Happy Mother's Day!

We had such a wonderful weekend!! We had friends over on Saturday night for dinner and the new "Star Trek" movie, which is so completely amazing that I want to see it again! Chris has had Star Trek china for a long time and has been anxiously awaiting a new movie so that we could pull it out for a party! The table looked beautiful! I loved the candies Chris bought for the candy dish that matched exactly! It was a great evening! Bailey spent that night with Mom & Dad, so Chris and I slept in on Sunday and met them for church and lunch at The Creamery - very delicious!! Bailey & Chris showered me with gifts - beautiful flowers, a wonderful balloon, Barefoot Contessa cookbook, funny hoops & yoyo talking card, and a cool cookie cutter set. I am a very blessed girl!! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, too!

UT Vet School Open House

Our trip to the UT Vet School today for the annual Open House was amazing! I expected to see some horses and dogs, maybe a cat or two, but what we saw truly exceeded all our expectations! The most amazing (and unsettling!) area was the anatomy room, a huge room filled with all kinds of animal body parts. I have always been squeamish around this sort of stuff, but I was trying really to be the "cool" mom - it didn't really work! I didn't touch anything and you could hear my upset stomach rumbling when we saw the two-headed calf, the many hearts and intestines, paws of varying shapes and sizes, and miscellaneous other internal organs! Bailey was very interested, though, and I pray she is never as squeamish as I am!!

My favorite animals were the dogs and the two giant bunnies we saw. There were also eagles and hawks (impressive!); parrots and cockatoos; a pile of baby possums; three adoptable ferrets (right . . .); and a lion. Oh, yes, you read correctly, a sick and sedated lion rode by us on his way to have several tests run. Apparently, there is something wrong with his brain. We weren't there long enough to get an update on him but, suffice it to say, that it was more than amazing to watch this giant animal be wheeled by on a gurney. We hope he's OK! It was a beautiful day and we had a blast at the vet school. Perhaps Bailey will go on to be a veterinarian . . . :o)

Happy Easter Bunnies!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We took flowers to church to put on the cross outside - so beautiful! The service was very meaningful, especially the music, which is always my favorite part. The choir sang "The Hallelujah Chorus" and it was so amazing! After church, the butterflies that had been "sleeping" in their chrysalises emerged and were released. One flew directly to Bailey's hand and stayed there till she passed it on to a friend. We enjoyed a delicious lunch with my mom and dad at The Bonefish Grill and then drove my Crescent Bend to take a few more pictures with the beautiful tulips there. We ended the day with a bike ride and many more beautiful tulips. It was a wonderful day! Happy Easter!!

Vera Bradley Heaven!

Where do I begin? I took a little solo road trip last week that was so much fun! It all started with a little e-mail from Vera Bradley that Patricia Miller (VB co-founder) was going to be at the Phipps Plaza Vera Bradley store in Atlanta to introduce the new spring patterns. Immediately, I wanted to go, but was a little uncertain about going alone. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got and by the time I finally made my hotel reservation on Tuesday afternoon, I was completely pumped! I totally lucked out and got a room at the 4-star Intercontinental Hotel through Hotwire at an amazing price and was blown away by how luxurious my room was. As you can imagine, there was quite a crowd at the store, and it was such a beautiful store - so colorful and bright and happy!

I ate some delicious meals while in Hotlanta! You can't beat the fried macaroni and cheese at The Cheesecake Factory - and that Tiramisu Cheesecake was almost too good for words! The Flying Biscuit is another great restaurant that serves giant biscuits and Creamy Dreamy Grits (and they are!!), and The Horseradish Grill had scrumptious shrimp & grits and biscuits with honey/walnut butter (I think the butter was better than the biscuit!).

If you've never been to Phipps Plaza, it is a shopping wonderland! If I had had a lot of money, I could have done some serious damage - Tiffany, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom's (where I gracefully sprayed very expensive perfume in my face!), and so many other high-end stores - and a $222,000 convertible Bentley that was too gorgeous not to photograph!

I even went to the World of Coke Museum! It is one of the most fun places - what could be better than a place where you can drink all the Coke you can handle? I was literally sloshing when I left!! My favorites were Fanta Pineapple and Birch Beer. After tasting Tab, I can't believe I ever loved that drink - it is so flat! I had a great little getaway, but I'm so glad to be home with my sweet family once again!!

Spring Swing!

We had a couple of warm days over Spring Break and Bailey couldn't wait to play on her rope swing! So I took advantage of the lovely day and sat outside with her, taking pictures. It was so much fun! She loves to pose and play and just be a kid, and I love to photograph the whole thing! I took at least 50 pics of her and am now in the process of choosing the best 5-7 for her scrapbook. Our flower bed is doing well, too! We've had some very cold nights, but those little blossoms seem to be surviving. I hope we have a mass of blooms like we had a couple of years ago. All of the bulbs in that bed are from our trip to Holland several years ago, and they are a lovely reminder of a wonderful adventure! With only nine more weeks of school left, we are looking forward to many more nice days outside this summer! Have a blessed week!!

Bailey made a spectacle of herself!

For whatever reason, Bailey has recently been OBSESSED with getting glasses!! She has had a little trouble seeing her guitar music but, other than that, she hasn't had any real vision problems. But she talked about it so much that we decided it would be better to be safe than sorry so I took her to my eye doctor. She did great! It was funny to watch her try to hold on to any piece of equipment they used to check her eyes like she was on a ride. I didn't take any pictures of that because I didn't want them to think I was crazy ;) After a thorough exam, the doctor concluded that she probably didn't NEED glasses, but since she had been complaining a little about her eyesight, it wouldn't hurt her to wear them. SHE WAS ECSTATIC!!! I hope the novelty doesn't wear off too soon because, those of you who wear glasses or contacts can back me up on this, glasses get to be a pain after awhile!! She loves the purple metal ones she picked out, though, and she's been wearing them faithfully for almost a week. She swears she can tell a major difference but, when I looked through them, I couldn't tell that they were magnified at all!! I guess little eyes need less magnification to make a difference ;) Have a great day!!

Annie Sing-Along

Last Sunday afternoon, Bailey & I went to the Tennessee Theater to see the movie, "Annie." We knew that there was going to be a costume parade and since we LOVE that kind of thing :) Mom & I came up with a orphan costume for Bailey at the very last minute! Her pediatrician, Dr. Stanley, was Daddy Warbucks, and the GIANT dog was a hit! Before the movie, Dr. Bill Snyder played The Mighty Wurlitzer and then Bailey marched in the little parade. She didn't win, but she had fun just the same! We had seen the play in Knoxville last year and, while the play is a million times better than the movie, we still had a fantastic time!! And Bailey's picture was in the paper the next day with a group of other kids in costumes - we were so excited!!!