Halloween...

Well today is Halloween. Garet is out of town for work. Suzi decided to get sick. On Thursday she started having an upset stomach (I'll spare you the details) and then yesterday she seemed better. I didn't think too much of it. But then last night she woke me up every.single.hour to go out. I am not even kidding... I looked at the clock each time: 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3, 4... So I am tired to say the least. She spent the morning at the vet, and is now sleeping. She'll be fine, thank goodness! It's always so tough when they can't tell you what's wrong.

Anyway, I am probably just going to hand out candy tonight. Some friends of ours are having a party, but I didn't even think of what to be, and now I am just exhausted from not getting sleep, and then running around all day (I took advantage of the dog not being here and cleaned the house!)

Hope everyone has a great Halloween!! Can't wait to see pictures of the costumes :)

Nashville...

Garet and I headed to Nashville this weekend. It was a last minute decision, but we had so much fun!

It didn't start off as fun though...
Yep, that's my back tire. COMPLETELY flat! We debated: just ignore it, get in the other car and go... or suck it up and fix it now. We fixed it. I'm glad we did - I wouldn't have wanted to get home and had to fix it.

So, we finally got on the road - and when we got there, the sky was clear, sun was shinning, it was a beautiful day! We got all checked in - and when I looked out on our patio, they were setting up for a wedding! Can you tell?

We decided to walk around downtown for a bit. What a pretty town! I haven't been to Nashville since I was like 10. I took tons of pictures - I won't bore you with all of them :) Here are a few:

I had to do the backside shot!

Last year, for work, Garet had to go to Opry Mills for a conference. He kept calling me from the hotel telling me how BIG it was! He kept saying "It's like you're outside, but you're not!" I didn't get it. He wanted to show me what he was talking about, so we went by there - I get it now!

This place was HUGE!!! And it really felt like you were outside! We kept walking and walking, it never seemed to stop! It was beautiful too! The hotel was white, and the balconies were black iron. There were little shops and bars and restaurants everywhere too. Garet took me beside this one bar that was in a circle. When we got beside it he said, does it feel like you are moving? The whole bar rotated! It was very slow, I actually felt really dizzy. This waterfall was right beside it.

I can't believe how long I just went on and on about the hotel! I don't get out much :) I promise we did other stuff!

That night we went out. We walked around Broadway (the Honky Tonks) and 2nd (the Entertainment District). It was great! We heard lots and lots of live music! Not all of it was country, but most was! I looked for some boots - I really want some cowboy (girl?) boots! But I didn't see any I liked.

We had great weather - and such a good time! It is nice to just get out of town for a little bit!

Rise and Shine...

Another amazing sunrise!

It has been off and on raining this past week. The morning I took this ended up being a gorgeous day! Every time I see beautiful sunrises I think, Good Morning God. He sure does make a pretty picture :)

When doing my bible study a couple months ago, I came across this verse "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1Th 5:18) I feel like this applies so many times in life! It is so easy to be thankful for the good times. I try to always remember that God has a reason for everything, even if I don't get it at the time. Just thought I'd pass it along :)

Garet, Suzi and I are packing up and heading to Nashville in the morning! I am so excited!

Competition...

This past weekend the sun actually decided to come out! It has been raining and depressing for a couple weeks, so it was GREAT to see the sun! But.... it was freezing! I am not a fan! I enjoy the cooler weather after it being so hot and muggy, but really, I'm a summer girl. The good thing about the cold??? Fires!! (in the fireplace, of course).

Guess who else likes the fire?
Oh yes, Suzi and I compete every.single.year over who is going to sit closest to the fire. I lost this round. But that is ONLY because I was making dinner. After dinner, I went and laid down in front of it (Suzi must have been distracted) but when she noticed that I was in front of the fire - she came over and sat on my arm! Seriously. There was probably a few inches between me and the tile, and she squeezed her big self right in between. What a goober. Look at that face - so innocent :)

Dessert...

It has been so rainy and gross lately! I am really sick of it! It affects my moods: sunshine = happy, rain = sad.

So what's there to do on a rainy gross day? Bake!! Garet was actually into it too! (Dare I say, it was even his idea?!) I have been wanting to make this dessert for a long time now. Garet went to the store for a few supplies that we didn't have at the house - and I prepared everything else.

We decided to make an Apple Cake in an Iron Skillet. This is from The Pioneer Woman's website - which, by the way, if you have never been to, go now. She is hilarious, and her food always looks amazing! Anyway - so we totally tag-teamed this dessert! We had fun, we were laughing, we made a huge mess! It was a wonderful night!

The last step in the recipe is to put the skillet into the oven for 20-25 minutes. So I did. Then I decided I was going to jump in the shower and when I got out it should be almost finished. Garet started on the dishes. Well..... when I got out of the shower and opened the bathroom door I saw Garet opening our bedroom windows(???). Then I walked into the living room and could barely see! There was smoke EVERYWHERE!!

I started freaking out! But Garet said that the cake overflowed and dripped onto the bottom of the oven. No biggie - it just smoked up the house! So our poor cake was half-way done and the oven was "airing out". Poor Suzi was outside. She literally refused to come back in the house! After the oven had mostly cooled, we wiped out what we could of the stuff on the bottom of our oven, and decided, what the heck - let's stick the cake back in. We couldn't just throw it away :( not after all of our hard work...

It still smoked but not too bad. AND our dessert was actually really good! Even after all that! Here it is:

(Photo courtesy of The Pioneer Woman)

Well not really - ours wasn't this pretty. The picture I took didn't do it justice, so I just used the one off of Pioneer Woman's website.


What a night! At about 9:00 it seemed that the smoke and the smell were pretty much gone (or we had just got used to it). So we went to get Suzi from outside so we could lock up for the night. Poor dog was not having it! She would come to the door, put one paw inside, then run backwards. If you know our dog, you know she hates to be apart from us, so this was really unusual! We finally got her inside and just closed us all inside our bedroom for the night.

This morning everything is back to "normal" :)

It's been awhile...

I haven't posted lately... mainly because things have been pretty quiet around here. Last weekend Garet was out of town. He had to do something for work. Suzi and I had a nice weekend. I got to hang out with a friend that I haven't seen in a long time, I made chocolate chip cookies (and ate a lot of them!) and I made some bread. It is the BEST bread I've ever made! It was an Italian spice bread, and wow it was delish! (sorry no picture - we ate it too fast!)

This week has gone by pretty fast. It is cooling off, which is nice. One morning Garet left before me (this rarely happens!) and called me to tell me to come out and look at the sunrise.

It was so pretty how the fog was low on the ground.

We don't have any major plans this weekend. Garet has a camp going on that he has to check in on, but at least he doesn't have to stay overnight again! Too bad there is an 80% chance of rain tomorrow. Hopefully it won't rain on Sunday - I really want to replant some flowers at our mailbox! The one's I have there now just look pitiful!

Last night Suzi was playing with some of her toys. She gets obsessed with one toy and just runs and runs with it! Right now the toy is a red ball with legs.... yeah I know, weird right? This thing used to squeak but, of course, Suzi took care of that right away. Anyway she was still having a blast with it when we went to bed. This morning we found it...
right on top of Garet's shoes. How funny!