Tennessee, Day 2

We woke up day 2 in Nashville ready to see the sights! First stop.....Grand Ole Opry! We knew that the Grand Ole Opry House was closed for tours but we wanted to at least stop and see it from the outside.

We got a little bit lost trying to find the Grand Ole Opry House and ended up driving around The Gaylord Opryland about 5 times! This place was HUGE!


We were so excited to finally make it to the Grand 'Ole Opry House! We only wished we could have gone insde. But we couldn't have asked for better weather to walk around the outside of the building in. It was chilly but the air was crisp and the sun was bright!


Next Stop......The Ryman Auditorium!
On our way in, we saw the CMT building.


The Ryman Auditorium is such a beautiful building right smack dab in the middle of downtown Nashville! We didn't know it at the time, but we had walked right by it the night before.


This building has so much history. It was first built as The Union Gospel Tabernacle and it's first revival was held in 1890. The building was converted for The Grand 'Ole Opry starting in 1943 and continued until 1974 when the Grand 'Ole Opry moved to it's current location. It was restored again in 1994 and continues to host concerts to this day. Artists that have performed at The Ryman include: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, James Brown, Patsy Cline, Etta James, and Bob Dylan to name a few.

Statue dedicated to Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff


When I walked into the auditorium, I literally got chills!
Thinking about all the people who have stood on that stage took my breath away.



Exhibit featuring clothing worn by Minnie Pearl.


The Johnny Cash and June Carter Exhibit was my favorite!

I wanna love like Johnny and June
Rings of Fire burnin' with you
I wanna walk the line, walk the line
Until the end of time

I wanna love, love ya that much
Cash it all in, give it all up
And when you're gone, I wanna go too
Like Johnny and June

After touring the Ryman, we went to BB King's Blues Club for lunch before heading on to Gatlinburg.



When we got to Gatlinburg, we took a quick little tour of our cute little cabin.............



And then headed out to celebrate New Year's Eve!

We headed to downtown Gatlinburg to partake in the festivities.

But we were completely worn out so we decided to go back and bring in the new year in the comfort of the cabin.


It was an eventful day, ending in my PJ's with a glass of wine by the fire!
Can it get any better than that??

Tennessee, Day 1

Josh and I decided to take advantage of his break from school over the Christmas holiday and take a trip to Tennessee. We've been wanting to do a road trip to Tennessee for a few years. We've dreamed of renting a cabin in the smokey mountains and enjoying the peaceful views. We were soooo excited to finally get to go! We decided we wanted some company on the trip, so we invited Patrick and Jennifer. It was a blast having them with us to share in the fun!

First stop....Memphis, TN
We stopped in Memphis for lunch at THE NEELY'S BAR-B-QUE!!
I am a big fan of the Food Network, so it was awesome to get to stop at one of The Neely's restaurants.

The barbecue was amazing! Josh and I shared a sampler platter so that we could try each of the meats. I'm pretty sure we ate all of this!!


And I had to try a side of barbecue spaghetti and their homemade cole slaw.
It was delish!

It was such a cute little restaurant. You could tell we were not the only tourists there. I wonder if any of the locals eat there....


Next Stop......Nashville, TN!!!
We continued driving from Memphis on to Nashville and checked into our hotel for the night.
We decided to take a cab downtown to check out the nightlife!




The streets of downtown Nashville were beautiful!


Jennifer & Patrick, downtown Nashville
You can see the snow starting to fall!


First stop, Cadillac Ranch
We stopped in the Cadillac Ranch for some nachos and beer!



On our way to the Wildhorse Saloon



This place was all about the line dancing, which Jennifer & I loved! They had their own line dance instructor out on the dance floor teaching us the moves!


The wild horses running across the ceiling.


Josh and Patrick being silly



Prom Pic haha



We went to a bar called Tootsies


It was a popular spot.


A little too popular.....we had to leave cause it was too crowded.

This is Josh's "it's too crowded, get me outta here" face haha


Our next stop was my favorite! A place called The Stage


It was crowded too, but we stuck around for this one!


The band was awesome! They are called Raisin' Cain and they played everything from Johnny Cash to Eminem! If you request it - they will play it!


This guy sang a few songs too. His name is Lewis Copeland - you should check him out, he's pretty good! I though he looked like a little gnome haha


Jennifer getting a little "smoochie"!


We had an absolute blast at The Stage! Best night out that I've had in a long time. Maybe it was the awesome band? the Nashville environment? or the great company?
......I think it was all of the above!

Christmas 2009

This Christmas was a memorable one to say the least. We had a BLIZZARD Christmas Eve......that's right, a BLIZZARD!! Josh and I drove in to Chickasha Christmas Eve morning. The snow had started to fall but it wasn't too bad. By the time we got to Chickasha, the wind had really picked up and we had a feeling we might not be coming back home that night.

