Hotel Hopping Vacation

Mom and I took this past week off from work for a mini vacation. We started out in East TN on Sunday to visit with my granddaddy and take care of some things while we were there. The hotel we stayed at was brand new...like opened Friday! It was soo nice and great knowing we were probably the first ones in our room! Monday we were out all day to take care of some things with and for granddaddy. When we got back that night we had a note that there was no hot water but that they hoped it would be working by that night and it was! Tuesday morning mom got in the shower with no problems. When I got ready to take mine there was no hot water and then no water at all. She found out that the water was not working throughout the hotel but that I could go to the hotel next door to shower. I gathered my things and walked across the parking lot only to find a line for a shower...that's right a line! They were frantically cleaning bathrooms as people checked out! So, I finally got a shower then walked across the parking lot to go back to the room to get ready...fun times! We finished up some things and then headed to Nashville for shopping and time with friends! We arrived at our first hotel and were really not impressed. It was not bad but not great, so we made reservations for another hotel the next night...yes that is 3 hotels in 4 nights or 4 hotels if you count the one I showered in on Tues. morning and we were only in 2 cities!
Wednesday we met some of my friends in downtown Franklin for lunch and some shopping. The food was so good as was the company!

After lunch and some shopping we decided to try some cupcakes (MBS is still the best!)

Hannah with a strawberry cupcake and mom with red velvet.

I got lemon and Stacie picked vanilla! All were very good!

That is a lot of icing!!!

After shopping in Franklin, mom and I headed to some outlets east of Nashville. We found a few good bargains and had just about crashed, so we headed back to check into our final hotel. We then ate at one of my favorite places, CPK in Green Hills! I just love their pizza!!

Thursday morning I moved my car to a closer spot so we could load it up one last time. As we were getting ready to drive off, I noticed my key was missing...kind of hard to start the car with no key. We looked all over the parking lot and hotel...nothing. Luckily, mom had the spare set of keys, so we could continue with our shopping adventures.

We meet Lindsay for lunch! Lindsay and I went to church/school together. She is a couple of years younger but we spent lots of time together in youth group and on mission trips. She is in grad. school right now. We missed seeing the rest of her family though!

After lunch mom and I continued shopping. At some point in the day I noticed lovely scratch marks in my car. I don't remember hitting anything but it doesn't really look like a car backed into mine, so who knows what it is from and how it happened...just another story to add to this crazy mini vacation! ha!

We finally decided we had had enough shopping for one week and headed back home. As we were unloading the car, my keys were found! Too bad the car can't be fixed that easily! This was definitely a vacation I will never forget!

A Birthday and a Wedding!

We celebrated Melissa's birthday last Friday night and attended Claire's beautiful wedding on Saturday night! Fun yet busy weekend!!

Sweet Susan, I miss you!

Fun on the Fourth! (and Fifth!)

We celebrated the 4th with friends and the next day with the fam! We had a good time both days! I made my special 4th of July cookies for the family who hosted the party...I am not allowed to come without them and this is one of the only times I make them. They are just slice and bake cookies with a glaze for the icing...very yummy and easy to make! We had fun visiting with friends and then it rained and we called it a night. ha!
The next day Jason, Jessica, and Ruby joined us for fresh summer veggies! We had a nice quick visit with them!

Mom made Jason's favorite cupcakes for the party the night before. I told him we didn't have anymore. He believed me.

The very best summer treat!

Ruby even got in on the action. She seriously went around the table to have the last little bit of ice cream in our bowls...gross.

Ruby telling Sally hello/good-bye

A family picture! I got dad this shirt for father's day!! He loves it! I am just glad to add some color (other than crimson and white) to his closest. I am trying to decide on a good color for his birthday! ha!

Such a cute little family pic!

After J,J,and R left, we headed in the same direction to take my granddaddy to see his sister before she moved to Colorado. :( We had a nice visit but will miss having her so close to us.

I have more to update, but my brain is slightly tired! Good thing tomorrow is my last day before a week of vacation time!!!

Catching Rolls, Thrill Rides, and a Trip Down Memory Lane

This weekend I headed to St. Louis with my Sunday school class to go to Six Flags. We stopped at Lambert's on the way there! This was my first experience eating there, and it was definitely a fun/interesting experience!

The girls while we waited on a table.

One side of the table...

