. Justin got a snorkeling mask and some flippers and said he saw some pretty cool fish. I snorkeled for a bit, but again, couldn't stay in the water long because of my hands. We got all packed up that night and headed to the airport. En route, we found out one of our flights had been canceled so the shuttle driver brought us back to the hotel. (After picking up a few more passengers and going all the way out to the airport.)

We made the most of Monday and took the public bus out to Pearl Harbor. We spent most of the morning out there touring the USS Bowfin (a submarine) and the USS Arizona memorial. The USS Missouri was dry docked for repairs for the first time since the memorial opened so it was closed. (Just our luck!) It was pretty amazing and quite sobering to tour everything and remember what happened and all the lives lost. That afternoon we headed out to the beach for our last few hours. We walked out on the rock pier to watch the last sunset and it was beautiful!!

world traveler

2009-12-10T15:24:00.006-06:00

I thought I'd give you all a taste of Justin's travels. Here are a few excerpts from some of his emails and a few pictures I stole off facebook. Enjoy!

This is next to the hotel they actually stayed in. The English Channel is just to the left.

that town (amsterdam) is awesome. i heard so many european languages there. there is an ugly side to it--the red light district. our hotel shuttle driver was telling us that it is basically behind this big church. he thought that was really funny. i told him i thought that was a really great location for a church building, actually. he didn't get it. i wish we could have seen that city in the daylight--the buildings were so awesome. so much history here!

Amsterdam Central Station

there were no arrival cards to fill out at the airport (in south africa), and the customs didn't even stop us to rifle through our bags. the airport was really nice and modern and clean. a major change for the better from the lagos (nigeria) airport.

we got in around 6:30am, and were taken to the house we are staying in...it's called the travel lodge in auckland park, which is a suburb of jo'burg. the house is AMAZING. it has 12 bedrooms or so, most of which have two twin beds (not pushed together, thankfully). the neighborhood resembles newport beach or even maui with the style of the homes and the vegetation. it's a bit confusing hearing everyone speak the queen's english here. and it doesn't feel like africa at all. my room is on the bottom floor next to the driveway, and i can look out of my window and see the old-fashioned tennis court in the front yard. further up the hill on the side of the house, there is a small pool and a neatly manicured yard enclosed in a brick walkway. the whole place is a blend of england and the tropics. the city is very modern as well. it'll be nice to be here for a few days before going to ghana.

we are at the studio in jo'burg waiting to get everything set up and plugged in. this really nice older gentleman named kevin brought in a bunch of guitar gear--some old fender amps, a marshall cab, and a few guitars--a mexican tele (pretty cool), a les paul anniversary edition (meh), and a REAL 1961 STRAT (UNBELIEVABLE)!!!! it sounds so good, plays great. worth about $30k...

the studio that we are tracking in here in jo'burg is in the national tv/radio broadcasting studios. it's a huge complex, and i guess it's the only place that broadcasts south african tv. during apartheid, it was where the oppressive white regime would spread their propaganda.

on that note, there is a bit of darkness about this place that comes from its crazy history. there are still townships, which are basically huge fenced-in slums where blacks were forced to live and given little to no rights. the crazy part is that apartheid didn't really end until 1994. can you believe that? most of the country is still not very safe for whites. you need to be aware at all times even in the major cities (which are the safest areas for sure).

all in the family

2009-11-23T09:20:00.005-06:00

i'm famous

2009-11-11T12:13:00.001-06:00

and a little silly... check it out staring at the 3:25 mark. :)

pumpkin carving etc

2009-10-26T08:25:00.004-06:00

Justin had a busy week this week/end. He left Wednesday morning and hit Phoenix, San Jose, Orange County, and Phoenix again before getting home Sunday night. Lucky for him, he got to catch up with some great old friends. Sadly, he leaves again tomorrow morning. I'm ready for all this traveling to be over.

I started my weekend off by dropping my phone in the toilet. Fabulous! (And to all you sickos wondering, there was nothing in the toilet when I dropped it.) Luckily after towel drying and blow drying it seems to be working fine. Ask me again in a couple weeks. Saturday I went to the farmer's market and got my pumpkins and also the flea market with Alison and Susie Beth. So much fun! I found almost everything I wanted! Woohoo!

coffee table: $15
old lantern: $15
2 picture frames: $5

Last night we had our pumpkin carving party. Sadly, Justin was only there for the last half. We had a great time and I'm always amazed at the designs people come up with. Check us out!

the rest of the story

2009-10-22T08:28:00.005-05:00

well you've already seen pictures of the beautiful maggie pauline. but now for the rest of the story...

we had one of the most whirlwind trips to kansas i think we've ever had. we touched down in KC around 6:30, rented a car and drove into wichita. we were hoping to see maggie that night, but 10:45 was a little late for her and adam and abbe. we got up the next day and got to play with dakota and creyton for a while. those boys are hilarious. here's creyton and me having a little too much fun with balloons! :)

we headed to the hospital in the morning with nana, gigi and grandpa. we got to stay and snuggle with maggie and catch up with adam and abbe for quite a while. the evening we all trooped over to their house for dinner after everyone was released from the hospital.

sunday we made our way to manhattan to see terri, jesse and josh and to meet the precious tucker duell. josh had to work, so we ate at chili's to experience his world famous service. the service was great, the food? not so much. (more on that later.) we got to see ben and kristin for a while and catch up with them. tucker looks just like big sis!we headed on to KC that evening to stay the night with kirk and marisa before catching an early flight monday morning. unfortunately on the way there we have to stop a few times for me to use the bathroom. i spent the whole night in kirk and marisa's bathroom. not fun. let's just say i hope to never experience liquid coming out both ends of my body at the same time ever again. yuck! when we finally got home monday, i called in sick and justin took good care of me while i bummed on the couch. it was a great trip, even if it didn't end as planned.

sweet maggie

2009-10-21T08:55:00.004-05:00

we just can't get enough of this girl!

i can't wait

2009-10-16T08:52:00.002-05:00

justin and i are going home together this weekend. it's the first time since moving to nashville that we'll be in kansas at the same time and it's not christmas! (well, there were a couple other times, but he was working so it doesn't count.) we are going home because my niece will be born today!! as of right now (8:54 am) abbe has had her epidural and we'll get to meet little doll baby soon! this calls for lots of exclamation points!!!!!

also, we will get to meet little tucker duell and miles thiessen. babies everywhere! stay tuned for more pictures and info...

there's no place like home

2009-09-24T12:13:00.004-05:00

I went home a couple weekends ago courtesy of my lovely mom. Justin was 10,000 miles away and Abbe was having a baby shower, so I decided to surprise her and make the trip. Fun times were had by all. But first....

Note to self: always check to be sure your flight is on time. My flight out of nashville was delayed 4 HOURS!! UGH. Plus, since I had a friend drop me off, I didn't have a ride back home. So instead of chillin with Riley for a few extra hours I tried to make myself comfortable in the freezing airport. We finally landed in KC at 12:25...AM! My poor parents had driven up to get me so we started the trek home. I think we pulled into the driveway at 3:45 am. Not so much fun.

