The Sanborns » life

Cheekwood 2012

Becca — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:00:54 +0000

A week or two ago, I saw a coupon for National Garden Day. Since it was free, we decided to check it out. Thankfully, I checked on the coupon Friday morning and we realized the tickets were for that day and were able to go!

The only garden in Nashville participating was Cheekwood. We’ve been to Cheekwood once before, for the Chihuly exhibit so Friday was a much shorter visit.

I think the pictures speak for themselves.

I love finding free things to do, especially now that certainly can’t pay to go out on dates. I am looking forward to the summer because there are so many free things to do for fun in Nashville!

© Becca for The Sanborns, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cheekwood, day date, free, gardens, Nashville, photos

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

4th Anniversary Vacation Recap: Day Two

Becca — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:00:05 +0000

Saturday the 5th of May, I awoke in our cabin after a pretty restless night of sleep. It turns out that a hot tub is a necessity when you mangle your body’s muscles on a hike. The light outside seemed darker than usual, so I checked the weather and sure enough, it was going to storm and looked pretty severe.

After some debate, we chose to go to Cades Cove that morning, figuring that maybe by the afternoon it would not be raining and we could proceed to Dollywood.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but Cades Cove is a pretty big deal for me because my relatives lived there. After some research, we found out that the Cables that lived in the Cove are my cousins, far removed. My great grandfather x 10 was Conrad Cable and his grand or great grand kids are the ones that lived in the Cove. We’re from different lines because I’m from a different kid. Anywho, the rain stopped and we were able to get some great pictures.

Right about here is where I realized the battery was dying and I had forgotten the extra at home. I was able to be very quick with taking the pictures I wanted. While we stopped at the mill they were having Old Timers Day. Basically, people come back to talk about their dead relatives. You are welcome to click through the above pictures and see a ton I took of the graveyard and some information setup. I’m going to do a third post about Dollywood because I want to give some tips and reviews.

© Becca for The Sanborns, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anniversary, cades cove, gatlinburg, marriage, smoky mountains

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

4th Anniversary Vacation Recap: Day One

Becca — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:10:36 +0000

Back in January, I approached Gray with an idea for our anniversary. We knew that his family would probably go to the Smoky mountains in the summer (it’s an annual tradition!), but we had not been in two years and there really is no such thing as too many mountains, especially because we’d have the chance to do our own thing.

So I researched cabins, and we chose the same ones our family stays in because they had the best deal and were away from the main hub of traffic. If you know Townsend, TN at all, they are off Wears Valley road, about 4 miles from Townsend.

So I booked us the cabin and paid our deposit and then we waited a while. At some point, I realized Dollywood tickets would go up in price, and since we had already saved several hundred for vacation at that point, I just went ahead and purchased the season passes, I think this was back in March.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, Gray suddenly was without a job and we questioned going forward with the vacation. In the end, we knew we’d already spent about $500 in booking the cabin (fully paid for at this point) and paying for the season passes. I figured we’d need about $200 for the trip and we had over $500 in a vacation savings account, and decided we needed this vacation.

I’m so grateful we took this time for ourselves and it ended up being really great, so here’s some details.

Friday morning we got up and left the house by 8:00 central dst. After a quick stop for breakfast, we were on our way and I got the chance to capture this picture.

Normally the drive to East Tennessee feels like the longest drive ever (aside from the Southern Georgia drive), but this time it was super fast. It could be that we were going on our pace (we’ve never driven this way ourselves before) or perhaps that I was reading a book. Either way, the hours flew by and then we could see the mountains in the distance.

We had three hours before check-in, so the decision was made to go hiking and see Cades Cove, but first we stopped at Wings R Us, a favorite of ours from two summers ago.

After lunch, it was time to head into the park. I couldn’t remember where the Chimney Tops were and without cell phone reception, we decided to head to the visitor’s center near Gatlinburg. This turned out to be a good idea because the Chimney Tops were just a few more miles down a different road and so all was saved.

Gray inquired about the trail and we were told it would take about 3 hours round trip. AHA HA HA HA.

