From Haiti to the Balcony

A couple of weeks ago, Meaghan and I participated in a fund raiser run for a medical mission stationed in Haiti. It was called the 24-hour Tour d'Esprit. The premise of it is that teams have 24 runners who run in one hour blocks so that there is someone running around the clock. We ran together for the 10am hour and logged 6 miles for our team, the UT Medical Students. When it was all over, our team had logged 103 miles over the 24 hours.

That evening, after the run was over, we went to dinner and then went to the symphony. The title of the show was "Music as Muse" and was a compilation of music that inspired screenwriter Craig Brewer as he wrote his movies. If you don't know who Craig Brewer is, he is the writer and director of the films Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan as well as others and is a Memphis local. He was at the performance that evening and talked about how different classical pieces inspired different aspects of his films. The pieces ranged from the Overture from West Side Story to a few movements from Mozart's Requiem mass and a little bit of everything in between. It was a very enjoyable evening. Even Meaghan had a good time!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend where we were able to enjoy some local events in this city of ours. The End.

Sweet 26

Two weeks ago from today I turned twenty-six, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Maybe that's why I have put off this post. I was ok with twenty-four because I was still in my early twenties. When I hit twenty-five, it hit me that I was in my mid-twenties, which I was still ok with. I am twenty-six now, and I for some reason get depressed thinking about it. Maybe because my mother had me at twenty-six, and I always wanted to be a young mother. I just have to remember that Brandon and I are in a completely different situation than my parents were in at our age. Anyways, now that I am twenty-six, birthdays aren't like they once used to be. I don't look forward to them just to turn a year older and get gifts. I look forward to them to spend time with family and friends.

For my birthday dinner, Brandon took me to Pearl's Oyster House here in Memphis. Every year for my birthday, he makes me a strawberry shortcake, so we came home for dessert. Everything was really good, and we had a great time!

The next weekend we went home to celebrate with my family! It was so good to see everyone! Saturday night, we celebrated with my mom's side. We had Mexican for dinner and then mom made Paula Deen's banana pudding! On Sunday, we celebrated with my dad's side. He grilled lunch for everyone, and then we had banana splits! Can you tell I'm not your traditional birthday cake kind of gal? Thank you mom and dad for making my birthday weekend so special! I love you!

When I got to work on my birthday, I had this

birthday card waiting on me. Carter had worked

hard on it for me. He's so sweet!

Brandon got me a memory foam mattress pad

Strawberry Shortcake

Banana Pudding Birthday Cake

My sweet family

Opening gifts

On Saturday, Brandon and I were finally able to go over to my cousin Kelly's house and meet her adorable twins, Hutch and Anniston. We got to play with them for a few hours, and I got to catch up with Kelly! I just want to eat them up!!

The Lake House

Brandon and I spent this past weekend at a lake house on Watts Bar Lake with his family. We met Brandon's dad, his wife, and his brother, Brooks there. His uncle Jim, aunt Shannon, and two cousins, Anne and Hana were there as well. It was good to see everyone since we get to see many of them only once or twice a year. Brandon and I were happy to get away from Memphis and to have a weekend to relax. The weather was overcast and rainy the majority of the weekend, but it didn't stop us. We all went for a Lokey family run on Saturday morning. Once we got back we went out on the boat for a while and then the boys took the jet skis out. Saturday night we had a wonderful dinner and then we celebrated my birthday! To finish the night off we played a few rounds of Sardines, which in that house was SO much fun because there so were so many good hiding spots!!!! At times, I kept thinking, "Wow, we are nine adults playing Sardines...this is really funny!"....but we had an absolute blast. I think we played for about two hours!

On Sunday, we decided to take the jet skis one last time before heading home. When Bailey noticed that Brandon and I were both taking off together on one jet ski she ran down the dock and jumped in after us. We had to ride up to the dock and make her get out of the water. Bill had to hold her back so that we could ride off. She can't stand to be far from us. Then the worst thing ever happened, we rode off and then turned around to wait for the other jet ski and we flipped. I screamed, and Bailey saw us and jumped in, swimming about 30 yards out to us. Once she got out to us we were already back on the jet ski so we made her follow us back to the dock. I guess she thought she was going to save us. Now that is one loyal dog!!

Later on that day we headed home, and Bailey slept almost the entire six hours of the trip! She wore herself out! Brandon and I had a wonderful time relaxing and catching up with family!

The Lake House

View from boat

On the boat

Brooks and Me

Boys about to go jet skiing

Brandon and Bailey

Isn't he cute?

Brandon at play

Bagel and Bailey playing tug-of-war

Bailey saving Brooks from drowning

Blowing out 26 candles can make you lightheaded

Me and my hubby

Baby Askins

This past Friday our dear friends, Chris and Rebekah Askins, delivered a beautiful, healthy baby girl, Rylan Elizabeth. She weighed seven pounds eight ounces and was twenty one inches long. We are so happy for the two of them. We know they are going to be wonderful parents! Lucky for us, they are here in Memphis so we got to go visit them in the hospital yesterday!

Mommy and Rylan
That is one proud dad!

I got to hold her!

Getting ready to watch her first UT game!

Turkey Picture: First Turkey Baby

Who's next???

Labor Day Weekend in Knoxville

For Labor Day weekend, Brandon and I took a road trip to Knoxville to visit our friends Russ and Heather. We left as soon as I got off work on Friday and stopped in Nashville to drop Bailey off at my mom's house on the way through. We arrived, along with James, Elizabeth, Craig, and Anna around midnight Friday in Knoxville.

Saturday was a big day for me! We went to the first UT game of the season, which happened to be the first game coached by Lane Kiffin and my first UT game EVER! Now let me remind everyone that I am not a UT fan.....I went for the experience. And an experience it was! I could not believe how much orange there was. We got there in time for the Vol Walk and the band's salute to the hill. I got a great picture of Kiffin, whom I now have a crush on! Ha! The game was so much fun! We had awesome seats in the shade thanks to Keith and Katrina! UT beat Western Kentucky 63-7. After the game, we went to Sawyer's for a dinner of wonderful chicken fingers. Then for dessert, we went to Menchie's. Menchie's is an awesome frozen yogurt place where you get a cup and put whatever flavor of yogurt you want in it, and then there is a bar with tons of fruits, toppings, and sauces to put over the yogurt. Then your cup gets weighed, and the price is determined according to the weight. It was pretty cool! Once we were finished with our yogurt, we headed home for hours of Nerts! We stayed up until 2 am!

Sunday we decided to sleep in since we had stayed up so late the night before. We went to Soccer Taco for lunch. Then the girls decided to go shopping, so the guys did their own thing. When we met back up at the apartment, we played Nerts for a few more hours. Yes, we are a little addicted! The entire weekend, we had planned on going downtown for Boom's Day to watch the fireworks, but when the time came for us to start getting ready to go, we all decided to just go to dinner and then come back and watch it on tv. We went to dinner at Sam and Andy's which has delicious steamed sandwiches and then made stop number two at Menchie's! We ended the trip by watching fireworks on tv. Who watches fireworks on tv? Boy did we feel old! I think we were all pretty exhausted after such a fun-filled weekend!

Thank you Russ and Heather for being such fabulous hosts! We miss you both so much!!

Also thanks to my mom for keeping our Bailey girl over the weekend!