Saturday morning, I surprised Abbe and took her to get pedicures for her birthday, which was also that week. It was fabulous!! Massaging chair, ice water and a small Asian woman massaging your feet and legs. Doesn't get much better. After our pedis we went and grabbed lunch and stopped off at Hobby Lobby. Fun afternoon. I was pretty much pooped after that. I headed back to Mom and Dad's to hang out with Aaron and Jessie. That evening we had a big ol family dinner and just hung out and talked. The little boys are so much fun and we had a blast.

Sunday we went to church and then Mom, Dad, Aaron and Jessie and I went to Picadilly for lunch. So yummy!! Abbe's baby shower was that afternoon and the girls all went to that. Best baby shower ever. No dumb games, just yummy treats, cute gifts and a prayer time. Abbe's so excited for a girl and I think the boys might be a little overwhelmed by all the pink. :) Sunday night, Mom and Dad drove me back up to KC. I stayed the night with Kirk and Marisa in their awesome new house and Marisa took me to the airport first thing Monday morning. I was super tired at work Monday and came home and crashed. Poor Riley, I wasn't much fun. Anyway, fabulous trip home!

justin in jakarta

2009-09-22T08:23:00.005-05:00

well, for those of you who aren't in the loop, justin has been in indonesia for the last 10 days. he finally comes home tonight! i'm so excited!!

he's playing with don moen, who's pretty much wrote every worship song ever. they left on the 11th and flew from nashville to la, la to hong kong and hong kong to jakarta. they played multiple concerts and each musician also hosted clinics to teach the students who signed up how to play their various instruments. it took him a while to adjust to the time change. jakarta is exactly 12 hours difference from nashville. they also traveled to batam, which is on another island in indonesia and took a day trip over to singapore. this trip has been difficult because for us to be able to talk, justin has to have an internet connection and those have been spotty at best. needless to say, i'm so pumped he will be home tonight.

here's a view of jakarta from justin's hotel room

this is surabaya, another city they visited from another hotel room vantage point

randomness

2009-09-09T20:04:00.003-05:00

Well...I just have a bunch of random thoughts.

1-- I bashed my shin really really hard tonight on one of the dumb stools in the dining room. In my defense, it was dark! I'll take a picture of what I'm sure is going to be a heinous bruise.

2-- Justin leaves on Friday for almost 2 weeks to Indonesia. Sad for me. :(

3-- Dale finally has a new home. I dropped him off with his new family on Saturday night. YAY!

4-- We had a Labor Day BBQ and I made home made ice cream and it was awesome.

5-- I realized I forgot to blog about my amazing trip to New Hampshire to visit my best friend, so check out Meaghan's blog. She posted here and here.

6-- I got poison ivy...AGAIN!

7-- Today at work we had a one minute party today at 9:09 on 9/9/09. Fun!

That's all. I hope you enjoyed this session of random thoughts.

don't mess with justin, he's smarter than you

2009-09-04T13:11:00.002-05:00

so justin is trying to sell an amp on craig's list. here's the exchange between him and a potential buyer. no part of the email has been changed:

I live in southern Illinois. If I paypal you, could you securely
ship it to me? If not, could you meet me half way??
Would be Paducah since I live in Mt Vernon, IL. Say either add the
price of shipping or $50 bucks for meeting me to the final price.
Let me know if you're interested. Been looking for Princeton Reverb
for awhile now..
thanks
-Ryan

Ryan--

I'm sorry man, but I don't have any time to drive four hours to meet
you, and I bought it new in town, so I don't have a box to ship it
in. I can really only sell it locally.

Thanks,
Justin

It's actually two hours, 139 miles, but I understand.. Also, you
really must not be that sharp if you aren't aware that USPS has
boxes.. How did you figure out how to plug the guitar in???? Did
someone show you? haha
Good luck selling, buddy. You made my day.
-ryan

Let's do a little simple math: 2 hours to Paducah + two hours back to
Nashville = FOUR HOURS worth of driving.

I don't have the original manufacturer's box (because I bought it new
locally), and I don't have the time to go find both a box and packing
materials, pack the amp up properly, and ship it out. Hence the
phrase, "LOCAL SALE ONLY" in my ad on Craigslist.

And which one of us isn't that sharp?

check mate, ryan!!

hard headed

2009-09-04T10:14:00.002-05:00

So, the other night I was working out in the back yard. Our garage is about 5 feet away from the side fence and there's a little pond back there and some overgrown bushes that desperately needed to be pulled out. I was minding my own business, bending over weeding, when...WHAM!! Riley plowed right into me at full speed, closely followed by Dale. I think they were playing keep away and she wasn't paying attention to where she was going til it was too late. She got me right in the temple and knocked me completely over. dumb dog. It hurt to open my mouth wide for 2 days!

tom's shoes

2009-08-26T09:45:00.004-05:00

for my birthday, justin got me two pairs of tom's shoes. they are awesome. if you don't know about the "tom's movement" it's awesome. for every pair of shoes you buy, they give an identical pair to a child in need. it's a pretty cool deal and you get cool shoes too. cute shoes and helping the world? it's win win! check them out.

p.s. i swear i will blog about my parent's visit and give you all before and after house pics. really i will!

bulls and blood, dust and mud

2009-08-25T14:36:00.003-05:00

Well we didn't see any blood, but plenty of the others. Justin and I went to the PBR (professional bull rider's) rodeo the other weekend. It was AWESOME! I love rodeos. Justin had never been so it was an experience for him for sure. We had so much fun and it was cool to recognize some of the riders' names. It's televised live and I had Aaron watch to see if he could see us, but since we didn't pay $100 for our seats, they didn't feel the need to show us on camera. Oh well. :) Here's a little taste of the awesomeness. Sorry I don't have the very beginning, they started before I was ready.

the dale saga

2009-08-14T13:20:00.003-05:00

well, last wednesday, the 5th, my birthday (another post) justin's bleeding heart caused him to take in a stray dog. i almost hit this dog on my way to work that morning and when he showed up on our porch, justin fed him and then he wouldn't leave. this mangy basset hound was probably the grossest dog i'd seen in a while. poor guy had the worst case of fleas i've ever seen and his ribs were showing and his eye was all gunky-lovely. anyway, even though we were throwing the first party in our new house that night, justin decided we needed to care for this guy so we could find him a good home. justin called all around and found out he did have owners and was neutered and up to date on shots. we were not about to give him back to people who would mistreat him so badly. so, we gave him 2 flea baths, a capstar pill (to kill fleas) and some frontline (to repel them in the future) and took him to get his stitches out from being neutered. (he was 2 weeks overdue to have them out.) he cleaned up pretty good and we were hoping he would capture one of our unsuspecting friends' hearts and they would take him home. no one bit.

well, justin sent out an email hoping to find him a home. (oh, by the way, justin decided to call him dale. i wanted belvidere, but dale won out.) we had a few people answer that they wanted him and before we could work out the details, justin left to go out of town. friday, dear dale decided he had enough of paradise (clean fur, no itching, food, water and a warm, dry place to sleep) and busted out. he somehow pushed open the porch gate and moved a cinder block in front of a hole in the fence and escaped. oh well, i thought, it's not like he's our dog and hopefully someone else will find him and love him.

fast forward to this last wednesday, the 12th. justin was still out of town and he texted me that i needed to call bob spencer because this man had dale. what?! so i did. bob had dale and was hoping we could take him back and find him a home. i drove a few streets over to where bob lives and picked dale up. apparently, bob uses the same vet we had taken dale to and when he stopped in to see if they had heard anything about a lost dog, they gave him our number. so random. so now he's back and we're looking for a good home for a very floppy basset. any takers?

justin's awesome weekend

2009-07-28T12:39:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to convince Justin to blog about his weekend. Maybe if enough of you bug him about it he will. Here's a teaser...

week with the fam

2009-07-23T08:23:00.004-05:00

Terri, Jesse and Josh came to visit last week. It was so good to see them and I'm so glad they got to see our new house (even though we're not completely moved in yet). They got here on Tuesday night after a long drive and a minor detour because of a major accident. We were glad to see them safe and sound. We all decided we needed some sushi, so we headed down to our local sushi bar, Wantanabe. Wonderful! So yummy.

