October Recap

I totally bombed at documenting our busy busy October. Here's what went down:

1st- A girl Nathan and I went to high school with just closed her booming photography business. It took up too much of her time, time she had to spend away from her family, so she decided it was time for a break. She fulfilled prepaid sessions, so thankfully we were booked for a beautiful Saturday! I took some pictures of Natalie after the pro did.

 
 
 

17th-22nd: A local couple hosts a huge biannual children's consignment sale. This was my first year as a consignor, and, boy was it a lot of work! We got rid of so much stuff, but  not even half of "Baby Natalie's" wardrobe. Gotta hang on to some of that stuff in case we ever have another girl! We used an electronic system to price our goods, and we consigned over $900 worth of stuff! Checks will be mailed out in two weeks; can't wait to see how much we earned! I plan on starting to work on my stuff for the spring sale right after the start of the new year.




These pictures are from previous sales, off the Little Lambs Facebook page.

20th- Back in September, on the day they went on sale, Nathan surprised me with tickets to see Miranda Lambert in concert. I was in complete shock. Not only were we going to see Miranda Lambert, but we were in the pit! We didn't realize it at the time, but when we arrived at the concert, we learned we'd be standing by the stage for the whole show. Now that we've been so close, I'm not so sure I'll want to sit anywhere else at a concert again. The opening acts were the Randy Rogers Band and Justin Moore.



Off we go to date night!



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21st-23rd: Nathan and I decided we needed a weekend away, and we wanted to go away while the weather was still nice. What better place to go than a potential hometown? My in-laws stayed at our house with Natalie while we spent the weekend in Nashville. We had such a good time looking at houses, bar-hopping and shopping downtown, and hanging out at the Grand Ole Opry and Opryland Hotel. Already looking forward to going back to check out a few other places. I didn't take many pictures, unfortunately.

29th- My mom, my mother-in-law, and I took Natalie to see Disney Live: Three Classic Fairytales. What an amazing show! It was narrated by Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald, and told the stories of Snow White, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast. Most of the little girls were dressed as a Disney princess, as were a mother and grandmother (though mommy and grandmommy were a little more on the provocative side).



NashVegas, Baby!

Nathan and I went to Nashville for the weekend. We needed a little getaway, and Nate had never been to NashVegas, so I thought, "Perfect! We'll have some fun and maybe I can convince Nathan that we need to move there." We've been eye-balling houses in and around Nashville for a couple of months, found our dream home with the hopes of checking it out while we were there, and, whaddaya know- it sold last week. Apparently it wasn't meant to be. I'm confident that God has a plan for us, and if His plan is for us to end up in Nashville, a home that's even more perfect for us will come along. When I began praying about where we are supposed to be, I begged God for an obvious answer. Shortly thereafter, we looked up information about Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and discovered that the chief of surgery there is a cardiothoracic surgeon who graduated medical school at Vandy just a couple of years after Nathan's previous boss. The chief also did his a fellowship under Nate's previous boss. Connection #1 (well, connection numbers 1 and 2 if ya count other Vanderbilt connections through Dr. H.) Then, I Facebooked an acquaintance from high school who lives in Nashville. She told me all of these wonderful things and that she and her husband would probably never leave the area. Then she proceeds to tell me that her husband is a real estate agent in Nashville, so "if there's anything we can help you with, let me know." Hmmm...is God telling me something here? I still struggle with determining that. I want to say that that's my sign, but then a second-guess it.

Anyway, Saturday morning Nate and I checked out 4 or 5 houses in an eastern suburb of Nashville. No luck. Then we headed downtown to shop and bar-hop for 4 hours (yet only had one drink each). Basically we missed all the different shows the city has to offer, but didn't just want to hang out in our room, so we checked out the Opryland Hotel. It's unreal that, besides Bass Pro and another store, the Opryland mall is still closed from the damage from the flood of May 2010.

I can't wait to go back. Next time we'll stay in the suburbs south of Nashville to check them out. Maybe then we'll see celebs! How fun would it be to run into Carrie Underwood or Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman out shopping?

I still need to get my pictures uploaded, but this "draft" has been ready since Monday, so I wanted to go ahead and get it up.

The Great Forest Park Balloon Race

We spent a recent weekend at a hot air balloon race. We used to go when I was younger, and I'm so glad we got to take Natalie. I'm hoping this will be an annual thing for us, because Natalie had so.much.fun. It really was a great, but totally exhausting, weekend.

