All About the Titans

Brent said my day today was all about the Titans, so I guess that's a fitting title for today!

We woke up around 7:30 to some storms moving in, and Lilli woke up around 8. The rain didn't last long and afterwards it was SO steamy all day. I took her to a Kids Day Event at Lifeway around 11. A new VeggieTales movie came out today, so we had a little event where they show the movie and give out some snacks and some items are on a 1-day special. I had never taken her before and when I got there I realized I had my camera - but no battery or memory card! And it was so cute - there were probably 15-20 other kids there and since this was a princess movie they gave out little tiaras to the girls. Anyway, she had a great time and probably watched about 20 or so minutes of the movie before she started moving everything around in the store and we came home for lunch and nap.

I swear I have about 5,000 pictures exactly like this.Single game tickets went on sale for the Titans this morning at 10. Every single game over the past 10 (or 11) seasons has sold out, and it's pretty stinking hard to get tickets. Some people with nothing better to do have even been camped out at the Stadium since Tuesday in line. (Seriously, get a life.) Two years ago we were out riding bikes, training for a 50K, when tickets went on sale and got a couple - which is the only game we've been to together. This morning I was passing through the kitchen about 10 after 10 and remembered tickets had just gone on sale so I logged on really quickly and was able to find a game that still had 2 seats left together (most games had already sold out - there were only a few left to pick from!) I ended up getting us two nosebleed tickets to a game in late October - I think it's versus Philadelphia. Kids under 2 are free and can sit in our lap, so as long as it's a nice day in October Lilli will get to wear her Titans cheerleader outfit to an actual game!

On the website I had noticed today was the first day of public practice. The practice complex is just a couple of miles away, so I figured it would be some free fun for us to go to and get out of Brent's hair while he was working on the deck. Practice was from 3:30-5:30 so we loaded up and headed over around 3:45.

I know little to nothing about football, and really don't care much for it. I've always thought the practice facility aka The Bubble looks pretty cool so I was excited to get to go inside it. And it was BLAZING hot today - 95 degrees at 4 pm - so I thought this would be a nice, air conditioned outing for us. Um, wrong. I still don't know what's in The Bubble because practice is outside on their very lovely field next to the River. Ooops.

Luckily in my enormous, 50 pound diaper bag I keep two different types of sunscreen so we were able to lather up. I had no clue what to expect - all kinds of people showed up with coolers and blankets and chairs. We just showed up.In my little mind there would be very few people there, it would be nice and climate controlled with cushy chairs inside the Bubble and Lilli would be so adorable that we got interviewed by all the networks and got lots of pictures with the players, the famous ones. In reality most of Nashville was there, it was sunny with no shade and 95 degrees, and the players were so far off I couldn't even tell you who was who. I did see "the guy with the long dreads" that I remember seeing a lot on TV last year. Lilli was mostly interested in playing with sunscreen and saying Hi to everyone around us. And climbing the fence. We watched from this great little grassy spot for probably 30-45 minutes. The crowd stretched completely around the field and the fence was lined with spectators. We were able to score a nice little grassy spot which worked out great since we had to sit on the ground. This end was a little far away from the action, though.
Hot Toddler!
The areas closest to the main spots they were working out were very narrow, next to the River. It was really standing room only here with some small spots to stand and watch. Before we left we walked through here to get a closer look at the players.
I did some eavesdropping and reportedly this is our Defense.
And this is the offense. I recognize the one guy on the right with the long dreads. I tried to figure out who the quarterback is by looking at the #s on spectators jerseys and trying to find him, but never could. Brent said he would be wearing a red jersey and I don't recall ever seeing a red jersey out there.
We had fun! I would definitely go back - parking was super organized and it was just a nice relaxed time and free entertainment. We were SO sweaty when we got back to the car that I pulled into Taco Bell to get us a couple of frozen drinks. Mine was overtaken by Lilli! I think Brent enjoyed his surprise, too! I didn't get any pictures of the deck - another much stronger system with lots of lightning moved in around 8:30 tonight and it's been raining. He got one set of stairs done today and more of the balisters and railings. It was kind of slow going since he also had to finish and drop off his work for the Tomato Art Festival.
Then dinner - we decided we would try the new Steve's restaurant over here in East Nashville off Gallatin Road. Ugh. I wish we could change that decision. First of all they have NO kids menu which is just stupid. And their food is not cheap - literally we got 2 waters, I ended up having to get a Shrimp Dinner so I could split with Lilli (all it comes with is two sides and a piece of toast) and Brent got a Philly Cheese Steak and it cost us $29. That is ridiculous - we had a table full of great food last night at Waffle House for $12! The food is good but nothing special and their menu is pretty boring. And our waitress was new and clueless - and ended up spilling Brent's water all over him (literally she knocked his glass over in his lap). Everyone makes mistakes but I guess she was so embarrassed after that that she literally wouldn't ever come back over to us - so by the end of our meal we had nothing to drink and were ready to go! Not a good experience and needless to say we won't be back! Live and Learn!

