Blessings, large and small

It's been a good week, folks. 

My Monday was actually a second Sunday, two quiet days at work since the kids were on fall break, lots of time with friends...I don't have one single complaint. 

 {Staff Retreat/In-Service. We were allowed to wear jeans to work and they had fresh Starbucks on hand. Definitely eased the blow of sitting in the same room for 3+ hours.}

 {Hooray! Reunited! Good as new!}

{October Photo a Day, 16 - Something I Wrote at our staff retreat. Notes from an amazing devotional and doodles from when the speakers lost me.  

 {October Photo a Day, 17 - The Fruit of my crafty labor on Wednesday}

{October Photo a Day, 18 - A living room full of friends Made Me Smile on Thursday. You're looking at an answer to prayer...}

And yet, Friday is just as welcome as always. The weekend is shaping up to pretty delightful, too. Babysitting some of our favorite kiddos, more college football, pumpkin pickin' and carving, and perhaps a country arts fair along the Sequatchie River. 

Fall, you are glorious. 

So these things happened today...

First, autocorrect on my phone decided it wanted to show off just how well it knows me. 

{Sidenote: Sometimes I don't know a student's name so I have to write down other characteristics that will help me identify their photo later. It's weird, but it works.} 

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In a moment of idiocy late Wednesday night, I decided to see what my engagement ring looked like on my right hand. Note to self: when the ring doesn't go on easily, YOU STOP TRYING TO GET THE RING ON YOUR FINGER. 

After trying almost every trick I could find via Google (except one that I just couldn't bring myself to do) and my finger swelling by the minute, the only option was left was to have an experienced jeweler cut it off. Props to my friend Ruth for a.) assisting me with all the various tricks I tried, b.) laughing at/with me as I cried over how sad and ridiculous was my predicament, and c.) pointing me to a reputable jeweler.

Absolutely breaks my heart still, but it will be back together and good as new by Tuesday. Very painful lesson to learn...

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After I got home from work, I was doing a little tidying up around the house when I heard Knox's nails scratch across the hardword floor and saw the storm door fly open. Turns out that a storm door  which doesn't quite latch on its own and stray cats wandering within Knox's line of sight is the perfect combo for him to practice his fifty yard dash. No lie, that dog was out the door, across the street, and up a tree in four seconds flat! 

I watched in amazement as he climbed the tree in our neighbor's yard trying to get to that cat. He perched there for a moment but when he realized just how high he was he jumped back down. The neighbors saw it too and came out howling with laughter. 

Once I got Knox back to our house, I went back over to chat and ended up coming home with two pounds of smoked barbecue, a bagful of fresh peppers from their back yard, a recipe for apple spice cake, and an invitation to come back over and learn some impressive cake decorating methods.

Retired neighbors are the best.

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We ended the night with a spontaneous double date with Jordan and Lindsay.

 {October Photo a Day, 12  - Outstanding menu on the table}

While I do have some suggestions for them in terms of ambiance (spring for real candles, guys, the battery powered tea lights are lame), I can heartily recommend the food and beer!

Delicious dinner, excellent company and two hilarious episodes of "Modern Family" was pretty much the perfect way to end this eventful day.

 To make the end of the day even sweeter, I'm looking at the start of a three day weekend. Hooray!

My 30's are turning out to be my favorite

It's my birthday and I'll blog about it two months later if I want to. That's how the song goes, right? I am still all sorts of jazzed about Christmas, but since I still haven't decorated our tree or house and am seriously stressing out my husband by my lack of motivation and therefore have no pictures to show for it this birthday was extra special I couldn't let it go by without a blog post of its own. Settle in, y'all, this is going to be a long one (and if you just muttered "That's what she said," WE ARE SO BEST FRIENDS).

To start things off, Allie surprised me with a sisters trip to Atlanta and tickets to see Sugarland and Sara Bareilles in concert. Hooray! After making a quick stop at the outlets in Calhoun to pick up my birthday present from Jason (dreamy tall brown boots, thanks hon!), I met Allie at Ikea. This seemed as good a place as any to start the early birthday weekend considering that I had never stepped foot in this much talked about ohsotrendy spot. 

We headed upstairs to the restaurant first so I could try their famous Swedish meatballs. Can I tell you a secret? Lean in....real close now....they're just meatballs. Tres anticlimactic.

Armed with a map and the free measuring tape, we headed off into the vast realms of prefabricated glory. 

I managed to find the couch of my dreams (hello, Hovas couch, you lovely thing you) but as we neared the end of the top floor, my head was swimming. I made it about halfway through the bottom floor when I finally turned to Allie and said, "I don't care how cute or affordable this stuff is, I'm on sensory overload and I WANT OUT." So we booked it to the exit only for me to realize that I'd forgotten to look at a kitchen table, as I'd promised my NYC bestie, Robyn, that I would do. So, back to the top floor went we.

After a fruitless search in the table section, I was ready to turn around and go against the grain of the Ikea-imposed one direction maze and get the heck outta Dodge. My military rule-following sister would have none of it and so we walked through the entire top floor. Again. Have I mentioned I was already on sensory overload and my new anti-anxiety meds had yet to kick in? GOOD TIMES.

We'd gotten to the middle of the stairs leading to the bottom floor when I started looking for a quick exit out. The conversation between me and Allie went something like this:

Allie: There isn't a quick exit. We have to walk through the bottom floor again 

Leslie: WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S NO QUICK EXIT! THAT'S RIDICULOUS! THEY HAVE TO HAVE ONE!

