I love you more than my luggage....

So stoked this week is finally here! A few days to get through before we head to Kentucky for the rest of the week....we'll be at Dolphie's Wednesday & Saturday night, and spending Thursday & Friday in Lexington. It's ridiculous how much I love that place. This time we'll also FINALLY be hitting up part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail! 

Today's Sunday Social is all about movies, which is right up my alley! I spend probably way too much time watching movies....




1. What is your favorite movie of all time? Soooo freaking hard, but Steel Magnolias will forever be my ALL TIME favorite movie. 

are there people that actually DON'T love this movie?! 

But because I can't leave out the couple others that I rank high to ALMOST tie them: Christmas Vacation, Beaches & Something Borrowed!

2. What is your favorite movie quote? I'm not sure I can narrow it down to one, but these two from Steel Magnolias are WAY on the top of the list:
"I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful, than a lifetime of nothing special." "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion"
And obviously, the title of my blog is one of my fave Steel Magnolias quotes! 
And I could pull fabulous quotes from "The Hours" all day long. 
3. What is the best movie to watch for a girls night in?

Another one of my all time faves....the bestie & I watched it last girls night and quoted the whole damn thing.. "Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her."

4. What is the best breakup movie?

Either "The Breakup", or "Under the Tuscan Sun"

5. Who would you want to play you in a movie about your life?

I have no "Oh this person is just like me, they should play me!" because my only acceptable answer is the absolute best of the best---Meryl Streep. 

6. Which movie star’s closet would you want to raid? 
Michelle Pfeiffer

Finally....

The weekend! After my newborn session today, I plan on being as lazy as possible.

I love our hot summers, and usually wind up spending a lot of my weekends at my sisters...soooo I crashed over there last night & we had a night of chinese take-out and then cocktails by the pool. My brother in law turned the lower part of the back deck into a tiki bar....

Kadin after the Tiki Bar remodel started

It turned out pretty awesome. Kadin clearly gives it his approval - he loves it! He kept referring to last night as "the party" -- I'm not really sure what he thought we were going to be doing, but every 5 minutes I heard, "So, Aunt Nicole....you ready to get this party started!?"

Keeping it classy....screwdrivers in Disney's Monsters Inc cups! PS: Whipped Cream Vodka is so fabulous, it makes it hard to have regular vodka after. 

Yes, we put tiny umbrellas in our Monsters Inc cups....and Kadin had this huge discussion with us on what Monster each of us was going to get. Serious business in my sisters house. 

For someone who was so pumped about "the party", Kadin totally ditched us to go watch WWE for two hours! We were in the pool by 8 and he didn't even come barreling into the pool until 9. We made up for it and spent a few hours with him --- those kids are so much fun in the pool. From jumping to making a whirlpool to monkey in the middle -- we all had a blast. We capped off the night outside by lighting torches and playing on the electronics. At one point, I was on the iPad, Paige was on the other iPad, Sam was on her iPhone, and Kadin was on my iPhone....ah, bonding over Apple products.

with my sissy! 

So, my best friend & I have been keeping a log of stuff we've said for about a year now -- it's absolutely hilarious to go back and read the stuff we've said. Apparently, I need to start doing this for Kadin. This kid comes up with the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life.... he's SO into wrestling and wants to be just like John Cena - who my sister happens to love. So Kadin decided he's going invite all his favorite wrestlers to his house -- and asked, "Soooo Mom what would you say to John Cena!?" and Samantha said "Oh, I'd just be oh hey John Cena, come over here with me!" and Kadin popped out with....."You'd have private tickle time with him, wouldn't you!?" and we all died laughing. I have no idea WHERE he got that one! Love that kid!

Happy Mid-Week!

It's Wednesday, It's Wednesday! At this point in the week, it's really all about counting down to the weekend. (Okay, so I actually start doing that on Sunday nights) I had this huge elaborate plan of doing absolutely nothing this weekend at home, sitting on the couch watching TV, but I'm pretty sure I'm changing that to  absolutely nothing at my sisters house. (Which translates into the sis & I will lay out by the pool, then get in the pool to play with the kids, while my brother in law mixes drinks for us. Win win!) Of course, I'm still squeezing in the new Anna Nicole movie that premieres on Lifetime this weekend. Don't be jealous of my exciting life.

Speaking of the kids - Mom, Sam, the kids & I went to see Monsters University over the weekend. Seriously adorable. Should I admit that my sister & I can quote Monsters Inc better than the kids can? We took Paige to see it twice when it came out, so I love that even Paige wanted to see the new one! Kadin is totally the cutest thing in the world in the movies, at the end, it of course had the outcome he wanted and he burst into a loud round of applause and was going "YEAH, THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN ABOUT!".

