Tim & Faith Y'All!

So this last Saturday night, I was able to go to the much anticipated concert of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. It was such a blast! The set up of the stage was incredible - in the picture you see to the left, all that yellow is the stage and Faith Hill is coming up from a hole in the center. And all that stage is made up of small tv screens that show videos, images, colors, all kinds of cool things to make the show that much more amazing. It was also in the very center of the stadium, so there wasn't a bad seat in the house. Jason and I had a great time and I even included a picture of us at the concert to show y'all.

Overall it was a lazy weekend for the both of us. I finished another book by Kristin Hannah, which was really good and then we hung out at home on Friday night watching 3 hours of recorded episodes of my favoriate TV show, So You Think You Can Dance! I've been taping them for Jason while he's at work, because I know how much he would hate missing this show ;-) My prediction is that it will come down to Donyelle and Benji as the last two finalists and Benji will win!

Then after sleeping in on Saturday, we were supposed to go to Jason's rescheduled baseball game, but once again we were rained out. He looked over at me and said, "This is why I hate the rain". Poor guy. Instead to make him feel better we went to Opry Mills Mall and did a little shopping for me...hee hee :-) Ok, maybe it was more for me than him, but we did score some really cool stuff for super cheap and he ended up getting some great deals for himself as well.

After shopping, we rushed home to look hot for the concert. And we looked good too. See our pic? Aren't we cute? Yes, I know, I need a tan. And to complete the evening, there's nothing like a little Sonic to end a perfect day. But word of advice, don't get the Brownie Blast ice cream thing - not so good.

Sunday we slept in late and watched Derailed together before Jason headed off to work. That movie is so intense!

One last pic for you from the concert - if you look closely, this is when Tim & Faith made thier first appearance together that night, Tim on end of the stage and Faith on the other. They both came up out of the floor as well. It was awesome.

That's all for now!

To begin with, I've posted some of these amazing chalk drawings for y'all to see. My mom-in-law sent them to me and I thought they were pretty amazing.

So another week has come and gone. We've spent the last week with Scott and Kelley McGlasson, Jason's sister and brother-in-law and were sad to see them leave yesterday. It was a busy week, but definately a good time. Jason showed them around a lot of Nashville while I was at work and then I was able to join them for an outdoor movie in the park (Remember the Titans) and breakfast at The Loveless Cafe. We were supposed to see Jason play in his first baseball game this season, but on Friday we had a pretty big storm sweep through the city, which rained out the field for Saturday. I was so bummed for him and he was pretty upset too, but it did end up getting rescheduled for this coming Saturday, so we'll go to his game before we head to the Tim & Faith concert!!! yippeee!!! (Can you tell I'm excited!?) So instead of the game, we took Scott & Kelley to the Nashville Flea Market. I had been wanting to go since our friends the Giconia's had told us all about how they found fabulous furniture deals there. It was overall a fun time, and not too hot out either. There was so much junk, but some really good finds too!! We found ourselves a large bookcase for $95 and in our favorite mahogany color. Thankfully we have a large apartment, cause we are aquiring quite a furniture collection!

We also went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2 with them. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed by the second one. Jason and I have been counting down the days to see the movie for almost a year! And we really didn't enjoy it as much as the first one. Before they took off Monday, I met up with them for lunch at Cracker Barrel - a must for visiting the South. And we had another Celebrity sighting! As we were walking out the door, this guy was holding the door and when we got outside, Jason says. "That was Jimmy Wayne." He sings that song, "I Love You This Much". I didn't recognize him, cause I'm not all that familiar with his music or his face. But I've included a picture for you, so you know what he looked like.

Then from what Jason told me, when Scott & Kelley flew to Denver from Nashville on Monday, they were on the same flight as LoneStar. Which is the same band that had one of Jason's songs on hold for 7 months.

Monday night I was able to hear the first of 4 new songs of Jason's. It's going to be another of your favorites and he wrote it with Chuck Wicks (our friend who got a recording deal with RCA) and Mark Beeson. I can't wait to hear the other three, they're in the process of being mixed right now, but we'll have them for sure by the time we get to Seattle.

