This last weekend was so wonderful, I don't even know where to begin. Well let me back up and first explain what's been going on. I've had a lot of doctor & dentist appointments lately trying to figure out what's causing so much pain in my jaw and teeth lately. It's been almost 6 weeks now of appointments and very little answers. I've yet to see the same doctor twice...yea nice. I'm not real big on doctors, needles or anything of the sort, so every time I go, I get super nervous and have a restless night. Last Thursday I went to see an oral surgeon, because I thought maybe this wisdom tooth I know needs to come out, is what's causing all this pain. His name is Dr. David Malin and I thought he was wonderful. He gave me really no good news, but I still liked him a lot. From what he says, I have a molar that is cracked in two places and will more than likley need that root canal after all, then a crown, and another crown for the tooth next to it and when I'm all done with that - to come back and see him to get that wisdom tooth pulled. Lord have mercy. I go back to an endodontist specialist (another new doctor) tomorrow afternoon for the consultation on this molar - I'm praying that its not so damaged that they can still save the tooth. Dr. Malin warned me that if its cracked to the bone, they will need to pull the whole tooth and put in an implant. Just writing that makes me woozy. I was having quite a few nightmares there for a while that my teeth were falling out. Talk about making a girl feel old. I just keep telling myself that as awful as all this will be to go through, I'll feel ten times better than I have these last 6 weeks.

So anyway - back to the wonderful weekend! On Thursday night I found out that Jason had Friday night off. I was so excited that we were going to have some time alone and trying to figure out something fun to do. Maybe a drive-in movie or dinner out. I get home from work and Jason tells me - "You've got 20 minutes to pack!" What??!! I was so excited I didn't know what to do with myself! I packed my stuff and off we went. He didn't budge the entire 45 minute drive and of course I kept pestering him to tell me where we were going. The drive was beautiful too - just gorgeous trees and landscapes the whole way there. Finally we pulled up to the Monteagle Inn in Monteagle, TN. Do I have an awesome man or what?? A weekend away at a B&B is exactly what we needed. He had booked us there for two nights and made plans for us to spend Saturday in Chattanooga. We had such a blast and we took tons of pictures too (and that's without Kati's help - amazing huh?!) We stayed in the Sequatchee Room, named after a nearby river. It was so cozy and relaxing, I could have stayed holed up in our room together for days. Doesn't Jason have great taste?

On Saturday morning we were up for an early breakfast (and I mean early y'all, like 8am early!) and then we headed off to Chattanooga. Jason had planned for us to spend the day at Lookout Mountain. And no, we're not talking a hiking trip either. This place is so very cool! It's three different attractions that you buy tickets for and go see. It takes close to 5-6 hours total to tour all three - Rock City, The Incline and Ruby Falls. First we headed up the mountain to Rock City.

And if you don't like heights or enclosed spaces, then this is NOT the place for you to visit. This part of Rock City was called The Needle's Eye. Originally the land belonged to Garnet & Frieda Carter, who back in 1932 had owned over 700 acres. And when the depression hit, Frieda focused on creating her "rock garden" with collections of plants & trees from all over the world. And thus began Rock City.

This fountain was inside one of the caverns of Rock City.

I was able to steady myself for a minute long enough to snap a picture of Jason walking across the Swing-A-Long Bridge, which stretches over 180 feet across. My legs were so wobbly by the time we crossed.

We saw this old firetruck right by the bird show - and yes, I'm being a dork. :-)

I was able to get a picture with this beautiful bald eagle who was a part of the bird show.

And here's Jason with a Screech Owl. The poor thing had been hit by a car and that's why its right eye is all messed up. We were able to touch it and I started to get a little attached. I thought maybe it would make a great pet. I know Banks would love it!

Jason got the camera for a while and kept saying, "Give me some!" as he took pictures.

This is Lover's Leap inside of Rock City. According to folklore, a young brave named Sautee fell deeply in love with Nacoochee, a beautiful Cherokee maiden. Nacoochee loved Sautee as well, but their tribes were engaged in a bitter feud. The two finally ran off together, but Sautee was soon captured and thrown from the tip of Lovers' Leap. The despairing Nacoochee quickly followed her lover, leaping to her own death far below.

This picture was taken on top of Lover's Leap. Jason is facing The Seven States Flag Court which is a lasting tribute to each of the seven states you can see from this view - Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

One of the tunnels we walked through in Rock City, but this one was called Goblins Underpass, so Jason is doing his best impersonation of a goblin.

There's a section of Rock City called Fairyland. Frieda Carter had a thing for fairies and fantasy, so her husband built her an attraction within the caves of all the storybook characters and using blacklights. I've included a couple pictures of what it looked like inside.

