Trip to the Hermitage

After the rain died down it actually turned into a nice day. We decided to take an adventure to the Hermitage. This is President Andrew Jackson's Plantation and has been around since the early 1800's. It was a really neat experience to see all the historic sites and how nicely they have kept up the property...

His wife, Rachel's, garden was actually the most specatcular site that we saw. The land owned by the Jackson's is actually over 1,000 acres. The garden is quite magnificent.

It is at the back of the garden where the family graveyard is... Here is the tomb of Rachel and General Jackson.

Here we are in another section of the garden... it is beatiful flowers and plants built into little pathways for what probably makes up over and acre in its own.

Off in the distance behind Patrick you can see the mansion. We wern't allowed to take any pictures inside there but it is really spectaculr in there too. It is filled with amazing pieces of furniture and is decorated in very detailed wall papers and draperies. Amazing how nice it was for early 1800's but it was never updated with plumbing or electricity... They have kept it very original.

Saturday Morning

Over night and in the morning on Saturday we had some crazy storms. When we woke up it was still raining pretty good. What did we hear outside, our crazy neighbor is mowing his lawn in the rain...genious!!! Tom and I got up a good hour before Patrick and Soumya. Soumya had all these special requests for homemade breakfast. Saturday morning I made scrambled eggs and biscuits and gravy. I think I definately spoiled them this weekend with the food.


Here's crazy corner neighbor guy mowing his lawn in the rain!!!

The puppies were very happy to have company over. After breakfast we sat around and waited for the rain to die down and Shirley hamed it up with Soumya...

She sure does take advantage of a good cuddle and a chin rub wherever she can find one!!!

Friday night

Shirley and Riley had a great time running around the yard and playing. They are not used to having company over so it was like little kids getting to stay up past their bed time.

After the fire started to die down the rain started to come... It was only sprinkles but enough for us to decide to come inside and play a game. This was Tom and my first time playing Cranium... We weren't too bad at it, we came close but were no match for the pros. It would probably be a better game to play with more people but we still had a real good time.

Weekend with Patrick and Soumya

Patrick and Soumya were here all weekend for a visit to Tennessee. They arrived late Friday morning and when I got home from work around noon we had a little barbeque. After lunch we decided to head into Nashville for some ice cream and a stroll around downtown. Ask Soumya how the ice cream went... She decided to go for the double scooper and ended up with more of it on her than in her mouth because it was melting all over her!! Pretty funny to see but I did feel kinda bad for her, Sorry Soumya!! :) After walking across the padestrian bridge, which is the best view of downtown from downtown, checking out Coyote Ugly and touring Broadway and 2nd Avenue we decided to head over to Tom's favorite, Yazoo Brewery. We hung out there and Tom and Patrick had a couple beers then it was back home to the puppies...


When we got back home, we decided to grill dinner. We actually had a nice dinner; grilled salmon, snap peas and a salad. It was still nice out side so we ate outside and Tom and Patrick prepared a fire. Patrick got a crash course in wood chopping from Tom, he did pretty good for his first time!

It was great to be able to sit out by the fire, we hadn't been able to do that in a couple weeks because of all the rain we have had. So, thanks Patrick and Soumya for bringing the nice weather with ya!

Soumya was happy she got to toast marshmellows!!! We didn't get a picture and it's too bad because if we would have had a video we would have won $10,000 on America's Funniest Videos. Soumya had the stick with the marshmellow on it in the fire and Shirley came out of no where and grabbed the stick and tried to pull it out of her hand... It was hillarious!! Oh, you just had to be there but if you know Shirley you can only imagine it!!

Here is Patrick roasting his marshmellow and showing it to me on fire! These two boys are so funny when you put them together. It is a constant battle of the comedians!!

Rainy days

It has been rainy and miserable here for what seems like the last 3 months. We have had a day here a weekend there where it has been warm and beautiful but not many. They say TN is a great place to live because of the 4 seasons...that's what most Tennessean's say. There are not 4 seasons here. We have fall and summer, that's it!!! Sorry IL and IA for wanting to leave there because of the cold. I would much rather have the cold and have snow and have a real spring.


It stopped raining yesterday for a couple hours; just long enough for Tom and me to get out and trim up the bushes. They were so over grown it was crazy. It was nice to get outside for a while and enjoy some of the fresh air. We actually had a pretty good day yesterday. We got up early and went to church then came home and I cooked us breakfast (bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches). After that is when we got outside. I then came in and took a nap while Tom worked on his homework. I ended up having to go into work for soccer practice for about an hour to check on a kid with a concussion. When I got home we made dinner and watched America's Funniest Videos and Extreme Makeover, Home Edition, the Simpson's and Family Guy!! Gosh we lead exciting lives!!! I was worn out though. I spent all day Saturday doing mass high school physicals at Vandy with our Sports Medicine Group. Great Fun... 800 kids in 9 hours, whew!!

I decided to put in a before picture from when we moved in. Man, the place had so much work to do... We have been working so hard the past 2 years. Can you believe it has been two years since we moved here. I started work at Vandy on May 1 and Tom moved down and we got into the house on May 17, 2007. Crazy how time flies by. For the rest of the week we will be cleaning and working in the yard if it ever dries up... the grass is getting so long. We are getting ready for our visit from Patrick and Soumya!!!

