Father's Day and Week of Concerts in Nashville...

Happy Father's Day! I'm so blessed to have such a great dad.

My dad and I have been on many fun adventures together. I really like these pictures, mainly because of the stories behind them. My dad and brother visited me while I was in Alaska, and I went with them to work a sports camp with my church. The picture on the left was taken in Alaska on an 8 hr. raft trip. We were stuck on the river and didn't think we would ever get off of it, but thankfully we made it! The other picture on the right was taken in Hawaii :) We went on a 38 mile downhill bike ride with Maui Downhill. It was definitely the most adventurous thing I have EVER done in my life! I have so many wonderful memories of fun times with my dad, and I am so thankful for the leader he has been in my life. He has supported me in all my endeavors and most importantly, he has set an example for me. I admire how he honors and serves the Lord in all aspects of his life. Know that you are very loved and appreciated, dad!

The Grand Ole Opry

  

On Tuesday night I went to the Grand Ole Opry, and saw the following individuals and groups perform:
-Riders in the Sky
-Terri Clark

-George Hamilton IV

-Del McCoury Band

-Justin Moore

-Jimmy Dickens(who is 89 yrs. old)

-Lady Antebellum

Justin Moore and Lady A were by far my favorites. I went with two of the girls that are interning at LifeWay this summer. I am pictured with Tiffany and Lauren on the right. It was such a great concert, and neat to hear some of the old traditional bluegrass/country music, as well as some of the new and upcoming country artists. Lady Antebellum performed a new version of their song, "Need You Now" that was awesome!
Justin Moore is also pictured(on the right). The Grand Ole Opry is being held at the Ryman due to all of the flooding that affected the Opry. On Tuesday night they must have had a prior engagement scheduled at the Ryman, so the Opry was held at the Allen Arena at Lipscomb University.

Then, on Thursday night I went to a FREE concert at The Rutledge. Alyssa, who I'm living with for the summer, found out about this concert. She works at LifeWay with a devotional magazine called Bible Express, and gets to interview so many awesome Christian music artists. She recently interviewed Audrey Assad, who happened to be performing in Nashville this week, along with Chris August, Mistletoe Project, House of Heroes, Poema, Brandon Heath, and the Newboys. So of course we went! I'm so glad we did too, it was a great concert. I really like Brandon Heath's song "Wait and See." He didn't end up playing it, but he did sing "Give Me Your Eyes." Brandon is pictured to the left. I also really enjoyed Audrey Assad. I heard her for the first time at Mississippi College in the fall when she came and played. She is such a talented pianist and she has a great voice.

This summer is flying by, it's so hard to believe that I've been here for over a month. I still love it, and really hope to be able to make a permanent move here soon. One last picture to include from Thursday's concert. I'm living with Alyssa this summer. She interned at LifeWay last summer at the same time I did in Childhood Ministry Publishing. It has been such a wonderful summer. She has a cute house that is convenient to work and a neat little cat named Miles. One neat fact about Alyssa is that she is a triplet! Yes, the first and only triplet I've ever met! To read more about Alyssa and to see the great blog that she updates regularly, see http://www.alyssainnashville.com/ That's all for now, this blogging stuff takes me way too long!

Summer is in Full Swing!

I know that many of you have probably already seen this, but if you have not, I would love for you to check it out! http://www.mc.edu/career/students/testimonials/ I was honored to be asked to be used on the Mississippi College Career Services website. The ladies in Career Services played a significant role in helping me prepare for my future career as they reviewed my resume, taught about social networking, and conducted practice interviews.

Flashback: Last Friday I went for ice cream at a new place by Publix called Sweet CeCe's. It was delicious and I said goodbye to my friend Stefanie (pictured to the right). We went to high school together and were able to hang out a lot last summer! I will miss having her around, but I know she has an exciting summer ahead in New York.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I visited my friend Ann in Cleveland, Tennessee. I had such a great time hanging out with her and her family! It was a very active weekend too, which was a wonderful change after sitting in the office all week. Ann has six brothers and one sister! On Saturday we played tennis and went to see Date Night at the movie theater. After church, it rained most of the day on Sunday, so we played a lot of games. Scattegories is one of my favorite games ever and we went through all 12 cards that day. Her family also taught me a new game called Nine Hole. After a day of indoor games we were ready to get out, so we went for an 8 mile bike ride on Saturday night. Cleveland is located at the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, and we had such a beautiful view on our bike ride. On Monday we played another game of tennis and then ate! Her parents made kabobs that were delicious, along with some amazing homemade ice cream.

Nothing much new happened this week at work. There are twelve new interns though! Alyssa and I talked briefly with them during their orientation on Tuesday. It is hard to believe that was me a year ago. Three of the girls are working in Childhood Ministry Publishing and I'm looking forward to getting to know them.

I went to one of my favorite restaurants, Calypso Cafe, for lunch on Tuesday with some co-workers, which was great! Today Alyssa asked me to go to hear Runaway City play with her. They played three of their songs that will be on their new album. Check out her blog at http://www.alyssainnashville.com/2010/06/runaway-city.html for all the details on Runaway City. I got a free CD out of it of going, and enjoyed it! I also went to Kairos on Tuesday, but was disappointed that they had to cancel Movies in the Park this week because of the rain. Thankfully, we'll still get to see Where the Wild Things Are, it will just be moved to the first week of July.

Another new thing I'm excited about is Netflix!! Sarah sent me a one month free trial of Netflix. Such a good deal! I can have one movie out at a time for the next month. So far I have the following movies on my Queue:

1. Slumdog Millionaire

2. Sherlock Holmes
3. Simon Birch
4. A Knight's Tale
5. Nights in Rodanthe

6. Into the Wild

7. Hitch

I'm supposed to get my first movie in the mail tomorrow :) I'm very impressed with the timeliness of the postal service in Nashville. My mom can mail something from Tampa and it is normally here in two days. A big change from how long it took the mail to get to Clinton, Mississippi! Also, my friend Ann that I visited last weekend, is coming to stay with me this weekend. I don't know what we will do yet, but I'm sure we'll find something!

Have a great weekend!