And that was our trip inside Rock City!

Our second stop on Lookout Mountain was to The Incline. I don't have many pictures of this, because I was a bit nervous and too distracted to take any. It's a mile long and the grade gets up to 72 %, its also the worlds steepest railway. Thankfully it goes slow, because it looked too much like a roller coaster to me.

And finally, our last stop was to Ruby Falls. Leo Lambert drilled a hole for an elevator shaft and came upon an air pocket 260 feet below ground. He crawled through that tunnel which was only 18 inches high at the time and 5 feet wide. 17 hours later he returned telling of a huge waterfall that he discovered and named after his wife Ruby. After they widened the tunnel, he opened up Ruby Falls to the public and since 1930, visitors have been taking an elevator down 260 feet and touring the cave to see this amazing waterfall. It is huge and breathtaking.

These were some pictures that I took of the formations we saw underground in the caves on the way to the waterfall. The lights were actually added to give effect to the caves.

This was called Mirror Pool, it was pretty small, but so very cool. I have no idea where the water came from to form this little pool.

This was called the Niagra Falls rock formation.

And finally we saw the great Ruby Falls. It was so amazing. You could walk around the base of it and droplets were just floating through the air. This weekend was just simply so amazing and wonderful. We had such a great time and so much fun together. We had dinner & dessert at a little outside cafe in downtown Chattanooga and eventually headed back to the inn. Sunday was very mellow with sleeping in late, a slow drive home, touring a few homes in East Nashville, dinner at Rafferty's and a movie before bed. I absolutely had the best weekend and I'm so blessed to be married to such an amazing man. I love you sweetie and thank you for being so wonderful :-)

Hope Deferred

Yesterday was hard. I didn't sleep much the night before because I was so anxious about having to say goodbye to my youngest sister Kati. After only getting a few hours of sleep, I was overly emotional and cried off and on most of the morning every time I thought of her leaving. Jason was so sweet to bring both Kati and Rosie down to my work one final time to have coffee together, which helped ease the departure. After all of that, her flight ended up being so delayed that she would have missed her connection and ended up in Salt Lake City overnight. I told her NOT to get on the plane and ask if she can get her flights switched to today (Wednesday). They were very sweet to her and even upgraded her to first class for part of her trip and she heads out at 2pm this afternoon. When I called Kris to tell her that Kati would be here another day she said "Hope deferred makes the heart sick". I asked her what she meant and she explained "Kati is hope, her plane was deferred and it makes my heart sick" awww...

We have had a wonderful time these last five weeks and I've so enjoyed the company all those evenings when Jason is away at work. Its been so nice to carpool into work together, watch So You Think You Can Dance together, stay up late and watch movies, cook dinners...I'm so sad to let her go.

If you haven't already been to her blog, then these pictures will seem new to you. I had to steal a few that she took off my camera, since I don't have it with me right now. As she had explained, we did a lot over the weekend - the fair, the pool, Opryland Hotel and mall, Ted's Montana Grill, Loveless Cafe, Alan Jackson's mansion, saw Bourne Ultimatum... it's been crazy busy and thankfully I was able to take Monday off to make the weekend last even longer! If it hadn't been so hot lately, we would have done more outdoor things like canoeing, but its been a 100 degrees for the last few days - which is really hot!

I'm back at work now, trying to get back into the groove of things, sipping hot coffee out of my Seattle Starbucks mug, tending to my boss's whims and knowing full well that I'm going home to an empty house tonight. I'll probably end up cleaning to take my mind off things...that tends to be the Kelly way :-) But hey, there's always ....So You Think You Can, So You Think You Can, So You Think You Can...Dance, Dance Dance!

I hope both Kati & Rosie enjoyed the last few days they were with us and that we were able to give them a good idea of life in Nashville. They were so much fun to be around and are welcome back anytime. I love you both and look forward to seeing you when we come home at Thanksgiving!!

Well it seems that every time I have new pictures or stories to post, my sister Kati has already beaten me to the punch. For those of you that don't already know, Kati's friend Rosie Pucchio is flying out tomorrow to spend the next few days with us before both her and Kati both fly back to Seattle on Tuesday. And don't even get me started on that - it makes me a little sick to my stomach to think I'm going to lose her in just a few days. These last five weeks have flown by and its been so nice to show her around Nashville and to have her around the office. Now if I can only talk my other sister Kris into coming out for a visit to see me, my year would be perfect!

We have tons planned this weekend - but whether we actually accomplish all of it remains to be seen. So far I have planned a possible outdoor movie in a park, Cracker Barrel, the Williamson County fair, Loveless Cafe, Opryland for shopping and to see the mall, a possible canoe river ride, hittin the honkey-tonks on Broadway, hanging out at the pool and a chocolate chip cookie bake-off between Jason and I. Its a lot to cram in just a few days, but we'll find a way!

