The End of an Era

It is official; the precious fig tree has been chopped down!! It really is the end of an era in the family...

goodbye Mr. Fig Tree

Now:

Then:

Out with the Old : In with the New

So I have finally gotten the courage to juxtapose photos from the past with photos of the newly renovated front rooms of my parents house. I found these photos of my brother's and my childhood rooms.

My room had the typical pink carpet, Precious Moments border on the walls, and the four poster canopy bed with a pink ruffly bedspread.

My room

Next door Arnaud had the typical boy's room. He had blue and white carpet, black and white checkered race track border and a black and white bedspread.

Arnaud's Room

And now for the modern day look of these two rooms renovated into a master suite:

What used to be my "pinkie" room is now transformed into a living room.

Where my closet area was, we put a door to go in to what used to be Arnaud's room.

This used to be Arnaud's room, and now is my room.

To close off the closet, we put up a curtain, so it is almost like a private dressing room.

Then to complete the job to make it a master suite, first we sealed off the door that led into the hallways and we put a door from the bedroom into what used to be the guest bathroom (normally accessible from the hallway)

The newly renovated bathroom, that has two doors that can both be locked to limit access from the hallway or the bedroom.

Fall in the South

This year has been extremely eventful, filled with fun trips. This past weekend, I flew out to visit Lauren in Nashville. It was a last minute decision, but a good one at that. On Friday I gt a flight that left at noon and arrived at Nashville at 9 pm. Lauren picked me up and we stayed up ALL night catching up and talking about everything and anything (and over a bottle of wine of course). We went to bed around 4am (way past our bedtimes).

The next morning, we awoke pretty late, but made our way to the cutest coffee shop just down the street. It was an overcast day, with the high registering at 48F, and that does not include the windchill.

This photo was taken just in front of her apartment building. We both had the strong urge to find some rakes, rake up the lawns and jump in the enormous pile we could make!

Lauren's apartment building

This view was looking down her street. The colors were absolutely amazing, and this shot is only the first of many.
After breakfast, Lauren drove me all around Downtown and the neighborhoods of Nashville. With the weather we opted to make it a driving tour with the heat on full blast. I took photos from the car as we drove around.

a view of Nashville atop a hill

a view of Downtown from Vanderbilt University

At the very end of Broadway, and across the River, stand the stadium in which the Tennessee Titans call home.

Downtown

After the tour we relaxed back at Lauren's apartment until dinner. We caught a cab to Downtown and proceeded to eat at Jack's BBQ. It was phenomenal. I don't think I've had that great of BBQ, it was just so different from the stuff that we have out here on the West Coast. And of course, along with my ribs, beans, coleslaw and corn bread, I had to have a nice cold beer :-)

"Nashvegas" at night

Once we finished dinner the first bar we went to was called Tootsie's. Apparently it's really well known, of course I'll take any one's word for it since I'm not a country music fan. Here is the first pictures Lauren and I took while there.



Tootsie's got extremely crowded so we then went to the next bar, The Stage on Broadway. We ended up staying there the rest of the night!

The first performer was hysterical. At one point as I had my back turned and was talking to Lauren she stares past me, and as I turn I realize that the singer took his shirt off. Extremely random! He was like an illuminated Jesus/Dane Cook figure out there on stage.

We had a great time at The Stage and made quite a few acquaintances. One of whom was this cowboy...

...who at first tried to make it in our photo.


We left the bar at closing at 2 am and just went straight to bed. We were completely exhausted from dancing and singing and drinking! Sunday morning Lauren took me out to the Copper Kettle for an amazing brunch. We ate way too much, but at least we took care of all three meals in one :-) As we were talking about what we wanted to do for the day, she brought up the idea of going out to see Franklin, an historic little town that even she had never been to. So that's what we did, we out to discover a new place. The moment we arrived at the town square, it felt so quaint, just straight out of a movie, or the Gilmore Girls at least. People were walking the streets, heading off to church. We parked on the main road and walked for a while. This picture is of the main street with all the shops.

Town Square

As we were walking around we went up and down a few of the streets. The colors of the trees mixed in with the old architecture of the Southern homes made for perfect photo opportunities.




Unfortunately I had to leave and catch my flight Sunday evening. I really did not want to leave yet. Nashville is such a great city, filled with music and hospitable people. I felt right at home! Thanks Lauren for making it such a fun filled weekend!!!

Modern Day Government

*Source: The New Yorker, November 17, 2008 Issue

Halloween 2008

This year for Halloween Andy invited me to a party with the whole group. Everyone met at James' house beforehand and drank while waiting for our ride to the party in San Juan Capistrano. Before the limo arrived, we took the opportunity to take photos of all the fun costumes we had.

the girlies striking a pose
Sandy, Katelyn, Tasha and me

*the boys*
Andy, Travis, Rob, Bryan, Jon, Josh and James

Andy, Rob, and Travis all bought lederhosen on their last trip to Munich. Therefore, we took the opportunity to dress up as frauleins. So for the night both Sandra and Sandy were matching German beer girls.

Rob and Sandy

Although I am holding a HUGE beer mug, I did not end up carrying the thing at the party. It did add an element to the outfit, but it would have been an arm workout all night if I had kept it.

Jon and Tasha

Just getting warmed up before the party and the free flowing drinks.

some shots inside the limo

The party was so much fun. The house it was hosted at was entirely decked out in Halloween decorations. From a huge spider web on the garage in the front, to the fog throughout the house, it would make anyone want to dress up and have fun.

the big dog at the party....and he had a few costume changes too (too bad no one caught a photo of him wearing the big red poof on his neck)

some of the girls

Bryan " the sailor" and I

priceless
we found Osama Obama, Joe the Plumber, McCain and Palin present at the party

Andy and Rob taking a pose with "Osama" Obama

the matching Sandy&Sandra Fralueins