It's In the Air!!!

Well, it's that time of year again - and I can hardly wait......

FOOTBALL SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!!

It signifies that it should (hopefully) start cooling off. Tailgating with friends. Screaming WAR EAGLE and people get it. Waking up early to watch sports (not normal for me). Kirk Herbstreit. Auburn vs Tennessee in Auburn (true test of mine and Brad's marriage...hehe)!

I can hardly wait - good luck to all your teams...and a huge WAR EAGLE to each of you!

Addition to the calendar

Brad got his feelings hurt that I did not put his birthday weekend on the schedule below, so I am dedicating an entire post to state that Sept 19 is Brad's birthday - that means one more year until the big 3 - 0!!!!

Busy, busy, busy...

Well, I know I did this for the summer, but I was just thinking about our fall, and it looks like the weekends are already filling up! Here we go....

August 16-17: I have to work on Sat
August 23-24: We will be returning from Phoenix that Sunday
August 30-31: I think I am babysitting that Sat night
Sept 6-7:
Sept 13-14: Houseboat weekend with the Fetrows & Collins crews
Sept 20-21:
Sept 27-28: Auburn - UT game in Auburn (we will definitely be there)...WAR EAGLE!!
Oct 4-5: Auburn-Vandy game at Vandy (we will be there too)
Oct 11-12: I have to work that weekend
Oct 18-19:
Oct 25-26: Possibly going to Knoxville for UT-Alabama game
Nov 1-2: Knoxville for Jonathan & Melinda's wedding
Nov 8-9: Returning from Ohio from a work trip
Nov 15-16: weekend before my birthday :)
Nov 22-23: UT at Vandy (we will be there)
Nov 29-30: weekend after Thanksgiving...possibly coming back from NC?
Dec 6-7:
Dec 13-14: I have to work that Saturday
Dec 20-21:
Dec 27-28:

Good grief...that makes me tired just looking at our schedule!! Hopefully somewhere in there we will find some time for some rest & relaxation! Not too much longer until football season is up and running...I can hardly wait (or at least I say that now...)!!!

Pictures from Kara's Shower, K & Dallas' Wedding Weekend, & Anna's Return to School Party

Here are some pictures from Kara's baby shower, Katherine & Dallas' wedding, and Anna's surprise get together to celebrate her going back to school! Enjoy!

Title Change

Can you figure out the importance of the title of the blog now? Let me know if you can figure it out!!

Happy Monday, y'all!!!

Time for an Update & Change!

Well, I decided that the blog looked way too boring, so it was time for a little updating! We have been keeping really busy with work and hanging out with friends. The latest drama is our A/C in our house going out - what a pain. Though home warranties are wonderful, what good do they do if they company they assign you never answers there phone or calls to set up a time? Oh well...we leave tomorrow for Charleston, SC for K & Dallas' wedding - I can hardly wait. I have always wanted to go to SC!!!
This past weekend, I hosted Kara's baby shower at my house. It was oh so fun. She got some unbelievably cute things - onesies, pacifiers, bottles, blankets....so cute and little! It was also good to see some friends from high school. Here is a picture of the FRA gals and then a picture of me and my mom. We have the hardest time getting a picture together where she actually has her eyes open!!!

Nothing else really new to report. I am getting excited about the end of summer and beginning of fall...football season!! There is big group of folks going to Auburn for the UT-Auburn game...I can hardly wait!!! WAR EAGLE! And prior to that, we are renting a houseboat for a weekend with some friends - how thrilling! Should be an adventure for sure...

Pictures from Europe!

Here is just a small sampling of pictures from when we went to Europe. I had to pick just a few since I took over 1200 pictures :) I think one of my favorites is the last one - when the Eiffel Tower was sparkling at night...somehow, on a certain setting on my camera, it caught all the sparkles...love it! What a wonderful trip...now if I can just make myself sit down and make a photo book...

Gas prices & other stuff....

I can hardly believe that gas prices have hit $4/gallon! I know last week it cost me roughly $65 to fill up my car...ridiculous. Today I started riding a VanPool of Vandy employees that are from the Spring Hill/Thompsons Station area. It is amazing the money we will save if I continue with it - for June, it cost me like $3.75 for the whole month. That is THRILLING! The downside to this arrangement is that the van leaves the Krogers at 6:00am sharp. And it does not leave Vandy until 4:15. Talk about a long day. I am reminded today how much an extra hour of sleep is worth. It is 2:00pm and I am drinking coffee to be able to make it the rest of the day. And I won't necessarily ride that EVERY day, like if I have meetings that I have to drive to and everything, but good grief I wish I had looked into this earlier. 64 miles a day roundtrip to work gets rather old! At least I can jump on the van and just zone out until I get dropped off at my office - all I need is a good book and my iPod and I am set!