I've included a couple pictures from a little walk we took up a trail from one of the sites from the Battle of Franklin. Obviously you can see quite the sense of humor my husband has. :-)

And no, I'm not pregnant....but I thought it would be fun to see what it might look like someday!

I hope everyone's summer is going well - don't forget to leave a comment, its so nice to hear from y'all!

Don't Mess With Mrs. McGraw!

Apparently Faith Hill had to teach a lesson of respect to an audience member for grabbin her man's privates during a performance on their Soul2Soul2 tour in Louisiana.

She may be a performer & celebrity, but she's a wife and mother first!! You go Faith!

You can watch the video clip of what happened below.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game!!

A week ago, Jason's sister Kelley and her husband Scott were out here for a visit to Nashville. And over that weekend, Jason had been planned for the four of us to take a trip to Chicago and see some sights and attend a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. We took off on our adventure Friday afternoon and drove the 8 hours up to Chicago. It really is a beautiful drive and for a lot of the drive, Jason was able to practice singing from memory a bunch of number #1 hits just in case he gets on Don't Forget The Lyrics. As much as I thought Jason could remember every song imaginable, his sister Kelley put him to shame, cause she remembers even more songs than he does!! The two were quite the duo belting out all kinds of hits from the 50's through the 80's.

Once we got to Chicago, we were surprised to find out that our hotel had been overbooked and only one room was available. So we had ourselves a little slumber party and stayed all together the first night. You can see the made up bed where Scott is standing in this picture I've included.

Saturday was full of sight-seeing! We took the Architectural Boat Tour of Chicago in the morning and walked around Chicago in the beautiful sunshine.

Chicago is really a huge city. I think its way bigger than Seattle and I was almost overwhelmed with their transportation system. There were subways above & below the ground, buses, trains....it was crazy. We of course had to experience the deep-dish Chicago-style pizza for lunch, which didn't disappoint. Later that evening we headed over to the Sears tower, which at one time was the tallest building in the world. 110 floors! I was nervous at first to ride the elevator up that high, but it literally took just a little more than a couple minutes to get to the top - that's fast!! The view was breathtaking and felt more like a view from an airplane, than an actual building. Even the other skyscrapers looked small in comparison.

Unfortunately the evening ended early for us because I wasn't feeling that well thanks to my tooth/jaw thing and an upset stomach. I'm hoping that in the future we can find a cheap southwest flight and head up for another weekend when I'm feeling better and can enjoy it more. I know its one of Jason's favorite cities and there's just too much to see and do to fit in just one weekend. Plus I've been told the shopping is amazing and I would love to see inside some of the stores ;-)

Sunday we slept in and started the morning out right with Starbucks - which was conveniently located right across from our hotel! Then it was off to the subway or "L", whichever it is, it head over to Wrigley Field. We weren't quite sure where we were going, so we decided to just follow everyone in Cubs attire. The field was so awesome. I'm used to Safeco Field, where everything is so new, but this place was so authentic and old, I loved it. We ate hot dogs, cotton candy, peanuts - and top it all off, the Cubs had a great game!

The drive back was a bit long and I had to work the next morning - but overall the weekend was pretty fun and we got some great pictures. Hopefully we can go back again soon and spend more time there. Enjoy all the pictures!

Wild Goose Chase

I'm starting to fall apart...not emotionally, but physically - the emotional part may be soon to follow if this keeps up. Maybe its cause I'm getting closer to 30 and that starts to happen? If you know me at all, you know I'm not a big fan of doctors, dentists or anyone else that has the right to poke, prod or drill into your body. And since moving out to Tennessee, I've managed to find all my doctors just fine, good ones too that I really like...but there has been one that I've procrastinated on finding...and that would be a dentist. Eww. I can't stand going to the dentist and I spend hours and even days before my appointments very anxious.

Well I've finally been having so much pain in my right upper jaw, that I made myself go and had it checked out. My friend Leslie recommended her dentist Dr. Shulman. I made my appointment and prepared myself to find out I needed a filling. He was nice enough and took some x-rays and said that he thought I might need a root canal, since he couldn't find a cavity where I was experiencing pain, but he wasn't sure. Lovely. I've had one of those, they're no fun, but neither is anything you experience at a dentist. So he tells me I'm going to have to see an Endodontist Specialist to be sure. Ok...

