A Tourist-View of Nashville, TN

I feel like a BAAAD blogger....
Cuz life is kind of busy all the time.

It only took me about 5 hours to finish this post, what with all the interruptions and such.

BUT....as promised....here's my little tourist-view of Nashville:

We arrived Monday evening, Apr. 6th and promptly went to our hotel. We were staying across the street from the mission home so of course we had to drive real slow to see if we could see any young men in white shirts and ties roaming around......(we did it again on Tues. morning)

Of course there were none.

It was pouring rain.

The weather is very interesting in Tennessee.

When we woke up Tues morning-it was snowing.

Now for a little desert girl, this is very exciting so the first order of business was to text everyone on my list that it was snowing........for maybe 30 minutes.

Then we decided to drive around and found our way to Hermitage.

Hermitage is the home of President Andrew Jackson.

Don't know who Pres. Andrew Jackson is?

Let me remind you:

Ahh, now you remember!

He was quite the character, I'm told.

So here's a view of his plantation:

Here is his tomb-along with his beloved wife:

And his wife's garden, which of course I found very interesting.....

(pssst... I guess there was a huge scandal their whole married life because it seems that when Mr. Jackson married his wife-ahem-she wasn't legally divorced)

What I fail to mention here is that it was FREEZING COLD! (remember the snow?)

Of course-you probably can't see it-but this is the Grand Ol Opry House. We drove by and said "howdee."

After that visit and just driving around town (Tennessee is BEAUTIFUL), we met up with our boy for the first time in two years at the temple.

The next day we picked him up and he was officially ours again.

Grand tour of the mission office.

Freeway view of downtown Nashville, TN. It's a really interesting skyline.

One of the sites we visited (which I had ever heard of) was a replica of the Parthenon that was constructed for the Nashville centennial celebration (in 1897-or thereabouts). Nashville is reaaallly old. They decided after about 50 years that it needed to be rebuilt since the original was made of plaster. So here it is in all its rebuilt glory:

Does this photo give an idea of how huge this place is? (my man on the left and my boy on the right-awww-missionary companions-where's your white shirt TL???)

Ok-this was kinda creepy. It's a giant statue of Athena with Nike in her hand. To give a perspective-Nike is SIX FEET TALL! When I first walked into this area, I didn't even notice the statue at first, I was looking at some sculptures, so when I turned around and saw it-I freaked out. I guess I am not very cultured.......

We drove through the prestigious Vanderbuilt University, across the street from the park where the Parthenon stands. (and a big thanks to the guy who was honking at us from behind while I took this photo).

And of course since Nashville is Music City USA, how could we miss a chat with the guys and their BFF....

Elvis, baby.

Back to the crazy weather again.

Tues morning it was snowing, and freezing all day.

Wednesday it was warm, Thursday was warm.

Early Friday morning at 3 am, I awoke to screaming wind, crashing rain and hail, and flashing lightening and pounding thunder. It scared the liver out of me! I thought-oh great-we are flying in this weather in a few hours. I had visions of tornados flying around outside. But as soon as it started....it was over....when I got home, I found out that there had been tornados just a few miles south of where we had been visiting....in the afternoon.

I told Steve that even the thunder sounds different in Nashville.

He says, "it's because it has a southern accent, mom."

Ok-y'all.

He's Baaaaaack

1st text message from my boy.
We had an amazing, wonderful experience meeting him.
I have lots of pictures and stories to tell.
But I am soooo tired and life has hit full on.
I'll be back later to share.

We're Off!

Today is the Day!

We're "leaving on a jet plane."

Headed East.

To pick up our boy!

Tomorrow, we'll be in this picture:



And just so you don't miss me too much-I've post-dated some stuff.......

P. Day

P. Day means Preparation Day.

And around here we are preparing for some big changes!

Because in two weeks our missionary boy is coming home!

Gotta get the room ready for two boys again...

Since we took over the extra bedroom for an office, and I'm not willing to give it back..

(I think I need some new bedspreads....looks a little blah...what color?)

And my music-lovin' teenagers kindly put together this:
The chest on the right......so big brother would have a place for his clothes and stuff.
Thank heavens for Ikea!

