Weekend Report: 8/52

It's quite the rarity that in this entire month, we will spend every weekend at home. In fact, originally, we weren't supposed to be here this past weekend. But a forgotten commitment and a sick bunch in Cleveland, and we were staying put.

I'll be honest, as much as it's nice to visit family - I love being home.

I love waking up on Saturdays to earn myself some bonus points for taking a class at the gym, before 10 o'clock, no less.

I love having time to share a pot of coffee with Cliff, this weekend french press, and the last of the first bag of Ethiopian beans my mom brought back from her mission trip last fall.

I love being able to be there for a friend. Really be there, with no regard to plans or schedules because this is a weekend free of them.

I love church, and following through a study without interruption.

I love brunch at the Daily Dish. If you live in Franklin and haven't been, go next Sunday. For real.

I love that Cliff makes his free time available to the serving his county, and that this weekend, he got to fight and put out a half-acre brush fire.

I love getting so much done on our projects list, we start to make up things. Or, at least, remember that our cars haven't been detailed or properly washed in eons and now might be a good time to do that.

 

I just love having time. Time to see things like the sunset reflected on the hood of your freshly-washed car - such a normal and mundane thing, really - and yet to wonder and find beauty in it.

 

It's probably weird, but I've been thinking about that last picture a lot. About how much it reminds me of what marriage can be. An upside down, yet perfect reflection of the world aright - of beauty as it was intended to be - somehow showing on the surface of a thing that can be so mechanical. But apart from its mechanics, it is a canvas just the same.

I pray, for us and for every married couple - just as every weekend or week day unfolds, that in all of the normalcy - all of the drudgery - all of the mundane - that we see that God is making something beautiful out of us. Because the truth is, He is, no matter whether we see it or not.

Bye, Bye Weekend

Well, stink.

I just looked at the clock and I've got 2.5 hours before I head off to Belmont for the rest of the day. Tower Team Leader selection is well under way and tonight we cap it off with the group process "interview," so it's a little less like work and a bit more like play but it still requires going into work on the weekend. And leaving my poor shmoopy behind.

Cliff's parents came in yesterday afternoon to keep him company while I was gone for most of the day (right at about twelve hours!) on a shoot with Zach and Jody. He's needing to get some work done on our cars so his dad offered to help him navigate the joys of changing your own oil, etc. They'll be in until later this afternoon, so I think after sleeping in this morning (that was nice), we're about to go grab brunch somewhere.

So, the mornings were officially my weekend. Cliff and I didn't do much of anything yesterday morning except enjoy a nice quiet breakfast at Dotson's, take a trip to the library, and hop around different auto stores for Cliff to scout out his supplies. It was so nice and normal and then before I knew it, he was dropping me off at the Grays'. Last night's wedding was quite the experience and I'm thankful to Zach and Jody for bringing me along and for always teaching me so much!

I sure was pooped, though by the time I got home and greeted my dear husband who had waited up long after he needed to, to welcome my tired-legged and groggy-eyed self in the door.

Well, I'm off to ready myself for the day. Hope you all have had a great weekend!

Looking Forward To This Weekend

It's astonishing how quickly things can go from busy to, kablooie. You know, where everything sort of explodes all at once. Suddenly, you become aware that your stomach is ravenous because you forgot to eat breakfast, you think you may have forgotten to turn off approximately five lamps in the apartment before walking out the door, and all you remember from the drive into work was the consoling and comforting voice on the other end of the phone (thanks Smudd) and you don't actually remember driving... at all.

That's no good. But when the unexpected happens, you just move forward and do your best to toe that tricky line between total mental/emotional breakdown and complete peace. You're probably laughing, thinking that line doesn't exist. But oh, does it ever.

We've been looking forward to this weekend for awhile now. But now, it's so needed. Here in an hour or so we'll drive east until we hit that gem of a city known as Pigeon Forge where we'll settle into our lodge for a weekend spent hanging out, investing in our marriage, reading, praying for some recent life developments, playing in the mountains, taking pictures, and doing some shopping. Good company and relaxation are about all I've been hanging my hat on for the last twenty hours or so, and I can't wait.

While we're gone, don't forget to vote in our "Cliff Post" poll on the top right hand of the corner of the blog which will be up until Sunday! I didn't tell him I was doing this and when I showed him my diabolical schemes, he thought it was great and told me he'd wait to make his decision until the final results were in.

Hope you all have a FANTASTIC weekend!

A Tennessee Homecoming

We should be in bed, by now, considering we'll be up so early. But, oh well. What are you gonna do? Sometimes it's just too fun to linger over dinner and then chat like you have all the time in the world.

We're headed to Knoxville, tomorrow! Sure, sure, the Vols aren't so hot this year, but we're no fair-weather fans and when your (as in Cliff's) boss's boss's boss, otherwise known as the vice president, graciously offers you four of his (really good) tickets and his parking garage pass, you happily accept! We invited one of Cliff's co-workers and her husband who used to work with the team back when he was an undergrad at UT. So... out of the four of us, Nick's the only one who actually, rightfully belongs at this Homecoming game, tomorrow. But whatever. They're playing Wyoming (whose state is absolutely beautiful), so that'll pretty cool to see a team play that is not from the Southeastern portion of the United States.

