Birthday Blessings

So my family arrived into Nashville around 11:30 on Saturday and it was so great to have them in to celebrate my birthday. We left my dad behind to get some rest while the girls went to Shopry Mills (actually it's called Opry Mills Outlet Mall) but I prefer to call it Shopry Mills. We love hitting stores such as The Gap Outlet as you can always find great deals on Gap clothes. We spent our afternoon there and then swung by to pick up my dad for an early dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory.

The Family at Old Spaghetti Factory

Me and my parents

Elaysha(love her funny face), Holly and Me

Mom brought a cake from The Donut Bank...my favorite bakery in Evansville!

I mentioned an early dinner because we had tickets to the Nashville Sounds game which started at 6pm. We mainly went to the game because the Iowa Cubs (Triple A team for Chicago Cubs) were in town and of course baseball is something I enjoy. It was a great game with an extra inning, the Iowa Cubs winning and a wonderful display of fireworks after the show. Here are a couple picks from the game.

Me and E waiting in the concessions stand line. My family at the game...E was a little bored.
Crazy Amy joined us at the game!

I have to say that if turning another year older means spending quality time with my family and friends and being able to truly stop and enjoy the blessings of family time, then I wish every day was my birthday! I feel incredibly blessed :)

A Pre-Birthday Fiesta

Let the birthday festivities begin....Tonight my friends got together for a lovely little fiesta at one of my favorite mexican restaurants called Rosepepper Cantina. It's located on the east side of Nashville which I don't venture to much but this place always makes the trip seem worthwhile.

Brandon, Heather, Me, Jill and James

Jen and Mike

Alisha, Amy, Terah and Cathryn

James enjoying my birthday ice cream!

After our fiesta, the girls (myself, Amy, Jen and Cathryn) went to the theater to catch the 10:20pm showing of Sex and the City the movie. And I just have to say that through much laughter and a couple tears...they did a great job picking up from where the series ended. I walked out of the theater another year older and just incredibly thankful to have the friends I have in my life.

Some much needed downtime....

Well the family is gone and even though I still have work things to do and appointments to make/go to...it's finally a much needed slower pace. I feel like I can finally breathe. I have already been at my job for 3 months and let me tell you it been a busy 3 months. I am looking forward to a couple days of fun, my birthday weekend with friends and family and a leisurely "work" trip to Charleston, SC next week.

I spent a good part of my day doing some trip planning for next week in Charleston. First of all, I have never been to Charleston, SC. I have read much about this historic city of the south online today and being the history buff that I am, have found a couple great places/tours to do while there next week. The "work" aspect of my trip is that I will actually be the adult supervision for my bosses daughter who will be with her friends as they celebrate their recent graduation from high school. We will be staying at a beach home in Isle of Palm, SC (about 30 mins. NE of Charleston) but my boss has encouraged me to see lots of Charleston and that I don't have to be tied to the house or her daughters schedule....she told me to think of it as a "vacation". I can handle that....especially a vacation that's fully paid for! Secondly, I think it all my thirty plus years that this will be my first vacation that I will spend mostly by myself. Sure, it would be fun to have a friend to explore the city with but you know me and my "alone" time needs, I am actually excited to do this by myself. Of course, I am sure that I will be sharing much of it with everyone via my blog so that will be exciting too. Can't wait!

Phase 10

Who would have ever thought that one card game could be so much fun?

If you are not familiar with this card game let me give you a little description right off the box...it's "a rummy type card game with a challenging and exciting twist!" The challenge is to be the first player to complete all ten phases and the twist is that the phase to be completed is specific for each hand. I was first introduced to this game back in my Colorado days when Ruthann and I would sit in our dungeon apartment and play for hours on end, even though it's better to play with more than 2 people. We basically used this time to hone our skills for when we would play in larger groups with friends from church.

