Oklahoma is OK by me!

It's not just the musical I love, but the state and my family too! April 8th-April 11th, my mom, sister and I trekked to Oklahoma to visit my DotDot (grandmother), Dave (step-grandfather) and my Aunt Phyllis.  It was a ton of fun and it was a great time to relax and not worry about any work or school.  It is normally approximately 12 hours to Mannfod, Oklahoma (where they live) but with traffic and wrecks going there and back we had a few extra hours tagged on-a bit stressful and tiring but not too bad.  Check out my trip!

We stopped in Arkansas for lunch and a good leg stretch.

This was the wreck in Arkansas, on the way there-we were in traffic for almost 2 hours because an 18-wheeler had caught on fire! You can't see it well but it's burnt to a shell!  Traffic was so bad on teh other side (where the truck actually was) and I'd bet they sat in traffic for over 4 hours!

We made it! We're in Oklahoma, on my grandmother's property and this was the site I saw in waking up Saturday morning-bliss.

One of the beds.

We decided to take a walk through the 20 acred property to just clear our heads and enjoy the gorgeous weather.  It was so peaceful and relaxing-just what we needed!

Then later that night we were having a BBQ with my step-grandfathers family. Here Dave is making the homemade vanilla ice-cream!

Our BBQ-SO yummy.

Homemade potato salad=heaven.

Look at that! It was a bit runny because it had a hard time turning but it still tasted awesome!

The fam hanging out <3

The next day, after eating some awesome Mexican food we went to Braum's!  It's known (to my family at least) as having some of the best ice cream ever and my brother-in-law Steve is obsessed with it! There's me and Jen posing for it.

Me, my mom, and sister (Jen).  We were getting ready to start packing up and going to bed for an early start back home.

The granddaughters with the grandmother <3

All in all it was a great quick get-away for the family.  My brother couldn't come since he had to work and Der had tests that Friday but it was nice to have a girls trip!  My sister took a bunch more pics but she hasn't emailed them to me yet and I was too excited/impatient to wait on blogging, haha!

This trip was exactly what I needed to refresh my outlook and soul.  Cheers to more trips in the future!

Hairspray!

Have you ever seen something that was totally awesome and it's only until it's over that you can fully appreciate the full magnitude of it's incredibility?  Well if you haven't-shame on you.

I was fortunate enough to brave the unknown to Donelson where I saw a wonderful friend Tonya P. as the lead (Tracy Turnblad) in John Water's "Hairspray" musical.  If you haven't heard of it by now, you fail.  Made popular in the late 1980s with Rikki Lake and Divine, it sky rocketed to a cult phenomenon (like Rocky Horror and Xanadu) that is still prevalent today (especially once Travolta donned the do for Velma Turnblad).

Photo: Hatcher and Fell Photography

Kelly and I met up for Mexican (after both having a really hard time locating the theater) and caught up on the latest while unbeknown to us, the theater parking lot was filling up-we had to park across the street! Lucky for us, I we had reserved seats so we squeezed in to the theater and planted our rumps on the fold outs.  Though the STC theater was small (holding probably 100 seated-130 with standing) Kelly and I made ourselves at home reading the programs, commenting on the cast bios and the simple set design.  And then...it started!

Photo: Hatcher and Fell Photography

Photo: Hatcher and Fell Photography

Photo: Hatcher and Fell Photography

It was WONDERFUL! The entire cast could sing, dance, act, and all looked the part! I found everything convincing and genuine-hard to come by in some theater! Tonya was incredible as the optimistic big girl Tracy (she had to wear a padded suit!) with a voice to match (per usual).  It was very awesome to clap and roar when she bowed-I felt so proud of her!

You know it was a great show when you wake up singing this....

"Today's Tom Sawyer-mean, mean pride."

RUSH.

If you haven't heard of this Canadian band you've been living under a rock for the past 30 years...seriously.  Most known for their song "Tom Saywer", they've come out with enough rock to blow the mind.

(Have yourself a little listen!)

Nice jams huh? Both my mother and husband claim Rush as their FAVORITE band of all time.  Though not my favorite, I am more respectful of them and their awesomeness after seeing them live in Nashville on April 3rd, 2011.

We just parked and were getting ready to walk to the arena!

Bridgestone Arena

Our seats-the very last row! From this picture you can hardly make out the stage!

The show's about to start!

They had a huge jumbo-tron and awesome lights!

