The Friday Five

1. Friday. The simple fact that it is Friday is making me so happy today. Its been a loooooong week. G will finally be home after two weeks of traveling and we're having dinner tonight with some good friends. Solid start to the weekend. 

2. Chili. Making the first big pot of chili of the fall this weekend and I cannot wait. 

3. My new mug. I got this mug last weekend in Nashville and I can't even take the cutenesss! Schnauzer eyebrows and beards kill me even in ceramic form. 

4. This girl. Macy had been acting strangely for a few weeks so I took her to the vet about a week ago and it turns out my girl has a UTI and was kind of dehydrated. Sadface. She's been on antibiotics and has water added to her food and she seems to be back to her old self. Poor little thing. 

5. The Pampeered Chef. I recently took the plunge after attending a few TPC shows and decided to become a consultant. I really do love the products and the extra money will be nice considering my desire to travel every while also supporting my love of expensive material goods. I never thought I'd go into direct sales but here I am and very excited! If you are local to Baltimore/DC contact me to host a show! 

Lately...

I've been trying very hard to be positive this school year. We got two first year teachers in our department and they are great and definitely the dose of good we needed as of late. I've tried so hard to stay positive but its back again. The exhaustion. The frustration. The constant "What I am doing here?" thoughts. Long hours, heavy workload, and students who want to do what they want to do when they want to do it and will make your life miserable if you don't let them have taken their toll.

I don't want to complain and be sad and angry because lately I've started become just a tad annoyed at all the complaining we teachers seem to do. But. But damn, lately it's been hell and I'm back to reconsidering my career choice.

Thankfully, Thanksgiving break and Christmas break (!) are nearing soon and we (me and them) will get a necessary reprieve from each other. Here's hoping we all make it.

Scenes from a Nashville Weekend

This past weekend, hubby and I headed down to Nashville, TN to celebrate one of our dearest friend's 30th birthday. Her and her husband recently moved to Atlanta from Baltimore and I can't even express how much we miss them. When she sent the initial Nashville email her husband and I co-conspired to surprise her by not telling her I was coming down and we pulled it off! It was really fun to surprise - she was shocked to see me when I walked into their hotel room. It was such a fun weekend and I am still suffering from post-weekend depression. Nashville is a crazy place but I loved it and want to go back!

We stayed at the Omni Hotel Downtown Nashville. It just opened on September 30th and it was definitely the newest hotel in which I've ever stayed. I usually avoid hotel bars (unless its post wedding) but this place had great food and drinks.

The husband was in Orlando all last week so we met up in Nashville on Thursday night before the rest of the crowd showed up on Friday afternoon. I took a little stroll around Broadway and the surrounding areas on Friday morning.

The rest of the group ate here and I was a little jealous but G and I had met up with some of our family that lives out in Franklin and had just eaten at Puckett's Grocery, which was amazing. Fantastic pulled pork sandwich.

 A lot of time was spent here. Pretty cool place. 

 My husband loathes taking pictures and make sure to ruin them every chance he gets.

 See? Every chance.

 We took the Studio B tour and it was awesome. I really didn't expect to be that enthused about it at all but standing in the same spot as greats like Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, and Roy Orbison was pretty amazing to me.

 The piano that Elvis played on and recorded my most favorite Christmas song, "If I Get Home on Christmas Day" as well as many other songs.

Love!

I didn't get any pictures of the restaurants we ate at but they were both wonderful and I would highly recommend- Merchant's and The Farmhouse. We also had burgers at Past Perfect- it was good but not great. Beyond eating and drinking, there was dancing at an 80s and 90s dance party, browsing boot shops, and all around merriment. 

Anyone else ever been to Nashville? What did you think?

Post Office Outfit Inspiration

On Saturday morning I was standing in line at the post office when I spotted a chick in front me wearing an outfit I knew I had to recreate immediately. Before I tell you what she was wearing, let it be known that I am a pretty laid back dresser. I am, after all, a P.E. teacher by day. I also have an affinity for gray in all areas of my life. Love that color and will always choose it if its an option. In this case, this woman was wearing the following: 

J.Crew Merino Pocket Tunic

and a pair of cropped black pants...

J.Crew Pixie Pants

and a pair of these...

Nike Air Max 90

Truthfully, I was headed to the mall later that day with the intention of trying on and possibly buying the pocket tunic (in gray, of course) but after spotting this chick's outfit it was a definite purchase. So after my stop at J.Crew I proceeded to Lady Footlocker and tried on a pair of Nike Air Max 90s and I can't even tell you how much I want a pair of these. I absolutely love the idea of this outfit. Comfortable yet chic. Thankfully,  I already own a pair of Joe's Jeans jeggings that I scored at T.J. Maxx about 3 years ago that will work for this outfit. My mom, sister, and I are headed to the Leesburg, VA outlets in about 3 weeks where I am hoping to score a pair of Nike Air Max 90s. My sister thinks I'm crazy but I cannot wait to make this outfit come to life.