Wednesday while I headed to work, everyone else headed to the aquarium in Chattanooga. They had a lot of fun. Sorry I don't have any pictures. They got home kind of late and when they got back I had kebabs waiting. We got into the habit of eating pretty late, but it was good times.

Thursday, Justin needed to do some recording so Terri and the boys headed over to Opry Mills to check out the gigantor mall (while I was at work). They only got about half way around when Justin met them for lunch. That night Justin played a writer's round at The French Quarter. They really enjoyed seeing Justin play. And I'm not a fan of writer's rounds, but it was pretty good. Josh cooked us all some fabulous fettuccine alfredo when we got home.

Friday they went to Centennial Park to walk around and see the Parthenon (while I was at work-see the trend?). Then they headed back to the mall and I met them after work and we went to see Harry Potter. Side note: I've heard a few people say it was boring and I see where they're coming from. I fell like they left some things out that would have made it more interesting and I wish end would have followed the book. Anyway, when we got home Terri made dinner-spaghetti in keeping with the pasta theme. We went to bed fairly early to be ready for our hiking trip.

Saturday we left for Fall Creek Falls. We had a blast! It was a beautiful day for hiking. We hiked from the Cascades to the Falls and back. The 3 boys went out to all the lookouts while Terri and I took our time on the regular trail. At one lookout you can go all the way out to this cliff with about a 300 foot drop. We were able to see them from the falls lookout across the gorge and it made me very nervous!! They're the white specks in the middle of the picture. After the hike, we went back to the car to grab some food and We headed down the cable trail for some swimming. Terri stayed in the car for some R&R. The water was pretty cold, but it was still so fun. We were pretty tired out that evening, so instead of cooking we went out for Thai food and hit the sack.

They headed home Sunday morning and made a stop at H&M in St. Louis on the way home. (I know Justin was jealous!) I was so good to have family come and stay.

THOkomo

2009-07-16T10:28:00.003-05:00

We had a crazy party at work last week. Each team in the clinical trials department planned their own party and we were all judged. Whoever was judged to have the best party got a paid half day off. Well, of course, we won!! We're the best team and all the other teams are jealous of us. :) We're the thoracic team, otherwise known as the THO team. Since our theme was Caribbean, we named our party Thokomo. We're so clever! We went all out. We had one section of cubicles as the ocean. I hung 3 different shades of blue streamers up and we had a fan blowing on them as the ocean breeze. We also had a sound machine set up so people could hear the ocean waves. We had champagne with raspberries, mojitos, strawberry daiquiris and pina coladas. (All non-alcoholic of course-it was a work function!) For snacks, I made palm tree sugar cookies, we also had shrimp cocktails, bruschetta with basil butter (say that 5 times fast) and cucumbers with crab dip. So yummy! We pretty much blew everyone out of the water. This is our team. From top to bottom, left to right: Stephanie, Marisa, Brady, Gabe, Wendy, Amy, Harriet, me and Kurt.

the new house

2009-07-07T15:16:00.008-05:00

I thought I'd do a quick picture post for those of you not on facebook. If you are on facebook just disregard because you've seen these already. I hope to have before and after kitchen pictures by the end of the week!

(quick side note: this room WILL be painted or white washed or something. paneling must go!)

locked out

2009-07-06T15:21:00.003-05:00

i survived my first (and second and third) night in the house alone. i was going to have rana stay with me, but i was so tired, i just wanted to stretch out in the bed alone. in hindsight, it might have been a good idea. riley woke me up on saturday morning needing to go out. i went out on the back deck and sat in one of our deck chairs to enjoy the early morning. when i went to go back inside i realized i had shut the door all the way behind me (which you can't do because the previous owner's child lock had screwed up the door and if you pull it all the way shuts, it locks). well, crap! now i'm screwed. i'm locked out. i have no phone, no shoes, and no upper body undergarments (if you know what i mean) and justin is out of town. luckily, the next door neighbors were having a garage sale so they were up and around. i walked over there in my pajamas (t-shirt and green and white polka dot shorts) with my arms crossed. "hi! i'm your new neighbor and i just locked myself out. can i borrow your phone?" so embarrassing!! i called justin (pretty much the only number i know by heart) and woke him up.

A: i locked myself out.
J: are you kidding me?
A: ummm...no. i need you to call erich.
J: what's erich going to do?
A: i dont' know-help me! at least he's in town.

well, after multiple calls back and forth, a horrifyingly long time waiting at the neighbors and $60 later, a locksmith let me back in. later that morning erich did come over and fix the locking mechanism so it can't happen again. lesson learned, right? wrong!

a few days later, justin changed our front door locks. all 4 doors to our house have different keys, so we're in the process of getting them all changed to the same one with new pretty door handles. anyway, i came home and my key would NOT turn the lock. justin was at a rehearsal and i was trying to hurry and get ready for a birthday party. the key that had the same name as the lock would absolutely not work. i called justin and he said to try all my other keys. now why would a key with a different brand name work in our new lock? pure irony. the key with the same brand name on it is actually the key to my parents house and the other key worked in the lock. saved!...or not. i rushed around to get ready and go pick up justin. as i locked the handle, closed the door and looked in my purse for my keys, i realized they were in the house. luckily i was fully clothed and had my cell phone on me. i called justin and he was able to come pick me up. we were a little late to the party and hopefully this time i really did learn my lesson!

craziness

2009-06-30T09:40:00.003-05:00

sorry i haven't blogged in SO long! i was planning on blogging a long time ago about our anniversary trip to memphis, but justin deleted the pictures off the camera after he loaded them onto his computer, so i couldn't load them at work. and then i wanted to post about justin playing at CMA fest with Whitney and Sara in the same afternoon and how he had to literally run from one stage to the other in 90 degree heat to make it to both shows, but i forgot the camera. i don't like to post without pictures. now, thanks to our awesome iphones, we can use them to power our internet at home.

ANYWAY...big news...WE'RE HOMEOWNERS!! that's right, we bought a house. we moved in last weekend. our wonderful friends helped us move all of our stuff in under 2 hours! quickest move EVER. pictures to come.

