"Before 30 Bucket List" *Update*!

All the talk between Shawn & I lately of taking a trip to Paris in the next year has brought back thoughts of my little "Before 30 Bucket List". Which of course led me to come back to my blog after a year away & update the list with all the exciting things that I can cross off! It's hard to believe how many of these experiences I've actually been able to do since Shawn & I started dating. Having someone that wants to do these things with me & enjoys taking me to see new things is such a blessing! When I made this list sitting on my bed in the sorority house in Troy 4 & 1/2 years ago, I didn't really expect for all of my crazy ideas to ever be in reach... Thankfully life has gone in a completely different & far better direction than I ever could have imagined!

So here's the updated list. With a little less than 5 & 1/2 years left, I'm surprisingly hopeful that I'll be able to cross everything off!

• See Dolly Parton live.. preferably from the front row.

So it wasn't front row... but it was still DOLLY & it was still super close. Best

23rd birthday present in the world :) 10/5/2010

Climb a real mountain for a bird's eye view of God's beauty... but only a small one.

It wasn't a massive mountain... heck some wouldn't even consider 

it a mountain, but it counts to me! Great Hill Mountain where 

Shawn grew up. 6/20/2011

Visit LA & New York.

The doorstep where Carrie Bradshaw lived in Sex & The City!!

The main thing I HAD to see :) 6/15/2011

At the top of the Empire State Building on my first NYC trip!

6/15/2011 

Take the London/Paris/Rome trip I've been planning since I was 17 (the next few go with this)...

Drink champagne under the Eiffel Tower at night.

Visit the Louvre.

Ride the London Eye (the really big ferris wheel).

See Michaelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel with my own eyes.

Take a picture on the Sydney Harbor bridge in Australia.

Go to the NASCAR race in Daytona, Charlotte, & Bristol. One of which MUST be a night race.

Kiss in the rain (come on, every girl wants to once in her life).

oh Wisconsin. What a fun & memorable night of great music,

 & even better friends. 6/26/10

• Go to Fan Fair/CMAfest.

No one better than my best friend Laura to cross this one off with. Nosebleed

seats for Jamey Johnson (below), Martina, Lee Ann Womack & THE JUDDS!

June 2009

• Learn to cook at least one dish really well.


• Go skinny dipping (let's face it, your body just won't be like this after kids).


• Attend a concert at the Ryman.

I can thank Shawn for helping me discover the Pixies.

We went to see them at the Ryman for his birthday in September 2010.

• See a musical on Broadway.

So it wasn't technically a "play". But it is a show in NYC.

Rockette's at Radio City! 11/28/2011

• Experience a ride along in a NASCAR car.


• Completely finish Mere Christianity & The Four Loves.


• Run a marathon... or maybe just a half marathon.


• Continue learning & practicing my Spanish until it's conversational at the very lest.


• Go to Austin for at least part of South by Southwest.

Well it wasn't SXSW, but the point was to make it to Austin. Even with 

a 101 degree fever, I LOVED it! 5/13/2011

• Go white water rafting.


• Take a canopy tour in Mexico (where you ride zip lines through the trees).


• Ride a mechanical bull (just once).


• Pay all my own bills with NO help from anyone.

• Send a stranger a message in a bottle.


• Finally make it to Chicago & go ice skating.


• Sponsor a child through Compassion International.

            His name is Kavila & he lives in Kenya. I love connecting our two worlds! Jan. 2012

• Be an extra in a major motion picture.

Although it hasn't been a major motion picture just yet, I think 

these count:

With Dax Shepard as an extra on the CMT Awards 

Red Carpet! 6/6/2012

I worked as an extra on the set of the new ABC show Nashville premiering 

this fall! Hoping for more days soon :) 3/22/2012

• Volunteer with the Nashville Rescue Mission.


• Go to a drive-in movie.


• Celebrate a birthday in Vegas.

Well it wasn't a birthday, but again the point was more to visit the city.

The Chandelier Bar in The Cosmopolitan Hotel in Vegas. 3/20/2012

The view of the Bellagio Fountains from our 67th floor balcony at the Cosmopolitan!

• Swim with Stingrays in the Cayman Islands.


• Make a nursing home friend & visit her regularly.


• Be 100% out of debt by the time I turn 30.


• Buy the '66 mustang & fix it up myself.


• Ride a motorcycle.


• Go to a game at Fenway Park.

FENWAY!!!!  Seriously one of my favorite days. I LOVED it!

6/19/2011

It's amazing to see how much of my little list has been crossed off in just the past year alone. I'm still hopefully that I will be able to look at this entire thing as a collection of great experiences on the day that I turn 30 :)

Listening to Old Alabama....

