Party Like It's 1999!

Tonight is the night y'all!!

I've got my outfit. I've got my camera. And I'm ready to party!!!

The concert starts at 8pm. Actually I guess it's not really a concert, but more of a recording? Supposedly Reba and Kelly will sing three songs of eachothers. This is definately a high moment of my life. I know Kelly must be staying someplace downtown and can I tell you how tempted I was to park myself in Starbucks in our building and just wait for her?! I figure she's bound to show up eventually.

Brooke and I are going to get ready here at the office around 5, then walk down to Mortons for dinner at 6. Have my hot hunny wait on us :-), then walk back over to the Ryman to see Kelly perform by 8 (also picture included of the Ryman, which was first the original Grand Ol Opry before it became the Ryman). And when you look at the picture of the Ryman, you'll notice the tall building in the left corner, that's where I work, up on the 27th floor. The contact from CMT emailed Brooke and asked that we not shop up any later than 7:30, since our tickets are at Will Call, and they will be locking the doors at 7:45 so there won't be any interruptions to the filming.

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Other entertainment news worth the mention. As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of dancing shows. And the contestents names were just released for this season's Dancing With The Stars. The very same show that Jason surprised me by taking me to thier show while they were on tour! Anyway, this year should be interesting with Heather Mills (formerly McCartney) competing, which as many of you know, she has a prosthetic leg.

As well as Billy Ray Cyrus - yes, I was a big fan of the Achy Breaky Heart back in the day.

Joey from N'Sync...of course the boy bands have to represent and give everyone a run for thier money... (ie. Drew Lache from 98 Degrees and Joey from New Kids on the Block).

I'm personally rooting for Paulina Porizkova.

She was a big time model back in my high school days, and other than her infamous Estee Lauder pics, we don't know much about her, except that she's amazingly gorgeous and not much of an actress.

There's two token athletes this year; Clyde Drexler, a basketball Hall of Famer, who knows, maybe he'll win everyone over like Emmitt Smith did last year?

And Apolo Ohno, the Olympic Speed Skating Champion.

Well that's I got for you now, more about the concert this week!

In celebration of Valentines, I'm going to share 50 things that I love! (in no particular order)

