This is Luke and myself at Cafe Coco in Nashville after a night out with friends, right before he left to go back to Australia. He’s pretty much awesome. You can follow his Australian adventures on twitter: @FreddyWombat
I just keep hoping he’ll be back to Nashville soon.
Insomnia sucks.
Too late…. Lots on my mind…
I miss being curled up in your arms, oddly enough the only place I actually get decent sleep. Want to be back there right now… My body and mind are tired, I think if you were holding me, kissing me and reminding me how beautiful you think I am… I’d probably be sleeping already. I am so grateful to have you in my life.
“maybe I miss your loving
Maybe I miss your kiss just a little bit
Maybe I miss your body lying right next to mine
Maybe I miss your touch, just a little too much”
– cross Canadian ragweed
Gonna try to sleep.
I’ve been so stressed the past few days nailing down babysitting options and getting the house in order, so packing and final details were left for the last night before the trip. Crazy Monday and Tuesday.
A long day of work, followed by two spring and performances at the middle school made for a late start to our dinner and bedtime routine, plus a lot more housework. After the kids settled down, I got my to-do list together and got the notes written for schools, ran to Kroger for last minute supplies, decided to thaw the chicken in the freezer just enough to be able to get it into the crockpot before I left so dinner would be made for the most part, and made lunches for the following day. Then, I stuck reminder notes all over the house. I meant to take a picture, but obviously figured I would make time…and didn’t.
Before long, it was nearly 3am, so I committed my efforts to making sure the kids had some extra snacks at the house and then packing and a shower could be squeezed in before getting the girls up for school. Oh, did I mention that I also had an extra child spend the night with me after the band performance?
May tends to be the busiest time of the year for schools since they’re trying to jam pack everything into the last few weeks. Frank has a field trip to Dollywood on Friday and a boy scout trip on Saturday, which thankfully my friend Michelle is covering the pickup/drop off and watching Frank for me from Thursday on… The rest of the kids are being watched by my friend Cari, who thank heavens was available last minute. I feel badly that I didn’t even fix my bed back from when we were sorting through schedules and listening to music earlier the night before, but I never did g et into it… So..a few pillows were not going to bother her.
Somewhere around 3am, I decided that I should use the time to bake some muffins for the kids, since they love my baked goods. I pulled out a pumpkin pie filling can from the pantry and decided that I’d be able to find a recipe that included it as an easy to make muffin. Surprisingly, I did not, but I was able to find a basic recipe that I recreated to make work with the pie filling mixture.
Despite my diet, I tasted a piece to make sure it tasted as great as it smelled. I added some vanilla & lemon extract, cinnamon and stevia to intensify the flavors, give it a sweeter taste and BAM, culinary jackpot.
The end result was about 32 full sized muffins and 36 mini muffins.
I cleaned up the kitchen, and hit the shower.
After packing, and getting Ready, I woke up the kids. Best reaction to an early wake up call – ever? Your 11 year old’s first words being, “What smells so good?”
I said my goodbyes, got my hugs and kisses in, and hit the door running, I needed to make it to the airport in the next 30 min or so to be there the full hour before my flight.
Our San Francisco & Google expedition: Day One- coming soon!
I had the pleasure of attending the Digital Marketing Strategies event at our corporate offices this week with members of our digital team in Washington D.C. We spent two days in seminars unleashing a corporate digital marketing strategy outline and additional education to teams across the nation.
My life is absolutely chock-full of events that circle right around. I, Audrey Korshoff, am almost never compelled to fill out a contact form and contact my Congressman. For the most part, I let them do their job, and I do mine. I do this so rarely, that I think the last time I filled out any sort of form to contact my senator and/or house representative, my youngest child was still in diapers. She’s currently 8 ½ years old.
Today, in honor of Wikipedia and Google’s public showcase to show their discontent with the SOPA and PIPA legislation, I clicked on the link and (gasp!) filled out the form to Congressman Jim Cooper, expressing my concern regarding the bill.