4 years and counting

2009-06-04T12:57:00.006-05:00

a day late, but it still counts...

justin and my 4 year anniversary was yesterday. i was just planning on eating at home, but justin surprised me by saving up some of his per diem so we could go out to dinner and a movie. we tried out a new sushi place in the village called zumi. we weren't terribly impressed. it was good, just not great for the price. the restaurant had a cool vibe and the staff was super helpful, but i just don't think we'll be going back. we went and saw "night at the museum II". it was ok. again, not great, but ok. amy adams as amelia earhart was completely getting on my nerves. we did have a fun night even though the dinner and movie were just ok. i'll leave you with some fun pics...

go big or go home

2009-06-01T10:48:00.005-05:00

he did it!!so, justin got his tattoo started. the story behind it: he wanted to get all the flowers from my wedding bouquet. so the only one done now is the stargazer lily in the center and by far the largest flower in the tattoo and in my bouquet. those are also traditional japanese waves done in the old style of drawing (i guess). he'll need to do a few more sittings before it is finished. he'll get the inside of his arm done (double ouch!) with an orchid and some calla lilies coming up from his elbow to his upper inner arm. he's also getting color done at the end. so it's going to look pretty cool when it's all said and done. but what do you think? :)

flying sauced

2009-05-21T14:34:00.005-05:00

justin's birthday was yesterday. he's 29 now. gettin old! ;) i threw a big party for him at the flying saucer. it's a really cool microbrew in downtown nashville. justin was joking that he didn't want to be "flying sauced" by the end of the night. he wasn't, but everything was a bit funnier to him i think. haha!! we had a great time. i think a least 40 people showed up. i'm really bad with estimating usually, but 30 people rsvp'ed and there were more than that, so i think 40's a pretty good guess. i made him a funfetti cake. he's like aaron with his cake tastes-boring. so i tried to spice up the white cake/white frosting combo by going with funfetti! i put strawberries in the middle and over the top. all the strawberries on top kept slipping off-really really frustrating! justin finally suggested to stick toothpicks in them-he's so smart! it worked and we were good to go. we were at the saucer from about 7-11 and hung out, talked, played pool and darts and generally had a good ol time. justin had bus call at midnight that same night so we were hightailing it outta there to make it in time. luckily, they were meeting just down the street from our house, so justin was only a few minutes late. thanks to everyone who came out to help justin celebrate!!

our house?

2009-05-18T09:29:00.003-05:00

well... we were going to wait to post this until everything was completely final, but i can't wait. we have a house!!!!! (probably) the contract is set (we accepted their counter offer), but we're still waiting on some inspection details. as of right now, our close date is june 30. we're SO excited. everything happened so fast! we looked at the house (one of three) on the 5th and decided we really liked it. justin wanted to make an offer right away, but i was unsure. we had only looked at 3 houses-were we really sure we wanted this one? my fears were calmed, though, and we made an offer. we found out ours was the third offer and the house had only been on the market for 5 days! must be a pretty good house-huh? :) to add another element of stress, justin was in canada and unreachable by phone for this whole process. it was a lot of emailing, IM-ing and faxing forms to be signed. we got it all worked out and it was inspected on the 12th. we're waiting to hear back from them (hopefully today) about some of the repairs we've asked them to handle.

here's a link if you want to check it out and see some more pics. i'm also taking suggestions as to what color to paint that hideous paneling in the den. (sorry if you like paneling.)

weekend home

2009-05-11T13:32:00.005-05:00

i went home this weekend. it was a great trip. we were celebrating dakota’s birthday and mother’s day. i got in on friday night and i got to see aaron and jessie for a bit after they got home from the rodeo. the riverfest put on the rodeo and apparently it was terrible. the bulls just weren’t bucking.

saturday morning mom and i headed to imagine that! the best toy store ever. we got dakota his birthday presents. i got him a little hand puppet-hard hat harry. he’s pretty awesome. the boys came over right as we got home and we played out on the new deck and shot dad’s new pellet gun. (although it looks more like a sniper rifle!) just like when we were kids, i’m still the best shot. we mutilated a couple paper targets and a diet dr. pepper can. it was fun! that night we headed over to adam and abbe’s for dakota’s 4th birthday party. it was john deere themed and we had a great time! abbe made yummy quesadillas and a tractor cake. we played t-ball and the little boys pushed their new plastic mowers around in the front yard. (i was banned from hitting the ball after i hit it onto the next door neighbor’s roof. oops!) later, we were treated to a dance session to the song “move it!” from madagascar by the boys. they are so cute!

sunday we headed to church in the morning and had lunch at mom and dad’s for mother’s day. everyone was over and we had some good family hang out time. we had to watch the “bat video” because jessie had never seen it. (if you don’t know what the bat video is, i’m sorry-it’s hilarious!!) we left a little late for the airport and i was worried i wouldn’t make it. i’ve always wanted to run through the airport, but i don’t really want to be late for my flight. i was afraid my bag wouldn’t make it, but it did and all is well.

rope swing fun

2009-05-11T13:24:00.002-05:00

1/2 marathon

2009-04-29T14:58:00.002-05:00

Well, I haven't talked much about training for this year's race. Probably because I hadn't been training as much as I should. Anywhoooo...I ended up hurting my foot after my 10 miler 3 weeks before the race. I have no idea what I did and none of the medical people I talked to about it had any idea either, so I just rested. Basically that meant that when the day of the race rolled around I hadn't done any physical activity for 3 weeks. Not smart. Plus race day was the hottest of the year. Not a good combo. I did finish...15 minutes slower than last year. And I didn't throw up, which is a step up from last year. Lots of people couldn't finish due to the heat and a 25 year old guy actually died after crossing the finish line because of a "cardiac event". So needless to say, I'm just glad I finished. Too bad I'm going to have to run the stupid thing again so I can run it under 2:30. That's my goal. As soon as I do that, I'm done...or so I say now.

blooms

2009-04-29T14:40:00.006-05:00

my beautiful bushes around the yard

making some progress. the tomato is on the right with surrounding green bean sprouts and the left box is cucumbers.

come visit!

2009-04-28T08:54:00.003-05:00

Hey all you Kansans. Just a little heads up. If you want to come visit us this summer, Kansas City is Southwest's featured destination for the next couple weeks, which means you can get really cheap flights in and out of KC. So use that as an excuse to come visit!

www.southwest.com

(Technically anyone wanting to fly anywhere in or out of KC can take advantage of this offer, but I think it should only be used to come see us. I'm not biased or anything, though.)

this and that

2009-04-27T09:00:00.006-05:00

well, i haven’t posted in a while. it’s because i’ve actually been busy at work and haven’t had free time to blog. if we had internet at home, it wouldn’t be a problem but alas…

so last weekend was justin’s first week out with sara evans. they played a show in alabama and it was a try-out (sort of) for justin. everyone thought he was wonderful –of course. so now he’ll be playing with her. mark your calendars, kansans, he’ll been there july 5th.

while justin was gone i started a project. i built two raised vegetable boxes. i’m planning on four total, but haven’t finished the last two yet. i was going to build one big one, but i figured if we move before everything’s done blooming, i want to be able to easily take them with me. it only took me all afternoon and about a bazillion phone calls to my dad to finish the first box. the second went much faster, and i’m hoping the 3rd and 4th will be even easier. i’m planning on planting tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers and strawberries. i originally planted the tomato off to the side, but have now moved it to the middle. when i went to water last night, i noticed my green beans had already sprouted and were decent sized!! i’ll take more pictures tonight.

i also planted some herbs in my pots out front and am excited to start cooking with them. i have rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, chives, cilantro and basil. yummy!!

as soon as i get the pictures loaded from this weekend, i’ll blog about how the half marathon went. big shocker--it was HARD!!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T13:58:00.001-05:00

Happenings

2009-04-07T09:49:00.001-05:00

Well, I’ve started my new job and everything seems to be going well! I couldn’t sleep at all on Sunday night. I guess I was more nervous than I thought. Monday went really well. My car is broken so poor Justin had to get up and have me at work by 6:45!! My new schedule is an earlier one, which I really appreciate but am still getting used to. I still feel a little disorganized and unsure of myself, but hey it’s only my second day!

