Nashville Newbies: Another Chapter

Hey! Remember me?? Yeah, probably not, but that's ok. I'm a blog slacker to the nth degree if you haven't already noticed. As we approach our 1 year anniversary in Nashville (which we will ironically be spending in Louisiana), it's hard to believe how much has changed in a year. We have been stretched beyond anything before. We've had some dark times, but mostly great times. Now that we are coming up on the other side of things, it's amazing (and of course not surprising) to see the Lord's hand orchestrating it all.

A lot has happened since my last post. So since I love lists so much, here goes it:

We survived lots of snow, ice mess, and tornado threats. Nashville weather surely didn't ease us in!
There were many long, stressful days at school in preparation for TCAP testing where I learned to often take things just one hour at a time...but I survived it, and my class got 96% proficient on the writing portion! For a math teacher at heart, I couldn't be more shocked :)
I turned a quarter of a century.
We had many days of missing home a lot, but we're grateful for pieces of home in Nashville, such as visits with my brother & his sweet girlfriend, Lindsay, Brandon's parents, Chad & Allison Schoonmaker, and my dad next weekend.
Although we still miss our friends and family everyday, the Lord has been gracious to provide such great friends through our church and community group. Seriously, they are wonderful!
I got away for the weekend to visit my sister and check out their beautiful Ben Avon, PA home. We laughed, cried, shopped, and drank lots of tea together in honor of the Royal Wedding.
Brandon successfully finished one year at Belmont with an all-star GPA of 3.8! I'm soo incredibly proud of him.
And last, but not least (and probably what you've been waiting for) found a wonderful rent home that is walking distance to Belmont, parks, and great restaurants. It completely fell into our laps, and we couldn't be more thankful! We signed our lease yesterday and have already started moving things in. Here are pics, and I promise to update once we're all moved in and decorated! Keep in mind, it's an older home that needs a little TLC, but it's very charming.

WELCOME!

Our beautiful front yard. Luscious. Supposedly in the winter when the trees die, we'll be able to see the Nashville skyline.

This, my friend, is a cicada. I thought they only existed in the Old Testament, but I was wrong. They come out every 13 years in this part of TN, and now of course is the time that they're coming. Because we are surrounded by trees and plants, these creatures are EVERYWHERE. They're huge, loud, and have creepy red eyes. The good news is that they supposedly only stick around for a couple weeks. Go ahead and start praying for my fear to subside now.

Our humble kitchen. Small, yet functional. We'll have to get creative with storage throughout the house.

Back door and kitchen pantry. All of the curtains were left by the previous tenants.

The "butler's pantry"/office/could be laundry room (cross your fingers that they can get a washer & dryer hookup here!)

Other side of the "butler's pantry". Translation: more storage since we have no kitchen cabinets.

Dining room view from the living room. It connects to the butler's pantry.

Spacious living room. My favorite room. Straight ahead is Brandon's office/music room.

1st bathroom

Guest room. We'll have to walk through here to get to our room. But don't let that stop you from coming to visit!!

Crazy bowling alley bathroom. This supposedly was a closet. Still not sure about it. The previous tenants left those awesome curtains. There's a small stand-up shower behind where I stood to take this pic.