Day 2

Nashville

"Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you." Deuteronomy 5:16

A week or two ago, Hubs and I called our moms to talk over a schedule that would maximize our time with everyone in Nashville. Since we are blessed by both sides of our family being from the same city, we do have to communicate well to work out time that helps us spend our time in the most "quality" way. It does require effort- an effort Hubs is still getting used to- to plan with sensitivity and understanding clarity. It's not fail-proof. We step on toes. But we pray through it and do the best we can with what we know. But having a plan prepares for enjoying time with our most loved ones.

"Just thinking that it's not only the love of family that makes life so buttery rich. It's also the like of family. Like is love having fun." -Beth Moore

We like our family. We WANT to spend time, to be close, to grow to know, to grow to love more all the time. Our trips to Nashville are opportunities, and we like making the most of them. I'll put in the work for that.

Anyways, we are here six nights. First three nights at the Woodard house, last three at the Hopkins house. The schedule fell into place, and we are so grateful for a God who care about the details.

Men, if there is any of you who read this, you may skip this paragraph. Ladies, the last 8 months, I've been 40 minutes from a Target. The Woodard House is 0.3 miles from the nearest one. I felt like I reunited with a long, lost buddy. Don't act like you don't know what I'm saying.

After a quick lunch, Hubs and I went to spend a couple of hours with his Maw Maw while Lea Anne had a mandatory meeting at school. It was a great visit catching up. I love being with her. She is such a gentle and kind woman, and her house is a quiet, comfortable place. I feel so at home with her.

Back with Andrew's mom, we went to several stores and went to a delicious Mexican restaurant for dinner. Lea Anne stocked the freezer with ice cream, and I have worked the system. Hubs crushed up several Oreos and mixed it in vanilla ice cream for me. New favorite.

Jessie's buddy, Cody, who is too old for her shenanigans.

Tonight, we finally watched a redbox movie we've had for well over a week. Whoops. Well worth the wait, 42 is one of the best movies we had seen in a while. I highly recommend it. However, I was multi-tasking because I have intentionally ignored the fact that my psychology course began yesterday. I'm at Liberty University Online and taking a full load of classes. The structure of the semester does two 8-week blocks. This block I'm only taking one class because of the move and three classes next 8-weeks. I started the check-in and introduction discussion posts tonight just to gauge what time I might be expected to spend on school work on this road trip. I'm obviously going for bare-minimum here.

A special shout-out to my friend Victoria's husband for graduating NAVSCOLEOD today! Congratulations Nick!