Life List Update II

About a year and a half ago, I created a Life List.

Six months later, I updated it, crossing off those items I had accomplished.

Now, a year has passed, and I'm back to strike out eight more items.  

1) Plant some peonies

2) Host a Bunco night

3) Drink in the beauty that is Yellowstone

4) Visit the Grand Canyon

5) Show Brian where I grew up in Washington

6) Learn to two-step with my hubby

7) Buy a pair of red ( or brown) cowgirl boots


8) Sing a song while my husband plays the piano

9) Learn to whistle

10) Become a mom

11) Attend the farmer's market in Auburn

12) Eat at McCormick & Schmick's


13) Take a road trip here in the good 'ol U.S.A.

14) Remodel a bathroom (or two!) in our new house


15) Visit Alaska

16) Start a collection of milk glass


17) Make a list of all the books I've read/listened to in one year

18) See the fall leaves in the Northeast

19) Visit Niagara Falls

20) Drink sweet tea in the south

21) Experience Switzerland again

22) Rent a red Corvette (a 5-speed of course!) and drive it for the weekend

23) Fly in a vertical wind tunnel


24) Financially support someone in achieving his or her college degree


25) Visit Notre Dame


26) Visit Canada

27) Travel to Nashville

28) Tour the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina

29) Publish a piece of writing.

30) Earn first place for a greeting card or scrapbook layout at the State Fair

Half of my Life List has been completed, leaving 15 more items to go.  Yahoo! 

What's on your Life List? 

J

Project Life, 6/21-6/22

Howdy!

I'm back with the last Project Life installment...for now.


During the last two days of our vacation, we spent additional time in Nashville.

June 21st: Just minutes from our hotel was a Sonic restaurant. And since we'd never eaten there before, we figured we'd try it. Pulling up into a parking space and not actually getting out of the car to eat was a little strange. I was hoping our server was going to roller skate to our car, but she just walked out. My disappointment, however, was quickly replaced by joy when I learned that Sonic serves tater tots. I'd rather have tots than fries any day of the week!


Later on that day, we drove out to the Grand Ole Opry to see a show. Not only did we hear Chris Young sing (again), but we were also treated to performances by Mark Wills and Rodney Adkins. Little Jimmy Dickens, who is 90 years old now, also made an appearance. What a hoot he is--still singing, playing, and telling stories!




June 22nd: Our flight home wasn't until 6:00, so we drove into downtown Nashville for lunch at the Wildhorse Saloon. Following lunch, we played a mean game of air hockey, looked at cowboy boots in a nearby store, and then made the long trek (16 blocks or so) to Music Row, the heart of Nashville's entertainment industry.


On our way back to the car, it started to rain and by the time we reached our vehicle, we were both pretty drenched.

Our "road trip" came to its official conclusion at the Nashville airport, where we learned that we had traversed nearly 1900 miles during our journey.

A big thanks to my husband who drove ALL of those miles, getting us safely from place-to-place over the course of 13 days.


In the airport, as we waited for our flight home, I replayed our vacation in my mind.

Yes, I was sad that our trip was coming to an end, but at the same time, I felt thankful for all of the wonderful memories Brian and I had made. I had loved attending the CMA Music Fest.
I had loved spending time with my Virginia family and my friend, Noah. I had loved visiting places I'd never been, trying foods I'd never tasted before.

But I was excited to get home. To see our dogs. To sleep in my own bed. To putter around the house. To eat a home cooked meal. (Eating out, every day, had really started getting old.) And I was looking forward to documenting this fantastic road trip in my Project Life book.

Thanks for letting me share our vacation memories with you!

Going forward, my plan is to continue to add photos, journaling cards, and ephemera to my PL book--not on a daily basis (as I did on our vacation)--but as often as I can.

J

P.S. If you couldn't make it to Nashville for the CMA Music Fest, check out ABC's TV special, 'CMA Music Fest: Country's Night to Rock' on Sunday, August 7 at 5:00 PM (PST).

Project Life, 6/10-6/12

Happy Fourth of July!

Hope you are having lots of fun this weekend with family and friends. We had a blast with some firefighter friends yesterday, and today we're off to a family barbeque.

