summer time

the target $1 isle got me! i planned on having a garden but i thought i would try out some plants growing from seeds. (basil, parsley, peppers, tomatoes....the oregano didn't make it)




we had an urban garden. we were too scared our pooches would dig our garden up.

peppers from the hernando nursery.

sweet peppers.

our grandparents would be proud!

in june, stephanie and ray were married! here are some pictures of the fun day!

steph and ray's rehearsal dinner at central bbq.

holly, lisa, and i with the brasher girls at steph's wedding.

mr. and mrs. betts

my parents

aren't we cute!?

Also in june, we went to gulf shores with my mother-in-law for a relaxing get-a-way.

i have said before that kyle loves the food network. he saw this place (panini pete's) on dinners, drive-ins and dives with guy fieri. http://www.foodnetwork.com/diners-drive-ins-and-dives/index.html it was in fairhope, al about 10 mins off of our path. panini pete's is in a french quarter like sqaure. very cute!

and it was YUMMY! http://paninipetes.com/ when we were leaving, kyle recognized the chef/owner from the episode. kyle, being the sweet guy he is, went to get the car so ms. ethel ann and i ended up in a boutique (suprise...you must know my mother -in-law, she's a big shopper!) we saw kyle pull up and we were just about to walk out the door when we saw the owner (pete) riding down the sidewalk on a segway! i mean, that's the way to travel!

after we ate we arrived to our condo, we then went to the grocery store. only to find out that one of the keys they gave us didn't work! we waited about 30 mins before someone came to give us the right keys. good thing we got ice for the cooler, the icecream would have melted and i would not have been a happy camper!

about to go to dinner. day 1 with no tan!

1st full day on the beach.

most people that know me, know that i am a firm believer in sunscreen. well, even after reappling we still were sunburned. kyle was worse than me. note to self: buy new sunscreen each year and throw the others away!!

kyle and his mamma at cobalt's in orange beach.

it is wave time!

whew, it was hot!

our last night at the beach. the sun won and gave us a lovely souvenir.

at the warf.

the 4th of july! kyle surprised me and bought me tickets to see wicked for an early birthday present! it was really good!

my surprise birthday at work. they got me!

i love peanut butter and chocolate. my friend at work jen is an amazing cook and she made me peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes for my birthday!

more birthday food. you only turn 30 once right? kyle's famous pesto pizza!

we had a get together for my birthday and there was a peanut butter and chocolate icecream cake! yummy!

hanging out at cindy and betsy's celebrating my bday!

memphis in may

memphis in may is a very busy month for our city with a lot of events such as music fest, bbq fest (my fav), sunset symphony, etc. well, kyle and i had a busy month as well! starting with one of my good friend stephanie's bachlorette party in hot springs, ark. we wanted to have a relaxing get-a-way, however we had a strange but fun experience. we now call it spooky springs b/c it rained the whole time and we stayed at the arlington hotel which is old and haunted!


kristy and i pretending to enter the tower of terror! like i said, the hotel is old and the elevator reminded me of the tower of terror at disney!! since we were at spooky springs, we decided to go on a hunt for room 666. and they don't have that room! 665 then 667. we had some time to "kill" since we could not be pool side.



lisa, carol and i hanging out before the lights went out! as steph was opening presents, we saw the lightening then heard the BOOM, then the lights went out for about 10 seconds. SPOOKY SPRINGS!


finally out on the town! we ended up having fun just being with each other!

the very next weekend, we decided to visit graceland too. what is graceland too you ask? well it is paul's house in holly springs, ms. paul is the # 1 fan of elvis. ironic this week is elvis week and i get to share with you my experience. it is open 365 days a year and paul lives there, waiting on people to visit. here is a review of the house. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11097

this is my officemate april. she went with us! she is a life-time member which takes 3 times to complete. she is posing with paul, the owner and tourguide.

april snapped a picture of us watching paul sing an elvis song. our faces are priceless!

the group photo: paul takes a pic if every person that tours the house and hangs it on the wall. however, all the pics i saw on the wall were from 1990. i recommend this tour for anyone that needs a good laugh. no words can describe the tour. you must go yourself to see. the cost is $5 and knock loud b/c he might be alseep when you go to visit.

ah, bbq fest! it really is my favorite time of memphis in may. we would love to join a team at some point but for now, we just hang out with our friends with tents! it is oh so much fun!! it is so big the food network comes to film! http://www.memphisinmay.org/bbq

kyle wishes he could grill a burger as big as the grill.

fun times by the river just before we dug into some bbq!



me. cindy.steph.

the memphis queen under a beautiful sunset.

now it is time more more showers for steph!

steph with her adpi sorority sisters.

kyle and i at steph and ray's tool shower.

the girls at the tool shower.

may ended with kyle and i attending the sunset symphony. we carried our cooler and blankets down to the river...

