A Mayberry/Country Girl Day (And More Nashville Outings)

Last week, Joy, Luke, and I went along with Jason on a business trip to Nashville, except we were able to play during the day while he had to take classes.

Here's the kids out on the balcony at our hotel...



We did get dad to ourselves in the evenings though....going out to dinner and then coming back to the hotel for swimming.





The most memorable highlight of our week in Nashville was meeting Mandy, a sweet blogging friend, and her children, Zach and Leah Kate. We met at a beautiful park with lots of playground equipment for the kids, who, by the way, hit it off quite well. It was a beautiful breezy day for a picnic outing.



I really enjoyed talking with Mandy on our shady park bench! She's a sweet Christian lady, and it's very obvious that she loves her family and home dearly. We found we have much in common and found lots to talk about....non-stop. Meeting Mandy on her blog has been a blessing, but meeting her in person was even more special!



Mandy makes wonderful blocks, signs, and more through her business Creekside Creations........and she brought me these!



I love them and can't wait until this weekend to start my fall decorating. Thank you, Mandy!

At the end of our picnic, the kids schemed together and thought swimming would be nice and smoothly persuaded us. Mandy and I got to talk even more later, as the kids swam in the pool at our hotel (well in between me jumping up and running back and forth because Luke was bailing off into the water after the big kids, even when they weren't prepared)!



It was a wonderful outing and I'm so glad they could meet up with us! Thank you, Mandy, Zach, and Leah Kate!

In addition to our outing with Mandy, we found a great mall on one day and the fleamarket at the fairgrounds on another day where I did a little "me" shopping for my birthday. :)

One day we visited the Discovery Center and Joy and Luke had a great time. It was two floors of fantastic hands-on kids' fun!

















Another day, we found The Monkey's Treehouse, which is a huge indoor fantasy playground. It was geared more for younger ones, but Joy had a good time playing with the little kids. I suppose all the school-aged children were in school at that time.







Luke was content to sit and play with cars, trucks and planes. I had to laugh though because he was trying to pull off a tower that was attached to a play table and a little older boy of about four or so was telling Luke, "YOU CAN'T MOVE THE EQUIPMENT". Of course, Luke didn't understand what he was saying and he just parroted back what the boy said in exactly the same tone. I'm sure the boy thought he was being sarcastic when actually that's the way he's learning his English, by copying phrases he hears. Anyway, it gave me a chuckle, even though I'm sure a certain little four year old boy wasn't too pleased with him. :)



Joy enjoyed the treehouse and playing around with the dress up and doll house....just for fun (and making some of those moms stare at her she said). I'm super blessed with this girl who is always such a help to me and so good natured about it too!



We're back home now and I have to say, especially after living out of a hotel room for 5 days/nights.....

There's no place like home!

Photo Editing at Picnik with Sepia

I'm not sure exactly what it is about sepia toned photos that I love so much or what or why they draw me in, but they do. They just feel so timeless, I guess. I am also a fan of black and white photos, but this particular day, I was playing around with the sepia tones obviously. My husband just doesn't understand why anyone would want either of those, when you can have color!

Anyway, I've played around a little over at the Picnik site with some photo editing. I probably couldn't even tell you exactly what I did to all of these pictures to get the final product, but I had fun doing it! I just play around with it until I like what I see...whatever is pleasing to my eye. :)

Here's a few of the final products:

Our Home...


Colt and Amber....I think I did black and white with some sepia tone around the faces to give a glow...I can't remember....



Joy in the Snow Pics....This one especially has that timeless feel to me for some reason...




Black and white with a hint of color added in:




Okay, Jason thought I was completely crazy for liking this one, but I did. It really was a toss away photo where we meant to get a better picture, but I liked just the eye shot of us, (even if I didn't have on makeup).



Colt....I like this one because of two things in the background that say "Colt"...cell phone and guitar...


More Joy photos....on the playground...


I like this one because it definitely sums up Joy too...love the girly sundress with the cap on backwards...


I've also had Adobe Photoshop CS3 for over a year now (which wasn't exactly cheap by the way) and it still sits on my shelf. I'm bound and determined to sit down long enough and try to learn how to use it. I know it has a large learning curve, and I guess I've just been too scared of it! I really must do that....I know the possibilities with it are endless!

Have a great Wednesday! :) And thank you for stopping by!

Snow.....Again???

That's the third time this year....that's really something! If we get one snow a year, maybe two, it's a big deal.....but this is three! This one took us totally by surprise! (You can tell global warming is in full swing here.....)! ;)



We woke up this morning to a Winter Wonderland out our window (to us anyway). We already have about 4-5", and there's supposed to be another front moving through this evening, so maybe more! Bambi was admiring it from her perch....I wonder what she was thinking? :)



Joy didn't have a clue. Jason woke her up this morning and told her to come on in the kitchen and get breakfast "so we could get started on our schoolwork". She dragged out of bed and was very tickled to see the snowy white blanket over our backyard and the trees! Her normally mean ole homeschool teacher even let her off for the day, so we could go play. Although now that I think about it, there's still plenty of time....maybe some Math is in order yet....



And play we did. Actually, Jason and Joy played more than I did. I was official photographer.

There were snowball fights.





More snowball fights.





Daddy and daughter....



And it was a really good wet sticky snow....good for rolling into balls, and perfect for constructing a little snowman friend.



So she and Jason created our snow buddy....meet Boo Boo.





Doesn't he look like a jolly fella?



Joy, honey....you're losing your pants.....(pants on the ground)! (She was wearing some of my old sweats) :)



That's my feet....had to show you the 4-5"! I love the crunchy sound of the snow under my boots!



It's hard to wear this girl down....tire her out.....to make her want to go inside and get warm! Oh to have that energy again! Glad I'll have her around to help with Luke! :)





And of course, I had to capture some snow scenery photos for our picture album.











My mama and daddy's place next door...they have all the trees!



Oh, and the not-so-fun part about playing in the snow.....the mound of laundry!



It's snowing lots more as I type this so we'll see what happens after this front moves through. I can honestly say we've had our snow(s), and spring would be really nice! I can see why all of you folks in the north talk so much about spring and are so eager to send me some of your snow :)



Thank you for stopping by! :)