Smith's Visit to Nashville

Some of our family came in town this weekend on a college trip visit to Vanderbilt. Dianne is Jeremy's Uncle Chuck's wife and her daughter Lauren has started the search for the perfect college. They kicked it off with a girls road trip to Nashville!
We were so excited to get to spend time with them because they live in Florida and we don't get to see them very often. On Friday I gave them a tour of Vanderbilt and Lauren even got to have an impromptu meeting with an admissions counselor-score! I think she really loved the school and she's definitely got the brains to go here.


Saturday we went to the one-and-only Opryland Hotel (if you haven't been it's a must-see stop in Nashville). Here we are all standing in front of the river that runs through the hotel (yep they have a river inside the hotel).


Doodle posing.




Out for pizza at Joey's


What a fun weekend! I love having family in town.

Vandy Baseball

Without a major league team in Nashville (Go Braves!), we had to resort to college baseball for our spring fix. We were actually pleasantly surprised by how much fun it was!

It was the perfect day, sunny yet breezy, for a yummy Hog Heaven BBQ sandwich and some Commodore's baseball. If you haven't tried out Hog Heaven's delicious dishes - you must go! They are located on the side of Centennial Park in the shack-like building.

Feeling a little blue that for the first time in our nearly 10 year relationship neither one of us will be enrolled in school come May, we are trying to squeeze everything college-like in these last two months (knowing J, that school hiatus won't last very long).


Have you seen my baseball?


It was a tad windy at points.



I happened to capture a controversial moment in the game (A future in sports journalism? I think yes!) where you can clearly tell our player had his foot on 3rd base before the KY player tagged him. Unfortunately, the ump thought differently, resulting in major crowd booing/heckling and our coach freaking out! I love drama at sporting events!


We were joking about how delicious soda is compared to beer at a baseball game. NOT!

Spring Break!

It's spring break in the Byars household! Jeremy is out of school this week and since I work in the schools that means I have work off too! We both have class though so we can't go anywhere and decided to have a fun staycation.

I kicked off last weekend by throwing my childhood best friend, Brittany, a bachelorette party. I forgot my camera - hence no evidence- but it was so fun! Lots of good food, laughs, and honky tonk dancing.

Monday we spent the whole day in bed recovering. I can't remember the last time we were able to do this?! Hopefully we will get to some more fun things this week...other than that it's been pretty quiet around here :)

No updates on jobs or moving. Please be praying for both of us on the jobs front - it's such a frustrating process!!!

Valentine's Weekend

A Valentine's Bouquet I made with my crafty friend Karri

What a fun Valentine's Weekend (or Singles Awareness Day as some people refer to it)!
Friday we went with friends to the Wild Cow, a new vegetarian restaurant in East Nashville, and then to see the Dynamites perform at Mercy Lounge. It's a good thing the music was a lot better than the food (booo to vegan Mac n' Cheese...this is one thing that just cannot be replicated)!

When the lead singer introduced himself as Charles Walker the Shit Talker, I knew we were going to be in for a great night. I have never seen so many white people dancing to the blues in one place - it was DYNAMITE! Ha! Here is a little taste of The Dynamites:


Saturday we slept in and bummed around the house until we finally decided to go see Valentine's Day. It was a cute movie, but nothing to write home about. In general we're not really huge fans of movies trying to throw in every single actor/actress in Hollywood and yet it worked in this movie.



We then had a fancy dinner a la O'Charley's and settled in for the rest of the night to watch the Olympics. I LOVE the OLYMPICS! My favorite events to watch are the speed skating - go Apollo with your 6 medals-, skiing, and ice skating. GO TEAM USA.

Anywhoooo - hope you had a weekend filled with love and stay warm!

snow!

I can't remember the last time I saw this much snow in real life! Besides the entire city shutting down, it has been awesome! School/meetings were canceled on Friday, which left us a weekend of snow fun!