Little man....sigh, he's not so  little anymore :(

He is so flipping cute, I could just smooch this little face forever! 

It's time for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

And first up, I am loving my new car! I bought her Wednesday..almost out of the blue. I've been wanting a second vehicle, but just never really got around to it.  I started looking at the cars where I bought my old car from and spotted this and kind of fell in love - it's the new version of my old car. By the time I test drove it, I was convinced it was absolutely coming home with me.  I wasn't convinced online that I loved the color --- but when I saw it in person, I totally loved the color!

And, as most of you know, I name all my cars after something pertaining to the Golden Girls, sooooo her name is Betty!

It's summer, which means I am loving Bobbie's Dairy Dip! A little Nashville tradition, it's got the best ice cream in the city! With my love for Loretta Lynn, I always wanted to have the Loretta Lynn shake but I hate Butterscotch (my friends swear by it!). Oh well - the cherry ice cream soda is a winner!

I am LOVING this blue number Calista Flockhart wore to the "42" Premiere! I've been trying to hunt it down, because it's totally getting added to my closet. I've already GOT my Derby dress for next year, but this is so cute AND it's Kentucky Blue! (I should really be focusing on finding our hats instead of looking for yet another dress)

I am so loving my record player & my Vinyl collection --- the local record shop now grabs my attention the second I walk in to say something like "Hey! I put out new Tammy Wynette ones, go see if you have them yet or not!" This week I started digging out a little more of my Granny's vinyl --- she'd be so pleased how well loved & taken care of they are. 

My name is Nicole & I cry too much.

Oh how I started today in such a fabulous mood---- and Adobe ruined all that in a quick 10 minutes. No, seriously, am I the only one having this total BS error in Photoshop all the damn time of "Sorry, we can't load your actions due to an unknown error"?  Seriously, someone tell me how they've fixed this error. How hard is it for shit to just....WORK?! Can I throw my computer out the window now?

Maybe I should have titled this "I cry too much AND have no patience". (And speaking of crying too much....I seriously cried in the FIRST TEN MINUTES of Monsters University. Yes, I'm serious. I mean, none of the little monsters wanted to play with Mikey when he was little, and I felt so bad for him! Kadin looked at me and started the "Aunt Nicole, are you crying already?!..." before I gave him the "Dude...just watch the movie!")

So I'm attempting to re-cap P's Saturday night Opry, which is almost difficult to do.  It was so overwhelming...

Let me start by saying there isn't much I have missed in this girls career.  I've been there through it all -- the good, the bad, and the "nothing going on" phase, even though some moments I was too young to fully appreciate or understand. Patty was there for me as a kid than she could have ever realized. As a result of having been there for everything for so long, I've got such pride for all her incredible accomplishments, because I remember the days before all that. June 11th marked Patty's Opry Anniversary, so they made the 15th a special evening to celebrate it. You know the mom at school whose kid lands the lead role in the school play and she's got the camera in the front for the whole ceremony? THAT was totally me Saturday night.  Oh, and I cried. Because you know, I cry at freaking everything. (And so everyone knows, the bestie cried when she saw Loretta, so I was not the only blubbering mess this night. It was a straight out of Steel Magnolias... "I have a strict policy that no one cries alone in my presence" moment.)

Oh I guess I forget to mention:  Loretta Lynn was on the schedule for Saturday night as well. And well, most of you know our ridiculous love for Loretta, so..this was basically going to be one of the best nights ever.

With the bestie, Opry bound! (okay, technically at the Opry already!)

So first of all, let me tell you how the Opry has these killer Hatch Prints made for like every occasion you can ever imagine. And in most cases, they sell them in the gift shop and online - you know, when members are inducted, there's an induction poster made. When big anniversaries happen, they make a poster. And since most of you know my obsession with my vintage Country Music Hatch Prints, you can imagine the hopes I had for a PL Hatch. They even teased us with it on Friday night showing it on the backdrop.

See how fabulous it is? You know who got one? Patty. You know who didn't get one? This girl. That's because they decided not to sell any in the shop. What the !($&*!( We went in and they sold 5 year prints for Carrie Underwood, but no 25 year for Patty. Sigh. (This meant naturally the first thing I did Sunday morning was email Hatch Show Prints to see what magic I have to work to get my hands on one!)