I am sorry to report that I was a total dork and didn't take any pictures this week. I know, such a loser thing to do. But I know Scott had his camera, so maybe I'll snag some pics from him to post for y'all. It was so nice to have them here, we really enjoyed the company and a chance to spend time with family. Now I'm just counting down the days till I can see my family back home as well. I've been missing them a lot the last few days.

Last night, I stepped a bit out of my comfort zone and met up with Farrah & Eric to see Cheryl Johnston perform at the French Quarter Cafe in East Nashville. Jason was scheduled to work, so I went solo, but I still had a great time and saw a few other people from Jason's softball team as well. Cheryl put on quite a show. I tried to get some pictures of her rockin out on stage, but it was too dark in the room for my camera. Tuesday nights are "band night" at the French Quarter, so I think if Jason gets a Tuesday night off, we'll have to go back, cause it was really fun to see people perform and it was more styles than just country. If Kris comes to town again, its definately someplace I'll take her to, cause I think she would really like it.

That's all for now, I'll try to get better at getting some pics of Jason and I up on the blog, along with writing more frequently - especially since I'm always being made aware how much more my little sister Kati writes more than I do :-)

Love you all!

Another Monday Morning...

It's Monday morning....yuk. I'm at my desk at work waiting for the day to begin. Thankfully I have a great week to look forward to! Scott and Kelly McGlasson, Jason's sister and husband, are coming into town tomorrow to stay with us for a week!! We're really excited to have them here and hang out. We've been finishing a few things around the apartment, like painting a mirror that Billy and Bettie had given us and replacing some lamp shades to a couple lamps they also had given us. We've got some great things planned as well - we're thinking of taking them out to a park in Franklin where they're having an outdoor movie, then of course Mortons for dinner one night, and the Loveless Cafe for brunch, hopefully see Pirates of the Carribean, and drive them around near Liepers Fork & East Nashville to see some of the great houses ;-) . Oh and Jason mentioned maybe going to the Opry hotel for a tour. So much to do, so little time....

So let me fill you in on the last week. Last Tuesday, Jason had his back-to-back championship softball games. I was SUPPOSED to be at the first one, but we had to take seperate cars so I could go home and change after work. And then of course I had to get lost... or a scenic tour as I like to call it. So I finally showed up as the first game was ending, which was fine, cause they won and Jason didn't end up playing cause he was late too, from getting stuck behind a train. The second game was thier championship game and they won! We had a great time and Jason was hitting awesome! He almost had a home run, but it bounced off the back fence. Oh and I have to mention, the team was started by our friend Danny Johnston, who used to play for the Yankees, and they named the team after him - The Swinging Johnstons...Yeah, I know. I had a really great time hanging out with the girls at the game. Cheryl Johnston and Farrah were there along with Cindy. And we had a blast chatting it up and laughing a ton. We want T-shirts made for us next year that say, "We love our Swinging Johnstons" hee hee.

Then on Friday after work I surprised Jason by showing up at his work to say hello. It marked our half-aversary. :-) The girls at his work thought it was cute that I came by to say Happy Half-aversary, and we all got to chat for a bit before people started coming in.

On Saturday I got my hair cut & highlighted - which turned out great, but a definate change! I'll have to take some pictures so you can see what it looks like. It's quite a bit shorter, but Jason really loves it. Afterward, we did a little shopping and then invited my friend Kelley Skiles over for dinner. She's a friend of mine that hosted me back in Master's Commission almost 10 years ago while I was in Dallas on tour. And now that she's moved to Nashville for her job, we've gotten together a couple times. Jason made burgers for dinner and we looked through pictures and showed her our wedding video. It was really fun to just hang out and have her over.

And finally Sunday, we went back to visit Belmont Church. It was ok, there was a guest speaker who was pretty good, but we're still trying to decide if its where we want to stay. I think next Sunday we'll visit another church to expand our options a little more. Then after church I met up with a bunch of the girls from Jason's work who invited me to join them for brunch at Cafe Margo's. This cafe is in this great, old house in East Nashville and I absolutely loved the food, it was so delicious. There was five of us girls that were there and it was a great opportunity for me to get to know them better. There's one girl in particular that I really like, her name's Sarah and I hope to hang out with her again. Jason started writing with her boyfriend Chris, who is a fabulous singer and songwriter and I'm excited to hear what they're new song sounds like. After brunch, Sarah took me home and we swapped phone numbers, so hopefully we'll get together soon.