Sidenote...I have a lot of pictures I plan to post here sometime this week. So be looking for some Europe pics (finally...I know....sorry!), pics from Cat's showers & bachelorette party, and pics from the Gatlinburg weekend for Jonathan and Melinda...crazy fun! Hooray for summer....sunshine and fun times with friends!

Busy Summer

I was just looking at my planner and realized that this summer is already shaping up to be equally as busy as the ones in the past....between weddings and work and all that, should be exciting...

May 31/June 1: Cat's shower/bachelorette activities
June 7-8: Gatlinburg for Melinda & Jonathan's weekend
June 14-15: I have to work that Sat.
June 21-22: Cat & Tyler's wedding
June 28-29: Couples party for Dallas & Katherine
July 5-6: Travel somewhere for the 4th...maybe?
July 12-13:
July 19-20: I have to work that Sat.
July 26-27:
Aug 2-3: Kara's baby shower is that Sun.
Aug 9-10: Dallas & Katherine's wedding weekend in SC
Aug 16-17: I have to work that Sat
Aug 23-24:
Aug 30-31:

Something else I also need to do is organize my Europe pictures. This is something I had all intentions of doing this past weekend, especially since it was a long weekend, but I just never got around to it. Guess I need to put that at the top of my list of things to do so I don't forget all of the neat places we saw. I also need to make a photo book online - should be thrilling :)

Let the laundry begin!

I just wanted to write a quick note saying we made it home safely!! Our alarm went off at 4:15 AM in Paris. Our flight left at 9:20 AM and we arrived home in Nashville at 3:00 this afternoon. Needless to say, we are pooped! We have already done 2 loads of laundry and picked Sadie up from Pooch Playhouse (she was SO excited!) and got somewhat settled in. I think I will wait and write about Paris tomorrow when I can put together a complete thought.

Sidenote, we brought back 6 bottles of wine and a bottle of olive oil. The sad news is that 3 of the bottles of wine and the bottle of olive oil broke in the bag and ruined some of Brad's shirts in the process. I guess the upside to that is that 3 of the bottles survived :) And with out luck with luggage, we are just happy our bags made it home! On one of our recent trips, our bags did not make it back with us!! Hooray for Nashville :)

French Riviera

...and having a ball!! We are in Nice right now - and have been for about 3 days or so. We LOVE it!! A new kind of cuisine was definitely welcome...and being on the beach is a definite plus as well! We also had ZERO tours scheduled when we arrived, so we were able to sleep late and fly by the seat of our pants. We did do a 4 hour van tour with a number of stops and opportunities to take pictures - that was great. We got to see a lot of places we would not have seen otherwise - lots of great views with lots of great pictures! The food has been wonderful....I am a big fan of the Nutella Crepes (chocolate of course) - Brad continues to make fun of me because I have had chocolate at least once every single day of our trip. LOVE IT! The croissants have been great - we will both be doing Weight Watchers upon our return!! Oh well, at least we are enjoying things here! My mosquito bites are MUCH better - thank goodness for the Zyrtec and cortisone cream from the drug store!!!!

Tonight we are heading to Paris on another night train. On the night train to here, we had our own car with bunk beds. On this one tonight, we have reclining seats and that is it - I guess we will see how much sleep we actually get! Tomorrow night we are doing a bike tour of Paris which includes ice cream (yum!) and a ride on the Seine River - should be exciting!

Things we have learned that we definitely take for granted: availability of clean & free public bathrooms, air conditioning, lotion in hotel rooms, light food, good service at restaurants (we have had good service MOST places), dependable luggage (my two straps broke already - both in the same place - Brad had to rig them to be able to have straps to wear my pack on my back)....AND WE MISS SADIE!!!! (and family and friends, too, of course! hehe)

Not too much longer til we are home and able to sleep in air conditioning and in our own bed! On to Paris for now though....au revoir!

Mosquitos!!!!!!

Well today is our last day in Florence - it is great. We did our afternoon tour yesterday, which included a visit to the Uffizi Gallery. Lots of wonderful artwork - we did not know what to expect, which is kind of a nice way to go into those type of experiences. Our guide was amazingly knowledgeable, but good grief she was zany! She was yelling at kids to hush up and at people who were taking pictures when they were not allowed...I thoroughly enjoyed it because she was willing to say what I was thinking :) Aggressive Italians...love it. Then we had a FANTASTIC dinner - we were starving and ate pretty much everything in sight. Not to worry - I still had room for gelato though!!

Since the hotel has not turned on the AC, we had to have the windows open, which means...MOSQUITOS. I have an enormous bite on my right hand on top - from my knuckles to my wrist, and it is way swollen!! We are about to head to the pharmacy to get some itch cream.