...only to get rained on! here is a pic of some people taking cover. i was smart and brought my raincoat and an umbrella. it poured 2 times.

the happy couple enjoying the rain and keeping dry!

the sun...finally!

cindy and john joined us, after the rain of course. we had a good time!

whew, may was busy but fun!

'music is what feelings sound like'

I love music! I do! And I like to think I have a really broad style of music taste. But there is a sad part to my liking...I can neither sing nor play an instrument. Funny thing is...I sang in college for my sorority's all-sing group. They begged me to! Yes it sounds crazy because I just stated that I can not carry a tune in a bucket...but it is true. I was a space filler b/c we didn't have enough people!! We did songs from the musical Annie and wore red wigs. I must find those pics and share them! We ended up placing 2nd. I think it was out for 4 teams but we still placed! I enjoyed it so much that I did all-sing my Junior and Senior year as well. Fun times.

Now the reason I bring this up is because there is a radio station that I must share. It is called the PIG....96 oink 1 (96.1) http://radiopig.com/96oink1/ I love it so much that I am blogging about it! They play limited commercials (if they do it is about BBQ, ironic I know) and I rarely hear the same song twice in a week. They play music from the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 80's, 90's, and today! Let me just give you an example of what I heard this past week: An Elvis version of 'fever', Pete Yorn, the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Whitesnake, jazz song, Patsy Cline, the GooGoo Dolls, a blues song about Germantown (not having enough Prada purses!), Counting Crows, Wallflowers, DMB, Judy Garland, Norah Jones, Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Hank Williams Sr, Randy Travis, the Oakridge Boys, U2, Jack Johnson, Jimmy Buffett, The Penguins, Alison Kraus, the Police, and so on. I think they stole my iPOD and put it on the radio!

The good news is that if you don't live in the Memphis area, you can listen online at http://www.radiopig.com/listen.htm Listen and I promise you will like it! The only thing they don't play is rap, heavy metal, or current pop music. So if that is your tune, then don't tune in.

Music brings people together. I can hear a song and sometimes it brings back a memory that I thought was lost. I like to hear stories of what songs mean to people. I think the new Dave Matthews song 'Funny the way it is' really describes how music can have different meanings to people.
"Funny the way it is, Not right or wrong
Somebody’s heart is broken, And it becomes your favorite song"

After college I started listening to jazz. I think it is so beautiful. My favorite is Louis Armstrong. If you ever are in New Orleans, there is a jazz band made up of older men that play Louis songs. Kyle and I sat and listened to the 3-man band (we were the youngest people there!) when we went a couple of years ago. A year later Kyle went back to where we heard them and they were still playing. We got engaged and had our 1st dance to Louis.

Of course I have to bring up MJ's death and how the last 2 weeks have really brought back some great memories of his songs. Kyle loves 'Billy Jean' and it was a song on our reception play list.

It never fails that my mom calls me when she hears Angie by the Rolling Stones...or Hey Ya by Outcast.

I was with my mother-in-law last week and she heard "her song" that her and my father-in-law share.

I will leave you with some music quotes to ponder on...

Music's the medicine of the mind. ~John A. Logan
Music is the universal language of mankind. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre-Mer
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. ~Victor Hugo
Music is an outburst of the soul. ~Frederick Delius
Music is what life sounds like. ~Eric Olson
Its language is a language which the soul alone understands, but which the soul can never translate. ~Arnold Bennett
Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends. ~Alphonse de Lamartine
When words leave off, music begins. ~Heinrich Heine
A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges. ~Benny Green
Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music. ~Ronald Reagan
Music is love in search of a word. ~Sidney Lanier
Music is well said to be the speech of angels. ~Thomas Carlyle, Essays, "The Opera"

got the runs

I starting training for half marathons back in August of 2006 with Andrea, a nurse I worked with. I never was a runner. I only ran when I played sports or when my coach told me I had to. I didn't like it. One day I was talking with Andrea at work and she told me she had ran a couple of halves. I said to myself "self, you need to find something to keep yourself in shape." Andrea said she would be my trainer if I wanted to do one. So I decided that 13.1 miles was doable...if I trained. I have now completed 5 half-marathons!

