Day 243 Letters for Mom's birthday and UT Game.

My Mom called me a couple of weeks ago and asked a favor of me. She is turning eighty this year and wanted to receive a card from all her children and grandchildren. That put an idea in my head - why not ask everyone we know who knows her to send her a card. So my older sister got a copy of her Christmas card list and my other sister and I addressed envelopes today to send our request for cards. I hope it works and she gets lots of cards.

Tonight josh and I went to the UT v Utah State game. We had an absolute blast, but this was the first time We had ever sat in Mom's new season ticket location in the end zone. And it's the first time I've actually sat in the end zone. Looking forward to (hopefully) a great football season. GBO! 

Day 242 Sewing labels on Medal of Honor quilts and Pfunky Groddle

Today I (Lynn) went over and helped sew labels on the Medal of Honor quilts. This quilt project for the Medal of Honor recipients is so amazing. So many quilters coming together to honor our veterans. I am honored to be part of it.

This morning I went to the new location for the pfunky griddle. If you'll remember, I went to the one in Nashville as a first but they just opened one in Murfreesboro. This could be a bad thing for me. 

Day 241 Late night work and brownie with cream cheese icing

So tonight, I (Taylor) started my first night working at the store. We're trying to figure out why there is a difference in our night crew and day crew. So our directors are decided what nights they want to work. I'll say this, it's definitely different than a morning/afternoon shift! 

Tonight I tried a new dessert - a brownie with cream cheese icing. It was yummy.

Day 240 Gameday app and jury duty (yes, again!)

Today's first was to download the Tennessee Gameday app. I tried to do it on my IPad and couldn't find it. I was getting frustrated. I found every other school's but no UT. Then I thought...maybe it will only show up on my phone. I mean, after all not many people haul an IPad to the stadium. The app is supposed to work in the stadium and with the televised game. We shall see on Sunday when the Vols kick off a new season. Go Big Orange!

A previous post of mine (Taylor) is talking about jury duty. Well I got summoned again but this time in Murfreesboro. So I went and sat through jury orientation this morning and was there for 2.5 hours. Only to get out of jury duty because my job doesn't compensate you for missed work. Was definitely an interesting experience! 

Day 239 New Reports and Trivia night

Today I (Taylor) had our weekly directors meeting and part of my responsibility was to pull a bunch of data. I had no idea where to start so I had one of my coworkers show me. It's amazing how much data is at our disposal to truly help understand trends in the business. I was fascinated for hours with all the numbers!

Tonight a group of ladies from work went out to dinner and trivia night at a local bar. I had never played trivia like this. Each round was 3 questions with 3 categories. We got to bet 2, 4 or 6 points on the 3 questions. The questions were hard but we did ok and our team name was great. reVOLUTion. (We all work in at UT) It was a fun night.

Day 238 Learned something new in a meeting and pizza

Today I (Lynn) attended my Exempt Staff meeting. An interesting item was on the agenda. The Ag Extention Agents at the University are concerned because they are required to investigate animal abuse allegations. This puts their lives and their family's lives in danger. I had no idea this occurred. It was eye opening to learn this. 

Tonight I went to dinner with a group of coworkers and my operator. We went to mellow mushroom which seems to be the place to go on outings like this. I'm not complaining. I love pizza and I love mellow mushroom. Or waitress made a suggestion on a pizza called Thai dye. Everyone raved about how delicious it was ove we got it so I tried it even though I didn't like the majority of what was on it (the only pizza I would eat was gone after 1 round of people eatif). I picked off cucumbers and tomatoes leaving pizza and come curry Thai sauce. Safe to say I don't like curry Thai sauce. I thought it was awful!! 

Day 237 Beyonce (again) and no TV

Yes, I'm (Taylor) taking back to last night for my first. I've been dealing with one of my worst migraines today so I needed a super easy first today. So I decided to download the Beyonce album on iTunes tonight. 

