A Visitor's Perspective

I, Casey Brown, am the first official guest blogger for this site. You may notice that this is the only grammatically correct blog posting on this page. I cannot help it that I was the only sibling to get the "brains..."

Top Ten Things to Do in Nashville/Franklin, TN:

10. Stare at big houses
Picture the biggest house you have ever seen. Now multiply that by three. Add a five-car garage and a Porsche SUV in front of it. This would be the smallest house in your neighborhood. Seriously...Kelly and I were in disbelief of all of the HUGE houses that were in neighborhoods like Village Green.

9. Feel sorry for the people in the big houses
We did not envy these people. We must only assume that these big houses are to make up for all of their inner emptiness. We imagine that of the 25 rooms in the house, at least 5 are dedicated solely to crying. And that just makes me sad for them.

8. Take Charlie for a walk
Or rather, have Charlie take you for a walk. And actually, it is more like a run. I used to think that Steph was the runner in the family. Now I see that Charlie is the inspiration behind the running madness. I almost wiped out twice--once for a bird and another time for a squirrel. I had to let go of the leash and save myself!

7. Eat
Kelly and I realized quickly that Steph and Jason eat out quite often. Their refridgerator has mixed vegetables and Healthy Choice fudge bars. That's about it...maybe there were some eggs? But no need to worry! They have every possible eatery nearby! We feasted on favorites like Jimmy Johns and mongolian barbeque. We had local flavors like the Pancake Pantry--with yummy sweet potato pancakes. And Jack's BBQ was wonderful! We also ate at Puckett's--at least I think that is the name of it. We walked to Maggie Moo's, and we journeyed to Ben and Jerry's! Delicious! I cannot wait to go back and try more.

6. Eat Mexican popcicles
These get their own number because they ROCK! I want one right now. And so does Owen. I highly recommend the chocolate-strawberry flavor. I will be back for more of these as well.

5. Hang out with Owen
Owen makes every city more exciting. His Uncle Jason gave him a bath. Then he proceeded to run around naked holding onto his "pickle" (Owen is the "he" in this sentence--not Uncle Jason.) He was a trooper: riding around from place to place, eating all the fun foods, snuggling with Charlie, banging pots and pans, and cracking us up.

4. Drive around
Jason loves to take the "back way" to everything. It is a great way to see the greater Nashville area. I think he gets lost a lot more than he lets on, but we played along as if it were all part of the plan. It is a pretty place to just ride around.


3. Hang out with Jason and Stephanie
What can I say! These two are great hosts! Stephanie works hard all day but still comes home with a smile on her face and energy to head out to dinner with her guests. Jason does something all day (I think he spends most days at Costco trying out all of the samples), and he takes the time to plan out great days that are fun and balanced. Also, Stephanie makes us laugh a lot! She talks about crazy birds named Cherokeets and shows us an imaginary map of Nashville that she can see on her hand. Good times!

2. Visit the sights
Opryland, music row, the Parthenon, downtown Nashville, the river, Centennial Park, the print shop, boot stores, ...there is so much to see. Next time, I plan to visit the country music hall of fame and an art museum.

1. Relax!
This is a great place to get away to hang out with Jason and Steph and to see the city. There is a great mix of action, but lots of time to unwind and kick back. I highly recommend a visit! It's a blast!

Happy 4th of July!

Hope everyone had a great Independence Day! As Stephanie update you last week I have been absent in my blogging duties, it may be a little long but will do my best to bring you up to speed.

Last Sunday I headed to "the farm", which from here is about 3 hours north-east. It wasn't a bad drive except for the fact that I left at 5 in the morning. Of course this was planned on my part so that I could make it in time for breakfast. Aunt Nora didn't disappoint either. We had the usual spread of homemade biscuits and gravy with eggs, bacon, sausage, and tomatoes. I think she throws the tomatoes on the table just so she can offer a little healthier option to her guests. Everything was as amazing as I remembered it would be. The only thing she didn't have this time was chocolate gravy. Yup, that's right...as if gravy couldn't get any better, someone decided to put chocolate in it. I guess my uncle Bobby wasn't minding her this week (it's his favorite).

After stuffing our faces we went to work. Jeff, Casey, Owen, mom and dad had already been working on Saturday and we picked up where they left off. Jeff and I starting putting the final texture on the drywall upstairs. It looks a whole lot better than it used to and is almost finished. Mom decided that she was going to stay till Monday and keep working on it.

Leaving Mom behind to fend for herself, Dad and I headed for home...that is Fairfield. For those of you that didn't know, dad is running for school board in Fairfield. make sure you vote early and often and tell your friends! Once we arrived I started on my list of tasks to be completed on my visit...I won't bore you with a blow by blow of that, but here is a rough synopsis...haircut, install signage on a truck, minor work at our house, load the truck with stuff we forgot, set up a computer for a friend, play golf with optimist club, went out with Mike for lunch, visited Janet, visited Momzes and Papa, etc. Sounds exciting huh? Momzes and Janet were kind enough to send care packages back with me...Momzes sent Zuchhini bread and Janet sent cookies. Both were great! I would say there was at least 50% left for Steph by the time I got back...ok maybe 40%.