Allie: Well, they don't. They want you to have to walk through again so you buy more stuff.

Leslie: NO WAY. NO. WAY. I AM NOT WALKING THROUGH THIS ENTIRE FLOOR AGAIN

{Sidenote: I may have actually stamped my foot at this point. I am nothing if not completely mature when under extreme duress.}

Allie: Well, get over it, Lu, because that's what we're going to have to do. 

{Another sidenote: There was much rolling of eyes at this point.}

Leslie: UUUUGGGGGGHHHH!

Annnnnnnnd, scene.

At this point, the angels smiled upon us and I looked to the right and saw a shortcut exit right next to their childcare center. Hallelujer. Crisis averted, we headed back to the hotel and then over to Phillips Arena for the show. It was, of course, awesome.

This was actually the very last show of their Incredible Machine Tour and so there a few pranks that night (see here and here), but one of the coolest parts of the show was a surprise that a local radio station put together. The last few months of tour took a tragic turn when Sugarland's stage collapsed in Indiana killing some of their  fans and crew members. To give them some encouragement and show support for the band, the radio station gave everyone a sign with some relevant lyrics from their song "Little Miss" and asked us to keep them hidden until that song was performed.

It was pretty cool to see all those signs go up at once.

The obligatory mid-concert shot, of course.

Sugarland always manages to work in cover songs so you never really know what's coming. All you Young Life folks, make sure you listen at 1:11 where Allie and I pay homage to our Mount Tabor YL roots.



Our weekend in Atlanta was pretty fantastic. Allie has a strong record of giving me amazing experiences for my birthday gifts and this one was right up there. Thanks, seestur!

Next up was a fabulous pseudo-slumber party hosted by Christine and Sarah. Hooray for girly time!
The birthday cake? Oh, they nailed it. Well done, friends, well done.

Hand crafted touches were everywhere...

I requested a menu of breakfast for dinner, one of my favorites. And you know what beverage goes perfectly with breakfast?

M'more mimosas, please!

Homemade quiches, Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit seemed to make everyone happy.

And this?

This photo is a tangible answer to a prayer I have prayed for three years. It's missing a few more beautiful faces, but the women here have loved me, cried with me, walked with me, prayed for me, we've laughed together, crafted together, worshiped together and they've allowed me to step into their lives in a way that is such a rich blessing it brings tears to my eyes every time I look at this. They help make Chattanooga home and I am beyond grateful for them all.

Other highlights from the actual birthday...

This hilarious note from my mom explaining why she signed my card with her first name instead of "Marmee". Lordamercy, I love that woman.

Cupcakes from my work study students. Aged to perfection? I'll take it.

A birthday gift from my new friend Renee and a new favorite snack- Dark Chocolate Peanut M&Ms.

DIVINE.

And best of all? Coming home to the love of my life, a decorated living room and a delicious home cooked meal.

My cup runneth over.

I'm convinced...

...that the world would be a much happier place with a photo booth on every corner.

Neither sneezing nor migraine will keep me from this post.

Such is my commitment to sharing the last part of what I believe Traci correctly called “the best inaugural UT game experience EVER.” So, continuing on. After a photo op with a slightly larger and fuzzier version of Smokey, Sarah and I headed for our seats inside of Neyland Stadium.

As we wound our way through the ramps leading up into the stadium, the anticipation built and my grin got wider and wider. And then, there it was…

Vast and glowing, an architectural behemoth checkered in orange and white.

After my initial peek into this Tennessee landmark, Sarah asked if I wanted to head down to the Lettermen’s Club located on field level. Um, am I willing to chase a celebrity and ask him for a picture? Heck, yeah! Down we went and shamelessly worked her husband’s letterman status {thanks, Kyle!} in order to get in. And then, there it was. The checkerboard, mere yards from me…

Oh yeah, and there was this other guy there, Johnny Majors.

I heard he was a big deal or something.

After stocking up on free snacks, water and cokes {take that, overpriced concessions stands!} we headed up to our seats and the gorgeous view that spread before us. And this is where our tale takes a sad turn. I took this one last shot…

…and my camera battery died. Kaput. Done. And like a total moron, I hadn’t brought my extra battery with me. So the rest of my pics are courtesy of my cell phone. Sigh. But what better to snap me out of my camera funk than a marching band? Bring on the Pride of The Southland Marching Band! Go Vols!

{We weren’t sitting on the home side, so just flip these pics in your head, m’kay? Thanks.}

The Power T

And here they come! We settled in for the first half in which I sang “Rocky Top” at least fifty times as we rolled over the Memphis Tigers.

At halftime, the alumni band joined the current band and taunted me with the first formation for the famous Circle Drill. If you haven’t ever seen this, click on over here and watch {it starts around 2:30}. AMAZING. We didn’t get the whole deal {teasers} but it was still a pretty great show. They even had the guys who first recorded “Rocky Top”, the Osborne Brothers, out on the field to perform. Pretty sweet!

Game won and “Rocky Top” sung another fifty times, we headed down for one more shot with Smokey and one last shot with the checkerboard.

Blissfully happy and deliciously exhausted from the wind, cold and hollerin’, we headed home to Chattanooga. But not before one last stop at Waffle House for a late night snack and “Don’t Stop Believing” on the jukebox.

Trust me, someone had to redeem the terrible frat band cover we heard that afternoon.

Go Vols!