Changes

This move to Nashville has definitely been a huge change (this for someone who does not like change). There have definately been many tears and I am sure there will continue to be for some time. I seem to have waves of home sickness. The first little while I was so busy that I did not stop unpacking and organizing from sun up to sun down. I didn't have a lot of time to think about it. Now, as I have more time, I am definitely home sick. I miss the comfort of Knoxville friends and family! I miss knowing how to get everywhere I need to go and I miss the utter lack of traffic in Knoxville. I miss my house and just miss the comfort of home. I know it will start to feel like home here (and it does the most when friends and family fill the house, like they did in Ktown!) I really think the holidays are the worst time to move as that is the time you want to be near friends and family most.
However, I do look forward to after the holidays when things will settle down a little and we can start getting plugged in without feeling so pulled back to Knoxville (will I ever stop feeling that pull?) I look forward to getting plugged into a church and settling into a routine.
All that is not to say that God has not blessed us tremendously! We have a house and yard I really like. We have a wonderful school for HJ. The biggest blessing to come so far is the rebuilding/renewing of a wonderful friendship with KJ's college pastor. He and his family have lived in Nashville for 10 years. DP helped to marry KJ and I, and have been an instant connection here! They immediately told us we were now to think of them like family and have not let us not think of them that way. They have brought us a meal when we were still getting settle. DP has gone with KJ to lunch and breakfast about once a week. Ginger has also insisted (and I mean won't take no) that I bring at least CJ over once a week so I can get stuff done. So I have had two days of time to myself. I have also gotten to have some wonderful conversations with Ginger when I go to her house and when they came her for brunch. She is so wise and faithful. She is a wonderful mentor and sounding board. I feel so blessed to have an instant family here. I think they must know how hard it is for people to accept help and that is why they have been so insistent, they truly are showing us God's love! That has been the biggest blessing so far and one that I thank God for daily!
I think through this whole experience God is calling me to him for a deeper and more meaningful relationship so I look forward to that developing.
Anyway, there are my rambling thoughts and updates.
Consider yourselves caught up for the most part with us! I hope to be posting frequently from now on!
Tomorrow we head back to Ktown!

Celebrities in Nashville

Well since moving to Nashville, I have been asked to keep a running tally of the celebrities we have seen. I have already seen two!

The first was at The Grinch ice show. After you get through the ice thing, they hand the kids oreo cookies. CJ was eating hers when this really well dressed lady came up and said to me that CJ was getting crumbs all over her pretty coat and then reached in her purse and wiped her face with a tissue! I didn't really pay attention to what she looked like, but KJ was staring dumbly at her when she turned back to her family. He whispered to me that she was famous. So then I looked at her and realized it was Barbara Mandrell!! We looked her up and it was definitely her. She was there with her daughter (a picture of her daughter is on her website and I guess her grandkids). So that was fun!

The next celebrity I saw was in the Brentwood Target. I used to watch Days of Our Lives (I don't anymore) but I saw an actress that used to be on Days. CJ was running down the main aisle of Target and almost plowed into her buggy. She bent down and said hi to her and then smiled at me. I was staring at her trying to figure out how I knew her when it came to me who she was. I looked her up on the web and her name is Melissa Reeves and she does live in Nashville.

So there you go with the celebrity sightings, I will keep you posted as I see them! CJ seems to be my celebrity magnet.

Almost Caught up!

This past weekend, we had some more friends come stay with us. I am loving the friends visiting. Like I said it makes it feel like home!
They came on Saturday and we surprised them by having a brunch ready for them complete with Larry's old college pastor and his family who I am so happy to say live in Nashville!

We had an absolutely wonderful visit with the house full of kids laughing and playing (the college pastor and his wife have 4 kids!), our friends have 2, and we have 2, it makes for a full house!

I think Hunter thought he had died and gone to heaven when all the boys went outside and played football. Hunter has not stopped talking about what fun that was and when can everyone come back and play football again!

That afternoon, Aimee and I went shopping and then we came back and all went out to pizza!

It was a wonderful visit! We hope we have lots of friends and family come stay with us, it is a blast!

Thanks Larry and Aimee for coming to stay with us!

Friends come to stay!

