It's all about the music...

Happy Sunday! It looks like it's going to be a gloomy day in Nashville...sigh. And it's laundry day.

So last month at the Opry, P mentioned that she was going to hang out with Miranda Lambert for a few days this month. That arrived this weekend, when she was at Miranda's gig last night. And while I say I'm totally bummed I wasn't there.....I am secretly glad I was not there. P's crowd & Miranda/Aldean's crowd & music are sooo different.  I'm 99.999% sure I could not sit during Aldean. Anyway, she showed up at the after party too, and as I flipped through pics, I realized she was rocking the shirt I gave her last month. LOVE this!

As shown in this horrible quality photograph....P is rocking this shirt:

Because obviously, she is a Kick Ass Kentuckian.  This whole Kentucky for Kentucky campaign is so brilliant. As soon as they unveiled all their shirts, I ordered myself a "Kentucky Kicks Ass" shirt, and immediately ordered PL the Kick Ass Kentuckian one. While we were in Lexington last week I picked up this one below too. 

I have zero plans to leave TN again -- I can't be that far from my sis! But I DID graduate from the University of Kentucky -- KY will always hold a special place in my heart! 

And now for a little Sunday Social...It's super appropriate this week for me -- all about music! This is where the "Nicole was born in the wrong generation" is going to come out:

1. What is your all-time favorite song?  

I always try to say this is hard to say, because something like PL's "Diamond in my Crown" & "Here I Am" stop me dead in my tracks, and so do songs like "Silver Wings" & "It's Only Make Believe"...

But if I had to list one song as my all time fave, it would be George Jones "The Grand Tour". (And this would be followed very closely with another Jones song - "A Good Year for the Roses")  This is the ultimate country song for me.

Nobody cuts songs quite like this anymore! 

2. Who is your favorite singer/band?

Patty Loveless, of course.... I didn't get my PL tattoo for nothing. After a ridiculous amount of years of having her a part of my life, I don't think this answer will ever change. And here's my favorite picture of me & P:

3. What song reminds you of your childhood?
Three come to mind immediately:

-PL "Chains" I was just a little shit when the HTA record was released, and shortly after it was released, I was in the car with my dad for a long trip. We wore that record OUT and I sang the hell out of this song with my dad. 

-Madonna "Material Girl" When I was a kid, our family reunions had karaoke....and the twin cousin & I randomly decided to go sing this song. Everyone in our family still talks about it, and I still have the tape. About 14 years later, we went to a club together and did it again for old times sake! (Minus the Christmas dresses and crimped hair!)

4. What songs put you in a good mood?

Um, a ton. I guess my most current would be

Vern Gosdin "Set 'Em Up Joe"
It's our "go-to" song when we get to Dolphie's, we immediately have Scotty play this to have an obnoxious sing along. 

5. What is your music to rock out to in your car?

A lot....from my classic country like Conway, Loretta....to sometimes Pink, Alanis, Jet - it seriously depends on my mood. I listen to a lot...(although I don't listen to any rap or metal, and never will).. I just tell everyone my true love is Country.  Lately, my "rock outs" have been to 80's and 90's country. 

6. What is the most embarrassing album or song you own?

Haha I suppose something from High School....like not going to lie, I still own O-Town's CD? Oh wait! I still have Hannah Montana on my iTunes. Such a good aunt. (Although thankfully, that phase is now over for Paige!)

Friday Five

Okay, I'm joining in on Five on Friday today! (If you haven't looked up 5 on Friday, it's super easy, just 5 things on your mind, or anything goes, and link up with the ladies hosting!) Happy Friday!!!

ONE. Disney Movie Club.

Joining was the highlight of my week.  Yes, I'm serious. Yes, I'm almost 30. The thing is I've been trying to get my VHS collection from my childhood to DVD, which I finally completed, and now I want to do the same for all the great classics from when the kids were little, etc. I figured this was an easy way to get some of those, and I buy all the new ones anyway because heaven forbid Aunt Nicole doesn't have Wreck it Ralph or something when Kadin comes to spend the night. You're never too old for Disney, right??


TWO. Metro Animal Control.

I'm so frustrated. We've got a Pit Bull wandering the neighborhood. He's really aggressive, and I had to turn the alarm on my car yesterday to distract him to let me get into my house - and when he got close to me yesterday I saw scars all over his head, so that says to me he could be fighting. I have tried to call Animal Control NINE TIMES about this dog and no one has answered my call. I don't get what we're supposed to do, let him wander until he attacks someone?  What the hell is the point of animal control if they aren't even taking calls? Apparently I need to call police. 