I make an appointment with Dr. Sheats for two days later per Dr. Shulman's recommendation. I go through the whole anxiety thing again with another restless night of tossing & turning and dreaming of needles, Novocaine and drills. But at least I'm going to do this before our trip to Chicago the next day and get it over with. So I go in to see Dr. Sheats and they do all these fun little tests - the bite test, where you literally bite on a stick (something I could have done myself); a cold test, where they put freezing cold water on a q-tip and touch it to your teeth to see if you experience pain (again, could have done that at home); and finally, a tapping test, where they bang the crap out of your teeth with their little metal tool, once again to see if I feel any pain. And I'm imagining these highly-technical tests aren't free. After all of this, I'm now in quite a bit of pain, more from the tests than my actual ailment. So Dr. Sheats tells me I need the root canal and takes me off to the billing department. They tell me it'll cost $500 out of pocket! Excuse me? I might as well fly home and get it done for next to nothing! Um, no thank you! So I leave that dentist office and go off in search of another Endodontist that is actually covered by my insurance. Now we're at the point of scheduling my third dentist appointment and having no actual work being done so far. My pain isn't unbearable, so I make my third appointment for a week later, which was yesterday morning. Again, starting to get super nervous and just really wanting to get this over with.

Finally I see Dr. Murray. Very nice guy, does all the same tests - biting, tapping and chilling. No pain. He looks at my xrays and tells me I DON'T need a root canal. And as my grandmother Ann would've said "Oh for crying out loud!". This dentist tells me that he believes that what can often be mistaken as a need for a root canal is actually pain caused from clenching and what looks to be the start of TMJ. I actually think he might be right with this one. I don't have one particular tooth in pain, but the right side of my face and ear hurts off and on and I know I do have a tendency to clench at night and when under stress. The need for three different dentist appointments was enough to stress me out. I guess eventually I'll need to head back to the original dentist Dr. Shulman and get fitted for a night guard to see if that helps. To top it all off, I've developed white sores in the back of my throat. Yea me. See, I told you I'm falling apart. I'm very much looking forward to this weekend of sleeping in with my hunny, catching up on So You Think You Can Dance, lounging at the pool with Kati and baking some yummy treats.

Thank God Its Friday!

I love this video. My dad sent it to us girls and it made me laugh :-)



Happy Friday everyone!

Random Information

Since I haven't had a chance to download my recent pictures from this last weekend's trip to Chicago, I thought I would share some random information with you. It was while we were in Chicago waiting to be seated at a pizzeria, when Kelley and I noticed that there was a little girl about 8 or 9 years old staring at me. I recognized her stare right away - its the look people get when they see someone with two different color eyes for the first time. It's caused all kinds of reactions - I mean all kinds.
When I was a little girl, my eyes were blue like most babies. Then after a few months, one eye got darker and the other remained the same. My mom took me to the doctor and he explained this happens sometimes, but it was nothing to be concerned about. As a young child with this condition, I thought I was cursed. Kids were ruthless in teasing me and making fun of my eyes. When your young, being different is weird and strange, but as you get older, you become unique and cool. I remember one time when a bunch of little boys from an inner city that we were ministering in, took one look at me and called me a witch. It started to draw a lot of attention from the kids and my only way of curbing the situation, was to tell them that if they didn't stop, I would put a curse on them. That seemed to do the trick ;-) I've also had many people comment that they had only seen this in animals, such as cats or huskies. This is true, even my first dog, Frodo had two different color eyes like me - we had a special bond because of it.
As I've grown older I've heard some serious doozies. For instance, while I was getting my oil changed in Shoreline a number of years ago, a mechanic walked up to me and thought he would be all sly and tell me that I was missing a contact. That's the most common one I hear. Or I often get asked if I'm aware that I have two different color eyes? Really? Get out! My favorite was while at a grocery store a couple years ago. The teller at the cash register tried to actually convince me that I was blind in my left eye. She said she'd seen that before, and that's what was wrong with it. Oh how we love stupid people. OH and I love this one! I have actually had a number of people ask me if I can see more blue out of one eye and more brown out of the other. Seriously?
(central heterochromia)

When I got into my early twenties, I wanted a name for it. An explanation. Something to be able to explain to people when they gave me that look like a booger was hanging out of my nose or that I had just grown a third eyeball. It was while visiting Christ Church Metro that an eye specialist had been visiting and I had found my answer. He told me it was called Heterochromia. Only one in a million people have it. For example - here's a list of people that you may not have known have two different colored eyes as well: Dan Aykroyd, Kate Bosworth, David Bowie and Jane Seymour (who I've met).
Heterochromia is caused by one parent carrying the usual normal autosomal chromosome that most people have and then the other parent is a carrier of the abnormal autosomal chromosome. If that happens, then the abnormal chromosome becomes dominant and with it automatically carry's a 50% chance of giving the child two-different colored eyes. So basically - I'm a carrier (duh) and if I have four kids, then two of them will more than likely have eyes like mine and two of them the same color eyes. Just like one of my parents is obviously a carrier and if they had one more child, then that child would probably have eyes like me. Not to mention, Kris & Kati might be carriers as well, but just ended up being the other 50% that doesn't show the trait (like mom & dad) - but their kids have a 50-50 chance as well. Kinda interesting...hopefully your not all bored by this point. I added some more pics just for the heck of it. These pictures are of other people I found that have heterochomia to different degrees.
(sectoral heterochromia)

(full heterochromia)

And you know what else is cool? We have our own special holiday - July 12th "Different Colored Eyes Day" (click here to see more).

