Thanksgiving and SNOW!

Only 7 days until Christmas! I cant believe how fast this year has flown by! I want to get this post up from Thanksgiving before we head home in 4 days!

Last year, Tim and I had Thanksgiving here in Nashville, just the two of us. It was our first, and hopefully last, Thanksgiving sans family. It was nice, but not quite the same as being home with our families. Thanksgiving this year was so awesome because my parents and brother came to Nashville for turkey day!

We had so much fun showing them around town. We took them to Vandy so Tim could show them the cool labs he works in, and test their hearing. And don't think I can get together with my mom without doing some serious shopping! We all got our fill. We all went downtown one evening for shopping and dinner and wouldn't you know it, Mom, Cory and I each got a new pair of boots! Some other highlights included going to Centennial Park, the newly re-opened Gaylord Hotel, and touring the Yazoo Brewery. Oh yeah and we cooked Thanksgiving dinner! Busy much? We wouldn't have it any other way.

Don't we girls look so cute!?


Waiting for the turkey to be done...


Finally dinner is ready! Lets eat!


Gotta love the leftovers!


Thanksgiving dinner was a success and we loved having family here to share it with! It was hard to say goodbye when we dropped them off at the airport, but we knew it would only be a few weeks until Christmas....and here we are!

Earlier this week we really felt the Christmas spirit when it started to snow! We got about 3-4 inches of snow. It was very pretty and Draco really loved to run and play in it!



Next post will be about our trip home for Christmas, I can't wait!

HAPPY FALL YA'LL!

Fall is finally here! The leaves are turning beautiful colors and the air is cool and crisp! FINALLY, I thought summer would never end!

Here are a few highlights of the last month or so around Nashville. A couple weeks ago we loaded up the car and headed to the beautiful beaches of South Carolina! Tim had a long weekend so we decided to spend one last summer hurrah out of town. And how convenient, the family of one of Tim's classmates owns a condo right on the beach!! Beautiful!



We spent lots of time relaxing on the patio overlooking the ocean and did some exploring of historic Charleston! We took a horse carriage tour through downtown and learned a lot about the area.



We have been celebrating the season with some fun activities: Oktoberfest, pumpkin carving and a costume party!

Octoberfest was a blast! They closed off about 5 square blocks of Germantown and the streets were lined with vendors. At several points along the walking route were stages with some great musical talent! We walked through the streets while drinking our massive beers and listening to great music. The beer, music, and food were all wonderful! Many of the proceeds of the event went to restoring some of the historical churches in the neighborhood.



Going to the Pumpkin patch is definitely one our favorite fall activities. It was great fun to see all the little kids (and big kids, like us) running around looking for the perfect pumpkin! We picked ours out and headed home for some carving!



Last night we went to a friends Halloween costume party! It was great to see all our friends all dressed up as fun characters! Here are our costumes:



Happy Halloween!

Homemade Happiness

We have been having lots of fun making and doing things around the house. Here are a few of our latest and greatest!

One of our favorite shows on TV (besides Survivor) is Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel. In one episode, the host Adam goes to a restaurant in Minnesota where they have created a delicious cheesy burger called the Juicy Lucy. It's made by sandwiching some cheese between two thin burgers! On the show, Adam takes a big bite and shows the gooey cheese coming out of the middle of the burger and it looked so delicious! We thought it was a great idea and seemed easy enough to try at home. Tim started with his amazing Viking burgers (maybe now we need to call them Commodore burgers), shaped two patties, put the cheese in between and cooked them in a skillet on the stove. Check it out!



I made some really yummy apple turnovers also. They didn't turn out very pretty so Im not putting up a picture, but they tasted really good! Tim found a video on Youtube of a guy making egg mcmuffins like the ones from McDonalds and thought it would be fun to try. They were so fun and easy to make, and way cheaper than going to McDonalds! We figured that the total cost of our breakfast including coffee and fancy OJ was about $1.40. Not bad eh? Don't you just want to take a bite?! They were so good!



