Updating

I have lived in Nashville for just over 5 months now, getting used to my post-grad/school life, and here has been what’s going on!

Two of my goals when moving here were to begin piano lessons and continue learning sign language. Well, one of them has finally gotten to a start! I should be beginning the journey to being an interpreter for the Deaf. That’s right! I just got my degree in something completely different and now plan on going to school (after work) and taking classes for another profession! I think that explains my generation very well 🙂

The best thing about Nashville is the trees. Yes, the trees. They are tall, and BEAUTIFUL right now. I work on the third floor of my building, and catch myself staring at the trees all of the time during work. I’m going to be so sad when all of the leaves are gone though.

After dating Matt during two other Halloweens and not getting to dress up with him, I finally got my opportunity! We had ideas going on for weeks, and finally on the day before, we decided with something different and went with an early 90’s, Fresh Prince of Bel Air-type theme ;). It was a blast!

In two weeks I get to go back home to Texas. Ah! Home sweet home! I’m very happy to spend Thanksgiving with my family, being in my home and eating good food! Too much time has passed since I have seen my family, and it’s exactly what I have been needing.

Working Girl

Now that I’m working, I feel like that’s all my day consists of. Fortunately, I love my job and I feel like I’m doing good in the world by helping people. One thing I don’t want to resort to is going to work, getting home at 6, and just hanging around with whomever just because I’m tired and I will have to do it all over again the next day. So, I’m coming up with a list of things to do and try out during my work week and weekends!

1). Continue learning American Sign Language- This was one of two goals I had for when I moved to Nashville, and fortunately with the financial help of my parents, I will be able to take classes at a community college here! Yes, I will never stop being a student, haha! The class is once a week, immediately after work and for 3 hours, but I am so happy that I will get to continue learning ASL.

2). Take piano lessons- I have always wanted to learn how to play the piano, and this goal might be a little more difficult to obtain, but in the next 6 months I’m hoping to find a wonderful person (I want the stereotypical, 40-year-old mother whose house I can go to for lessons…Groundhog Day style!) to take lessons from.

3. Visit Chattanooga

Need I say more??

4). Visit Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg-

 

This is one of the good things about living in a much smaller state…The main cities of the state aren’t too far away, and other states are also close by! Fortunately for me, this means tons of traveling and being the ultimate tourist :).

Catching up

My apologies for not blogging for almost 3 weeks…I keep thinking of things to write, but when I have the time to do it. I don’t want to! Haha.

The 4th of July was great! I was afraid of downtown traffic and was hesitant to drive there to watch fireworks, but we only ran into traffic on the way home.

We were able to park in a small lot and watch the fireworks from there! No fuss, no people all around..it was perfect!

I also was hired for the position that I really wanted! Yay 🙂 🙂 God is good! I had 5 interviews, so the further into the process the better I felt. It was so nice to hear the words, ‘You’re hired”. Since I wasn’t starting the next day, I was able to go back home to Texas and visit my family and friends! Since my job is temp-to-hire, I won’t have paid time off, so I’m really not sure when the next time I will be able to go home will be. So this trip to visit for a week was just what I needed!

One thing I do every time I’m home is go to my old house. I still wish my parents lived there!

Of course, I felt like a total creep taking this picture. The new people need to water the grass!

 

 

But it was a very good visit. My grandmother recently moved from South Texas to about 15 minutes from my parent’s house, so I was able to see her twice, and I haven’t seen her in years.

This house, I think, was the first one to be built in our new neighborhood. As you can tell, it’s very unqiue!

Just hanging out

My favorite holiday, other than Christmas, would have to be the 4th of July. There is something so awesome about celebrating our country through fireworks and burgers; I feel like such a 5 year old just thinking about it 🙂  With that, here were the days leading up to the best day ever!

A few days ago, we spent our evening with the Brewer’s! They are one of the funniest couples ever, and their daughter Audrey is precious! Since the last time I saw her, which was in December, she has grown so much and officially talks a mile a minute.

Haha! Yes that picture was ‘staged’, but it really is how this family works. So stinkin’ funny.

She really loved her Uncle Matt! But who doesn’t love him? At one point she got her comb and even played with his hair.

Also, I went with my roommates and two of their friends to a cute restaurant called Taco Mamacita.

^ That is my roommate Katherine 🙂

^Katie, on the left, actually knows both of my roommates! When we needed a third roommate at the last second, she was the one who told us about Katherine! Such a cool story 🙂

My other roommate, Katie, is the one in the middle! And yes, I live with a Katie and a Katherine. It’s pretty funny 🙂

One thing that is nice about where we live is that it is so close to downtown. Our drive to the restaurant was only a few minutes, and we were basically in downtown Nashville.

I’m really wishing I had started working a few weeks ago so I could have money to waste spend on 4th of July stuff…I can just picture our house being full of red, white and blue items…We tried to get RWB nail polish last night, but for some CRAZY reason, neither Kroger nor Walgreens had some. So sad!