Kyle and I at race day pick up. Doesn't he look lighter?!

When Kyle and I started dating, I had just completed # 1 and was training for # 2. He thought since I enjoyed running so much, he would try it. He trained for his 1st 5k the summer of 07. He ran the grizz 5k (Dec 07) in 45mins and I ran my 3rd half in a personal record of 2hrs and 12mins! I was proud of both of us!

Carb-loading the night before at Amerigos.

I kept telling Kyle that he would be running a half marathon in no time. He stuck his nose in the air and said "I will stick to 5k's." In 2008, we were busy planning a wedding, moving, etc but still managed to run some. Kyle and I ran a 5k in Sept 08 and he ran it in 34mins! 11 mins faster from only 8 months earlier! He still was not ready for a half so I trained for the St. Jude again and he ran the grizz 5k again in Dec 08. DRUM ROLL....he ran it in 29mins!! 15 mins faster than last year!


Over 30,000 people ran the Country Music City Marathon/Half Marathon. Where's Kyle and Angie?

I finally talked Kyle into running the Nashville half marathon after his super fast time improvement over the last year. A lot of people think it is crazy to run 13.1 miles. (they thought Kyle was crazy) I tell people that YOU can do it! Running is a sport that anyone can do if you can walk to the mailbox and back. It doesn't matter how fast or how slow you go...it is that you get out there and do it. Training is a must though! If Kyle and I can do it...so can you!

During mile 1 when life was good.

Kyle and I trained from Jan to April of this year. I had a good training program that we followed religiously from http://www.runnersworld.com/ We did tempo runs, speed work and long runs. We had bad days and we had good days. I can remember when Kyle would say to me, "you mean we only have to run 5 miles today?" What a breakthrough! Our longest run we did before the half was 11.5 miles. We were very prepared for the race, or so I thought...

The sea of people outside our hotel.

We went to Nashville with our other running friends, Katie being one of them. Katie started the race the same time we did, 45 mins after the race started. They do a wave start so that we are not on top of each other. We have a chip on our shoe that records our race time when we cross the start and finish lines. So the time on the clock when we finished is about an hour after we really started. It ended being an extremely hot day for April 25, 2009. Kyle and I trained in 54 degree weather. The high for race day was 88 degrees. It was the hottest race day Nashville has ever had.

Kyle posing for a picture. Notice there is no Angie.

Around mile 4 of the race, I had serious side pains. It was getting really hot as well. At mile 5 or so, I told Kyle that he was going to have to go on without me. I told him that I was going to find Katie and walk/run with her. So he went on.

Kyle finishing his 1st half marathon in 2hrs and 43mins! He did it!

Thank goodness for Katie! I found her around mile 7 and she was the reason I didn't give up! It was so hot and 30 degrees warmer than what we had trained in. I have learned that when your body says stop, do it!

Katie and I running and ready for the next water stop. I look way too happy. I was miserable.

Kyle ended up walking as well around mile 9. It was just too hot he said. It takes about 2 weeks for your body to acclimate to hot weather, and we only had 1 day. We were very smart to listen to our bodies. A 26yo man died after completing the half. I am sure he had another condition that made him collapse that he was unaware of. I was a little down on myself because it was my worst time...but looking back, I did great considering the weather! That is why all long distance races are held in the fall through the spring. And thanks again to Katie who helped! She did great as well by beating her last time!

Finishing in 2hrs and 49mins with Katie.

We finished about 5 mins behind Kyle and I saw him at the finish line. He thought that Katie and I would catch him, and we almost did!

This describes exactly how we felt.

Katie.me.Robyn.

Kyle likes the races that has beer. He says that is his motivation!

Kyle and I plan on doing the St. Jude half this December. YAY