Many of you have heard about all the ladies at my work that are prego. There are four of them so I am being very careful not to drink the water! :) We had a baby shower at work for one of the girls and as a gift I knitted a pair of baby booties. They were a big hit at the shower! I made a second pair for another lady at work who is also having a girl. These are the booties for her, aren't the precious?! Several people thought it would be a great little money maker to knit some baby booties and sell them locally! What do you all think?



Lately we had been thinking it would be nice to have a small wine rack. We both really enjoy drinking wine and lately have been enjoying trying different varieties. It just makes so much sense! It doesn't cost any more money long-term to have several bottles in your house at any given time. It just means you have a few choices for dinner! Win Win!! We looked around and found a nice, affordable one at World Market (super awesome store!) It fits right in in our kitchen.





Lastly on the home front, my sweet hubby bought me the Mastering the Art of French Cooking volume set. I have been wanted to get it for quite a while, and even borrowed one volume from the library. He just surprised me with it one morning, no special occasion! After I went to bed he put the books in the cupboard with the rest of our cookbooks. In the morning he said it would be fun to make something different for breakfast. I went downstairs and opened the cupboard to get a cookbook and there they were! I was so excited, I was squealing and jumping around all morning! Tim, you are such a wonderful husband, I love sharing my life with you! You make every day so special!

Memphis for a day

MEMPHIS, TN

After one year of living in Middle Tennessee, we had ventured East to Knoxville, North into Kentucky, and South towards Chattanooga, but we had yet to explore to the West towards Memphis. This weekend being Tim's last weekend before Fall semester seemed a fitting time to hit the road! So on Saturday we took a day trip to Memphis to see the sights. It is a little over three hours from Nashville, but totally worth the drive!

One of the first things on our agenda was to visit the Mississippi Mud River Island park. The park covers a small island right on the Mississippi River, except it actually isn't an island at all, but a peninsula! The park includes an amphitheater, museum, and coolest of all...a half mile long model of the Mississippi River. The model was actually quite impressive. It was very detailed and included accurate contours and depth of the river along the way. Also included in the model were most of the main cities along the river.



This picture shows Memphis and includes the major bridges. Cool!



On our way back to the car from the Mississippi River, we spotted some very old trolleys that looked like they went downtown, so we hopped on! They looked like they had been running since the 30s or 40s. The main drag in Memphis is called Beale street and closely resembled Broadway St. in Nashville, but about twice as long and with one other major difference. This part of Beale street is always closed to traffic! So pedestrians are free to walk around from blues club to bbq joint all night! We were there in the afternoon so it wasn't very busy, but its easy to imagine downtown is hopping at night.





Next, we visited the National Civil Rights Museum located at the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The museum was very well put together and included the actual bus made famous by Rosa Parks who famously refused to move from her seat. All of the museum exhibits were very moving.



Lastly, we couldn't leave Memphis without trying some Memphis style BBQ! We drove out of the main downtown area in search of a local restaurant. We had read a bunch of reviews online and we were determined to try out one of the highest rated places. When we found it, we almost drove past based on the outside appearance. But we were set on trying the food and boy are we glad we did! Memphis-style bbq is characterized by the dry ribs sans sauce. We decided to order ours "wet" which just means they slap on some sauce right before serving the ribs. The sauce was quite vinegary and a bit too tangy for our taste but the meat was delicious and the sides were wonderful!! BBQ is one of our (mostly Tim's :) ) favorite discoveries of the South.

Our day trip to Memphis was a success! It has been really hot lately, so all the walking around in the heat was a bit rough, but totally worth it. What a great trip! We are looking forward to seeing other parts of our new home soon!

Two Years and Counting!

8-8-2008

Can you believe it? We tied the knot two years ago! These past two years have absolutely flown by. Today we celebrate being married for two years and this also marks a year we have been in Nashville.

On our wedding night, we went to our all-time favorite restaurant, Whitehouse-Crawford, for dinner. We kept the menu from that night as something to help us remember such a wonderful day. One thing we did for our anniversary was to finally get our menu from Whitehouse-Crawford framed. It turned out very nice!



