A-Zs of Our Holiday Weekend

A: Antique Archeology Opening. Mike Wolfe, of "American Pickers" fame, opened a branch of his store in Nashville. We went to the opening on Saturday and were surprised to see a line of people waiting to get in. All this time we thought we were dorks because we enjoyed the show. Turns out there are a lot of dorks in Nashville!

B: Buffalo Wild Wings for trivia on Sunday afternoon (where I beat Will in 2/3 games) Holla!!!


C: Car time. We drove around Hendersonville on Sunday, looking at neighborhoods and trying to decide if we are really ready to move to the 'burbs in the next year or 2.


D: Danielle. She was also at the opening of Antique Archeology. We didn't wait in line to take our picture with them, so please excuse the random person in between them.




E: Excessive Sweating. We spent quite a bit of time outside this weekend.

And it was H-O-T.


F: Facebook. Sad to admit, but I've been glued to facebook since Friday night. I can't stop looking at pictures of my new niece!


G: Grilled Cheeserie Food Truck for lunch on Saturday. Finally! I've been dying to try this truck out for months now.


H: Hot Chicken Festival in East Nashville on Monday.


I: Ice cream from the Pied Pipery to put out the FIRE in my mouth from eating hot chicken


J: July 4th Activities. While we didn't actually make the walk down to the river to see the fireworks, we did hear them both Sunday and Monday night- we heard them loud and clear. I feel sorry for anyone who lives downtown with babies or skiddish dogs.


K: Killer napping. I can't recall the last time I crawled into bed on a Saturday afternoon and took a nap! It was the perfect way to prepare ourselves for a big night at U2.


L: Lots of time with Will. I also can't remember the last weekend that Will and I have both had completely free where we were both in Nashville. It was nice. :)


M: McDonalds drive-by. He may have physically avoided being in the stores this weekend, but Will's mind is always thinking about the restaurants. We did a quick drive-by of the stores to make sure everything was working properly.


N: New Niece! Abigail Marie, born July 1st. She is adorable.


O: Odd TV. Have you ever seen "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" on TLC? I didn't mean to start watching it, but it was fascinating to me.


P: Pucketts takeout for dinner on Monday (Can you see a trend here? I only cooked once the whole weekend. I can totally feel it today, too.)


Q: Queen B Photography took some gorgeous pictures of Abby. Sandy's friend Beth is a great photographer- I can't wait for her to take more!


R: Reminiscing. A quick stop at Will's dad's house to look for a bike pump turned into an hour of looking at old photo albums.


S: Skype. Naturally I had to skype with Andy and Sandy so I could watch Abby sleep, and squawk, and yawn, and move her arms around, and suck on her hands, and then sleep some more.


T: Trip planning. We worked on finalizing some of our plans for our upcoming trip to Germany and Switzerland.


U: U2 concert on Saturday night. It. was. awesome.


V: Video watching. We actually opened up our DVD cabinet and watched movies from our collection! We spent Sunday night watching Dodge Ball and Stepbrothers.


W: Walking. Lots of it- to and from the U2 concert, to and from the Hot Chicken Fest. Hence the sweating. Again, it's H-O-T outside.


X: X-naying sunscreen. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to walk around this weekend without sunscreen on, especially yesterday. I have some funky burns on my arms and legs to show for it.


Y: Yelling and singing myself hoarse at the U2 concert.


Z: Zapped of energy after such a busy weekend! Hope your 4th of July weekend was as nice as ours!


(I can't believe I actually thought of an activity for each letter of the alphabet! That was harder than I thought it would be.) :)

Fresh Start

July will be the month that I start blogging regularly again. I'm off to a great start already! 4 posts in 2 days! Go me! :)

U2 at VU

We're going to see U2 play tonight. I'm pretty darn excited. While they aren't my favorite band in the world, they do put on a pretty great show, and I don't think this concert will disappoint. They're playing Nashville for the first time in 30 years, which means that the last time they were here, I was just a glimmer in my parents' eyes. (Does that make me really young, or does it make them really old?)