And willing teenagers.....

Procrastinating Projects

I guess we all have a tendency to procrastinate things, myself included. BUT, I guess I better get my rear in gear because in less than 7 weeks, my missionary boy will be coming home and I hope to present him with this:

I've been working on this just a bit at a time because I was in a scrapbook store in Orem just a few weeks after he left and I saw a kit for a missionary scrapbook. It was a whopping $60, but I decided to bite the bullet and buy it. I'm really glad I did, because I have done a few pages here and there, and because he is SUCH a good boy and has sent his photo disks home about every 4-6 months, I have photos to scrapbook.

There's no way I am going to do all of them, but I really liked the colors of the kit-not too girly-and it's a good way to organize some of the special ones-like p-days and baptisms and funny moments.

My photos are crummy, but I can't believe how much he has changed from his greenie status to now-and I haven't received any photos since before Thanksgiving!

In less than 7 weeks we'll be able to see him in his own territory, and I'll probably take a few hundred more photos to add! (not that I'm counting or anything)

The Call

Well, since we have been Merry Christmasing and I've been decluttering today, there isn't much time for blogging these days, but trust me I have about 11.5 billion photos to edit to share-mostly not taken by me......but one of the most important things about our Christmas Day was The Call. (capitalized of course)

We were SO lucky. We got TWO CALLS! One in the morning with all the fam, and then another wonderful, quiet one in the evening just with mom & dad. (with mission pres. permission of course) We even got to visit with his companion in Spanish-a sharp young elder from Barcelona, Spain. Our Steve is on the right and his comp is in the middle.

It was so fun to hear from him and see his spiritual growth and maturity and yet he is still the fun-loving good ol' Steve. Our evening call was wonderful and the main topic of discussion was his release and the plans..... Guess who's going to Nashville, TN???

Mom & Dad of course to pick him up and take a little tour and escort him home. So we are highlighting the day of April 6, 2009 for a quick (ha) flight to Nashville, then the next day, a wonderful temple visit with the elders, then the next day we get to keep him for good and meet some of the wonderful people he served. Then it's home to AZ and the welcome from the fam.....So you can see we have some exciting times coming in 2009!

Our Elder

Today we got a call from our stake president.

He said Elder Steve's mission president had just called him.

That is enough to make a mother's heart stand still.

But this is a new president.

He told of what a wonderful missionary Elder Steve is.

He complimented him on his leadership skills.

What a pleasure it is to have him serving.

That is enough to make a mother's heart smile.

Update on Elder Steve

Guess what I got in the mail today???????

Another memory card from The Elder......

Yippeee!

So here's a few to share on how he is doing....okay-a lot.

Last photo taken-dated 8/23....nice leg Steve.

Um, anytime you see a companion on the side of the road with toilet paper, it can't be good. Trust me-the rest of the photos are not for public consumption!

Uh-oh. He didn't tell me about this.

What happened to his bike-did it shrink?

New forms of missionary transportation? He must've converted to Southernism. I heard everyone in Tennessee owns a riding lawnmower.

Sweet car.......wow-did he grow?

Hey-he's learning how to cook!

Oh no-he's sleeping on the floor??????

Looks like he is eating well.

And I guess he doesn't need any new clothes.

Meeting lots of interesting people, in um...interesting places.

Is he getting a little desperate?

Ah, that's what it's all about!

We will now return you to our regularly scheduled programming....

Update on Elder Steve

I'm having major issues with my computer. It was in the computer hospital yesterday afternoon up until this morning and Blogger is being weird too-so here goes:
This is where he is......sort of.....Nashville TN

There seems to be a lot of this type of photo....guess they're deciding whose turn it is to clean the apartment.

It's really cold in Nashville in the winter.......

Glad to know he is learning some skilz-like leaping tall buildings on a single bound. Who says Mormon missionaries aren't supermen???

Men In Black

A good GQ pose.

Birthday Boy in March.

WHAT?

Oh-it's a BOY! (his new greenie)

Glad to know he is working hard....

(He mentions this market in his tape-the owner is a member and they love to go there and get free food!)