Life Right Here

Back when Emery and I first started dating, he took me to a very nice place in Birmingham called Bottega Restaurant.  It was Valentine’s Day so he wanted to impress me.  I remember looking at the menu and the first thing that I saw was oxtail.  Ummm, no thanks.  I don’t remember what I chose, but it was probably just the steak.  And I say just the steak not because steak isn’t delicious, but because that was before my adventurous dinner days.

 There was another young couple sitting at the table beside us.  The girl asked the waiter if they had chicken fingers.  I secretly wanted chicken fingers too, but I would never have asked.  Of course the waiter snickered and said no and her date laughed at her.  How embarassing!  I’m glad I didn’t ask.  When E ordered, he asked for the veggies to be left off.  He is allergic…..  Our waitress told him that his parents probably wouldn’t like that.  I’m glad I didn’t ask for no veggies.

 I guess that’s just the kind of treatment you get when you are too young to know better.  It’s such a shame.    

We went back to Bottega a couple of weeks ago for our 2 year anniversary.  I’ve heard great things about the chef and since we’ve gotten older, our tastes have grown up too, even though E is still allergic to vegetables.  For appetizers, we had the parmesan souffle with mushrooms and proscuitto and fried oysters.  Both were great choices.  For the main course, I had the venison with quinoa and roasted carrots.  Emery had the seafood pasta with a light tomato basil sauce.

 I can’t believe we missed this last time we were there!  It was so so so good!  We finished off with coffee, creme brulee and pecan biscotti.  We will definitely be back soon.  They even have a cafe if you just want a casual meal.  

Before dinner, we stopped by Birmingham Botanical Gardens because it was such an awesome day outside.  They have a ton of acres with different gardens: rose garden, herb garden, vegetable garden, southern living garden, crape myrtle garden, and many others.  The conservatory housed tropical plants like banana, coffee, cacao, and desert plants.  There are so many paths and sculptures that we could have spent all day roaming around.  

Our favorite was the Japanese Garden.  It even had a little tea house and a koi pond.

The flowers were blooming too.  

E was so sweet to walk around the gardens with me.  We had a great day!  Happy anniversary to us!

Starting new things is almost always a challenge.  The beginning of a book is so hard for me.  I always just want to know the end.  But I can never force myself to read the last page.  That would be cheating!

 The beginning of the house process feels like it will never end.  We’ve only just signed the offer and there is still so much more to do: inspection, appraisal, improvements, etc.  I just want to move in already!

 And now I’ve decided to start a garden.  Honestly, I have no idea how to do it.  But how can you ever learn if you don’t try?  Lucky for me, E did all of the hard part.  He shoveled all of that dirt just for me!

And Dakota helped too.

Then he got tired.

All I have to do now is buy the plants.  I’m going to try all sorts of fruits and veggies.  I’m trying to decide if it would be easier to just buy them from the grocery store because I don’t have very much patience.  60 days to maturity?  Uhh, maybe it will be faster.  I want my fresh salsa now!  See.  The beginning is tough.  We don’t have a farmers market here, so I think it will be worth it to know that my tomatoes are free of chemicals and pesticides.  I’ve heard it can be therapeutic…we’ll see.  

Lately we’ve been spending a lot of time outside.  The weather is amazing!  And life is much slower here, which we are totally embracing.

At the Grove.

They love honey buns.  Who doesn’t?

Rebecca and Sarah.  I think. 

Dakota likes their poo.

Tuck and Dakota.

I think Snoops won the staring contest.

I am officially done wallowing about Nashville.  We are partially settled in Selma now.  A & M moved to Germany for a few months, they were so very nice to let us stay in their awesome house until we can get a place of our own.

Selma is a very historic town, a lot of the houses were built in the 1800s.  It’s so cool to look at all of the beautiful homes.  

And it’s already springtime here!  The flowers and plants are so pretty.  It’s so nice to be able to walk around outside.  But not for long, it gets so hot in the summer.  

Hopefully we will be in our own house soon.  I went to the grocery store 4 different times just for ingredients for chocolate chip cookies.  I thought we brought all of our food, but obviously some got put in storage.  From now on, I’ll make sure we have all of the ingredients BEFORE I start.  Good thing it’s a small town.  We put in an offer on a house today.  Our real estate agent prayed with us about it.  Can you believe that?  I think she’s a keeper!  

Sleeping in, listening to the birds chirp, sipping coffee on the porch with E.  I can’t believe I get to do this every morning now!  There are definitely some great things about this small town. 

We have been so busy lately!  Emery is spending the day packing (God bless him) and I am finishing up at work tomorrow.  Our days of living as Nashvillians are coming to an end very soon, so we have been trying to hang out with friends and visit the places we love here as much as we can.  The other night our friends surprised us with a going away party.  The Hicks are moving to Alabama!  Obviously, the party was a redneck theme.  It was a blast.  Barbeque, redneck beer chug(?), moonpie eating contest, and country music.  Man, I can’t wait to be able to do those things every night!  If only…

When we first moved here, we didn’t know a soul and it was so hard for us to find friends.  We were both working retail, so we had crazy schedules and we didn’t have a lot of money for activities.  It was a pretty lonely time for us, but it definetely made us stronger as a couple and as individuals.  I think Nashville is a place where noone is from, but where everyone wants to live.  It’s a city of strangers and everyone is uncomfortable so they seem unfriendly.  It’s unfortunate, but I also think it makes this city so diverse and there is so much to learn from others.  It really opened us up to different opinions and ways of life. 