January Blahs

Listening: Jeff Larson - New Antiques album

Not much is going on here in January at the Byars's household. I think we are just in hibernation mode for the winter. Something about this time of year is depressing. Maybe it's the cold weather, the exhaustion over the craziness of the holiday spectacle, or the deadness of plant life, but I always struggle to feel that usual enthusiasm for life. Jeremy's family has a term for this that can't really be defined, but somehow perfectly describes this state of being, they call it the Moley Grubbies.

Classes have started back (Jeremy teaching high school/community college and me finishing my last semester of grad. school) and that is going really well. I'm taking a Program Evaluation class that is more skills focused, which seems like a good segue into the real (scary) world a.k.a. career world (insert horror movie soundtrack here). Speaking of the career world...I'm finding that it isn't as easy of a choice as I had previously thought. Once Jeremy was done with his Master's degree he knew exactly what he was getting into, but for me it's much more ambiguous - I hate ambiguity, but more than that I hate being stuck in a field that I don't really love without choices. I guess in a way I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too, however in my defense I would only take a small slice, without too much icing, preferably confetti cake, with chocolate ic...whoops there I go again.

The good thing is Jeremy and I are always on the same page as far as what we want out of our life. And so what if what we want for our lives is non-traditional and non-absolute? There is a struggle going on within us of how to balance our passions for life and/or/but how to make a living doing this. We aren't too worried about it, but soon we will have to make decisions, which is very hard for two indecisive people! I loved this quote from an NPR article that basically said instead of focusing on trying to keep up with the Joneses maybe we should be asking the Joneses how are they doing?

Did this confuse you as much as it confused me? Sorry this was more of a stream of consciousness entry. Ha! I have no idea where this is going- see this is what the Moley Grubbies do to a person....maybe I will have better luck in February?

2009 Holidays

Another holiday season has come and gone! After surviving a horrible sinus infection we were finally able to enjoy time with family and celebrate our long-time friends' wedding on New Year's Eve! We had a great time, but are definitely happy to be back home.
We are so excited to welcome 2010 and reflect upon an amazing decade - 2010 marks ten years that Jeremy and I have known eachother and it is overwhelming to think of how much we have grown up through the years. Here is a little time-line of our lives the past 10 years:

2000- As a sophomore and senior we meet in our high school theater class and remain "freinds" for the next couple years. Our first production together was "Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe
2001 - Jeremy graduates high school and attends college on a theatre scholarship. I remain in high school and still have a crush on him. We date briefly, but soon break-up due to his need to "find himself" in college.
2002 - Jeremy is doing what we lovingly call a "Tour de Georgia Colleges", while I finish up my senior year in high school. He finds out he has a viral periconditis of the heart, which dashes his hopes of attending North GA military college (thank GOD for this - it was a blessing in disguise!).
2003 - We start dating again and I graduate high school to attend Kennesaw State University. We soon find dating long-distance, J at UGA in Athens and me in Kennesaw, too much to handle so we break-up (again)...Then soon realize we cannot live without eachother and get back together 2 months later (we have been together ever since!).
2004 - Jeremy leaves UGA and transfers to KSU to be closer to me. He finally discovers his love for English and we both pursue our degrees.
2005 - He proposes to me on October 29th and I say "Are you serious?" and then "Yes!"
2006 - We get married on November 18 and enter married bliss! Also, Jeremy graduates college.
2007- J starts graduate school and simultaneously begins his first teaching job at Centennial high school in Roswell, GA. I graduate with my B.S. in Psychology.
2008 - I apply and am accepted to graduate school at Vanderbilt University and J graduates with is Master's of Teaching in English. We move to Nashville, TN to begin a new life here! J begins teaching English at Stratford High School in East Nashville.
2009- I continue to work as a research assistant at VU and attend grad. school for Community Development, while J continues to teach high school. We love our little house here and all the new friends we have made!
2010- Who knows where this year will bring us! Hopefully, new jobs and a move back to Atlanta?!?

Below are some photos of our holiday trip to Atlanta and our best friends', Kevin and Lindsey Planovsky, wedding. We wish you all much happiness in 2010!