week with the fam

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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.