Poor Pete (my Pathfinder) is getting old and a little shaky. Well, more than a little shaky. If I try to go more than 40 mph, the steering wheel shakes so badly, I can barely hold on. I have to slow down to below 30 before it stops. He’s getting his tires rotated and balanced this week to see if that will fix the problem. I’m not too hopeful though.

I can’t say that I’m happy UNC won the NCAA tourney. I did win my pool at work though! Go me! Now as the winner, I get to decide what type of breakfast the loser should bring to work. Bagels or donuts…..hmmmmm…

That’s pretty much all the news for today. Super exciting, huh? I could have gone into detail about my bathroom closet reorganization. Be glad I didn’t. Also, if you think of it, send Justin all the good luck and prayers you’ve got on Wednesday afternoon. He’s got an audition at 2:15. He’s such a big deal! :)

i love this little man

2009-03-24T15:38:00.004-06:00

I GOT THE JOB!!

2009-03-20T14:10:00.005-06:00

Well, I'm putting in my resignation letter on Monday and am signing the official offer letter Monday too. For those of you who haven't heard the wonderful saga of me switching positions within the same group at Vanderbilt and want to, let me know. (I also like to write run on sentences.) It's kind of a long one. Anyway, I just got out of my "formal interview". As of the 6th of April I'll be in the Clinical Trials department. Woo hoo!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

2009-03-17T09:47:00.004-06:00

12 layer cake

2009-02-25T12:18:00.003-06:00

that's right. 12. count them.

two weekends in review

2009-02-23T14:04:00.013-06:00

well, i never posted about last weekend, so i'll start there. we had some old manhattan friends, ken and kerry com visit. we had a fun time with them and got to do a few middle tennessee things we wouldn't normally. so glad we did! we drove down to lynchburg on saturday to tour the one and only jack daniel's distillery. it was pretty awesome. although i'm not a huge fan of (or a fan of at all really) whiskey, it was pretty dang cool! every single drop of jack daniel's whiskey is made in lynchburg, tennessee. the tour is free and we had the best tour guide EVER-big randy. if i can get the video to rotate, i'll post it on here. he was amazing. the tour takes you through the entire process of distilling from, fermenting to mellowing to barreling to bottling. It was really cool to see the whole process. there's a part of the tour where you can take a big whiff of the mash while it's fermenting. you can pretty much get drunk off the fumes. big randy told us to lean down and take a big whiff. here's justin's reaction. whew!! they also have a room in showcasing how much whiskey is in a single barrel. they have a group called the single barrel society. it chronicles all the people or businesses or organi- zations that have bought an entire barrel of whiskey (which costs about $10,000!). it's pretty cool. the funniest part of the whole thing is that lynchburg is in a dry county, so even if you wanted to buy and/or drink whiskey there-it's illegal! we also checked out the parthenon, the grand ol opry hotel and checked out a writer's round.

this weekend we went to a marriage seminar at church. it was really good. in general i don't like things like this and i think they're boring and they make me tired. this was different. carl and virginia harrington, the couple who led it, came up from atlanta and pastor our sister church there. they were fabulous! we found out that they had lived in manhattan for a few years some time ago and know bob and sandie anderson-small world!! sunday afternoon rana and i ran 6 miles! yay us! sunday night we went out to celebrate chris's birthday. it was fun to hang out with a bunch of friends! happy birthday chris!

i need your input

2009-02-18T14:51:00.002-06:00

for all you runners out there, i've decided i need a new playlist to run to. i never really made one last year and so far this year, i've just been putting my nano on shuffle and skipping the songs that i don't like to run to. this year i'm going to make a playlist. any suggestions of songs you like to run to or that really motivate you?

early valentine's

2009-02-12T16:36:00.007-06:00

well, i don't think justin and i have been out on actual valentine's day in a couple years and i really like it. i know it's on a weekend this year so it makes it easier to stay up late, but i like getting less than 5 hours of sleep and then working a full day and then going out to a show again the next night and then having company for the weekend. so there. all that to say, we went out last night. so fun!

i went and got my makeup done at therapy systems thanks to ciara and her year of beauty. (woo hoo for a free facial and makeup application every month for a year!) side note: what do these girls not understand about "i don't wear makeup and want little if any foundation, powder etc."? it's really not that hard. it turned out ok, but i had to come home and wipe off the 5 layers of crap she put all over my face before i felt like not such a cake face. i digress. anyway, we started out a virago, our favorite sushi place when we don't mind spending a few bucks. love it! it's so pretty and tastes amazing too. we scarfed it down and headed home to change (it had gotten COLD!) before going to see he's just not that into you. i liked it. it was deeper than i thought it would be and i really felt for some of the characters. although, scar-jo is a total ho-bag. hated her character. i guess that means she did a good job acting in it. we went to a really late movie, so we got home super late and then "hung out" for a while before finally hitting the pillow after 2:00 am. Whew! Great night. p.s. today is my friend marisa's birthday. i'm pretty sure she doesn't have time to read this considering that whole residency thing, but if you do...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! i love you, girl.

i love sandra bullock

2009-02-10T14:06:00.001-06:00

i read an article today about her. here's a sample of the question and answer portion.

How do you stay in shape?

"People ask, 'How do actresses do it?' Um, they pay us to do this in order to look good on film. I do Pilates, kickboxing, weight training. When I'm in Austin, I run or ride a bike. If I can work out every day, I will. But there are times when I won't do anything for two weeks, and I'm like, 'You know what? I talk enough to burn calories.'"