I guess it's off to have some Titans dreams to end my day!

Waffles and Go Karts

Today was just "one of those days". I got called a couple of times being told that Lilli had a light fever and just wasn't being herself. I finally said I'd come get her around 2:45 - we all have bad days, it just doesn't mean we really need to be sent home. Who do I get to call when she's being fussy??? Um, no one. She was super excited to see me and in a great mood, we got home had a snack, took a little ibuprofin for her teeth (they've really been bothering her - hence the 99 degree temp and irritableness) and got to playing. I also had the bombshell dropped on me this afternoon that she'd be moving up to the next room - Toddler 2 - on MONDAY. Um, wow. We LOVE her current teachers right now, so I'd be more than happy if she stayed in there forever! We knew it was inevitable since Tod 2 is 18-24 monthers, but that doesn't always necessarily mean anything if classes are full. Now instead of being 2nd oldest she'll be the youngest again, which of course always brings a few extra bumps and bruises. And now my days of prepping lunches and snacks are also over since food is provided in the next room. I'm just hoping it's food she likes! In the next class up they also start working on potty training and drinking with cups. I thought I should go ahead and work on the cup thing this afternoon - It's really not a big cup, it just looks big next to her! She did ok - a good bit when down the front of her but she's getting the concept of properly tilting it. Of course Pippin was nearby if any food or drink should go overboard....
Then of course we had to play with Baby. Both Baby and Pippin were promptly put to Nighty Night.
She looooves to play with my camera. She's been able to review the pictures on my card for quite a while now, but this week she's really been into taking pictures. I don't think she did a half bad job of catching me!
After Brent got home he did a little work on his pieces he has to drop off tomorrow for the Tomato Art Festival, and then we headed to Waffle House. Our favorite one is over by Opryland/Opry Mills. It's SO sad to go over there now after the flood since everything is still closed. We were the ONLY people eating there - the neighborhood all around was completely covered in water so there's few residents and no tourists. Our super friendly waitress said it's always empty. Once again Lilli was a major flirt and the hit of the empty restaurant - getting me a free glass of orange juice - woo hoo!! We do so well at Waffle House - we've got our little add a side of this and that and the 3 of us can eat off one combo meal for $12. NOT BAD! That's a lot of food we had, too!

I love Lilli's "get in my mouth waffle" face! Not sure why I have such a look of concentration just cutting up a waffle....
Afterwards we drove through the neighborhood and it was so sad to see the empty houses with big green X's on the door. This neighborhood is completely wiped out and there were some really pretty houses there. We thought we'd see if the Wax Museum was open for some oddball fun but it seems the lack of tourists has closed them....
So we went over to Grand Old Gold instead. She loved watching the Go Karts!
For some reason the big packs would make her laugh...
The first group we watched had quite a few riders, the couple we saw after weren't nearly as full.

