So good.

Kristin Bell was on Craig Ferguson the other night and mentioned the Surprise Kitty video from YouTube. I of course, had to look it up to see for myself.

Oh.

My.

Word.

Reeaaaallly makes me want one of these. After all, what's one more animal in the house?





Then I was watching an Oprah episode I had tivo'd and saw this performance of Mary J. Blige & Andrea Bocelli singing What Child Is This. A-maz-ing. It gave me chill bumps.

Girls Weekend on The Farm

Last weekend, I was blessed with the opportunity to join a few girlfriends for a weekend away at a beautiful cabin on some acreage just outside of Nashville. It was an open invitation to all the girls in our book club, but due to many scheduling conflicts, it ended up only being 4 of us in a gigantic 5 bedroom, 4 bath cabin/barn for 2 1/2 days. Complete and total bliss.

I'd had a rough couple weeks with all the pain from the dental surgery, roof leaking issues, HVAC quitting on us ect... I was stressed and was grateful to have a few days to recharge my batteries and do nothing but stay in my pajamas and read. And the best part about it, it was completely free. The cabin/barn belongs to a friend of one of the girls and they had offered it to her for the weekend.

I did take some pictures of The Farm (as it's referred to) so you can get an idea of this piece of heaven I was able to enjoy!
It was constructed as a barn and the right side is used for events, while the left side is the actual home.
This is what it looks like from inside the barn, you can see the stables on the right.


Here are some shots of the surrounding acreage and ponds.







We would take walks in the afternoon around the property to look at the creek, ponds, cows and this lovely little duck. It took me a couple days before I realized it was plastic. Awesome I know.
Here is the entrance to the cabin side of the barn. Aren't those rocking chairs just precious?

Once inside you see the great room that includes the dining table, living room, kitchen and pool table.

But my favorite aspect of the house was the breathtaking 20 ft fireplace surrounded by comfy leather chairs.

And can you believe I had this room all to myself? It was almost too quiet to sleep, but I'm not complaining! Gorgeous!

A huge thank you to my dear friend Julie for hooking us up that weekend and to the family that was so generous by sharing The Farm with us!

Cleaning House

Last night our church Small Group got together to discuss chapter 7 of Crazy Love by Francis Chan. If you haven't heard of it, its a great and challenging book to read. By challenging I mean, that it's pushing me to do things that aren't quite comfortable.

For example.

Do I really need all the things that I possess? I have a hard time giving up things. I wouldn't say I'm a pack rat, but I do hold onto things from the past for sentimental reasons. Doesn't everyone. I have a sucky memory, and sometimes cards or clothes helps me remember special events or moments of my life.

But then there's the fact that I despise clutter and a messy house. We don't have a huge house to begin with, and hardly any storage and the piles are starting to take over certain rooms. Ick!!! Quite frankly it freaks me out. I can easily go into a full blown panic attack when I see the mess, dust, dog-hair, boxes and crap getting out of control. I feel some simplifying coming on. I need to downsize on "stuff" and start taking it to the thrift store or just simply throwing it away. I'm not kidding y'all - getting rid of things, especially clothes, is soooo hard for me.

Maybe for further motivation, I'll show you some before & after pictures :-) Or maybe not, I get so embarrassed by the mess! We'll see.

This Dedication Goes Out To Two Fabulous Women...

they happen to also be my sisters...




I have every confidence that one day they will blow some guys' mind and those guys will realize they never knew love or a woman so amazing until he met her.

Procedures Week

Tomorrow I go in for a dental procedure in which they will extract a tooth and then immediately put in an implant. I've been given a prescription of antibiotics & Valium. And even knowing I'll be high as kite on Valium, does not bring me much comfort whatsoever. I hate dentist appointments and I have developed an intense loathing toward my old dentist who never informed me that the tooth to be removed should have been crowned in the first place. I would never be in this position had I known that. But then again, I should have gotten it crowned a year ago when I found out about it. My bad too. OH and the best part of all of this! The insurance doesn't pay for implants! Oh yes! Which MEANS, a lovely $1000 up front tomorrow and the rest needs to be paid over the next several months. Oh and did I mention we desperately need a new roof? I'd rather have a new roof than this dental appointment, but a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do. Which reminds me, I need to charge up my ipod cause it's going to be a long 2 1/2 hours tomorrow. arghhh...

ALSO - Friday we bring the boys into the vet for their fun, little neutering appointment. We were told once bad habits started to emerge, we would REALLY need to get that taken care of. When we started noticing the dogs mark their territory outside or get too aggressive, I would warn them, "Keep that up and you're going to get your nuts chopped off!" Good thing we don't have kids yet, we could leave some permanent damage with that one. So I scheduled the appointment and all of a sudden the dogs started behaving better....hmmmm...think they know? I have a feeling Seven (the black lab) does, he's been WAY too obedient not to have an idea. Oh and don't worry, I will be taking pictures of the collars that they both will be sporting to keep from licking themselves and each other. It should be awesome and hilarious - maybe a video would be even better!

But hey, isn't our new fall wreath pretty? (yes, trying to distract myself here!) It only cost me $10 plus a couple dollars worth of extra fillers.

This last weekend Jason and I went to the Nashville Farmer's Market and picked up some pumpkins, bales of hay and cornstalks to decorate for our Small Group Party tonight. The pumpkin carving will take place on the front porch to keep some of the mess out of the house and Jason hung some pretty white lights up as well to make it more festive. Jason's been cooking chili for the last three days and I made a big batch of molasses cookies last night. Plus they'll be cornbread, coffee punch and treats! I'll try to get some good pictures!

At the Farmer's Market, Jason became quite enamored with the swan and duck pumpkins he came across.
If you think of it, please say a little prayer for me tomorrow, I'm super nervous about it! Love ya all!