Hockey Success!

After our fail last week to win hockey tickets, I had this feeling that we might not get a chance to see a Predators game this season. BUT! Monday as I was leaving work, Keith called to see if I was up for a change of plans because he had scored some free seats from a friend. We had dinner at home and then hustled downtown to watch the most exciting hockey game we've ever seen in Nashville! Lots of goals, LOTS of fights and free frosties on the way home. Even though Tuesday morning I was pretty tired, it was worth it to see a good (free) game!

My Valentines

This year I seemed to have a class full of little Valentines! Our school doesn't directly celebrate the holiday, but we did some fun activities for "heart" or "love" day and the kids (or their parents) were extremely generous with their gifts to myself and my assistant teachers. We spent the day painting hearts, and giving each other hugs and kisses... they are such sweet friends to each other sometimes.

Keith and I didn't do too much Thursday night, he surprised me with my favorite burritos and sparkling cider. We watched some TV on the couch and called it an early night. Friday we decided to go out for a nice dinner but anywhere we called had no reservations or open spaces. After contemplating just getting some cheap burgers in our PJs, we decided to get dressed and just go... if we had to sit at the bar, so what. We ended up getting to Lockeland Table just as someone had cancelled their reservation and we were seated right away. Perfect luck if you ask me! We had a DELICIOUS dinner and dessert and still managed to make it an early night. I just can't believe that this will be our last Valentine's Day as just the two of us! (or should I say... this is technically the first Valentines Day for the THREE of us) I was feeling so sentimental looking at these old posts, you should look too: 2010, 2011 and 2012. 

The Perfect Day

This Saturday Keith and I had one of the most perfect days.

It all started out with a a fluke weather occurrence... a 65 degree morning during the middle of August! As I was leaving the house for Zumba and felt how awesome it was, I ran back inside to wake Keith up and announce that it was going to be an outside day (he wasn't so happy about the whole waking him up thing, but at least he was a good sport ;) When I got home we did a few things around the house, Keith made me breakfast and then we got ready to drive a couple miles down the road to partake in the annual East Nashville Tomato Art Festival. We walked around and checked out a lot of the booths, ran into a couple people we knew and then got in line for one of our favorite lunches from the Biscuit Love  food truck. So darn delicious! After lunch we were feeling rather full and sluggish, but still wanted to enjoy the great weather, so we went over to our favorite park: Shelby Bottoms to grab a couple bikes from Nashville's GreenBikes bike share program. We're obviously pretty familiar with the greenway because that is where we did all of our 1/2 marathon training, but it is such a different experience to ride it rather than run. It was such a great little afternoon activity and before we knew it we had biked 6 miles and were ready to come home to relax. The rest of the evening was nice and leisurely, we took a long nap, and then cooked a delicious dinner together that we got to eat out on our deck. We haven't been out there in awhile because of how hot it's been, but last night we both actually thought to ourselves that we were a bit chilly... what a strange August happening haha. Here are some photos from our great day:

Taking Me Back

Talking about a tiring week! But when is it not, I guess. I think that I've finally just admitted to myself that we're in the time of our lives where things just DON'T STOP. We never have a break because there is always something, big or small, going on in our worlds. I can't even imagine what it would be like to bring a child into all this craziness... but then again, I could just be overreacting (and tired).

This past Tuesday Keith and I got a chance to go see one of my most favorite bands from high school, Death Cab for Cutie. We bought these tickets forever ago and in the chaos that is our monthly schedule, we almost forgot that we were going. It was a welcome surprise when we looked at the calendar and actually remembered that we had something fun to look forward to. Since Keith has access to fancy tour history websites, we looked up that I has previously seen Death Cab in 2004, 2005 and 2006, meaning that its been SIX years since I've given them a proper listen. I was worried about not enjoying this concert because they've put out a couple albums since then that I never purchased, and as we were walking into the Ryman we could tell that the crowd had definitely gotten younger since the last time I was at one of their shows. Still though, they managed to blow me away! I counted, and they only played 3 songs from the album they're touring for, and 2 from the album before that... the rest of the set was made up of songs from all of my most favorite cds. It was glorious! I had such a great time singing along to all my old favorites, and it really took me back to high school and the first time that I ever saw them live, which was one of the greatest shows of my life. They're great musicians who put on a great live show, and I can't see myself passing up an opportunity to see them live anytime they happen to be near. For as great as they sounded, and as great as the set was, the crowd there turned out to be pretty terrible. I think that because they played so many older songs that newer listeners hadn't heard before, people were getting restless and talking which is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. Regardless, I had a wonderful time, and it was nice to have a little midweek date with Keith :)