I think that's about it for this week to fill you in on. Everything is going great for us and Jason is getting 3 nights off a week now, which has been great for us to still have time together. He'll be taking a little more time off while Scott & Kelley are in town this week, which will be so fun for us all to hang out and do some of the fun things we've got planned. So for all you family out there, just know that when you come to visit us, you can be assured we're going to show you a good time...wink, wink :-)

That's it for now. I should get back to work, things are soon to pick up. I love and miss you all & look forward to seeing you all in August/September!!

4th of July....

I thought I should comment on how our 4th of July weekend went. We didn't take pictures, sorry folks. But I dug a couple up off the internet to give you an idea of how Nashville celebrates the 4th!

First, let me start off by letting everyone know - that Jason and I are coming home for a visit!!! Yippee!!! I got the vacation time approved by my attorneys and will be heading home with Jason, Wednesday, August 30th and staying through Tuesday, September 4th over the Labor Day weekend. I'm disappointed I will miss Aaron & Heidi's wedding as well as Kati's MC Graduation, but because I am still new at my job, I'm not supposed to take a vacation until working at Adams & Reese for 90 days, which I will just be at when I head out over Labor Day. But I am so excited to come home - I miss my family so much, and I really think that weekend will be a bit of a reunion for all of us, since Kati has been on the road so much with MC's and I'll have been in Nashville for a little over 4 months. Plus it will be great to have Jason with me, cause I know my family and friends very much want to see him too.

Moving on, Saturday we were very excited to entertain our first guests Eric Gallamore and his girlfriend Farrah at our home. We spent the most of the day cooking and I made my first potatoe salad, a homemade red pepper & onion dip and some southern sweet tea...and Jason cooked up some hamburgers and baked beans. Then for desert, we made strawberry shortcake. After dinner, we headed downtown to see the Sounds game (Nashville's minor league baseball team). It was a warm night out for sure. But by the time the game was over around 10pm, the temp had only dropped to 88 degrees.....hot. The four of us pulled into Sonic to refresh with some CreamSlushes and headed back home.

On Sunday, we decided to visit Belmont Church on Music Row in Nashville. When Jason first moved to Nashville years ago, he met Sara Evans, the country recording artist, and she had asked him if he had found a church yet. She had encouraged him to try Belmont where she was currently attending, so we decided to give it a shot. Finally...a place where we could drink in the Word of the Lord and worship. We both were really encouraged by how the service was held and what the minister spoke on. The speaker was thier youth pastor, Anthony Chaboya and we found his humility to be incredibly refreshing and his Biblical teaching challenging. We really enjoyed it. Especially since both Jason and I feel called to work with the youth, it was great to see how passionate and real this man was in standing behind the youth of this generation. However we plan to visit a couple more times before making any permanent decisions.

Monday, the office closed early, so I met Jason to catch an afternoon flick at the theater. We saw The Lake House, which can I just say, was a definate keeper. Sappy I know, but such a beautiful story - Kati, your going to love it, Kris, you might be a bit bored. After the movie, we headed home so Jason could get ready for work and off he went. I hung out that evening and around 10:30 headed to Mortons to wait in the bar till he closed up the restaurant. It was a slow weekend at Mortons, but God still blessed Jason with some great tips. For the 4th of July, we slept in, which for me is no longer than 9:30 anyways, and Jason made a grubbin desert of toasted coconut crackers. It's hard to describe, but his grandmother has been making it for years and its one of his favoriates and now I can see why! We headed over to our friends, Bill & Tiffany Fay early that evening to BBQ with them and hang out. Then later, Jason and I headed back home to catch the fireworks we could see from the comfort of our own home. I will say though, next year we plan on going downtown to see the show, cause it was absolutely incredible, and supposed to be one of the biggest firework shows in the nation, with a live symphony! We caught it on TV and I was like - why are we not there!! They do it up real big, right on the river with a real steamboat in the background, country music stars singing and a huge fireworks show! I've included some pics of the fireworks so you get an idea of what's its like, though they don't do it justice.

So there ya have it, that was my weekend over the 4th!! Hope you all had a great 4th of July as well!