Old Number 7

Mom and Jack

Last summer when my Aunts and cousins were in Tennessee we took them down to Lynchburg to see the Jack Daniel's Distillery, but if you remember, I also mentioned that the only disappointing thing about our tour was that Lynchburg is in a dry county and therefore: no tasting of the Tennessee Whisky. Mind you... I am no lover of straight whisky, but after the whole tour and learning about the history of the distillery it's hard to not want to try just a little sip. I mentioned this to my father and he mentioned it to the liquor rep for his restaurant who quickly informed him that it would be easy enough to set up a private tour that would include a tasting. Um... YEAH! Sign us up! My parents arrived in town on Wednesday night, and Jake on Thursday morning so as soon as we picked him up at the airport we began our drive south to Lynchburg. We took the tour and learned a few new things, but then we sat down in a private room to begin our tasting with Randall. He started us out with pure (and clear) un-matured bourbon, to give us a comparison between that and the Jack Daniel's "Tennessee Whisky" which is drip filtered through charcoal. Gross, but definitely interesting! Then we moved on to tasting and comparing all of their different varieties of whisky. I probably wasn't the one who got the most out of the whole tasting experience because to me it still all tasted pretty damn near poison, but I know that the men and even my mother really loved learning about the differences in flavor and color, etc. between their products. Now I feel like Keith and I know enough about Jack to be legit brand ambassadors hahaha. After the tour and tasting we made our way (slowly) back to Nashville and enjoyed some drinks at Holland House (where we totally sat next to KD Lang!) and then dinner at The Pharmacy. Overall: awesome day! 

Waiting for our tour.

On the bus up the hill.

Our tasting setup. If Keith could have sat their all day tasting...

Like I said... he would have totally finished those glasses haha

A group of new-found Jack Daniel's lovers.

At Randall's recommendation, we tried our chilled Tennessee Honey over vanilla ice cream... TO. DIE.FOR.

There are still one or two photos from that day that are on my dads camera but I'm much too impatient to wait for him to send them... so you'll just have to deal with seeing that in another post ;)

Another!

I was about to type that this would be my last April birthday to post about, but then I remembered that my wonderful father still has one coming up at the end of the month haha. Oh April and your abundant births!

This past Friday night a small group of our friends got together for pizza and ice cream to celebrate the beautiful Jamie Welker's birthday. We love Tytus and Jamie a lot, and are SO grateful that we got a chance to hang out with them Friday night!

The Final

These are the faces of two kids who just ran 10 miles! (truthfully... Keith ran 11, overachiever). This was the last weekend that we had to get a long run in before the half marathon next Saturday so we knew we needed to take full advantage. Up to this point both of us have only had marginally encouraging runs, so today was SUCH an awesome success and left us feeling really good about being able to finish next week. Now if only the weather will behave... I could not be more proud of how far our bodies have taken us despite all our training setbacks and I CANNOT WAIT for next Saturday night when we can just relax and not think about needing to run EVER AGAIN!

Extras

I promise after today I will quit it with posting about Keith's birthday, there were just so many great photos taken that I can't help but share! Here are some photos that I swiped from Keith's Uncle Tom that he took at breakfast on the morning of Keith's birthday. It's not very often that this grouping of people are all together in the same place, so it was SUCH a great treat that we got to come together to eat and celebrate Keith. Here were my favorites:

Thanks Uncle Tom for the great pictures!

Home Office

This weekend while we were in Atlanta we got a quick chance to stop at Ikea and pick out a new desk for our new home. We had previously been using my desk from college, but it didn't fit very well and the color didn't match any of the other furniture in the room, so we were on the hunt for something a little more simple. In our new house we have the benefit of having a bunch of space at the entryway of the front door, and it looked a little awkward there without anything to fill the space. As much as we always thought a guest room would be a good place for an office, we found that this was a good way for us to NEVER use the desk, or the calendar. All that put together is how we decided to make the wall of our entryway into a mini office! That way the calendar is right out in the open and a perfect reminder of things that need to get done, and I can use my computer and still be able to hang out with Keith in the living room. Best of both worlds! We love how things are coming together in the house and how it's already feeling like home even after just a month of being here. So excited to show it off to my family when they get here in a week!

