Coffee, Books, Husband

We went to Dose last Sunday for our weekly coffee shop exploration (we got up late and just went to Bongo the Sunday before that, old habits die hard). I loved the atmosphere, and that we snagged one of the booths before it got too busy. Miles got a cinnamon raisin bagel and I had toast with Amish apricot jam and both were delicious. I'm surprised I got a picture in before Miles inhaled his bagel.

Although Miles isn't the best "sit at a table forever" kind of guy--he's pretty much dying to go after 45 minutes tops, I am really enjoying these Sunday mornings with him. Even if I could always stay for hours longer.

He's so handsome. Like all the time, gah. And after I saw the pictures he took of me that morning, I got it in my head that I wanted to chop all my hair off again. We'll see, I've been growing it out forever--with not as much as I'd hoped to show for it.

Opa!

We went to the Nashville Greek Festival over the weekend and had the best time! The weather had just cleared up and it ended up being such a beautiful day. We ate gyros, drank greek beer, cheered for the dancing children, explored the stalls and took a tour of the Greek Orthodox church that hosted the festival. I absolutely loved being surrounded by such a beautifully vibrant culture with such a rich history. You could feel the sense of community between everyone, and I think that is just such a wonderful, magnetic thing to experience. 

We will definitely be going again next year!

Chick Flick Night

I (unintentionally) tricked Miles into a chick flick night last week. Unintentionally, because he was unaware of the difference between a romantic comedy and a chick flick. The movie we watched was not even remotely funny. It was a still fair trade, we didn't laugh...but more importantly to Miles, I didn't cry. Why do I even try anything else--The Notebook is all I need. But the couch was cozy, my drink was delicious, and my boys were cuddly.

Miles fell asleep at one point, but Ro stuck with me through the end.

I love evenings in with these two guys, its centering, calming and slowly helping this house feel like our home. 

First Cookout

We bought a grill over labor day weekend, because thats just what you do, right? We had Miles' mom and best friend over for our first cook out--not too many people in case Miles ended up being a terrible grill master (he wasn't). Matty brought one of my greatest weaknesses, cheese dip, and I snacked on that like nobody's business. We had delicious corn, burgers, jalapeño dogs, fresh watermelon, salad, homemade fries and good company. Here's to many more cookouts in our future--hopefully soon with a fire pit for my other weakness, s'mores!

 Rowan also enjoyed being the cutest center of attention, obvi.

 I can already tell that finally having a grill has changed the way we think about meals. Miles wants to make dinner every night--hallelujah! And I'm so excited to think of all the yummy grilled veggies we're going to have this fall!

New Friend

On Sunday, I met Stephanie for coffee at The Well. We lived doors down from each other during our freshman year in college, I had classes with a lot of her close friends, we are mysteriously already friends on a certain social networking site, but we really only just connected with each other through our blogs. 

Can I just gush for a second? I think my time with this wonderful lady can easily be counted as one of the best  I've had in a very long time. Throughout the conversation I found myself feeling so inspired, and challenged, and affirmed, and encouraged..and I had to keep reminding myself that we had only just met. We talked about the world, our lives, our hopes, our struggles, our cats (yep), and I realized how few the number of times in my life I had felt such an instant connection with someone before. Maybe people experience this all the time, but I feel like a newbie, and it feels so wonderful! I was completely oblivious to how long we had been sitting there, so much so that Boo called just to make sure I was alive, after not responding to several texts (of which I was also oblivious to). I met up with him for dinner afterwards and I had the biggest grin on my face and talked his ear off the whole time about how amazing it was to meet Stephanie.

So, here's to having a new friend, to being so thankful that she is a better planner than I, that we finally met up, and hopefully to many more conversations and fun times to come!