Aunt Ashlye

I am so excited to finally get to say in public that I’m going to be an aunt! This will be my first niece/nephew, so I am incredibly excited to have a little baby in the family that is actually my blood! What a lucky baby to have me as his/her aunt 😉

Mr. Penguin

My days are blurring together, so I don’t have much exciting things to blog about…so here it goes 🙂

My job situation is looking up, WAY up. I nearly settled for a simple retail job to get me by, but took some risks and things have worked out in my favor. One thing I won’t talk about on here is my (future) job, and what exactly I will be doing, but I’m very happy thinking that I’m this close to landing a job 🙂 I don’t just want a job to pay my bills, but I want something that I wake up for and am excited to work for and do good in the world, and I really feel that this company will make me feel this way.

Today, Matt and I went to the Parthenon to have dinner and walk around together (the latter one didn’t happen due to my need to use the bathroom, haha). Eating together is a constant struggle for me as I am trying to get on a path of eating fairly healthy, and Matt can basically eat anything (gluten-free) that he wants! So I was happy to cook a meal at home and then bring it up to the park. If you know me, you know how obsessed I am with all animals, so the moment a bird came over begging for food, my heart melted. We had two squirrels and a couple random birds around us, but one pigeon stayed around us the entire time. At times I literally forget words, so instead of calling the bird a pigeon, I accidentally called it a penguin. So, why not name him Mr. Penguin? He was very sweet 🙂

 

And, of course, I had to add a ‘Maeby picture of the day’ picture. Love it!

 

 

My half roommate

If you didn’t know, I have a half roommate, or at least that’s why roommate Katherine calls her. Her name is Maeby, and she is a cat! Don’t ask me what breed, because I don’t believe that cats come in breeds (haha), but I thought that I would dedicate this post to my little clawed friend. She can be sweet, and it’s definitely nice to have a furry friend walking around the house, but when I treat her like a dog, I am QUICKLY reminded that she is not. She also makes me want a dog even more than before, but that won’t be happening for awhile. But overall, Maeby is very cute and makes my laugh 🙂

Today marks 3 weeks since I have moved to Nashville. When my parents and I began the trek from Grand Prairie to Nashville, my mom would say that she felt she was just moving me here for grad school. And you know what? At times it feels that way. Having grown up in one house and living in Texas my entire life, this still doesn’t feel permanent. I think a bit of homesickness will be a way of life for awhile, until I can really connect with people without solely being known as “Matt’s girlfriend”. But I definitely am enjoying this place 🙂

So FINALLY, here are some pictures of my place! I still have a lot of ideas for my room, but I need to be good with my money right now 🙂

 

We had quite the thunderstorm the other day, and couldn’t bring my new flowers to safety for awhile because of the lightning. So when I took this picture, they were a little depressing, but have gotten better looking.

Video Shoot

Over the past few days, Matt has been doing two music videos, and this has been my first time to really see him in this video element. It has been pretty hot these past few days, so I can only imagine how taxing this all can be for everyone involved! The area they were shooting in today was so cute! Right downtown, but I felt like it was in an episode of Desperate Housewives 🙂

Also, a group of us saw Super 8 yesterday…the movie buff that I am (heh heh), would probably give it a B-. It had a lot of action that kept me watching, but there were WAY too many lense flares (of course, was taught this term by Matt), and the plot was a little weak. But, I would still recommend it.

Matt’s brother and sister-in-law, as well as his niece and nephew came in town from Minnesota (accent included while typing)! Of course, it’s always great to see them all and see how the youngens have been growing!  Matt’s niece is probably at the cutest age, which is 14 months. She is attempting to walk, and has the most adorable wobble 🙂

Nashville!

Wow I have been slacking on my blog! My apologies. Much has been going on here; of course moving in to a new place and getting my room and everything situated. My room is smaller than the previous rooms I have had in college (other than a dorm room, of course), so that has been something I have had to get used to. Not that I lived in a 20×20 room, the others were just a little more spacious. So with that, I have decided to paint!! Yes, I have always dreamed of painting…I’m like Nate Berkus’s long lost child. I chose a ‘silver sateen’, ultimately a medium to light gray. It came out a little darker than what I originally wanted, but it still looks really good. Pictures to come in the future!

Still on the job hunt, but that’s alright! I still have graduation money keeping me afloat, and I should actually hear back soon in regards to a retail job I want to get, for the time being.

Cicadas, also known as an ugly and more pesky version of a locust, have invaded Nashville. They are extremely loud, which is fine because it’s not like I’m outside all of the time. But the annoying part is that they are flying around as if we are experiencing one of the plagues! It’s funny, though, to see people get hit by one or have one land on them, and to see the person swat the bug off in a hurry. However, I think they should be gone any day now! Praise the Lord 🙂

Other than that, things have been going well. I have been doing some ‘big girl’ things, such as going to get a Social Security card, mowing the lawn and of course applying for jobs. While I am enjoying this time, I’m still in no rush to be a big girl. I have to do that for the rest of my life! So right now, I’m enjoying what’s going on 🙂