Not a lot going on...

 Love it when Stacey sends pics of Bailey to me.  This is one of the onesies that I got her. This is her "I miss "Aunt" Heather face

 This is her "Mommy, May is a really long time for me to wait to see "Aunt" Heather

Stacey told her "we can Skype with her later" and Bailey says "Well ok."

Also, any family members that would like to text me pics of the kiddosor have Skype dates, I'd appreciate them too. :)

1-24-12 It's not been as hard as I thought to do SouthBeach again.  I have missed breads only a little.  The main thing I've missed has been my coke.  (And yes, I've had a few failure days with that.)  Thanks to some help and encouragement from my west coast family, I've done pretty well this week.........
                  I lost 5lbs!!!!!  Bringing my total to 15lbs.  Woohoo!
I rewarded myself with a much needed massage :) to finish off my relaxing day off.
Not much else to report about this week.  I guess I've been catching up on sleep and working and that was about it until Sunday.

1-29-12 Kelly has a membership to Gold's gym in Hendersonville so we went there in the afternoon.  I walked/jogged on the treadmill for 30 mins and did some weights.  (It wasn't as hard as I imagined getting back into the gym, but my lungs sure were not too happy with me.)
Afterwards I felt accomplished and energized.  I came home to work on my coupon strategies for the week.  The Sunday paper in Nashville is a gold mine for coupons.

 This was the site of my bed. I was surrounded, sitting Indian style, by coupons, my computer, notepad, and circulars. I sat for 2 hours getting organized.  I still had on my socks from the gym and got up to get a snack from downstairs.  I fell somehow slipped on the first step and went sliding down about 5 steps.  Thankfully I didn't do a roly poly down the entire flight of stairs.  No bruises yet, but I'm pretty sore.  This will probably put a slight damper on my fitness for the week, but I'm definitely going to stay on track with my eating.  That's all about that.

For all my non family readers, please keep my baby cousin, Rigsby, in your prayers.  (Pic from Christmas)
She was born very early and has had some complications because of that.  She's in the hospital right now and I'd greatly appreciate prayers for her complete healing. Thanks!

Nothing normal about this Monday...

1-23-12 I'm sure you all think all I do is go hear live music, but I promise I do other stuff.  This is just such a perk in the city.  Someone's always playing somewhere.  This was my first night at 12th and Porter and it proved to be just as wonderful as I'd heard.  I went to see Natalie Stovall play and an added bonus was Ruth Collins, a Curb Artist, opening the show.

She reminded me of a country Mandy Moore.

Natalie's band mates were super talented.

Love that she embraces her big hair

She's a crazy, good fiddle player.  It's just so hard to get a good pic of her playing because she moves so quickly. lol

Love this girl! She's so stinking talented!  We met her at Stacey's bachelorette weekend in Panama City in August 2010.  She remembered us which I thought was so cool.

This was the pic of us at her show in Aug 2010. (side note...I'd lot to be that tan again!)

A Place you have chosen to be...

So, I should have mentioned that the sermon "A Place you didn't expect to be" was the first part of a two part series.  Here is the second part Check it out

Happy Listening!

What's up or down with me...

Not too much to post this week. I worked 6 days this week. I went in for a girl who had a Doctor's appt. I got a new regular client and a new request out of working that day so I was pretty pumped. I went to the chiropractor and am feeling pretty great. I found a couple that are Christians who believe in massage and chiropractic together.

I saw this pic on fb and had to copy it.  The Nashville skyline in black and white...so pretty!

1-19-12 Heather, Christy, and I went to Suzy Wong's house of yum after work. It's restaurant week in Nashville which means several of the local places have deals.  It's obviously a great way to get people to try some of the places that they usually wouldn't go to because of price or whatever.  Christy got the three course deal which came with this wonderful dessert. It was like a fried wonton pastry that had a brownie inside of it.  I didn't try the brownie, but the shell tasted just like a funnel cake. Delish!

1-17-12 I got the chance to meet one of the nicest and best writers in Nashville, David Lee.  Not only that, but he was playing to a room full of musicians, writers, publishers, and song pitchers.   Hit songs include "Lucky Man," "Letters From Home," "Roll With It," "Hello World," "I Need You," "19 Somethin,'" and more.


This was also the day I'd weighed myself again and....






I lost 10lbs!!! Now that's some kind of encouragement. I'm sure that won't be typical, but I'll take it. Also amazing since I cheated a little...see above photo.  I don't want to say my goal in lbs, but I do want to look fabulous when I go to Valdosta in May for Lindsey Davis' wedding. Prayers still appreciated for my brain to get on the healthy track as well. Hope everyone has a great week!

We'll miss you Etta!

1-20-12 In light of the passing of Etta James, I thought I'd post my favorite song of hers. Her voice was simply wonderful!

"The Place You Didn't Expect to Be"

1-16-12 This was the title of the sermon from Sunday!  I never expected to be 30 and single.  I never expected to lose my Father at 26 and the emotional toll it would have on my life.  I never expected to move to a whole new state and start a brand new life.
The sermon was just what I needed to hear.  It was based on Gen 37, 39-40, and 50.  You can hear the whole sermon here: full sermon
 I decided to do this post in an effort to remind myself and hopefully help someone else.

