Gatlinburg Getaway!!

This weekend Tyler's parents came to visit and they took us on a mini weekend vacation to Gatlinburg, TN!! It was a wonderful treat for us and we had a great time shopping, eating yummy food and LOTS of candy and of course some good old road trip conversations! Here's a couple pictures from the weekend and I just realized we didn't take any with his parents, oops. We'll have to take some for sure next time they're in town :) THANK YOU again for coming and sharing this weekend with us, we had a LOT of fun!!! :)

A view from outside our hotel room...there was a even a little river behind the pool!

Tyler and I with the beautiful Fall trees behind us (and yes it was very COLD)!!

It even SNOWED Saturday night in the mountains surrounding us :)

Lifelong Learner

My husband has told me more than once the past few weeks that I need to find a new hobby or to take up an old one...just something to keep me busy and away from spending my day watching Cake Boss or John and Kate Plus 8 while applying for jobs. So I've decided I want to start doing a research project. I know this might sound kind of crazy but I really do miss the higher education world and the days and weeks spent in the library working on papers and looking at journals and studies. So I've been thinking about something to research or study and I think I might have found it! One of my graduate school professors posted this link today on facebook and I found it extremely interesting. I'm not sure where I'm going to go with it but I'm always looking for ways to connect my bachelors degree and masters degree and this topic might be something worth pursuing. The title of the article is The Case for Early Marriage: Amid our purity pledges and attempts to make chastity hip, we forgot to teach young Christians how to tie the knot. I'll let you read it for yourself and let me know what you think but I found the article to be very interesting so if you're bored tonight grab a cup of coffee and dig in...I promise it will make you think! The link for the article is: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/august/16.22.html

Wedding Quilt!!

So my Aunt Connie in California made Tyler and I a beautiful quilt for our wedding and it came in the mail this week. I love it so much and it even has our name stitched in it on one of the hearts :) Thank you Aunt Connie for our beautiful quilt and all of your hard work, it's very much appreciated!!

Fresh Veggies Anyone?!?

So Tyler decided to take a second internship at another studio in town to keep him busy and learning even more things. The new studio is called Sound Barn and a really nice guy owns it and it's in a small house behind his main house in Nashville. The guy records 100% analog meaning he records on tape instead of through Pro Tools (at least that's what I understand lol) which is a computer software program (I think). Up until the 90's everthing was recorded on tape but now for convenience and efficiency and other reasons most studios record digitally and very few record on tape. A reel of tape is like $400 and only holds like 3 songs so it's also cheaper to not use tape. But tape produces a unique sound so some engineers and artists prefer it over the new way. (Tyler if you're reading this and I got some of this wrong, I apologize. But I think I got most of it right lol) Anyway, Tyler was over there yesterday helping him record and when he left he gave him some fresh veggies from his garden, YUM!! He said the tomatoes are great for homemade salsa so now I'm on the hunt for a salsa recipe :)

A Little Change!

We rearranged our living room and Tyler's man cave! We have a farely large living room for an apartment and we originally had put both of our couches in when we moved in. But we thought it might be nice for Tyler to have some sitting room in his man cave so we decided to move the smaller couch in there and leave some room for a chair or something in the living room. So we moved everything around and here's what it looks like!

And yes that is a Coleman camping chair in the living room. Once I'm employed we hope to replace it with a real living room chair :)

Tyler's newest addition to the man cave...a comfy couch!!

Sound Stage Day 2!!

We went back to the studio on Saturday to add some vocal's to Jared's stuff. Here's some pics from the day!!

Tyler doing his thing

Say cheese...Tyler didn't want to :(
I don't think Jared was expecting me to come in lol

I decided I wanted a little bit of the action too!

I even got to sing! or just put the headphones on lol

Tyler and his beard

That's all she wrote :)

Sound Stage!!

So I got to go with Tyler to the studio tonight to watch him record his first live session at Sound Stage! He got to record a friend named Jared for a publishing company :) Here's a few pics from the night. They only tracked the instruments tonight and then they'll record vocals tomorrow but here's some pics so far!!

Outside the studio

The 900 Room

Inside the vocal booth

Jared's guitar ( I thought it was pretty)

The board...doesn't it look so simple?!?

