there's no place like home

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.