We found the trailhead pretty easily, and began to the journey. The first mile up wasn’t really rocky, but it was a hill and both of us were out of shape. Gray kept trying to convince me to turn back, but I pretty much refused. Ah, the Irish stubbornness…

By the time we were halfway up, we began to realize this trail was not at all mild.

At this point, the trail was very steep and there were rocks EVERYWHERE. Like, 3/4ths of the second mile looked like a very steep creek bed, it’s a wonder neither of us sprained an ankle.

At some point we reached a path where the rocks went away, but the steepness prevailed. After a few passerbys encouraged us, we finally began to see the trail leveling off, and then we got to this:

Some other hikers had told us to go past the sign that says don’t pass, and follow the trail around to the right side of the mountain. Well, we did that until we came to realize it would involve scaling the side of the mountain. So we went back to the previous rocks of doom, and began to climb.

Now, I’m not necessarily scared of heights, but I am terrified of falling, so you can imagine I got about halfway up and began to freak out. At one point Gray said, “You stubborn woman.” heh

I would have taken pictures with the cell phone, but I was too terrified to not cling to the mountain with all my strength. At some points, I literally crawled because I was terrified. Yet, we made it to the top.

I love this picture of me, because at this point I was so exhausted and we were out of water and all I could think of was why there isn’t a super magical slide to the bottom and why do I have to walk all the way back down?

For the trip down, we ended up going down that original path, and it turned out really easy and we began to question why we didn’t just stick with it the first time. Oh well.

It was about 1-1/2 hours to get back down again and we were so so so thrilled.

I drove us most of the way to the cabin, until the other cyclists began to get angry at me for driving slow around the cliffs.

Now, up until this point, I did not have a grade for med-surg yet. Once we reached Townsend, I checked my grades and discovered not only had I passed my paper, but kicked butt and made an A. I called my mom and told her right before we lost reception and then I called Gray’s mom when we were on our way to get groceries. Both of them I think were more thrilled than me!

It was close to midnight eastern dst before we settled into bed. We had to go back to Maryville to find an open grocery store and then we chose to eat pizza and relax a bit before bedtime. The cabin was splendid, but tired muscles require a hottub, which we skipped that first night, big mistake!

Stay tuned for day two… where I woke up to severe thunderstorms and a mad vengeance at the weatherman.

P.S. – If you want to see more pictures, click through above, there is a whole album!

© Becca for The Sanborns, 2012. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anniversary, hiking, marriage, smoky mountains

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

What happened on Monday

Becca — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:29:05 +0000

When it rains, it pours.

Monday I came home after class to find out Gray lost his job. He’d only been there a few months, but we thought he was past the 3-month mark and good to go. Apparently not.

I had my Pharm Hesi on Tuesday which I did better on that I thought I would, so that was some slight encouragement in the middle of chaos. I could use some serious prayers for this final on Monday. I’m studying today with a group and I’ll study all weekend, but let’s face it, I’m tired of school and the thought of studying for three days is awful, but it’s made worse by the fact that I won’t know my paper grade going into the final, so that gives me little motivation to study. So pray I will have motivation.

Gray has been very busy this week with meetings, an interview, and errands. We were excited for a date night that had been planned out (and paid for) in advance, for the Adventure Science Center in Nashville. Thursday night I was busy proclaiming this in twitter when I found out that it was actually THURSDAY night, not Saturday. So I’m pretty bummed about missing it and the wasted money. Totally not my week.

So here is where I am signing off until my final is done. I’m going to try to have the project 365 post up on Monday, but I may forget, my brain is spastic these days.

The only thing we “need” now is prayer and good thoughts. I know I am praying for the right job to be provided for Gray and for us to trust that God will provide. He always does.

© Becca for The Sanborns, 2012. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: finals, job hutning, Nursing School

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

As the end draws near…

Becca — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:00:56 +0000

My life is a little chaotic. In less than two weeks I will be done and so there is some work to accomplish. I have a portfolio, a Hesi, and a final to take and my grade is pushing it on passing, meaning that I have my work cut out for me. I am up for the challenge, but really need thoughts and prayers as I finish. All I can say is that no matter what happens, I will be okay and life will go on, regardless of whether I am in 4th semester or if I’m out of nursing school.

