Chiggers, Fences and Quilts - OH MY!

Jason's parents were in town this last week with the sole intention of wanting to help us with our house and start on the wood fence. I felt really bad that they spent so much time working their tails off, but I'm not sure how else we could have gotten any of that work done ourselves!

And they were so dedicated too - they were up at the crack of dawn making Home Depot runs, digging out chain link fence posts, replacing electrical plugs in the house, installing motion sensors for the driveway - it really blows my mind how much they were able to accomplish and it blesses us to no end!! Really, I can't say Thank You enough!!

I didn't take a whole ton of pictures, because Jerry, Sherry & Jason were BEYOND dirty the majority of the time, so I knew they wouldn't appreciate their pictures plastered all over the Internet. But I did get a few that I thought you all might enjoy!

Here's Jason after digging some of these cement chain link posts out of the ground - he was SO tired this week from all the hard work!
And here's Jerry about ready to start on the frame for the fence! Our backyard is unrecognizable, they raked, dug, cleared brush, trimmed branches and gotten eaten alive by mosquito's and chiggers!! Poor Sherry counted a total of 186 chigger bites all from the knees down. I felt SO bad for her. Chigger bites are awful and look so bad too. This picture was taken after only the FIRST day. There were many more bites to come that week for her :-( I did my best to cook as many meals as I had time for to keep them well fed and full of energy. Then during the evenings once the sun had gone down, Sherry would work with me on learning how to quilt. She had bought me a Featherweight Singer antique machine for my birthday a couple years back, but I've always been too afraid to use it. But this last week, she came armed with a quilt kit and we set to work. Check out my cute quilt top!!
On Friday night, Jason had planned a writer's round at Douglas Corner with a couple of his songwriting friends, Aaron Sherz and Doug Forshey. It went really well, though there wasn't much of a crowd since the debate was on TV that night. Still, I got a couple shots of the show.

Jason and Aaron Sherz during Doug's turn of playing.

Doug watching during one of Aaron or Jason's songs.

And speaking of working on the house, I also included a couple pictures I took back when we repainted the dining room over the Labor Day weekend. We painted over the yellowish tan that the original owners had painted throughout the whole house, with a very calming stone beige. It only took us a day, so then a week later we painted the guest bathroom a light sage green. You can see the difference between the two colors in these first two pics. Here's a little after picture of the dining room once we finished.
It's been a busy month! But it feels great to get so much done too!

Feeling Helpless

On the way home from Jason's two softball games at Granny White Park last night, we decided to stop at Sonic so Jerry, Sherry, Jason and I could grab a quick treat.

As we're sitting there at the picnic tables eating our ice cream cones, I hear these little meows over and over again. I look across the parking lot and see the cutest little kitten. She looks maybe a few months old, absolutely darling and completely starving. So I get up and head across the parking lot to get a closer look. She starts rolling against the curb and begins moving closer and closer to me. One of the servers on roller skates comes over and says they've noticed a few kittens from what they think is the same litter and they've been leaving food out for them, though no one has been able to get close to this little creamy orange tabby. She offers to bring me some meat from the kitchen and maybe it will eat from me, since I'm the closest its let a person get to her.

5 minutes later I'm feeding this little cutie bits of a hamburger patty, she was just so darn hungry. Even Jason walked over and commented on just how beautiful she was.

And then I had to leave. It sucked and I'm still sick over it. It was so little and so helpless and I wasn't able to take her home with me. I'm still thinking about her.

Could you have left a little kitten just like this one?

picture from here.

Poets & Pirates

This last weekend Jason and I drove up to Louisville, Kentucky to stay at a bed & breakfast for two nights and then spend all day Saturday at the Poet & Pirates Concert that Jason had bought us tickets for as my 30th birthday present back in June.

And it was such a great weekend too. I got off work at noon on Friday and headed home to meet Jason and get out on the road.
We stopped at Hardy's for a little bite to eat in Bowling Green and then arrived at our destination of the Columbine Bed & Breakfast in the heart of Louisville.

The house was gorgeous and so peaceful. Only one other girl was staying there that Friday night and then we had the house all to ourselves the rest of the weekend. My favorite spot that I wish I could have spent more time at, was the 2nd story porch overlooking the garden. What little time we did spend out there, was spent with me curled up reading in a wicker chair and Jason working on his music.

And the delicious breakfasts were all prepared by Rich, the inn-keeper. Usually these little old bed and breakfasts appear to be run by retired couples, but to our surprise this one was run by a younger man Rich and his partner Bob. They made for some hilarious and often entertaining conversations during breakfast.


Friday evening, we took a walking tour down 3rd street and oohed and awed over the century old homes.
It was so relaxing and peaceful just strolling along the tree-lined streets. We headed further into town for dinner and found a wonderful bistro called Bristol Bar & Grille where we had pasta, salad, soup and gelato.

Saturday after spending a lazy morning around the house, we got ready for the concert and got on the road for Indianapolis, which was close to a 2 hour drive. We got there just in time for the start of the 4pm concert. And talk about getting your money's worth of tickets - not only did we have floor seats, but the concert lasted a total of 8 hours!!! Luke Bryan was first up, followed by Gary Allen, then next came LeeAnn Rimes, Keith Urban and finally Kenny Chesney. Kenny's closing of the show lasted three hours alone! It was crazy fun and I enjoyed every single minute of it!! Here's some highlights in pictures of the concert: The concert was packed out, we didn't know it until that night, but apparently this was the first concert to be held in the brand new Lucas Oil Stadium. It was 90 degrees outside, so thankfully they kept the retractable roof closed until that evening.
Gary Allan was insane to see perform live. I'm definitely going to see him again when he's in town next. I can't believe Jason has met him, I would probably pee my pants if I met him in person.
LeeAnn sang like an angel. I love her soulful and jazzy style she's been workin lately. Its so fun and she is a great entertainer!
After LeeAnn performed, they opened up the roof and by then it was much cooler. The sky was clear and it was a perfect evening for a concert.