We celebrated Josh's birthday/Christmas Eve with mom, dad, Lesha, Billy, Me-Me and Allen. The weather was too bad for Nancy and Ethan & Ellis to make the drive from OKC.



Josh cooked his first fried turkey!

Mom had a birthday cake made for mine and Josh's birthday!



By the time we finished eating, the weather had really gotten bad! But, we had been looking forward to waking up at our first house together on Christmas morning, so we decided to make a go of it and try to get home........bad idea! We didn't make it too far before the car got stuck in a bank of snow. Josh and dad tried to dig us out....they dug for what seemed like forever in that awful snowy blizzard! And....we got nowhere!

We were really upset at first about not being able to be at our house on Christmas morning. We've always been at either my parents or Josh's mom's on Christmas morning - this was going to be the first time that we had a house of our own to wake up at.

But, it turned out to be a really good thing. I realized that this may be the last time that me and my sister would both wake up at our parents house Christmas morning. Lesha is getting married this summer and moving to Dallas and although Josh and I are only 20 minutes away, we have moved on and have a home of our own where we will be spending our future Christmas's together as our own family. I've had so many great memories of Christmas morning with mom, dad and Lesha and it was really special to add one last year to the memories.

The next morning, the wind and snow had died down enough for Josh and dad to try again to dig the car out. This time, they were successful!

When we got home, we had the most beautiful "White Christmas" scene you can imagine! It was so beautiful and just perfect!


The first thing we did was get bundled up and go out to play!

I attempted to make a snow man.
Rocky enjoyed the snow for a while, but he got too cold and had to go inside.


We made snow angels!

Josh's (above)
Mine (below)


Like I said, this was a Christmas to remember! It was a perfect day that will forever be embedded in my mind!

I'm Still Alive

I bet there are many readers out there worried about me.....hahaha! I haven't been able to blog in a while because our laptop decided to crash on us. Good news is - we got the laptop running again. Bad news is - I haven't gotten my camera software re-loaded yet. I have a ton of pictures and stories to share from Christmas and our trip to Tennessee, but that will have to wait.

But in the meantime...I have some great recipes to share! First up are PW's BBQ Meatballs. The first time I made these, I just used frozen meatballs and added the sauce. They were pretty good, but they are even better if you take the time to make the meatballs from scratch. The second time I made these was for our Tacky Christmas Party. I made them just as the recipe says, but then put them in the crock pot to keep warm. This worked okay, but I really should have used the frozen meatballs because the home-made ones are a little too loose to put in the crock pot...they started to fall apart a little bit. But the taste was still there! The third time I made them for Josh, myself and Lesha one night for dinner to go along with some Green Bean Bundles and Triple Layer Mud Pie (see recipes below). They were so, so, so, good! They are more like mini-meatloafs than your regular Italian style meatballs - they have more of a "comfort food" feel as PW says. Anyways.....see below for all 3 recipes, and try them soon!! I promise, you'll thank me!

BBQ Meatballs

Green Bean Bundles

Triple Layer Mud Pie

BBQ Meatballs

What You'll Need:

(for meatballs)
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
3/4 cups oats
1 cup milk
3 T finely minced onion
1 1/2 tsp salt
ground black pepper

(for cooking meatballs)
1 cup flour
canola oil

(for sauce)
1 cup ketchup
2 T sugar
3 T vinegar
2 T worcestershire
4 T finely minced onion
1 dash tabasaco

What You'll Do:

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all meatball ingredients. Roll into medium size balls and place on cookie sheet. Place sheet in freezer for 5 minutes. Remove meatballs from freezer and immediately dredge in unseasoned flour. Brown meatballs in canola oil until just brown. Place in baking dish. Combine all sauce ingredients. Pour over meatballs and bake @ 350 for 45 minutes.

Green Bean Bundles

What You'll Need:

2-3 cans whole green beans
1 lb bacon
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp garlic salt

What You'll Do:

Cut bacon in half. Wrap bacon around a bundle of green beans and secure with a toothpick. Place green bean bundles in oven proof dish. Melt butter over stove top. Add brown sugar and garlic salt. Pour glaze over beans. Bake @ 375 for 45 minutes.

Triple Layer Mud Pie

What You'll Need:

3 squares of Bakers semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted
1/4 cup canned sweetened condensed milk
1 oreo pie crust
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 cups cold milk
2 pkg (4 serving size) chocolate instant pudding
1 tub cool whip

What You'll Do:

Mix chocolate and condensed milk until blended. Pour into pie crust and sprinkle with pecans. Pour milk into large mixing bowl, add pudding mixes and beat with wire whisk for 2 minutes or until well blended (will be thick). Spoon 1 1/2 cups of pudding into pie crust. Add 1/2 of cool whip to remaining pudding, stir with whisk until blended. Spoon over pudding layer. Top with remaining cool whip. Refrigerate 3 hrs.