I don't think I've ever been as excited to go to back to Alabama as I am about my trip tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, I adore Tennessee. It's my home now. & I already miss Shawn like crazy (yes, he's only been gone since this morning), so I know I'll be ready to come back by the weekend.... but I need a little of the true south in my life again. I need country accents, boiled peanuts & good music... oh, & a little racing. Luckily. that's exactly what I'll get this weekend :)!

So, I'm off to Talladega. But I have to leave you with what I think is the cutest picture in the world. Sadie might be the sweetest dog ever.

Mickey Mouse? Yes, please!

So far this year has been such a whirlwind of traveling & moving that it's hard to keep up. We've gone to at least one different state each month & have more planned all the way through July! I'm not complaining at all, actually it's the opposite... I LOVE IT! But it makes my life a little chaotic :)

About a month ago, Shawn & I flew down to Orlando to be kids again for a few days with my family. In all the excitement we only took one picture, but at least it was a good one!

It was the first time for him to really be around my family, and thankfully he wasn't scared off by a few "rednecks" ;). I had a much better time than I thought I would. Contrary to what I thought, you're never too old for Disney! We did 4 parks in two days, which was exhausting, but completely worth it. We ended our last night with the gorgeous fireworks show at Epcot & a midnight ride on both Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain. If you go anytime soon, stick around to ride Thunder Mountain after dark. There's all kinds of extras that light up at night that we never knew existed! It really was a great little vacation.

Now I'm ready for the next random trip :)

Yankee Doodle Dandy...

I'm finally going to talk about my amazing trip to Boston in January! Shawn had a weekend gig with his old band (he lived in Boston for 10 years before coming to Nashville). After realizing that this southern girl had barely been north of Tennessee, he invited me to tag along. I'm not really sure what I expected the town to be like, but I definitely rode around with my mouth open for most of the trip in amazement. The city itself is so full of history that it's crazy. We rode around for most of the first day just looking at historical sites... & of course the amazing architecture! You can see in the pictures below how beautiful some of the buildings are. Shawn would point out these gorgeous faced buildings that he used to have an apartment in & I couldn't help but be a little jealous. It's like the perfect little city scene that I could dream up in my head :)

I was a little intimidated by certain aspects of the city though. The traffic was insane! We sat at one point for over half an hour before taking a back road (thankfully I was with someone that knew short-cuts!). & the snow was something I had never seen before. It was bitter cold to the point that it physically hurt to be outside and snow just hangs out all winter. It gets stacked up on the side of the roads like dirty ice mountains that you have to climb to pay the parking meters. It was up to the roofs of houses in most areas... & I'm told that really isn't all that fascinating to "yankees", but I couldn't get over it.

All in all, it was a fabulous trip! It was great to see a city with sites that are on my bucket list while getting a glimpse of where Shawn comes from too. I've put a few of the pictures from the trip below...

A heavy heart I bring...

I've gotten a little off with my 30 day challenge. Blame the spontaneous trip to Boston & then moving into my first house immediately after I returned. I promise I'll pick back up where I left off again very soon.

Tonight, there's something else laying heavy on my heart that seems more important to write about. The past few days have been filled with random tears & tears fall as I even type tonight. On Monday night a sweet sorority sister, Brittany Shepard Pugh, and her 15 month old son, Shep, were involved in a horrible car accident that claimed both of their lives. You can read about the accident here.

Although Brittany was two years ahead of me in Alpha Gam, you couldn't help but be drawn to her incredibly happy & loving personality. Every person I've talked with since Monday has spoken of Brittany's incredible love for life & how hard it is to grasp that this happened to someone like her. The memory that keeps replaying in my head is of the night that she shared the news of her engagement with all of us. I've never seen another girl so in love & so excited to have her dreams coming true.

It had been years since I had seen or spoken to Brittany, but I can only imagine that her life as a mother was even more full of joy & love than when I knew her.

I pray that God wraps His arms around Clint during this terrible time. I cannot even begin to imagine what he is going through having lost both his wife & child in the blink of an eye. It's a loss that an entire community is mourning, not just in the geographical sense but all over the map in our sorority. Please keep this family in your prayers....

Snapshots of Life

Sevier Park + 68 degree weather + a cute boy & the most precious dog = amazing day :)

p.s.- I'm going to Boston on Friday. I might be just a little excited. Maybe.

30 Days of Photos- Day 6

Day 6: A picture of a person you would love to trade places with for a day-

Jennifer Nettles. I've said for years that I would kill for the chance to be her for a day. There's something about her energy, both on & off the stage that I absolutely love. Not only is she a great vocalist, but she has a magnetic stage presence & a knowledge of the industry to go with that. Sugarland was one of the first bands to really explore the boundaries of social media & they're still at the forefront of innovation with it today. I think a day in the life of Jennifer Nettles would be a blast :)