Me and Famous People

Remember when I mentioned that I would be going to Nashville with my friends soon?  Well, I did.  And boy oh boy, did we have a good time!!  Me and my group of friends all met years and years ago when I joined their private little playgroup when Maleah was a baby.  The group consists of Deb Duquaine, Kate Saulle (who moved to Jackson, TN a few years ago), Holly Emery (who moved to Colorado a few years ago), Leslie Warren (who couldn't make it on this trip), and myself.  Deb and I drove down.  Kate drove over and Holly flew in from Colorado to hang out with us.  Nashville is awesome and has really really good places to shop.  Malls, sales, and really big TJ Maxx's make me very happy.  Meeting famous people also makes me very happy.

Let's just have a little recap of the last two times we were all in Nashville together.  The time before last we met Gretchen Wilson and Cowboy Troy.  Last time we met Kellie Pickler and Jimmy Wayne.  And thisssssss time....  we met Little Jimmie Dickens, Roy Clark, Sarah Darling, Elizabeth Cook, Bobby Tomberlin, and some others.  We also were in the same small room with Riders in the Sky, Exile, and a bunch of other musicians.  There were no "big name" artists playing that night at the Grand Ole Opry but it was still awesome to see some classic artists and some up-and-coming artists.  It's pretty cool that Deb has the connections to get us in backstage.  A big thank you goes to Opry Dan, who was our host for the night!

Here are some pictures from the night:

Me and Little Jimmy Dickens.  I look like an Amazon

Woman next to him.  He is seriously not much bigger than

Maleah.  I loved LOVED his pink suit.  I told him that he

looked so handsome and he said "Thank you Ma'am" in a

 real quiet little voice.  He was very polite the whole

 time we talked to him.  Loved him!!!!

Holly and me with Elizabeth Cook.  She

has a show on XM Outlaw Country.

She is very good and very nice.

Me and Holly with Sarah Darling.  She has

several songs on the radio right now.  She

is super sweet, very talkative and

approachable, so pretty too. 

Holly and me with Roy Clark.  This guy

was so NICE!!!   He was a very genuine guy.

He was walking with a cane and sat in

a chair when he sang but he did great.

Me with Bobby Tomberlin.  You might

recognize him from The Singing Bee.  He sings

but he is mostly a songwriter and has written

several big hits.  He was so nice and wrote out

an autograph to Maleah that reads, "Maleah,

thanks for watching! Bobby Tomberlin" after I

told him that Maleah liked to watch the Singing Bee

with me.

Me hanging out in the Women's Dressing Room

backstage at the Opry.  This room was

recently in a scene of "Nashville," if you're

watching that show.

Little Jimmy signing a poster for Holly.

Holly, Kate, Deb, Opry Dan, and myself posing

as if we are in the opening scene of some

old soap opera that I had never heard of.

(I didn't tell them that though.)

We are in the Green Room of the Opry.

 

While we were in Nashville we did a lot of other fun things.  On Friday night we went to this really good Mexican restaurant that is one of our favorite restaurants in town.  It is called Cantina Laredo and is gourmet Mexican food.  They have the best guacamole that I have ever had there.  They make it at your table.  They bring the avacodos, salt, lime, tomatoes, etc to the side of your table and cut the avacodos open and start mixing everything into a wooden bowl.  Mmmm.  It is so good!  The restaurant is in this really trendy part of town called The Gulch.  Here is a online review of the restaurant that is right on:  http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/the-gulchs-newest-hot-spot-cantina-laredo-is-to-mexican-as-pf-changs-is-to-chinese/Content?oid=1201294   Another interesting fact about this place:  Taylor Swift lives in the condo highrise above this restaurant.

 

On Friday we also spent several hours in the biggest and best TJ Maxx ever.  On Saturday we ate breakfast at our favorite little bakery in town called Provence.  They have good bread.  Then we spent the whole afternoon shopping until we met Opry Dan at his house for appetizers before the Opry.  Then we did the Opry, stopped back by Dan's to visit and pick up our car.  Kate and I headed back to the hotel to get some sleep and we dropped Holly and Deb off downtown.  They stayed out a little later than what we wanted to.  It sounds like they had a great time dancing to some really good bands.  On Sunday we shopped some more and then had lunch at Buca di Beppos' Italian restaurant.

 

My favorite things about the whole weekend:  spending time with friends that I don't get to see as much as I would like, trying on clothes for hours and getting honest opinions on how I look, meeting famous people, the awesome new shoes I bought that finally make my feet not hurt (Danskos), knowing somebody laughed so hard they peed their pants (and, no, it wasn't me), the CoolSprings Galleria mall, the beautiful weather, coming home to a wonderful husband, three well-cared for kids, and a clean house.

 

My least favorite things about the whole weekend:  leaving Jason and the kids for that long (I really missed them!), and the fact that Onstar failed me the whole weekend when I really needed it.  I depend on that and apparently Nashville is a black hole in the world of Onstar.  Boo to Onstar!

 

Now in other news...  My cousin Andrea had her baby today!!!  I am so happy for her and her husband Dustin and for big brother Mason.  I know that she was sent from Heaven and given a hug from her big brother Bryce before she got here.  I'm sure he is smiling down on her now.  She is absolutely gorgeous.  I thought it was funny how small she seemed and she was 7 pounds, 3 ounces.  Compared to Silas Man, that is HUGE!  But she still seemed small.  As time passes you forget how small he was and I don't want to forget that.  Anyway, her name is Anna Lou Edgington and here is a pic of me holding her when she was just about three hours old.  I scrubbed my hands for two minutes and requested a gown from the nurse before I held her.  The nurse said I didn't need the gown but it made me feel better.  I try to always do unto others as I would have them do unto me (I don't always succeed but I TRY very hard to do that) and there is no way that I would let somebody hold my three-hour-old baby without scrubbing up (especially in cold and flu season.)  Now, if only everybody would do that maybe less babies would end up with RSV.  RSV can be just a simple cold in an adult but if that adult has those cold germs on them it can easily be transferred to the baby and turns into RSV in a baby - even full term infants are at risk for RSV.  Even if you feel fine, you should scrub up before you even touch an infant because that virus can live up to 12 hours on surfaces so if you just touched the bathroom doorknob (chair, handrail, etc) you could have picked up the virus and then when you hold the infant, you spread it.  Each year over 125,000 children are hospitalized with severe RSV and many die.  It seems as if most adults in Clay County are not educated about this and do not take handwashing seriously.  But I will now calmly step down from my soapbox and show you the picture of the beautiful Anna Lou!

 

 

Here are some other pictures from the last week or so:

 

This is Jason holding a very sleepy Silas tonight.

 

This is Silas wearing his camo cap.

Carissa showing me the house that she had just

built out of legos (her favorite toy).

 



 

Well, that's it folks.  It's after ten o'clock and I am going to bed.  Good night!  Oh wait, I forgot to mention that Silas has a tooth!  Okay, now I am done.