Weddings, Sledding, and Foooood

So much to tell in this post, but I have to retrace for a bit.  Beginning with my hubby's birthday that got overlooked in my blogging due to my spontaneous trip home.  Although he would much prefer I overlook it all together...apparently he's too old or cool for birthdays, I haven't figured out which.  But I'm not okay with that and we celebrated anyway!  So a very Happy Birthday to Taylor as well as Thomas (his brother)!!  It's their golden year, 27 on the 27th...whatever that means!

And as I was deciding what treat to make for his birthday I decided this could be my first opportunity to decorate a cake!!  So cake it was.  I baked the cake, broke it as I took it out of the pan, iced it back together and proceeded to let it sit in the fridge to set the icing.  I had big plans of making an orange Power T in the middle of the cake and doing an orange and white checkerboard on the ends like the endzone.  How cute, right?  It looked so good in my head.  I excitedly head to the store to buy some food coloring to bring my plan to life and as I walk up and down the cake aisle searching for food coloring, I sadly realize they only have red.  Really?  Only red?  That's AAFES for you.  I decide to try an Italian grocery store...they had even less...shocking.  So plan B.  A white cake with sprinkles.

So my friends, I present to you my first cake...

Haha...can't you see my potential?  Don't worry I'll be taking orders soon!  No, but really, imagine that Power T in orange icing?  How cool would that have looked?  And granted I used a ziploc bag with an icing nozzle and a rubberband around it, but you have to start somewhere, right?  Taylor really liked the cake and thought it was quite humorous that my plan B was green and multicolored sprinkles, but I thought it was better than all white!!

I tried and tried to get a picture of the birthday boy, and he just wasn't having it.  That was the best I could get!  Taylor, babe, you may as well smile next time and things would go much easier for you!!  :)

Anyway, on to the trip back to the States.  As I mentioned before I had been waiting and waiting for my paperwork to clear HR.  Well it got down to Tuesday and it still hadn't cleared.  I finally went and talked to my boss and told her my situation and she was very supportive of me going home for the wedding and spending some time there.  There was a rotator (a military chartered commercial flight) leaving from Aviano on Wednesday and if there was room on the flight I could fly into Baltimore.  Well there was room on the flight and 36 hours later I made it to Nashville!!

I am so thrilled that I made it in town for the wedding, which as expected, was absolutely gorgeous!  I have been getting worse and worse about my camera and sadly I took zero pictures at the wedding.  The wedding was held at our church, First Presbyterian.  It was a nice service with bagpipes and all (my favorite!!!)  And the reception was held at The Hermitage Hotel in Nashville.  I had never been there, but it was an exquisite place with painted ceilings and grand wood work that needed no decorations to be beautiful.  Others not in the state of Tennessee may not be aware of this, but we happened to have our biggest snow/ice storm in 7 years on the Friday before the wedding.  We got between 4-6 inches of snow/ice.  One inch shuts down the South, so you can only imagine what 4-6 will do!  Poor Bishops did a lot of worrying and preparations, but the guests arrived and the party went on as planned!

Even though I don't have pictures from the wedding I have a few from the rehearsal dinner held at Boxwood Bistro.

Here I am with Jennifer, my new sister in law.  Who would have guessed when she was my neighbor as a newborn baby we'd ever be related one day?  Funny how things work out, huh?  Our parents (who are good friends) have decided they are going to make "Outlaw" tshirts for themselves. 

Look at these good looking guys!!!  Taylor, Thomas, Brice (BR, their dad), and the groom Phillip!  I'm loving all the teeth in the picture!!

Love this picture.  He's so handsome :)

Hopefully I'll get a link to wedding pictures later and I can post them so you can see the beautiful bride and groom.

Along with all this snow came a little sledding.  Well okay, it was attempted sledding.  By the time we tried the snow was iced over and instead of quickly sliding down the hill, the ice would break, we would sink down and then get stuck.  But if you could hit it just right without breaking the ice you could slide. 

Haven't worn those since I was a kid.  Funny, they didn't quite fit the same.

I might have a better looking snow outfit back in Italy...but who knew I'd need it in Tennessee??

Look at that, you can't even see the grass!  Now THAT'S a snow!

Can't you see the speed??

Anyway.  The snow has now melted and school is back in session.  Besides weddings and sledding I've been eating my way through Franklin, literally.  I had a whole list of food I was hungry for and it is slowly all being checked off my list.  My embarrassingly long list.  I really wouldn't be surprised if I gained 10 pounds in the 10 days I'm here.  I'm getting to see everyone and catch up and what better way then over lunch?  I'm also bringing an extra suitcase back to Italy with me.  Because A) we have room in the house, B) I'm flying Southwest and you're allowed 2 bags (and on the rotator too) and C) there are so many things I've found I NEED back home that I left here!  Good times.

Taylor headed back to Italy yesterday (Tuesday) He has to go back to work tomorrow (Thursday).  And I head back home on Monday and I'll arrive on Tuesday (hopefully).  Alright, that's all for now!

Peace.