BHI

I'm a little behind due to working from Charlotte last week and having a packed schedule. Not complaining though...had a great time with my teammates, got to see some of my Charlotte ladies and was able to do the final walk through of Kelly & Robby's new house (which means it was my last stay at their townhouse...so many memories)!!! I even got to meet little Anne Rankin who is SO CUTE!! But I had to blog about my fabulous beach weekend...

I headed to Wilmington two weekends ago for some quality time with friends. The Hines were sweet enough to pick me up from the airport and hang out for a few hours. I got to see their beautiful home, meet their cute dog and enjoy dinner on the water. I have been friends with these 2 since college and cherish their friendship! It's refreshing that we can pick up where we left off and have lots of meaningful and 'real' conversations. Love you both!

Friday morning (bright and early), we left Tara's house to catch the ferry to Bald Head Island. BHI was gorgeous and lived up to all my expectations. A family friend was nice enough let us use their house for the weekend. The house came with a mac-daddy golf cart and lots of fun bikes! Tara, Abs, Mel, little Maggie Lynne (newest West girl) and I enjoyed every minute of the weekend. We rode tandem bikes, went for walks, stayed up late talking but made sure to get our fill of the pool, beach and lots of reading. Megs grandpa passed away a few days before our trip so she wasn't able to come this year. We really missed her but made sure to text lots of pictures throughout the weekend.
For the past 10 years, we have been on an annual West Girls trip and made so many fun memories. Well, we decided in 2012 we were going to start including our husbands and children. We are going to give it a trial run next year and see how it goes.
I say it all the time, but my heart smiles when I think about these girls and our friendship over the last 15+ years.

Some R&R

I'm leaving on a jet plane and heading to the beach for my annual West girls trip!! I'm flying into Wilmington and get to hang out with BFF and her hubs for a few hours before we head to Bald Head Island. I am beyond excited to get to the beach and have some girl time. My husband has a big weekend planned too! Mike & Phil are heading to Memphis in May BBQ contest Thursday morning and will be spending the weekend with Scot & Courtney. The flood waters will not keep these men away from this BBQ festival. They will literally be in hog heaven this weekend. Phil & Mike have a dream to leave corporate America and open a BBQ restaurant one day. Being the loving and supportive wife that I am, I have encouraged him to stay in corporate America- j/k!!
Phil & Mike are a great team and make some delicious bbq...we'll see what the future holds.

Here's to making great memories this weekend!

Cinco Knoxville Style

Cinco de Mayo 2011 was spent having dinner and game night with our Sunday school class. I love playing games and sometimes get a bit too competitive (surprising, I know). Mike warned me that these are still considered "new" friends so let's not scare them yet. It was a fun night of food, games and laughter...and we ended the night with the same number of friends!

James & Jenny talked us into a late cinco celebration on Friday night and we can't say no to Mexican food. It was "First Friday" in downtown Knoxville where all the shops and galleries stay open late and serve wine/dessert. After we ate ourselves silly, we walked around downtown enjoying live music and going through all the galleries.I was excited about the free wine, but this is what was in EVERY gallery-fail! It actually made me smile and think about my Charlotte bible study ladies (NYC bible study girls too)!
We ended the night at a fun bar with a great wine selection, free roses, a crazy DJ and lots of people watching...and I stayed out way past my bedtime. It was a great start to the weekend.

It's that time again

I have been waiting for this day to arrive since November and Saturday is the day! The FARMERS MARKET OPENS!!
On Fridays, they have a Farmer's Market at a local church that is a bit small but has a great selection. I usually come away with flowers, fruits, veggies, cheese and an occasional sweet treat.

When we are in town, Mike and I do the same thing each Saturday morning...get coffee and take O'Malley for a 3.5 mile walk along the river. I love our little family ritual and I'm a sucker for a good routine!! When it's "farmer's market time", we usually head to the Market Square Farmer's Market after our walk and see what other goodies we can purchase. Oh how I love this time of year!
The farmer's market makes dinner menu planning a little more fun.

Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend.

Always learning

I love technology...whether it's texting, emailing, facebook, skype or surfing the internet...I love it all!
Since moving to Knoxville, we have missed Elevation and hearing Pastor Furtick's messages. Elevation is a little too "rock and roll" for some people, but I think we can agree that everyone leaves hearing an amazing, truth filled message. We are thankful for a new church home in Knoxville, but we can't help but miss Elevation (I might have a slight obsession with one of the worship leaders too).
This is where technology comes in. Elevation posts their sermons online and we get to watch them from the comfort of our couch!!

Pastor Furtick has a series every year on relationships. Back in 2008, I had been dating Mike for about 5 months and decided to break up with him (crazy girl moment). Long story, but clearly we got through it. After about 3 weeks apart, Elevation started a relationship series called Visionary Love, Dream Sex. Mike and I agreed to go through the series and continue to pray about our relationship. We both grew so much from that series as individuals and as a couple. I'm not saying the series made us get back together, but it opened a lot of dialogue and helped us work through our issues. Since that series, we always get excited about books and sermons on relationships (nerd alert)!
Elevation has started a new one called, "Mr. & Mrs. Betterhalf". We watched the first sermon on Monday night and really enjoyed it.
I would encourage anyone to click HERE and hear all the sermons in this relationship series. I guarantee everyone will learn something...or get a swift kick of the butt like me!

Happy Cinco de Mayo too!

Truckin along

We're still here, just traveling for work most of the time.
We did get to spend Easter weekend in Knoxville and had a grand time! The weather could not have been better so we spent a lot of time outside and I got my first burn of the season...I need to remember sunscreen from now on. My husband played 36 holes of golf and thought he had died and gone to heaven.
On Sunday, our church had a beautiful service then we were able to meet some friends for a yummy Easter brunch.



We were not ready when Monday rolled around because we both hit the road...again. I had a packed work week but was so excited about all the face time with my teammates. (side note- I have to say that I have been blessed with amazing teammates. I cannot say enough great things about each person and how much I enjoy them!)
A trip to Charlotte is not complete unless I see the Bruce Family and especially little Emerson. She did not disappoint and showed off all her new tricks!
Kelly, Robby and I celebrated Cinco de Mayo a week early at our normal spot and it made me so happy!!!
Friday afternoon, my hubs flew in from Nashville to spend the weekend in Charlotte. We took his parents to dinner Friday night for an early Mother's Day celebration. Mike got introduced to Cowfish on Saturday and he fell in love (just not with sushi).
Saturday night was the big event. We were able to get the BofA suite for the Usher & Akon concert for the program I manage. We all had a blast but I was appalled at how many kids were at the concert. Kids under the age of 15 do no need to be hearing and/or seeing what was happening on stage. (I wonder what these 6-10 year olds were thinking as they were watching it-so sad!)
Sunday we headed to my parents house to have an early Mother's Day brunch, pick up O'Malley and head back to Knoxville.
The hubs is traveling right now so I'm holding down the fort and nursing an injured pup! Is it Friday yet?!?!

BEST turkey burger EVER...from Cowfish

love that man!

No that is not Jesus, it's Usher