Of Gardens, and the Things Which Mean Most to Us in Life . . .

One of the most precious times I had in Arizona during my trip was an afternoon at the Botanical Gardens with Grandma and Gordon. It was also a prayerful one - we had to get out of the house because we didn't want to sit around worrying about Rob being in the hospital. So, spur of the moment, we grabbed hats, water and found ourselves at the Gardens. We had no idea there was a Chihuli exhibit, and were so pleasantly surprised by these whimsical, fantastical creations of his. It was wonderful to walk around, enjoy each other's company in silence (I think we were each silently praying for our beloved Robbie!), and drinking in the sights. I think the sheer fun-ness and unexpectedness of these sights lifted our hearts.

And so today - a very rough day, I must say - I thought about our trip to the Botanical Garden as Daniel and I went to the Botanical Gardens here to cheer ourselves up and make the best of the day. If only I had a decent camera, because the grounds are just amazing. I took these pictures with my phone. But I can't help thinking of Grandma and Gordon when I'm there, because that pavilion you see pictured below - it's lined with thousands of pansies, and growing on the pavilion itself are ancient wisteria. They're not in bloom yet, but that's just something to look forward to, isn't it?

I think one of the best things about Cheekwood (the gardens) is going with Daniel and knowing that we're both enjoying it, and connecting over it. I love that my husband will get up on a Saturday morning and spend hours looking at flowers with me - and loving it just as much as I do! It's been a special place for me since we moved here, and I'm pretty sure it's my favorite place in all of Nashville.





But, sadly, I had to say good-bye to some of my favorite trees this week. Daniel and I have a route we take when walkig in our neighborhood, and it takes us by this house on the corner. And we had a small tornado rip through a few days ago. I remember hearing the tornado sirens, but not knowing what they are - Daniel and I were napping at the time, actually. When we woke up and went to get dinner, four or five beautiful trees had been ripped out of the ground in our apartment complex. No buildings were damaged close to us, but a few streets over, the wall of a Firestone collapsed onto all the cars in the parking lot! this tree in particular made me sad. I get attached to the trees on my walking route, and I'm going to miss this one!

Good News!!!

Well, family - I am ridiculously and undeservedly blessed. As I'm sure most of you know by now, I was accepted to the summer session at the American Academy in Rome. That will be from June 22-July 31ths, and will consist of making all sorts of trips all over Italy to see the material remains of Rome. It's going to be wonderful. Well, in ADDITION to that, one of my professors, Bronwen Wikkiser, has asked me to be her TA for the Maymester program she's teaching of Ancient Religion - in Greece! The program will consist of two weeks in Athens seeing the sights, and two weeks traveling all over the Peloponnese. Needless to say, I'm going! What is so great about this opportunity is that she is quite open to see me try my hand at lecturing if I want. And there will be quite a bit of material on early Christianity in the program. The interplay between Judaism and Christianity with the Greco-Roman world has really become the focus of my independent work this year, so it will be great for me. And a trip to Greece on Vandy's bill isn't so bad either. Bronwen really just wants someone to help the students feel comfortable in Athens - finding their way around, finding restaurants, banks, etc. - and someone to lead discussions. Leading discussions is a strong suit, as is having a lot of fun while traveling! :) I'm just so excited.

And while I'm not happy about two and a half months away from Daniel this summer, I am encouraged by the fact that he's so very genuinely excited for me and appreciates how unique these opportunities are. So I'll be gone the month of May, coming back to TN around June 1st, then Daniel and I will turn right back around to fly to Paris on the 3rd. We'll travel until my program starts on June 22nd. Brief itinerary:

June 4th (our one year anniversary!!!!) - 9th: Paris
June 9th - 12th: Innsbruck
June 12th - 16th: Vienna (with a day trip to Prague, methinks)
June 16th - 19th: Venice
June 19th - 21st: Rome

Daniel will leave on the 21st to go home. Then he has about two weeks before he leaves for Ukraine. He'll be going with a team from our church, Midtown Fellowship, to help out with Christian camps organized by Radooga Ministries. Our church has gone to Ukraine twice before, and last summer (the second trip), Radooga asked the team if they would be willing to put on a camp for an orphanage, and it was a great success. So this year's team will be doing the same thing. I would ask you all to pray along with us that Midtown's team gets permission to return to the orphanage they went to last year. The founder of Radooga, Oleg Vasilevsky, desperately wants to see consistency and follow-up in their orphanage programs. The gospel message is clearly presented, and they have many children come to know Christ, and he has a heart to see discipleship in these children's lives as well. So let's pray for these children - they told Daniel he wold be working with ages 10-17 - that those who don't know Christ yet would have hearts open to the gospel, and that those who have accepted Christ would be see the need for a growing, continuing relationship with Christ post-camp! And let's pray for strength and encouragement for Daniel. The team has very few men, so they were thrilled when Daniel decided to go. The team will have just tons of one-on-one time with the kids, and they are wonderfully supported by English translators. It's gonna be a great time, I think! I'm sad I can't go, but I have a feeling we might both be there next summer. :)