I don't know why I even thought about it but a small group from church got together for dinner so I brought it along for an after-dinner option of entertainment. And let me tell you that it was very entertaining :) There were 5 of us total that played and I would have never guessed that one game could bring out so many different character qualities such as competitiveness, humility, grace, patience or in my case a lack there of, quick temper, thoughtfulness, concentration, humor....okay so some of these are qualities we would not want to claim but it was such a great way to get to know these friends better. And thanks to Brandon, I also learned that the word "run" can take on many different definitions!

Thanks to Phase 10, a good time was had by all!

Day of Rest...

I was bound and determined to enjoy my day off regardless of sunshine or not. After all, I had just spent 7 very busy days working and deserved a day of rest. I woke on my own(no alarm clock) and just laid in bed for awhile. I could also see that it looked rather cloudy out so I was not the most motivated this morning. I eventually made my way downstairs, made some coffee and enjoyed a little morning TV. It wasn't too long before I noticed the sun had made its way out of the clouds so I quickly changed and made the drive to the pool. It was pretty crowded and I ended up switching the location of my lounge chair due to the loud and obnoxious mother and her son that sat next to me. Thankfully I got in almost two hours of hit and miss sunshine before the storms rolled in. And since the entire afternoon was stormy, I thought it best to use my time wisely and take a nap! I have been moving at warp speed for the past 3 months with this new job so it was great to have a day all to myself.

I survived....

From the top chef on Friday to Betty Crocker on Saturday to party planner on Sunday I am happy to say that I made it through a busy busy weekend and I have never been more ready to have a day off like tomorrow! YEAH (and I am doing the happy dance you just can't see me)! Everything went off without a hitch and we got a lot of compliments on our arrangements, food and decor.

I am so excited for my day off tomorrow and I hope the weather will cooperate as I have high hopes of going to the Y (after working out) and spending my day poolside. I would love to see lots of sunshine but right now the weather channel is telling me otherwise. Nothing beats reading a book and taking a nap while at the pool....well maybe taking a nap and reading a book while on the beach is better but you get the idea....it involves sunshine and a body of water! That's my idea of relaxing!

This week should be much lighter on the work front as the family is dispersing for family vacations/senior trips so I'll be taking care of things while they are out of town as well as joining the senior trip next week in SC as "adult supervision"...should be interesting. In the meantime I am looking forward to catching up with my friends and family for my birthday on the 31st. Lots of good times to come!

The next Top Chef...

Now don't get excited....you will not find me in any episodes of the reality series "Top Chef" as I clearly don't have a culinary bone in my body. BUT it you could have seen me today, you might have thought otherwise. As I mentioned previously, this weekend is graduation weekend for the daughter of the family that I work for and in attempts to be our own event planners/florists/caterer, we are preparing everything for the brunch, including the food. This means that we have been grocery shopping, prepping and cooking. Today our main objective in the kitchen was to make homemade chicken salad. My boss cooked 12 packages of chicken tender meat to which we both sliced, diced and shredded. We then chopped and diced up 4 stalks of celery, 5 bundles of grapes, 5 pkgs of pecan halves (that we crushed) and all the other seasonings. I must say that I felt pretty skilled with that knife and was definitely getting the hang of chopping up the celery and grapes. It's definitely work though as some of my finger tips are sore from the intensity that I used while chopping. At the end of the day, I have a complete respect for anyone who works in the kitchen.

Whew....that's probably the most time I've spent in a kitchen actually preparing food to cook.....like ever! I really don't have any culinary skills or talent but I sure did a good job of faking it today. I thought, "If my mother could only see me now...." I still don't think she would believe it :)

Never been more ready for a Monday....

I know...you are wondering if you just read that right "...ready for a Monday"? but since I will be working all this weekend and I do mean working, I am looking forward to Monday....mostly because it's Memorial Day (a supposed paid holiday with my new job) and if the sun is shining then you'll be able to find me poolside. At least that is my plan.

