it's been like 20, 000 years

I mean... I moved. Still have a house on the market (which means we have to go to do our laundry at our old house and that most of our furniture is still at old house so we have less than 7 pieces of furniture. We have lots of empty rooms and are living as glorified squatters. Hello, American dream.) Went to festival competition with my choir. We got all superior ratings. What, what. Had a birthday. Was super tame and I worked the entire time. Missed my Mom a lot this birthday. Survived the musical. It went well and it ended and then I got to see my family again. Went back to the church. Preparing a lot of music for a new concert. Survived holy week.. just barely :) Had such a really fun 13 hour Easter which I will now show you pictures of . 

On Saturday we went to Arrington Vineyards with friends before I had to scoot off to Easter vigil. Since I was so busy with church obligations I was getting really down about not being able to do the bunny cake, do an Easter egg hunt, or anything else at our house. Holidays are fun but we are gone constantly so I've been getting kind of antsy about Austin not having memories at our house. My friends came to the rescue and we did a quick egg hunt and enjoyed some adult beverages and company. I think my 2 glasses of wine greatly helped my singing at Easter vigil. 

I put raisins in the eggs because Austin can't eat candy and Clayton was not impressed! He said, "is this a joke?" when he opened it. Really, it was so hilarious, probably the best part of our day. Anyway, I put a dollar in the golden egg and I might have redeemed myself! 

Look at his cute face :) 

The fake Easter grass was a huge hit!

On Easter I had 2 Easter services and then we went over to Sharon's house for lunch. Austin took a huge nap which is usually amazing but this made us really late. What can you do? We plan so much and then our plans never work out!

I just love seersucker! 

Sharon's bunny cake

Austin was just so over pictures so this was it for a while. 

After lunch we went to Murfreesboro to celebrate with Toni, her family and my dad. 

4th Easter egg hunt! Still never got the hang of it but he was pretty cute either way. 

Toni got them all seersucker and Gavin wore his bow tie all day! Impressive. 

Easter basket 2014

Easter basket 2013. You might notice some repeats. I realized there was some stuff I bought him last year that we never used so the Easter bunny recycled :) 

I couldn't get one of him looking at me but this one is pretty dang cute :) 

Aunt Ashley giving Austin some bath toys! I think it's safe to say our boy had a great Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone. 

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

new blog look

I need a new blog look.

I am unaware of how this happens.

I keep looking at the options on blogger and frankly, I can do better.

Any suggestions? How do y'alls look SO, SO, SO much better?!?

This girl needs a techy help and fast.

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

10 on the 10th...

How have I not known about the 10 on the 10th?

What a really cute idea. Since I've become the major photographer lately (taken one class) I think this is such a cute challenge.

Here are some new cute pictures as of late...

Just not on the 10th and every hour for 10 hours on every 10th of every month. But other than that, exactly the same.

 Okay, not super recent but my little when addressing wedding invitations.

First beer in London.

 Staying 3 hours for a beautiful picnic outside of the Eiffel tower.

 Dad shooting the squirls outside of the bedroom window.

 Trying on my wedding dress for the first time.

 Playing inspiration at Doug and Jenna's wedding.

 Big Ben!

Speaking of... another big (well always little brother) Ben.  

Memories of NYC.

 Oh, and Paris! (I hope you said it en Francais so it rhymes with memories.... I'm a good writer like that)

Great friends pre-reunion. 

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

Not such a manic Monday

So my last post was all poor, poor pitiful me.

NOT so much, anymore.

I have a friend who does High Five Fridays... I know it's not close to Friday, but I decided I have been too much of a Debbie Downer ( I feel sorry for the real Debbie's of the world...)/ pity party dweller for a while....so what I haven't seen friends in a while and have been working nonstop. When you put things into perspective and realize some folks just lost their homes to natural disasters, and there are SO many people who struggle.. like for real struggle it is easier to realize how lucky I am! Drum roll please....here are my....

Must Have Mondays:

1. Today was my best day at work thus far. Still the hardest job I've ever had but feeling better and I actually sat and ate lunch today for 10 whole minutes and didn't run around while shoving a sandwich (God, I know I'm literally the only one still eating carbs)down my throat. Success.

2. I had happy hour with the best Momma in the world!

3. After have a pity party all weekend and feeling sick P and I made a great steak dinner and really had fun being at home together. I can taste food and breathe out of my nose!