THREE. The Golden Sisters.

This show is seriously the funniest show I've ever seen. These elderly sisters got a show after a video on youtube went viral. They are a must watch every week, but we keep watching all these random youtube videos they made too, and they are just hilarious. Hearing them try to explain to the other sister what a "hashtag" is might be the funniest thing ever - and hearing them STILL not get it makes for great entertainment. Everyone needs to watch them! This clip is one of my faves... "Hashtag Papa's Wine is the best"






FOUR. MONOGRAM, MONOGRAM, MONOGRAM!
It's almost like you can't live in the South if you don't own something monogrammed. How I've not had a monogrammed phone case is beyond me. I finally realized this this week and ordered one! LOVE this:

FIVE. TWITTERIFIC
The downfall of being a social media addict is when apps no longer work....Tweetdeck began massively crashing so I decided to re-install it only to discover it is no longer being offered. Insert panic here. I decided to check out Hootsuite and Echofon, and attempted those for a few weeks. No dice, I hated them. A little research told me to check out Twitterific, and by the screenshots, I loved the feel so I decided to pay for the app. Best.move.ever. I love this app! Cleanest app I've ever used for twitter by far. It's the little things, folks....

20 Feet from Stardom

One of my favorite things about Nashville is the Belcourt Theatre. As frequent movie goers, we love checking out the Indie films at Belcourt, and seen some pretty fabulous stuff there. Not to mention the annual midnight showing the week of Christmas of "Christmas Vacation".

20 Feet From Stardom is a new documentary about the world of backup singers. If there was ever a good place to show this film - it was here. Every person that calls Nashville home should run to see this! Larry & I went to Belcourt on Tuesday night to check it out.

It was not only eye-opening to hear some of these ladies stories, it was so inspirational. I saw a review when I got home that said "The theme of the movie is kind of like 'How to become personally successful with yourself" and I loved that!

Some of these girls are CRAZY talented - it's insane. You have to scratch your head at the ones that do want to do solo work but didn't really make it doing solo. 

Each of the girls had their own story, and their own aspirations - those that wanted to try for a solo career, those that did try the solo, and the ones that have no intentions on being solo. There are multiple interviews, but the major focus of the documentary is on Darlene Love, Merry Clayton & Lisa Fischer -- each of who will totally blow you away with their voices. You may not recognize their names, but you'll definitely recognize the voices! 

This is seriously worth seeing. Not only for their stories, but the archive footage of artists like the Stones, Ike & Tina Turner,  Luther Vandross....and all the incredible music. Check out the trailer:

Hanging out with Larry after the movie!

Bourbon in Kentucky....

Over the 4th of July, the bestie  & I decided to go up to Kentucky to visit the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, and make our buddy Chris go along. (Or, as we usually call him, Metcalf) We stopped in Bowling Green, naturally - for a night at Dolphie's so we could get some karaoke in. Dolphie usually doesn't have karaoke on Wednesdays, but they did for the 3rd! And as luck would have it - they weren't very busy, so Rita & I ended up singing a lot!

We were red, white & Kentucky blue!

Metcalf decided to sing "Imagine" for the very last song of the night and showed up at the bar with  microphones for Rita & I, throwing us off, so we all headed up to the stage to sing it with Scotty --- and I grabbed my phone to snap a pic and this is what happened. (Rita had had 8 screwdrivers at this point, and has no memory of me taking this hahaha)

Thursday, we headed up to Lexington. The plan was to hit as many of the distillieries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail as possible. Those plans got a LITTLE derailed when flooding started as a result of all the ridiculous rain! But, we still at least made it to two of them!

The Kentucky Bourbon Trail is probably one of the coolest ideas they've ever had. You can pick up a "passport" in the distillery, and it's got each one listed - and each one you stop at gets stamped. Once you visit each distillery, you can send the passport  in and they'll send you a Bourbon Trail t-shirt. We were en route to Lexington when we saw a sign that said "Heaven Hill Distillery, Kentucky Bourbon Trail", so we immediately stopped and made it our first visit!

The Heaven Hill Distillery was probably the best o f the ones we went to - the tour included stops at each of the historic displays, and explaining the history of Bourbon.  Afterwards, we went to the gift shop & they took us to a little "bar" type area where there were samples of Bourbon for each of us.

Not much of a sample, but trust me, it was MORE than enough if you're not a big bourbon drinker!

