Thanksgiving Deliciousness!

Oh- quick side note- I GOT A JOB!! I got a great offer for the job I really wanted, and I start on the 7th. God is good!

We have so much to be thankful for, and I feel like I should just name a few things. We are grateful for jobs, at a time when they are soooo hard to come by. We are thankful for our families, and our friends (most of whom are like family to us). We are so happy we chose to move to Nashville- we have found even more great friends who love us like family. We are truly blessed by our loving Father in Heaven.

In our 6 years of marriage, we have been fortunate enough (and probably a bit spoiled) to spend the holidays with both our families each year.
Since it's been a rough few months, we decided to stay home for Thanksgiving this year and try doing the cooking ourselves.

We started the festivities early this morning with homemade eggnog for breakfast. =)

Our appetizer to munch on while cooking- cranberry salsa, served over cream cheese. (Thanks for the recipe, Tiff!)

The spread! Matt smoked the turkey yesterday using apple wood chips. We had the usual suspects: mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, acorn squash, homemade rolls (Matt), taffy apple salad, and pumpkin pie. We made everything, except the cranberry sauce.

We had a lot of fun preparing the meal, but wowsa, it's a lot of work! We have a ton of leftovers! Who wants to come help us eat them?

What was that noise?

Matt was sitting at the desk yesterday, playing on the internet, when he heard a rustling coming from the stack of boxes yet to be unpacked in the spare bedroom...

Well, hello there! Who knew a box would be such an interesting place to hide?













Smelling the orchids...fake ones, anyway. =)

Autumn in Nashville

Fall is definitely here! My favorite time of year. We found this great pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River near our house, so we went out for a Sunday afternoon stroll last week.


He always insists on taking my picture when I am definitely not looking my best... why is that??


Now for some unrelated pics. This is a house on the next street over from us. It was built in the 1860s, and was part of the original settlement. Amazing! The small cabin was moved to its current location and was actually slave quarters back in those times.

Visitors!!

We've been so lucky to have had both sets of our parents come to visit us in the last few weeks.

Matt's parents came to visit us for the 3rd week of October. We had lots of fun, and were able to do some free sightseeing!

Matt took a morning off from work and we went to check out the Grand Ole Opry, the Opry Museum, and the Opryland Hotel.

Here's Mom and Dad S in front of the Grand Ole Opry.


As you might have heard, the Opryland Hotel is quite a sight. The interior is beautiful, and it's free to just go in and walk around enjoying the sights. This is just one of three garden areas inside the hotel.


Matt's photography skills are really getting awesome! This one is from behind the waterfall.

Taking time to smell the...orchids. =)

More awesome scenery in the second garden area of the hotel.

A "river" runs through it! The third garden area of the hotel has a "river," complete with a "riverboat" that travels up and down it. This area also has a little area of shops, which Matt says remind him of how streets look in Europe.

Matt's parents and I were also able to go and visit two Civil War forts here in Nashville. Nashville was occupied by Union soldiers for the majority of the war. It was really interesting!

My parents also came to visit us. They arrived on Tuesday last week (just in time to take me out to dinner for my birthday!). We also did a lot of sightseeing, but I forgot my camera, so I have no pics to show for it. We enjoyed beautiful weather for their entire visit, so we went to see one of the Civil War forts and some beautiful botanical gardens. Matt and my dad were able to get in a couple rounds of golf, and my mom and I did some shopping and visited the Opryland hotel.

Yesterday, we traveled about an hour north to Bowling Green, KY to visit the National Corvette Museum.
My parents headed home early this morning. It was so nice to be able to visit with them!

We are so blessed to have such a great family!

So...are you convinced yet?? Who wants to come visit next?!

It's been a while...

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything on here, so the next few posts will be updates on what we've been up to!

In the not so good news department, our home was broken into and some of our things were stolen at the beginning of October. Thankfully, we were not home, and my brother was here visiting (so I had some moral support upon finding this out), and not many things were taken. Only Matt's laptop (hence the lack of posts on our blog), and my jewelry box were stolen. We were a bit shaken up, since it happened in the middle of the day, but we're okay. =)

The up-side of having your things stolen is...having renter's insurance so you can get new stuff!! We were reimbursed for our stolen goods, and are now the very happy owners of a new (and much faster and better) computer and a new desk for it to live on.

Other not so great news is that I am still unemployed. The job market is quite tough down here, and I have a LOT of competition. I am hanging in there though. I have had lots of support from family and friends, which has helped me maintain my faith and confidence.

All of the extra time on my hands has been good though, as we've had family come to visit! Matt's parents came to visit toward the end of October, and my parents were here this week.

So, if you're still reading, here's some pics to make it worth your while. These pics are from the Corvette Funfest festival I was able to attend with my brother and my dad.

My brother George and my dad, with their cars. My brother's car is a '74 Vette that was passed down to him from my dad, who bought the car in 74! We are definitely a Corvette family.


This is my dream car...and I will own one someday! It's the 50th Anniversary model.
Stay tuned for more pics!