Nashville Wife

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New York City

Sending Paintings to NYC

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Most of you know that Mr. Handsome makes oil and acrylic paintings as a hobby. We have enjoyed traveling around the Nashville area to different art shows and town festivals to sell his works of art. He has also displayed his paintings at coffee shops and other venues across the city. He started with landscapes and has since branched out to a variety of other subjects, including musical instruments, ships, abstract paintings, animals, and skylines. And for Christmas, he painted a portrait of me.

For the past couple months, he has been working on paintings to display at a venue in New York City. After many nights spent burning the midnight oil, he finished yesterday. This afternoon, we packaged the paintings up into three large boxes and dropped them off at UPS. It was kind of bittersweet to say goodbye to two dozen of his best paintings, but we are hopeful that some will sell. And it’s exciting to be able to say that he displayed his art in New York City. Little Buddy enjoyed laying on a blanket on the floor while daddy did many of the paintings.

Phantom of the Opera in Nashville

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AreThe Phantom of the Opera live on Broadway you familiar with The Phantom of the Opera?

This year, I had no idea what to get Mr. Handsome for his birthday, but I wanted it to be special. I keep a list on my phone of gift ideas for him and other family members, and I had quite a few ideas for small presents in the $10-$15 range but nothing amazing.

For a while now, he has been wanting to see the live Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera. He saw it (both live and in theaters) as a teenager and loved the music, but it’s been a while. His two youngest sisters went this spring while they were in New York City for a choir trip, and they have been talking about it ever since.
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#NeverForget

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Four years ago, my parents and I visited New York City. Our trip only lasted two days, but we made use of every minute we had in The Big Apple.

On the first day, we strolled through Central Park and Grand Central Terminal, ate lunch at the Plaza Hotel, enjoyed a delicious dessert at Georgetown Cupcake, took a ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty,  rode the subway to Hoboken for more treats at Carlo’s Bake Shop, and absorbed the magic of Time Square at night. Over a 12-hour period, we walked all the way from 86th Ave on the Upper East Side to the southern tip of Lower Manhattan.

The next morning at 5am, we braved the rain to be in the background of NBC’s TODAY Show in Rockefeller Plaza and had a quick chat with anchor Ann Curry. Then we power-walked over to ABC Studios to catch the end of Good Morning America, where we came face-to-face with country music star Carrie Underwood.

Our next stops were Trinity Church Wall Street, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Empire State Building, the United States Branch Bank, and the New York Stock Exchange.

Two hours before heading to the airport to catch our flight home, we visited one final attraction, the September 11 Memorial at Ground Zero. Although the museum was still under construction, simply standing on the grounds of the World Trade Center was a humbling experience. We passed by the Survivor Tree and peered over the railings of the reflecting pools, which were built within the footprint of the Twin Towers.

May we never forget the 3,000 men and women who lost their lives during the terror attacks of 9/11 and those who risked their lives to bring thousands more to safety.

What are your memories of September 11, 2001? For those of us who were old enough to remember, the footage of the airplanes flying into the Twin Towers will forever be ingrained in our minds. We must always pay tribute to that day, for as Winston Churchill once said, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Life in the South

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If you live along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, you’re in for some serious winter weather. More than 30 million people, including the entire populations of Washington D.C., Boston, and New York City, are bracing themselves for blizzard conditions, with the nation’s capital expecting up to two-and-a-half feet of snow.

Here in Tennessee, we’re experiencing the early stages of the massive winter storm “Jonas” that is headed for the East Coast. For us, the snow will taper off this evening, with 3-6 inches of accumulation forecasted.

This is normal winter weather in the Midwest (where Mr. Handsome and I are from), so we were puzzled to hear that every single one of my husband’s dental patients had canceled their appointments for today and tomorrow.

Just another positive of Southern living…more snow days! Our relatives back in the Midwest are going to be jealous.

Here’s something to make you laugh: 

*The top picture is one I took in my family’s backyard several years ago, and the bottom snapshot shows what it looks like outside our front door this morning.