This week has been as busy as I had anticipated it to be. There has been a couple unexpected turns but everything has continued to work out the way that it's supposed to work out. I'm not really all that talented when it comes to being in the kitchen but I am going to give it my all this weekend as we prepare a brunch for about 50 people. And when I say "prepare", I mean we are doing all the food and flower arrangements ourselves. It's going to be great! We have mapped out everything from prep work, cooking schedules, grocery lists, flower vases with certain flowers, everything! Whew.....

So I had hoped to run in the Urban 10K on Saturday morning but more than likely that will not happen as I know that Saturday will be a very full day at the house getting everything ready for Sunday's festivities. And I haven't been able to run much this week because of work schedules (as I also worked at Pottery Barn Kids on Wed. night). We all have overly full work weeks from time to time....it's just part of life. But I can say that I am definitely clinging to the hope of some downtime next week and hopefully some pool time on Monday! A girl can only dream....

What a week...

I didn't expect to be missing in action this week from my blog but this week seemed to get away from me and somewhere in the middle of it all, I was not feeling very good. I'm not for sure if it's slight allergy irritations as this is the season for that junk or if I was fighting off some other type of bug but I am feeling much better now! I've gotten in some good nights of sleep this week along with taking my Vitamin C again (I had run out last week) so hopefully I am over whatever it was that was slowing me down.

Work this week was a not as crazy as weeks past and we actually had some much needed "down" time to get stuff caught up, reorganized and we'll be ready to rock this week as we prepare for her daughters graduation next weekend. We are hosting a brunch before the ceremony next weekend and we are doing this event ourselves....I mean making everything. I made the invitations on the computer and sent those out weeks ago. We are doing all the flower arrangements, making all the food, everything. It will be a busy busy week but I am excited to see the fruits of our labor.

In the midst of a non-stop work schedule, I have decided that it would be "fun" to do a 10 mile race on June 21st that means last week I adopted a training schedule jumping in at week 4. Thankfully I have been running somewhat consistent over the past two months so I know that the 10 miles next month will be achievable. I did a 5k this morning that benefited the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home. I did this race last year and thought it would just be another way to get in low mileage while also contributing to a great organization. I clocked myself as finishing at 31:35 which is about 2:30 minutes faster than when I did this same course last year so that made me happy. I still would love to be an under 30 minute 5k'er. My motto for now is "slow and steady finishes the race".

I am looking forward to enjoying this weekend as I'll be working next weekend. Nothing much planned other than spending some quality time with my friends! YEAH :)

Fun in Evansville

Well my "blah"s are definitely a thing of the past after my fun weekend back in Evansville. As always my weekend was non-stop since I was back with the family but it was still rather relaxing. Friday night I did some shopping with my mom and our traditional run to Starbucks. Saturday morning I got up early....like 5:45 am early and went for a run with my dad. We did a 4 mile loop at a comfortable pace. I love running with my dad as we can usually carry on conversations...quality father/daughter time is precious to me. Sadly, my niece's soccer game was canceled but it gave me some more down time on Saturday morning before my hair appointment. There was some more shopping in the afternoon and then I took my parents out to dinner at one of my favorite local restaurants Hacienda.
Saturday night was rather relaxing at my parents house and Elaysha called around 8pm to see if she could stay all night with us. She brought over the movie "Alvin & the Chipmunks" which we watched before going to bed around 10pm. She wanted to sleep with me in the guest room so we had some fun snapping pictures in the dark:

Sunday morning we woke up to stormy weather and it was a blustery 50 degrees outside. BRRR! I could be wrong but I thought it was May. I am so tired of this crazy weather. I just want blue skies and sunshine everyday! Anywho, I didn't exactly bring the right attire for this weather and church so I watched my church in TN online instead of getting out in the yucky weather. We had my grandparents and other family over lunch on Mother's Day. It's always fun to gather with family. And my grandmother made her delicious homemade ice cream for dessert :) We also had gifts for our mother to open and I took a couple pictures:



After lunch and gifts, all of us girls (me, my mom, Elaysha, Holly and my cousins Tiffany and Hannah) watched a chick flick, "P.S. I Love You" and then I headed back to Nashville around 5:30 pm. It was such a good weekend and I know that my mom had a great Mother's Day. The only thing that was missing was our sister Amy who was unable to come up from Florida because she is still teaching in school. I used my drive back to talk to her on the phone and catch her up on all the weekend happenings.