Thank you for finally admitting what we all already know.

bragging

2009-02-04T09:51:00.005-06:00

Well, i'd like to brag on someone for a minute. Melanie-pearl. She is fabulous! She is Justin's best man's sister. Think about that for a minute. Ok? Ok. She makes the most amazing pendants, earrings, rings, bracelets, guitar straps etc. They're so amazing and very reasonably priced. I just love her. She is so talented and very sweet. I recently ordered some pendants from her for some friends, and a ring for me. Cue really bad pictures that will help you get a small idea. ok so the last one is actually a good picture taken from her website. check her out! pearlprice.com.

random ramblings

2009-02-03T11:47:00.007-06:00

first of all, happy belated kansas day! i went and bought myself some flowers for the occasion.

well we had a busy weekend! we helped our good friends, erich and rana move into a fabulous new house on saturday. while we were moving we found out that 5 of us had all been downtown the night before in about a 2 block strip. i don't know how we didn't see each other! they had a lot of help and we got them all moved out and then back in in about 2 hours. some of the moving crew also went and helped another guy from church move in. we'll definitely be calling this group to help us when we move. (if we ever do!)

saturday night we went to a benefit concert for our friend, beau. he's traveling to australia and new zealand to train with YWAM before heading to africa for his mission trips. the show was great and last i heard he had raised over $1000 in just that one night! sunday we dragged ourselves out of bed and headed to church after 2 late nights in a row.

we watched the super bowl at some friend's house. i made super bowl sugar cookies. of course. we had a little game going that whichever team you wanted to win, you needed to eat those cookies. well the cardinals got eaten all up first, but i guess it didn't really help. fun game. lame commercials.

and last but not least, yesterday was my wonderful brother, Adam's birthday. Happy Birthday Adam!

weekend in virginia

2009-01-26T11:46:00.003-06:00

well i haven't posted a good post in a while. i haven't had anything exciting to say. :) this weekend we went to hampton, virginia.

whitney was playing and since it was a quick weekend bus trip, i got to tag along! bus call was at 10:30 on friday. we packed up and headed out. we all watched a few episodes of it's always sunny in philadelphia. so hilarious and usually very, very wrong. i got to bed pretty early compared to everyone else at 12:45. i usually try not to get up in the morning til the bus stops because if it's before, it's usually really early. well i woke up and couldn't go back to sleep so i went out to the front lounge. it was 9 am! that's sleeping in for me! :)

we got to hampton around 11 and got the the bus parked. (and by we i mean hovie, the bus driver.) we met whitney and chris at the hotel. they had flown in from their acoustic gig in michigan the night before. we all headed down to the hotel restaurant where we had the worst service i think i've ever experienced. i'll give the waitress a pass because i think she was new. but it took an HOUR for us to get our food. granted there were 10 of us, but we were the only people in the entire place!! ridiculous! plus when the waitress brought out our food, another lady helped her carry everything out. she had the voice of a 85 year old trucker and was complaining that she was hungover. fabulous. by the time we finally ate, the band had to go sound check. they had a pretty early show (4:30) so as soon as they were done, they all needed to shower quickly to get back over to play.

the best part of the day was that my friend, amy, drove down from DC to see us and watch the show! i met her in the lobby to give her her all access bracelet. when we tried to go back through the door i had come from, the lady said "you can't come through here". i said, "but we have all access bracelets." she said, "well not for this door." my gosh! these people. so we had to walk all the way around the outside of the building and go through the band door in the back. so stupid. anyway, the show was great even though the sound was a little off.

after the show, bob, the warner bros. guy took us all out for seafood. yum! we were headed out by 9:00. we watched a few movies, did some tequila shots straight from the bottle (just kidding, mom!) (not really), ate some junk food, and then hit the hay. we got in around 8 or 8:30. enough time to still make it to church to help with coffee clean up. fun weekend all in all.

p.s. check out abbe's blog. it's super cute!! :)

oh crap...

2009-01-16T10:03:00.003-06:00

yeah i'm pretty sure our pipes froze last night. we even let the water drip!! but only the hot side (due to my wonderfully sage advice). i thought you only needed to let one side drip. what do we do? the water works perfectly (both sides) in the bathroom sink and shower. but the cold water in the kitchen sink and washing machine don't. ahhh!! not a good thing. but really not a good thing when justin has to leave tonight and has no clothes because there's a ginormous pile of laundry waiting to be done. seriously. suggestions?

HEY!

2009-01-12T14:53:00.004-06:00

There's a poll. VOTE!

Christmas fun-part 4

2009-01-12T10:57:00.006-06:00

We got to Terri's in time for dinner. She made a fabulous brisket with all the fixins! After dinner, we opened more presents! This was our 4th Christmas. Not bad. :) We got some wonderful things and again, everyone enjoyed their CDs. Riley got another gift from Terri. It is a green ball that moves on it's own when you push the little button. Riley was a little confused by it at first, but it was hilarious. She loves to play with it. (And Terri, we replaced the batteries and it works much better on our wood floors.)

The day after Christmas we met up with Jesse and headed over to Target to start boosting the economy with all our Christmas money and gift certificates! We spent about and hour there (I could have stayed MUCH longer) and then went over to Panera to grab lunch before heading over to the mall and Best Buy. As we were eating Justin started to not feel well. We decided to just head back to Terri's so he could lay down. Poor guy ended up getting really sick. The kind of sick where you're sitting on the toilet with a trash can in your lap. That's all I'm gonna say.

While Justin was being a sicky in the back bedroom, I got to hang out with some great friends. I got to see Anne and we ran a few errands while we talked in the car. We also stopped at the pet store to look at the adorable puppies. We also STILL have no picture together. That night I went over the the Duell's to catch up with them and see little Jaiya again. She liked Riley, for the most part, except when her tail whacked her in the face. We love the Duells and enjoyed hanging out for a while. Terri and I also got to go one some nice walks. The weather was crazy nice a few days so we took advantage.

On Sunday, Justin was feeling a little better so we headed to KC to hang out with Kirk and Marisa. We went to P.F. Chang's (of course) on the Plaza. It was a unique experience because it took forever to get our food and they kept messing things up. We were there for over 2 hours and we weren't just sitting around. When we got back to their house, Justin took a little nap while the rest of us played Scategories. Kirk won, which was pretty miraculous considering her was playing with Marisa and me. :) After Justin woke up we went bowling. I scored a 141 the second game! My best score ever! I think it was all the practice with Wii bowling. In the morning Kirk and I made his famous cinnamon apple pancakes, fried eggs and bacon. Poor Justin still wasn't feeling that great, so he didn't eat. We headed back to Manhattan to spend some more time there because Justin had been so sick. We were able to hang out some more (especially Justin) with Jesse, Josh and Kylea.

We had a great time and the drive back wasn't even that bad! We only had to stop for gas once! That's pretty amazing for a 680 mile drive. Go Hiro the Honda! I love exclamation points! I think that pretty much sums up our Christmas travels. And hey, it only took me 3 weeks to post it all.

christmas fun-part 3

2009-01-12T10:22:00.007-06:00

Well, I've completely been shafting Justin's family in my Christmas posts. Totally unintentional. I didn't have the pictures readily available and you know me, I don't post without pictures! Anyway, now I've got them, so here we go!

We headed to Justin's Aunt Linda's on Christmas morning. We took a different way than normal and really got to take in small town Kansas. Equally beautiful and hilarious. Oh some of the Christmas decorations we saw. Anyway, we got there around ten and helped Noah set up his new Wii. Wii's for everyone!! We ate lunch around 12:30 with Linda's usual awesome spread of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green beans, baked beans, homemade rolls and more. Oh! don't forget her apple pie. It's kind of a big deal.

