the parthenon-nashville

Last week a few of the girls got together & took a trip to the Parthenon in Centennial Park in Nashville. Greek & Roman mythology is so interesting, how the gods were created, their lack of standards, always seeking revenge. I'm not quite sure I'd want to worship people like that...but that's another story.

Before Brady & I left for the summer my little brother's gave me a big stack of books to read! I was never much of a reader growing up (a few books here & there) but the past few years I've started to really enjoy it. Some of the books I was lent were the Percy Jackson & The Olympians  books.

I watched the movie when it first came out & then read the first one but it was years ago. So as I basked in the summer sun at the pool I quickly read through all 5 books. I couldn't put them down! They are great books for anyone pre-teen-adult. I get fed up with all the grotesque, dirty, nasty books/media that's out in the world today. These are a breath of fresh air & educational. I learned a lot about the Greek gods throughout the series. My brother also lent me the add-on series after the Percy Jackson books, The Heroes of Olympus.

So far I'm halfway through the first book & I'm loving every minute! I'll read for a good 3 hours at the pool everyday (rough life, I know) I recommend you read all of these books if you haven't done so already.

Back to the Parthenon....On the main floor of the building there is an art gallery & a few pictures & trinkets from when Nashville first became a town, but upstairs was the GIANT statue of Athena. She was beautiful! Athena is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill.

The amount of detail in the statue is amazing & to think that long, long, long, ago in Greece they carved a statue similar to this. This one itself took 8 years to complete by Alan LeQuire.

Seeing this statue & others & the Parthenon itself made me want to go to Greece & see the actual Parthenon & other Greek ruins.

Since Athena is the Goddess of war her shield has a battle scene on it. Sorry this was the best shot I could get.

To see the scale of this thing, check out the lady in the far right of the picture....it's huge. Might I add that Athena is covered in actual gold leaf. The gold on the original Greek statue weighed 1500 Lbs. This statue tops out at 8.5 Lbs.

Athena is holding the goddess Nike (or Victoria in Roman mythology). Nike is the goddess of victory. So the next time you lace up your Nikes, know that you will win.

On the north & south faces of the Parthenon are most of the greek gods. They had these smaller replicas to show you what it looks like since you can't get close to the roof to see up close on the actual building. The pieces without arms & heads are molds of the remains in Greece. Sculptors worked with photos/drawings & these molds to recreate the Nashville Parthenon's statues.

After we wandered through the Parthenon & bought a postcard for my dad & myself (my tradition) we walked around the park. It was a beautiful day. I'm so grateful that I get to explore new places every year! I love traveling, seeing sights, & learning the history of the earth.

Go explore a new place this week!! Take pictures & collect a keepsake for you to remember your time there by.

peace+blessings

my trip to stones river national battlefield

Saturday after my yoga class I decided to go on a little adventure before I headed back home. I've passed the sign to the Stones River National Battlefield several times this summer & I've always wanted to go but it was always at a bad time. I passed it again on my way out of yoga & thought "now is the perfect time!". I drove down the road to the battlefield, which is long & weaves through a field, into some trees & then pops out to the museum/visitor center.

I made it half way through the visitor center & a gentleman informed me that there was going to be a tour of the cemetery shortly. I really did come at the perfect time! I got to go with a small group of people on a little guided tour of the cemetery. Our tour guide was very insightful & seemed to really love the history of Stones River & other American War stuff.

He told us that more than 81,000 soldiers fought at Stones River, & 23,000 were killed, wounded, or captured. The men fought from Dec 31 1862-Jan 2 1862. Yikes, that's so many people! They were all moved & buried in this one cemetery on the outer edge of the battlefield.

When the tour was over I went & took a picture of this giant old tree, that they think might be a "witness tree" since it's so much bigger than the rest of the trees. I finished looking around at the museum & watched a short film on a journal entry of one of the soldiers. Then I went & picked out a couple postcards, one for my collection, & one for my dad. When I was little & my dad would go out of town he would send us back a postcard of where he was, so now I do the same for him!

I wish no one ever had to die for peace. Unfortunately it never seems to work like that. I'm not too keen on American History (it bores me to death) I'm more of an ancient history buff, but I'm glad I got to walk back into the past & get to know a couple of the brave men who fought for the rights we have today.

yoga in the park

 Last year in St. Louis I was extremely spoiled. Every Saturday morning I would do yoga under the Arch for, like most activities there, free!! Here in Nashville finding free activities is much more difficult, especially something like yoga. BUT I finally found one! It's only free once a month but hey, one is better than none, I always say. It was at The Avenue in Murfreesboro, on an area of astroturf in front of the pretty water fountain. The Avenue is a shopping center.

It was a HOT morning. I was sweating profusely & my feet were burning on my mat. It was fantastic. I felt like I'd gotten a darn good workout when we were all done & I looked like someone had dumped a bucket of water on me.

