wordless Wednesday

Tomorrow is our last choral competition of the year. Last time we won a lot of trophies and you know I want some more of those. One of the best parts of going to these things is not hearing all the wonderful choirs, but seeing so many of the creative wardrobe decisions made by choir directors who are apparently all blind.

touchdown?

Apparently it's always 1983 and we are all frumpy.

Sea foam? Why?

I have no words.

Wish me luck! For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.

Bruins

This weekend was honestly kind of stressful with my parents being gone but I attempted to stay as busy as possible to take my mind off things. Saturday we celebrated my Mother-in-law's 60th birthday at their house. I haven't decided to show pictures or not because I am very vain and will wear the same new dress for the engagement party we are throwing next week and I'm not sure I want all of my readers to know of the repeat. Except that I just told you. Anyway, a full Pratt family event landed on the same weekend that Meagan was going to be in town for less than 48 hours. We celebrated Sharon's brithday with lots of family and friends and then crashed the engagement party Meagan threw for her sister.

Since we arrived late we missed the food, piano player (who might or might not have been single but Leigh Ann apparently attempted to set up with Meagan..because you know if you're both single you have lots in common) but we still able to reconnect and make some new memories with some long lost bruin friends. Unfortuntately I didn't take too many blog worthy pictures, maybe next time.

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.

Noble Spring Dairy

After church on Sunday we went to the Noble Srings Dairy Open House. I was surprised with how cold it was but so glad to go. The goats were "cute" in their own goat way and the farm looked beautiful. Although it was pretty cold, a lot of people came out and it really enjoyable being outside. With animals...

The Nobles had Smoke Et Al food truck that was really delicious and warm on this chilly day.

Not for all the money in the world.

Cute Reese and Libby!

Finally got to meet the sweet neice Ms. Avery. She wowed us with her tricks including making many animal sounds and spelling her name! Such a cute and spunky little girl!

We weren't there for long but it really was fun! I hope everyone else had a great weekend!
For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.

30 for 30 update

I wish I could say I did something amazing like going to Napa or feel proud of being in a bathing suit but nothing that blog worthy yet. However... I did.. cook with some herbs. I know...stop the presses.



I used rosemary in our veggies tonight. To be perfectly honest, I didn't add enough and I couldn't taste it. I'm still counting this one as a win because I never specified that it had to taste amazing, just that I had to grow them and cook with them. Done.

A couple of weekends ago I planted rosemary, basil, and cilantro! I am basically Ina!  I wanted to plant mint but decided I only knew how to make a mojito intake would increase more than what I'm comfortable with, so the three it is.

1. Run a half-marathon.

               2. Decorate our guestroom with items that are not college leftovers.

                  3. Find a bathing suit that I love and feel good wearing.

                          4. Find a charity that I like and donate some time/money/etc.                                            

5. Go on a really fun weekend anywhere with my Mom.

                    6.Learn how to make 5 really good cocktails.

            7. Learn to really, really, really love my Dad's beer.

        8. Buy a nice piece of art.

      9. Learn how to grill.

    10. Do a pull up.

11. Learn how to make lemon icebox and lemon meringue pie..

12. Find a new brunch place with a great group of friends.

13. Enjoy the holidays. BAM!!!!

14. Do one of those painting/drinking nights with friends.

15. Read a book for pleasure at least once a month. (doing it!)

16. Grow tomatoes. (They are planted)

17. Throw P a really fun/stylish/blog-worthy 30th bday party.

18. Grow herbs (and cook with them!)

19. Love my job!

20. Visit Ray and Robin in Seattle.

21. Find a skin product routine that I like/can afford/will stick to.

22. Try some cheese and see if I still don't like them.

23. Join a new club/organization.Can I use Relay for Life for both? No, but here is the link again!

24. Learn how to make crepes.

25. Go to Napa Valley.

26. Own a wardrobe that I'm proud of.

27. Buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and make something in it.

28. Recycle. (omg, shame...shame, shame!)

29. Whiten my teeth.

30. Take a photography class.

31. Watch Ben graduate and celebrate B-I-G. (have to remove this one because Ben will be in Peru and not at his graduation...suggestions?!)

Still a long way to go!

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.

cousins weekend

For years my family has talked about getting together and doing an all girls cousins weekend. You would not think it would take literally years to get this accomplished but finally..we came, we cousined, we conquered.

We went to Dover, TN to visit Lake Darby and the Cumberland River (which I so comfortably visited from the window...nature is so overrated) and were met by fun cousins waiting to tell stories, laugh, and eat too many desserts. It was only one night, but we all had so much fun reminiscing and just enjoying being in each other's company.

This blog entry will be pretty short because we made a cousin pact promising everything we said would stay there.. like the Vegas minus the stripping, gambling and late night "massages", but other than that, you know just the same. Anyway, just trust me in knowing it was super fun and we talked about everything under the sun, except for you and your family of course.