Sweet Thing

I really need to keep up on the blogging, don't I? Sorry, all. Things are just so crazy.

Well, I'm lying in bed, where I've been all day, all alone and listening to music. Dan's still in Arizona, and I didn't have classes today. I should have done homework, but I didn't. Slept in till 2:00, then spent the rest of the day hunting down new music to listen to. It gets harder and harder for me to find music that I connect to emotionally. I remember how I felt when I first heard, say, Jeff Buckley's Grace or Van's Astral Weeks. (Appropriate examples as I am currently listening to Jeff's cover of Sweet Thing). I'm starting to wonder if I just can't connect to music the same way I did when I was 16. Was my intense sensitivity to the emotional impact of music - my ability to be completely taken over and uplifted by melody- gone now that I'm not an emotionally-driven, hormonal mess of a teenager? Or have I just not heard the right music since then? I suppose it's not gone, it's harder and harder to find. I don't like much of the new music I hear. Now I just have to spend hours and hours sifting through all the new music to find something that will stick with me, that I feel I'll be able to listen to over and over again. One of the challenges of this process, though, is that I much prefer the oft-trodden and familiar songs to new songs. The feeling of listening to a really good song for the second time is nothing to listening to Sweet Thing for the 300th time. So sometimes I don't listen to good music just because I don't know it, because it's not familiar to me yet. But how can it become familiar if I don't listen to it? This is often to my detriment, let me tell you. When I first bought "Rush of the Blood to the Head" by Coldplay, somehow I decided that I didn't like the song Green Eyes. So I always skipped it. Always. For 3 or 4 years I skipped that song. All the sudden, one day I pull that album out again, listen to it all the way through, and realize that Green Eyes is perhaps my favorite song on the album.

Our family loves music, and it's one of the things I love most about my family. Spending time this last week with my family reminded me of that. It took me some time to realize that the rest of the world didn't like music as much as we do. Not everyone will have memories of sitting in the garden listening to Sweet Thing with Gordon, and raising our hands to the night time sky when Van sung it. Or having a transcendent moment in the garden before leaving for Italy, listening to "Rain in July"while it was raining in July. :) Certainly one thing that brought Daniel and I together was a strong, inexplicably strong connection to music. And while not all of us can produce music, at least all of us can connect over finding it an incredibly meaningful and joyful part of our lives. I've always felt I was a musician that somehow got cheated out of musical talent - but now I am content with the thought that while I will never be able to make music, at least I can be understanding and supportive of those around me that are more musically-inclined.

So there's lots to post about my trip to AZ, but I have yet to order my thoughts (and my pictures) in order to do it justice. So I'll save that for the next installment.

Signs that you are older than you want to be . . .

1) Your little sister is asked out by her much older tattoo artist

2) The highlight of your week is finally being able to use that salad bowl you got for the wedding shower

3) You automatically wake up at 6 in the morning ready to greet the day all cheery-like


So, I've been pondering something Cara said on her blog - I'm the only one of the four kids to not have a tattoo from Divinity in Scottsdale! I'm not sure I can live with that disgrace. Well, I've been seriously considering getting a tattoo, and that's just the kind of incentive I needed. A chi rho on one food, an alpha and omega on the other. I am going to be in AZ for Spring Break . . . :) Thoughts? Feelings? Objections?

In any case, Daniel and I felt our dinner party was very successful. We had two couples over, and we made delicious food, of which every last scrap was eaten! They stayed for four and a half hours, and the conversation was lovely. I think Daniel and I could really enjoy this entertaining thing. We love cooking together, and we love making people happy, so really it's perfect.

It will be sad, though, when these two couples move away. Both are graduating at the end of this semester and moving on. I haven't really developed relationships with the other first-years like I have with the two second years and their significant others. Hopefully things will get better, though. And we will have fresh blood next year!

