Camping Photo Ops

After seeing some of these pics from our camping trip, I'm more aware than ever of how badly I need a tan. Like really badly.

This is the six of us after arriving to the top of Fall Creek Falls.

Jason and I trying to be one with nature. I'm sure Matt was being gracious making this black & white so I'm not glowing off the trees.

Matt & Amy over Cane Creek Falls.Is it a little obvious that Ben is a photographer?
Here's a shot of the falls from a cliff up top.

Jason and I got a couple pictures together from that edge above the falls.

Here's the view of the falls before it goes over the edge - it was so gorgeous!

Matt & Jason before Jason took the plunge into the ice cold water!
Ben & Alicia lookin all cute.
Jason and I made breakfast the first morning we were camping by cooking up some french toast, scrambled eggs, bacon and banana bread. Here's Matt helping cook up the bacon over the fire.

Jason took this picture of the leaves on our hike. Fall is my favorite season of the year and its so beautiful here in Tennessee with all the trees turning.

There's a ton more pictures that everyone took, and I actually didn't take a whole lot myself because my camera is nowhere as good as Ben & Matt's, so as we get more, I might put some more up.

But I did catch this shot on our way back home that was just too priceless. Jason and I were filling up my car at a gas station in Nolensville, when I kid you not we saw these two elderly TWIN men purchasing a 24 pack of Bud Light and carrying it across the parking lot. It was seriously the cutest thing ever!!

Just a tad tired

Camping this weekend was a blast! It ended up being 6 of us from our small group that could make it out - Ben & Alicia, Matt & Amy and us. Lots of pictures were taken by everyone and as soon as I get my hands on some copies, I'll be sure to post all about the weekend.

But it was definitely a great time and we hope to go camping more often as a group every fall and spring. There was some serious good food prepared, ghost stories, hiking, bathing princesses, campfires, smores, tent-shadow shows and over-crowded bathrooms! We made some great memories and I can't wait till our next trip!

After getting back to the house last night, Jason and I dumped our gear throughout the house and we headed to the guest room so he could watch the Red Sox games he had recorded while I took a bit of a nap. 6 hours later I woke up, only to stay awake for an hour and a half and go back to bed for another 9 hours of sleep. Can you say tired? None of us got the best sleep this weekend, due to some dogs barking, wind whipping and sloped campgrounds. What we could have used were some harnesses to strap us to our air mattresses, so we'd stop slipping down the hill. Good times, good times.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend as well!

Camping does NOT mean roughing it!

Jason and I have stepped up to to take over the small group at our church. Our former fearless leaders Steven & Genesis moved to Chicago this summer and left us the reins (we miss you guys!!) So to kick off the new season of small group we're going camping this weekend!!!

I'm so pumped and haven't been camping in like 5 or 6 years! I've got my packing list going and we're going to air out the tent tonight, I'm sure its gotten quite musty over the years. When I've mentioned our outdoors plans to friends, they've responded with, "So you'll be roughing it huh?" Um no. Let me clarify, camping and roughing it are two very different things. This is the 21st century, we use air mattresses, duvets, flannel sheets, french press for coffee....ahhh the life. I'll for sure bring my camera and show y'all pics next week!


Oh and to introduce you all to everyone in our small group, here's a little photo montage!

Alicia & Ben (who help out with the high school youth)

Rachel & David (David leads one of our church's worship teams)

Matt & Amy (they've started a Saturday morning ministry with the Sudanese)

Melanie (who is also one of Harpeth's main youth leaders)

Melanie & Ryan (Melanie is the Director of the Children's ministry and Ryan runs sound)

Chad & Tabby (Chad is a drummer with one of the worship teams and Tabby actually attends another church but visits and we love her) :-)

and then us - the new small group leaders - yeah!!! I'm looking forward to it, I love the friends and the church that God has blessed us with over the last couple years :-)

Chiggers 101

For those of you not from the South, here's a little Chiggers 101 inspired by Camille's question in the last post.

1. Your out with your loved ones enjoying the sunshine in your own backyard, or maybe having a picnic at a park just living life without a care in the world.

(cue Jaws music here...)

2. At the end of the day and being warmed by the sun, you sigh and take a nice long nap or watch a little tv.(image from here.)

3. But unsuspecting to you, these six-legged boogers have been and will continue to feast on the buffet of your skin!

(Image from here)

4. A day or two goes by and you happen to look in the mirror and you see this!

According to Wikipedia, chiggers are defined as:


"In North America, chigger refers to the harvest mite, the bite of which results in an intensely itchy red bump in humans (who are accidental hosts)....These relatives of ticks are nearly microscopic measuring 0.4 mm and have a chrome-orange hue....The larval mites feed on the skin cells, but not blood, of animals, including humans. After crawling onto their host, they inject digestive enzymes into the skin that break down the skin cells. They do not actually "bite", but instead form a hole in the skin and chew up tiny parts of the inner skin, thus causing severe irritation and swelling. The severe itching is accompanied by red pimple-like bumps or hives and skin rash or lesions on a sun-exposed area....Itching from a chigger bite may not develop until 24-48 hours after the bite, so the victim may not associate the specific exposure with the bite itself."


How's that for nasty?


The common belief by many people here in the South is that these little boogers burrow themselves into your skin and until you apply clear fingernail polish to suffocate them, you won't get rid of the actual chigger itself. But according to Wikipedia, this is actually all a myth.

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!!