Anniversary Weekend

Last week was mine and Juan's 2nd wedding anniversary! We weren't really planning on doing anything special this year, just going out to eat and let that be it this year. Those plans ended up getting changed into a weekend away in Nashville due to the fact that we decided we NEEDED the time together away from all distractions here at the house (the internet, games, cleaning, crafting, etc.).

Our Saturday began with a little Putt-Putt at Grand Ole' Golf in Opryland:
Juan beat me as he always does anytime we play, but one day I plan on this trend changing!

That night we decided to just relax and not really plan too much. We did go to dinner at Carabba's at The Mall at Green Hills and it was just as good as I remember! Yumm-O!!!

I found a new hotel in downtown Nashville for us to stay at called The Hutton Hotel. Here are a few pictures of our room (the bed and the vanity in the bathroom):

It was FABULOUS! We both said that we would stay there again if we decided to do another special night away from home for our anniversary next year or something. It was the nicest hotel that I have ever stayed at myself. It was a little pricey at about $160/night plus parking, but was worth every bit of it! The shower had a rain shower head that was absolutely wonderful and made me not want to get out!

Sunday morning we ate breakfast downstairs at the 1808 Grille and it was wonderful as well! Then we packed up and headed back over to the Opryland area and went to see Night At the Museum 2 at the IMAX theater. It wasn't in 3D, but it was still pretty cool to watch it on the huge screen! As we were driving back home to Cookeville after that we decided we would take a small detour and go see another movie at our local theater because we weren't ready for our weekend to end just yet. The 2nd movie of the day was Terminator Salvation. Both movies were GREAT and were so much fun to see together!

We did not want our weekend to end because we knew that it meant going back to work and going back to the schedule that we hate of not seeing much of each other. But we are thankful that we were able to spend an amazing weekend together celebrating two years of marriage!

A Few Cards

Here are the two cards that I mentioned previously that I promised to post:

This first one was for my old roommate in pharmacy school, Kathlyn. Green is her favorite color (especially the lime greens). The "Happy Birthday" did not show up very well and I obviously didn't really think about that ahead of time. You can see it a lot better in person than you can in the picture. I mailed it last week which is a little early since her birthday is actually this coming Monday. I just wanted to be able to post a picture of it sooner to be honest with you :)

This one I made for my friend Jennifer. A few weeks ago I met her and my friend Summer for lunch in Lebanon. I went to church with those two girls growing up and we became a pretty tight group, along with our friend Andrea who lives in Dallas, TX and was not able to join us for obvious reasons. Jen bought Sum and I lunch that day so I wanted to send her a little Thank You card to say,well to say Thanks :) The stamping on this one did not turn out so evenly, but I still think it looks ok!

I would give you a list of supplies, but it was so long ago when I made these that I really don't remember what I used and I am too lazy at the moment to look the stuff up :) Also, I took the pictures in my kitchen so just ignore the stuff in the background like the dirty towel laying on the counter...ooops!

Coming Soon

I will be posting some pictures of the cards I have made most recently soon, but I want to get them to the people they belong to first before posting them just in case the recipient reads my blog (I don't know that either of them do, but I want to be safe)!

On another note, today is my anniversary. I was married to my amazing husband 2 years ago today! We feel like we have been married for longer than 2 years, but we can't decide if that is a good or a bad thing! I think it's good :)

We weren't going to do anything for our anniversary this year because we are really trying to get student loans paid off, but the small plans of going out to eat last night to celebrate were cancelled when the other pharmacist at my store called me Saturday morning to ask me to switch days with her this week because her grandmother passed away. Of course I didn't hesitate to switch with her and ended up working yesterday. So we decided to push our evening out til this coming Saturday night. However, while I was at work on Monday I got a phone call from another pharmacist at another store asking me if I could possibly work at her store on Friday (which would mean extra money/an extra shift) so I decided I would take it to help pay off some of those student loans. When I told Juan about it when I got home Monday night he was a little disappointed because it would mean that I wouldn't be at home as much this week, and lately we have both been working A LOT of overtime. So, I mentioned us going out to eat at a restaurant on Saturday to celebrate our anniversary that we would have to drive to either Nashville or Knoxville to go to and he decided that whichever place we went that we would stay the night so that we can spend some time together away from home and all the distractions here so we can actually get some quality time together.

I am not all that familiar with Knoxville and what there is to do there, but I can always find something to do in Nashville. But going to Knoxville would be a change of scenery for us. So does anybody have any suggestions or votes for either place?

