A Night Under the Stars

Thanks to our dear friends, the Browns, we found out about a little known local secret this past Saturday night, Arrington Vineyards. They celebrated their 8 years of marriage last week and invited a few of their friends along to celebrate everyone's marriage. I thought how fun, but were we in for a treat. Every weekend, they have artists playing and everyone is invited to bring food and enjoy the festivities, of course, you have to buy your alcohol on the premises. The event, get this, is free!! We love free. It would be an ideal place to take out of town visitors, have a nice date night or for a night out with friends.

When we got there, it was like we were on vacation. This place does not look like it's in Middle Tennessee. It had rolling hills plastered with grape vines. It truly was spectacular. I suggest you check it out for yourself. If you get there early enough, you can grab one of their tables otherwise, bring a blanket or chair, relax, enjoy the atmosphere and the company. We did!

A view of the land

Damien and I at sunset

Jill, Lauren, Kelley, Stephanie and Andrea at the entrance

The girls

The guys

Irresponsible Parents

If there was a parents of the day award, we would not have gotten it today. No, we didn't do anything to Dylan, but our 4 legged kids are another story. 

We went out to my parent's house today, like we do every other Sunday. Turbo wanted to go outside, so I let him out. Usually Turbo just goes out in the yard and hangs out. If he leaves the yard, he goes up to my Grandparents house, which is right next door. After about 20 minutes or so, I said, I am going outside to look for Turbo. I started yelling for him, he didn't come. I walked around the house looking for him, no sign of him. Then I went up to my Grandparents. Granddaddy was sitting outside, he hadn't seen him. I start walking down the street in one direction as my Dad goes the other direction. Turbo appears 2 houses down. Mind you, this is in the country on a street that is posted as 40mph, but people do about 60 seeing that they are not in the city limits and county police are not usually on our road. I was terrified that he was going to get hit. I crouched down by the side of the road and yelled for him in my sweetest voice. (all the time trying to be non threatening) As soon as he came to me, he got a spanking. He knew he did wrong. I released his collar and he ran into the yard. Needless to say, Turbo will not be allowed in the yard anymore, unsupervised. He's never done that. Unless, you count the time my parent's smoke detector kept beeping and finally he had enough. He jumped up on the door, opened it and took off. My parent's dog, Bandit, made a get away with him. Turbo took off down the street, but they were able to rally him back. 

Then, when we got home, I brought Dylan in as he was super fussy, as Damien unloaded the car. About 30 minutes after being home, I started fixing me a pizza. Usually when I shuffle around in the kitchen, the dogs are right there. Turbo was the only one waiting for cheese or a pepperoni, so I yelled for Sophie. Nothing. I said to Damien, where's Sophie? He said I guess she's in the back yard. I said, you just leave her out there. He opens the door and turns on the light, no Sophie. I go out in the garage to see if she's still out there...nope. Damien says open the garage door. I open the door and she comes running in. She was outside the whole time. Luckily, she didn't run away. 

All this to say, when you have a kid, you don't seem to notice what the dogs do as much. 

Happy Birthday Dora....I mean Eliza

I told my neighbors that I was going to write a blog about something in their backyard. Immediately, they started looking around like uh-oh what could it be. I told them it wasn't anything bad, it's more something about me. I finally told them as I asked for permission to use Eliza's picture. See they have this Dora play house in their yard. It use to be more towards our yard, and we could see it from our driveway. Often times, we would pull in, and at first glance, I thought Eliza was in the play house. Then I'd remember that it's just ole Dora's picture. 

See how I could mistake her for Dora.  She's turning 2 years old today, and she is a Guatemalan pricness.  I love me some Eliza, and she loves her some Burbo (Turbo).

Wordless Wednesday

Speak Sweeter

This past week, in our Live Like You Were Dying series, we covered speaking sweeter.  In Rick's sermon, he identified 3 ways to speak sweeter.

- Appreciate People

• say thanks to people that serve you 
  
• say thanks to people that shaped you

-Encourage People

Hebrews 3:13 "But encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness"

-Pray for People

Ephesians 6:18 "Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere."

I am going to be honest and admit that speaking sweet is sometimes difficult for me. It's not something that I have been accustomed to, and it's very difficult to teach an old dog new tricks. Seriously, as we get older, we don't generally get nicer. Typically, the older you get the harder your heart gets, unless you are diligent about being an encouragement dispenser. I know for some people, complimenting people or speaking encouraging words comes easily. For me, I sometimes feel that if I say things of this nature, that people aren't going to think that I am being genuine, seeing that I usually joke around. Thus, I am going to start being intentional...less joking, more encouraging. Also, I am going to try and make it a point to say I love you more, so family, get ready to be weirded out. (This is not something my family normally does. I remember when I was in school asking my mom why we didn't.) I want three things to be achieved from saying I love you more...1-I want to remove any doubt.  2- I want to teach Dylan the importance of sharing his feelings 3-I don't want to have any regrets.

Lastly, a bit of advice that Rick provided to us. Before you speak ask yourself: is it true? is it kind? is it necessary?

This week...Love Deeper - I look forward to seeing how we can love deeper.

Holy Hair Loss Batman

I cannot take credit for the title, as one of the girls on my baby board started a thread with the same title. I liked it so much, I stole it....(was it you Holly or was it Sarah?)

Anyway, I have officially started losing my hair. I know while you are pregnant and a few months after delivery, you don't loose a lot of hair. Then it starts falling out in clumps. I have doctored this pictured so that the hair actually stands out. This was all in one sitting of blowing drying and flat ironing my hair. I am going to be bald soon if this keeps up.