Manly Last Stand

There comes a time in every man's life when he faces a feeling of impending doom.  You see your football Saturdays slipping away while beers with your buddies turns into "play dates" and "quality time".  For some, it is marriage itself, but for me, that impending doom is named Pippa.  So, before my life becomes filled with "awwww" and "she's soooo cute!" I decided to get back in touch with the side of me that likes to destroy things.

Lia was kind enough to allow me to leave the house for 48 hours, so I made the best possible use of that time.  Thomas, James and I loaded up the guns and cheese puffs and headed over to East Tennessee where they surprisingly do have laws, they just choose not to enforce any of them.  James' family was kind enough to let us use their land in the middle of nowhere, and even opened up their electricity-less, plumbing-less cabin for us to stay in.  The perfect location to ensure that no woman would ever want to tag along.

So before everyone talks about how I am an evil person and am shirking my duties as Pippa's father, I would like to counter with two things.  First, I worked on the yard for 2 hours yesterday securing it and making it Pippa safe.  There was a nice big gap under the deck and Lia and I thought it may not be a good idea for Pippa to be able to get down there.  Pippa may be fearless, but I'd rather not come face to face with a possum in a dark crawlspace.  I also used this weekend as a seminar of sorts to see how dogs behave in the wild.  To help with that, Thomas brought along his dog Lucy.

When we got to the land, James dad and brother were waiting for us.  In Tennessee fashion, they were both armed as well so we thought we would begin the shooting fun.  At first we were just shooting at paper targets, but I brought some Georgia shooting experience to the party.  Whenever my uncle would take me shooting he would comment that "whats the point of shooting at something if you can't tell you hit it?"  I agree with this and so we switched over to hanging a small log from a tree branch.  Everyone in attendance was a good shot, so there wasn't much jeering or emasculation necessary.  Take a look at the incredible form:

I prefer to rock the Miami lean a bit.  You should be relaxed even when shooting at stuff.  I'm sure Rick Ross or Pitbull have mentioned that before.

Thomas wanted to differentiate himself from the other 2 white guys with beards so he decided to bring a top hat.  It was shiny and sort of matched one of the guns.  It may have also helped with his balance a bit, although it did not fix the fact that he shoots with the wrong hand.

How often do you actually see camo in an environment where it is effective? The untrained eye would never realize that James actually has an entire head. 

I want to get through this next part quickly because it is a point of shame for me.  We didn't even think to take any pictures until it was dusk, so if anyone with authority over me is viewing these pictures please know that 99% of our shooting occurred during safer daylight hours (sorry, mom).  So these next two pictures are complete flukes.. the only reason I didn't get a cool picture as well was because of the light.  The iPhone camera takes a long time to focus when it is dark outside, so we couldn't time it very well.  Because I am bitter that I am not included, I am just going to skip over the next two pictures.  

Not bad for an iPhone camera, eh?

After we had our fill of shooting stuff (read: it got too dark for us to see if we were hitting our target) we went over and built a fire.  The first started strong but we may have had a slight issue with consistency.  Even with an Eagle Scout present (not me, gangs were much more popular than boy scouts in my hood, yo) we had not anticipated having to burn a bunch of scrap wood left over from some construction.  The fire may have been a bit unorthodox, but it did a great job of keeping us warm and cooking our beer brats. 

The next day we drove into Knoxville, had a delicious meal at the infamous Cracker Barrel, and then Thomas and James got to see their families for the afternoon.  James' family adopted me for the day.  We had some conversations regarding what I will suspiciously refer to as "the endeavor" and then made our way back home.  I think after a weekend of manliness, I am now ready to become a puppy father... or at least closer to being ready than I was last week.

Dogs (Duh)

 Pippa @ 7 weeks. I never want to forget that face. 

Pippa's cousin Fredo. Most dignified dog ever. 

 Willow as a banana. This picture kills me every time. She looks mortified. 

Pippa's BFF is ridiculously lazy/snuggly. 

That is all I have for today. I just figured a post full of dogs could only bring a smile to your face. 

Wait...what? We have a blog?

I really didn't want to turn into one of those people that starts a blog, is all gung-ho about it and then promptly forgets about it 3 months later. I hate those people... oops.

We are back...and we will try not to leave again. We also probably need to change the name of the blog because we moved to Nashville and it isn't so sunny here. It is filled with lovely people and pretty houses though.