That's it for now - I'll be back soon with an update on Scott & Kelley's visit with us and our trip to Chicago this last weekend as soon as I get my pictures up!

Wow have we been busy! This last week has been so crammed with activity - and as Kati will attest to, there's never a dull moment in the Keith home. And as a disclaimer, this blog contains quite a few kissing pictures...so you'll just have to deal.

I had forgot to mention that last Thursday night I took Kati to see a friend of ours performing at Christopher's Pizza downtown. After shopping for Kelley's wedding, we met up with my friend Brooke and saw our friend Cody Bender and his band perform. Which by the way, Cody is the one that sings "Unspoken" on Jason's MySpace page. I attached a picture of him for y'all below. Then Friday night was Kelley's wedding and only one picture turned out cause the lighting wasn't all that great. It was a very low-key wedding and small reception and we stayed for a couple hours before heading downtown to peek in on Jason while he was working. After all, we were all dressed up and had to get a little mileage out of looking cute :-) I added a picture of Kelley & Doug from their wedding and then this is also Kati and I all dolled up for the wedding.
Saturday Kati & I were up early (at least early for me on a Saturday) by 8:30am and off to LP Field where The Call was being held as an all day event. And it was hot - very hot. Thankfully we were able to get up to the club level where there was plenty of air conditioning to cool off every now and then. We weren't quite sure what to expect of the event, but it turned out to be mostly prayer, worship & testimonies. It was pretty good and I really enjoyed the music. Even our local celebrity artists Ricky Skaggs & Michael W. Smith (who is a worship leader at a church out here) showed up to do a couple songs. Kati held out and stayed through the whole day, while I left to meet up with Jason at 4:30 that afternoon. One thing that I thought was so funny though, was this guy's t-shirt. He was hardcore I'm tellin' ya. If you click on the picture, you can see a close up of Jesus in a boxing ring and it says "Undefeated" below it. It reminded me of the t-shirts my dad used to wear when we were kids!! This one's for you dad! Now speaking of Jason....what was he up to that morning you might be wondering? Well let me just tell you. He was auditioning at a casting call for a new show called, "What Are The Lyrics?"! We had seen this show advertised on TV before and he had mentioned on numerous occasions that he would love to be on that show. Ok babe. Then there Kati & I am sitting watching TV after the wedding Friday night when the ad comes on TV and says that there will be open casting calls at the Wildhorse Saloon Saturday afternoon!! Get out!! When Jason got home, I was so excited to tell him that he the opportunity to actually try out! At first he was like, "No...I've got too much going on tomorrow". WHAT??!! "Boy, you better get your buns down there and win us a million dollars!" For those of you that don't know this, my sweet husband has a mind of steel. He can memorize a song on the radio the second time he hears it. He sings along to every song from Nat King Cole to Fergie! It's a gift I believe he's picked up from his mom, because she too remembers lyrics amazingly well too. So anyway - he brushes off the idea and I head off to bed, shocked that he's not jumping at the idea. 3:30am rolls around and I feel this tapping on my arm. "I have to do this, I have to try out or I'll kick myself for not going. What time do you think I should be there?" Atta baby! So Saturday morning he grabs his water, stool, book and hat and heads to wait in line at the Wildhorse Saloon. My poor love sat there by himself for over an hour before anyone else showed up. He was the first one in line and ready to audition. And boy did he make me proud! He had to take a written test to weed out the people that weren't that good, then he had to sing in front of a group - which he did his impersonation of "Swingin" by Jon Anderson and everyone loved and finally he also sang "Two Pina Coladas" by Garth Brooks. They loved him and asked him to come back the following day for another audition. Yea!!

