Paintings, Budgets, and Galas, Oh My!

For the last several weeks, I have been soooooo excited because I was looking forward to last Wednesday when my mom came to town to cash in her Mother's Day gift (a Gift Certificate to Paint + Canvas).  We arrived at the location only to find out we were the only people signed up for the class.  Because the teacher is so wonderful, she informed us we could scan the wall and pick another picture if we liked.  We found one we both loved and got to work.  I was so proud of my mom for her first painting; she did an excellent job and LOVED it!  I am so mad that I forgot to take a picture of our paintings, because they looked really cool!

My weekend was really busy.  Friday night was spent meeting to prepare the budget for the 2010-2011 Fiscal year of the Nashville Junior Chamber.  I will be giving up my Treasurer duties as of July 1, and becoming an elected Board Member.  While I have enjoyed keeping up with the money of the NJC for the last 2 years, I am excited to venture into my new position!

Saturday night was the Nashville Junior Chamber Gala!  This is a night to celebrate all members and recognize the ones who have stood out during the year.  Stacy and Andrew hosted us for a pre-party beforehand, and then we hopped in a cab and headed downtown. 

Patrick and I posing for the camera.

These guys sure do clean up well!  And congrats to Chase for winning Board Member of the Year.

Stacy, Rachel and I -- Cab Buddies

Congrats to Casey for winning the Sherry Glover Award

All of the new Board Members (minus Nini) -- So glad to be serving with these ladies!

Dancing the night away, as usual!

The famous Boxing Game -- Patrick was sooooo good!

After waking up Sunday and surprisingly NOT having a hangover, we decided to head to grab Sunday Brunch at a place neither of us had been, Copper Kettle.  We loved it and definitely recommend it for a nice tasty breakfast in Nashville.  After that, we drove to the Hill Center in Green Hills and walked around a little bit.  After that, it was time to head to our final kickball game of the Spring season.  It was sooooooo HOT, but we managed to pull out a win, so that was great!  We ended the weekend with a nice dinner at Chili's with Kat and Mickey!  A nice end to another CRAZY-BUSY weekend!

MAS

One Last Relaxing Weekend!

On Memorial Day Weekend, the much anticipated Sex and the City 2 was released.  While my girls and I wanted to see the movie, we all decided that perhaps we weren't SO excited that we had to see it opening weekend.  Therefore, we ventured out on the Wednesday after it was released.  On June 2, Kathleen, Lindy, Andrea and myself met at Baja Burrito (my absolute FAVORITE "build your own burrito"), and much to our surprise, the power was out.  They said they would still serve us if we had cash, so we decided to partake in their wonderful food.  After that we headed over to Hollywood 27 to watch the movie.  I enjoyed it a lot and actually liked it better than the first one in a lot of ways.  I'm not sure the other girls agreed, but all in all, it was a fun night.

Because of the craziness that summer brings, and also because of weddings, trips, and various other events, the first weekend in June was one of the last weekends I had this summer to simply relax.  On Friday night, I participated in some much desired "Melissa time" and just hung out at home.  Sat. was spent with a make-up kickball game, and then Patrick and I decided to have a date night at the Taste of Music City.  Despite the venue and set-up change, we had a great time.  I see this event as a great way to celebrate downtown Nashville, and after the events at the beginning of May, I think we are all ready to appreciate this great city!

MAS

May in Review

In an attempt to catch up to my lack of blogging for the last month, I thought I would take this time to update everyone on what was left of the month of May.  The next weekend was quite busy:

I tried out the new Hendersonville Sips 'n Strokes with Amber and Sandy.

Then, I met up with Patrick at Rachel's 70s themed birthday party.

The following day we celebrated with Adam and Alacia as Baby Hannah was baptized.

The next weekend was Memorial Day Weekend, so it was quite busy as well.  I took the day off on Friday and so my new furniture could be delivered (no pictures, yet...I'm waiting to get the room finished).  Saturday evening was spent with all of my "Brentioch" friends as we ventured out on the 1st Annual Brentioch Bar Crawl.  Since so many of us live in the Nippers Corner area, we decided that it would be fun to have a night out that did not include a cab ride home; therefore, we decided we would spend an entire night in this area going to various restaurants and bars.  The pictures were almost as fun as the night:

All the girls singing the night away at Karaoke.

The weekend was complete with a Sunday afternoon party at "Gooch Beach" and a trip to the lake on Monday with the Steeles'.  Man, it sure was hard to go back to work on Tuesday!

MAS

30th Birthday!

Well, I have to say that even though I had great intentions with writing a blog, I haven't been the most diligent.  Therefore, I have made it my personal mission to try to write 1 blog per week (and also to work out more often...we shall see how that goes)  =). 

Since this blog started partly because I turned 30, I suppose that's the best place for me to start.  My 30th Birthday was honestly one of the best days of my life, to date.  It started out the same way it does every year, with a phone call from my amazing mother!  She always says that she is so proud of me and that she prays for me and thanks God for me everyday.  How could you not be happy when your b-day starts out like that?  =)  I arrived at work that morning to a decorated office and plenty of goodies for everyone to share.

After working a half day, I headed home to put the final touches on everything for my party that evening.  It was supposed to be at the trendy cabana at Werthan Lofts, but alas there was a ginormous thunderstorm that came through about 2 hours before the event.  Therefore, we moved the party to my house.  It was a great time!  All of my closest friends came, including some great friends from Knoxville and my brother and sister, who I never seem to get to spend enough time with:

SOOOOO glad that Andi and Rob drove in from Knoxville!!!!!

Elaine and Ken also made it to town!

Super happy to be celebrating with this guy in my life!!!  =)

Several other great friends who attended the party.

Once the party started to die down, several of us (much to Patrick and Mickey's protests) headed downtown to mine and Kathleen's favorite country bar, The Stage!  Since both of our boyfriends are extremely anti-Country music, neither of us feel like we get enough of this place anymore.  I think we both were secretly looking forward to this part of the night more than anything else.

Daniel and Laura enjoyed their night out in Nash-Vegas!

So glad Alysia and Kevana joined us! (Rumor has it these lovely ladies were quite popular at The Stage!)

Thanks for being such a great BFF, Kat!!!

Looks like Patrick had fun despite his cries that he HATES country music.  =)

The next morning, Patrick and I had breakfast with my brother and sister before they headed back to Knoxville, THEN he surprised me with a trip horseback riding.  It was amazing, and such a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon:

We had a great time, but needless to say, it rained and we were SOAKED!!!!!

We finished the evening off with a wonderful dinner at The Palm...I had never been there before so we decided to splurge!  What a wonderful Birthday!  I can't wait to see what the next year holds!!!!!

MAS