I'm thankful for...

The four wonderful days I got to spend in New York City with the Farmer family. This is a little taste of Day One...



We got in to NYC about 10:15 local time. Jemily (Jim and Emily) met us at the airport and escorted us to our hotel in Chelsea. Richard and Sharon went to bed as soon as we got to the hotel and Gregan (Grant and Megan) and Blake and I went to get a bite to eat. We got sandwiches and pizza at midnight in some random deli. Very New York. We slept in a little the next morning and walked to Grenwich Village and then had lunch at the World Famous Katz deli. It was quite delicious. We had a one of those waiters who told you what you wanted like, "You come all the way to NY and order chicken salad? You don't want chicken salad you want the pastrami. You're having pastrami." It was really funny. Probably only because he didn't tell me what to have. After lunch we walked through China Town (I didn't buy anything) and then headed back to the hotel to rest before dinner and the show. We had dinner at Rosie O'Grady's. The food was good but our server was terrible. I don't remember if he got a tip or not but he definitely shouldn't have. He was that bad. We then headed over to Jersey Boys and it was wonderful! I knew every single song and had to try really hard not to sing along. It wasn't "Wicked" but it was still great! After the show we had dessert at Roxy and then took pictures in Time Square. It was an exhausting first day but SUPER fun! I'll post pictures of our Thanksgiving Day activities later this week. I'm sure you're on pins and needles!!

Nashville '09

I was beyond happy to host my college friends for our Annual Girls Weekend... Nashville '09. I was so happy that they all wanted to and were able to make it for a long weekend. They came up Thursday night and left Sunday afternoon. Katie was gracious enough to let us borrow her Honda Pilot with the 3rd row of seats so we could all ride around town together. This is what our weekend consisted of... Rocking out to Miley Cyrus, staying up late, Grey's Anatomy, The Office, Sleeping late, breakfast casserole & biscuits, early morning Sonic runs, left overs for lunch, walking at Radnor, meeting a semi-creepy old man while walking at Radnor, going to the DLHS pep rally, seeing the Lipscomb Campus, Green Hills mall, the Hill Center in Green Hills, Tex Mex lasagna, sopapilla cheesecake, 3 hour dance party, walk around Caldwell Hall, seeing east Nashville, Bicentennial Mall, the Farmer's Market, t-shirt shopping downtown, Southern Bred for dinner, going to Otter Creek for Church, Five Guys Burgers and Fries...

We had a great weekend! I can't wait for Vegas '010. Yes, I know that looks weird, that's just what we've been calling it. Happy Thanksgiving! The WHOLE Farmer fam is leaving for NYC today at 6pm!! I'm so excited!!

Way Overdue...

It has bee WAY too long since I've blogged and I've neglected all the fun things we've done recently. Well, this post isn't recent at all but I've yet to blog about it.

Mom, Dad, Dwayne and Glenda came to Nashville the last weekend in September and we had a blast! We picked them up at the airport around 9 am Saturday morning and headed straight out to Loveless Cafe... it was delicious. It never seems to disappoint. We drove around Belle Meade, saw my classroom at Lipscomb, got half price drinks at Sonic, visited the Parthenon, ate Texas Caviar, went to the Wild Horse Saloon for dinner and {some} dancing, went to church, ate lunch at Southern Bred, shopped a little, and had a delicious dinner at Blake's parents' house. It was a wonderful weekend and I can't wait until they are able to visit again. It probably won't be very soon though. Both my parents and Dwayne and Glenda are expecting their first grandchild in February. Bevin and John are expecting a girl and Craig and Deidre are expecting a boy... Just two weeks apart. These two couples are best friends and I think their children might already be betrothed. :-) Hopefully I will manage to catch up on my blogging this week.

- For those of you who have asked about my dad, he's doing okay. He started chemotherapy and radiation today. He's doing three rounds of chemo and seven weeks (5 days a week) of radiation. I would appreciate prayers for Dad and Mom throughout the next several months. I did just get a text from my mom saying that Dad is doing okay today. Hopefully he won't be too sick throughout this whole process. Thank you for keeping him in your prayers.

Prayers

I've got a favor to ask. No... I don't ever blog during the school day, much less during chapel, but I've got a favor to ask. My dad is having surgery today at 2:30pm to remove a mass from his jaw. They will do a biopsy after it is removed. I'm humbly asking for your prayers. Please pray for a successful surgery, a speedy recovery and no bad news from the biopsy. Also, I try to be a big girl about these things buts it's bothering me that I can't be there with him and the rest of my family. Thank you for your prayers in advance.


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Once again...

I'm at play practice again with Maverick. For those of you who don't know, Maverick is "starring" as Sandy in David Lipscomb Middle School's production of Annie. He is only in two sceens (which is a good thing). Hopefully he will figure out what he is supposed to do by Friday (his first real performance). I'm mostly just excited that I will finally have a real, legitimate reason to take Mavy to school with me. Friday the cast is performing for the 4th and 5th graders and the show is at 1pm... Which means that Mavy will spend all day at school with me. I'm pretty pumped. The kids in the play love him and I'm sure the kids I have in class will be no different. I probably won't plan anything for Friday... We'll probably just have a play day with Maverick... Just kidding!!

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Finally...

YAY!!! I'm officially finished with Grad School.
(I've been unofficially finished since July 31)

First time for everything

For a time, I had a fantasy that Moriah and I would enjoy all sorts of outdoor activities together once we were married. Looking back now, I'm not sure what I was smoking.

I thought Moriah might want to go mountain biking, so I gave her one. Now I think how made she would be with me if I dragged her out to the trails. Then I thought, maybe a tandem bike. I could do most of the work and she could just go along for the ride. My pitch never seemed to get much traction. I could write an entire essay on my struggle to get Moriah interested in running. I purchased cute running gear, new shoes, iPods. Nothing worked.

I gave up a couple of years ago, and we're both the happier for it.

But this weekend, there was a first - a 20-hour overnight outing in the woods. I mentioned the idea of going camping over the weekend and was shocked to get a yes. Before she could back out, I locked in the deal. We drove up to Savage Gulf Friday night. We pitched the tent at the Savage Falls ranger station and started a fire for some S'mores. There's really no way to get Moriah near a campfire without involving chocolate. Saturday morning, we rose early and hit the trail for a five mile day hike to Savage Falls. Moriah is pictured here carefully stepping from rock to rock below the falls.

We were done by about 10:15, so we headed home.

Moriah was very concerned about bug bites before leaving. I told her to stop being a baby. In a twist of fate, I must have disturbed some friendly chiggers on my hunt for firewood. I have some crazy bites going on. I'm actually going to stop so I can spend some time scratching my ankles off.

-Blake