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!