4. I left after 9 hours of work rather than 12. Made ALL the difference in the world.

5. I'm pretty sure I smiled more than I stressed!

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

the man

I'm so being brought down by the man.

I learned that I have limited first amendment rights as a public servant. (exact quote)

I realize this blog doesn't have anything really bad but in no way would I ever want anything taken out of context, etc, so I'm making it private. I probably should have been doing this a while ago but I worked so far away from where I live. Now I'm a whopping 3 miles away and everything is just getting real cozy.

Let me know if you want a super exclusive invite.

The part I hate most about this is that I stalk other people's blog and then secretly hope that randoms stalk mine and now that stalking will have to be all out in the open.

Life is hard :)
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!
For Natalie's News this has been, Natalie-Corinne.

spacing help

ugh....for real? What is going on with the spacing disaster? I have fixed this like a million times and whenever I publish it, the spacing still messes up...Will someone who knows more than the average 2 year old when it comes to technology help me?

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

Stalking request

How many blogs do you stalk? Mine changes depending on how much time I have to devote to this mind trap of a computer. I have my safe go-to blogs, but if I'm knee deep in a stalking session, I'll just wonder around and look on people's favorites list and that can take you anywhere. I feel so sneaky looking around in other people's world that they graciously post online. I feel so private when all of the sudden...an awful, blaring, grotesque song will come on! Hello? This is not 2007 MySpace, that failed for a reason. We want to read your blog and not get caught, having a blaring song tells the world, "hey, I'm reading this blog!" and I don't want that, especially when I'm on some random blog of people I will never meet. So, please, be kind a post a youtube video that is an optional play. This way when we're sneaking to read your blog pretending to listen to a co-worker we won't get caught with an embarrassing "Don't Stop Believing" or other inspiring 80s hit. We all know that is only acceptable in the privacy of your own car or ipod...not when I'm trying to look productive! Hello?!

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

April showers...

So it's been a blog eternity. I've missed all kind of cultural events, random thoughts, birthdays, pictures, etc. My biggest apologies to my parents aka readers of this blog. Today I found myself have deja vu "all over again". When I was in second grade Mrs. Sawyers of the prestigious Nolensville Elementary had a killer bulletin board with a big, colorful calendar that of course she changed monthly. She also had the birthdays of every student in the class on huge laminated birthday cakes over the lockers. Apparently I looked at them constantly because I still remember a lot of the birthdays in my class.

For example in March the poster looked like this...

Natalie 3

Sarah 5

Felicia 18

etc. I also attribute myself being a teacher to Mrs. Sawyer's magic ability to remove permanent marker with aqua net hairspray. Come to think about it, Mrs. Sawyer was so fascinating to this 2nd grader. One time she took me home and bought me a Fresca. Lucky thing too because she offered for me to use her fancy pants cup holder that had a real button when pushed the cup holder would just pop out! All I knew about cup holders at this point was that my friend Courtney's Mom had plastic ones that attached to the window. I saw these first navy and plastic cup holders on the way to the pool. Before the ride with Mrs. Sawyer, I thought Courtney's Mom was fancy with her diet coke resting hands free in her attached to the window cup holder but soon I found out that was just the poor man's cup holder, bwah. (seriously, why do I remember cup holders so vividly?) Anyway, in the April bulletin board she had this great "April showers bring May flowers" boarder with raindrops over the April and flowers around the May and even a flower serving as the "a". Wow. I was seriously impressed and confused by this statement and had to ask my all knowing teacher for explanation. She told me it rained a lot in April, which could spoil many days but this was needed in order to bring beautiful May flowers. So the advice was good enough for this inquisitive 7 year old. Although my wise second grade teacher prepared me for the massive amount of rain she did not prepare me for the last TWO Mondays.

Last Monday the skies opened out and poured out buckets of rain and even a tornado or two. Although this happens a lot in TN, I don't think folks realize the crazy that can take place with out bathrooms, lights, air, or much sanity in. a. middle. school. The power went out when of course it would, while I was sitting on the toilet. I felt my way around well enough to wash my hands and find my way out of the teacher's lounge. Kids were already screaming because suddenly everyone is afraid of the dark. I will give them some credits because ONLY TWO EMERGENCY LIGHTS WORKED...so there we are, all lining the halls first head down in a hot, crowded, mess. After a while we realized we would be here the rest of the day and everyone was allowed to sit down. The students' reactions were varied. Some were so mad at the teachers for actually making them sit... on the floor? In the hallway... during a tornado? So.......lame, erking, doing too much, petty, etc. etc. etc. Shortly the storm passed but the lights left most of Nashville for the rest of the day. Buses were insanely late so started the mad dash to reach some sort of guardian to come and pick up the little munchins. By hour 2 the halls resembled a free for all and my actions of attempting to keep kids seated reached apathy pretty quickly. I saw so many of the same students "going to find their phone" roaming the dark halls. To quote the greatest movie from my generation Clueless (duh) "that is a law suit waiting to happen". After the crazy I got home late and thought I must have dreamed such an insane day.