And in typical Nicole fashion - after all this, I tripped in the gift shop and knocked an entire display over. Seriously. The lady at the counter came running back and said, "How many taste testings have you been to!?", laughing. Worst timing ever to trip! And thankfully --- it was NOT bottles of liquor, so nothing broke! Whew. I definitely didn't live that one down the rest of the trip.

We always stay at the same place in Lexington - the Hyatt, because it's attached to Rupp Arena (Go Big Blue!), and it's convenient. It also was where P's Kentucky Music Hall of Fame induction was held! Last time we went, we somehow overlooked the Starbucks that was literally right behind the hotel, and walked over a mile to get to UK Campus to go to the Starbucks inside (we didn't actually know it was far, we were told it was "just a few buildings away!). This time - we remembered the one behind us!  But, as luck would have it - it rained. And rained. And rained. The entire time we were there practically! So walking out to the Starbucks wasn't the most appealing idea in the world - but we were desperate for Starbucks! This is where the hotel skywalks come in handy - one of them connects to the Hilton, which is right next to the Starbucks! So, we made it down --- and as we went to cross the street to the shop, it began a torrential downpour, and we were utterly and completely SOAKED. Apparently, we just can't have a walk to Starbucks without entertainment in Lexington.

Fortunately, the fireworks weren't a TOTAL washout. We watched them from afar though, and watched them from a local pub we went to for dinner. The hotel driver forgot to come back and get us, and of course it started raining again on the way back so we walked back to the hotel in the rain, singing at the top of our lungs. You're welcome Lexington.

Speaking of the pub we went to -- if you're ever in Lexington and want the best pizza ever, Two Keys Tavern is your place! Biggest pizza ever, seriously.

That is ONE PIECE on Metcalf's plate!

We used Friday for checking out the distillery in Lexington, which is also apparently the home of Kentucky Ale. We learned more about the Ale than we did the Bourbon there - except the odd thing was they couldn't sell us the Beer there, we had to go to the liquor store. We thought the Stout Kentucky Ale would be good, because it had coffee in it, but we were totally wrong. That was seriously wretched beer.  I'm not really a beer girl as it is, but I can occasionally tolerate it, or a specific specialty beer I can usually enjoy (the Chocolate Beer at the Pharmacy in Nashville is divine!), but not this one! Gross.

We decided to cap off the weekend by heading back to Bowling Green on Saturday for another night of karaoke --- which was so dead that Scotty said "Well I guess this is the Rita and Nicole show tonight!" No one else was signing up, so in the first 90 minutes, we'd each done about 10 songs -- by the end of the night, we were running out of stuff to sing!

One of the best 4th's ever, that's for sure. A road trip with two great friends --- filled with Loretta Lynn & George Jones singalongs, Kentucky & some bourbon!

A little more picspam:

Sky walkin it in Lexington!

Oh, we squeezed in a visit to UK --- and even though it was raining, I had to get a pic at my Alma Mater! Hooray for being able to say that now! 

This mural is at the top of the escalator at the Hilton & I fell in love with it. Only in Kentucky do they have the most amazing horse murals. (Is it Derby time yet? I'm ready!)

Road trippin'....

One of the first things at the Heaven Hill Distillery! 

My stamped passport -- with some great memories!

Nashville Without You

So it's no secret that I loathe the direction my beloved Country Music is going in. (And you probably don't really want to get me started on it, because it's one of the few things I'm passionate enough to argue like hell about....) When I'm not listening to my iPod in the car, I'm listening to Sirius, usually Willie's Roadhouse to get my old stuff in or the occasional Prime Country for all the good 80's & 90's music.

Today I was driving back from the store and hit the wrong button on the radio & switched it to FM, and heard this song by Tim McGraw called "Nashville Without You". I love Tim's early stuff, but his recent stuff is so god-awful, I was about to turn it off when the lyrics caught my attention....

Hey Georgia, Hey Smokey Mountain Rain
Hey Galveston, He Stopped Loving Her Today
Hey Fancy, you know it's true
That Nashville, wouldn't have
Blue Eyes, Cryin' in the Rain
Hey Fire, Burnin' Round the Ring
Hey Crazy, you know it's true
That Nashville, wouldn't be Nashville, without you

And I immediately burst into tears (I mean, obviously....I'm already overly emotional as it is. Throw in my music, and I can become a hot mess in mere seconds). I came home immediately and bought it on iTunes -- wish I'd known this song was around a few months ago when the CD was released!