Almost a year ago to date, randomly at a small show at a music venue, we finally found our niche.  A place where we felt welcome.  Friends who will be in our lives forever.  

I’ve been thinking lately about all of the little things I will miss.  Of course there are the big things like friends and nightlife.  But it’s the small things in life that make it extra special.  The small things that we so easily take for granted until they are taked away from us.  I hope that this has taught me to pay attention to life’s short moments.  Here are the things that I will truely miss:

1.  local food-  Yazoo,  Mountain Jim’s, Bongo Java, Purity     

2. cell phone service

3. $10 bar concerts any night of the week

4. the maintenance men who put our trash can by the road on Tuesday night and back against the fence on Wednesday afternoon

5.  fang fingers at Preds hockey games

6.  coffee shops everywhere, excpet near our house

7. dog parks

8. the many, many bachelorette parties downtown, who always get on stage and sing with the country bands

9.  watching a movie while running on the treadmill in a dark air- conditioned room at the Y

10. getting into the movies for free because we have the hookup

   E is back in Selma trying to find us a good home, Dakota is still hanging out at the Grove, and I am sitting at home stuffing my mouth with some yummy chocolate.  I get so excited over it and I can’t control myself.  I just dropped some crumbs in my keyboard and tried to lick them out.  Wow.  But I only like the dark, rich, European kind.  You know, the kind that you can’t by in the check out line at the grocery store.  The kind that you can only find at specialty organic stores.  The kind that makes you travel out of your way from work, only to make you late from your lunch break.

 But it’s the weekend, right?  And I worked hard today.  Oh E, come home soon!  

   Since my husband’s brother’s wife (sister-in-law?) is from Germany, I have gotten to taste some fabulous chocolate from over there.  One of my favorite places to go in Koln is the chocolate factory.  Why is theirs so much better than ours?  Here is an amazing German website that I found where you can order little bundles of goodness.

   Emery got me some beautiful roses a couple of days before because he knew we would be out of town on the 14th.  So thoughtful!

And he got me this mug because I absolutely adore coffee.  And Nashville.  Which automatically made me cry.  

   We had a great Valentine’s Day in Gatlinburg.  We rented a cabin for the weekend with some friends of ours.  On Saturday morning, the girls whipped up a fab breakfast of heart-shaped chocolate chip pancakes, sausage balls, cheesy scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and some fruit.

  The boys cooked us girls dinner that night.  They grilled up steaks, mashed potatoes, asparagus, salad, and bread.  No wine…who knew Gatlinburg was in a dry county?  So we just had beer instead.  They sure did work hard!    

   The whole weekend was super relaxing, apart from the time we decided to venture out in the terrible tourist traffic.  But it wasn’t too bad.  We did get an awesome Old Tyme Photo.  The next day the boys had a round of golf while the girls went shopping at the outlet malls.  Then we met up for a late lunch at the Apple Barn.  Three and a half hours later we headed home.  A three and a half hour lunch.  With bad food.  We did have some delicious apple fritters that were the best course out of the 5.  And got some good pictures in the gazebo.  

   It was also Chris’s birthday, so we enjoyed some strawberry cake.  And we played Scene It, pool, and air hockey.  The hot tub was broken so we had to entertain ourselves somehow.  Overall it was a very memorable trip with some great people. We may even make it an annual event!  I hope everyone had a great day of love!

Last night I cried myself to sleep (my husband does not know this).   It’s all coming so fast.  Last night we found someone to take over our lease for our house so we have to be out the beginning of March.  It’s too soon, my heart’s not ready yet.  I was expecting at least the middle of March.

As much as I’m looking forward to all of the good things God has in store for us in Alabama, there are so many people and places and things I will miss in Nashville.  I know we will come back and visit a lot, but it’s still so scary.  Where will we live?  Where will I get my organic groceries?

I know it will all come together perfectly soon.  So until the day come when we will pack up and head down to Selma, I will try to enjoy every last drop of my time left in this lovely city, like tonight’s hockey game with all of our wonderful friends.  I can’t wait to see them tonight.

Maybe I will go out and buy this book today.  Oh, how chocolate makes me feel so much better!  I’ll let you know which recipe I decide to try.

Yesterday the weather was perfect, so we decided to take a hike.  I’m not normally one to brave the great outdoors, but our time in Nashville is coming to an end soon so I thought I’d take a risk.  We drove about 30 minutes to a state park and went exploring.  The water was beautiful!  Dakota would have loved it, too bad he’s on vacation at The Grove.  It was nice to be outdoors since it has been frigidly cold here lately.  An hour and a half later, we decided we had had enough trails and trees so we headed back home.  It’s not like we were climbing up mountains or anything, but I’d say I got my fill of nature for a while.  Afterwards, we ate at a true bar-b-que joint, which is also a car repair shop in the back.  Old men picking on their banjos and singing the country blues accompanied us.  Now how’s that for a day in Tennessee!