We finished our training day, and after a flight delay, boarded the flight headed home to Nashville. After I boarded the plane, as others were still boarding, a man stopped, looked nearly right at me, and said, “It’s an honor to meet you, Senator, thank you for your hard work”. Confused, I looked incredulously at this man, whom I realized was looking at the seat behind me as he moved forward to shake the Senator’s hand and find his seat.
So, I turned around.
Sure enough, there’s Congressman Jim Cooper sitting on the plane directly behind me, reading his newspaper. Just before I shut off my phone, I tweeted, commenting on the seat #upgrade I gave myself at check-in, sitting in front of a senator and contemplating whether I should take the opportunity to approach my stance on the SOPA/PIPA situation.
I did make some friendly banter about how I initially thought the random guy on the plane was talking to me, but decided that it was after 5:30, and I was going to go ahead and let the man read the newspaper instead. After our complimentary beverage service and a trip to the restroom, I finally bolstered my courage to bother him and told him my story.
We briefly discussed Wikipedia’s blackout for its stance against SOPA and PIPA , then he shared that he had attended a digital conference in Nashville last week where Google came to represent and inform them about the technical intricacies and implications of these bills. I took the opportunity to share my thoughts, explaining that while I had read the overview, along with much commentary regarding the bills and would strongly prefer to not have the bills pass, I felt that I needed to read them in their entirety before I felt prepared to argue or discuss their finer points. What I did express was that those bills would be a complete “game changer” if passed (especially in my field of work), and that I felt it would NOT benefit the country as a whole to move in that direction.
So, Wikipedia and Google, I did my job today. I contacted my local Congressman, not once, but twice today. I think the second time did a much better job of getting a voice “heard”, and sure was a lot more fun.
On a more personal note, I have to say that my hesitation was in vain. Congressman Jim Cooper is very approachable, entertaining and absolutely as sweet as apple pie. He even humored my geeky side by allowing me to snap a quick picture together on the plane for my blog about my uncanny luck.
I couldn’t resist buying this for my landline. It’s a 1975 edition. Thankfully, it just rings to my house, and is not a defcon five line. Still, loved it when I saw it. 🙂
If you haven’t been to the antiques shops on 8th avenue in Nashville, I highly recommend stopping at Estelle’s and the antique warehouse across the street. Lots of cool stuff, reasonably priced.
My charming boyfriend could give some men a lesson or two in romance. I’m so lucky he’s mine…
He teased me with a surprise outing for a week, only giving me small clues… Then, I awoke on Saturday morning to be told to meet him at Elliston Soda Shop for breakfast.
Then, after breakfast and a dozen roses, he walked me over to the salon & spa across the street, where he had arranged for me to be treated to a manicure, pedicure, facial and massage. I was blown away.
There was no special occasion, he did this “just because”.
Man oh man, I knew I loved him, but to be treated to a day like this was so sweet!!!
I’ve been all smiles…
After some deliberation and the realization that downtown Nashville might be a little overwhelming of an undertaking for this single mom with four kids, not to mention just a really long night (thinking about the traffic OUT of the area) and too many people drinking and potentially driving, I opted for a more “country” setting for our fireworks festivities.
The town of Nolensville, TN had a family friendly event planned with free rock climbing walls, inflatable bounce houses, face painting, a watermelon eating contest, and a stage with live entertainment throughout the evening. We all ate dinner then headed over to the park. I brought a blanket and laid it on the ground to hold our space, then enjoyed walking around and even got my own face painted with a firework design. The kids got free balloons and the chance to run around in a park filled with families and played with other children. When it started getting dark, we all headed back to the blanket to watch the fireworks.
All in all, it was a really enjoyable 4th of July. We were home and we were all tucked in by 11:30pm. Thanks to the town of Nolensville for putting on such a delightful event and to the firemen and police officers who were all on hand to help with crowd/parking and getting us all out on our way home efficiently. They also had the firetruck and ambulance tours for the kids. We had a wonderful evening. Thanks again, Nolensville.
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NashvegasAudrey 