Tuesday evening when I returned Steph and I went out looking for houses again with our realtor. Once again we didn't really see anything to our liking. Location, Location, Location! Problem is we don't know what location we want! Our search continues...on the other hand we are in the middle of a contract negotiation on our house in Fairfield. Keep your fingers crossed and we should know something today!

That brings us to Wednesday the 4th. Had I known what was going to happen on the 4th, maybe I would have stayed in Fairfield longer. Somehow before I left town Stephanie talked me into running a 5K (3.1 miles) for a local YMCA. When she mentioned it I think I was still sleeping or something. Anyway I thought to myself, "self how hard could a 5K be?"..."5k doesn't sound very far" Now those of you that run or walk are probably laughing at me right now, but since I haven't ran farther than 1/2 a mile in the past year I began to start thinking that 5K might be a pretty far distance. We awoke that morning at 6:00 am (race started at 7:00) and headed to the event. They had a huge turnout-about 1500 participants. It was a very well run event and you could tell that most of the people had run farther than a 1/2 mile recently.

As the gun sounded the start I sucked it up and started to slowly push myself forward one foot at a time. Steph was a very good coach, she would keep asking me if I needed oxygen, or should she call 911 yet, sometimes she would run backwards...she said so she could still keep an eye on me and make sure I didn't cut through the trees. She is hitting me right now...none of that actually happened...I'm sure some of it could have, but didn't. About mile 1.5 she did turn to me and seriously say "do you feel like you are in a groove now"...remember I'm doing well just to concentrate on breathing every few seconds. I try to hold back my laughter and tell her politely "NO!" I guess most runners get into a "groove" of some kind and then "its all downhill" from there. We just kept jogging/running and I eventually made it to the finish line in one piece. Stephanie was very proud of me! I was just glad to make it without walking. After the race they offer food and drinks to those who participated...I told Steph this was the first time I didn't feel guilty about eating and drinking those. Normally after Steph runs I get hungry and thirsty from just watching. As a side note in case some of you were wondering...Jason won by 1 second over Stephanie.

After a well deserved breakfast and shower we headed to downtown Franklin. They had a festival to celebrate the holiday. Music, food, vendors, kids events and many others. It was nice and relaxing even though it involved more walking. Charlie accompanied us and was a big hit. Everyone loves Charlie! Back at the apartment we had a quick nap and then headed back out on the town. Nashville had a big concert and fireworks show planned for that evening. We went with Brandon and Shay (Steph's co-worker and wife). It was on the river downtown similar to WEBN's in Cincinnati. GAC hosted the event and had Taylor Swift, Rodney Atkins, and Van Zant as the musical guests. Stephanie was excited because she got to buy her Cowboy hat! All in all it was a great event. Lots of people, but it was easy to get in and out. For those of you that missed out on seeing Fireworks on the Fourth I have added a video that we took.

I guess that brings everyone up to speed. Sorry it was a long winded blog, but with no job and no house to work on what do you expect.

Next Week's Issue..."Owen sings at the Grand Ole Opry", "Casey eats Jimmy Johns every night", "Kelly buys a cowboy hat and boots and promises to start a fashion trend in Harrison"...stay tuned.

Weekend at Brownie's

Almost our first weekend together in Nashville....Friday, Jason met myself and some of my colleagues out for celebration beverages. We all cheered to our first week open in Nashville. After a drink or two Jason and I went to dinner w/ another couple, Brandon and Shay. (I work w/ Brandon) We had a great time with some excellent sushi.. Sushi in the south?? you may say....well it was FANtastic. Peter is quite the sushi chef!

Saturday J and I spent the day DRIVING around looking at neighborhoods. It's much more tiring than I'd expect! Driving and driving and driving. We did stop for lunch down town and had Jack's BBQ. It came highly recommended from Steve, a cincy colleague of mine. It was delicious! And I did experience my first mexican popsicle. This was a well needed break from our driving, driving and driving. Then we wanted to kick off our first weekend together with a nice dinner downtown. We went to the Melting Pot. I know we can have that at home, but we never did. Seemed like a good time to try it. It was my first time ever. We took a walk around town afterwords in effort to make our stomachs feel better - we were stuffed! Chocolate covered marshmellows??!!!mmmmm... I couldn't resisit!

You may have noticed I said almost our first weekend together. That's because Jason left at 5am on Sunday morning. He headed to Kentucky to work on the farm. He met the family there, worked a few hours, and headed to Fairfield in the afternoon. I'm sure he'll fill you in when he gets back. What did I do? Yes! More driving! Clearly I can't decide what area I'd like to live in. But I did go through a few open houses which was pretty fun. As I keep saying, it's hard to get excited when we have a house to sell. In the evening, Charlie and I just hung out trying to find a job for Jason. I printed out a stack of opportunities and emailed him some links. We'll see where that goes. Job hunting and house hunting.. how exhausting.

And that's about it. I know it's not the most exciting weekend at Brownie's, but I promise for all of you who come visit you'll have an amazing time - and we won't spend the weekend just driving.

Jason, Charlie and I send out lots of love to everyone!!!

Happy 4th of July!