Nashville On My Mind

"I could see a change a comin',

I left my home town a hummin',

With my ol' guitar a strummin',

All the songs that I had wrote,

I was on my way to Nashville."

-Dolly Parton

Howdy y'all!

My family and I just got back last night from a wonderful little vacation to Nashville, Tennessee!

My little sister and my brother in law (along with my two adorable nieces) call Nashville home, and we hadn't visited them yet!

So we decided early on in the semester that we would go to Nashville for spring break.

My sister also just gave birth to my brand new baby niece over a month ago, so I was so excited to go meet her!

Can I just say...

I freaking LOVE LOVE LOVE Nashville!

Our entire family fell in love with this cute little "hipster country" town.

I caught myself telling Nick several times throughout our trip that I would NOT be disappointed if we had to move to Nashville one day.

Before I go on a tangent about my love of all things Nashville, I'll share some photos of our trip!

Nick loves road tripping.

I despise it.

We compromised and decided to rent a car and road trip it to Nashville, and fly back.

After all is said and done...

I still hate road tripping, and road tripping with two children is not as fun as it sounds (haha.....).

I did enjoy this gorgeous Texas scenery within the first few hours of our trip.

I can't believe that this is what I get to call home!

When we got into Memphis, we saw these three crosses sitting on the side of the road.

This photo does it not justice.

It was glorious.

We arrived in Nashville at 4 in the morning!

We decided to power through the night and drive while the kids were passed out and asleep.

We took quick power naps, and woke up bright and early to start our first day in Music City!

Here's a recap of our first day in Nashville!

My first time holding my new niece, Lucy!

So much cuteness going on!

I can't even...

My other niece Lyla and Dannika.

I'm so sad we don't live near each other, because they really loved playing together.

They got along SO well!

We went to a cool little local, "hipstery" coffee joint called the "Bongo Java Roast".

It was just walking distance from my sister's house.

I had a DELICIOUS matcha Korean style shaved ice with red beans.

It was so freaking good!

My brother in law is a doctor (a physiatrist to be exact) and assistant professor to residents at Vanderbilt Hospital.

He took us on a tour of his work space.

Such a cool hospital!

I had to throw up a "Gig 'em" sign in front of his office.

After all...

Vanderbilt is someone we play against in sports in the SEC.

#aggiepride #BTHOVandy

After touring Vanderbilt Hospital, we had lunch at a local hot dog joint by their house called "The Dog".

I had a "slaw dog", and Nick had their Coney Island style dog.

Both were ridiculously delicious, and the owner even gave us some complimentary homemade potato chips!

John Rich (from the country duo "Big & Rich") live in my brother in law and sister's neighborhood.

They live in a mostly historic part of Nashville, and on some streets there are strict guidelines about not changing the appearance of the front of the homes to keep within the "historic feel" of the neighborhood.

Well John Rich built this totally weird looking, Los Angeles style home smack dab in the middle of this gorgeous historic neighborhood.

The residents were not happy about it...

And, in my opinion....it's just an ugly house...

Here's the gate to his house... 

There was a sign on the side of it that read, "No Trespassing. Violators will be shot."

whoa.

Still cool to see a celebrity's house, and even cooler that my sister lives in the same hood!

Proud Aunt...

Uncle Nick giving Lyla some cash for her piggy bank.

To end our first day in Nashville, we went and had some good ole fashioned Tennessee style BBQ at Eadley's.

It was DELICIOUS!

Such a cool vibe!

After dinner, we headed to Jeni's ice cream shop for dessert.

I had this wildberry lavendar ice cream.

It was simply DIVINE!

stay tuned for the rest of our trip!

I'm currently listening to Johnny Cash and dreaming about Nashville....

Bell's Old Glory Shop

If you're a loyal follower of my blog, you know who this handsome guy is....

And for those who don't read my blog, I'll introduce you to him!

This guy is Staff Sergeant Vincent Bell.

He's a hard charging, motivated, and hard core United States freaking Marine!

Nick and Vince attended Marine Corps recruit training together, field artillery school together, and eventually found themselves together again at 11th Marines on Camp Pendleton, Ca.

 After deployments they were back together at the artillery training school (ATS) as instructors. 

Their favorite thing to do together was ride their crotch rockets. 

Nick left for the drill field, then returned to ATS as a student this time and Vince as his instructor in the Marine Corps' new high mobility artillery rocket system. 

In November of 2011, shortly before Nicks second deployment to Afghanistan, Vince (while in Afghanistan) stepped on an improvised explosive device while on patrol and gave his life for our country. 

It has been Nicks lifelong quest to keep his memory and his name alive, so we named Mattis after him... Mark Vincent Romer.

Pretty amazing guy, right?

Since Vince's death, Nick has slowly learned to grieve in his own way, and on his own time.

He's always wanted to do something "more" to keep Vince's memory alive.

A few months ago, he was asked to make a flag with a pub bell on it to hang at Rudder tower on campus at Texas A&M.