I’m excited for today because it means I get to spend some time with one of my favorite people on this earth. She is a wonderful and happy person and I’ve blogged about her in the past, when we went to her wedding and when the tsunami struck Japan. She’s one of my dearest and closest friends so it’s an understatement that I am excited to see her today!

I’m going to try and keep a normal level of posting but please understand if I go awol until I’m done for the semester.

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Project 365: Week 15

Becca — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:00:22 +0000

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Happy 25th Birthday, Gray!

Becca — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:21:40 +0000

Today is a very special day because my husband is now 25. When we first met he was a mere 18 years old, my how time flies. I was actually just doing the math the other day and seven years… dang, amiright?

The majority of the most important people in my life have all been around for at least seven years and I count that as a blessing after years of searching for true friendship.

So yeah, this fellow here is now a quarter of a century old.

We celebrated his birthday this past Friday by going to dinner at Chuy’s, his choice after we realized the NCAA tournament made getting to Big River in downtown Nashville pretty much impossible. We ended the night by getting cheesecake to go from The Cheesecake Factory. Gray and I love our cheesecake! We, however, dislike bad parkers. Tsk, tsk.

I’ve been meaning to post more about how we met and all that jazz, and I will get around to it soon, but first I’ll tell you about the first time I ever saw him.

I was a junior in college and he was a freshman. I was co-leading a freshman bible study and we were meeting in the nursing building (how is that for foreshadowing?!) and when he was placed in my group that day, I immediately had a thought cross my mind.

“I am going to marry that man someday.”

You may think I’m crazy, but um, it did happen.

This holds significance to me because my mama had told me a story of the first time she ever saw my daddy. She was visiting her cousin’s house and that happen to be my daddy’s sister and brother-in-law (mama’s cousin). My mama somehow came across my daddy sleeping and thought to herself, “That’s the man I’m going to marry.”

I always held that story in the back of my mind and when I thought that same thing to myself that night I told God, “But… he’s a freshman?!” I really wish I would have journaled those thoughts, because to me they were clear as day.

Turns out, he was the man I was meant to marry. I’m forever thankful for him.

Happy Birthday, Gray.

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Let’s Go Big Red!

Becca — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:50:14 +0000

I haven’t posted much about my high school years, but as you might remember, I’m from a very small town. I graduated with about 60 other students, 95% I had known since we were in Kindergarten together. I remember being very tired of McEwen and small town life my senior year in high school. I was ready to spread my wings and fly and it took several years away at college for me to even remotely miss my fellow McEwenites.

Last night (Thursday) the McEwen boys basketball team played for the first time in our school’s history at the TSSAA state tournament. I wish I could have gone in person, but I had to watch at home via the internet. It was an intense game and we won by a point, a mere point! It was a foul that one of the players received in the last 6 seconds of the game. I’m not a huge basketball fan, but do you realize how much can happen in the last-minute of a game? When we were ahead I kept wishing we could just hold the basketball like they do a football and let the time run out. sigh.

So tonight the boys will play again, and now I really can’t watch because the husband and I are going to Big River for his birthday dinner. I will probably try to wear something red to support the team and you know, this whole basketball team in McEwen is very much like Friday Night Lights. Our little town lives for sports, basketball is much more our thing than football, so any of the enthusiasm you see on that tv show, just imagine that’s us but with basketball. I am told over 500 people drove to the tournament, which may not seem like much to you, but then you remember the town is about 1700 population, that number is huge! Not to mention how many of us were watching via the internet.

So Warriors, today is your day. You’ve gone further than any other team in the history of our school. No matter the outcome, I know the Warriors did their best and with dignity.

Let’s Go Big Red!

I am the creeper in the back middle you can’t really see. This was from my cheerleading days in Junior High.

© Becca for The Sanborns, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: basketball, cheering, Childhood, McEwen

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Spring Cleaning

Becca — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:02:46 +0000

I know it’s technically not spring until Gray’s birthday, exactly 13 days away(!), but our weather here in Tennessee has been very bi-polar and today I went outside in jeans and a very thin t-shirt. I’m not complaining about the weather now, but I will be later when the hornets are chasing me and my skin is melting off my body.