There was a children's area sponsored by Purina. I definitely don't remember that being there when I was younger, but it seemed like all the kids (and parents, too) were having a great time. There were inflatable bounce houses and obstacle courses, pony rides, a petting zoo, and a Purina Incredible Dog Team show.

The "race" is not based on speed. The Energizer Bunny is the mascot, I guess you could say, for this race, and a big ol' "X" is placed in a chosen location, and each balloon has to find the "X" and drop a bag of rice. The person who drops the bag of rice closest to the center of the "X" is the winner. When I was younger, I remember there was an actually "Hot Hare Balloon" that would go up, but this year, we got this:

And some of the balloons who participated in the race:

And mi familia:





Gulf Shores Vacation

We recently went to Gulf Shores for a short vacation. By "we" I mean Nathan, Natalie, and myself, as well as my parents, my sister, and my in-laws. All in one condo. Am I crazy? Yes. Could it have been much worse? Absolutely. We all got along surprisingly well, especially considering we had to spend much of our time inside the condo, thanks to Tropical Storm Lee (that jerk).
We left home Wednesday evening. Nathan and I had an hour drive to my parents' house, where we all met. Even though we both took off work early, we still were late. It didn't help that my car wouldn't start when we were ready to leave. We drove to Tunica, MS, Wednesday evening and crashed immediately. FYI, it's kinda scary driving through Memphis at night. If you don't have to do it, don't.
We arrived to Gulf Shores on a Thursday, and the weather was amazing the whole way, until we got to southern Mississippi. The clouds hovered, but didn't start raining on us right away. My sister and I went to the store get buy the perishables that we didn't take with us in the cooler, and we cooked chicken fettucine alfredo for dinner that night. Friday morning I got up early and worked out. For some reason I am better about working out when I'm on vacation than I am at home. I wanted to shower before I went to the beach to meet Natalie and her grandparents, because after the 8 hour drive on Thursday and an hour of gym time, I sure didn't want my picture taken. I quickly showered and gathered up my beach goodies. I was about 10 steps away from the sand when a downpour came without warning. Everyone scooped up their things, tried to rinse off their feet, and ran to shelter.


I wish I could say we were wet from swimming.





I wish this picture did the waves justice. There were times when they had to be almost 10ft high. Friday night, the chairs were removed from the beach and the water level was past where the chairs were.



The rain never did chill out that day, so we all showered and went to the always-amazing Tanger Outlet Mall. Nathan got some more school clothes, I got some great deals at the Tommy store (thanks, MIL!!), and Natalie....well, she shouldn't have to wear the same thing twice for awhile! There are perks to being an only grandchild on both sides. Ha! Friday night we dined at Wentzell's Oyster House. Boy, oh boy, was it good! And so much fun! There were hilarious phrases printed on brightly-colored paper and stapled all.over.the.walls. Most of us went to bed early that night, after getting our bellies full!

Saturday we went to the beach a couple of times, but never got to stay more than 10 minutes. We were in and out between the rain showers. Natalie got her sandcastle, which was our goal for the entire trip. Nathan, the ILs, and I went shopping again, because there wasn't much else to do. My car got wonky again on Saturday, and we had trouble getting it to start. My family went to church, and when we got out, we had to call the ILs to jump us in the rain so we could go eat at Jake's. After dinner, we just chilled again, and watched the waves cover most of the beach.

Sunday morning, Nathan, my dad, and my FIL went to Wal-Mart to get a new battery for my car while we girls all went to the beach. It was the prettiest it had been since we got there, and we had to be out of our condo by 10:00. WTH!?! Oh well, we knew we had a long drive home, so we needed to get on the road. It rained on us pretty much the whole way, and by the time we got to Mobile, AL, and crossed the Mobile Bay, this big guy tried to get close to us:



Retracting back into the clouds as we're driving away. Darn me for not having my camera in reach at all times!

This bridge seems so much longer when there's a tornado on the water. Yep, it actually touched down and created a HUGE water spout! I'm so thankful we all made it through safely! We made it to my parents' house around 9:00pm, so Nathan and I decided we'd just stay the night. An extra day in Gulf Shores would've been nice had the weather cooperated, but it felt so good to be home!

Natalie with her only true Aunt

My monkey didn't want a picture with me.

