My new perch

I'm sure most readers of this blog know this (as this is really old news), but I started a new job at the beginning of May. I am now the public information officer for the Tennessee Supreme Court/Administrative Office of the Courts. In this role, I work with the media on behalf of the court system and am working on the re-design of our Web site. I've also set up a Twitter feed for the court system. You read about my announcement here (you have to scroll down the page a bit). It's been an interesting job so far. Already, I've been quoted in a number of newspapers and have been on-site for a trial (the recent Mary Winkler hearing - you can read about it here).

I'm also fortunate enough to have an office with a gorgeous view. I work in the Nashville City Center downtown. Here's what it looks like...

I work on the sixth floor and have a pretty spectacular view.

This is one of the views from my office. This is the legislative plaza (the short building with trees on top) and War Memorial Auditorium behind it.

Looking directly across the street, I can see the historic Hermitage Hotel. Lots of famous folks have stayed there.

This is the other view down 6th Ave, which is just down the street from the legislative plaza.

All that being said, I'm thrilled with the new gig and feel really blessed for this opportunity. Stay tuned for further details!

Memorable Memorial Day weekend

A couple of days before the Memorial Day weekend holiday, I get a call from my sister, Jenna, asking "what are you doing this weekend?" Although this is fairly inocuous question, it had a twinge of devious curiosity behind it. I soon learn the reason she asked - she and Jeremy wanted to come visit. We told them we'd love to have them. The next day, I talked to my Mom and it turns out that she and my Grandma Kiehl wanted to come along! So, we had a house full of guests for the holiday weekend.

When my family arrived, they showed up with a huge bucket of flowers from my Mom and two grandmothers! I was thrilled! I quickly whipped out all of my vases (that never get used, ahem, Garth!) so we could arrange them and place throughout the house. Since I couldn't keep them forever, I took pictures so I could always remember how great they looked.

I was especially excited to get these gorgeous, fragrant peonies. Garth and I got married four years ago during Memorial Day weekend and we had peonies at our wedding. I love them! They are beautiful and smell fantastic. It was such a treat to have some fresh blooms in our house for a few days.

Pretty pink roses from Grandma Kiehl in a crystal vase from Grandma Tieman (which was a wedding shower gift - it came from Germany and is something she's had for years).

Petit roses from Grandma Kiehl in a charming vase from Garth's mom, Linda. It was darling on our kitchen window sill.

The irises came from my Mom and both Grandmothers. They looked lovely on top of my piano!

I didn't get many pictures of the family, but here's one of my Grandma Kiehl, Mom, Jenna and me. On that Saturday, we had a great trip to the farmer's market. Since my Grandma has such a green thumb, she loved inspecting the fruits and veggies and talking to all the vendors. After that, we headed to Zackie's Hot Dogs in Germantown for lunch. This is us sitting outside of the restaurant. After lunch, we hit the flea market that was in town. Busy day!

Jenna and Jeremy at Zackie's.

Garth and me outside of Zackie's.

Bailey also enjoyed seeing my family. She loved all of the attention (and the food!). She did one of her favorite things and climbed up in my Mom's lap. She loves her Grandma Marj!

We had a great weekend and enjoyed having everyone come visit!

Girls Weekend!

Last month (yes, I realize I'm a bit behind), my gal pals and I decided to have a good ole fashioned girls weekend and slumber party! We started out with brunch and mimosas at Marche. I had their French toast croissant - it was delicious and a perfect way to start the day.

From there, we headed to Signature to get pedicures. Here's Cara, Katie and Jan sipping (free) wine while we get our pedicures. Our toes looked so pretty!

After we got pampered, we went shopping with our resident fashionista, Cara. We went to My Sister's Closet, a fantastic consignment store, and scored some serious deals.

When it was time for dinner, we headed to Rosepepper for some Mexican and the BEST margaritas in town.

After a whirlwind day, we headed back to Katie's to hang and spend the night. Addison, Cara's blue tick coon hound, and Frodo Baggins, Katie's French mastiff, played all night. We got a kick out of watching them.

Peek-a-boo! Addison looks out from underneath Frodo's legs. Can you tell there's about a 100-pound size difference?

Here's Addison and Frodo on Katie's bed. We're convinced they are now in love. Don't they look like they are spooning?




And now, they are kissing. It was just too cute.

Okay, clearly we were entertained by the dogs. It doesn't take much with us! Anyway, we all had a fabulous time. Thanks for hosting us, Katie! We're all looking forward to the next slumber party!

