Swim time

Dalton's first trip to the pool was a success, even being tired from being at Dee Dee's all day. Jack worked on the house all day while we lived it up. He loved it! 

I didn't intend to get in the pool with my shirt on, it just kind of happened. No extra hands to remove shirt, etc. This does bring back memories of me as a kid, sunburnt, with a t-shirt on in the pool. 

The kid loves fingers in mouth!

Food Truck Fad

The food truck is hitting Nashville hard. I recently visited the Nashville Food Truck website to count the trucks to see how many I would have to visit to try them all and there were thirty! Whew. I don't know if I'll get to that, but here is one Jack and I visited last weekend.
Happy Eating. A Japanese food truck recently started that moves around Nashville. You can find where they are on twitter, or if you don't have twitter you can visit the Nashville Food Truck website to find all your favorite's locations. They also have a store off Bransford Avenue called Happy Japan with all kinds of authentic Japanese traditional and anime items (which kind of freaks me out). So if you want to dress up as a Japanese animation character, this is your place.

Back to the truck... we went on a Saturday when they were actually parked in front of their store, which was conveniently located close to our house. They have a few tables and chairs, so no need to worry about seating. The menu is fairly short, as is most food trucks. I had the yuku burgers and curry fries, with a lychee soda. Jack had the tacos and gyoza. The burgers came on a grilled rice bun, pickled ginger, and wasabi mayo-A-. This was our favorite. The rice buns were delicious!  The curry fries were mushy and had too much curry-D. Jack's tacos came on a crispy won ton, with chicken and veggies. It was just okay-a C+. The gyoza was again mediocre-C+. My soda was refreshing and it came in a cool bottle with a glass ball that you have to open to get to the soda. The minus was that it was only 6.5 oz for $3! It gets a F for price and volume, an A-for taste. The menu had some yummy desserts on the menu, like ice cream, crepes, and a sweet rice dessert (see animated character on truck), but we decided to try the Pied Piper Creamery instead. The piper does not make good ice cream. By the way, the story of Pied Piper is creepy-a man luring all the children away from the town like rats all because he didn't get paid-yeah. The ice cream was just okay, something I could get from a pubilx brand-D-. It's got NOTHING on Jeni's ice cream.
So the moral of the story is try the burgers and maybe the udon noodles or desserts. I'll have to go back to see about the others. Hopefully they will continue to try to perfect the food because we don't have a lot of Japanese places and it would be nice to have a good one. Don't go to Pied Piper Creamery off Bransford. I do have a friend who said the one in East Nashville is good, but don't waste your money if you are in East Nashville, go to Jeni's!
PS. if you want to visit a good food truck, try Grilled Cheeserie 

Pin, pin, pin

I'm obsessed with pinterest. How did this happen?! And why am I addicted to another thing on my iphone when I am already on it 90% of the day?! Ugg. I love pinterest because of the creative crafts and home ideas. You basically pin images you like on the web and put it on a virtual board. Friends can share their boards and you can follow them like Facebook. Pinterest also leads me to blogs that I've never seen, such as OhHappyDay. I can't get enough of this blog. This woman moved to Paris for a year. She loves to throw parties, a woman after my own heart. She has so many brilliant ideas and one thing I LOVE about her is that she throws a themed party once a month. At each party there is always a surprise. If I had more money and friends who don't tire of my parties, I would seriously do this, especially the surprises. I love parties! I love surprises! I love crafts! Enough. I can't wait to DO THIS!
I'm also looking at home ideas because we got a new house! Yes. We. Did. Actually, it's not new it all, but new to us. It is less than a mile from our current home and we close at the end of September. It's the same old ranch Crievehall ranch house like our current one. We've been in this house for 6 years and planned to stay awhile. We weren't looking but this house came up as a foreclosure. Jack is always looking online for good deals and houses to renovate, but I am used to this so I didn't think anything would become of it. This time he was serious. We have a lot of work to do, but when we are finished I think it will become a cozy house that Dalton will love to play in for years to come. But right now, it's ugly. I will post pictures soon. So that being said, pray our current house sells!

Space Cowboy

4 Months (thanks for your patience!)... Let's recognize NASA for all their space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research as the program took their last trip last month (and for the movie release of Cowboys and Aliens). This space cowboy is getting ready for take off. Gotta take your guns, you never know what you'll encounter.

I'm not afraid to shoot some aliens

I will protect America from the evil that threatens us!

Jack built the rocket, with it's own stand and everything. We hope to put it in his room when he gets older to play cowboys and aliens. Now that I know Jack is willing to participate, it's on. Don't be afraid to add your own captions. Special thanks to Auntie Mary for taking the pictures.
Weight and height for 4 months: 19lbs 14 oz, 27.5 inches. Aka. a beast

4 Months-hold your breath

Because themed picture is not up yet... my friend, Mary and took them and I think she has to edit them or something so I don't have them as of yet. Let's just say I will have to work hard to top this one and I've managed to get my husband involved now. It's on.
 So let's look at the E.T. pics while you are anxiously awaiting (who am I kidding, no one cares out of the two people who read this blog).

Dalton loves the exersaucer-especially the songs and the spin wheel thingy

I thought this Sadie giraffe thing was silly but he actually loves it. Not evident in this picture though.