After lunch we go for the presents. It's usually organized chaos with everyone opening at the same time. We got some great gifts. Justin got a guitar pedal he'd really been wanting and I got a spice rack! Woo hoo! My spice rack is really for all my cookie sprinkles and it's been fun to put together. Riley also got a present and she had fun "opening" it. Basically she tore the bag to bits. It was fun to watch. She got a little dog bowl with doggie shampoo and conditioner and a soap bone and scrubber and a toy. She did pretty well, huh? After we got it open she plopped down with the bowl between her front legs like she knew it was for her.

After presents (and of course listening to the CD Justin made) we took the 4 wheelers out. First we followed Jerry, Jean and Jesse (in their car) out to look at a fallen tree. Jesse was lending his expertise to see wether the wood was any good and if it would be salvageable. Justin and I saw 5 white tail deer bounding across the field. They are so beautiful and can jump so HIGH! Jesse and Noah joined us 4 wheeling out in the pastures for a while. We always go out to the pasture right next to the house. It's an open field and we see how fast we can go. Not the safest thing to do but heck, it's fun! 60 miles an hour on a 4 wheeler when you can't see because your eyes are tearing from the cold just can't be beat! :)

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing Noah's Wii and hanging out in Grandma Darlene's room. (Heated floors are fabulous!) We headed over to Terri's around 6ish for Christmas fun part 4!

we clean up nicely

2009-01-06T10:52:00.000-06:00

christmas fun-part 2

2009-01-06T10:21:00.005-06:00

We always spend Christmas Eve at my Grandma and Grandpa Elliott's. We have a wonderful dinner and then dive in to the festivities. We always read a little piece and then light our respective advent candles, (Worked out nicely that there were 5 grandkids. We'll see about the greats!) then dig into the gifts! This year most of the gifts were for the little boys. They also loved playing with the oldies but goodies, tinker toys!
For the grown ups, Mom decided that in the spirit of last year's hideous sweater competition we should play some sort of game. Since most of us usually end up asking for gift cards anyway, we each chipped in and there were 13 different gift cards to win to places like Home Depot and Best Buy for the boys and Hobby Lobby and Victoria's Secret for the girls. We divided into pairs according to birthday and competed for pennies answering Christmas trivia questions. After all the questions were answered we were on our own and divided up the pennies to begin bidding on the card we wanted. It was pretty fun and I think everyone ended up with a card they wanted...or at least they could use! :)

field & fountain

2009-01-05T11:54:00.003-06:00

For Christmas this year we decided to make a Christmas CD for all our friends and family. The idea started with my two best Nashville girls, Rana and Colleen, and me at a garage sale we were having late last summer. We decided that since our three husbands all play different instruments (guitar, bass and drums) they all should go together to make a CD. Well the idea came to fruition with the completion of "field & fountain". Each of the boys took two Christmas songs and arranged them however they wanted and then had the other boys record for them. The final product looks beautiful thanks to Colleen's graphic design work and sounds amazing. The songs are very traditional, but the arrangements are not. I think it turned out fantastic and each song really brings out the guy's personality. We have a few extras, so if you didn't get one, but want one, let me know and I'll send it your way.

hila(wii)ty

2009-01-05T11:45:00.009-06:00

christmas fun-part 1

2009-01-03T14:28:00.007-06:00

Well, I'm sitting in a coffee shop thinking it's going to take me forever to update about our Christmas. It was a great trip. I'll try to go in chronological order and not make this too long.

We left for Wichita at midnight on Friday the 19th. We arrived on Saturday at about 10:40. Pretty good time-huh? We pretty much just chilled out on Saturday because we were pretty tired from the drive. Matt called Justin to play at church that night, so he did. The little boys came over for a little bit and they are always so much fun. While we were eating dinner Dakota asked my mom a question.

Dakota: Nana what's that town?
Nana: Nashville?
Dakota: Yeah. Aunt Anna can I come visit you in Nashville?

How cute is he?! He also decided he needed to get Riley a present so he got her a rawhide. It's her new treasure and she hides it all over the house.

Sunday morning we went to church with my parents and got to talk to the Aboods for a few minutes and give them their Christmas present. (More about that in another post.) For lunch the whole immediate family got together. Mom scared Adam and Aaron for a minute asking them what they wanted on their sandwiches. After both of them almost had a heart attack, she assured them we would be having the traditional beef and noodles for dinner. After lunch, much unwrapping ensued. Most of it revolved around the little boys, of course, but we all got some great presents: a Wii, a new garage door and money for a shotgun. Guess which gift was for who! Dakota got a full scale "worker man" outfit and Creyton got this hilarious bouncing horse thing. The big boys enjoyed the toys as much or more than the little boys. We set up the Wii that night and hilarity followed.

Sunday night we got to go visit Matt and Michele. It was fun to catch up with them even though our dog pooped in their (unfinished) basement. Huge embarrassment! Monday was a day of relaxing and friends. I got to hang out with high school friends Lauren and Mallory. So fun to see them especially since both are pregnant. I also got to see some college roomies, Katie and Amy (and Kyle :)). Kirk came down for a few days to hang out with Justin since Marisa was in the middle of a 30 hour shift. Dang residency!

Mom and I also saved some time to go shopping. It's the little things like now having stacking cooling racks and actual pot holders instead of having to use my rags! I also taught Mom how to knit. She learned as a kid and just needed a little refresher. She's put me to shame and will have her first scarf finished before she goes back to school.

a little dumber?

2008-12-18T15:44:00.006-06:00

well, justin had his wisdom teeth removed last friday. he did very well. he was a little nervous going into it. he originally asked for deep sedation (knocked completely out) but they didn't have any openings before christmas. so, they had to give him IV conscious sedation. this means, you're awake for the procedure, but pretty much don't remember anything, or if you do it's all happy. justin doesn't even remember them doing the local numbing. after they were all finished, i went in to see how he was doing. he was great, but a little loopy. he told me about 5 times that they "had a rookie" putting in his IV and he missed the first time. he did get a pretty awesome bruise on the back of his hand. we made it home with him wearing his awesome double ice pack. as silly as it looks, that thing was awesome. i think i went through a whole bag of ice from the gas station refilling that thing for 3 or 4 days. he really didn't swell until saturday afternoon and i think his worst day was sunday. but he's gradually getting better each day. today he had his one week follow up and they said his gums are a little inflamed, but nothing to worry about. yay for a complication free procedure!!

p.s. 10 points if you got the really bad joke that is the title of this post.

ok ok i'll do it

2008-12-09T08:57:00.006-06:00

well, for those of you who don't know, in the blogging world there's a thing called "tagging". basically one person fills out some sort of questionnaire or does some sort of silly task and then "tags" other people to do it too. well, i've been tagged. and normally i ignore it when people tag me, but this time i'll give in. i've been tagged twice, for two different things.

here we go, #1. post the 4th picture from the 4th folder in your photo album and explain what it's from. well, i'm on my work computer (I KNOW! posting at work-shame!) so i don't have NEAR as many pictures and most of them are ones that have been e-mailed to me. this picture is of my best friend, meaghan and me at her rehearsal dinner. She got married 2 weeks before I did and we were each other's maid of honor. although, i must say when i got married, meaghan was a matron. ha! i have this picture because i made a scrap book of our lives together and i was compiling a bunch of pictures. i think meaghan's husband, jeremy e-mailed me this one. or maybe i got it off facebook? i don't know and i'm rambling.

on to the next challenge. four random things....