The cool thing about this concert is that it's taking place at Dudley Field, where Vanderbilt's football team plays. Since my office is literally next door to the stadium, I've been able to watch the massively impressive stage being built this week. Apparently it takes a crew of 400 to build the stage over the course of a week, and only 1 day to tear it all down.

As of yesterday evening, this is the view of the stage, as taken from the employee parking lot behind our office.

Pretty neat, huh? This begs the question, though-

Why did we spend so much money on tickets when we

could have enjoyed the show from my parking lot FOR FREE?!?!

Sweet little faces.

Like I said before, my siblings make pretty babies.

Here's some proof.

Liam Reid

Ella Madelyn

Abigail Marie

Holiday weekends and new arrivals

In the past 5 weeks I've tripled my number of nieces and nephews!

My first-ever nephew, Liam Reid, arrived the Thursday before Memorial Day this year. And I'm happy to report that Andy and Sandy welcomed their first baby to the world today! Abigail Marie was born at 9:15 this evening after a LONG 21 hours of labor for Sandy. Once again, I am so sad I don't live closer to my siblings. As it stands right now, I am not going to get to meet little Miss Abby until the NEXT holiday weekend- she is being baptized over Labor Day weekend. It is killing me to have to wait that long...but Skype should help (and possibly a last-minute cheap flight!).

On a side-note, I am also happy to say that my siblings make very pretty babies. Both my nieces and my nephew have been tiny little perfect people. They should all be GAP baby models. And they're all smart. They will all probably grow up and cure cancer and be the president and bring about world peace. And they're all sweet as can be...even when they're being bad. And they love their Aunt Meaghan something fierce. They don't even have to tell me. We understand each other. I am so in love with these kids I'm not sure how I will handle having babies of my own!

With their births, my new nephew and niece have demonstrated a great knack for timing, proving that they are already little baby geniuses. Being born near a holiday pretty much guarantees long birthday weekend celebrations at least every few years. Way to go, kiddos, way to go. First step to becoming the president is having a patriotic birthday..but more importantly, holiday birthdays equal more time off work to celebrate. See? Smart cookies, I tell ya.

Facebook ain't all that bad...

For all the bad that is associated with facebook, this week has proven that there are some benefits to being connected all the time. It has been great to use the family's personal group page to keep everyone, all over the country, informed and up-to-date of the newest developments. Facebook isn't completely pointless!

Plusses and Minuses

I am celebrating my 29th birthday in Decatur today. There are plusses and minuses to this.

The Bad:
- the most obvious, and the reason I am home, is that my Grandma is sick and in the hospital. We got a call on Tuesday morning that she was not doing well, and the doctors suggested that her family make their way back home. Uncle Bobby and I got straight in the car and drove up from Nashville as soon as we could.
- we have been spending a lot of time in an ICU waiting room, which is just not a fun place to be, regardless of who is sick. There has been quite a fair share of drama the past few days. Thankfully it has involved other families...
- Will is still in Nashville, which means we won't be able to celebrate my last birthday in my twenties together. I miss him.
- I am missing work, which means I will be behind. But obviously, I am where I need to be right now.
- This is my last birthday with a "2" as the first number. Yikes.

The Good:
- Blair just walked into the room, which means that all 9 of Grandma's kids are now in Decatur. It's good to have everyone together, even if it is for a not-so-great reason.
- Grandma has been steadily improving since Tuesday. They just took her ventilator out and she is able to talk now, much to evereyone's relief.
- I have been able to reply to everyone who has written me a birthday greeting on facebook today. The benefits of having lots of time and free WiFi at the hospital.
- I was greeted first thing this morning by my sweet, adorable, smiling niece, who gave me a hug and a "happy birthday" and a promise of all things sparkly for my presents.
- I was able to go with Molly to her ultrasound appointment this morning and see my niece/nephew! I am so excited for his/her arrival! Maybe
before I head back to Nashville?...
- I was able to see some reception venues with Kelly yesterday, which makes me feel less like an absentee maid of honor.
- I don't get to spend my birthday with Will, but I do get to spend my day with my Grandma, both my brothers, my sister, my parents, my
niece, and lots of cousins, aunts, uncles.

Plusses and minuses, for sure.