Keith is the designated builder in our home, so I was pretty proud when I managed to build this chair all on my own :) 

Our new "office" complete with framed diplomas! We're so fancy ;)

Concert Love

One of the GREATEST parts of Braves Opening Day was that the band who played the pre-show, and the National Anthem was The Civil Wars! We had been dying to see them since we weren't able to get tickets when they were in town, and we might have jumped for joy when it was announced that they were playing haha. I don't think either of us really knew what to expect from the show because they don't really seem like the type of band that would be good for a huge sporting event, but it was so impressive the way that the whole crowd stopped and was completely silent and intently listening during their whole set. They sounded amazing, and Joy Williams has got to be one of the prettiest pregnant ladies I've ever seen! What a special treat to be able to see them live without the struggle of trying to find tickets on craigslist or through scalpers!

Teenager

April is SO full of birthdays! Obviously I've already posted about Keith and Jordie's birthday, but I can't let this day pass without recognizing the birth of my favorite little cousin, Jack. I was 10 when he was born so now that he's turning 14 I'm feeling pretty darn old. I spent so much time with my aunt Kathleen growing up, and still to this day I can say that she's one of my best friends so naturally I was always close to Jack as well. I can't even tell you how many hours I spent babysitting this little guy, or the amount of times we watched Thomas the Tank Engine together... or the Wizard of Oz! He loved it so much.

Now here's the kicker... I present to you a photo from the day that Jack was born, with me in all my 10 year old glory... awkward missing teeth, middle part and all haha

Happy 14th birthday Jack! We love you!

Twenty First

So while most of this weekend was spent celebrating the birth of our own Keith Richards... but when we got back into town on Saturday night we flipped and got together with friends to party with Jordana for her 21st birthday! Last year we had a joint party for the birthday kids, but 21 deserved a celebration all her own :) We weren't able to make it to dinner, but we met up afterwards for drinks at the local speakeasy, The Patterson House. Being that it was 9:30 on a Saturday night and we had a large group the wait was a little ridiculous, so we had a couple pre-game drinks at a bar down the street and then headed back to check our status. After another half hour of waiting the hostess let us know that she only had a table of four and the rest of us would have to wait another hour, ugh. With some quick thinking, we decided to let the birthday girl go on ahead and the rest of us walked back down the street and had dinner since we were pretty starving anyway haha. After dinner the group that had gotten drinks was finishing up and we met them back at Jordie's sister Sammie's house to eat cake and dance in the kitchen for a little bit. Here are some photos from that part of the night:

Silly birthday buddies haha. Again, Happy Birthday Jordie! Congrats on FINALLY being legal to drink, and to being a little bit less of the baby in our friend group haha

Home of the Braves

It just so happened that Keith's favorite sports team decided to play their home opener on his birthday weekend. Coincidence? Maybe haha. Keith was more than happy to share his birthday with the Braves, and the rest of us got to join in on the fun as well. Here are some shots from our fabulous night at Turner Field:

In the car on the way to Georgia

Isaac and Keith at dinner pre-game

Keith's brother Christopher

Carolyn and Isaac

Game day supplies

Birthday boy checking out the field (wearing a shirt that used to belong to his father haha)

Family :)

Doing their best tomahawk chop!

In our best game day apparel

If the Braves scored a home run in the 5th inning everyone got free burritos at Moe's the next day... which happened and sent the boys into a frenzy haha

and then they scored ANOTHER home run in the same inning, so the boys continued to celebrate wildly haha

My game buddy Carolyn.

Post- game fireworks. 

If you couldn't tell from the photos, we had such a blast at the game. It was a high scoring game which meant there was a lot of action to hold the attention of us less experienced baseball watchers (ahem). Thankfully the Braves pulled out a win just for Keith and we all went home with smiles on our faces. Much thanks to Keith's mom for making this whole experience possible! and we can't wait to continue the tradition together next year!

Late Twenties

Jeepers, by this time last year I had already posted like, three times about my wonderful husband's birthday but I suppose the saying "better late than never" applies here too.