In other news, I am slowly wasting away with anxiety about summer programs. I should be hearing soon, and certainly by the end of the month, and I'm dying. I'm dying a) to know for sure that I was accepted and b) dying to start making plans for the pre-program travel with Daniel! In many ways Daniel is the perfect travel partner for me, among them the fact that I like to plan and figure things out and budget and itinerize (is that a word? as in, make itineraries, from the latin iter, itineris - journey . . .), and he likes to just chill and go with the flow. So I will have tons of fun picking hotels and sights to see and restaurants, etc!! Planning my trip with Gordon was a joy. As was travelling with Gordon, and I hope he will come visit while I'm in _________. (Athens? Rome? Pompeii?)

It was a beautiful 70 degrees today in Nashville! It went from being in the 20's/30's to the 60's/70's. I love rain, and I love clouds - but I'm beginning to realize that I love sunshine and warmth just a smidge more. The cold, icy winter of Nashville was starting to get me down. There is just something inherently gloomier about watching all the beautiful green around you slowly be consumed by cold and ice. At any rate, it's growing warm and lovely again, which means I will be doing much of my homework outside again.

Sorry about neglecting the blog, guys. It's been a challenging, time consuming semester. But I loved being able to spend a few minutes on the computer and feel somewhat reconnected with my family! So let's get back into this. Thanks, Stef for leading the way.

Saturday morning . . . and Daniel is still fast asleep, while I'm ready to jump out of bed and start my day. We have a lot to do today, and it's going to be a fun night! We're hosting our first dinner party for a few friends from school. :) And so in addition to preparing yummy food, we're trying to do all those little things around the house that we've put off for so long. It's been fun - almost like nesting all over again. So off to target to find a table cloth, and enough water glasses for 6 people, and picture frames. And also lots of grocery shopping for the meal. Menu: Salad with Apples and Maple-Walnut Dressing, Pasta with Creamy Wild Mushroom Sauce, and Lemon Bread and CC cookies for dessert. Oh, it's going to be sooo good! I'm a little nervous because I've never really cooked for people like this. And I'm worried that maybe someone won't like this, another won't like that. But oh, well! Daniel and I tried out our recipies on Thursday, and they all tasted wonderful to us. ::fingers crossed::

This semester will be a good one for Daniel, I think. Although it's also going to be crazy busy. But he has so many opportunities these days to just lose himself in music and audio. The school requires that students help out with various school-run live shows, and Daniel had two full days of shows last weekend. It's hard, because tempers flare and not everyone is nice when they're under pressure, but I still get the sense that with every show, Daniel gains experience and confidence. In addition to that, he has various mixing project to do for his classes. His first project was a simple overdubbing project, but we both had so much fun thinking of ideas to make it interesting. He felt creative, and that makes him very happy (in turn, it makes me very happy!). He's also taking guitar lessons, and I already hear his playing improving, and I see his motivation and desire for playing growing.

And I - well, I'm having a pretty good semesters. I'm enjoying my Greek classes so much. And my Latin class is going to kill me. . . But it's what I needed. I needed a very intense and challenging Latin course, and my Latin is getting better and better every day. I'm just sweating blood every time I sit down to do my Latin translation! The teacher is supportive, and understand that my Latin is years behind everyone else's, so he's been spending time outside of class helping me.

So, not much else to update on yet. But I'll let you guys know how the dinner party goes!

Back after almost a month!

Well, the holidays are OVER and I'm wondering if part of being an adult is feeling relieved instead of disappointed (like when you were a kid) when the holiday season is over. But we're back home, and had a lovely New Year's Eve get-together with friends from school. We ate chocolate chip cookies, drank pomegranate martinis, and discussed how the Catholic church got it all wrong (at least, that was what I was arguing, but my Catholic friend Sarah begged to differ)!

Christmas was crazy and emotional, but it was wonderful to reconnect with family. Coming home for the first time not only as a fully adult member of the family, but also as Daniel's wife, was also a wonderful experience. Our first Christmas together was hard, since it really hit us how much we are missing out on being so far away in Tennessee, but also wonderful to see how our relationship has progressed from a dating couple to marriage since last Christmas.

And while the holidays are over, Daniel and I had a second Christmas of sorts yesterday. First came the last of my gifts from the Baughs (well, this one was more from Scott than anyone else, I think) - an entire toy set of the Roman army and Carthaginian soldiers complete with elephant corps, Numidian cavalry, and Spanish allied infantry. Do it, I dare you: call me a nerd! :) Actually, that was what the gift message said on the invoice, "Happy nerd Christmas from Scott." I also got a way cool Trojan war set with a Trojan horse, and its awesome. They're still sitting on the floor waiting to be arranged in battle formation by me (what shall I do first? Battle of Zama? OOh, I don't know! Three Punic Wars to choose from!)