1. I LOVE my husband Jason and kissing his neck!

2. I LOVE mint julip chocolates from Oh Chocolate

3. I LOVE my sister Kati's smile

4. I LOVE my sister Kristin's laugh

5. I LOVE rodeos and cowboy boots

6. I LOVE rainy days with a cup of hot coffee

7. I LOVE watching my husband sleep in on Saturday mornings

8. I LOVE ice cream cones from Sonic and McDonalds on the way home from work

9. I LOVE going to the high school basketball tournament games with my dad

10. I LOVE how my mom makes the turkey fly on Thanksgiving

11. I LOVE watching the Macys parade while eating cinnamon rolls

12. I LOVE a perfect steak from Mortons

13. I LOVE Kelly Clarkson's music

14. I LOVE sour watermelon slices from The Peanut Shop in the arcade

15. I LOVE going to the movies on Sunday afternoons with my honey

16. I LOVE the smell of fresh bread

17. I LOVE all styles of dance

18. I LOVE losing myself in worship

19. I LOVE my wonderful friends back home

20. I LOVE our new church and the new friendships were developing here in Nashville

21. I LOVE slow walks on warm evenings and watching the fireflies

22. I LOVE warm fires on a snowy night

23. I LOVE traveling and discovering new places

24. I LOVE looking at old Nashville neighborhoods and dreaming of our future home together

25. I LOVE a clean house

26. I LOVE my bosses, though sometimes they can drive me a little batty

27. I LOVE my cat Banks and when she hides under our blankets or bats around my gloves

28. I LOVE my father's hugs

29. I LOVE my mothers buttons (ha! just kidding mom, you remember where that is from!?)

30. I LOVE sleeping in late

31. I LOVE coffee with the girls on Friday mornings

32. I LOVE Nashville in the fall

33. I LOVE road trips with my sisters

34. I LOVE ice cream any time of day

35. I LOVE Dick's burgers and fries late at night

36. I LOVE to cross-stitch (that's how I got the nickname Grandma Scribbles)

37. I LOVE my inlaws and how sweet they are to me

38. I LOVE checking out books from the library, even if I never read them

39. I LOVE snow days from work

40. I LOVE the beach in Washington

41. I LOVE hot peanuts at a baseball game (not that I love baseball games, but I do love the peanuts)

42. I LOVE artichokes and pomegranets

43. I LOVE my Lucky jeans

44. I LOVE sweet tea in the South! (I've become very addicted!)

45. I LOVE Sterling Silver Roses

46. I LOVE Footloose, Dirty Dancing and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

47. I LOVE trips to Vancouver at Christmas to shop with Kristin

48. I LOVE long hot showers

49. I LOVE back rubs

50. I LOVE books by Nicholas Sparks & Francine Rivers

In other exciting news - my friend Brooke from work totally hooked us up by getting us exclusive tickets to the taping of CMT Crossroads with Kelly Clarkson and Reba McEntire. She had emailed Leslie from our office asking if there was any way her sister-in-law, who is a big time VP over at CMT could tell us how we could buy tickets to the private concert. Well, in case you may not already know this, all CMT Crossroads concerts are pre-recorded to air on CMT months later and the tickets are not available to the public - you basically have to have connections or be invited personally. Well Leslie called Brooke last night and left her a message that she was able to get us "on the list" to get in the concert! I'm so freakin excited! We show up, tell them who we are and in we go! Three times now I've missed Kelly Clarkson in concert in Seattle and it has made me want to cry. She is my all-time favorite singer and I can't even tell you how excited I got when Brooke called me last night to tell me the news. Brooke and I are becoming pretty good friends and have been hanging out and going to movies together - we are always finding something fun to laugh about. I'll be taking a million pictures for sure of the concert and maybe if I'm lucky I'll get the chance to meet both Kelly and Reba. The concert is next Thursday at the Ryman, which means I need to go shopping!! :-)

Some other very exciting news is that my dad surprised my mom with tickets to Nashville for Valentine's day. They'll be flying out here over the weekend of their 35th wedding anniversary and I feel very honored that they would want to spend such a momentous day with us. I was also very proud of my dad for making the decision to purchase the plane tickets so spontaneously. I had to ask him a couple times over the phone if he was still breathing - if you don't know my dad very well, he likes LOTS of time to think and pray things over ;-) (love you dad!) But this will be so great and dad hasn't been back to Tennessee since he was stationed in Murfreesboro back when he was in the military. And mom's never been herself either, so I have LOTS I want to show them. They'll be here March 20-27! And that's just over a month away!! Yea!!!

And more fun news to share, we have started attending a small group within our church on Tuesday nights. Jason has had to request them off, and thankfully Morton's has been great with working with his requests. The small group consists of about 6-8 couples and a few single people and they're all close to our age. My friend Brooke calls people like Jason & I "DINKS" which stands for "Duel Income No Kids" couples. Pretty funny. And that's basically what our small group is - a bunch of DINKS. Steven and his wife Genesis, who are also the worship & arts directors of the church, lead the small group at their home. (I included a picture of them from the website) Last Sunday, Genesis came up to us after church and asked us out to lunch and the four of us had a great time together. It was so easy to talk to them and they were so real and down to earth - we laughed A LOT. As a group we're studing a book by Rob Bell called Velvet Elvis. We're a bit behind, since we just joined the group, but so far I've really enjoyed listening to everyones thoughts and impressions of the book. It's amazing how well learned everyone is in the Word of God that it blows me away. The other couples have been so sweet too - extremely outgoing and friendly, its been so easy fitting in with everyone.

That's all my news for now. Enjoy this adorable video and have a wonderful Valentines Day!

It Snowed!

So how was Seattle you ask? It was really quick but definately fun! I loved being able to hang out with my family, even if it was for only a few days. Once I was at my parents house, it didn't feel like all that much time had actually gone by. I was staying back in my old room from when I was a teenager (then became Kris', then Jason's, and now Kati's room) and all the old familiar smells and sounds I remember. The flights out were relatively smooth (thank you God!) and I packed in as much as I could in those three days I was home. I was able to get Jason some of our favorite chocolates from Oh Chocolate! and burgers from Dicks - oh how I've missed the little things!! I've also missed my friends a whole bunch and my short stay in Seattle did not allow much flexibility to squeeze visits in with anyone else, but I do hope to be back in Seattle in the next month or so to spend a few more days with some dear friends, and this time bringing my honey along with me. This first picture you see is of me with the family at The Beach Cafe in Kirkland. You can't see the waterfront behind me, but it was a beautiful day. From left to right that's my mom, then my cousin's Kathrine and Kolleen, my dad and me (Kati was taking the picture).