Tyler recording and doing other stuff I don't understand

Talking and getting the guitar all tuned up

Chillin on the couch and catching up on my soaps :)

Gotta get the tempo right!

I'll post more pics tomorrow after they're done recording vocals!!

CakeSammy anyone?!?

Okay so here's the deal. It's no surprise to anyone that I want to open my own cupcake shop....BUT ... here's what I've been thinking. What about selling cupcake sandwiches? :) You know how everyone loves the top of a cupcake, well I'm thinking I just need to design a mold that makes just the tops of cupcakes. I could flip the top half so they are flat on the bottom and the top and call it a cakesammy lol Rachel Ray always calls sandwiches "sammies" so maybe it could work lol Anyway you could choose what flavor of frosting you want in the middle and even on top and even choose two different flavors of cake if you want to for the top and bottom.

My original design of "Cake N a Cup" is designed like a Coldstone where you choose your size and fixings so I'm kind of going off of that idea just with "cakesammies." LOL Choose your size, flavor, and frosting. Also, I've heard from tons of friends that some like a ton of frosting or maybe just a little, this way you can be in charge. You could add fresh strawberries in the middle or maybe some M&Ms! Or maybe you want your initials on the top or a smiley face :) Whatever makes you happy!

I'm still working on the idea but I really want to make it happen so we'll see where it goes! I've googled cupcake sandwiches and the idea is already out there but they aren't being sold yet so I guess I should hurry before someone steals my thunder LOL

Here's a pic of the basic idea..

Congratulations Blake and Katie!!

Two days after we moved into our new home we flew to TX for a week of wedding festivities!! Here's a few pics from the big day in San Antonio :)

Rehearsal dinner on the Riverwalk

Family Pic

Tiffany and the BEAUTIFUL bride!

The Groomsmen

Bridesmaids (LOVED their dresses)!

Family prayer during the ceremony

The beautiful cake and Blake's chocolate chip cookies lol

Goodbye FL ... Hello TN!!

Four days after graduation we packed up the moving van and headed to beautiful Nashville, TN! Tyler's dad stayed after graduation and helped us make the big move, we couldn't have done it without him!!

Our new home! (Well at least the leasing office lol)

Gotta love unloading everything!

Tyler's Graduation!

I'm back ... it's only been 5 months since I've updated LOL :)

So,Tyler graduated from Full Sail with perfect attendance and was the class Salutatorian!! Here's a couple pics from the day :)

Graduation was held at Hard Rock Live at Universal Studio's City Walk!

Me and Mr. Salutatorian!

All the fam that came to celebrate with us!!

We went to Disney and saw Blue Man Group too that weekend :)

The List

So everyone is doing this 25 Things About Me post so I figured I'd join in on the party!

1. I was always the oldest in my class because I repeated Kindergarten so I could have snacks and nap time for one more year.
2. I've been watching the Young and the Restless for at least 15 years if not more...I'm even named after Ashley Abbott on the show :)
3. My mom put cheerios in my crib in the morning to keep me quiet.
4. I sold cookies during college to support my Starbucks addiction.
5. I'm addicted to Diet Coke and will always choose water over Diet Pepsi unless I'm extremely desperate.
6. I've had night terrors since I was in fifth grade. So far I've jumped off the top of a bunk bed hitting my head on the tv my Freshman year of college, thrown a remote at my best friend Shelby my sophomore year, and most recently scared my husband to death twice in one night resulting in us watching Disney movies until the sun came up until I could fall back asleep.
7. My first job was selling knives.
8. I can only drive bare foot.
9. I love boysenberry syrup on my pancakes.
10. I don't know how to change a flat tire.
11. I had emergency gall bladder surgery my senior year of college.
12. I still sleep with a nightlight on.
13. I don't know how to light a match.
14. Baking always makes me smile.
15. I've always dreamed of working at an orphanage in Africa.
16. My father and brother are both adopted.
17. I have a minor obsession with cupcakes.
18. I have to sit down to put my makeup on.
19. I dyed my hair jet black my sophomore year of college.
20. I still watch VHS tapes.
21. I don't know anything about music, bands, or anything related to entertainment but I'm learning.
22. If I don't know the answer to something I usually just make something up, this has gotten me in trouble at times.
23. I'm ALWAYS late to everything.
24. My favorite colors are pink and red.
25. My favorite part of the day is waking up next to my husband.