Today we decided to go to the mall to do some shopping! It's something we don't do all that often these days. Tim bought me a pair of crocks and he got a few pairs of pants. Maybe not the most romantic gifts in the world, but both things we really wanted and needed! Notice the huge bug bite on my ankle.

I love my new shoes!



We also went out for a movie and then dinner. Crab is absolutely our new favorite meal. We had an amazing crab dinner at Red Lobster and headed home definitely over stuffed. Yumm!!!

Also this weekend, one of our friends was celebrating her birthday by throwing a big Tex-Mex party. About 25 friends showed up and we all had a great time celebrating fiesta style at her party. Tim was a Mexican cowboy and I was a cute chica!



In other news, the bugs are biting and Draco celebrated his one year anniversary being in Tennessee with a tick. We found it on him this morning but we were able to suffocate it and get it off him successfully.

Our two years together have been wonderful! We are so blessed to have each other and our adventure in life and in Tennessee have been very exciting.

Draco floats!

This weekend I was determined to see if Draco can swim or not. I figured part of the requirements to being a "real" dog is being able to swim. Yesterday after church, we took off for a nearby lake.



We had to keep him on a leash, so we decided to just walk him out into the water into it was deep enough for him to float. So far so good! He didn't mind being in the water at all. But as soon as he had to start swimming, he turned around and headed straight for the shore. He knew how to swim alright! We felt a little bad forcing him to swim, when he was clearly distressed out there. We didn't get it on film until about the 3rd time. By then, he knew what we were trying to do to him! So he resisted at first, but eventually went out to sea. Enjoy the video!

Julia Child

About 6 months ago, a movie came out called Julie & Julia which tells the true story of a young American lady's quest to cook her way through Julia Child's prolific cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Heather and I both loved the movie! It motivated us to seek out some original Julia Child materials. We went to the library and found a DVD of her cooking show The French Chef and enjoyed it very much! She was a very wonderful, fun teacher and many of her recipes are quite practical...and delicious looking! We also found her cookbook at the library and thought it would be fun to look through it and make a few things!!

This long weekend proved a good time for trying some new things!
Heather made this beautiful apple custard tart. Just think Mom and Dad, Heather's awesome apple pie but cranked up a couple notches! Didn't think it could get there? Add a homemade crust to die for, and a rich, hand-whipped custard and here it is.



After a little dusting of powdered sugar, this thing was beautiful...and delicious!

This morning for brunch, I made something called Rapee Morv Andelle which is a Gratin of potato, ham, and onion.



We still have a few recipes to attempt, including: Mussels, Fondue, Ratatouille, Chocolate Mousse, hollandaise & bernaise sauces, lady fingers, and steak with a red wine sauce. YUM YUM!!! While no Julia Child, we are really enjoying trying some new recipes, and expanding our repertoire!

So much fun in Nashville!

Hey y'all! Here we are with yet another blog entry. I know, we could almost make this a regular thing! We can dream right? So what's new in Nashville...

We survived the great flood of May 2010. In a span of 2 days, Nashville received somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 inches of rain. It is one thing to imagine a blanket of 15 inches of water falling all across middle Tennessee, but then to realize that water runs to low areas and ends up as 10 feet of water here and there is an entirely different concept that very very quickly became our reality. Fortunately for us, our apartment is on relatively high ground so we were spared from the quickly gathering water. While all of our windows leaked (to the tune of using ALL of our towels to mop up water!) and we had some wet carpet in the coat closet, and losing power about half way through the weekend, we were spared any major damage. Without power, we were no longer able to monitor the storm and its devastating effects. The true scope of the damage would become clear to us in the next few days. Catching glimpses of the devastation in the news and driving around town was eye-opening to say the least. Several neighborhoods just 1/2 a mile from our apartment were essentially destroyed. Houses, while still standing, needed to be completely gutted. Now there are gigantic piles of debris, sheetrock, and cabinets in front of each house. Clean up has begun, but will take a great deal of time to complete. In all of this, two things have been made very clear. First, the grace of God is with us always and we thank Him for sparing our home. And secondly, the Nashville community is wonderfully resilient! Community outreach has been extensive and fundraisers are everywhere. I'm sure in a short while, all of Nashville will be back to full strength and better than ever! One last thing to give some scope on the amount of rain, the previous 2-day record for rain fall was a little over 6 inches. Yes, this more than DOUBLED the previous record!! Needless to say, this is easily the wettest month in Nashville history, by far.