Reliving old times

A few weeks ago, we got the wild idea revisit an old Haunt of ours - Silverado's. Garth and I used to go to this place with his group of friends even before we were dating, which was almost seven years ago!

This place is a TRUE honky tonk. It's off the beaten path and has very serious group of line dancers who come on a regular basis. The reason we went (and used to go) was for the wonderful beer special. So, after watching Mizzou get beat by UConn, we decided to take our group on this wonderful adventure.

Here's Garth and I cheesing once we get there - we really can't believe we went along with the idea to go!

Here are the guys trying to act tough or re-enact a college frat boy look. I think they did well, don't you think?

Me and the girls. And yes, that's a boxing game behind us. It was really classy. It was a game where a boxing glove drops down and you hit it as hard as you can. We watched MANY macho guys try and prove how strong they are by punching this thing. We were very impressed. ;)

Blair and Jan take a turn on the dance floor. They were actually brave enough to two step. The rest of us just watched. Did you check out that cowboy hat? There were plenty of those...and big belt buckles to go along with it. I think this is the only place in Nashville where the people wearing cowboy hats and such are NOT tourists.

At the end of the night, we stopped at Waffle House for a late night snack. It's been a LONG time since we have done anything like that. It made for a very college-like evening, but it was a fun time!

Debates Come to Nashville

As I'm sure you know, the Presidential Debates came to Belmont University in Nashville this week. We were pumped to have this historical event come to town. As a Belmont alum, Garth was especially excited.

We live less than a mile from campus, so we really hoped to somehow get in on the Debate action. Of course, only a very select view got to see the debate live. Even though we couldn't attend the debate, we just couldn't stay at home. We decided to venture out to see what we could see. Here's our evening...

So, we ventured out to Bosco's (a few blocks from the debates) for a beer and some dinner.

Then, we went to a debate watch party at the Belcourt Theater.

This is us watching the debate on TV, just like everyone else. :)

On the way home, we got stuck in post-debate traffic. They stopped traffic for the McCain motorcade. Right now, we're sitting right next to the Belmont campus. This is about as close to the action as we got. So, it was VERY uneventful for us. We didn't see any media personalities or any political figures. So close, but yet so far away...

A couple of our friends had much better luck.

Garth's lawyer friend, Jonathan, served as a debate volunteer. He got to be Mitt Romney's guide. We were looking at the Nashville Business Journal online and happened to find this picture of Romney. Jonathan is the guy in the red hat!

My friend, Cara, is a politcal reporter for the local NBC station. She got to be in the media tent, or "spin room". She was excited! She got to interview former Tennessee congressman, Harold Ford, Jr. You can click here to see the interview or you can read her blog entry about her time in the spin room.

Bailey's Barkin' BBQ!

I'm a little behind in posting this, but better late than never, right? A little more than a week ago, we had our very first party at our house! We decided that after living in our house for more than a year, it was high time to have people over. We should have done it much sooner, but I always had excuses for why we couldn't (we didn't have a couch, Bailey was a puppy, no decor, not enough room, etc.). Well, I finally realized that my house will never be "finished" or perfect, so we shouldn't let that stop us from having friends over to hang.

We thought it would be fun to name our party and Garth thought it should be about Bailey. So, we hosted Bailey's Barkin' BBQ! We had a great time and we'll definitely have to have everyone over again soon. Thanks to everyone who came! Below you'll find some pics from the party.

This was part of the Evite invitation we sent out.

This is the day of the party. I guess all that cleaning and party planning made Garth and Bailey sleepy!

"Action shots" from the party...

Drew, Garth's frat brother, introduces his imaginary date.

Mizzou friends...Jan, Dan and Cara.

Chris and Blair

David and Katie

Champ and Holly (friends from church)

Bailey had a good time too! She got so excited every time someone came in the door. She hasn't quite learned that it's not good manners to run in between people's legs when they come in!

And, last but not least, us. This was at the end of the night. Do I look tired or what?! Anyway, that must have meant we had a good time!

Farm-Fresh Goodness

We've been craving some sweet corn and other fresh summertime fare, but the grocery store just hasn't delivered. Nary an ear of corn can be found at my local Kroger. So, on Saturday we decided to do something we SHOULD have been doing all summer - head to the Nashville Farmer's Market to get some fresh eats.

If the scent of warm peaches and freshly baked pies weren't enough, the vibrant rainbow of produce was certainly a feast for the eyes. We went there to actually buy some things, but I couldn't help but take a few pictures. (I could have spent hours snapping away!) I loved how the items were stacked so neatly in their baskets. I wanted one of everything! It made me think of all of the things we could make. But, my refrigerator would only hold so much.