Pastor David talked about the story of Joseph.  He was definitely in a place he didn't expect to be when his brothers sold him into slavery, yet he continued to serve the Lord.
The notes I got from it were
1. Live in the present: Joseph didn't look back at the wounds that had been inflicted on him.  This is the day the Lord has made.  His mercies are new each day.
2. Beware of bitterness: Heb 12:15 Bitterness can be passed on. We can choose to have a good attitude. Gen 40:6-7
3. Practice the presence of God: Gen 39:9,40:8,41:16 it was about God all the time. God knows where we are.  He hasn't forgotten us.  We must trust his plan. God is in total control and will accomplish his plan.  Rom 8:28, Gen 50 (you meant it for harm, but God meant it for good) For several yrs Joseph prayed for God to deliver him and it wasn't until much later that he was delivered. He still served the Lord while he waited.
4. Be alert to temptation: Be careful to not play the victim-it could lead to you trying to excuse sin.
5. Choose to forgive: Gen 45:3,14-15 God was doing something bigger in the life of Joseph than just his brothers betraying him-it wasn't about that. Let Go & Let God! You don't have control over how others react.  You do have control of how you react. Choosing not to forgive is like continuing to slowly poison your life.

Friends & Firsts

Wonder how many new friends I can make in 2012 in my new home of Nashville?? I know there will be lots of firsts here!!!  PS~ Whitney Duvall, I think about your heart pillows and when you said you were thankful that your heart could love more than one place. I know that Nashville is my home and I can't wait to see what God has in store for me here in 2012.

Kelly & Nate introduced me to some new friends on 1-2-12.  Hannah & Justin Johnson just moved to Hendersonville from North Carolina.  Hannah's pregnant with their first baby and it's a girl!  We had fun coming up with all kinds of names for the baby girl.

Giggles!

Best group shot I could do

I'm so thankful for these two!

Justin & Hannah
We ate at Burger Up and then came back to the house to hang out for a bit.  We even got to see some snow flurries!

 1-6-12 Dinner at Maggiano's for Karen's birthday

 Karen & Shannon

 Devin & Karen

 We went to Encore after dinner to check out the view.  They are modern high rise condos located in the heart of Nashville.  (side bar: if you start noticing a trend of the same jacket or all black clothes on me, just know that I work until 8pm 3 nights a week which leaves no time for changing my outfits. :) I did throw on a bracelet, scarf, and boots with my work black dress.)

 Devin & Kelly are a trip and a half!  (Kelly plays guitar with Ernie Haase & Signature Sound)

 The view from Encore

 hello Nashville

 Oh the adventures of self timers on cameras...

We got one decent one finally! Stephanie, Shannon, Karen and me
Kelly, Devin, Zak, and Jamie

1-8-12 I had a great morning at Long Hollow.  Pastor David preached on the Dangers of Delay.  He even said something that I'd definitely heard before...when God is through with you, you are done.  I remember Sam Cathey preaching at a youth camp that we are immortal until God's done with us.  My Sunday School class was pretty cool too.  We were looking at Adam and Eve and how they started the trend of sin including guilt and blame.    I picked up a salad from Zaxby's and headed to see Kelly.  We picked up Hannah and went maternity clothes shopping.  That WAS interesting, but all in all a fun afternoon.

1-9-12 I went to Christy's to watch the National Championship.  I told her my black & white plaid was as close as I could get to houndstooth.  She kept her Christmas decor up hoping for one more present tonight. We had a great night with friends and even got Jeremy & Jayce to sing us a few of their songs.

1-11-12  I started off the day by going to see a chiropractor and then heading to my first Bible Study.  There's a group at my church doing the Beth Moore study of James.  I think God is so cool for a lot of reasons, but I love this...the Bible study is on the same day & time as the one I was going to in Valdosta.  The Valdosta group are also doing the same Beth Moore study. AND the video series of Beth's teaching was taped in the chapel of my church in TN!  How cool is that?  Next week, we will be broken into small groups so stay tuned for updates on that.  Afterwards, I went to work and then headed to "The Listening Room" to hear some new buds play a round.  L to R Kirk Sauers, Cale Dodds, Thomas Tillman, And Jayce Hein  The first three are from GA and Thomas actually lived in Valdosta for a while.  The world just keeps getting smaller & smaller!

1-12-12 This was me driving to work on Thursday afternoon. I was seriously giddy about the snow!

 Our first snow that wasn't just flurries.  This was my car after work.  Don't worry Mom! The roads were fine!  I drove extra careful.  Apparently, I should've been more worried about my mom than her worried about me since she got rear ended the next morning.  Glad she's ok.

First time at The Bluebird Cafe!  It's a famous place where songwriters have been discovered & history has been made.  I love that I got to meet Richie McDonald, the lead singer of Lonestar.  He's been away from the group for awhile, but they are back together now.  His voice is still as amazing as it used to be.

He sang this song at the Bluebird and I absolutely loved it!

Jeremy got to sing a song in the round.  He sang "Our little town" that he wrote after the devastating tornado that hit AL.

The guys sit in a circle facing each other and take turns playing their original songs.

During the month of January, The Bluebird's door proceeds go to Alive Hospice

 1-14-12 Another amazing night at The Listening Room

 Bigg Vinny Mack from the Biggest Loser current season.  He's a singer/songwriter and has a fun loving personality.

 He was so encouraging to listen to.  His group, Trailer Choir, does a song he wrote called "How are things up there"  He wrote it after his Dad passed away.  It was all I could do to not do the ugly cry when I heard him describing why & how he wrote it and when I heard it.  It's on iTunes so go get it!!! The only YouTube videos are by fans so they aren't good quality.  I'm gonna post one anyways.  You'll see him in his pre-Biggest Loser state.
Did I mention I miss my Dad terribly?  That's all I can say about that.

Brandon Ray, Nicole Johnson, Bigg Vinny Mack, & Jeremy Bussey

I've gotta start taking my camera to these things.  The iPhone just can't keep up!