Hope & Future

So many wonderful, beautiful things are going on for Chris and me right now. My job starts this week and we should close on our house in 2 weeks! God has proven Himself so "big" in our lives and even though I am inadequate, may my praises never run out. Hope your week started off well and is full of blessings.

To Market to Market

Chris and I decided to go downtown to the Market Square Farmers' Market this morning.

I was ready to bring home bags and bags of fresh fruit and produce. Well...I guess most things I had in mind aren't in season yet. I'm really not the expert on this. :)The market was wonderful-lots of green veggies, jams, gourmet dog treats, beef jerky, so many different things...even one of these:

Do you see the cool World's Fair license plate?

 We also went to The Horn of Plenty, another produce place here in Knoxville. They had beautiful flowers!

I love hibiscus!

So we didn't find exactly what I thought we would today but we came home with some yummy goodies:

 Fresh picked strawberries, spinach, red potatoes, and raspberries--homemade salsa--strawberry jam from the Mayfield Dairy farm. We also ate at one of our favorite places downtown-Trio. It was a fun day with my cute husband. He came home and continued working on his mirror project. We have decided to do a pickling stain. What the heck, it's our first project and we have to experiment, right? We'll be sure to show the finished product!

I Heart Fridays!

Hope your weekend is a good one! Ours might consist of a little packing because we are closing soon in June! Chris also started working on his first "refinishing" project. He is redoing an old mirror. Photos to come!

Good Things

These make me think of summertime and being a kid again. Hope your Thursday has been nice and that you have fun plans for the weekend.

Missing You

My Dad was honored tonight when he was inducted into the FIRST athletic hall of fame class in Cannon County, TN, where he played football. 

What an honor for him to be inducted along with the athletes he always talked about and admired. You see, he would often talk about how he played in high school and college and we were always like, "Yeah Dad, we know, you were good." Well, I have to say that I never really knew how good he actually was until recently when so many people have enjoyed talking about how he played and how good he was. 

He played one year in high school during which they won the state title and then played at Austin Peay, catching the touchdown pass to win the school's only title in the OVC. Do I sound proud? I am! Oh how I wish, though, that he could have been there to receive that award and hear those stories told about him. He would have been so proud and I would give anything to have seen the look on his face. 

It doesn't seem real that it has been almost a year without him. In one week it will be a year and I think about all the things that I would like to tell him and all the things I wish he could have been a part of in the last year and the years to come, although I would not wish back that suffering he endured for anything. 

My handsome, grown-up little brother saying thank-you for the award. 

I just hope that, in some way, he knows that he is missed and that his family is so proud of him. He was represented tonight by so many people who love him.

Aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings.

Two tables full of family love!

Daddy, you are missed and I would give anything to have you sitting here in the living room with me tonight telling me your football stories. I would listen all night.

HOTlanta

Chris and I have had a wonderful weekend. We are back home after a short trip to Atlanta. Our major plans were to go to the outlet stores in Dawsonville, Georgia, and then IKEA in Atlanta. We will close on our house in a few short weeks (hopefully sooner than later) and are looking for different things for our house. We didn't find too much at the outlets but I think we were saving our money for IKEA. It didn't, as ever, disappoint. We found lots of decorative stuff and furniture that we will be returning soon to pick up with a truck.:) We also decided to try something a little different and we looked up some antique and consignment stores. By accident I put in the wrong address into the GPS and we didn't immediately find the store we were looking for. Instead we found this:

I can hardly describe this store. It was an antique store in Chamblee, GA, but I had never seen anything like it. It was filled antiques from wall to wall, floor to ceiling. There was so much we could never have seen it all. Things here were a wee bit pricey for us but we found a couple of really cool mirrors at a thrift store nearby. Chris is going to try his hand at refinishing one of them. We'll try to show some before and after pictures. 

We shopped a lot and ate at some great restaurants. I had never been to On the Border and it was yum!

This was a weekend that Chris and I needed to just have fun again without homework looming over my head. Too bad we had to come home.:)

Setbacks

We should expect this, right? Nothing is too easy. Our closing date has been pushed back probably a little over a week. :( Not the biggest deal in the world but come on, we're ready to get in our house! I'm trying to be patient and content with things. Atlanta tomorrow! I can't wait and then on to see my mama again on Monday. Lots of things to be busy with-Oh, and packing! I guess we should start kind of thinking about that. The good news is that most of it is already in storage.

 

Looking forward to the weekend!

Interesting Week

Last week was full of graduation activities and anticipation of the big day. By the end of it I was exhausted. This week I'm doing pretty much nothing, which feels weird because of the last 2 years of insanity. Well, I'm not doing exactly nothing. I'm sleeping until 9:00 9:30, reading some books for fun (what?), and eating lunch whenever. I am doing some serious NCLEX studying. I want to take my boards in the next 2-3 weeks and I'm trying to do a little each day. Other than that, I have to venture to say that I might be a little bored. It's hard to go from frenzied activity to a week of idleness. Yes, I'm trying to enjoy my free time but I don't think I was cut out to stay at home. I will be working soon enough, I know, and wishing for more days at home. Grass is always greener, right? :) 

Anyway, I have our little trip to Atlanta this weekend that I am totally looking forward to. We are going to do some light house shopping and I am so excited to go to the Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, & Williams-Sonoma outlets in Dahlonega, Georgia. Also, we are going to IKEA! Love that place and could just walk around it for hours.

My first visit to IKEA was when I was in Texas and I was in awe! Have you ever been?

I have to say, though, that what I am looking forward to most is spending some much-needed alone time with Chris. He's been so supportive of me and I'm so excited that we have more time together now. (Although I'm not sure he knows how to handle it yet. :) It's an adjustment!!)

I'm looking forward to a nice weekend of sleeping in, eating at different places, and just hanging out with my best friend.

Happy Hump Day Friends!

Happy Mother's Day!

I pray for the blessing of a glorious day to the best mom in the world! Mom, you are so special and I love you. Happy Mother's Day.

Snapshot Saturday

Tennessee Wesleyan College

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

This is an exciting day for more than one reason. My nursing school pinning ceremony is tonight! I've worked 2+ years for this and it seems unreal that it's almost over. Another excitement is that my mom is coming into town as we speak! We have a lovely day ahead with plans for lunch and shopping. It's a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky. Hope your 5th of May is as grand as mine!

Four More Days!

On Saturday I will walk across the stage with my BSN! After that I will take my licensing exam to become a registered nurse. We have a lot of festivities planned this week, beginning with a frigid picnic at the lake this afternoon. I'm almost done and I couldn't have done it without these girls!

Mixed Feelings

I watched Obama's address last night with mixed feelings. Yes, I am typically a very patriotic person. I chant USA! with the best of them. I had a hard time, though, rejoicing over bin Laden's death. I have anger about 9-11, of course. I hate that so many families lost loved ones and have felt those longings for justice and even revenge over the past few years. I have had a hard time putting my feelings into words today, but I think that something I heard on the radio this afternoon says it best:

(I in no way claim to have mastered this type of disciplined thinking.)

 " Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says "Love your enemies," he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. ... The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." ~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.