1- i love to do lists. crossing things off gives me a sense of accomplishment. sometimes i put things on there i've already done just so i can cross them off.

2- i love making and decorating sugar cookies-if you can't tell. i'm really excited to make my christmas ones. sometimes i look up designs on the internet and sometimes i just make them up in my head. mostly from the internet though. you should try them someday. they're kind of big deal.

3- in keeping with cassie's hair theme for random thing #3, i've only had abbe` do my hair since i was a freshman in high school. no one else makes the cut. (see how i did that? makes the cut. she cuts my hair. good one huh?) that kind of stinks when you don't live in the same state. i haven't had a hair cut since march or may or whenever it was that i cut a foot of hair off. i can't wait to go home for christmas and get my hair cut.

4- justin is, right now, as i type, on a plane to LA. he's at 40,000 feet and traveling 464 mph. (i love flight tracker!) he plays a show tonight there, and then they fly to vegas. ah the life of a traveling musician. he'll be home on thursday, just in time to fast for his wisdom teeth extraction on friday.

ok, that's it. i'm not going to tag anyone else, but feel free to act like i did, if you want to carry on the chain.

all i want for christmas is you

2008-12-02T11:10:00.001-06:00

giving thanks

2008-12-01T10:57:00.003-06:00

well we had a great thanksgiving and the turkey ended up turning out great. (although, i don't think i'll use an oven bag again. didn't like how it burned the skin.) we had some friends over who didn't go home for the holidays. it was a small and kind of random group, but we had a good time and good food.

it was so fun to have 4 days off - in a row! justin and i had fun just hanging out together. we decorated the house for christmas and put up our icicle lights around the porch and our christmas tree. sadly our little christmas tree had the bottom third of the lights go out. i may try to fix it, or i might just say screw it. justin wants to fix it. maybe i'll just let him do it. i'm thinking next year we need a new tree!

we also did a little shopping, although we waited until saturday. justin found a jacket at the first store we looked in! if any of you know me, you know how happy that made me. get in, get out. that's my shopping motto in general.

december is going to fly by! i already can't believe it's the first. we are pretty busy until we head back to kansas. i have volleyball games on monday nights, and a girl's group on tuesdays. we have small group with our church on wednesdays. and justin's busy every weekend until we head home. this weekend he was in north carolina with whitney, next weekend he'll be in san diego with married by elvis and the next weekend he gets his wisdom teeth out. poor guy! plus we have either a birthday or christmas party every weekend. craziness!

well i was going to post thanksgiving pictures, but we really didn't take any and the one of me in the kitchen looks like i'm pregnant, so i'll leave you with cookies.

"no stores were found"

2008-11-25T14:46:00.006-06:00

this year for thanksgiving i wanted to make my turkey the way my mom always does. she e-mailed me the recipe which doesn't have very many ingredients, but is rather time consuming. i went to the store last night to buy hickory smoke flavoring, morton pickling salt and morton tender quick. 3 things. shouldn't be hard-right? WRONG.
we have kroger here instead of dillon's. ours is kind of ghetto but usually gets the job done. well justin asked at least one employee if they had pickling salt or tender quick who had no clue what he was talking about. (honestly, this isn't too surprising considering most of the people who work there are IDIOTS!) anyway, we looked and looked and couldn't find it. so i decided to go to whole foods. they have off the wall stuff-right? WRONG. the girl at whole foods also had no clue what i was talking about. we asked another person who had no clue either. now i'm stumped.
so last night i called my mom to ask her if she gets this stuff from some unknown specialty store. nope, it's just at dillon's and she saw it there that night! she told me to google it to see what it looks like so i can check other stores.
i found the morton website and got on their product locator. it lets you put in your zip code and the product you're looking for and tells you the stores that carry it in an x mile radius. there's got to be some store that carries it within a 50 mile radius nashville-right? WRONG. "no stores were found". not only does nashville not have morton tender quick, the entire state of tennessee is morton tender quick devoid. frustration. i'm going to have to figure out a different way to make my turkey this year.

keeping score

2008-11-24T15:06:00.005-06:00

for those of you who don't know, my little brother aaron and i have been having a unofficial contest this year. basically we're trying to see who can go to the hospital more times for the most strange injuries. i think i'm winning for strange-ness. hello 2 inch splinter in my foot! although, adam did drop a hammer on aaron's head from about 20 feet up. hmmm. you decide.

here's the official run down.

first, i had the infamous spliter incident. score one for the home team! anna:1 aaron:0

then, while mom and dad were here for spring break, adam had to take aaron to the emergency clinic because he was really sick and having some trouble breathing. for aaron that's kind of a big deal considering he has a history of his lung randomly collapsing. another story for another day. anna:1 aaron:1

then i decided to slice my finger open helping justin. another trip to the ER and 5 more stitches for anna. anna:2 aaron:1

next, aaron had a slight work accident. adam dropped his hammer while working on the roof trusses. too bad he didn't realize aaron was standing right under him. trip to the ER and a few staples to the head for aaron. anna:2 aaron:2

my turn again. aaron might not count this, but i sure do! i got poison ivy all over my entire body! two trips to the doctor and two steroid treatments later i no longer look like a swamp monster. anna:3 aaron:2

well, aaron decided i couldn't win so he didn't get out of the way fast enough at work and a huge, really heavy, pile of wood fell on his leg. or something. anyway, mom had to take him to the ER this weekend. they checked for broken bones (nope!) and blood clots (nope!) and cleared him. anna:3 aaron:3

i say we should just call it a draw. what do you think?

The Great American Smoke Out

2008-11-19T16:01:00.002-06:00

Well tomorrow is The Great American Smoke Out. I'm not sure if anyone who read this is a smoker, but if you are....SHAME ON YOU! But, you also have a fabulous opportunity tomorrow to quit! You will be joined by tons of other people all across America who are quitting with you! I have encouraged my friends who are smokers to quit and I think you should too. I understand that smoking is an addiction and it's not always easy, but there are resources out there to help you and I'm sure you have a support system of people who would be willing to hold you accountable. I was going to post a nasty ol picture of a smoker's lung, but I think I'll just link to this blogger who's got the right idea.

Side Note #1: Sorry I haven't posted in a while, we've been sick-o!

Side Note #2: The first time I typed blogger I accidentally typed blooger and almost left it because I think it's funny.

Love,
Your friendly neighborhood lung cancer researcher

i love fall!

2008-11-10T09:12:00.006-06:00

sorry to bore you with all of my pictures, but i can't believe how vivid some of the fall colors are here. of course the camera can never capture how it looks in real life-at least not our little point and shoot. but here's a few that came close. the first two pictures are from the japanese maple in our front yard and the rest are from our drive out to natchez trace.

my favorite part of voting...

2008-11-05T14:24:00.000-06:00

...the sticker

halloween

2008-11-03T09:13:00.010-06:00

well, i went to a great halloween party! justin had to work-BOO! but it was a good time anyway. the party was actually on saturday instead of friday, so here are a few pictures. the first one is from friday night and the rest are saturday!

poor riley

2008-11-03T09:07:00.001-06:00

our girl got beat up at the playground!