Oh the restaurant I want to go to is Carraba's (my favorite)!

I'm Behind

I am a little behind on getting stuff posted, but here is a picture of the card I made for my mom for mother's day:



It is one of the first cards that is "worthy" enough to post and share with the blogging world. I read my friend's Kelley's and Courtney's blogs on a regular basis (thanks to the wonderful Google Reader) and I feel like a lot of what I create does not measure up to these girls! I still have a long way to go, but at least my mom enjoyed receiving the card and that is all that matters!

Am I giving enough?

Have you ever heard one of those sermons that just sticks with you and you can't seem to get out of your head or heart? Well, that happened to me back on Easter Sunday. We have struggled finding a church in Cookeville and we finally found one that we like back in January after living here for a year and 1/2. We have been to a LOT and they always seemed to have something "wrong" with them for us...we loved the preacher and worship was pretty much non-existent, was the story at most. But we did happen on Cookeville First Assembly and we have not gone anywhere ever since.

Anyway, on Easter Sunday they had a powerful dramatization that was set in a court room. Satan was the plaintiff and "Man" was the Defendant, represented by Jesus. Michael was the arbitrator (I guess that's what you would call him) and of course, God as the judge.

"Man" was being charged with sin (in fact he had broken every single one of the 10 commandments), but claimed that he was a "good guy" and that he went to church.

Satan put up a very good defense and Jesus didn't say much....until the end. At the end of the trial, "Man" was found guilty and sentenced to death. This was when Jesus offered to take his place and God agreed.

Now, I grew up in church and have been a Christian for several years, but I have never heard a sermon like the one that followed this dramatization. I can't tell you everything that was said, but the things that I still chew on today and that are still in my heart and on my mind on a daily basis are these two things:

1. Jesus did not die for my sins! What!? I know, I have been told this several times, but it's true! Jesus did not die for my sins, he died for ME and he died to save me FROM those sins, but he did not die FOR my sins!

2. When you buy something, you want your money's worth...you want to make sure that you weren't cheated out of anything, you want to make sure you got all the parts. And if you didn't get everything you were promised, 99.9% of the time, you would return it and want a refund or a replacement. Well, Jesus bought us with his blood which is a very HIGH price to pay for something, so.....Are you giving Jesus his blood's worth?

Am I giving Jesus His blood's worth? That question has been traveling around with me since Easter and it's something that I think about on a daily basis. Just like we want everything we were promised when we purchased something, Jesus wants all of us too! Anyway, I just wanted to share that and hopefully have others asking themselves on a daily basis if he or she is giving Jesus his blood's worth?!

A Few Pictures

My sister came up to Cookeville while she was here a few weeks ago and these are a few of the pictures that I took of the kids while she was here. They were a mess and my house was a disaster area after a toddler left that night!
Lila found this cat toy laying on the floor and she draped it around her shoulders and carried it around the house...the cats really thought this was a lot of fun! One of Lila's favorite things to do is get behind you (says my sister)...well, she did this to her aunt Brandy too and she really liked that I was taking pictures of the two of us even though I couldn't get her to look at the camera!

This is her fake smile for the camera :)

Tyler got worn out and just couldn't take it any more!

This is his frog face to match his outfit!

Now he's really getting irritated at his aunt Brandy taking too many pictures and not holding him!

I got ROCK!

I have been begging my husband to let me get rock put in the mulch bed in the front of our house because last year my efforts to keep grass and weeds out was pointless. As I would get done pulling weeds, the next day, there would be 10 new weeds at least!

This year I was determined I was NOT going to fight with it since I am the one who does all of the yard work...so I called the guy who mows our yard and told him I wanted some landscaping done. He suggested that I put down "river rock" since he thought it would look good with our house and since it pretty much maintenance free. This is what I originally wanted LAST summer and never got around to it. I told him I needed to talk it over with my husband and I would get back to him. We decided it was just an "extra expense" we could do without right now and that I should wait to get it. However, I ended up having to work an extra shift on Saturday so I took this as my validation that we would have the extra money right now to pay for this since the shift was unexpected and all! So, I called right away and had them come out to put the rock down.

Here is the before picture:

And the after:

I am not 100% sure I LOVE it, but I do like it better than what we had...but you can see how bad our yard looks too! I have tried to get grass to grow, but have not had much luck! Our house sits on some old farm land and the only people who have yards that look good are the ones who have spent a LOT of money and we don't really want to do that right now. For now, I am happy with the rock at least!