He had never done anything like this before, but he was excited for the challenge.

 After some trial and error, the flag was perfect...

After showing some people the flag, he started getting requests from people to make them on as well.

After doing some research on the internet, we saw that similiar flags were selling for 300-400 dollars a piece!

We decided together that we would sell them for half of that price, and donate 10% of the proceeds to the Semper Fi Society in Vince's name.

We wanted to make them affordable for people, so that we could sell more to a wide variety of people, and really do something positive with the money.

We took the ground running, and Bells Old Glory Shop was born!

Custom hand painted Texas A&M Flag

 One we made for the Dixie Chicken!

There is so much love that goes into all of these flags.

Even our kids have a hand in them!

This is what I call Nick's "sacred place".

He's in here late into the night most nights working on his creations.

I like to think it's him spending time together with Vince as he hand cuts, and hand paints each and every flag.

We made our first donation of $250 to the Semper Fi Fund last month with the profits we made with these flags!

I love that Nick has found something to put his energy to for a positive and amazing cause.

I know Vince is looking down on Nick, and slapping him on the butt while saying, "Good game!" as he creates these works of art.

If y'all are interested in one, check out our Facebook page, and send us a message!

You can click the link above or just search "Bell's Old Glory Shop", and it'll take you there!

We would love to create an American flag, or even a custom flag just for you in honor of Vince!

Fri-yay!

Spring break starts today (well, after this pesky 9am class I have), but yay!

I blogged yesterday about just how crazy life has been the last two weeks.

Between midterms, parenting, Dannika's gymnastics, GYM TIME ( still haven't missed a day!) and everything else in between, it's been hectic.

These last few weeks have really tested my balancing act and time management.

My fellow young and ambitious students always ask me how I find the time to do everything AND still manage to get to bed by 9.

I usually stare blankly at them, and tell them, "I really have no idea!" 

Honestly, I just maximize every single minute of my day.

I suffer from anxiety, and the only way for me to really control it (without medication) is to be able to predict EVERYTHING.

I hate surprises so I run my ship on a tight (predictable) schedule. 

I can honestly say that I do not have a spare minute wasted during my day.

It does make my day a little crazy, but at the end of each and every day, I still have time to cook dinner for my family, bathe the kids, and enjoy an hour of me time before I hit the lights.

It also frees up my weekends to do fun things like hang out with my kids, Nick, and our friends.

Someone once told me that if you treat school like a 9-5, M-F job, you will never have to utilize a weekend to study (except maybe during midterms and finals).

Even with midterms, I did minimal studying on the weekends, because I maximized my week day.

I mean seriously, y'all...

How could I NOT make time for this little fella...

And wine...

And watching this sweet girl play...

The helmet is one used for grappling...courtesy of Nick...

Or beautiful Texas nights on the porch watching TV.

And playing cornhole on a Sunday with the neighbors on the cul de sac.

 Even though he's grumpy in the mornings, his and his sister's faces are my most favorite parts of waking up!

 I'll get to catch up on some blogging this week!

I've missed sharing with y'all all our daily happenings in our family!

We've got some fun things planned for Spring Break, so I'll be excited to share!

Happy Friday, y'all!

I Can Almost Taste It...

SPRING BREAK!!

Unfortunately, I have a class tomorrow morning that my professor refuses to cancel.

Doesn't he understand that it's the Friday before a GLORIOUS week off from academia?!

People keep telling me to stop being a "goody two shoes", and skip the class.

I WOULD, but a percentage of my grade is attendance and he takes attendance every day.

Ok, I lied, I wouldn't skip class even if I could.

I'm a rule follower, and I can't help it.

But seriously y'all...

These last two weeks have been miserable.

I am studied out, "mom'ed" out, and "wife'd" out!

Spring break! We need it in this house!

It's been a rainy few days here in good ole Texas.

It didn't stop us from enjoying it though!

That fabulous Marc Jacobs umbrella is courtesy of the wonderful Karen who works at Texas A&M's Veterans' Services.

Who else is on Spring Break?!

Timeline of Dannika and Her Boots

We've had Dannika in cowgirl boots since she was an infant...

Dannika, 3-4 months old in her Janie & Jack infant boots...

With a daddy from Alabama and a mama from Texas, she was destined to be a cowgirl boot lovin' girl.

Even if she was born in California.

It's always been her favorite fashion statement.

Age 2

Age 3

Age 4

Age 5

Age 5 1/2

She actually wore those last pair of boots to the absolute bare bones.

She wears them AT LEAST once a week (mostly more), and some mornings I have to fight with her to give her other pretty shoes that I buy her some love.

So this weekend, we went shopping for another pair!

It didn't take her long to find the perfect pair of boots!

She found these beauties, and "HAD TO HAVE THEM!"

This girl has Texas runnin' through her blood (thank goodness), and I love that her favorite fashion statement is a pretty smile and her cowgirl boots!

She's a girl after this Texas mama's heart.