The title may be a little misleading. I watched TV but we never turned on the TV in the living room - all day. I have gotten involved in watching Big Love. It was recommended by two of my friends. So I watched it first thing in the morning while getting ready and then once I got home I watched while sewing. Marian worked late and continued working once she got home so the TV in the living room was not turned on all day.  That is a big deal around here. Our living room TV is always on. Sometimes even when we aren't home. (We forget to turn it off.)

Day 236 Retirement party and Beyonce

Today I (Lynn) attended a surprise retirement party for my dear friend Nancy. She is the first of my closest friends to retire. We are all green with envy but so happy for her.

This may sound weird but as I (Taylor) watched the VMAs I actually became a beyonce fan. I've never really not been a fan or disliked her but I actually became a fan of hers after her performance tonight. She's a top notch talent and entertainer and she proved that tonight. 

Day 235 Newks and quilt class

Tonight I (Taylor) went to dinner with on of my best friends, Jess. I've heard great things about Newks so we decided to give it a try. I had the crab and corn chowder and four cheese mac and cheese. It was absolutely delicious! Oh and we watched Need for Speed. I actually rather enjoyed that as well!

Today I took a class using a ruler called rapid fire lemoyne star. The ruler and technique was developed by Deb Tucker. I am not good with rulers and following directions but this was very easy and the result was wonderful.

Day 234 Shopping and lunch and Crisp Apple

I am sure you are wondering what could be so special about shopping and lunch. Today I (Lynn) was invited by my boss's wife to take part in a special day of shopping and lunch. There were a lot of wives of our coach's and administrative staff. None of who I knew. They were very welcoming and we had a great time. Such nice people. I hope we get invited again next year.

Tonight I tried another angry orchard, crisp apple. And again, I greatly enjoyed it :)

Day 233 Survey and Special Kids

Tonight while reading this wonderful book by Carolyn Jourdan called "Out on a Limb", my (Lynn) phone rang. It was someone doing a survey. It was a long survey about an amendment that is going to be on the November ballot. Apparently our state will be deciding if we need to amend our state constitution to make abortion harder to obtain and allow the government to decide what a woman should do with her body. I am sure it will pass. I live in the Bible Belt. I must confess sometimes I would like to leave these mountains I love and move to a place where more people believe like me. It is so frustrating to be surrounded by so many people who think you believe the same thing they do when you don't. I felt bad for the young man doing the survey. Each question was very wordy and difficult to understand. There will many people who don't vote on this issue because they won't understand what it says. 

This morning I had a meeting with a local organization called Special Kids. They're a non profit organization that helps families with children that need special therapy that a number of insurances don't pay for long term. It was a very humbling experience to get to see all of these amazing kids. 

Day 232 New morning news and Dan Cathy

For as long as I can remember I (Lynn) have watched the local NBC station's morning news program. I think it began because I love the Today show so I would just have it on NBC. I really don't like any of the reporters or anchors or weather people on that program. In fact, most mornings they make me angry. They mispronounce words, including cities in the area. I have never heard them read a story without a mistake. They say ridiculous stuff and think they are funny. Today I thought "why am I watching this?" This year is about changing things up, so I found a morning news program I like. From now on I will start my morning with the ABC morning news program.

Tonight we had a corporate hosted event in Nashville. It was a free event for the public and we had a local music artist come and put on a concert. It was a lot of fun and I even got to meet the president of our company, Dan Cathy. 

Day 231 Creating and Guts

Tonight I (Lynn) had to create a 12" block. My fiber art group decided at our last meeting to make small quilts using a process called a round robin. The concept is that each person makes a center of a quilt and then we pass the blocks around between the members with each person adding a row. At the end the person who make the beginning block gets it back to finish. One member of our group donated some 2.5 inch strips of fabric and we all picked 5 strips by blindly reaching into a bag. We were required to use at least three of those strips. I added some hand dyed strips I had purchased from a friend who dyed it herself. When I sat down to sew, I had no idea what I would end up with but I like how it turned out.