Sunday we headed off to church and then lunch with Genesis & Steven at Baja Burrito. Then Jason was off to his next audition. Once again they wanted him to sing, but this time on camera! They gave him a list of 5 songs and told him to pick the one he knew the best. So there's my rugged manly husband beltin' it out to "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cindy Lauper. Making me proud. He sang it again for Kati & I when he got home and oh my word. If this is ever aired on national television, you will all die from laughing so hard. They loved him and asked if he knew any pop songs, so he gave them a little Fergie. The show airs tonight on Fox for the first time at 8.30pm. If the show does well, they will start filming more episodes and we'll wait to hear back on whether they want to keep Jason. They really liked him a lot and said to not worry if it takes a few weeks to hear back from them. So who knows - his gift of remembering lyrics could possibly win us a lot of money!! Don't forget to watch tonight to support the show!
Last night was Jason's championship baseball games. He had two back to back and played so incredibly well! They won both their games and it was so much fun & exciting to watch! The second team was a young one and very cocky. They thought they were going to school our more "mature" team, but we had something else for them in mind :-) And for them playing two games back to back with even a couple guys gone, I was so proud of how well they played!! Jason was out there hitting home runs and stealing bases...it was so awesome! Here's a couple pictures from the game that Kati took with her phone. The first is me giving Jason his congratulatory kiss even though he's all sweaty and gritty (thus the face) and the second picture is of his team.

Kati & I are both here at work today. It's her first day at the office and the poor thing is so bleary-eyed. Unfortunately, she got so used to Jason's schedule the last week staying up with him till the wee hours of the morning, that she couldn't fall asleep last night and is soo tired. We had to do a little Starbucks to help kick-start the day. Jason picked up his sister Kelley and her husband Scott last night at the airport pretty late and they're home hanging out today. I'm not sure what we'll be up to tonight, since Jason has to work and I'll be home with everyone. Of course, I could always force everybody to watch So You Think You Can Dance and What Are The Lyrics and order pizza. :-) Sounds like fun to me!

Kati's Here!

Well I trust you all had a wonderful 4th of July! It was so great to spend it with my little sister Kati! She flew in on Tuesday afternoon and was immediately thrown into the evening preparations of getting ready for small group. And I'm pretty sure the entire group showed up too. I wasted no time in putting Kati to work and had her vacuum the apartment (hey, she offered!) . There was probably 15 or more of us squeezed into our living room and we served up some grubbin food. I'm not bragging or anything, but Jason & I can hold our own in the kitchen and it was so fun to be able to entertain our friends in our home!!

We have been so busy lately! Last weekend was spent mostly doing nothing but finishing up house projects. I had been desperately trying to finish a wall collage of our wedding pictures for the bedroom, plus we got Jason's old school desk moved from the porch to the guest room and then moved the computer to his desk. And yes, I was stressed. I didn't know how everything was going to be ready in time for Kati's arrival and Tuesday night's small group. But then Jason told me to trust him and sure enough the little elves worked through the night and got it all finished :-) Sometimes it really pays off to be married to a night owl (er, elf). But speaking of night owl - my oh-so-yummy husband has recently discovered Scrabble tournaments...online....please tell me this is a good thing. ;-) Last I heard, he was competing with people from Germany!!!

So anyway, back to this week. Tuesday was great with having Kati finally here and Wednesday we relaxed and headed over to Steven & Genesis' house for a BBQ with some friends. That evening we took Kati downtown for the fireworks show and watched it from my office on the 28th floor. It was amazing - these huge fireworks were all at eye level and just incredible. Yesterday and today has been no picnic getting back into the swing of things for work and my attorney has returned from his 10 day vacation hopped up on caffeine. It's been fun. *sarcastic*

I hope Kati is enjoying herself lounging by the pool and journaling on her laptop. I'm envious and so looking forward to the coming weekend. Tomorrow, Kati & I will be at The Call in the Titan's Stadium, but other than that, I'm hoping for a restful weekend.

Oh and tonight, I'm dragging Kati off to Kelley Skiles wedding with me. Jason's got to work, but at least I don't have to go alone! And if you read Kati's blog, then your well aware that I bought four, yes four, dresses last night when we went shopping cause I couldn't decide which one to get. Now you all know why I don't go to the mall much. It's too dangerous. But at least it was Charlotte Russe - one of my favorite stores because of how cute it is and how cheap too!! And I NEVER wear dresses, so this is a big step for me.

Stay tuned, there's sure to be lots more to come!!

Best Home Remedy - Nail Polish!