I got back to Nashville around 8 pm, had a light dinner, unpacked, did some laundry and was in bed by 10pm. I feel recharged and ready for another week at work!

Medicine for the soul...

If you ever get a case of "the blahs" some of the best medicine around isn't actually found in a little pill but I have found it to be spending quality time with my friends. I have actually got to spend time with my friends this week and being in their company and cracking up at the silliest of things has been medicine to my soul. I have truly been blessed by the friends God has put in my life!

I am so thankful that tomorrow is Friday and that it's Mother's Day weekend because I am looking forward to driving back to Evansville to spend time with the family. I am actually more excited that usual to see the family, especially some quality time with my mom. After all, it's Mother's Day so what better way to celebrate mom than to spend time with her. I for see some shopping and a Starbucks run for sure! I will also get to see my sister Holly (also a Mom) and my niece Elaysha. I am actually going to Elaysha's soccer game on Saturday morning which should be fun to watch. Who knows what else the weekend will hold but it always goes by fast when back with the family. I'm sure I'll write more about it on Monday.

Have a great weekend and happy mom's day to all the mothers out there!

A Case of the Blahs...

I consider myself to mostly be an upbeat and positive person but for the past couple of days now I have just felt "blah". There is nothing in particular that is making me feel this way, I just do. Maybe it's a little postpartum after a great vacation or maybe it's just PMS. I just don't feel like myself and for me, rather than expose and subject others to my "blah" mood, I would prefer to just hide out in some "alone" time until it passes. I can say, as bizarre as it might sound, that going out for a run helps and I did that last night. Anything to get the good endorphins flowing!

So if I take a hiatus from blogging, you will know why but don't worry. I'll be back to myself in no time!

Working Weekend

I just realized that I really haven't blogged since my trip to FL so I best get back to it. I got a shorter work week because of the car issues at the end of the trip. Turns out that the computer in my car went bad, hence it not wanting to start. I asked the guy at the dealership "What makes a computer just quit working?" and he said that they have actually have some "issues" with the computers in the Corolla's but I now have a new one and that I was good to go. You would think that they might send out a bulletin or recall or something to let Corolla owners know of the potential problem. I am just thankful that I didn't break down in the middle of no-where Alabama and everything worked out just fine.

Well my work week isn't exactly shorter because I am staying with my bosses daughter all weekend since they are out of town. Actually I have been staying here since Tuesday night so you can only imagine how excited I am to return home tomorrow and the thought of being able to sleep in my own bed again thrills me immensely! This weekend has been pretty low key really. I slept in a little on Saturday morning and then met Jen for a late lunch and we got pedi's afterwards. I participated in the Cinco de Mayo 5k this evening. First of all, this will probably be the last "evening" race that I do because I'd prefer to get up early and run and be done with it. Secondly, I nearly missed the race. I was lounging around this afternoon thinking that the race started at 5:30 and when I decided to get online at 4:45 to make sure, I realized that the race actually started at 5:00...EEK! Thankfully I left the house at 4:50 and made record time downtown and literally was simultaneously pinning on my bib number and securing my car key when the gun sounded. I was at the back of the crowd which is fine just had to work my way out of the walkers/baby strollers and find a comfortable pace. Because I was late, I missed getting my chip timer but I used my watch and clocked myself at 31:25. Not too bad and a little better than my 5k in March. My only wish is that I had friends to run with me and do these fun events.

Tomorrow is Sunday and we are having a Singles Community kick-off after the 11 o'clock service at church so we are hopeful that we will meet some new Singles from within our church. Nothing much planned other than just looking forward to getting back home and being in my own place.