And be still my beating heart. Every woman in the stadium grew faint as Keith Urban took the stage. To be honest, I could have watched him perform the rest of the night and just left Kenny out of it. I'm not a huge Kenny Chesney fan, and I really don't get why he's been entertainer of the year three times in a row. Keith definitely deserves a shot at it!
At one point, someone threw a little pink onesie up on the stage at him and he tucked it into his back pocket as he performed, it was just way too cute.
His band was ridiculous. Like mesmerizing and sick good. It was unreal. I thought this was a cool shot I got of the crowd.
Boy does Kenny draw a crowd. People were losing their minds and their bras. The dude had a pile of them on the stage, I just don't get it. He's like 5 foot 4 people and truly not attractive! Nope, don't get it.
Uncle Kracker came out toward the end and sang with Kenny, which was pretty fun. Because this was the last stop of the tour, the concert turned into one big party lasting until 12:30am. When we finally got back out on the road we were starving and stopped at the Steak & Shake for a bite to eat. It wasn't until 3:30am before we crawled into bed back at the bed & breakfast in Louisville. But boy did we have a great time!!!Thanks baby for a great 30th birthday present!!

Blue Jean Baby

This last Sunday night I was blessed with a rare opportunity of having over an hour long conversation with my sister Kris-tin ;-) I say rare only because she has to be one of the busiest and most dedicated people I know. I would liken her tenacity to that of a bulldog, when she sets her mind to something, she digs in her high heels until she sees it through to completion. I'm very proud of her and all that she's done with her life. She's worked her own way through years of school, dedicated herself to many jobs often at the same time and stays faithful to all her friendships. All of us at one time or other in our lives have an opportunity to allow difficult circumstances in our life to change us for the better or for the worse. And over the last few years I've watched my little sissy walk through some very trying trials. So I need her to know and anyone else who reads this, that I am so incredibly proud of her for never giving up and growing to become a better woman, daughter, sister and friend. I know its not easy and there are things that we as sisters will never be able to carry for one another or truly understand by walking in each other's shoes, but nonetheless, I do know how hard it can be to get up after life knocking you down and then having to take one step in front of the other. You continue to grow in wisdom, grace and beauty and I'm very proud to call you my sister. I love you bunches and miss you dearly.

Your big sister - Kimmers

The Things I Miss In Seattle

Other than the obvious of missing my family and friends, there are a few other things that I dearly miss about Seattle.

Red Leaf Maple Trees

The beaches and ferries

A delicious Jamba Juice

LUSH

Don't get me started on this one.

I would give anything to find some good chinese food in this town. Sigh....

Drive thru coffee shacks. Seriously, Nashville has ZERO.

Supposedly we'll have our own Nordstrom in the next year or so.

This is the first place Jason and I want to stop whenever we're in town. Yum-my.

I miss everyone and all these fun places, hopefully I can get back out there for a visit in the near future.

Not Your Average Monday!

So this morning I got into work at 9:10am. 10 minutes later a man walks into our offices and sneaks into David's office down the hallway from me and steals two laptops and a blackberry device. David happened to be down the hall a couple offices talking to a co-worker during this robbery. An email was sent out to all of us here in the office notifying us what happened and those of us on the 27th floor were stunned that we didn't see this man or anything that took place!

A couple hours later a woman calls David at his desk and says that she has his blackberry and she's calling for the password to get into it. He was like. "Um no!" and then because he has a note posted on his blackberry offering a reward if found, she proceeds to have the nerve to ask for the reward in exchange for his blackberry. He asked how much she wanted for it and she said $30. $30!!! When David got off the phone with her he called the police, who immediately came into the office to discuss the robbery and they got back on the phone with the woman. Thinking she was only talking to David, she set up a meeting time and gave him her address. At 1:45pm today undercover detectives and officers set up a sting operation to meet the woman and retrieve the stolen blackberry and try to locate the laptops. After meeting the woman they were able to search her apartment (which was a different address than she originally gave) and they didn't find the laptops. She said that she got the blackberry from a guy who I'll call Jed for the time being, and she would take them to Jed right then!

The police meet Jed and asked him where he got the blackberry and apparently this guy isn't quite all there mentally, but he does give the police a description of the man who gave him the blackberry to which he gave in turn to the woman. Following me still??

Jed says the man that sold him the blackberry was a tall black man, average build, light blue shirt and dark blue pants. The police pass on the description to David here in our office and they head down to security to check the surveillance cameras. Sure enough, a man that fits that description exactly was seen walking the sky-bridge into our building at 9:20am, reading something on a blackberry and carrying a bag, then leaving the same way he came in at 10:00am.

UN-BELIEVABLE!

So let's lay this all out for you. A man, more than likely armed, walks into our office FULL of people working in the middle of the morning and steals equipment not even 10 feet from my desk. I told David that either this man has an inside guy who told him exactly where to go and get out of there without being seen, OR he came into the office looking for the first thing to steal and thankfully seeing David's office first and unoccupied decided to go in there and take what he could. If for any reason, he passed on David's office within a few steps he would have ended up standing directly in front of Brooke and I.

In the end, it was really a blessing that he didn't run into anyone and that no one was hurt. The woman is being brought in for questioning and hopefully we'll know more sometime tomorrow. At first the whole thing was very exciting, but then once I realized how serious this could have been, its been extremely sobering.

Talk about your unusual Monday. Thank you God for watching out for us!