The place reminded me of home and how lucky I was to have all those fresh fruits and veggies right outside my door growing up. It almost makes me want to plant a garden...but not THAT much. I have a brown thumb and no backyard. So, for now, I'll go to the Farmer's Market and take advantage of all it has to offer.

Top 10 Reasons I Love CMA Fest

For those of you that don’t live in Nashville, you might not be familiar with CMA Music Fest (formerly known as Fan Fair). Once a year, every country music lover in the whole wide world descends upon Nashville to show their fanaticism. It’s awful and awesome all at the same time. It also happens to be the one and only time when you see thousands of people in Nashville wearing cowboy hats. I promise you, no one who actually lives in Nashville walks around donning a straw hat, cowboy boots and a sparkly belt buckle.

At the beginning of the week, I was dreading the impending festival. As someone who works downtown, it would mean terrible traffic, nowhere to park and my favorite lunch spots overtaken by throngs of annoying tourists.

But then, as the fans start pouring in, I remember why I love the CMT Fest after all….people watching! My co-worker, Laura M., and I decided to spend our lunch at Panera Bread. The patio was the perfect spot – it looks down 5th Avenue, which connects the Sommet Center and the Nashville Convention Center, places where many of the festivities take place. During our hour-long lunch, we saw some interesting things. Here’s a Top 10 list of what we saw:

1. About 500 straw cowboy hats (no, we didn’t count, but there were a lot!)
2. About 700 neon orange CMT souvenir bags (again, just an estimate)
3. Seven or eight guys on Harleys
4. Random musicians/group practicing on the sidewalk
5. An old woman in a tank top, but NO bra
6. People wearing shirts about three sizes too small
7. Several tattoos that used to be a bit smaller than they are now
8. People wearing fanny packs, tube socks, tennis shoes, cowboy hats and cameras around their necks
9. A mullet or two...and last, but definitely not least…
10. The Naked Cowboy
    

Yes, that’s right. We saw man strumming a guitar wearing nothing but cowboy boots, a hat and lovely whitey tighties that said “Naked Cowboy” across his derriere. Kid you not. At first, I thought we were the only ones who noticed him. But before long, there were throngs of people dying to get a picture with this guy in all his glory. Here’s a picture Laura M. snapped of him from her iPhone. It's a tad small, but you get the gist.

When we got back to the office, we looked him up and realized that this was not just some random guy who likes to get attention, but someone who has some really bad songs and likes to take his semi-nakedness cross country. You can see a better picture of him doing his thing here. Believe it or not, you can get your very own pair of Naked Cowboy underwear for $15! And, just like the Web site says, they are skid mark free – what more could you want?!

I would spend more time at the CMA Fest, but I’m afraid I might explode from seeing an overload of shirts adorned with rhinestones and airbrushed designs. I think, for now, I’ll savor my hour-long memory until next year.

Star Sighting

Since we live in Nashville, we often get asked if we ever see country music stars or celebrities. For me, the answer is always no. However, Garth has had numerous celeb sightings. I don't know if it's because he's lived here longer or if he's just lucky that way. It probably doesn't hurt that he went to the same college as many celebrity's kids. But, that has nothing to do with the fact that he Jessica Simpson at the TigerMart by our house several months ago.

Anyway, I digress. Last Friday, we went to to the Green Hills Regal Cinema to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (which was very good I might add). So, who did we see sitting a mere four rows in front of us at the theater? None other than Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban! I didn't see them at first, but Garth noticed them when coming back from the bathroom right before the movie started. It wasn't long before nearly everyone in the very full theater was looking their direction. It's one thing to see a celebrity, but completely another to have one (or two!) just hanging out at your movie theater!

After the movie was over, we get to the parking garage and see them right in front of us. It turned out they were parked two cars away from us! We tried to play it cool, but we couldn't help but gauk at their very big, black Rolls Royce.

No, we didn't talk to them. Everyone has asked us that. In Nashville, it's almost a faux pas to do so. I think that's why so many stars have houses here. It's likely one of the few places where they get left alone. I did take note of how tall Nicole is (she's taller than Keith) and VERY thin. I think she's a few months pregnant, but you certainly couldn't tell (at least from the back). It makes me wonder just how much thinner she would be without a baby on the way. YIKES!

Admittedly, I was intrigued by the whole thing. I'm not a person who obsesses over celebrities, but it was certainly exciting to share a movie theater with a couple celebs for one night. :)