So without further ado, I present: the cutest 26 year old that I know :)

To you my love: I couldn't be happier or feel more blessed that this is the 5th birthday that I've gotten to spend with you, and the 2nd as your wife. You know how to make me smile better than anyone else in the world and I can't wait to celebrate a hundred more birthdays with you! I know you're feeling a little nervous about entering your "late twenties" but don't worry, I'm not far behind and i'm looking forward to journeying into our thirties, late thirties, forties and beyond together. You're my best friend in the world and I couldn't imagine a greater parter to walk through life with! Glad that you had an exceptional birthday this year!

Now get ready for more birthday related posts....

and if you're curious here are posts from Keith's 24th and 25th birthdays: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

April Update

Talk about a BUSY week! We haven't had one free night since this past weekend and things aren't looking like they're going to slow down any until the end of the month. Craziness! Here is a little recap of what's been going on with Keith and I:

This weekend my wonderful husband will be turning 26! We're celebrating with a trip to Atlanta tomorrow with our great friends Carolyn and Isaac so that we can see Keith's family, and enjoy opening day for the Atlanta Braves. You may remember that we also got a chance to go last year, and since it always happens to be near Keith's birthday... I'm sure this won't be our last opening day at Turner Field. We're really excited to get out of Nashville for a little bit, to have some one on one time with Carolyn and Isaac, to sneak in a little Ikea shopping and for Keith to get to be with his family on his birthday for the first time in who knows how long!

On the job front: I mentioned that I was going to be the Art Director for Oak Hill Day Camp this summer and I'm getting more and more excited about it everyday. Last week I got a chance to take a look at my room and start the mega task of organizing the supply closet so that I could take inventory. I went ahead and made my order for the summer (with the largest supply budget of my LIFE!!!!) and now I'm just fine tuning my lesson plans and making sure I have tons of options for our 8 weeks. I feel like the independence of my after school job really set me up well for being able to plan and shop and get everything ready for a curriculum on my own, and I'm glad that this camp job can be a perfect next step from that. Thinking now about post-camp... I'll have my second interview on Monday with the charter school East End Prep, an offspring of the community center I've been working for here in Nashville. The position that I'm interviewing for is a teaching assistant, which would help me get some more experience, but also be a way for me to work full time with a salary and benefits. I can't even let myself think about that awesomeness yet haha. Again, trying not to put all my eggs in one basket... the preschool that I have been subbing for is desperately hoping that I will join their staff when they have an opening this July or August which would also be a great opportunity with similar benefits. So now my little micro-managing brain is just hoping that I can get all this figured out like, yesterday, because all this uncertainty is bound to make me crazy haha.

One more tidbit, 2 weeks ago I had a terrible tooth ache which has led to me needing to get all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled, yuck. As much as I'm ready to just be done with it, I honestly can't work out a good time to get it done! Here's hoping that I can find a way to reschedule so that I don't have to have a chipmunk face at Trent and Jordie's wedding, whomp whomp.

and with that, we're off to Atlanta! Here's to a great birthday weekend!

Dinner and a Show

Last Wednesday Keith had a band that he needed to go see for work called The Vespers, who happened to be playing Music City Roots at the Loveless Barn so I decided to tag along and make an evening out of it. Some how neither Keith nor I had ever eaten at Loveless, which is definitely a Nashville staple.... we had the most scrumptious dinner and look forward to making the trek out there again soon! After we ate our weight in biscuits we headed out back to the barn for the show and found an extremely homey and welcoming shin-dig full of great music, and great music lovers. We listened to 4 different bands, some better than others but definitely a fun experience. Nashvillians: If you've ever listened the the live stream of Music City Roots on Lightning 100 on Wednesday nights, it is definitely worth a trip out west to see it live!

Good or Great

Let me just start by saying: EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS FRIDAY IS GOOD!!!

We started by sleeping in until whenever we felt like waking up, then I ran to the store for mimosa materials, we had a yummy breakfast and now we're leisurely catching up on last weeks TV shows. I think this is the first time that Keith has ever had Good Friday off, and we're certainly soaking it up. Theo has even celebrated this extra day by bringing us a snake! What a sweetie (NOT!) Our weekends have just been so packed recently that it's nice to have an extra day together that doesn't need to be filled with chores, 10 mile runs or even entertaining friends. With that, I leave you with an impromptu photo booth photoshoot... it will never not be hysterical haha