The Tomahawk Chop

Ryan and I headed in different directions this weekend. He went to Clay's bachelor party in New Orleans and it sounds like they had an absolute blast! I don't have any pictures from the trip, because as Clay would say "no evidence". :)

I spent the weekend with my bestests in Atlanta! Parker and I road tripped it down after work on Friday and made it just in time to head to Peachtree Tavern to see TROTLINE and reminisce of college days! We had sooo much fun!! Oh, and how could I forget the late late night at Hole in the Wall.

After sleeping in Saturday morning we finally got dressed and ready to go the the Braves vs. Red Sox game! Braves weekend in Atlanta is an annual event and one of my favorites! But first we went to Kristin, Allie, and Lucy's house for a little pre-game BBQ! And as I have mentioned in my posts before, we had hotdog's from the Hill's! Their house is SOO CUTE and it was nice to sit around and catch up with everyone before the game.

Then it was off to Turner Field! Like usual, we spent the majority of the game at the Chop House and then moved to our seats to watch the last inning. We waved our Braves flags are hard as we could but the Braves just couldn't prevail. The Red Sox won 1-0. But that did not take away from the fun we had all day!

Afterward, half the group hopped into cabs, but as the crowds got heavier and heavier we decided to give up on the cabs and take the Marta. When we got to the corner where Marta shuttles pick up fans we decided it was waaay too crowded to wait, so we got the bright idea to WALK to the next Marta station. That's right, we walked from Turner Field to The Underground. Although I really enjoyed the walking tour of ATL, after a long day at the baseball field I could have done without the walking part... it was about 2 miles! Why that was a good idea at the time, I will never know! Then we got off at the Lindbergh stop it was POURING down rain! We tried to wait it out, but then went for it and ran a few more blocks to arrive at Taco Mac soaking wet! At least it cooled us off after our long walk !

All in all I had such a blast this weekend and I miss all my girls soo much! Thank you SB and Peacock for letting me crash all weekend! Can't wait until our next reunion!

Peachtree Tavern singing along with Trotline

Together Again!!

Bestest

Miss you ladies!

Best Friends!

Bella!! I can't believe she is 6 years old! I knew her as a pup :)

Chop House

Waiting for everyone to get to the Chop House

Rivers and our twin sunglasses

William Harp came!

Yuum, margaritas!

LOVE LOVE these girls!

Brooke and Taylor

Just like old times

Me and Sarah Beth

Having so much fun with our flags!

The "walking" group
See the Capitol building with the gold top? That's where we're headed!
Still walking...
Still walking...
At the Capitol!
Finally at the Capitol... then decide to walk to The Underground...Tay is excited to get to the subway!

After our 2 mile tour of ATL
When we arrive at Lindbergh it was POURING down rain.
Rain rain go away!Waiting for the rain to stop.

Soaked because we didn't want to wait any longer.
Peacock is mad because we're all wet!

The Carnton House... a little history for you!

This past weekend my parents came to Nashville to celebrate Father’s Day. Saturday morning we made our way to Franklin, TN to tour the Carnton Plantation. During the tour we were told the story of how the Battle of Franklin in 1864 (during the Civil War) impacted and changed the lives of the McGavock family. The McGavock’s home was used as a hospital for hurt soldiers during and after this battle. They created and maintained a cemetery on the plantation for each fallen soldier and kept a book that listed nearly all 1500 of them by name, only 300 are unidentified. Today, the McGavock Confederate Cemetery is a lasting memorial honoring those fallen soldiers and the Battle of Franklin. It is the largest privately owned military cemetery in the nation. My mom read the book that tells the McGavock story called, The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks, so it was even more interesting to her since she knew all about the family.

Afterward we ate lunch right in the heart of historic downtown Franklin at H.R.H. Dumplin’s. They had a small menu including sandwiches, salads, casseroles, etc. And the bread is homemade and let me just tell you it was delicious! We sat in the front window and enjoyed the views of Main Street.

After we filled up on good food we went antiquing! Franklin actually has an "antique district"! Who knew they had so many! My favorite store was a place called P.D.’s (not to be mistaken with Petey's :)) If you haven’t been you should go! They have really great things and not bad prices! I will definitely be back once Ryan and I have a house to fill up! I came out pretty good for the day (from a budget perspective) and only bought one vase for our bedroom. I loved it the minute I saw it and had to have it… luckily Ryan liked it too :). All in all, it was a great day with the folks. Thanks for coming up to visit! Hope you had a great Father's Day!

The Carnton House

Beautiful gardens on the premises

A quick snapshot before the tour

There were hundreds of tiger lily's- a family favorite!

Roaming the gardens

They have lots of wedding here if anyone is interested!

The McGavock's home built in 1826

There were many small buildings along the property

New York Times bestseller

The McGavock’s answered every single letter that was written to them by family and friends of missing soldiers letting them know if they were buried there or not.

Taking break in the shade... it was hot!

Mom and Dad
The cemetery was divided up by state so family and friends of the soldiers could better located their loved ones.
The family cemetery is right beside the Confederates.
At H.R.H. Dumplins
Yum!

Going Green... or Purple

Last weekend while in Huntsville, my Dad cleaned up the 'ol bike for me to take back to Nashville. We put some new road tires on it and I was on my way... to work. That's right, I'm riding my bike to work this summer. DOF has casual summers from Memorial Day to Labor Day, so we can wear jeans or whatever we want. I won't be continuing this when we change back to business casual, of course, but for now, I thought it would be a good time to be eco-friendly and get a little exercise too! I live about 0.8 miles from work and today was my first day of riding! It was not as easy as I thought since it's up hill, but that just makes me look forward to the ride home... coasting. I also have to be very conscious of the weather... I would HATE to be caught in the rain! Although my work friends, who are very amused that I'm riding my bike, say they'll take me home if it's raining. And to top it off since there is not a bike rack outside our building I'm taking it all the way up to the 8th floor with me!

Ways YOU can help the environment by Going Green:

This is from an article about Mayor Karl Dean’s Green Pledge. He is asking Nashvillians to take a five-step pledge to help the environment by saving electricity and water and cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions. See if you can fit even just a few into your lifestyle... they're really not that hard!

The Green Pledge includes five simple things:

ENERGY
I PLEDGE to replace 4 light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs.
I CAN eliminate 1 ton of carbon dioxide emissions over the life of the CFLs.
TOGETHER all Nashvillians can save enough kilowatt-hours to power 5,260 households.

WATER
I PLEDGE to turn off the water when brushing my teeth.
I CAN save 3.8 gallons of water a day.
TOGETHER all Nashvillians can conserve enough water in a year to fill L.P. Field four times.

AIR
I PLEDGE to replace at least one car trip a week with walking, bicycling, carpooling or public transit.
I CAN decrease carbon dioxide emissions by 1,000 pounds.
TOGETHER all Nashvillians can eliminate more than 290,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent to removing 5,800 cars from the road every year.

LAND
I PLEDGE to plant and care for at least one tree this year.
I CAN save at least 13 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually.
TOGETHER all Nashvillians can eliminate as much carbon dioxide as the trees on 4,652 acres of undeveloped land every year.

WASTE
I PLEDGE to reduce my use of plastic shopping bags, by substituting reusable bags instead.
I CAN save up to 208 plastic bags a year from being made.
TOGETHER all Nashvillians can eliminate 120,400,000 plastic bags and 2,257,000 pounds of waste every year.

What a difference we can make! Good luck everyone! I hope some of you will accept the challenge!