One of my to-do list items was to clean out bathtub, because it got to the point where I would take a bath and feel the germs and mildew crawling toward me, disgusting y’all. I’ve been looking for weeks to find something that could tackle the mildew we had and send it away, never to return again. Nothing was working, and I had tried all sorts of home remedies and store-bought products. Then my genius husband suggested toilet bowl cleaner.

I know that weird, but the stuff is basically bleach and it doesn’t run as fast, because it’s meant to go into the bowl of a toilet and stay there. So I tried it and now my tub is sparkling. Well, maybe not sparkling, but no mildew! We’ve taken precautions to make sure the mildew doesn’t return, and I have to say, I will know what to look for in future housing because the fan in our bathroom is a piece of crap.

Aside from cleaning my bathroom, I spent some time organizing various parts of the apartment over the past few weeks. I’ve cleaned out our closets, moved around my kitchen, cleaned out the bathroom and kitchen cabinets. The only thing left to do is to clean out from under our bed (the under bed containers) and the outside storage closet. I also need to go through my clothes and pick some out to donate. We got rid of a couch a few weeks back and the living room looks so much bigger and I absolutely love it. We’re probably going to stay in this apartment for another year, so I needed to make some room to breathe.

I’m hoping to organize my recipes better. I have a binder of recipes/magazines and then I have an index card box. I can’t decide which method I like the best, but a binder would take up less room. I think they make special holders for index cards in binders, so maybe I should just buy some of those.

What are you all doing for spring cleaning? Also, what would you like to read more about? I’m thinking I will do a post soon to show you how I handle the budgeting/filing/organization part of our finances. It works really well for us and I am such a geek over budgeting, so maybe someone will find it useful? heh

© Becca for The Sanborns, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: finances, mildew remover, organization, recipes, spring cleaning

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Just a small town girl

Becca — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:28:17 +0000

Elizabeth over at MissWisabus posted this morning about her hometown.

Last night, my hometown’s boy’s basketball team proceeded to the state tournament. This is a huge deal and made me remember the olden days when I cheered for basketball in junior high.

After reading Elizabeth’s blog about her own hometown, I was commenting and talking about my own and how I could never move back. It’s not that I don’t love McEwen, but rather I have grown accustomed to being able to go places in 5-10 minutes. Gray and I have already talked about where we would like to buy a house in the future and I had no idea how country I was until I was willing to live a good 20-minutes from main roads and he was protesting. I should add that the 20-minutes out was only 5 from an interstate exit with easy access to stores. Ahem, Gray.

I have no clue where we will end up and I know we probably won’t go looking for a home for another 1-2 years, at least we better not since I finally paid for a fancy address stamp for our current apartment. Of course that means we’ll moved in August, right?

The only thing I know is that our kids are not going to grow up how I did. I never thought I’d get to the point where the 90s would be nostalgic in more ways than good television. I’m beginning to understand the feeling of growing up in the 60s, 70s, or even 80s. I used to be jealous that my siblings were able to roam the streets of McEwen on their own, because it was safe. Now I realize that more than likely, my kids won’t be able to roam their own neighborhood. My hope and prayer is that we’ll find a great neighborhood to stay in, another reason we won’t be buying anytime soon, we want to buy for 20+ years.

Until then, I do like where we live. This part of South Nashville reminds me of home with the hills and our apartment complex has a lot of hills and greenery. I almost feel at home when I take walks with Gray and say hello to neighbors who are out and about.

© Becca for The Sanborns, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: basketball, cheering, Childhood, hometown, life, small town girl

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

The Sanborns » life

Cheekwood 2012

Related Posts

4th Anniversary Vacation Recap: Day Two

Related Posts

4th Anniversary Vacation Recap: Day One

Related Posts

What happened on Monday

Related Posts

As the end draws near…

Related Posts

Project 365: Week 15

Related Posts

Happy 25th Birthday, Gray!

Related Posts

Let’s Go Big Red!

Related Posts

Spring Cleaning

Related Posts

Just a small town girl

Related Posts