Their golf course is really pretty, but we had pulled in around 8 (her bedtime) so we figured she'd be tired and fussy before we could finish a round so we'll have to go back later.Instead we went inside and played a few games. I found this "mini"Skeeball type thing and their games were just a quarter so we let her play a few rounds.
We let her stand up on the little thing and she could just toss them right in. She had so much fun with it! Of course Brent wanted high points she he held her over the bigger numbers, ha!
Sleepy little girl ended up with 3 tickets and held them all the way home.
Another fun Friday night out!

The Daily Update

Just an ordinary day around here. Brent picked Lilli up this afternoon because I was getting my hair cut and snapped this cute pic. That's Henley, Annabelle, Jada and Lilli with Miss Stephanie. They were all just hanging out in the cozy corner reading books and being girls. All the boys had already left for the day!As you can see from the above pic, the lawnmower and vacuum are hot commodities in the 1's right now. There's also a new grocery cart we were told Lilli pushed a baby doll around in all day today. Here she is yesterday morning helping Miss Shannon get the room all vacuumed for the day!After dinner tonight! Chili, quesadillas, fruit and a few M&Ms for a treat! Looks like someone enjoyed dinner!
And here's how the deck (and Pippin) are looking this evening. Tonight Brent got quite a few of the balusters installed. When they're all in they'll be trimmed off.
Side view:
Another view - Brent finished installing the rest of that section tonight before calling it a night.

That's it for tonight! So glad tomorrow is Friday and hopefully we can get a lot done on the deck - especially the stairs so we can quit carrying Pippin on and off the deck to do his business!

Doctors and Decks

First the deck update -

The decking is now installed all the way up to the house, no gaps!Most of the top and bottom parts of the handrails are up:
Another view of the railings:
And the angle back towards Mark's house:
It's looking good! Brent's having to take a little break from it to get his pieces ready for the Tomato Art Show since it's all due this week and he hasn't started. Oops! Gotta say I'm not too excited about it since she changed the commission she's charging AFTER the commitments from artists were taken. Not cool or professional, and considering the insane fees she will now be charging the price artists will have to charge is going to be just stupid at the show.

Yesterday afternoon we had Lilli's 18 month appointment! She is SO much more aware of the doctor's office now. She had fun out in the waiting room staring at the fish tank but as soon as we were called back to the exam room and we sat her on the table she started crying. She didn't want any part of it, so we made it a little bit better by having Baby with us - we weighed Baby first, Dr Rauth also "examined" Baby and so on. (Our new-found complete and total obsession with Baby is going to have its own post soon.)
Lilli always makes sure Baby is well fed!! Tonight Baby had to "eat! eat!" multiple times.
She only had to get one shot this time, woo hoo! AND this was her final immunization until she starts kindergarten! WOO HOO! We'll still be getting the flu shot, but from here on out she just has well baby visits annually for her birthday. We made it! From the 2 week, 1 month, 2 month, 4 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month, 15 month and now the final 18 month visit! It's going to be strange not having an upcoming appointment to get her weights and measures. I know we'll still be there when she's sick, but it's a crazy feeling knowing we're "free" now.

She was madder than a wet hen about her one shot, but the Dora Band-Aid, and Cinderella sticker helped, and later that evening she was just fine. So fine that Brent put her to work on the deck.
She loves the new deck and pretty much every time we go out there she says "WooooW." Very flattering! But you can't leave your tools for too long or she'll take over command of the hammer, tape measure or drill.
She walked around yesterday hammering everything. Tonight she found the drill unattended and tipped it right over like she knew what she was doing. She has really, really been watching everything going on.

That's all for tonight! Time for "Nighty Night"!

That's My Girl!