Home, Sweet Home

I had to get up bright and early to catch a 6:20 flight back to Nashville. Pat got me to the airport about 5:15 and I made it back to Nashville by 7:30 am. My flight was smooth so I wasn't too nervous, but I am never a good flyer so I was glad to be back on the ground when I got here. Tom picked me up and we had some time to hang out before he had to go to school for the day. After he left I was able to get about a 1/2 hour nap in before I had to get up and get ready for my eye appointment at 10:30. I got home from that and got caught up on some of the laundry and vacuumed the floor for when Tom got home we had another guy coming over to do another estimate on carpet. I had to go to work early this Monday (I usually don't go in until 2 on Monday's) I had to have my yearly performance evaluation... Like always, I did great and actually scored better this year than last. But because of the "economy" Vanderbilt isn't giving out any salary increases so my efforts won't be rewarded this year... What a load of *&%# (sorry)

I got to the high school and we had baseball and softball games. However our boys run ruled their opponent and our girls got run ruled so it wasn't a long night. I got home about 6:30 which was great because I was soooo tired. Traveling really takes a lot out of you.

It was a beautiful day out Monday and when the sun went down our backyard was shaded and Tom had the puppy pool out for the dogs. I got to spend some time splashing around with the dogs and Tom cooked me dinner and we just hung out on the porch for a while.


Tom went into to study and the dogs were wore out, as you can see. I decided not to make noise so I spent the rest of the night finishing washing and folding the laundry, getting the dishes done and getting my stuff ready for the next day.

After I was done with all that it was about 9:30 and time to settle in for the evening. Tom finished up with his homework and we ended the night watching a little Law and Order SVU from the DVR and called it a night...

Today was back to same 'ol thing. I had to work in the clinic this morning seeing patients. We had a staff meeting at lunch then off to the school. We only had a soccer game today so I actually got home somewhat early today too. 7:00 is not that bad these days. The good news is, that I only have about 2 more weeks until all of our teams should be done for the season and my short works weeks will begin!!! Yippy!!!!

Rainbow Cone!!!

After the shower Pat and I decided that we needed to go out for dinner!!! That means a trip to Rainbow Cone, the best Ice Cream Cone ever!!! Well, except for home made ice cream, but how often do you get that!! Only in Iowa!!! We got done with the shower around three and headed back home to drop Grandma off. We got her back home around 4 and she was pooped!!! We got her changed and convinced her to take a nap, which is hard becuase she never thinks that she is tired. Then we headed over to Kathy Smith's to pick her up so she could come with too.


This was Kathy Smith's very first Rainbow Cone...She's lived there her whole life and never had one. My mom and dad have even had it in Iowa, when I brought them a half gallon there for Christmas one year. She thought it was good but too sweet. Oh well, to each their own...

Here I am eating my cone...See all the colors... Orange Sherbert, Pistachio, Arnold Palmer, Chocolate, and Strawberry... Doesn't sound like a good combination but trust me it's good!

Kathy and Pat outside the Rainbow Cone...

Me and Pat outside the Rainbow Cone!

The Shower

Mike and Lisa's shower brunch was from 11-3 on Sunday and they had it in the same banquet room as they had their wedding reception. Lisa's sister did an amazing job of decorating the place with all kinds of fun baby stuff. She had a great turn out of guests... I think there was about 50 people there so you can imagine the amount of gifts they got.


They opened their gifts for about an hour staight. They got so much stuff, I am not sure if I had a baby soon if we would even have enough room in our small little house to fit all of that in.

Here is Pat with her girly girls....ah how cute...

This is what she usually looks like around us!! :)

The proud Mommy and Daddy to be. I am so happy that I was able to make it up to see you guys before the big day. Lisa you look so cute with your little baby bump, I am so excited to meet little Baby D!!! Good luck with your last month, and have fun putting the rest of that stuff together, Mike!!! Love ya!!!

Saturday April 25th.

I had the opportunity to go to Chicago this past weekend to see the Donohoe's for Lisa and Mike's baby shower. I had to work Saturday morning for a JV baseball game so I had to take the late 4:20 flight. I was suprised to find out that Patrick and Soumya were going to come in Saturday night to Pat's house to see me and hang out. When I got there Patrick and Soumya picked me up from the airport and we got to Pat's around 6:00pm. Yeah!!! We were ordering PIZZA!!! Oh, how I miss that yummy stuff! Then I found out that Mike and Lisa were coming over too. I am sooooo loved!!! We had a great time catching up and playing Clue. Besides the fact that Tom couldn't come with me because he was stuck at home studying for his upcoming finals, I had such a great day!

"Invincible Chains"... Not so Invincible

So, Tom was out of town not this past weekend but the weekend before. When he is gone I always feel bad for the dogs because they don't get as much attention when he isn't around. We are usually home at different times during the day so the dogs don't get left alone for more than about 4 hours by themselves. When he is gone it turns into more like 8-12 hours so you know why I feel guilty. Lately it has been really nice outside so most of that time is spent in the yard but when they have to stay in the house I like to make it up to them by getting them treats or toys. I went to Target and they had these monster looking chain toys that were called..."Invincible Chains" well...nothing is truely invincible when it comes to Shirley.


However, I never thought she would get through these things as quickly as she did. I really thought that Shirley and Riley would get right into a match of tug of war with the things. Shirley wouldn't let Riley near the thing. She took it and immediately (I'm talking less than 30 seconds) had the thing broke apart. I was so mad I went right to get the camera and she already had 4 chunks eaten off like little rubber tootsie rolls!!!

This is where her obsessive compulsive doggie disorder takes over and she is not satisfied until the thing is in a million pieces! I decided to let her go for a while just to see how quick she could demolish one ring.

Less than 3 minutes later she had one ring completely into 1/2 inch to 1 inch pieces...she just kept going around the ring and spitting them out!!! I decided to take the pictures and attatch them to an angry email to the PW pet product people. I told them how much their Invicible Chain sucked!!! I got an email back the next day saying they think the toy we got must have been defective and they would send me a new one. Well, its been a week and we haven't got one in the mail but I will keep you posted, until then I would stay away from the Invincible Chain toys for your dogs, cuz they aren't so invincible!!!