Afterwards everyone piled into the Origins store for a goodie bag for participating. I LOVE PRESENTS!! I got an origins branded blender bottle, and a sample bottle of Origins GinZing refreshing eye cream to brighten & depuff. I looked around at some of their other products & they seemed pretty legit & earthy (which I love, GO GREEN), but a little out of my price range. I'm excited to try the product though!

What are your favorite Yoga poses?

4th in the music city

Events in Nashville have really spoiled me, I now think every event or activity has to have a live band involved. There is no other way, the radio isn't going to cut it anymore folks.

Before I jump into the my activities from the 4th we need to rewind to the 3rd. Our neighboring town of Smyrna held their fireworks & fun on the 3rd of July. So me & a few friends struggled our way into a parking spot & made our way to the Recreation Park. It was hoppin'. The whole town was there, plus more. We watched the bands for a little while, then decided to go look around at all the fun things that were going on.

This place was kid heaven. I'd never seen so many blow-up/bouncy things. There were TWO bouncy houses, a blow-up slide, a blow-up basketball court, & more. There was face painting, a rock wall, a little train to ride around, and any other "fair" game you can think of. It was overflowing with stands selling snow cones & italian ice, fried turkey legs, pizza, hot dogs, funnel cake, you name it. I did not buy a single thing...I did get a free peach & a free glow stick bracelet though!! YES!

After walking around & waiting in the longest bathroom line ever, we made our way to the grass to watch the fireworks. I was impressed. My favorite firework was this awesome glittery gold one that fell down like a waterfall!! I couldn't get enough, but that was only a taste of firework awesomeness.

Later that night when Brady got home we made a midnight trip to Wally World & got some ingredients for his families famous Chocolate Pancake/Vanilla syrup breakfast that we were hosting the next day. We got carried away & decided to buy some sweet patriotic shirts while we were there too.

On to the 4th.....we woke up, brushed our teeth...too much detail? oh, ok, sorry. After our chocolate pancake party we suited up & headed for the pool! We played way too many games of 500 & Brady got fried (even though he drenched himself in sunscreen). On the way out we stopped at this little BBQ joint called Bar-B-Cuties. Pretty tasty, but nothing special.

When we got to downtown we explored a little, took pictures, then shoved our way through the crowd to, almost, the front of the stage. We stayed for the national anthem, flag ceremony, & a few songs from the band Striking Matches until we almost got a few cigarette burns & our second-hand smoke headache got too bad. We walked up to the bridge & got to see the stadium that the fireworks were going to be lit at. Then we made our way over to the Tennessee Towers where we would watch them.

 

A little back story....our first sunday in our new ward we met a nice lady named Kim. The 4th of July got brought up & it turned out that she worked at the Tennessee Towers & she was going to be watching the fireworks on top of the building! Then she invited us!! back to the story...

We went up the 30 stories to the top of the building & parked our chairs right in front of the railing on the 2nd tallest building in Nashville & got to watch the 2nd best firework show (last year's rating) in America. IT. WAS. AWESOME. Watching 27 minutes of musically choreographed fireworks from on top of a building was THE coolest. It even made the 1 hour wait to get out of our stall in the parking garage worth it.

This was by far the best 4th I've ever had/will ever have again.

murfreesboro farmers market on the square

Last Saturday I popped right out of bed, threw some clothes on & headed to the farmers market. I LOVE farmers markets. I feel like I'm supporting the community, while also getting the freshest produce. It's a win-win. I walked through the market twice & finally decided on a few things to buy. I first picked out some watercress, of which I have no clue how to cook it or what to put it on but never fear, Pinterest is here. 

Then I decided that all the peaches that everyone were selling looked too delicious to pass up, so I grabbed some of them. 

Lastly, I got to stand in line & watch a lady make gorgeous bouquets of the most love flowers! I could've watched her till the market closed. She was extremely talented & took her time to make each bouquet unique & equal. I left the market with a future goal: when we're settled & I can finally plant a garden, I'm going to plant a giant feild of flowers & sell them at the market like this lady. I will be the flower lady & everyone will stand in line for my flowers! 

This is the awesome lady & her buckets of marigolds & other flowers.

The spoils of my trip

playgrounds aren't just for kids

Last Sunday 6/29/14 a few of our friends & us got together & had a little BBQ! BBQ are one of the many, many, MANY things I love about summer. Who am I kidding, we BBQ year round at our house!! I could BBQ at least 4 of the 7 days of the week. It tastes waaaaay better than cooking on the stove, hands down. Brady is a top notch grill master, so he always mans the grill. He grilled us up some yummy steaks & I can speak for everyone when I say they were outstanding. 

After filling up with steak, salad, fresh fruit & veggies, chips & salsa, we decided to go play on the playground. It was a legit playground. There were tall slides & swings & things to climb, but the best thing of all was this crazy spinning thing we found. ( I managed to take videos of everyone on it but no pictures...) this magical, spinning piece was extremely fun. You'd jump on & spin around & the tighter you pulled yourself in the faster it would go. Needless to say we all left light headed BUT with giant smiles on our faces! it was worth it.