Anyway. the show was amazing, as usual --- P got tons of stage time.

easily one of my top fave pics I've ever taken of P! Love love love this one.

And then after, they brought her back out to present her poster to her. And this is when the ridiculous sap in me started to cry. (This probably should not surprise me right? I mean, who remembers my cousin & I SOBBING during the Muppets Movie when they all sang Rainbow Connection??....) The very mention of all her accomplishments teared me up, and then she started talking about induction night..And THEN they bring out Emory so she can introduce him and tell everyone what a badass he is.  (Okay, so maybe that's not exactly how she worded it, but it's how I would have... like "My husband is a badass and better than the rest of you, that's all!") 

Somehow in the midst of all this, she's all humble & stuff, and doesn't believe she's a freaking awesome as she really is. 

Totally dig this. 

P & Vince came back out to sing after the presentation, annnnd in the background, they decided to show all these photos of P in the back throughout her career. Like I wasn't ALREADY a blubbering mess.....good lord. I should have stock in Kleenex. I wish I could adequately express what P has done for me & helped me through, but I really have no words that would do it justice.

Her music saved me more times than I could probably count. I probably should have paid her in my teenage years for being my therapist. As a child, she was my ultimate hero, I had it set in my head at a young age that I was going to be "just like" Patty when I grew up. (Okay, so that wasn't all that realistic nor did  that ever happen, but I do like to think that her influence helped mold me in to the person I am today.) And let's not lie, if it weren't for her, I wouldn't haven't met the amazing people in my life now, and I sure wouldn't have found my independence at an early age -- I probably would have hesitated jumping in the car and driving hundreds of miles by myself as a teen if it weren't for a show at the end of the line!

My childhood memories are peppered with PL memories. I recently discovered the diary I kept when I was 11-12, and I'm pretty sure my entry the morning "The Trouble with the Truth" was released is the greatest thing in the world. Apparently, I did not clean my room & my mother refused to take me to get it. It said - and I quote - this is the worst thing that could ever happen to ANYONE! (Maybe acting was my calling, I totally had the Drama Queen act down!)  2 hours later I had it in hand, horrible crisis averted & updated that everything was great, and duh, this was the greatest CD ever! (And you better believe that bedroom was clean every CD release day after that!)

27 years & 200+ shows later - I have so so many wonderful memories of her - Opry Induction included (so I suppose this night was already off to a sappy night of memories for me!). I had to be one of the most annoying kids ever at gig after gig, and NEVER once did she ever make me feel like I was. I was a truly fortunate kid, who had a hero that made a serious difference in my life -- and one that I had the opportunity to grow up in front of, and not a lot of kids had that. A few years ago, my sweet Paige had her chance to meet HER favorite (well, WAS her favorite anyway!), and taking her home in tears because she was so incredibly disappointed at what a nasty person this artist was heartbreaking. I'm so thankful I never had that experience with P.

What sappy blog entry about P would be complete without an embarrassing photo of us when I was a kid? PS, the glasses were totally my mom's fault! Kids, this is what happens when your mother won't let you pick out the glasses you want!

Playing catch up...

It's a gross, rainy morning in Nashville today....which means I'm going to do everything I can to stay home & watch Netflix all day.

Sooo much to catch up on, last weekend was definitely one of the most fun weekends I've ever had in my life. Serious picspam ahead, though-you're forewarned!

Last week, the bestie drove in Thursday morning so we could hit "Nashville Dancin"  (Can I just repeat how stupid I think this name is and how I'll simply continue to refer to it as Dancin' in the District?) 18 South was on the opening night, so we decided to go since Jon Randall (Rita's fave!) is in 18 South, and it would give her a chance to see him again. The day was all for her - she was over the moon getting to hear him again! The band is also made up of a bunch of talented musicians - a few of which used to play for PL back in the day.

Paige asked me if she could come out with us one night while Rita was here. She really isn't into country much anymore, aside from P --- all these bands she's into I've never heard of before (I felt 100 years old walking into Hot Topic at Christmas to get her all these band hoodies she wanted.), so I really wasn't sure she'd have a good time, but her last few "crash at Aunt Nicole's" nights have been with Kadin, so I knew she wanted a night away from her brother. Soooo......

Yes, that's her behind the wheel.  Have I mentioned I'm so not ready for this?! Truth be told, she's actually a REALLY great driver. For 15 years old, she's much more cautious and careful than most of the adults I know. She didn't really make me nervous ---okay, just once! She couldn't see out of the parking lot and inched forward to see better, and instead of stopping when she inched forward - she just went. But nonetheless - she's a good driver and she is getting great practice. (No interstates yet!) She drove us home at the end of the night too. Sigh. Repeat, I'm not ready for this.