Well, I see that this is already getting pretty long, so I think I will try a "Nicole", and break this up into several smaller posts! Up next, cooking with Julia Child, and Draco takes a swim!

See Draco on Youtube!

Hey everyone! We put up our first video on Youtube yesterday of Draco watching other dogs on our laptop. It was just too funny to keep to ourselves! Hope you enjoy!

LONG TIME, NO BLOG!

This is our first blog of the year as a certain sister recently pointed out. Time has gotten away from us for sure. There has been a lot going on in the past few months, here are a few highlights!

Christmas (yeah, it's true, we haven't even blogged about Christmas!):
As you all know we did not go home to Washington for Christmas, but we did have some special visitors for the holiday! Thanks Mom and Dad for making the trip! We had a great time doing all kinds of Tennessee things including the Grand Ole Opry, Gaylord Opry Land Hotel, Andrew Jackson's home (Old Hickory) and of course Christmas dinner!




And some Guitar Hero! So much fun!!!



Superbowl:
This year the party was at our apartment. We invited Tim's classmates (10 people) and I was already worried about having that many people in our tiny apartment. Then more people were invited! We ended up having 17 people in all!!! Oh my goodness, there were like 7 people in our 2 bum kitchen. It turned out to be an awesome time! Although, I don't know if we will have it at our place next year. We'll just have to wait and see!



Birthday:
Thanks to my hubby and best friends, I had just about the best birthday ever! The Saturday before my birthday, Tim had to go to school to study, so I was at home in my pj's relaxing. I was on the phone with my Mom when all of a sudden Emily walks through the door. I started yelling and screaming and jumping around!!!! Tim had gone to the airport instead of school and picked up Seth and Emily. I still can't believe they pulled it off! We spent a great week hanging out with our best friends doing what best friends do: The boys toured the Corvette assembly factory and the Maker's Mark distillery in Kentucky. Meanwhile the girls got our toes done up and shopped till we dropped!





5K Run:
Some of my co-workers convinced me to run with them as a corporate team in a 5K run on April 10th. I have always hated running, why I said yes, we'll never know!

Go team, go!


We did great, scored 4th in our division! And for some crazy reason we have two others planned for this summer which I also plan to run. So running is my new thing, I have a goal to run the entire 5K without stopping, Ive got a ways to go, but having fun and feeling great!

San Diego:
A couple weeks ago, Tim and all of his classmates flew out to San Diego for the American Academy of Audiology convention. He spent 4 days in the sun having a great time checking out the impressive exhibits and all the sunny sights of southern California! Some of the highlights included going to a Padres baseball game, a Beach Boys concert on the deck of the USS Midway (aircraft carrier!!), AND BEST OF ALL...Cami drove down one afternoon and met up with Tim for lunch. They both had the best time catching up on everything!

Things to come:
Tim is making his way through finals this week and next, and is gearing up to working full time on his research project for the next two months. Heather is still working at Zander Insurance and is really enjoying her coworkers. She is going through the process of training for her next 5K...who would have thought?! In June Heather will be flying to Seattle for her friend Jamie's wedding. She will be meeting her parents there for a few days of fun in the Emerald City as well!

So that concludes our first update of 2010! Haha! Sorry Cami and everyone else for slacking sooo badly. Here's hoping that we stay up to date at least for a while. Love you all!

A post wouldn't be complete without a cute picture of Draco!