In addition to the video I created about my Project Life book, I also wanted to take a photo walk through my PL book. (Note: Some of the information may be the same, but I'll try not to repeat everything.)

In this post, I'll cover June 10th-12th, the three days we spent in Nashville, Tennessee.

Here's a look at the first section of my Project Life book:

The first page in my book contains a June calendar. When I'm planning a trip, I use a printed calendar (from timeanddate.com) to help me figure out how best to schedule our time.

By the way, feel free to click on any of the images to make them appear larger.


On the back of the calendar is a Google map of the region we visited.

Next, you see my first divided pocket page from Project Life, which contains pictures, journaling cards (from Ali Edwards), and e-tickets.


I used two applications on my iPhone in preparing for this trip. The first, TripIt (pictured in the top left), enabled me to store and access all of our reservations (airline/hotel/car) right on my phone. Plus, I could easily e-mail our itinerary to family, so they could follow us along our journey. The second, Visual Travel Checklist (pictured in the middle), made packing for our trip a cinch.

Also on this page--in the top right corner--you will also see a coupon caddy. As I mentioned in this blog post, I carried the journaling cards with me in this caddy. Inside the caddy, I labeled each section by date starting with 6/10. During our road trip, I filed ticket stubs, receipts, memorabilia, and completed journaling cards in the appropriate dated section. (I placed larger things such as pamphlets, booklets and maps in a gallon-size ziplock bag.)




We had so much fun at CMA Music Fest! I think the CMA Music Fest is to country music fans what the Superbowl is to football fans. All the biggest and best singers/bands come out to play for their fans. Lucky for us, though, CMA Music Fest takes place over four days instead of one.

Originally, we'd only planned to go to the concerts on Friday and Saturday night only, but we enjoyed ourselves so much that we bought tickets to Sunday's concert, too.


I've been a big country music fan since junior high school (going on 20 years now), so it was a pleasure visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame. Listening to songwriter Craig Wiseman talk about his hit songs (and play them) was an unexpected treat.


That day, it was super hot--97 degrees with 60 percent humidity--in Nashville, but despite the heat, we ventured downtown and walked to the riverfront area to hear Chuck Wicks play.


These are pictures from Saturday night's concert. I loved getting dressed up and wearing my cowgirl boots! It was so awesome sitting outdoors, listening to hours of country music with my hubby by my side. I, especially, loved hearing Chris Young, Little Big Town, and Josh Turner play live.


On Sunday, we went to Mass and then had lunch at Caney Fork Restaurant. As I mentioned in this blog post from the road, we tried sweet tea, feasted on alligator tail, and inhaled their complimentary corn fritters. Southern food is delicious!


On Sunday night, it was back to LP field for more live country music. We enjoyed listening to Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton. On Friday and Saturday nights we sat up in the cheap seats, but on Sunday, we sat down below, which gave us a better view of the stage. Right in front of us was a couple probably in their mid-seventies. It was so sweet to see the two of them holding hands, clapping to the music and periodically, standing up and swaying to a few songs. She wore ear plugs and he had his hearing aids turned down, but they were genuinely enjoying themselves. I hope when we're 70, we're still getting out, still enjoying life and still very much in love.

I'll be back later on this week to share more of my Project Life book.

Cheers,
J

Howdy!

Hi y'all!

We spent the weekend at the CMA Music Festival, and it was a blast! I loved seeing Lady Antebellum live; Brian enjoyed Dierks Bentley's performance. Originally, we'd only planned on attending the concerts on Friday and Saturday, but we had so much fun that we purchased tickets for Sunday night, too. I was in heaven listening (and singing along) to so much great country music.

Right now, Brian and I are driving to Asheville, North Carolina (a 4-hour drive from Nashville). There I am looking forward to exploring the expansive Biltmore Estate.

One more thing before I go...I drank a glass of sweet tea yesterday at a restaurant called Caney Fork. (Now I can check it off my Life List!) It was delicious! So too were the complimentary corn fritters. (Think corn donuts.) Yum! Oh, and we also tried alligator tail for the first time, and it was pretty good.

Have a great week!

Love,
J