June Nights

Last week was one of the busiest ones that we've had in a while. Between crazy work loads at our jobs and social engagements every night we were pretty pooped when we got to the weekend. Between all of that chaos though, there were two evenings that really stuck out as being truly great:

Tuesday night Jordana gathered all the ladies at her apartment to watch a movie, eat lots of treats and to catch up on life. After an extremely stressful day at work, in my head the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was to leave again but once I was surrounded by a room full of understanding ladies with listening ears, I remembered why God invented friends. It turned out to be a night to just relax and forget about my awful day for a couple hours. Thank you ladies, for that!

My other favorite night last week was Friday, when Keith took me to see Moonrise Kingdom, the new Wes Anderson film I've been dying to see and that took it's sweet time in getting to Nashville (I'm talking MORE than a month from the regular release date, ugh). It was everything that I hoped it would be and more, and I cannot wait to see it again. I really think it could make me reconsider my order of favorite Wes Anderson movies... it was that good.

Away

Did I mention that this past week Keith was out of town for work? 3 day 2 nights of being home alone and by the time he pulled into the driveway last night I nearly burst with excitement to see him. It really brought me back to our long distance dating days and I remembered all the reasons why I'm thankful we're married and I get to keep him at home all to myself :) here's hoping for no more business trips like that for awhile... I would never make it full time as a single girl (note Thursday lunch of pretzels + pretzel m&m's... oops).

Before he left me though, we went out on a romantic date to one of our favorite places: BurgerUp and then for dessert, I insisted. Krispie Kreme. You just can't go wrong there.

Highschooler

Way back in the day I used to absolutely LOVE The Rocket Summer, he's cheesy, poppy and fun but I must admit that I haven't listened to any of his music in like... 4 years. It just so happens that Keith's company books for him, so when there was a show here in Nashville and Keith offered up tickets I curiously jumped at the chance to see him live again. It was everything I hoped it would be and more :) He played lots of oldies, and I awkwardly sang along to every word and wished like heck that my best friends were there to sing with me! Many thanks to Keith for putting up with my nonsense haha.

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!

Spontaneous Show

Now that Keith is working in the music business world he's been much more interested in seeing live music and making it a priority to see great bands when they come through town. I think that it was something we've always liked to do, we just got kind of lazy about pursuing it when he was a regular 9 to 5er. Regardless, I think I've been to more shows in the past 6 months than I went to in the past 2 years haha.

For the past couple months Keith has been talking about this band The Head and the Heart, and mentioned how he wanted to see them live, but both of their Nashville shows were sold out. Flash forward to Monday: I had a super long day and kind of wanted to just come home and relax with my husband, but when I texted him that, what message did I receive? I JUST SCORED 2 TICKETS FOR SUPER CHEAP! hahaha I should have known ;) Thankfully Keith knows how to get me on board for anything: filling my belly with Moes and getting me a king sized butterfinger for dessert haha. In the end I'm so glad that we got to go to see them live. It was SUCH an awesome show, AND my friend Sarah was there too. It was nice to have a spontaneous little week night date, and we were still in bed before midnight (which is way past our old married people bed time haha)

Tunes

Last night Keith and I had the AMAZING opportunity to go and see Mumford and Sons at the Ryman Auditorium, and even though we've both been there a couple of times it's always such a treat to listen to music in that building. Ready for some stories? Because this concert experience is FULL of them haha 

SO. The Mumford guys are currently in the studio recording a new album and they got bored so they wanted to take a break and play a few shows here in Nashville. Keith found out that these tickets were going on sale and wanted to surprise me with tickets for Valentines Day. Despite his best efforts to make that happen the tickets for 3 nights sold out within minutes and he wasn't able to get any. For the next few weeks he worked extremely hard trying to find tickets on craigslist or stubhub, and we finally settled into the fact that we were going to have to spend double face value at the least, and probably wouldn't be able to sit together. Still though! We could go! Fast forward to yesterday... day of the show. Keith is headed back to work from his lunch break and sees a facebook posting from the promotion company that put on the concerts saying that they had 25 tickets that they were putting on sale in the box office, but you had to go RIGHT THEN. My wonderful and speedy husband ran out of work without so much as telling people where he was headed, parked in the tour bus loading zone and got us those tickets! Now when I tell you these were awesome seats... shoot, we really couldn't have say anywhere better. It was so perfect. and even better! We found free parking downtown, which NEVER happens haha. It was meant to be. We saved $100 on tickets, had amazing seats TOGETHER and extra beer money :) 