I guess I should back up and start from the beginning. When I last posted we still lived in Miami, I still worked in Broward, Sean was working in Kansas and we didn't have a dog.

Now we live in Nashville, Sean works from home mostly (with some random travel scattered in there), I work at a large teaching hospital here in Nashville in their crazy, cool NICU and our puppy is coming home in less than 2 weeks. I'm so stinking excited, I can't handle it. This blog may end up being renamed "The Pippa Diaries" (our pup's name). Before we go on to our wonderful new life, I want to catch you all up on the past three months.

Back when Seany was still in Kansas his team did fun things like go to NFL football games. This was on Halloween. He had a blast. Go Chiefs!

Then Sean left the Kansas project and decided to be awesome instead. One of his ex-team members was so sad he was leaving she made him his favorite dessert ever...cookie cake! It even included the ever appropriate slogan "go dores!".

We left Miami on Jan. 6th to drive to Nashville (forever) and spent a night in Gainesville. We thought it might be fun to buy a car in Central Florida (why not?). We bought a Hyundai (like Sunday) in a beautiful dark gray color. It is so awesome it even tells me how to get places when I am lost in Nashville. You'll get to see a picture in a minute...fear not.

The next week Sean had to ditch me and head to Madison for work. I was freaking out a little bit because I was in a new house and the furniture had not arrived yet. I was also starting a new job and it was like 12 degrees and snowing outside. I guess Sean's situation wasn't much better. He almost got stuck in this lovely blizzard.

He said there was an inch of snow in the enclosed jetway. That sucks. 

Sean likes to travel to really cold places in the dead of winter. Weird. Here is a picture he took last week in Chicago from Tyler & Mallory's apartment. The day before there had been a blizzard. Snow follows Sean. Fact. 

So, while Sean jet sets around the country I've been home loving our new house and making it as homey as possible. Our last apartment was super lame and I was very uninspired to decorate. This place is the opposite. It is a 90 year old house and it is so cute...it begs me to love on it. It has a ways to go but we have made some progress for sure. 

New house, new car

I'll give credit where credit is due...Sean reupholstered these chairs that we bought at an antique shop here in Nashville. Aren't they awesome? I picked out the fabric and then one afternoon while I was napping he reupholstered 6 chairs. Impressive! 

 Our dining room.

Here is a picture of our living room. I want to add a ton more stuff to the walls, we haven't gotten there yet.

Sean's office and also where you will stay if you come visit us! That red thing is a futon and we also invested in a super fancy aerobed. Sometimes I wonder if it is more comfy than our real bed. This is a plug for people to come visit us.

We have this weird little peak through, cut out thing between our living and dining room. I don't know what to do with it so I just put a few random decorative things we had laying around there. Anyone have any ideas?

This is Pippa's crate. We are ready for her! Since I took this picture we got her a bed for in there and I am going to find some blankies to make it more comfy. That basket on top holds some of her toys. Willow the dog sent her future BFF some pretty epic Christmas presents.

For Christmas my sweet husband got me this stand mixer. I was so happy I almost cried. Isn't she a beaut? This is a picture of her maiden voyage. This day I made cheesecake, chocolate cake AND cinnamon rolls. It was kind of intense.

So that is the excitement that has been going on in Nashville. We are pretty obsessed with our lives here. We have great friends who helped make this move as painless as possible by helping us unpack, taking loads of  boxes away, letting me crash at their place when we had no furniture and helping to clean our base boards. We are blessed.

Side story: 

One of my biffles Kristin Alice McDougal (Wardell) got married a few weeks ago! Sean and I flew back to Miami for the big event. It was an epic reunion with my best girls. 

Soulmate.

 Silly bride at the bachelorette fiesta!

 Insane rick shaw rides definitely happened. 

 Beautiful bride waiting to walk down the aisle. 

MC Wick dancing with the saints. 

 These flower girls made me melt. Little Maddie thought Maggie was the coolest thing ever!

 Doesn't MC's hair look like it belongs on pinterest? She is trendy like that.

 "Snooki lives in Texas"

 Good little Catholic school girls. 

 Sean & Sly Dog were the life of the party obviously.

A post can't be complete without a picture of a precious pup. This is Suki. She is my favorite boxer/shar pei ever. She is also a cowgirl. Can you handle that? Didn't think so.