18 South did a great show - seriously, this is a talented group of folks (and I really did take great pictures of all them, but PL took priority in my photo editing department and I haven't even finished the 18 South photos yet! I had to prioritize, and since JR is Rita's man, I tried to start with the ones of him!):

Oh, and the 15 year old had a great time - and as we left, she was flirting with the band members from the band that opened the show? Good Lord, we are in trouble with this girl, I swear! She is soooooo my sister all over! (Yikes!)

Paige with The Lonely Biscuits -- a bunch of local Belmont Boys that she totally loved.

with the bestie

Rita & Paige

If Thursday was Rita's day, Friday was totally mine. Larry picked us up for dinner a little early so we'd have time to sit and talk for awhile --- Rita hasn't seen Larry in almost 2 years, so I had to play the "OH MY GOD, tell her about..." game the entire night. Such a great time - love these peeps, I'm so fortunate to be surrounded by such fabulous people! I say that so often, but I truly mean it.

Rita & our waitress - her name was Margarita (yes for real) --- and Rita instantly shouted "Oh my god, Margarita Rita, we have to get a picture together!" We were Margarita's most entertaining table.

Also, Friday was National Bourbon Day! Kentucky Lemonades, FTW!  

We had to drop Rita off at the main entrance to the Opry because we were only able to have two people backstage.  Larry & I started the short trek to the back of the Opry House and began a seriously awesome night!

I got so incredibly tickled when we walked in and saw they had P's picture up on the TV's in the back with "Patty Loveless Celebrates her 25TH Opry Anniversary"  - it's soooo about time they made a big deal about her --- it was the first I've been pleased with the Opry in a long time!  I am so proud of her, and when I walked into this, I was over the moon!

Larry and I spent most of the night wandering around backstage, catching up with folks, and meeting some new ones -- I swear every person we ran into knew Larry or has worked with him at some point! Either people he's working on records with now, or people that knew him back when he was Dottie's manager, he knew 90% of the people we ran into. A little pic spam of the night:

The Opry stage all by it's lonesome...

Hanging out with Larry backstage...

With P! Love, Love, Love this girl. I designed a hardcover book for her to show all these years of shows, all the great memories so many of us have with her, etc,..I've had it sitting at the house for months and finally gave it to her Friday night, and she loved it! (Although the comment that "you being here is enough!" when I handed it to her might have been my highlight!)

Larry & sweet Jennifer. Larry's been working with Jennifer on some of his projects, and was thrilled to run into her and catch up!

I love all the Opry dressing rooms, but this is one of my favorites....I'm drawn to the color scheme. It's the design nerd in me. 

And on the subject of dressing rooms, we took over the Porter Wagoner dressing room! Here's Larry sitting on the bright purple couch in it, hah. Considering how obsessed my Granny was with the color purple AND Porter Wagoner, this room could not be any more perfect! 

W/ Emory (for my uninformed friends, he's the most bad-ass bass player ever. He's also married to P.)

And if you want to know what the Queen Bee in action looks like:

love.this.girl. This is the real deal, folks. Not to mention, there's no words to describe how much P helped me get through adolescence.  (Okay, well there probably is, and I'll attempt it in the next blog)

And because Saturday will be equally as long, and I need to go fax paperwork (who bought a new car out of the blue this week?! This girl! I told you....lots to catch up on!), and seriously get going on wedding photo editing -- I'll break this into two entries..

 

Weekend Shenanigans....

I can't really join the trend of "Boo, it's Monday!" posts I've been seeing -- since I work from home Mondays, I sleep longer. More sleep = a much more pleasant Nicole.

When we implemented the work from home schedule, I couldn't jump on Monday fast enough. I loathed Mondays - I have zero shame in saying I was usually a royal bitch on Mondays.

This is PL week! She's playing the Opry on Friday & Saturday, so we've got a huge week planned. The bestie will be here Thursday so we can head downtown to Dancin' in the District (oh wait - they changed the name to something stupid like Nashville Dancin' or something. Whatever.), and then the Opry consumes our Friday and Saturday nights. Larry will be with us Friday night & have a ton of stuff on the horizon, so over the weekend, he & I went shopping. Because of course, new clothing is required! (Let's not even mention that Thursday night I had the most ridiculous "I WANT TO RUN MY EX OVER WITH MY CAR!" type sing along in my living room--- I needed to get out & have a great time.)

