Nashville

I know that it's Thursday and a new weekend is upon us, but I said I would write about our time in Nashville and I intend to keep my word. It was a quick weekend, but really fun to be with my family and to see my brother's new house. One of the highlights included a night out at some of the quintessential Nashville tourist bars Tootsie and The Stage. We had intended to go to see some bluegrass band playing at some little bar, but discovered it was sold out. Perhaps the 100 cars parked around a tiny, tiny building should have indicated that we weren't going to get in. And I have to say I am not so sure I was saddened by missing out on the bluegrass. No offense to bluegrass music, I'm just not sure that's my thing.

We had fun listening to some live music and just taking in the whole scene. Honestly the best part of the night for me was just leaving the house with Haven sound asleep and not having to worry about her for a few hours. Two weeks in a hotel with no break were definitely wearing me down. (And let me just tell you that we had a very long drive to Nashville with some little girl not feeling well and screaming intermittently as she tried to work things out. She also puked all over Cale at dinner time and I do mean ALL over. So it had been a really long, stinky day!)

Saturday we were supposed to sleep in because my wonderful mom had Haven sleeping in her room. But I was awake at 7am and ready to go. So what did I do? Got online and paid bills and caught up on my blog reading. Despite the early hour it was delightful because I didn't have anything else I had to be doing. We had planned on going to Opryland for the afternoon, but my brother heard that there was some sort of convention there and that it involved lots of kids and we decided to pass. Instead we went to downtown Franklin and went to a little place called HRH Dumplins for lunch. Rolls the size of your face with honey butter and some fruit tea. Deeeelicious. We all walked out of there stuffed.

We hung out in the afternoon and then went and checked out where my brother is working and learned all about the real estate market in the greater Nashville area. Because Sunday was going to busy with church and flights to catch, we decided to have our "Easter dinner" on Saturday night. My brother insisted that he was going to do all the cooking and wanted the rest of us to relax. Well, I guess my 10th trip into the kitchen to ask what I could do to help finally set him over the edge. It just so happened that he picked a chicken recipe that I have made before and he hadn't so I was full of all sorts of advice about it. I ended up fixing the chicken in it's entirety while Steve busied himself with all the sides including his famous stuffing with sausage, pears and hazelnuts. Since I hadn't cooked a thing in two weeks, I really didn't mind a bit and they have a beautiful kitchen to work in so it was a treat. We had a fabulous meal and once again stuffed ourselves.

We woke up Sunday to a gorgeous blue sky and biting cold wind. No sweet pictures of Haven out in the yard with her Easter basket and cute little sleeveless dress. Bundled up in blankets and with her winter hat on is more like it! We went to church and Haven got to ride around in a Bye-Bye Buggy which is something I have never seen before. She seemed to like it, but was a mess by the time church was over. The hour off, a missed nap and heading towards lunch = disaster for the poor nursery workers. My niece and nephew ended up not singing at church which was a bummer, but we were treated to a private concert at home while we ate lunch. You can't beat that. The B-i-b-l-e! Yes, that's the book for me! Does anyone know the song I am talking about??!

That's about it. This post seems kinda silly four days later, but this was our weekend. It has been a crazy week with a lot going on and maybe I will get around to writing about all of the good stuff that is now sometime soon!