Last Friday was our firm picnic and I truly didn't expect it to be that great. I haven't been to a whole lot of company events where I wasn't bored and uncomfortable. But Friday's picnic completely surprised me! Sam Bartholomew, one of the original founding attorneys of this firm, has 180 acres in Kingston Springs with two huge ponds, one for fishing and one attached to a huge covered picnic area with a BBQ pit and a boat launch for paddleboats. Then just across from the pond, there's a good size adorable cabin that was built back in 1780!!! It was the coolest thing and when I first saw it, my response to Brooke and Kacie was "Look! They have their very own Cracker Barrel!" It had a huge screened in porch with rocking chairs, a swing, adorable guest rooms, a big old stone fireplace and in the kitchen you could see over hundred year old newspapers that were sealed into the walls that they had used to patch the holes. I loved this place. Too bad Sam wasn't one of the CEO's I had worked for, cause I would have definitely hit him up for having family reunions out there. Sam took Brooke, Kacie and her boyfriend Dan and myself out on the Gator (which is like a four-wheeler with a flat bed in the back) for a ride out on his property. And it was quite the ride. The three of us girls in the bed of that gator had to have been quite the sight. We were all tucked in and ready for our ride! So off we went and I don't think we stopped laughing for a solid 30 minutes. The picnic was fully catered with the best southern food - ribs, fried chicken, creamed corn, BBQ beans, sweet tea and blackberry cobbler...and if you can't tell, I had a blast. I did take a couple pictures of the property, but I hadn't gotten my storage card for the camera yet, so I could only take 3 pictures. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Kacie, Dan, Brooke & I out on the paddleboat - we were 1 inch from sinking this thing in the middle of the pond. And Kacie and Brooke thought they'd conquer the blow up slide, which in itself was completely hysterical to watch.

I did leave with some souvenirs however, 43 nasty chigger bites. Please don't misunderstand, these things are nothing like mosquito bites. A chigger is a small microscopic bug that bites you and then crawls inside your skin. I googled a picture to see if I could show you all a picture and ended up completely freaking myself out and decided maybe that wasn't such a good idea. When I got home, I didn't feel anything, I just saw some red spots on my legs. Then two days later these blisters popped up on my skin looking like chicken pox. What the heck??? The itching that soon followed cannot be described. No amount of cream could bring the sweet relief I was in need of. I went into work on Monday and immediately had to take off my shoes because of the pain. My attorney Larry proceeded to give me the "Bugs of the South 101" lesson and diagnosed me with chigger bites and then tells me to go buy some clear fingernail polish. Ok what? You lost me at polish. Turns out that clear fingernail polish suffocates these little boogers in my skin, killing the bug and brings relief to the itch so the bite will heal. It is the best home remedy ever!! I'm using polish on all my bites in the future! It doesn't rub off or need reapplying every hour - and it stays on better than a band aid - I love it!!! So lesson learned - if your near the woods in the South, wear bug spray EVEN if you don't see any bugs...trust me, they are there. And apparently every true Southerner has learned this little secret, cause when I've told someone I have chigger bites, the first thing everyone asks me is - you got clear fingernail polish?

The weekend was a slow one for us. We've been fighting some flu bug off and decided to take advantage of the free weekend to get some much needed sleep and rest. It's hit Jason harder than me and he literally slept most all Saturday and half of Sunday before he went into work that night. I took a picture of how peaceful he looked Saturday afternoon, isn't he adorable?

Oh and some great news - I got a raise!! Yeah!!!

Summer...Summer...Summertime!

That's right y'all - we're in the midst of our crazy hot summer here in Nashville and things are starting to heat up for sure! This last week has been a busy one with Jason's parents here for a visit. We packed in as much as we could and a had a great time...and yes, of course we had to do a puzzle! Jason seems to be getting into this whole puzzle thing now, because one night after I went to bed, he stayed up with his mom till almost 4am and almost finished it. I don't know what's got into him lately, but he must be catching the puzzle-bug. Some highlights with Jerry & Sherry that are for sure worth mentioning is having lunch at the Loveless Cafe, dinner at Mortons Steakhouse for Father's Day, (in which we also saw Don King with his entourage), and a Writer's Round at The Commodore in West End with Jason, Jeff Batson and Aaron Sherz performing!! And as a special treat, Jason and his parents were able to drive down to Atlanta to catch a Red Sox game on Monday night.

I had bought a new camera and had planned on taking some pictures, but of course forgot during the most opportune times...dangit. I've got to get better at this!!

Now its back to things as usual, just until we expect our next visitor, my sister KATI!! She flies in on July 3rd, just eleven days from now and I'm starting to get really excited!

Some of you have asked about the status of our hold with Rodney Atkins - well, we're still waiting. It turns out that because his current album is still doing so well, they're going to release a 4th single before starting to record his new album sometime in late August/early September. If you ever feel like you need learn some lessons in patience....Nashville's your town ;-) Jason's a pro at taking it all in stride and trusting God...but I'm still learning. We've been told its a 10 year town - and we're on year number 8. I'm so proud of Jason for sticking in there all these years, most of them on his own, because as I'm fast learning its not an easy business by any means.

