nashville

last weekend andy and i took a trip to nashville to celebrate our second anniversary. it's crazy how fast two years can fly by! it has really been an awesome 730 days. i am still just as glad i married andy as i was the day i said "i do". he is a fantastic husband and dad. to celebrate the fantasticness, we flew to atlanta and dropped janie off with my parents and drove to nashville. andy finished college at belmont and spent a few additional years there after he graduated, and many of our friends have lived in nashville at some point in their lives so we started the trip with a long list of restaurants, venues, coffee shops and stores that we had to check out. a few friends have asked what we did while we were there. i'm not even exaggerating when i tell you that we ate. the whole time.

we started with lunch on friday afternoon at satco (san antonio taco company). according to andy, nothing much about it had changed since he was there 12 years ago and that was a good thing. the tacos were great, the queso was even better and we left feeling happy. after much deliberation, we ended up staying at the hutton hotel, and it was great. our room was on the 15th floor overlooking vanderbilt. i would definitely stay there again.

friday night we met up with my friend natalie and her boyfriend. natalie and i became friends when my family moved to california and my mom had connected with a lady who had a daughter my age. i had no friends, and wanted some so i boldly arrived at her doorstep unannounced, introduced myself and asked if she wanted to play tennis. she kindly agreed, and our friendship began. she now lives in nashville, so she took us to one of her favorite places, patterson house. it was a great little bar/small plate restaurant, clearly catering to the locals and not tourists. we were glad we had some regulars with us because otherwise we may have been thrown out. there were a serious list of rules in the foyer, which you were required to follow if you wanted to cross the teal velvet curtains to the bar. this place makes EVERYTHING from scratch, including their own cola! if you're ever in nashville, you have got to check this place out...just don't use your cell phone or try to peek behind the blue curtain, or you'll be black listed.

sadly, andy's two favorite restaurants in nashville, rotier's and barbara's were closed for the weekend! our plan for lunch on saturday was to hit one of those places, but instead we took a friends recommendation and went to burger up. the burgers were awesome and the atmosphere was really fun, and the best part of it all was that it was located right next to las paletas. a few weeks ago on the food network bobby flay challenged to owner to las paletas to a throwdown. las paletas serves only popsicles. amazing popsicles. the flavors are ridiculous: hot chocolate chili pepper, avocado, hibiscus honeydew, pineapple-strawberry-banana, and lots more. we headed over there for dessert and enjoyed a blueberry-peach and pineapple-strawberry-banana popsicle. they were so good, especially since it was 106 degrees. (next year we will celebrate our anniversary in alaska, or in january).

i won't bore you with any more detailed descriptions of where and what we ate, because i could go on for a while longer. some of the other places we went were bongo java, eastland cafe, pancake pantry, 1808 grille, marche. every single one of them was great. some conclusions from the weekend: i love the city of nashville, we can eat way more than normal people can, we would have far too much time on our hands if it weren't for janie, and we have a lot of fun together.

while we were packing on the pounds eating our way through nashville, janie was burning major calories learning to crawl, stand, and swim at my parents house in atlanta. by the time we got back she was chasing my parents dog, rascal, all over the house and standing up in her crib. she is completely mobile and so much fun. i noticed when i was getting her ready for bed last night that a pair of pajamas that were getting snug around her chubby little thighs are now loose. i'm kissing her cheeks more than ever now, because i know that pretty soon they'll be history too! her personality is becoming a little more clear every day. that little girl is confident, feisty and well aware of her cuteness. not a day goes by that i don't thank god that he picked me to be her mom.

