yikes!

my apologies for the delay, but school started back yesterday and i'm still getting back in the swing of things after the great trip to tn. we flew out after work on friday and got to nashville around 9pm. saturday was L's birthday (happy birthday babe!!) and was also the bash/reunion/family get-together at my uncle's house that doubled as a send-off for my 54 y.o. chaplain uncle who's leaving for training this month and then iraq in november. it was great to see everyone there - it had been quite a while since i'd seen some of them. saturday evening me, L, and jake had dinner at toot's (awesome local place) with my dad and feasted on the fried dill pickle chips (yum! let me know if you know of anywhere else that we can get some - please let me know. after church on sunday, mom, charlie, me, L, and jake trucked (carred?) it up to cookeville for lunch with L's parents and family at spankie's (another awesome local place). we had a great time visiting and they really enjoyed getting to see jake. sunday evening L and i got to go on a real date - just the two of us! we went to see mean girls (really good actually - some parts were wickedly funny - good job tina fey) and then had a bite to eat at o'charley's before going home. monday morning we just rested and lounged and finished packing before leaving for the airport at 1pm. we landed, finally got to our car (crazy little shuttle buses...), and went straight to dinner at red lobster (hey it was basically L's birthday all weekend long...) since we were too zonked to do anything at the house for dinner. we got home and basically did only what we needed to do for the next day before going on to bed. a good weekend all around!