In typical Natalie fashion, I was obsessed with having my camera charged and everything and took 3 entire pictures...whomp. At least the ones we took were cute.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend.

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne. 

spring break 2012 so far

We are back from the wilderness and I'm proud to say that even though P wanted to see (be killed by) bears so badly, we not only survived (beautiful cabin, cookouts regularly...you know roughing it) but we thrived!

The first night we stopped by the Kroger (P swears up and down it "moved" and he did not remember it in the wrong place...marriage lesson number 1...pick your battles...especially with directions, yes the Kroger moved and that map in Paris was wrong....)

P grilled fab veggies, chicken and steak for him, it was so yummy and relatively healthy especially for vacation fare. We saw countless billboard signs for Dave Ramsey and even though I think he degrades people and is a hypocritical jerk, I oddly took some sense of pride knowing he would be proud that we "acted our wage".

As I awoke the next day, I decided to go outside to check the weather. (Our phone reception was spotty so I was forced to rough it once again and actually go outside rather than use the weather channel app) and all the sudden this literally ran toward me like a pet that was yearning to get in.

Our new friend literally attempted to run in and I jojo circus style screamed and slammed the door before our guest came in .

Once P heard of our friend, the ultimate goal was to feed the wild animal from his hand. This was actually kind of sad. The fat squirrel paced back and forth and didn't want to take the food from P but knew the kettle chips were too much to pass up. As a fellow carb lover..... I get it.

And although it is kind of sad to make a wild animal feel totally uncomfortable and out of its natural surroundings... we did it again.

Luckily I took that photog class so I was able to get some pix. Err... more like... I just grabbed my camera and forgot to look at what setting it was on so get what ya get folks.

contact

The funniest part of this is how P kept remarking about how daintily squirrels ate. It don't take much folks to entertain in the smokies. Although this was exciting, I was scared to get into the hot tub from then on out. Plus, my Mom's stern warnings of all things gross lingered in my head... adding the possibility of a wild animal plopping in was too much to handle.

In other non related wild animal news, we had a fab time and it was seriously what the doctor ordered. I feel so much better and refreshed!

The rest of the week will be filled with Holy week obligations and visits with my Momma..hotty toddy spring break 2012.

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.

Hotty toddy, baby!

It's that time in our lives where everyone in their mother is having the babes. My sorority sister Aimee just had her second baby, Abby. Since they live in Houston I have not been able to meet the newest rebel but I know these will bring a little bit of Mississippi to the lone star state. The talented Jenna Abington created all of these and I think they turned out SO cute :) I can't wait for Abby to rock these during our winning (dear God, it's been a hard couple of seasons..helps the rebels out) season of 2012!

For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.

Big announcement

Happy weekend! We decided to let y'all know first!


Ha, happy April Fools:)

From the road to the mountains this has been Natalie-Corinne.

spring break



Can we talk about how I am 29 and am still having a spring break?

In my work world, this totally makes sense and honestly, I've never need a break more in my life...but when I'm around non-schoolin' folks, I always laugh a little a feel a tad bit Matthew McConaughey in Dazed in Confused.

"I get older...they stay the same age."

Not that I'm jetting off to Panama City Beach with the rest of teenage population but something always feels funny about celebrating this school time holiday. Since I still have my second church gig, I won't be totally responsiblity free...it is Holy Week after all. For a mini vaca, we are leaving for a quick trip to Gatlinburg for the next couple of days! I want to hike, get my photog on and just relaxing ... only problem is the black bears  are dominating TN these days.

So all the outdoor stuff sounds fun but I have yet to find some sort of hamster circle/ bubble kid contraption that saves me from animals in their habitat that I'm invading...maybe the fear will help improve my mile.

Happy Spring break! For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.



East Nashville beer festival

This weekend was just what I needed. I slept in Saturday and went on a nice run with Kate and then we went to East Nashville for a fun cook out with great friends and then the eat Nashville Beer Festival.

Sarah and Marco invited us over to their house and Marco grilled these amazing sausages and hamburgers and then we walked to the beer festival. At first I thought I was so doomed when I saw the huge crowd above but maybe it was the heat cooling off or the lines moving very quickly, or the quick absorption of alcohol...whatever the case, this was by far the best beer festival I've ever gone to. It's important to remember that these big alcohol related festivals are marathons not a sprints. If you drink all of every sip of every beer, you'll be a spilling, crying, telling secrets kind of mess in an hour. It's the quality definitely not the quantity and one that wants to "win" has to have a plan. Luckily I went to the prettiest, most winning university for tailgating ever and am a seasoned pro at extended day partying.

Jenna was a pro with a plan on how to get the most swag and the best beer. I felt like we were having a Michael Scott moment quite proud of the free stuff.

Thanks for a really fun weekend! The only thing I would have changed was for Dad and Mr. Ron were there to partake! Happy Sunday!
For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.