Pop a colla, ya'll

He enjoys his bumbo but his legs get stuck. Surprised?

Dalton is giggling like crazy and loves to talk after eating. He has mastered the roll and doesn't care about the pacifier any more because he sucks on his fingers all the time. Loves it. He tried cereal for the first time and did pretty well! He's getting better everyday.

Sweet tooth?

Checking items off my list is quite possibly one of my favorite things ever. I make lists just so I can cross them off. Point being I visited a couple of new eateries for #8 on my list (try 8 new restaurants. I'm counting eateries) and I can cross it off. I took the opportunity to go to both places in one afternoon. Here are my reviews:

Almond Tree-East Nashville

Their specialty is french macaroons and they also offer cupcakes, cake lollipops, and cookies. They were fresh out of macaroons *bummer* but usually they have lemon, coffee, pistachio, and madagascar vanilla. I tried their chocolate cake lollipop, chocolate chip cookie, and carrot and lemon cupcakes. The place is tiny, so it's just a pick up and go. PS. Looks like a cool restaurant opening next door with a large patio.

Jeni's Ice cream-East Nashville

TONS of unique flavors to choose from, some on regular menu and seasonal. Most popular is Salted Caramel-out. I think Nashville was also eating lots of desserts on this rainy Saturday. I taste tested Bourbon Buttered Pecan, Bangkok Peanut, and Wild berry Lavender. BBP-you can taste the fullness of the bourbon. mmm. BP-Designed to be like pad thai. You taste peanut butter and coconut sweetness, with a spiciness as a finish. WL had a rich purple color that the girl said was due to the currants and it has a citrus flavor to it. All three were unique and yummy. I ended up getting the Lavender one. Not sorry. I can't wait to go back and taste the salted caramel, or better yet, the salted caramel ice cream sandwich. They also have coffee, floats, and you can take pints home. Jeni has her own cook book you can buy to make it at home! Click on the website above to see an adorable film about the ice cream.

Suzy Wong's House of Yum-Church Street

Scandalous name based on a prostitute, decor similar to Ed Hardy wear, but yummy food and drinks. Katherine and I hit it up before heading to see Bon Iver, which was amazing! We each started with a passion fruit sangria-divine- wonton nachos, and the bbq pork bao bun. The nachos were delicious and all the reviews recommended them. I would say the same. Crispy wontons, edamame, cheese, hot sauce, shredded pork, fresh lettuce and tomatoes. It was by far my favorite thing we ordered. Katherine thought the hot sauce was too hot, but I rather liked it. So caution if you don't like spicy. The bao bun was also good and now typing this realize we got two pork appetizers, but they were great. It's one small bun, just fyi. We also each got a yum bowl, basically a fancy chinese noodle or rice dish. Katherine got the sweet and sour chicken, I got General Tso's chicken. Both good, but I preferred hers. They have sushi and bigger signature plates. The staff was a little ditsy and mentally slow at times, but service was overall good.

Friends... relocated!

My great friend, Alicia, and her family just returned to Nashville after living in away for a while. I've known Lish since freshman year of high school and she went to Auburn with me, so we've spent a lot of time together. She then married Mark and they moved to Boston, then Atlanta and they are finally here! They have a son, Hudson, who just turned 4 and Tinsley, who just turned one. It's so fun having her here and being able to call her up and go walking, have them for dinner, or a play time. She was always my friend who could turn a different race in the summer, she is exotic looking already and it makes her look even more like she is from another country. Naturally her kids are darker than I am- Dalton looks like a ghost comparatively.

Jack's sister and family are also here now, but not on purpose. Andy, my brother in law, had gotten a job in Birmingham and had been there for about 3 months. Now the job's not working out, so now they are now here-Andy, Julie, and 3 year old Dory.

Why is this picture so tiny? Lish and Tinsley

Mark, Tinsely, and Hudson

A couple of you asked about Jack's cousin's wedding at the Schermerhorn Symphony Hall that we attended last weekend (mostly because I begged you for a dress to borrow). It was a Persian/christian wedding because she is from Iran. It was beautiful and a treat to see another culture's traditions. They had several items on a long buffet table (but elegantly decorated) that symbolized wishes and blessings for them... they were given honey for sweet kisses in their marriage and hazelnuts for fertility (haha, I'm so childish). The Christian service was first and then the Persian was immediately after, with an interlude of techno music. I've included a couple of pics from the items on the table. Food was amazing, drinks flowing, and Jack and I danced all night. Jack was so sweet to dance with me on almost every song, even the odd Iranian techno ones. It was a perfect night. The only crazy thing was that we didn't get to eat until 9:45 due to set up issues, speeches, and cutting the cake.

PS- Secret ingredient from last blog was Mountain Dew. Healthy.

Schermerhorn's gorgeous chandeliers. They move up and down. Kinda cool.

Items in the ceremony

I never got a good picture of the bride, but she is there in the white and feathers (no joke, sherlock). The mother of the bride is in the orange dress-danced the whole time, but did not throw her hip out :).

Jack's Aunt and Uncle in the gray dress and tux. Jack's parents dancing to the right.

The family, minus Brandon and Liz. Julie and Andy are in the middle.