Anyway, Daniel received a gift card to Macy's from the Baughs. So we went out last night and spent it! He was very sweet to let us both choose things for the home, so we got a lot of really cool stuff: rice cooker, desperately needed pans, apple slicer (yay!), pizza cutter, Christmas ornaments 75% off, a set of ten dinner plates, a bar set, martini glasses, a set of two wine glasses and a decanter, and he got a beautiful vest (the kind that are so fashionable these days . . .). So we went home, made dinner with our new pans and rice with our new rice cooker, and enjoyed a martini. Lovely evening all around.

I'm very excited about the plates because we and two other couples have decided to start having dinner parties at each other's houses every month. We don't have more than 4 place settings, so I'm happy. It will be nice to have people over and to entertain. Daniel and I have never done that as a married couple. It's also nice to start developing true friendships and having a social life! :) It took a while, but were definitely getting there.

So today was spent getting things organized and written for summer school applications. I am applying to three programs. One is the American School of Classical Studies in Athens summer program, which is six straight weeks of traveling to the most important Ancient Greek monuments. Also applied to the American Academy in Rome, which is six straight weeks of traveling to the most important Ancient Roman monuments. And last, I applied to an archeology program through the AAR, which is three weeks of traveling and four at a dig in either, Sicily, Ravenna, Rome, or one other place I can't remember at the moment. I have no idea which one I'd rather go to. And I have no idea which ones I will be accept to. I won' t know till March, but then Daniel and I buy our plane tickets and start planning our trip! I think he and I will travel for a week or two before my program. I'm so excited! This is finally happening - I'm actually going to spend an extended amount of time overseas. I have always wanted to do a study abroad program, and I am blessed beyond belief that Vandy is paying for ALL of it. Plane ticket, room and board, tuition, and $1000 spending money. Crazy, isn't it?

The first holiday season of our marriage

We meant to post these pictures a while ago, but just haven't had a chance. This was Daniel's first autumn experience in Tennessee! I sadly was not there. He took these pictures, even the one of himself, which is impressive. He enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at Centennial Park (the one with the Parthenon). and jumped in piles of leaves until his childlike heart's desire was quelled. As a result, he picked me up from school covered in little bits of leaves (in his hair, clothes, all over the car) and it's been wonderful to enjoy the changing of the season here.









Tennessee is truly beautiful if you get a little bit outside the city. It's a place just bursting with green. One of the places that has become our haunt is Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. We go there Saturday mornings before Daniel goes into work. We just walk around, sit and talk, climb trees . . . :) This last week we ate at the Cheekwood Restaurant called the Pineapple Room. Daniel had a veggie quesadilla with roasted red peppers and melted brie, and I had a turkey quiche (very festive as it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving!) Here's just a sample of what it's like:



In addition to just generally enjoying how beautiful it is, we've also been enjoying our first holiday season as a married couple. We decided to take a trip during the Thanksgiving holiday, thinking it would take our minds off of not being with family. And we spent the Wednesday before Turkey Day in Atlanta - at the High Museum of art. I posted about the exhibits in the last post, but let me say they were amazing! I wish we could have taken pictures of the pieces we most liked to share with everyone - but alas for copyright issues! One of them in the Louvre collection was a sculpture called "Lion killing a snake" by Antoine-Louis Barye. The original piece in itself was amazing, but they had also collected miniature and trial sculptures for the masterpiece. Seeing the evolution against the final product was incredible.



We pulled this off the internet to give an idea of the piece. It's larger than life size - it's huge.





I'm not one for modern buildings, but this Museum was an exception.

And of course, the crowning joy of our holiday season . . . getting the Christmas tree! Even as I write Daniel and I are sitting in the glow of our tree, eating chocolate chip cookies and drinking a glass of riesling. Yesterday was in fact our 6 month anniversary, and we decided cookies, wine and a christmas tree at home was the best way to celebrate. Oh yes, and listening to the audio version of Lord of the Rings.

This is the story of how the Baugh Christmas Tree came to be . . .



Getting the tree from the Boy Scout Troop 87 lot at a church in Bell Meade



Getting it into the house



Lights!!!



There! Almost done, just need to turn the lights off . . .




And perfect. :) What a wonderful Christmas season this will be.