Today we are going on a tour of the Tuscany region which includes Chianti tour and wine tasting. Should be exciting and so pretty too. Then we are taking a night train to Nice, which leaves around 11:25 tonight and arrives around 8:30 tomorrow morning. We do not have anything scheduled in Nice, so we are kind of excited about that. Maybe a day trip to Cannes? Who knows!

I will try and post again in the next few days - this free internet has been great! Happy Thursday!!

I think I forgot a day...

I forgot to mention that while we were in Rome, we took a day trip to Naples & Pompeii and saw Mt. Vesuvius. It was really neat to see all of the remains that have been found. We were talking about how it was amazing that we could come back even a year from now and see different things because they are constantly excavating parts of it. Naples was a lot bigger than we both had imagined - maybe one day we will go there because it is absolutely gorgeous!

Today we are finishing our tour through Florence (the afternoon part that we had to miss yesterday because of changing hotels). Should be exciting! We have been so lucky to have good weather, especially here in Italy. Clear blue skies and warm!

Take care! XOXO

Oh the excitement...

Well we are in Florence (Firenze) now...SO pretty. It is just so much more layed back and not AS touristy...the people are better looking too :) Well I guess a quick update is in order - Venice was so pretty but we were not too impressed. We were definitely glad to get out of there - it takes forever to get somewhere since it is all by boat. We did have some awesome food while we were there at a little hole in the wall kinda place that was recommended by the hotel staff. After there we went to Rome which was absolutely wonderful. The hotel was so nice and we had the taxi ride of a lifetime. I guess the traffic laws are just suggestions there! But we did make it it one piece to our hotel and then figured out the subway after that so we could get from Point A to Point B for 2 Euro instead of 25. We saw some amazing sites while we were there: Vatican Museums, Vatican Gardens, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, Colisseum, the Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain (which we could see from our hotel while eating breakfast - only like 10 steps away!), Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, Pantheon (massive!), and so much more! Yesterday we had some free time to walk around and do our own thing before the train left, so that was nice. The people in Rome were friendly and it was just a great time.

Yesterday we came to Florence, which has a wide array of landscapes. It ranges from countryside resembling what you would imagine Tuscany to look like (grapes, grass, hills, etc) to crowded city streets. Last night I was craving American cuisine, so I had a cheeseburger and fries - probably the best cheeseburger I have ever had!!! When we got here, we learned that our hotel had overbooked and they sent us to a different hotel which SUCKED! We had to figure all of that out and tonight we are at a much better hotel. We were supposed to do a full-day tour today, but we had to reschedule the afternoon portion so that we could switch hotels. We did see Michaelangelo's "David" --- it really is as amazing as you would think. It is about 2 to 3 times human size and it is truely a masterpiece. We also went to Michaelangelo's Square and got a panoramic view of Florence (great pictures) filled with church domes and orange shingled roofs. Tomorrow we will do the afternoon portion of the tour and Thursday we will visit the Chianti region and do a wine tour (tastings included, of course).

We are having a blast and going through pictures daily so that we have enough room on the memory card - over 600 pictures so far!!!!!!!! We miss everyone at home but are having a great time!! We will try to do another post before we head to Nice since the Internet is free at this hotel (hard to come by)! Ciao!!

Interlaken Adventures

Well we have been in Interlaken for the past few days and it is absolutely gorgeous. Spring has sprung and there are lots of flowers everywhere around here. It is absolutely amazing to look up and see snow-capped mountains...especially the Jungfrau (despite it raining this afternoon, which makes it rather cool out there)!! Tuesday was a daytrip up to the Jungfrau. In one of the small towns, we even saw a St. Bernard with a keg on its neck!! Once at the top, it was kind of cloudy, but it cleared up for a few minutes so we were able to see a small bit of the 13 mile glacier that is up there (11,333 feet). After we got back, we went to a pub and had a few drinks and then went to a restaurant for dinner...it was YUMMY!!!

Today we went to Lucerne for the day. We saw some old churches and even went up on the fortress wall that was once used to protect the city. It is a very pretty place with the lake surrounded by mountains. Immediately after we finished eating at a cafe on the sidewalk, it got really blustery and cold and began raining. We then decided it was time to come back to Interlaken so we jumped on the train and headed back. Hopefully tonight we will have another delicious Swiss meal and then come back to pack up. Tomorrow we head to Venice for the night. Friday we will do a ¨Venice in One Day¨tour and then that afternoon take the train to Rome. How exciting!!

We miss everyone but we are definitely having a great time - and as you can guess, I have taken a LOT of pictures already!!!

Packed & Ready!

Well, I am about to jump in bed but just wanted to comment on how relieved I am that all my clothes I am taking actually FIT IN THE BAG and it doesn't make me fall over when I walk!!!! I still cannot believe that I am only taking that small amount of clothing for 2 and a half weeks, but I think I can make it. We did double check that we DO have our passports, so at least we will make it over there :)

I guess the next time I write we will be halfway across the globe...HOORAY!!! Guess we will see how good airplane food and movies really are....