The show was GREAT, we had so much fun, and the crowd was just so incredibly pumped it was impossible not to be really excited. They played a great mix of new and old songs and I wish that this could be the end of my stories haha. Unfortunately this was the first night of three shows and I think the guys were incredibly nervous, and had a bit too much to drink :/ Marcus forgot the words to one of the songs which they ended up scrapping altogether, and then towards the end he had to excuse himself from the stage to go throw up. The band ended up all walking off and coming back on a few minutes later to finish the set but we didn't get an encore, and I can't help but feel like we got short changed on songs. Overall I don't want to let that ruin the experience that we had because there really is no comparison to the sound inside the Ryman. We're thrilled that we got to go and see them, just a little bummed at how the night ended. Don't they know you can't drink beer and whisky, play your heart out and not have any water? haha I'm hoping tonight goes a little easier for them...

I know I mentioned this on instagram last night... but the experience of hearing a band stand on the edge of a stage in front of thousands of people with no mics or amps and for everyone to still hear them perfectly? Everyone needs to witness that at some point in their lifetime. 

Be Mine

Last year my awesome Valentine surprised me by shaving his long scraggly beard... apparently he didn't want to go for a re-gift this year, but I am quite pleased with the great day that we had. Unfortunately Keith was feeling a little sick (wonder where he caught it? :) but thankfully he rallied just for me, and made me feel super special all day long.

I started the morning with a text that included details and a coupon for a manicure and pedicure I can schedule at my leisure, and a note from Keith which said "treat yo self!". This then prompted me to rewatch one of my favorite episodes of Parks and Recreation, which made me laugh just as much as I anticipated haha. After a quick run and a shower I realized that I had left my huge cart of art supplies in Keith's car and wouldn't be prepared for my afternoon lessons, so I called him up and scheduled an impromptu lunch rendezvous. Since we had plans to go out for dinner, I just made myself a sandwich and we had a little picnic in the car. I kind of like when being forgetful means that I get to have some extra time to hang out with my husband :)

Keith ended up feeling bad enough to leave work early, so he came home and slept whole I went to teach my afternoon art classes, and when I got home he was feeling energized enough to go out. We had a glass of wine while we got ready and then headed to dinner at a favorite little hole in the wall place, Savarinos. We love how no-frills everything is there, and the food is definitely worth talking about. I still haven't brought myself to try something new because I love the broccoli garlic penne so darn much! I think the best part is their selection of tasty little italian desserts... it always makes me think of my favorite gelato shop back home, Sonny's. After dinner we skipped the movie because Keith was starting to fade, and opted to go home and go to bed early instead.

Overall, it felt like a perfect little Valentines Day. Nothing crazy, but a nice occasion to get fancy and enjoy an evening for ourselves.

and if you're nostalgic like I am... here is a look at what we did for Valentines day in 2010 and 2011. Now I want to go and dig up pictures from our 2009 v-day... I can't believe we've been celebrating together for 4 years!

Reward

So our reward for running 3 miles on Saturday is that we got to go and see a Predators game last night! I think that I expected for us to have pretty crappy seats since they were giving out so many tickets to runners, but Keith and I were pleasantly surprised with how close we were sitting! It made the game so much more exciting (and easier to keep my attention haha). The Preds ended up losing which was a HUGE bummer, but the game went into overtime and ended in a shoot out which kept us on our toes til the very end. We were still talking today about what a bummer it is that they lost haha. Regardless, it was a fun little mid week treat to go on a date together.

Nashville

So close!

SHOOT OUT! So stressful I could hardly watch!

Bowl

Last night Keith and went to have some cheap mexican food and beer after he got home from work and had planned to settle into a night on the couch watching our favorite shows. When we were done with dinner though, we got a call from our friends Brad and Jen asking if we wanted to join them at the bowling alley and we made a quick, spontaneous decision to go meet them instead of being old and boring haha. It turned out to be SO much fun, even though I'm probably the worst bowler ever, yikes! (if we're going by golf scoring though, I totally whooped everyone haha). My family definitely spoiled me with bumpers... we ALWAYS used bumpers! I wasn't prepared for this real bowling business.

But why did you choose the blue balls?

My perfect form haha

Brad and Jen

Jen KILLED it! She beat us all by like 50 pins

Watching in amazement as Jen gets strike after strike haha