So today was a big step for me. I won't shout it out to the world, but today what I did took a lot of guts for me. Hopefully this turns out well for me! 

Day 230 Mustard and Facebook posts

Today was a horrible day at work (Lynn). Every task was twice as hard as it should have been. But the most challenging thing today was having a huge blob of mustard on my shirt most of the day. It was right on my left breast and was a circle about three inches across. I tried getting out with a tide pen. Apparently a tide pen does not work on mustard. You could not miss it and of course most of the afternoon there were tons of people in and out of my office. So my first today - walking around with a huge mustard stain on my shirt. Not my finest moment.

This morning I (Taylor) had a marketing director meeting with the Nashville area marketing directors. We had a couple of home office people come an talk about social media and public relations. I learned something brand new from the social media guy. When you boost posts on your stores Facebook page there are a lot of different ways to customize who you target. You can do sex, age, location, etc. I also learned that you can customize based on what a person has posted about on their own personal Facebook page. For example. If we want to boost a post about our iced coffee and wanted to target women aged 21-36 you could set those peramiters. You can also add in interests. So you could type in Starbucks. So any female ages 21-36 that has talked about Starbucks, you can boost your post to them! How crazy awesome is that!?!

Day 229 Teaching Mrs Tingle and Cupcakes

Today's first for me (Lynn) was a new movie, "Teaching Mrs Tingle". It is a1999 movie starring Helen Mirren. It is a black comedy about the brightest student at a high school, Katie Holmes and her two friends played by Barry Watson and Marisa Coughlan. Mrs Tingle is out to get Katie's character. It was an interesting movie. I would not have expected Helen to be in this type movie. It wasn't a bad movie. Just not one I thought she would do.

Today started a new fall series at church. When they kick of a new series they usually have a lot of extras (caricature artists, video games, etc). They even have the food truck from a local bakery that was giving out free cupcakes. I have seen many times where people suggest you cut your cupcake in half through the cake part and flip it over so you have cake, icing and then cake again. It's like a cupcake sandwich! I had never tried it before until today but it definitely helps control the mess! 

Day 228 The Escape Game Nashville

Today has been one of my (Taylor) favorite firsts this year. A couple of posts ago I told you about The Escape Game Nashville. Well I booked Mom, Josh, Aunt Mary a time this morning to go play. Essentially you're get locked in a room and you have 1 hour to find the code to get out. You are given 3 free clues from your game guide but if you ask for more than that you get penalized 3 minutes on your time. Unfortunately we didn't escape but we all had a blast. We can't wait to go back and try another room! 

Day 227 Limon Electric Lemonade and Angry Orchard

I drove up to spend the weekend with Taylor. We have a fun first planned for Saturday. When we got to town we met her and Josh at Buffalo Wild Wings where I had a very yummy Limon Electric Lemonade drink. We had fun helping Josh play trivia.

While at BWW I decided I needed to try some new kind of beer. I guess you could call mine a hard cider. But I decided to give angry orchard a try and actually really enjoyed it! 

Day 226 Hillbilly Tarot cards and chia seeds

I enjoy tarot cards. I am fascinated by them in fact. My favorite locally owned bookstore, Union Avenue Books was hosting Rev. Dr. David Brown who has created his own tarot card set, called The Hillbilly Tarot. He  spent six years creating these cards. He gave us the story behind the cards and his attempt to combine his Southern Baptist upbringing and his spiritual journey. He finished the evening up by doing two readings. Such a fun evening. Here is the box.

You can learn more at hillbillytarot.com

This morning I made a Smoothie with Greek yogurt and chia seeds. I've had the chia seeds for a long time and never got up the nerve to add them to anything. So finally I added them to my smoothie. Not too bad. I think having the strawberries in the smoothie helped mask any seeds that I could feel. 