Last day at work for THREE weeks!

OK so as I sit here and quickly type this at work, I am SO excited. All that is left is packing (I hope) which should be rather exciting in itself. I have an idea of what I am going to take and let's hope that it actually fits in my pack!!!! Anyway, I just got really excited that I will be on vacation for 3 weeks .... more to come before we leave :) I have a lot to get through between now and Sunday morning, so here's to all of it going smoothly!

4 MORE DAYS!!!!

OK so I just had to count on my fingers how many days we have until our departure, and I CAN DO IT ON ONE HAND NOW!!!! That is just so thrilling :) I am also now making yet another list of things that need to be accomplished before we head out. I think we have all of the big stuff taken care of (thank goodness), so now it is making sure the necessary folks have a key to the house, that I have uploaded all my pics from my camera onto the computer so I start with a clean slate, and all that kind of fun stuff!

Working is becoming more and more difficult by the day - i.e. As I am sitting here, I am thinking, "Wow, a week from now I will be in Switzerland and exhausted from an exciting day out and about!"...I believe the time difference is 7 or 8 hours ahead. I guess I will find out for sure once we arrive.

The main thing that is making me anxious at this point is packing - trying to fit almost 3 weeks of crap into a bag that size just is NOT right! If I think of it, I will take a picture of everything layed out and then a picture of it all fitting into my bag (cross your fingers!!). Well, I am off to accomplish some of my tasks!

It's All Becoming So Real

Well our Friday night consisted of eating a late (but yummy) dinner at Thompsons Station Grill - amazing, home cooked, Southern food! Anyway...then we came home and decided to look online to see if we could find some tours for our trip. Well, we were quite successful!! And of course we (meaning Brad) had to make a spreadsheet that includes a timeline. The information captured on this timeline includes day, date, location, travel info, hotel/accomodations, and tours of the day. So here is a list of the tours/activities we decided to do:

• In Interlaken, we are not sure what the schedule will consist of, but we do have an idea of the activities we will do (like going to the Jungfrau, Lake Lucerne, & Grindelwald)
• "Venice in One Day"
• Vatican Museums Walking Tour which includes the Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Room, and St. Peter's
• Ancient Rome Walking Tour which includes the Colisseum, Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, & Pantheon
• Naples and Pompeii for the day (we get to see where Mt. Vesuvius is!)
• Full day of Florence touring
• Going to the Chianti region of Tuscany to tour a vineyard and wine tasting
• In Nice, we are kind of winging it!
• A Night Biking tour of Paris (which also includes a boat ride on the Seine River...and ice cream!)
• Montparnasse 56th floor Observation Deck
• "Paris Pass" which gives you access to about 60 museums and attractions (including the Louvre among other neat places)

So - YiPPEE!! It is all starting to become so real. Next challenge....fitting all my crap I plan to take into the pack that we bought...

11 Days & Counting....

Well only a week and a half until we leave for Europe!!! I started thinking this morning, again, about everything we need to take care of before we leave....

• Sadie's accomodations
• Calling all the credit cards & banks
• Scheduling any automatic payments that will be due while we are gone
• Making sure we have all necessary clothing
• Making a list of things we want to do in each city
• Finding a ride to and from the airport
• Making sure someone gets our mail
• Canceling the paper
• Getting someone to cut our yard while we are gone (at least one time)

..and the list goes on!! I guess this weekend we will take care of a lot of that - plus, not to mention, we still need to get our yard in good shape (i.e. pulling weeds, fertilizing, putting all the flower seeds I bought out...). So much to do STILL!! Not to mention that it is SO incredibly hard to work when I am at work (once again, I am blogging instead of working) because we are so majorly excited about our trip and a little anxious about getting everything in order. Well, it is finally time to leave work...what a gorgeous day outside...I can hardly wait to drive with the window down and the sunroof open listening to fun music!! :)

Let the countdown begin...

So 12 days from now, we will have just landed in Atlanta on our way to Zurich, Switzerland! We can hardly wait - each work day it becomes more difficult to concentrate on the work at hand (hence why I am composing a blog as opposed to actually doing my work) and we are more eager to head across the big pond! I am a little nervous about how the heck I am going to pack 2 1/2 weeks work of clothes and stuff into one of those camping packs that go on your back, but I guess I will manage. We have done some shopping for some pants (because apparently jeans are not a good choice because they are bulky and heavy) and other travel accessories - for instance, inflatable neck pillows for the plane and train rides. So much to do and not too much time left to do it in!! We still need to sit down and discuss all of the places we want to tour and see in each city - exciting! Stay tuned for more...