In just a short 5 months, we'll be looking to buy a house - yippee!! I can barely contain myself and I try not to get too crazy by browsing through realtor websites, but its just too much fun not to! I've also recently discovered a fun new website for home decor ideas Rate My Space by HGTV.com. I've been in an apartment for the last 6 years and I'm soooo ready to own our house, paint some walls, decorate and then fill it up with family and friends. It's going to be a blast!

I hope your all enjoying some great weather and plenty of BBQ's back home. I'll be up and running with the new camera soon - so stay tuned!

Wow

So many of you know that So You Think You Can Dance has got to be my all time favorite show. And last night was the first episode showcasing the top 20 dancers. I wasn't able to watch the whole thing, but I did see the first hour and oh my word.

Lacey Schwimmer blew my socks off. For an insanely cool performance - watch below

Waiting On Hold

If I could let out a big ol yelp and at the same time remain completely calm, that’s how I would describe my current mood. Crazy I know, but I’m under strict orders not to get too carried away with excitement over Jason having a song PUT ON HOLD!!! That’s right folks – its freakin’ awesome!! Uh…(*clear throat*)…I mean its great news and we hope it all works out just fine.
Out here in Nashville, when you say you’ve got a song on hold, it’s as foreign to Seattle folk as it is to Nashville folk saying, “I’ll have a double skinny no foam cap”. So for those back home, let me break it down for y’all.

Jason and typically one other writer will get together to write a song over the course of a few weeks. Once the song is finished, Jason will then go into the guest bathroom with his guitar and microphone and lay down what we call a “rough cut” (because as we all know, bathrooms have the best acoustics). From there, this “rough cut” is oftentimes taken to our friend Jason Roller and he will lay down all the instrumental tracks – like literally ALL the instruments himself. Roller then mails the instrumental track back to us and Jason will hire a demo singer and schedule a demo session at Aaron Sherz’s recording studio. Once the vocal track gets laid down, we wait a bit for Aaron to work his mixing & editing magic and we end up with a fabulous demo track to pitch to publishers, record labels and artists. These would be the songs that you find on Jason’s MySpace page for example.

At this point, Jason starts to set up meetings with various publishers on Music Row and pitches his latest songs, leaving them with their own copy.

And then we wait….and keep on waiting.

During this time of waiting, whoever has been pitched to, is mulling over whether to put our song “on hold”. You have to remember, there are thousands upon thousands of songs out there being written every day. So getting a call that your song has been put on hold, is not only rare but very exciting when it happens. When a publisher, record label or artist puts a song on hold, it means that we are not to pitch it to anyone else until we receive a decision from them on whether they will cut it or not. This may sound unfair, but let me tell ya – these people have the potential of earning the writer some serious dough, so really, they can do whatever they want as far as we’re concerned. Now if Jason had been signed by a Publisher at this point, then his publisher would be the one pitching his songs and they would be in a better place to call whoever it is that has put the song on hold and ask where they’re at with it. But as an unsigned writer – any hold is awesome and rare and we’re grateful for it.

Now to explain how we got to where we are today. Jason was writing with Aaron Sherz on a song called “That’s How I’d Do It”. Aaron is a signed writer and had shared some of this song to his publisher. His publisher loved it and pushed for them to hurry up and finish the song so he could pitch it. So there we were flying out to CA to see Jason’s parents, and Jason and Aaron are texting one another song lyrics. They eventually finished the song, hired a demo singer and Aaron set about to mix & edit the finished track. The song was done Friday morning. Aaron gave it to his publisher Friday afternoon. His publisher pitched it to Rodney Atkins’ people on Monday and by that afternoon they put the song on hold. The song is less than a week old, pitched to only one artist and we’ve got a hold. Have I mentioned it’s a fabulous song?

Some of you may remember back to the Billy Currington days when he told Jason he loved his song “Right Where We Belong”. Well we waited, but Billy nor his people ever called to put the song officially on hold. The reason being…he decided to write all his own songs for his new album. And can you blame him? Between him and his label, they’ll make all the royalties without having to dish out to a writer their share.

All we know right now is that “That’s How I’d Do It” is officially on hold for Rodney Atkins and that he was scheduled to start recording his album in May. So we should have an answer on whether they’ll want to cut it or not hopefully within the next few weeks….Lord willing. Rodney's doing great as an artist right now as well. He's had two #1 hits recently "Watching You" and "If Your Going Through Hell". and he was also named Best New Male Vocalist at the Academy of Country Music Awards this year.

Please keep us in your prayers. Even if this turns out to not be a cut, it continues to encourage us, because its another positive step forward in the right direction. Jason’s writing only gets better and better and more and more people are sitting up and taking notice. It’s only a matter of time – and the important thing is, is that its in God’s time.

Stay tuned....