One Month

Well we've been Nashvillians (how funny is that word?) for a month now. I'm starting to be annoyed by cars that have a license plate other than Tennessee, because they obviously don't know where they're going (even though mine still says Ski Utah!). What a fun place to be, but only if you don't have to drive down Hillsboro Pike (or anywhere really, but Hillsboro especially) after 3:30. Besides the traffic, we're finding Nashville to be a really interesting place to live. Some highlights:

The traffic. I already mentioned this, but here are some interesting tidbits. Because there are too many cars for this little city, we've been creative in finding new ways to get anywhere in the late afternoons or evenings. This has led to some driving in gorgeous neighborhoods. I think probably only here in Nashville is the fastest way to get around Hillsboro is to drive in the fanciest neighborhood around, Belle Meade. The likes of Al Gore, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and so many more stars grace this neighborhood which I drive through just about every day to get somewhere. At least the scenery is beautiful!

The history. There are signs everywhere in Nashville along the roads documenting events that happened there from famous settlers who had a log cabin there or did something there, to Civil War battles and movements, to bad train wrecks. I really appreciate these little signs when I'm stuck in traffic - it gives me something interesting to do :)

The food. Delicious. But did you know that they don't eat much medium cheddar cheese here? We found this out when I was frustrated by only finding sharp and extra sharp cheese at Costco and exclaiming too loudly "don't they eat medium cheddar here in the South?!?" To which a nice lady responded that they didn't, they mostly like the sharper versions. Oh Tillamook, how I love and miss you! The first week of school the partner's association for the MBA school threw a BBQ. I was expecting a delightful time with grills and hot dogs and burgers. Nope. BBQ here is catered slow-cooked falling apart chicken and pork served with BBQ sauce, baked beans, macaroni and cheese and some other delightful sides. It was delicious, but not what I was expecting. Apparently the dogs and burgers type of BBQ is called grilling, or something like that. Good thing I like BBQ in whatever form it comes to me!

The lingo. Keeping up with my mistake of using the wrong term, here are some more things people say that are different from good 'ole Utah. They call shopping carts "buggys" - how cute is that? And a soda (or pop for you Utahns) is a coke here. They ask if you want a coke, then when you say yes they specify what kind of coke you want. Nashville is so full of transplants that I rarely hear a southern accent, but when I do, it makes me so happy. I love to hear those southern women drawling out their speech in the checkout line at the grocery store.

As a family, we're doing great too.

Rob just finished half of his first term in school. They're on a "mod" system, which means fewer classes for 6 weeks, then a week of finals, then a "break" of some sort and then again. Each school year he will complete 4 mods. He also was chosen to be a part of a case competition for HOP (human organizational performance, or HR related stuff - his concentration). He was chosen as one of 3 first years to be on the team, which is pretty big stuff. Owen (the business school) has a history of doing really well, so we're excited he gets to be a part of that experience! He's staying really busy, but it's much more manageable than I was expecting and he tries really hard to be home for dinner every night to spend some time with Gracers and me, which we love.

Grace is her funny little self. She's getting so independent and talkative. She loves to point out Target every time we drive by, which we do pretty often because it's right outside our neighborhood. One day Rob made the mistake of telling her that if she said "please" we could go to Target (that day we were planning on going anyway). So she did and now every time we drive by Target, Grace says "Target, please! Please, Target!!" (Side note: I believe that my sister, Emily, taught me to do just about the same thing with K-Mart when I was about Grace's age...apparently we are born to shop around here!) She's a really good girl though, even in the face of that much disappointment of not getting to go to Target every day. I love that she loves to give spontaneous leg hugs where she runs at full speed toward your leg and hugs it so tightly, she might just knock me over one of these days. She also loves to sing. She sings a song called "twinkle, twinkle, ABC" which is (if you haven't guessed already) a beautiful combination of twinkle twinkle little star and ABC. Other favorites are "I Love You" (the Barney song) and "Clean Up" (another Barney classic) both of which I've heard coming loudly from her room as she's supposed to be napping - stinker! I think she's starting to realize now, though, that they are actually two different songs. She also, like her daddy, likes to make up words and songs. It's really fun to hear her singing all the time.

Baby Girl. Good, growing a lot. We had an appointment this morning and the little stinker wouldn't hold still to let the midwife hear her heartbeat. She kept on flipping back and forth like it was a game...if this keeps up...yikes! Still no name picked out for sure for her yet. My planner-self loves to have a plan and so not having a name is stressing me out, but it will come, I'm sure (and really, at some point, it will have to).

Me. I'm good. I really miss having control of my body. Just this afternoon I was on Amazon drooling over the new Jillian Michaels work out DVDs and fantasizing about the day when I will once again be able to exercise and be comfortable again! My back is almost completely better (I threw it out something fierce a few weeks ago and could barely move), so that is a blessing and a half! Apparently backs are really important for every aspect of daily living...who knew!? :)

That's us in a nutshell, or really an epic blog post. We miss living in Utah, but Nashville is growing on us, and hopefully will keep doing so until we're sad to leave this place too!