Why I love Tennessee

This post has been something I've been writing in my head for YEARS. I don't even know where to start, so I guess I'll begin with my first time stepping foot in Nashville International Airport.

It was a nice cool spring morning in May 2008. Ryan, Selina (13 months old), and myself left Canadian soil and landed in Minneapolis for our layover. As you can imagine, I was in a very somber mood since only the night before I said good bye to my family - a VERY close knit family - and I wasn't even sure when I'd see them again. Not meaning years or anything like that, but definitely 1/2 a year to a whole year was  big stretch for me considering I'd never really been apart from my mom or sister for more than a week my whole life. Well, my dad and brother too...but you know, us girls were inseparable.
So, here I was moving to another country, to Tennessee, to a town I'd never even heard of prior to talks of moving here.  The excitement quickly turned too a gloomy feeling when I realized it was for real and I was half way to my new home. I was sitting in the Minneapolis airport with an exhausted, cranky, 13-month old. It was all I could do to keep it together.
We wandered about the terminal, got some Starbucks, and then went to our gate. I'll tell you something, I got my first dose of The South right then and there and it made my day.
This lovely lady, who I think was probably pushing 60 maybe 70, started chatting with me in a thick southern accent. She was commenting on the cuteness of Selina, but I was entranced with her very large, artificial blond, curly mane atop of her head. She wore hot pink everything and had more jewels around her neck and wrist than I have in my own personal collection altogether. Plus a pair of heels that would cause me to break both of my ankles. I couldn't really understand what she was saying, but her genuine kindness and approachability just made me smile. Perhaps moving to Tennessee won't be so bad after all.

We arrived in Nashville.

Strolling through the Nashville airport, the first thing I notice are wooden rocking chairs everywhere and some cowboy singer guy over the intercom telling us to keep an eye on our luggage.
There's guitars behind glass cases and advertisements for Jack Daniel's on the walls. Tons of cowboys with their instruments slung over their backs. I'm sure they're hoping to make it big on Broadway...Broadway Street in Nashville that is.  Or maybe they're already super famous and I just have no idea who they are!

Our first night at the hotel we slept pretty well. I'll never forget what it felt like stepping out that morning into the hot muggy mugginess. Air conditioning in May? I'd never heard of such a thing! The night before we had actually driven to our new house to meet the builder. I was super curious to see my new home, my new town. Ryan was the one who came here and did the house searching. He did a good job.
When we were talking with the builder that evening, we had to pretty much yell at each other to get our voices heard over the deafening sound of the animals buzzing, screeching, and croaking in the woods over yonder.  :-) I of course was constantly searching the ground for snakes. I'm sure people thought I had a social complex  when I talked funny and only stared at the ground. Really, I was making sure a snake wasn't going to bite my ankles!

Our house wasn't going to be finished for a few weeks so my husband's boss and wife kindly shared their home with us until ours was finished. They have a pool and Selina and I just loved it. I don't think I've ever gone swimming in my life when the water was as warm as a bath. It was delightful!
While Ryan was at work, I got to work doing what I do best; shopping and driving around aimlessly, taking in the landscape. I think I put one million miles on my car that first month as I drove around in awe of the beauty of rolling hills and lush greenery. So many perfect trees everywhere!

One day we took Selina to the zoo in Nashville. Didn't bother to check the weather first. There were dark clouds rolling in, but the Canadian in me figured a light rain shower was going to happen in the near future. The zoo sells umbrellas, which I thought was kind of a stupid cash trap, but they insisted we buy one especially for a day like that day. So we did.

2 minutes later, we were thankful for the umbrella.
The storm went on just about the entire time we were there. We we like the only crazy people at the zoo.
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I can see that this particular blog is going to take me a while to write out and my kids just got up from a nap. So I'm gonna stop here. And carry on later!

TBC...