April wasn't lacking...except for blog posts:

One of the sweetest dances on Dancing with the Stars that I couldn't resist sharing.

My sister in law sent me this sweet video of the girls

I love finding little treasures like this to help encourage me along this journey.

Allison Jones made this coffee coozie for me and mailed it to me.  It was such a surprise and a true blessing.  She got one of Dad's patches from my Mom.  The buttons look like ones that you'd see on a police jacket or old school uniform.  Of course I did the ugly cry when I saw it.  It was definitely one of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever been given.

4-6-12 Good Friday means a lot of things today. You know the obvious, but I'm also so thankful that my baby cousin is finally coming home from the hospital!!!

4-7-12 Had a date with a songwriter... I met him at one of his shows, but it turned out to be a hilarious dud of a date and now I have a new friend.

Heather sent me this pic of the girls dyeing Easter eggs.

My friend, Missy, got me hooked on these years ago.  It was my one Easter treat.  This mini bag of indulgence put me in a sugar coma for sure.

I wish all my mail came addressed like this. LAUGH OUT LOUD

4-8-12 I was very blessed to get to eat lunch with "The Isaacs" and their families.  It made me feel a little less sad about being away from the family.  Great pic of Kelly, Malinda, and me

Mindy Isaacs made these little cute cupcakes.  She's a personal trainer so there were a lot of healthy fair to eat for lunch.  It was definitely a different Easter Sunday lunch, different, but good!

This was the "small" chicken nachos that I ordered for dinner.  WOW!~

Rebecca and Terry Rentz were driving through Nashville so we made plans to have dinner.  Terry is a State Farm guy and they are moving to MO.

Love that we can always pick up where we left off.

Outside of Rose Peppers in East Nashville

Emma modeling her outfit I bought her.

The girls sent me a thank you pic and message for their Easter goodies...the outfits, puzzles, and stuffed lambs.

I had to get all this ready to go do a house call for a celeb at 9:30pm.   I was not too happy about it.  I think the "new" wore off since I've been to this same house about 6 times now.  The celeb is very nice and appreciative and it's more money so this is all the complaining I will do about it.

Mom sent me the coolest flowers.

So I gave myself permission to grieve as much as I wanted to on this day, this year.  Somehow I felt like being gone from Valdosta made it harder this year.  I slept in, ate what I wanted, got a massage from a coworker that I pretty much cried throughout, and I don't remember what else I did.  I usually take doughnuts to the Police Department on this day or Dad's birthday.  Since I couldn't do that, I just felt like I wanted to do something.  I called David at Valdosta Greenhouses and asked him if they would take some flowers out there and send me a picture. That's customer service for ya!

 4-11-12 I went out for a Wounded Warriors benefit.   A ton of great songwriters got together to perform to raise money for such a wonderful cause.  I met Emilee and the crew there after I got off work

 Kathi and David Seger

 girls acting silly...Emilee, Leah (a singer from LA), and me

 4-12-12 Went to see Phil Barton and Jeremy play at Taps and Tapas.

Phil's song, A Woman Like You, cut by Lee Brice just went #1 on the Billboard Music Charts!!!!!!!!!  So proud of my buddy!

Thomas Tillman

Jordan

Jayce

 Great round at The Listening Room...Bridgette Tatum, Jeremy Bussey, Jordan Rager, and Jayce Hein

 Emilee, Christy, and me

 Jordan Rager, from this year's season of "The Voice" and me after the show

 Bridgette is so down to earth and sweet and so stinkin talented!!

 A little homemade chicken salad and spinach, goat cheese, and blueberry salad...yummo!!!

4-20-12 blessed with these beauties on one of my runs

4-21-12 Headed to a continuing education class...hoping to learn lots of good stuff and make some new friends.  Turns out the teacher mentored the owner of my school so the work he taught this weekend was familiar.  Charlie seemed very passionate about the work and helping us get all the knowledge we could in a weekend.  Danielle and I hit it off and she was my lunch buddy for the two days.  She's married and a little more mature than me :) so she was giving me life advice and I was able to give her massage advice since she's only been a therapist 2 years.  It was a REALLY great weekend.  I got done with the class on Sunday afternoon and decided to launch myself into a 30 minute shred workout with Jillian Michaels.  After that, I took an Epsom salt bath and literally fell asleep in the bathtub. That's when I knew I really got everything out of the weekend that I could.

4-22-12 "Music is the weapon against the war of unhappiness" Jason Mraz. Love This!!!

 4-24-12 I told y'all I'd be back at painting soon.  I've been wanting to do the Nashville painting so I nudged Christy to come with me.  This teacher went a little quicker with the steps so there's a little less progress pictures like before.  It started white then we painted the entire canvas red.

 Outlined the skyline in watered down black and then fill in the bottom black.

 Fill in the buildings and add music notes and top of building details.

 Pause in the action for a quick pic

 Add a little copper accents and write out Nashville

 Add in the blue and white accents, finish it in any way you want and sign your name

 Definitely my favorite!!!  (Sorry Mom, you can't have this one. )

4-25-12 Saw this quote and it spoke to me: "It's hard to wait around for something you know might never happen; but it's even harder to give up when you know it's everything you want.  Author unknown

 4-26-12 Jeremy, Nolan Neal, and Jayce playing at Taps & Tapas.  Note to friends:if you come to Nashville and you go to a songwriters round...do not talk while they are playing.  It's rude!  These folks don't make any money by going out and playing and these guys are the ones behind all the music that you so love. 

4-27-12 Saw these at the end of my road.  The city's gearing up for the Music City Marathon on 4-28-12.  Over 30,000 folks will be running in the 5K, half marathon, or marathon on this day.  I'm off from work and think I'll be sleeping in. lol.  I did make the mistake of saying maybe I'll run the half marathon next year. (already regretting that)
Also, during this run, I came up on a funeral procession.  I stopped running and let them pass.  It was even more humbling than just pulling over in my car.  I guess I'll always be "sentimental" towards things of the funeral/death nature.

 Charlotte and Greg Ritchie's little girl, Jayna, was having her dance recital on Sunday.  Her parents were both on the road singing and playing so we stepped in to be there for Jayna.

 Nate, Landon Ritchie, and Seth (Jayna & Landon's cousin)

 Kelly had the hard part of getting Jayna dressed and hair fixed.  I love this pic of us.  My fb caption was "I don't think the dance moms want to mess with either of us. lol

 Getting flowers from her brother

 Bless her, we all bought her flowers and she could barely hold them.

 Precious!

 Landon's "friend"

 love this one

Landon caught me taking a picture of him when his "friend" was on stage. He was so cute watching her.

 Landon and his "friend"

 Sweet family pic

 4-30-12 Raeanna and I went out to dinner and a good time was had by all.

 I was really excited about my new highlites and lowlites.  I went to a girl named Russha in Hendersonville.

I ended out the month with a total weight loss of 38.5lbs!!!