Well the weekend after Thanksgiving, our good friends came to see us and stay for the weekend! It was their weekend off from their job as house parents at a ranch home for girls. I am so glad they chose to come see us. We had a wonderful weekend!
The Friday they got here, we went to the Ice show. It is a huge exhibit made entirely of ice. This year's theme was The Grinch. It was pretty amazing! They give you these heavy coats to wear because it is 3 degrees inside. You can't believe how amazing it was thinking it was all made of ice. However, the kids don't really have the ability to appreciate the time and talent that has to go into creating this. They raced through running to get to the ice slides. There is a huge room set up with 2 huge slides made of ice. HJ and CJ loved it and each went down twice. Caroline and Calla were a little leary of it.
So we raced through the rest of it. $60 for about 15 minutes of fun, what a deal!!!!!!! I wanted to get more pics and started taking some but a worker told me the extreme cold could break my camera lens so I quickly put it away!

After the ice show we walked to the Opryland Hotel and had dinner and walked around looking at all the decorations. It is a pretty amazing place!

On Saturday, Christy and I went shopping. She wanted to check out the fun stored here in Nasvhille like Pottery Barn kids, Macy's, Janie and Jack, and Sephora. So that was fun!

They had to leave Sunday but not before Steven helped KJ hang some pictures!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!

Having friends come visit really makes the house feel like home!

Thanksgiving

We came to Knoxville on Thanksgiving morning and had lunch at Oma and Opa's house. It was delicious! Honey baked ham and turkey, plus lots of wonderful sides, including the best corn casserole I have ever had!

Then we went to my Mom's house for nap and dinner. Another delicious meal, this one of fried turkey (than KJ and Brent, yes Brent, prepared)! Here are some pics of both meals. The pic of Granddaddy is him showing off the meal that CJ prepared for him in her kitchen.

The day after Thanksgiving, Mom and I did our annual shopping day! I think we did really well. I got a lot of great deals on stuff we needed for the house (but not a ton of actual Christmas shopping done). I am still tickled with my deals though!

On Saturday, we met friends for breakfast at Mimi's and then drove back to Nashville to hit the boxes!

Closing and Moving

We closed on our house on Nov. 15. I drove down for the closing and turned around and drove home after the closing. KJ and his Dad stayed for the whole weekend and painted ALL WEEKEND long! They got a ton done.
The master bedroom had been blue (a really pretty blue as the previous owners had a brown and blue color scheme in the master), however, our color scheme is khaki, black, and white. So KJ and Robbie painted it a dark khaki. It is darker than I have gone before and I love it! Keep in mind with our house, that every single ceiling is painted a coordinating or matching color as the wall. So they had to paint the ceiling (3 coats) in each room they painted. I love the painted ceiling look (so does KJ, unless he is painting over it!)
They also painted the guest room (it was sage and is now light khaki), CJ's room (was lavendar and is now green), the kids bathroom (was yellow and is now green), and we still have the upstairs hall bath to paint (it is sage and needs to be khaki). We will get to that after the holidays. Having to paint the ceilings in every room adds a whole level of difficulty and time to each task!!!! However, the finished product looks great! I will post pics soon.

On Monday, I got up early and drove down and the movers moved us in! It took all day long! All I accomplished that Monday was getting the kitchen pretty much unboxed. Our house was filled from floor to ceiling with boxes in almost every room. It was a crazy sight.

Mom brought the kids down on Tuesday and we got their rooms put together and with her help a ton done.

On Thursday, we left the moving mess and came home for Thanksgiving. We came back on Saturday.

Since then, we have the main living area all unboxed and put away. Not all the pics are hung but we are getting there slowly. Hanging pictures is the last thing Kevin wants to do when he comes home from work. So it may be after Christmas before we finish that.

Now the basement is a complete disaster zone! That is just going to take time to go thru and organize. Hopefully, when KJ is off work for the holidays we can get started on that. It is completely overwhelming!

I will try and take pics soon of the house put together and post them. It is turning out nicely!

Dollywood with Friends

The day before we moved, I took HJ to Dollywood with some friends of ours who were in town for Thanksgiving. They are dear friends who moved to Alabama in May so I don't get to see them much. I wanted to be able to stay for a whole day at Dollywood and since Kevin was in Nashville painting (more on that in the next post), CJ stayed with my Mom. HJ and I had a blast! HJ got to spend a lot of fun time with his good friend Caroline and I got to visit with my good friend Christy!!!! We had a blast. We also found out that Hunter has grown since we last went and could now ride a few more rides! He and I were thrilled. We even got to see the great Christmas lights as we were there well after dark!