Labor Day Weekend as told by Selfies

Saturday Night: Pentatonix Concert. In June, we bought tickets to go see PTX at Bridgestone Arena, and the concert day finally arrived! I had seen them in concert 2 years ago when my parents came to visit me during my internship in Maryland. The venue in Maryland was much smaller, so it was a different concert with a different sound, but the concert this weekend had a much higher energy. 

Also, the PTX's song library has definitely grown, so they had more songs to choose from at this concert. It was a great night and an awesome concert!!

Sunday: Relaxing at the lake. My family was camping all weekend at Bumpus Mills campground on Lake Barkley, so we decided to drive up for a few hours and relax with them. We decided to decline actual camping this year after last year's Nathan-being-miserable and me-getting-food-poisoning fiasco. 

Anyway, the main events at the campground on Sunday included riding around on the boat for a bit, eating grilled chicken legs, and me starting a fire with flint! I had a good time, and Nathan didn't die from being outside (although he insists he was close), so it was a successful day.

Sunday Night: Mission Impossible-Rogue Nation. Last week, we worked our way through watching the first 4 Mission Impossible movies and capped the marathon by going to Bowling Green to watch the newest installment, Mission Impossible-Rogue Nation. We both liked the movie a lot, and I would recommend people to go see it.

Since all of the movies are fresh on my mind, I will now rate them all based on how much I liked them. Warning: Spoilers for the first 4.

1. Mission Impossible. You literally don't figure out who the bad guy is until the very end! If this wasn't the first movie, I might not rate it number 1.
2. Mission Impossible-Rogue Nation
3. Mission Impossible III. I liked this one because he actually had a more of a motivation to complete the mission, since his wife was abducted.
4. Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol. This one is good. I liked the high intensity scene when Ethan is climbing the building and his suction gloves stop working and the scene after that.
5. Mission Impossible II. This was the only one that I really didn't like. I have no idea why, I just didn't like it. Maybe its because there were too many instances with face-pulls.

One thing to note with Mission Impossible-Rogue Nation is that Ethan Hunt is looking pretty old...

Monday: The Historic Railpark Train Museum. Even thought we and Nathan's parents have been talking about going to the Train Museum in Bowling Green for months, Monday's events were an impromptu adventure! We loved the history and interesting aspects of going through actual train carts (even though it can easily induce claustrophobia!) and the neat intricacies of the huge model train setup. 

We spent quite a bit of time learning about how the railroad system influenced so much of American and Bowling Green history. Afterwards, of course, we got ice cream.

It was a good weekend!

The Return of the Drums

Is that thunder that you hear? Nay, it is me playing my resurrected drum set. I have been able to set this bad boy up in my own house for the first time, and it. is. glorious. The weather won't affect them as it did when they sat in my parent's garage; the neighbors are far enough away to not complain; and they will get much less dust on them!

My drum set was sold to me by one of my friends several years ago (Thanks, Trent!) and I enjoyed adding to it and getting it up to snuff for a while before I moved away from Murray. Now that we have a new house, I was able to set 'er on up again! And again! And I'm still setting it up, because I have an obsession with it being set perfectly to how I want it.

Time for some technical garbage that only drummers will probably appreciate!

The drum set is a Pearl Export Series, in a shade of green. Some have thought that it was grey, which I can understand since it's never had great lighting, but I promise that it is green. I have three rack toms in 10 inches, 12 inches, and 14 inches; two floor toms in 16 inches and 18 inches; a 22 inch bass, a 14(?) inch Pearl snare drum; a Yamaha Snare drum which needs some pampering; and two DW deccabons. I use a plethora of random cymbals, mainly due to inheriting most of them.  My favorite piece of hardware is my Tama Iron Cobra double bass pedal, for all of my metal needs! 

Brown Paper Packages #4

**Vote for Kaitlynn** My cousin Kaitlynn has been entered in a singing contest on the Nashville radio station, Mix 92.9. She was chosen to be in the top ten finalists on Monday morning. People can vote as many times as they want from 7am to 7pm. Everyday someone will be eliminated. Kaitlynn has made it through the first few rounds, and we are all hoping she will win the whole contest. The winner gets $1000 for college and $1000 for their school! Everyone help, by voting on THIS LINK.

Here are some quick tips on speed-voting:
1. you do not have to capitalize or add spaces in the letters/numbers submittal
2. you can press enter, instead of clicking submit
3. if you have been refreshing the page, try F5 (on a PC) or "command, R" on a Mac

If you can get in a rhythm, you can get several votes in (I just speed-voted and got 11 votes in one minute). We want her to win!!!

Another Snow Day = Another Whistling Video. This was requested by some of my good friends! I had a fun time playing with the different settings that iMovie offers. CLICK HERE to watch the video!

Look out for Murray State! I saw a status on Monday afternoon that said, "Hey world, do yourself a favor and ask Siri who her favorite college basketball team is." Honestly, I didn't think much about it because I figured it would be something about UK and honestly, I don't care that much about UK.... or really sports in general, for that matter. Several hours passed, and I saw a screenshot of someone's iPhone. Check my alma mater out! HEYO!!!