One week later.

I have giggly bits. I want to get rid of them. I am getting my gym on and once again the skies darken and those annoying sirens go off. Honestly I think they cry wolf so often I don't listen to them. I admit it, I heard them...but TOTALLY ignored them. Ugh, hello? I've only been on here for 32 minutes, I need a good 15 more, check again later. The employees "know it alls" at the gym had to be so Lisa Patton/Jo Jo Circus clown/ goody goody about the entire weather situation. First they made a loud announcement "gym patrons, the weather sirens are going off, please evacuate to the gym locker rooms". Evacuate? Seriously? It's rain. Having my headphones in I thought I was golden. "Oh, me? I'm listening to Mother Teresea reading Bible verses while holding kittens, must be up too loudly". I looked around and some other gym patrons were also holding their guns "unable to hear" too so I thought I was good. The annoying announcement came on again and finally a mean, probably retired military man who now works at the gym came out and told us personally how we probably were unable to hear due our music (Bible verses!!!) but we were being evacuated. (Some how we all missed the mass exodus of people evacuating...aka slackers) Again, since I am a teacher I really don't have to follow rules so I try to sneak into the stretching room so I can at least do some abs, etc but my plans are again foiled by some woman who just likes being able to tell me what to do. Ugh. So once again, a week later I'm crammed like sardines with...KIDS. Not at work, how is this even fair? I'm in the bathroom with kids fresh out of the water from a swim lesson and an entire team of really cute SAHMs (stay at home Mom, thanks Sarah) playing tennis sporting adorable outfits...oh but they were sweaty and stinky. After listening to everyone talk about how their day was harder while I stood silently and held the door, I considered climbing out of the window and making a run to my car. But alas, we were released from our sweaty prison and I bolted for my car, promising myself to do a little more cardio the next workout.

If it rains next Monday, please feel free to text me and find out what bar I will be at. If I'm going to have to hunker in a bathroom, I want some kind of bottle with me.

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

my first gadget

Remember a long time ago when I blogged about blogging and about those professional bloggers who had the really professional and wonderfully expensive cameras who were able to take pictures of every second of their day to blog about them? No. Wait, you don't read the News daily? Well, here it is. This Sunday something magically changed. I've had a camera, but not one of those people who always carries around their cameras and once I got the iphone the old camera seemed soooo difficult (BRAT) to take out the memory card and transfer to my laptop when I could send the grainy pic easily to my email. Although my blog pics look really 2001, who cares? All 3 of my regular readers have never complained about the quality! Well times they are a changing my friends. Say (uhh humm SING) so long, farewell to the nasty totally lame photos of the past and feast our eyes on this beauty. Well, perhaps this will be the last of the less than wonderful pics. As awesome as this camera is, I haven't figured out how it can take a pic of itself. This weekend my thoughtful husband, my parents, and mother-in-law combined their powers to buy me a fancy-pants camera! I was totally shocked and since then I've been running around the house channeling my inner photographer and attempting to launch a new career taking pictures of things very, very up close.... because that's what makes a good photographer, right?

Oh yes, up close pic of the cupcake picture holder that my sweetest Momma gave me is so artsy.

Up close picture of the Ivy Cake cupcakes my Mom brought. The cupcake on the right is the wedding cupcake Carrie Underwood had at her wedding. We are very chic, hence the up close pictures.

Not really an up close shot...but first (and really only flowers) I have grown. Really I did absolutely nothing to aid these beauties but I didn't kill them either. Success.

Unusually bathed, collared shirt but always cute brother at my Sunday birthday celebration!

Sharon, Mom and Ashley in our kitchen.

So watch out. I'm obsessed with getting the fast, in the moment, you're not looking, candid shot and I will annoyingly be lurking around all future social engagements. Get your detag ready.

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