Day 225 The Battered Bastards of Baseball and Gods Not Dead

  Tonight I watched the documentary "Battered Bastards of Baseball". It is the story of an independent baseball team made up of cast-offs that was owned by actor Bing Russell,  the Father of Kurt Russell. It is a great story and the film well made. This ragamuffin team beat the league owned teams easily, most of the time. I highly recommend it.

I've heard many things about the movie so I decided to get it from redbox. I'll say it was pretty good. Some overly dramatic moments that I thought were pointless and just to take up time. But overall a pretty good movie. 

Day 224 Kiss and Thrill blog and Frozen

Today I started following the Kiss and Thrill blog. It is a group blog devoted to romantic suspense. That is probably my favorite genre of books. Today they featured a guest author. If you answered a question about what book you had just finished reading, you were entered to win a copy of her new book. So I made a comment. 

So I (Taylor) still haven't seen the movie Fozen. But tonight I got to step into the world of Frozen with Elsa and Anna. We had or monthly kids night which included the princesses. We easily had 350+ kids come to our event. This was one of my biggest kids nights I've planned. So I was pretty pleased with the night :) 

Day 223 Shark week

My son is a huge fan of Shark Week. He and I share a love of the ocean and he was lucky to spend some time living at the beach for a couple of years. He life guarded for a while and when we would visit, he would tell me there were sharks in the water. Maybe that is why he loves Shark week. I decided to see what it was all about. I just watched a couple of shows and I must confess, I was scared. My heart was beating fast. Those things are scary. I may have to sleep with the lights on. (I - Taylor - will second all of what mom said excluding the son part. Just switch that out with brother :) I too chose shark week as my first tonight thanks to mom's story of her being so scared!) 

   

I also want to talk about Robin Williams. He died today. They think he might have taken his own life because of depression. My first love in college was a huge Robin fan and introduced him to me. He is one of the few comics who can make me laugh out loud. Every time I saw his HBO special I would laugh so hard I would cry. Such a tragedy. Depression runs through my family. It is such a horrible disease. RIP Robin. You will be missed.

Day 222 Brunch with cousin and The Escape Game

The last couple of years I have been getting together with an Aunt of mine, a cousin and my sisters and Mother. We had one today but mixed things up some. First we met at a half way point instead of me and my sisters and Mom going there. Second my Aunt's daughter joined us for the first time. We had a great time. My cousin who usually joins us could not make it and Taylor couldn't make it but we still had a nice time.

Tonight I discovered an awesome sounding game in Nashville. It's called The Escape Game. You're locked in a room with a group of people and you are given 1 hour to get out. You're give clues and puzzles to help. I'm definitely thinking this needs to be an actual first for us! 

Day 221 Rachel Grant and Titans game

I began reading a series of books today by a writer that is new to me. Her name is Rachel Grant. She is a professional archaeologist as are her main female characters. The story lines are fascinating. I can't put the books down. I am on the third one already. 

At the end of last football season, josh bought season tickets and PSLs. Today was the first preseason game against the packers. So we enjoyed our first game as season ticket holders. But what made it extra special was it poured the entire time. Not just a drizzle. It was a monsoon. It definitely made for an interesting evening! 

Day 220 Married at First Sight and E class

I (Taylor) took one of mom's firsts and watched Married at First Sight. I stubbed upon the show and had nothing else to do. So far so good I have to say. 

My first happened at work. Our financial system at work is called IRIS. The department that developed and maintains IRIS decided there needed to be electronic classes on what IRIS can do. The first  one they posted was on getting access in IRIS. I took this first class that they released. I actually learned something from this class which was surprising since this function is one I use a lot.

Day 219 Street Jelly and voting

Tonight's first for me (Lynn) was visiting the website Streetjelly.com. Musicians can play live on the website and you can leave them tips. My sister, Marian works with the website creator. As a huge music fan, I love this idea. Visit this website and see some great musicians.

That site sounds pretty awesome! Tonight I voted. I've voted in presidential elections before but never in an election like this. And for the first time as well I voted in the republican primary. 