So to start, I got in to Seattle on Thursday evening and Kris picked me up from the airport and we headed straight to the theater to see Stomp The Yard. It was pretty good, but I think I'll like it more the second time around. Afterwards, I was too much of a grandma to join her and Barco to go out dancing, but then it had already been a long day for me with working a half day, flying for 4 1/2 hours and then going to a movie. I know, you feel sorry for me don't you? ha! In this second pic, my mom got Kati, dad and I at the Beach Cafe, with Kolleen trying to sneak her way into the photo as well.

After coming home from the movie with Kris, my family started to arrive at the house to give me big hugs and smooches. Dad had been working that night and Kati was off partying somewhere I'm sure, but they heard I was home and they came a runnin'! I ended up staying up till nearly 4am Nashville time! Friday consisted of a family lunch to The Beach Cafe in Kirkland on the waterfront, and it was simply beautiful outside! I have missed the water so much back home!! Kati was gracious and took the girls back to the house, so mom & dad could spend some quality time with me. In true Kelly fashion, we ended back at the theater and watched ROCK-Y BAL-BOA! (You're supposed to yell that out in broken syllables, like the announcer does). I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed it. Those of you that don't know, Rocky has been a vital part of our upbringing - so what if Dad had all girls, that didn't keep us from being raised with Rocky, Elvis, race car sets and war films. (love you dad!) And to make the day even better, it turned out that we were the only ones in the theater - so during the scene where Rocky runs up the steps in his sweats, training for his big fight (yes, I'm talking about the last movie, not the first one), mom gets up and starts running around the theater boxing at the air. At first I was like - oh no. But then I looked over at Dad (who had stars in his eyes toward his wife), and said - "why not?" So we both got up and joined mom in running around the whole theater, boxing at the air to the Rocky theme. It was awesome and yes, we're a little bit crazy, but so what! After our workout in the movie theater, we headed to the Taproom for dinner and beer - oh yeah, I don't drink. And who do we run into, but my favorite people...(I'm being sarcastic here)...Uncle Larry & Aunt Marilyn Kelly. We hung out with them for a bit while we were waiting to be seated, but then they tried to crash our dinner and well, that's just taking it a little too far. We said goodbye and enjoyed the rest of our dinner catching up on life. Saturday morning Kati and I got up and jumped into bed with Kris. She loves us when we do that! We had to have sister snuggle time! I think its my favorite thing when us girls get together - we make a sister sandwich with Kris in the middle and she gets all squirrly, its so great. Now that Kris was up, she and Kati made me a wonderful breakfast complete with waffles, fresh orange juice and lattes. I then left to meet up with Tina, Jay and the fam (I missed you Addie!) and we exchanged Christmas gifts. Jason and I received the most beautiful canvas portrait of one of our favorite wedding pictures, fully framed and matted. Now we just need to decide where we want to hang it! I'll have to take a picture of it and show you all.

This picture of Kati and I cracks me up - mom wanted to take a picture of us and we didn't plan it at all, but we had the same exact expression on our face. So funny. I really wish I had more pictures of Kris though. When she was around, my camera wasn't working - which was a bummer, cause her and Kati were thrashing around on the hallway floor and those would have made some fun pics.

And finally Saturday night was the big concert - the whole reason I flew to Seattle in the first place. George Strait, Ronnie Milsap and Taylor Swift were performing at the Tacoma Dome and Kati and I had great seats. I felt bad being there with her, since I'm not a true George Strait fan and I know my husband would have enjoyed it way more than I did, but nonetheless, George did not disappoint in the least. And Kati was as giddy as a schoolgirl. On the way home we stopped for ice cream at Dicks and then I stayed up late with parents to watch The Guardian before heading off to bed. Sunday was bittersweet - I had to say goodbye to my family once again, which I never like and then Tina came and picked me up so we could get a cup of coffee before heading to the airport. I hated leaving my family, but I very much missed my husband too. So while I was sad, I was really excited to see my man. That flight was great too and I arrived back to Nashville greeted by 15 degree weather....brrr! I hope you all enjoyed the pictures, stories and updates of my time in Seattle. I wished I could have spent more time there, but hopefully I'll be back again soon. I love you all and think of you often!

Oh! And to explain the heading of "It Snowed!" - Well it did! It snowed here in Nashville last Thursday night and again on Sunday. It didn't stick enough for our office to close, but it did blanket Nashville with close to two inches and it stuck around for a couple days. I'm hoping we get more this week and enough to close down my work so I get a snow day!! That's all for now - I hope your all enjoying your winters as well, where ever it is you call home :-)