Look at the T-Shirt Quilt my  mom made! In case you haven't heard (which is unlikely), my mom is retired. She taught at Olmstead School for 30 years and now she's got plenty of time to basicaally do whatever she wants. One of her new past-times is t-shirt quilt making. She made me one for Christmas (It. Is. Legit.) and she made the one pictured below for DanDan for the Chinese New Year (We miss you DanDan!!) She has got 3 more in the works currently, and another one on order! If you are interested in ordering a t-shirt quilt from my mom, CLICK HERE.

Net Neutrality Ruling. (Written by Nathan) Net Neutrality is a principle that all online data should be treated equally, without hinderance from Internet Service Providers, such as Comcast, At&T, and Verizon. The internet being considered a utility has blocked the ability for Comcast (for example) to be able to make companies such as Netflix pay high price in order to have speed priority to continue brining their customers streaming video at the same speed. This has essentially taken millions of dollars of profit away form monopolis giants that already charge and unrestricted amount to their subscribers.

(Back to Written by Ashley) Sort of confusing, but this is a good thing!

Brown Paper Packages #2

Since my last Brown Paper Packages post, a couple of events have occurred, but other than that, not much has happened for me to report. Therefore, this post is pretty much going to be pictures from those two events.

The first is that Nathan and I spent our first married Valentine's Day together. First, I made a late breakfast filled with heart-shaped food. What can I say, I go all out.

Later, we went to the Streets of Indian Lake in Hendersonville, TN to see Paddington the movie. We were the only people in the theatre that didn't bring small children, but hey, it was a great movie! I would recommend it. When we got home, Nathan fixed his annual Valentine's meal. Chicken from Walmart deli, kraft mac-n-cheese, and doritos.

We agreed to give each other a cheesy Valentine's Day gift. Here is a picture of me forcing Koba to cuddle with my gift. Koba + Gnash = Love

The next event was the snow week we had this week! We got 7-8 inches on Sunday night and another 2 inches on Tuesday night. 

Here are just a few pictures of some entertaining things that happened....

Day 1: Koba deciding the snow wasn't for him...

Day 2: Binge playing Roller Coaster Tycoon like I did in high school... It was nostalgic and great...

Day 3: Snow Shakes!... (click here for recipe)

Day 4: Running out of things to do.... so.... I made a ridiculous video.... (click here to watch video)

Day 5: Shoveling snow with these dudes. Thanks, Kevin, for helping us clear our driveway before it gets covered again.

Needless to say, its been a pretty relaxing week. Hope you enjoyed this edition's Brown Paper Packages.

Brown Paper Packages #1

I've decided to start a new series called "Brown Paper Packages" which will basically consist of Our Favorite Things (If you don't catch the reference, watch the South of Music). It's basically going to be somewhat of a review of awesome things that have happened.

Now, before you start judging me for being a braggart or a show-off or arrogant, please note that I don't anticipate these types of posts to be primarily about us or things that have happened to us. Honestly, its an excuse to brag about people we love and show others how awesome they are!

So, without further adieu....Brown Paper Packages.

This Engagement Picture

Not only does the photo show one of my best friends with her fiancé, it also completely shows her devout faithfulness to the Green Bay Packers. My only regret is that the cheesehead didn't make it into the picture. ADDITIONALLY, another one of my best friends was the photographer! Great job at being awesome, Katie and Kaitlin (and Dustin)!


This Ministry

My mother-in-law has recently started a Women's Ministry at their church. After only a few events, I count over 20 women in this photo alone! So thankful that Nathan and I both have parents who have chosen to follow God's calling on their life and set great examples for their children. Thanks for being awesome, God!


This Bedhead

My friend's two year old daughter is so beautiful even with this craziness on her head! Its so hilarious!... thats all I really have to say. Thanks for the awesome pictures of your kids, Melissa!


This Weather

As you may have remembered, last Saturday gave us some AWESOME WEATHER! It was above 60 degrees, if I recall correctly. Nathan had gone to a Predators game, so I decided to walk Koba around the block to enjoy the sunny day. And when I say walk, I mean carry. We talked to a few neighbors who were also enjoying the day. At the end of the walk, I wanted to send Nathan some pictures of our adventure. Here are just a few of what I got. Koba has proven over and over again that he has ADHD when we go outside. Anyway, it was still a great day! You gave an awesome 60 degree day in February, weather!


This Accomplishment

What can I say, my cousin is talented. She got freaking first chair in the whole state of Tennessee in choir! #NotSurprised She is honestly, probably the best singer I have ever heard in my life. I'm glad I taught her everything I know. Just kidding. But seriously, I remember when she was about 10 or 12 her singing some random 80s song ("whats up" by 4 non blondes) with her dad and thinking, "...wow..." She has only gotten better. Awesome job, Kait!


So, these are just a few things that I have come across this week alone that have become some of my favorite things. Leave a comment of one of your "brown paper packages"... or don't. Thats ok too.