Dragon Boat Races

Saturday me and a few friends from work participated in the dragon boat races down the Cumberland at Riverfront Park in downtown Nashville. We heard that one boat still had a few empty seats so we decided instead of making our own boat we would team up with Team Green. This is a boat of 20 paddlers, one drummer and one person to steer. We only had one practice in the water and so we were by no means professionals but we did have a great time. It's definitely much harder than it looks. We raced 3 times and finished 34th out of 40 teams (I'm not certain it was 34th, close enough - but like it matters) - as you can tell we did pretty good! :-) During our particular heat we did come in third twice and second once. So really we don't think we did too bad. We had a fun team and it was great getting to know new people. Mom and dad came to cheer us on and enjoy the festival. We couldn't have asked for better weather, it was superb!
Mark was out of town at a bachelor party and of course made fun of me. He kept saying, gee , your husband's out of town and you decide to row a freakin boat! :0 The things I get myself into. But I actually enjoyed it!

Keely, our drummer, what a great sport!

Two of our cheerleaders.

Part of our team.

Darren, our team captain

They even had the dragon entertainment during the opening ceremonies.

Who knew?

I have been loving the garden fresh produce lately. The tomatoes, corn, okra, blueberries, raspberries, etc. Well, after reading Pioneer Woman's blog, I found out I should try eating okra raw. I have always just fried it, but she recommends slicing it and adding a little salt. MMmm, it's actually pretty good. I could just eat this as a snack every day. Who knew you didn't have to fry okra?

Go outside

Well Molly has finally seen the outside. Last week we took her out for the first time. It took her a few minutes to figure it out but by no time she enjoyed running in the grass. It's so funny to see her pounce over the grass because it's almost as tall as she is, even when it's mowed. Since then she has been going on walks in the afternoon and going to the potty in the grass. And boy does she get praised when she does that. :-) We also bought her a crate, so we're trying that route this week. It's just been sitting in the kitchen for now for her to get used to it. And she has been going in there on her own. So by the end of the week, we'll start leaving her in there when we leave. We'll see how that goes.

Sir Paul in the ATL

Saturday morning Mark and I traveled to Atlanta. First, we toured the World of Coke and then we saw Sir Paul McCartney in Piedmont Park. Mark's friend, Cheeks, met us there for the concert as well. I bet there were one-hundred thousand fans there, it was a huge place with a huge crowd. The weather was great, it wasn't too hot and there was a nice breeze. However, half way through the concert came a downpour. But we toughed it out and just got soaked, it finally passed. What an experience to see him! Sunday we made a stop at IKEA and by the outlets. We are exhausted but had a great time!

Full Day for Molly

Molly had appointments at the vet and with the groomer on Saturday. Needless to say, she had quite a day! We took her at 8am, yes early, but we were actually up before that. She had kept us up all night b/c her ears were bothering her. So we made our trip and she did great in the car, calm as a cucumber. The nurses were great as we had several questions. So she ended up having an ear infection, which was why her ears were bothering her the night before. We are treating that now with medication and cleansing solution. She also had to get some other vaccines, which they said could make her very tired. Well, whatever, we got home and she was more hyper than we have ever seen her. We played all afternoon and had a great night's rest. I guess she was so happy to be home. So she did get her hair cut too. She looks like a totally different dog. The groomer took her back over for her vaccinations and they said that's not Molly, she's not a poodle. Because she still has lots of her baby hair, she does sort of look like a poodle. But I know she has to feel better to have all that fur off of her. She has just been so good, if we can only get her paper trained. We want to get her outside but we haven't been able to start her flea and tick medicine. We plan to start that tomorrow so hopefully the potty issue will resolve itself soon. But if any of you have any suggestions/advice for paper training, please let me know. We are just loving her to death and having fun!

I said I would not be one of those to clothe our dog and put bows in her hair but she looked so stinkin cute when we saw her that we have left them in. They don't seem to be bothering her at all.

Meet Molly.....

.......the newest edition to the Rogers family. Last weekend we brought Molly, our maltese puppy, to our home. We now have a 4-month old puppy to train and love. She is such a sweet puppy and we are spoiling her to death already. She is definitely a lap dog and she just follows us around everywhere. Her little feet just prance across the floor, it's so cute! I hate leaving her during the day but she has been such a good little girl this week. She still has her puppy fur but we are getting that cut this weekend. I can't stand to not see her little eyes. We were going to cut her hair the first day we got her but we thought she had been through enough trauma for one day. On the way home she threw up like 4 times so we decided to wait until Saturday, her nerves were already shot. So after Saturday she will look totally different and her face will become completely white as she gets older too.

Home Sweet Home

Late last week after returning from San Antonio I took a few days off and spent them in beautiful East TN. After a visit at mom's office Thursday morning I spent the day with Jessica and Lindsay. Even though it rained most of the day we still had a great time catching up. We went downtown to Market Square. We had lunch at Cafe 4, looked at the shops and watched "The Ugly Truth" (I wouldn't recommend it) and finished the afternoon off at the Cupcakery! Jessica and I also met with Marti, our Sunday School teacher from our high school days. We usually see each other every February but it was nice to catch up and show them my wedding pictures.





















Then Friday was spent with my favorite Drew bug. I cannot believe what a big boy he is. He is growing up so fast! He can now jump (not really but he sure does try), show me his belly button, talking up a storm and makes himself laugh all the time. We had lunch at Chick-fil-a, played in the kid area until he got trampled on by the big boys, we played in the bath tub, read books (he LOVES his books) and then celebrated Bradley's birthday with the family at Red Lobster (where I found out he loves lemons). I had such a great time with that little booger.

Here and There

Last week while I was cruising down the Riverwalk in San Antonio, Mark was climbing hills on his dirt bike in Colorado.



























We both were traveling on business trips last week, can't you tel (all business)l!?!? :-)

Mark ran into his customers not being prepared for their visit so he took advantage of the free time and rented dirt bikes. His business trips are usually not near as fun as fine but this time he did get to have a little fun!

I was working a conference in San Antonio and hosting a customer event at Howl at the Moon. I had never been to San Antonio before and I did get the chance to do some sightseeing too. We visited the Alamo, which I didn't think was anything very special, it was rather small. And the Riverwalk that I mentioned before was very neat. You could walk all along the river and visit little shops and restaurants or you could hop on the river taxi to take you down river. It was definitely hot while we were there but there was a bit of a breeze so it was tolerable. We had a great time and a great customer outing.