better than 20/20

for the first time since third grade, i can see better than the perfect eye. it's amazing. in the third grade my friend jenna got glasses. she was really cool and i wanted to be like her, so when i went to the nurses office for the annual vision and hearing test, i lied. and then i got some pretty awesome tortoise shell plastic framed specs. from that day on, i've been wearing some form of corrective lenses to see pretty well. yesterday at 2:00 this is what i saw when i looked at the eye chart without glasses or contacts:

at 2:30 i underwent SBK, the next generation of LASIK, at Hunter Vision. Dr. Hunter and all of his techs were so wonderful. Dr. Hunter explained everything he was doing, and what i would hear, feel, smell and see the entire time. it really can't believe how easy it was. the whole procedure took about 15 minutes and by 7:00 last night i was seeing as well as i did with contacts. for the rest of the night things got progressively clearer and less foggy. this morning i woke up at 6:30 wearing the most awesome goggles ever, and instinctively rolled over to grab my glasses off of the bedside table. i don't think i will ever forget that zephyrhills water is made only from the carefully selected natural springs. those were the first words i read with my new eyes this morning and it nearly made me cry. even with contacts i would have squinted a whole bunch and still struggled to see what that water bottle said. i got in the car to drive to my post-op appointment and realized that this little logo on my dashboard that i thought read "dsc" in fact says compact disc mp3 text. it means equally as little to me now as it did when i thought it said dsc, but man, is it incredible that i've been driving that car for over a year now and have never known what it said! at my appointment this morning i was reading the 20/15 line already, and it should only get better from here. i never realized what i was missing out on all these years. everything is so crisp and clear, and colors are even brighter. i could go on about this for the rest of my life and probably will. everyone should check out Hunter Vision. you will not be disappointed.

half a year

janie celebrated her half birthday last week, and celebrate we did. in her honor, brianne and i had frozen yogurt from menchie's for lunch.

on the left you see healthy bri's dole pineapple whip with gummy bears and some fruit and granola. and on the right is my tasty creation/trainwreck: 1/3 chocolate-vanilla swirl topped with cookie dough & peanut butter chips, 1/3 dole pineapple whip with mango and mochi, and 1/3 mint chocolate chip with chocolate covered sunflower seeds and crushed thin mint cookies, all topped with whipped cream. contrary to popular belief, it tasted amazing.

thanks to aunt bri, janie's half birthday was remembered.

we headed to downtown sanford on monday for janie's 6 month photos with callahan photo. they are great photographers and awesome friends. it was 99 degrees out but we had a good time and they captured some really cute stuff.

today janie had her 6 month doctors appointment, and like usual she is excelling in all areas. after her 4 month appointment when our pediatrician informed us that we should not be feeding a baby heavy cream just yet, we revised janie's diet, started counting her ww points and she successfully dropped from the 95th percentile to the 60th (she started at the 10th, which is what led her doctor to kindly tell us we were overfeeding her). next on the agenda for that little lady (janie, not dr. lim) should be a tooth. we look forward to that with great anticipation and lots of baby tylenol.

refrigerator friends

over the past few days i have spent a lot of time with the guys and ladies of our summit connect group and it has reminded me of how grateful i am for those people. they make up the majority of our blog readers too, so refrigerator friends, this one goes out to you.

i had been in a number of "small groups" and bible studies in my life, and they had all been pretty good. we met once a week. we talked about the bible, god, life. we prayed for each others grandmas. and then we left and went to meet up with our real friends to have fun afterwards. i expected about the same when we joined our summit connect group, but now 2 years later i am amazed at how my perception of a small group has been changed. together we have walked through a wedding, moves, job changes, pregnancies, babies, painting projects, foreclosures, tough family situations, holidays together, and so much more. the folks in our group are the people who received text message updates, practically by the minute, on the day janie was born. they are the friends who walk straight to the refrigerator upon entering our house, because i'd be offended if they felt like they had to ask for a drink. they are the ones our kids will call aunts and uncles despite there being no blood relation. they are the people with whom we have been given an opportunity to live life together and they have done a pretty rocking job at doing just that.

as most of you know, about a week and a half ago sweet ava hunter was diagnosed with brain cancer (you can read more about that and know more specifically how you can pray for her and her family on her dad's blog). while the rest of us 'fridge friends can't possibly imagine what josh, lisa, noah and ava are going through, we will walk the long road ahead beside them, praying all the way and learning a lot in the process. i think i speak on behalf of our entire group when i say that already, we have been amazed and challenged by josh and lisa's strength, grace and faithfulness in all of this. seriously, they are absolutely incredible. we are so blessed to be a part of this community of people and i hope i never forget it.