...the other side of the table. We caught lots of rolls...some were better at catching than others. ha! If you look in this picture, you can see the word rolls in the license plates. They served way more food than I could possibly eat and could have split it in about 3 meals, but it was pretty good!


Our first ride was Superman. I considered this to be a mild ride because it did not spin! It was a pretty good view of the park way up there!! Some people liked this more than others...it might have been my favorite this trip.

What goes up must come down!!!

This picture is hilarious...I have no idea what I am doing...giving thumbs up?? I don't even remember! I did think it was fun though!

Awesome! ha! This was while I was waiting for everyone to ride the Batman ride...one of my favorites in the past, but the heat and spinning on other roller coasters made me slightly dizzy, so I didn't want to chance it on this one. Maybe next time...if I ever go back...I definitely prefer Disney in cooler weather! ha!

Before leaving, we had to get one last picture...naturally we waited until we were all a hot, sweaty mess!




This morning my mom and I made our way to Rossville, TN to hear her Uncle Frank preach. Rossville is very small but such a sweet little town. This is where my grandmother grew up. My mom tells stories of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning when all the cousins stayed together and then came down on Christmas morning to find tons and tons of toys.

This is what the house looks like now.

Photoshop fun!

Here is the church we went to today.

After church the family and some friends went to Collierville Square to eat at the Silver Caboose...yum!

Just Another Random Overdue Post!

Well, once again I am a little behind on posting!! Back in May my Sunday School class had a cook-out/Luau! It was a lot of fun and a great way to start the Summer. I made dessert...of course! I decided to try my two favorite cake flavors together...YUM! I made PD's strawberry cake recipe and put that cake on the bottom. I then put lemon icing on the cake and put lemon cake on top.

Homemade strawberry icing went on the top.
This cake did not last long. I don't even think everyone got a to try it!

I made cupcakes with the extra batter just in case the cake was gross! ha!

I just recently made this cake again for work...it didn't last long there either!

Sunday School Class at the Luau!

I finally made time to experiment with photoshop for a co-worker's beach pictures. It was so much fun, I decided to try out some other pictures. The one above is pre-editing.

I did some of this on my own with the help of a great book and used some actions, too! I really like how it turned out! What do you think?

I then converted the picture above to black and white...just because! I was so excited about learning how to do all this last night that I had a little trouble sleeping...now I am just having trouble stopping!

This weekend I am headed to a 3 day conference on feeding therapy for picky eaters...that would be me...should be an interesting weekend! One of my classmates will be there, and I am sooooo excited about spending the weekend with her. We will stay with my brother and SIL. I hope to take her to MBS for a cupcake (or 2! ha!)

Next week I will be sewing away as there are 3 OTs at work who are pregnant and we are having a triple shower for them on Thursday! Pictures from the weekend and sewing projects coming soon!

Easter Sunday with Family and Friends

Easter lunch at Jennifer & Steve's

It would not be a holiday without some sugar cookies!

Dinner with Friends, Shopping, and a Lunch Date, too!

Thursday after a long day at work, I headed to the Memphis area to have dinner with some friends from Union! I haven't seen some of them in a year, so it was so great to have dinner and catch up with everyone! I spent the night since it was pretty late and then spent the day with LG and little Miles! He is too cute and was so good after being sick during the week! LG, we will definitely have to do this again real soon!!!

Lunch with LG and Miles

So happy after eating lunch!

Week of Birthday Celebrations!

This week has been one big birthday celebration. I started celebrating Tuesday night having dinner with my parents and then ice cream cones from BR. I had a card on my desk at work with an owl on it (they know me too well already) and also had some sweet kiddos tell me Happy Birthday throughout the day. Mom had Bible study on my actual birthday, so my dad took me to Picasso! Yum! We then went back to BR, so I could pick out a cake...it's not a birthday without a cake!!

Most Yummy Birthday cake from BR!

Mom and I went to my favorite place Thursday night for soup!

Friday night, I celebrated with friends! They were so sweet to have this yummy cake and ice cream for dessert after dinner. We ate at another one of my favorite places, made a quick trip to Target, talked, and watched the most disturbing movie ever.

Cheesiest picture of the year!

Thanks for a fun birthday celebration!!

Today, we went to Memphis to do some shopping and had dinner with my brother and sister-in-law. It was fun to visit with them and go shopping. I did some damage at Gap and then at the scrapbook store for Disney scrapbook items and also some owl scrapbook paper...so cute!

With Jason and Jessica after dinner!

Thanks for meeting us for dinner!