Day 218 New Walmart and schedule

Today's first was visiting the new Walmart in town. It opened today. It is located right beside the campus so convenient to work. It had a parking garage underneath it, which is different. They carry a lot of UT stuff, of course. It was nice but I am afraid once schools starts back on the 20th, it will be a zoo.

Today I took a new step in my job. I started getting trained on creating the schedule. May not seem too big for you all but it's a pretty big deal in my eyes. 

Day 217 Diet bar and Starbucks Gift Card

My sweet son, Jonas, has started selling It Works! They offer vitamins and weight loss products. A friend of mine purchased their weight loss meal bars. She generously offered me one. So today, I had that for lunch. If you are a fan of meal replacement bars, you should try them.

Today I was given a Starbucks gift card from a friend for my birthday. I have the Starbucks app where you can earn rewards by paying through your app on your phone. I knew there had to be a way to load a gift card on to the app but couldn't for the life of me figure out how. I even googled it and couldn't find it. Finally after making one last attempt before I fell asleep I figured it out! Sad to be so excited, but I was :) 

Day 216 Run on the Greenway and thing at work

As stated yesterday I planned to do a morning run at the greenway. I really almost talked myself out of it because I was so tired. I stupidly and accidentally took a nap late last night so I went to sleep late. Then on top of that josh got home from work around 1:30am so that woke me up again. But even after all of the thoughts going through my head of how awesome it would be to go back to sleep, I didn't and I headed for the run. My run was awful. But at least I went! 

My first (Lynn) was something I did at work. Unfortunately it would be unprofessional to blog about it. But I was proud of myself!

Day 215 Documentary and pizza

Tonight I saw the most incredible documentary. "Twenty Feet from Stardom"  It won an Oscar and it was well deserved. It gives you a real appreciation for them and the music they make. 

I'm back on trying to eat better and start running on the greenway in town. So on the eating side, I picked up some flatout bread and made a pizza pepperoni pizza for dinner! It was actually really really good. I'm pretty stoked to have a healthy pizza option! Tomorrow morning will bring my first greenway morning run. 

Day 214 Seven Pounds and new salon

Today after work I came home to relax. While flipping through the tv I came across the movie Seven Pounds with Will Smith. I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately I missed the first part but the part I did see was really good! 

I have not been happy for a while with my nail salon. The straw that broke the camel's back was when the lady who had been doing my pedicure for a couple of years called me by my sister's name. Twice.  That has become a pet peeve. So today I went to Style Makers Beauty Salon in Seymour. I had a great experience. Marian went with me and her experience was horrible. Her person kept her waiting 45 minutes and then she was just bad. She actually hurt Marian. I felt bad for her. I will go back but I will make sure I get the same person.

Day 213 Guardians of the Galaxy and Heaven is Real

I had a rotten afternoon at work. (Lynn) I needed some fun entertainment so I decided it would be a good time to see Guardians of the Galaxy. Tonight was opening night so we joined all the crazy young kids who love comic books and stood in line for an hour. A first for me. I sat down in the theatre and the young man next to me said hi. I was surprised, but said hi back. A couple of times during the previews he made a comment to me. It was cute. We did both decide he would enjoy Dumb and Dumber To more than me. The movie was wonderful! I laughed, a lot. The special effects were very impressive. It is a must see. Vin Disiel's character was hilarious. Actually they were all so entertaining. I cannot wai until the next one. At the end of the movie, no one left their seats. And we were all rewarded with a gift at the end of the credits. Go see this movie!

Tonight I had planned to cook dinner and watch a movie with josh. But since he's started back to work his sleep has been way off so he went to sleep around 7:30. I decided to make myself dinner and watch the movie, Heaven is Real, by myself anyway. Although the concept of the movie was good, I wasn't a fan of it because of the acting. The little boy that was the main focus of the movie was just plain bad unfortunately. Oh well. Not all movies will be on my love list.