4th of july continued

a quick addition to that 4th of july post. lindsay just sent me this photo. as you can see, i'm not lying about my family's love of this day. my grandmother gave me that hat about 10 years ago. it's awesome. if i had to guess what was happening at my parents house in atlanta right now, i'd say that my dad is lighting $200 worth of fireworks and my mom is serving every red, white and blue food you could imagine while cheerfully exclaiming, "happy birthday, america!"

happy 4th of july!

the 4th of july is without a doubt one of my top 3 favorite holidays. growing up we celebrated it really big, with red white and blue everything. my sister and i always had crazy huge american flag bows in our hair, along with stars and stripes bathing suits. maybe bostonians are more patriotic than the rest of the country, because as i write this i realize that sounds quite over the top. one year, before the days of SPF or UPV or whatever was built into clothes, lindsay's white and red striped bathing suit left her little body with striped tan lines. we thought it was hilarious and referred to her as the "little jail bird" until the tan lines faded.

2 years ago, tim and shannon were in malawi over the holiday and they entrusted us with their dog, lucy. as a great aunt and uncle should, we took sweet lucy to lake eola with us for the fireworks. the poor dog was terrified! she shook and hid in the bushes the entire time.

last year we spent the day at the beach and got home in time to watch the fireworks here. it was about 107 degrees out i was freezing due to the ridiculous sun burn i acquired during 6 hours in the blistering hot sun without sunscreen.

this year, weather permitting, we will attempt to walk down to the lake with janie for her first fireworks display. hopefully she doesn't have the same reaction as lucy did. at least she will be dressed for the occasion.

we missed may. and most of june.

about 3 weeks ago my friend shannon called and informed me that i had missed may and i decided i needed to get on it. so here i am, in almost july taking care of business. janie is just finishing a breakfast of pureed apples and a sippy cup of formula. she has mastered (and by mastered, i mean she gets at least half of the formula in her mouth 70% of the time), the sippy cup, which means feedings are fairly hands free for us these days.

i have really enjoyed the past 5 1/2 months of being home with janie, but recently thought it would be nice to have somewhere to get out to a few times a week. i thought that if i found a part time job it would have to be something that i really loved, with people i really loved, and a schedule that worked for our family. i thought it would be a long stretch if i found anything to do that would meet all those requirements, but would keep my ears open for something. i shared this idea with a group of ladies one evening, and within days i was in the process of joining the Hunter Vision team. i am so super excited to have the opportunity to be a part of what's starting here and could not have asked for a more perfect job. in the past few weeks i have learned more about eyes than i ever imagined possible. i saw a lady in a restaurant the other day holding the menu 6 feet away from her face (she had really long arms) and practiced great self restraint in not approaching her to tell her that i was afraid she had presbyopia. i officially start on july 6th and i can't wait.

enough about me. janie is growing like a weed. she does all sorts of tricks including, but not limited to:

rolling over both ways

sitting up for very extended periods of time

eating just about everything

reaching the 95th percentile in weight, but holding strong at the 25th for height

passing objects from one hand to the other

growing enough hair to wear a bow sans headband

scooting on the ground, mostly in circles

every time i say, "she couldn't get any cuter!", she sure does. we think she is teething because she is drooling like crazy and chewing on everything. i tried giving her a little kiss yesterday and next thing i knew she was gnawing on my cheek.

our friends are becoming famous left and right. you can see joey, lauren and henry's lovely little house featured on design sponge. another one of our friends, who must remain anonymous has gained great praise for his blog you're a grown man. there is no doubt that he will play a large part in changing 30-year old boys into grown men with the wisdom he shares each morning. and finally, sarah got to wait on the entire cast of the harry potter movies when they were in town for the grand opening of the wizarding world at universal. we are quite honored to be friends with such a crowd. our friends are awesome, celebrities or not.

today begins our spring cleaning, just a little late since it's summer. if you're in the market for lampshades, a very large box shaped tv, or a 'now that's what i call music 6' cd, stay tuned. garage sale coming soon.