 First things first: Nashville now has an H&M!

   

Do you know how much more complete my life is with H&M in my city?! They opened mid-week, but it was SO insane with people waiting hours in the parking lot to get in, we decided to wait until Saturday. And it was totally worth the wait...this place is huge and heaven. Not to mention, they had all these crazy opening sales.

my partner in crime for the day! 

Aside from some serious shopping (where I bought two new dresses, a skirt, a jacket - all of which I have decided not to wear this week, what?!), we went and saw The Purge.

I love creepy movies - even as a total chicken shit that will scream bloody murder (okay, so that only happened once, and the twin cousin was with me and shrieked too!), I still make myself go see this stuff. Anyway, the premise was basically crime in America is largely eliminated by 2022, and the government has started an annual purge - for 12 hours one night every year, all crime is legal. They claim it's to give people the outlet they need to blow off steam. 

It was good-- but it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. (Although I promise, it will definitely make you glad the Purge doesn't exist!!!) Ethan Hawke makes the movie worth it (even if you just look at him! Swoon!) - but there were multiple scenes that Larry and I were cracking up at and I'm not sure that laughter was the intended reaction here.

And to end with the cutest boy in the world --- when the kids came over this week, Kadin was over the moon about his new John Cena wrestling shirt, so he had to put it on and pose:

CUTEST.BOY.EVER. (and he'll kill me for saying that, since he wants us to call him "Handsome and Entertaining" instead of cute & funny)

Now to go make the rest of my Monday productive.....

 

Sunshine & Summertime...

The worst part of vacation is coming back to reality. After a long weekend at the beach, this past week was back to the real world :(

Friday afternoon I drove down to my best friend's in Georgia - we hit our favorite winery (The Georgia Winery.. If you've never been, you MUST at some point! They have the best wine ever, and Concord is to die for) to stock up on wines for the beach. The next morning we hit the road to head to Florida, which is about 6 hours from Rita's house. And if you know me & my best friend, we filled those 6 hours with ridiculous amounts of gossiping & singalongs.

We got to Pensacola Beach around 3ish, and immediately changed and walked down to the beach. Our hotel was on the beach, which meant for a quick walk - and was along the strip so  we weren't far from any of the local clubs and restaurants. It was when we walked up to the restaurants and pier that we started seeing signs for a seriously crazy convention going on. Let's just say it was adult themed and we had no idea what we were walking into. It was like something out of a Seinfeld episode - we go on a girls weekend, and blindly walk into something crazy. We could not stop laughing the entire trip.

One of my favorite things about the beach is going at night and listening to the waves crash. I grew up in Florida - a lot further south in Florida, though - and the sound of the ocean is one of the biggest things I miss. So after checking out some of the local places, we decided to go pour some wine in our cups, and walk down to the beach that night.. Where we sat in the chairs and had obnoxious Loretta Lynn sing alongs and listened to the ocean in the background.

That pretty much sets the tone for Sunday - because we went to the beach around 11 armed with wine, iPad, and music. From 11 to 4:30ish we sat on the beach watching shows, sipping wine, and listening to music.  Well, I say listen to music.  As usual with us - it was more like a karaoke session on the beach. Thankfully the people next to us on the beach were amused by us - not everyone loves classic country music as much as we do, and it's all we listened to. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones on the beach having a serious jam session to Donna Fargo.

Some pic spam from the weekend..

On the road again...

To this gorgeous place! Seriously, the waters, the sand...everything is so gorgeous!

Heading to the beach! Seriously, my best friend & I document everything....

Mango Margaritas - this was one of the best margarita's I've ever had! So fabulous. 

The pier behind our hotel...our hotel had this cute bar behind it along the water and this pier

This place we went to breakfast at one day was so adorable, and reminded me of some of our little shops in Nashville. It was called the Dog House or something to that affect, but the menus called it "the Weinery" 

This would be the spot I barely left on Sunday.

Toes in the sand....

Beach day number two...

As we go out into the ocean, I take my phone to take a picture, and come back with this. I have no clue if Rita was knocked down by a little wave or if she was just too intoxicated to walk out of the ocean properly...we DID drink a lot of wine! 

Helping out the Kentucky for Kentucky campaign, etching their slogan in the sand! 

We spotted this in the window of a store and immediately burst into some George Jones..."you're as smooth as Tennessee Whiskey..." I really think the folks there all weekend that didn't love country music as much as we did thought we had lost our freaking minds. 

Back to the beach to watch the sun go down the last night....

On the road.....again!