So tonight was our big refinance. Our closing time was at 5:30 which is kind of stinky in it's late but nice in that we didn't have to leave work early or anything, but then again not late enough that we could meet up and carpool together to get there. And, it was late enough that Pippin needed a potty break since I knew we'd probably end up having dinner in Green Hills where we closed at. So, from 3:30 on I was a driving machine - first I came home and let Pippin out for a couple of minutes, then picked up Lilli and then we headed out towards Green Hills. Traffic can be awful or ok, and today it was great so we got out there 45 minutes early and ended up walking around the mall before heading over to the lawyer's office to meet Brent.Lilli was a MESS. She is all about her baby doll these days, so she fed it her snacks while we signed 5,000 papers. Then she let a HUGE one rip in the quiet office and we all DIED laughing. Afterwards she had the biggest smile on her face and we just all lost it, so with all of us laughing at her she was laughing too. It was pretty much hilarious. I think I was crying I was laughing so hard, I guess I should have been embarrassed but what can you do? She can't help it! And our closing agent was a young guy so he lost it right along with us and had a great story to tell his buddies tonight.

Afterwards we went to the nearby Greek restaurant Kalamata's. Their food is SO good! I wasn't sure if Lilli would like it, but she loved her Greek chicken and rice. I didn't have one of her forks in my purse and she did great with the regular one.
The WHOLE time she was flirting with the waiters and chef. The chef had walked through a few times checking on everyone and she'd always put a big fork full of food in her mouth when he'd come by so of course he loved that. When Brent went back up to pay and check out their desserts he sent back this little pastry cookie for her free of charge. How nice!! She loved it (and the cheesecake Brent got for ME!) Dinner was great, I had a gyro sandwich and Brent had a chicken salad gyro.
Here's the outside of the restaurant:
The whole evening a big storm had been brewing - even at 4:45 it had been thundering, but it didn't start getting really dark until we were leaving the restaurant at around 7 pm. It was DARK over downtown with crazy lightning, and the closer we got to home (aka downtown) it was pitch black with possibly some of the craziest lightning I've ever seen. The clouds were nuts and looked like a tornado could easily drop out of them. I was so thankful to make it home safe and Brent said he could tell I was nervous because I was driving fast. Ha!
Once we got inside we turned the weather on and it really started getting bad. There were several "rotations" in our neighborhood and the lightning sounded like it was on top of our house. We cleared out the little closet for us and we stayed in until the storms weakened. Pippin always stays right with us during storms as our little guard dog. Lilli had fun playing with the box of screwdrivers in there since we didn't have time to grab any toys before heading in. Pippin was a little more experienced and brought one of his rawhides in with him. Ha!
All in all quite the eventful evening! Hopefully tomorrow will be more low key! Lilli has her 18 month shots tomorrow afternoon and the she'll be DONE with all her immunizations and well baby checks! From here on out it will just be the annual birthday visits and flu shots. I guess tomorrow Dr Rauth will officially declare us responsible parents (good thing she wasn't in the closing meeting with us today!)

More Deck...

The new deck is coming right along...

Of course even though she hasn't been around it at all Lilli managed to already get injured from the project - we were playing in her splash pool yesterday afternoon and she tripped on a stack of lumber and whacked herself in the head above her eye.It's late so no real time to post and Brent is having me help him clear up everything since it may rain tomorrow. Here's one of the last daylight pictures we took today:
And here's how it looks a few minutes ago. It went a lot slower today with just Brent working on it and me watching Lilli. It was nice having the families up here on Friday and Saturday to help move things along faster.
He got up close to the house but since those boards will need to be ripped and will take longer to cut that's something that should be done during the day. But he did get started on the railings.
It's been SO hot. I have a huge bag of empty Gatorade bottles for the recycle can. It's been 100 the last 3 days of work on the deck and I think everyone got a random spot or two sunburned. This is how Lilli looked after just a 1 mile walk in the stroller (hot and sweaty, she's not sunburned.)
So, it's been a VERY busy weekend but pretty productive! We have a busy week of refinancing after work tomorrow, and Lilli has a pm 18-month well baby visit on Tuesday so time might be short the next few days on the deck but hopefully not!