Natalie with her Mimi, my mom



Craft Reveal

I posted a teaser yesterday about the craft that I made for our family reunion auction. I was pleased with the way it turned out. I knew it was going to be big, but I didn't actually think about how big it would be; make sense? Whoever bought it would have to have a good amount of space to lean it against a wall, because it would probably be almost too heavy to hang on a wall. I got a lot of compliments on the "modern art", so I will definitely attempt it again, only making the next one much smaller. I'm going to build one for my home, and probably one for the auction next year. I'm thinking of cutting the size in half, so it will be about 2'x2'.

And now, the big reveal.....

My goal was for the piece to go for at least $75. Whoever bought it would have to have a truck to get it home, or would have had to live on the reunion grounds. (The reunion was at the property of my aunt and uncle, where there are three homes- my aunt and uncle's, my grandma's, and my cousin and his wife's). The proud new owners of this dandy are my parents :) They bought it for $60. I think they genuinely wanted it, and didn't just buy it out of the goodness of their hearts. My dad is going to seal it and it will go on their front porch in honor of Memorial Day and 4th of July. I will post how the project came to be later...in time to link up with the Tuesday project link party of one of the blogs that I read.

I purchased a plant at the auction. It was a plant that my mom brought that was given to her by my dad's mom about 25 years ago. Wow! That thing's older than I am! It's called a Mother-In-Law's tongue. We seriously have zero plants in our house. This plant will sit on our front steps during the spring, summer, and early fall months, but I will haul it inside during the winter, just like I remember my mom always doing. I actually sort of have a fear of taking care of plants. Flowers, actually. I can't keep flowers alive. Hopefully I can keep this plant alive. It's all green, and I don't think it blooms. If anyone knows how to best care for Mother-In-Law's tongues, please let me know!

I mentioned that some things that are sold at the auction are family heirlooms, so to speak. My aunt shocked us all when she donated my great-grandma's wedding band for the auction. I didn't hear the whole story, so I'm not completely sure how she ended up with it (she's the middle daughter...not that it really matters, I suppose), but she said she never wears it, and she thought someone else in the family might like to have it. It sold for $200 dollars, and was purchased by my aunt's husband. How sweet, right?! She donated it, but apparently it's totally sentimental to her (as it would be for anyone, right?), and he wanted her to have it. That's love right there, folks!

I failed miserably and didn't take any pictures at the reunion. We were only there for a couple of hours. Next year the reunion will be at my uncle's house, which is always a fun time. He lives in the middle of nowhere with horses, a pool, horseshoe pits, four wheelers, a trampoline, and plenty of open land for a skeet shoot. Yep, we're hillbillies. The word "hillbilly" always makes me think of this:



It was an absolutely beautiful weekend, minus a few short thunderstorms. Today was an amazing day to work outside, and Nathan and I were pretty productive. Hopefully this house will be all spruced up before long.

Le Bounce

I've totally been a blogging failure this month. The combination of trying to keep my house clean, sort of being in a funk, changing my priorities, and a slow computer = me not doing any more on the computer than necessary. As I it here, Nathan and Natalie are napping after playing so hard today, and I'm looking around at all the straightening up that needs to done, but I wanted to post about our day yesterday.

Nathan and I took Natalie to a new local kiddie attraction called Le Bounce. The old Rust & Martin furniture store turned into the "City Centre", and inside are Le Bounce and a yoga/dance studio. There will be a cafe opening soon, and I don't know what else will be there. Le Bounce is a huge room of inflatable bouncey houses, slides, and obstacle courses. Natalie had a blast, and she went down for a nap like a champ (though that nap was short-lived). It's definitely a place we plan to frequent with Natalie. At $8 for kids 2+ years and supervising adults free all.day.long, it's really not a bad price, even if we go weekly. Nathan and I know to wear athletic clothes and just stuff a diaper and wipes in the camera bag next time, though. Boy, did we get a workout! There's a 400 sq. ft. area for little bitty kids that houses little chairs and bean bag chairs, books, puzzles, and some little tykes things (not to mention a 50-something inch tv and some rocking chairs for parents), a smaller bouncey house for kids 4 and under, and then the rest of the 6100 sq ft building for everyone else. Natalie liked the big-kid inflatables best, so Nathan and I went through those obstacles with her time and time again. We are looking into renting out the building for Natalie's birthday in December.

This is a kid's dreamworld, right?

Natalie sure had fun, despite the horrified look on her face.

Look at that sweet, sweet smile!