What it really looked like without zooming in on my camera, haha!

(From Left: Alex (guitar), Neil (drums), and Geddy (vocals/guitar))

They were SO good live-just like listening to a cd!  I've decided to like them a bit more for putting on an awesome show and rocking (especially since they're in their 50s) in Nashville.  I've found that of the songs played at the show, I loved "Closer to the Heart" the most-very well done!

If you haven't heard them or seen them-IT'S TIME. DO IT.

<3

Okla-homa!

I'm heading to Oklahoma tomorrow! I am SO SO SO excited to visit my grandparents, aunt, and spend some quality time with my mom and sister.

I plan on getting LOTS of reading and relaxing done-none involving school or work, haha!!

I'll post here when I'm back!  YEEEE!

Baby Sealya's Shower

The same day as The BIG Event I also had a friend's baby shower to go to-Mindy (the mother) and Sealya (the soon-to-be-baby!) She's due May 19th and she's ready to go!

Check out the pics below for details:

The party's theme colors were purple and green-Mindy's best friend Brigitte made this cool diaper cake for her!

Here was the sign in sheet for everyone to write on.

Mommy and baby loot!

The CUTEST baby cakes! The top one is a clover with "Good Luck Mindy" on it and the bottom is a baby cake that says "Welcome Sealya"! How adorable are these?

The baby shower games-diapers filled with "poop" and baby food for guessing flavors behind them!  Derrick and I sat those games out, haha!

Mindy has a really cool idea and bought a bunch of different size onesie's and we all could tye-dye or paint them! Free clothes for baby Sealya and uniqueness!

Mindy is obsessed with owls so her friend made a really cool owl onesie.

Our tye-dyes set out to dry and soak-mine is the one furthest in the back!

Baby Sealya's room-how CUTE is everything? Mindy put up these little owl wall decals all over the room-totally original!

The bedding.

The other diaper cake-this is so sweet.  This was Mindy's mother's diaper cake from when Mindy was to be born! How sweet is that? Mindy has this wonderful keepsake to pass down to Sealya <3

From the other diaper cake-sweet booties!

Mindy's big gift from her work friends-a pack n play! Owl themed-naturally, LOL.

This was also a cool idea-everyone at the party was supposed to write a card for Mindy to read while she is in the hospital.  So cool!

Mom-to-be Mindy ready to dig in some "poop"!

Opening the card from me and Derrick-we got her the purple basket and filled it with some good baby stuff: baby toothbrush, baby hair brush, baby q-tips, baby diaper cream, a 3-pack of wipes and a giraffe rattle.

More loot! She was ready to dig in.

Sentimentally reading her cards.

We had a ton of really wonderful food, cake and fun!  Only about 6 more weeks and Sealya should be here!

CONGRATULATIONS MINDY!

The BIG Event

Yesterday, I participated in MTSU's The BIG Event-a day where the SGA, volunteers, and other organizations sign up to help clean up and "beautify" Rutherford County.  It started early and was a bit chilly but still worth it!  Check out the pictures detailing it below.

This was the SGA getting set up-they provided t-shirts and breakfast (fruit, muffins, juice, and water) to everyone involved.

My name tag.

The back of our T-shirts. Very cool. And the front said LIVE UNITED. Also very cool.

My group number (and team captain's hand)

Our trash bags-we were to pick up trash, pull weeds, and gather sticks.  For a group a 10 this isn't too bad, huh!?

This was our clean up site-Campus School. It was probably the cleanest school I've ever seen!

In front of the school they had a lovely memorial (above) for a child that had passed away.

My group!

I was asked to give an interview about why I had woken up at 8:00 on a Saturday morning to do community service and my answer was pretty simple: Why not? This city deserves respect and cleanliness like its citizens in it so I figured I could lend a hand in helping.

It was a quick project since the school was already so clean but still nice to be in the sun and helping out!

Have you done anything to help lately?

Love

Me: Will you hold my hand when I get my tattoo redone?


Der: Yes I'll hold your hand.  I'll also hold your hand when your in labor with our children.  I'll hold your hand when you get our Doctorate.  I'll hold your hand walking through the streets of Paris. I'll hold your hand in D.C. I'll hold your hand when we are old together.  I'll always hold you hand.


Me: *wipes happy tears away* I guess the tattoo seems a bit trivial now, huh?


It really does get stronger every. day.


<3