It's our second game of the season and our seventh since we started dating, and we'll see if my track record will pull out a win for the Big Orange. Not many people can say they've never been to a losing game at Neyland - so I guess we'll find out tomorrow whether I've joined that other club or not. You know, come to think of it, our first game we ever went to together was the Homecoming game against Memphis in 2005. Memorieeees... precious memorieeees. (Might be our last time to see Fulmer coach if we don't make it to the Kentucky game over Thanksgiving weekend... weird.)

Anyways, hope ya'll have a great Saturday!

Off for the Weekend

We're off to visit the family! Well, at least I'm off to pick Cliff up from work, then drive to the airport, park our car, take a shuttle, go through security, grab some dinner, sit at the airport for awhile, and then we'll be off to visit the family. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

So, What's New?

I think this has probably been one of the fastest slow weeks we've had in awhile. We keep looking back on our days thinking "Busy week... Yeah... Wait, what'd we do again?"

I'll tell you one thing, getting internet hasn't changed our lives as nearly as much as we were expecting it to. No time warp for us. (Well, except for the time I spent uploading far too many old pictures onto our flickr site.) It's just nice, that's all. Oh, and cable (or essentially CBS, since we got all the other channels on our digital bunny ears) helps too. "Look honey, we finally made it to the twenty-first century! And we can watch the Vols!"

The weather has been fantastic and we've so been looking forward to the weekend. Not to bore you with our incredibly normal plans, but we totally intend on sleeping in and then heading over to the Franklin Farmer's Market. It's so fun to go and to feel like you're walking right into American values of community, hard work, agriculture, and commerce at the farmer's market. We browse and browse and browse before always coming back to the Delvin Farms stand which is our favorite for local organic produce (and eggs when they have them!) Last week I picked up a pint of tomatoes, an acorn squash, cucumbers, peppers, and a sweet potato for ten buckaroos. Apples are steadily growing in number so maybe we'll splurge on those and I'll cook up a pie or something. (Okay, this is getting a little out of hand.)

I think fall is getting to me. And being at home a lot. Oh, and the pile of magazine recipe clippings scattered all over our living room floor whilst I attempt to put my "cookbooks" together. Goodness. I'm just so... domesticated.

The big game is tomorrow, so that's exciting, too. I can't wait for the day we finally make it to a UT-Florida game in person. You can only scream so much at a television screen before losing your mind. One day, one day...

Well, Cliff just pulled up in his little red Jimmy and that means our weekend has officially begun. Hope you and yours have a great one!

Our Weekend

Heather wants to know what we did this weekend, so I'm gonna tell her.

We cleaned our apartment and our cars, replaced a broken sensor in Cliff's car that was keeping him from getting AC all summer (just in time for the weather to start cooling down), went out on a date, ate dinner at one of our favorites - Saffire, had creme brulee for dessert at Wolfgang Puck, saw "Tropic Thunder", slept-in, rented free movies from Blockbuster and pulled out the couch bed for a movie marathon.

It was awesome... refreshing... and so very much needed.

And I'm sad it's over and Cliff's back to work (sad face).

Just Sounding Off

I kind of feel like I woke up in an alternate universe, today. I really can't explain it. Everything just feels a bit off. I'm kind of hoping that might fade with the morning...

Anyways. This weekend was nice - hot - but nice. Flugtag, Hot Diggity Dogs, and watching the Gonas boys on Saturday. Church, Pre-Marital Counseling (last session!), and Bridal Portrait yesterday. I turned two hundred and seventy-seven months yesterday (haha); isn't it funny how parents of young children (often infants/toddlers) answer their childrens' ages in months and not year estimations. Like Jake - he's not just "a little over a year" - he just turned fourteen months last Tuesday. And, I digress (okay, so maybe things aren't that off.)

Points of Information:
-I'm now on the third book of Emily Giffin's
-today is the first of five days left that I have of nannying
-we're going to get our marriage license this week
-I'm having all of my bridesmaids, save Cearra (who comes in Friday!) over tonight for a fitting and dinner (looks like the menu changed and we'll be doing ravioli instead of lasagna, ladies)
-I discovered two new food sites, which make me particularly happy

(Those are all things I did not feel like writing in paragraph form, especially as they have little relation to each other.)

As for my bridal portrait shoot yesterday, I can't rave enough about it. I had a blast and was so well taken care of by people who aren't just professionals but (THANK THE LORD) are also wonderful friends. After counseling, I got in my car and headed over to The Factory to Iz's day spa. Because I had planned on her doing my hair and make-up, she offered to let us use the spa for some of the studio shots. So essentially, we did most everything there with me all dolled up and music playing in the background. Zach and Jody brought bottles of water, cheese, grapes, crackers - it was awesome. I had been really nervous about the whole day in general - not that my expectations were low of the work that they all would do, but really how I was going to look, feel, etc. Well, I felt incredible and we had a great time. After a couple of settings inside the spa, we took a few shots at one of the entrances to The Factory, and then drove over (yes, I drove my car in my wedding dress) to the Riverview residence. Riverview is this old historic house (that people live in and run stables out of) with magnolia trees and stone walls and iron gates and it just has that really rustic, old-southern feel that I was hoping for for some outside pictures. It was great.

I ended the day by riding down 65 in my wedding dress, laughing that I had been so, I don't know, worried about the day. It was great, and a nice bit of practice for the big Big Day which is now in (not believing my eyes - I actually had to rub them) 26 days.