I'm such a sucker for my old school music.....and I'm such a sucker for my town. I may have been away for a short bit when I moved away temporarily, but that's been the extent of time away from Nashville. Nashville's been my home for 17 years, longer than anywhere I've ever lived. I can't imagine actually moving away from here. Love of Country Music is what moved us here - and what keeps me here. (Okay, Okay - and the thought of being away from my Mom, Sister & the kids again would absolutely kill me!)  Country Music may be going in a direction that makes me super sad, but they can't erase the history of it -- and that history is here.  And not just the obvious huge ones of the Ryman or Opry that everyone and their brother thinks of --- (not that they aren't some of my favorite things) it's also stuff like Hatch Show Print, Printer's Alley, Ernest Tubb Record Shop (don't get me started on how it feels like Granny is walking in with me every time I stop by ETRS), Studio B.....

It's funny because over the weekend on the ride home, the bestie & I were talking about how we'd love to live in Kentucky, and I made the comment I don't know that I would know what to do without being in Nashville anymore, and that's the truth.

This song is worth a listen!

I love you more than my luggage....

So stoked this week is finally here! A few days to get through before we head to Kentucky for the rest of the week....we'll be at Dolphie's Wednesday & Saturday night, and spending Thursday & Friday in Lexington. It's ridiculous how much I love that place. This time we'll also FINALLY be hitting up part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail! 

Today's Sunday Social is all about movies, which is right up my alley! I spend probably way too much time watching movies....




1. What is your favorite movie of all time?Soooo freaking hard, but Steel Magnolias will forever be my ALL TIME favorite movie. 

are there people that actually DON'T love this movie?! 

But because I can't leave out the couple others that I rank high to ALMOST tie them: Christmas Vacation, Beaches & Something Borrowed!

2. What is your favorite movie quote?I'm not sure I can narrow it down to one, but these two from Steel Magnolias are WAY on the top of the list:
"I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful, than a lifetime of nothing special.""Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion"
And obviously, the title of my blog is one of my fave Steel Magnolias quotes! 
And I could pull fabulous quotes from "The Hours" all day long. 
3. What is the best movie to watch for a girls night in?

Another one of my all time faves....the bestie & I watched it last girls night and quoted the whole damn thing.. "Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her."

4. What is the best breakup movie?

Either "The Breakup", or "Under the Tuscan Sun"

5. Who would you want to play you in a movie about your life?

I have no "Oh this person is just like me, they should play me!" because my only acceptable answer is the absolute best of the best---Meryl Streep. 

6. Which movie star’s closet would you want to raid? 
Michelle Pfeiffer

Finally....

The weekend! After my newborn session today, I plan on being as lazy as possible.

I love our hot summers, and usually wind up spending a lot of my weekends at my sisters...soooo I crashed over there last night & we had a night of chinese take-out and then cocktails by the pool. My brother in law turned the lower part of the back deck into a tiki bar....

Kadin after the Tiki Bar remodel started

It turned out pretty awesome. Kadin clearly gives it his approval - he loves it! He kept referring to last night as "the party" -- I'm not really sure what he thought we were going to be doing, but every 5 minutes I heard, "So, Aunt Nicole....you ready to get this party started!?"

Keeping it classy....screwdrivers in Disney's Monsters Inc cups! PS: Whipped Cream Vodka is so fabulous, it makes it hard to have regular vodka after. 

Yes, we put tiny umbrellas in our Monsters Inc cups....and Kadin had this huge discussion with us on what Monster each of us was going to get. Serious business in my sisters house. 

For someone who was so pumped about "the party", Kadin totally ditched us to go watch WWE for two hours! We were in the pool by 8 and he didn't even come barreling into the pool until 9. We made up for it and spent a few hours with him --- those kids are so much fun in the pool. From jumping to making a whirlpool to monkey in the middle -- we all had a blast. We capped off the night outside by lighting torches and playing on the electronics. At one point, I was on the iPad, Paige was on the other iPad, Sam was on her iPhone, and Kadin was on my iPhone....ah, bonding over Apple products.

with my sissy! 

So, my best friend & I have been keeping a log of stuff we've said for about a year now -- it's absolutely hilarious to go back and read the stuff we've said. Apparently, I need to start doing this for Kadin. This kid comes up with the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life.... he's SO into wrestling and wants to be just like John Cena - who my sister happens to love. So Kadin decided he's going invite all his favorite wrestlers to his house -- and asked, "Soooo Mom what would you say to John Cena!?" and Samantha said "Oh, I'd just be oh hey John Cena, come over here with me!" and Kadin popped out with....."You'd have private tickle time with him, wouldn't you!?" and we all died laughing. I have no idea WHERE he got that one! Love that kid!