Tennessee Travels Part 4: Hangin’ Out Downtown

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*While I’m livin’ it up in Chicago with Neely and Meghan, I’m doing flashback posts of my 2009 trip to Tennessee*
I was very excited when I woke up the next day feeling some better. I was still a little bit weak, but I was ready do more Nashville exploring.
Momma and I had read about a new boutique called H. Audrey that was owned by Holly Williams, the daughter of Hank Williams Jr. She has also released a couple of albums and has played at the Grand Ole Opry! We thought it would be cool to find it and walk around a little in that area.
As we were getting ready to leave, the door of the shop opened and in walked Holly! We talked with her for a few minutes, as well as to the guy working in the store, who we found out is from the same part of Oklahoma that we are from. Small world!
Holly was super sweet and posed for a picture with us!
I did go out and buy her most recent CD after we got back home, and I love it! I also downloaded her first CD on iTunes, and it’s pretty good too.
After leaving H. Audrey, we headed downtown. Of course, we had to stop at Coyote Ugly!
Y’all are probably going to laugh at me, but my first time in a bar was at 23 with my Mom and Mom-mom!

We went in the middle of the day, shared a cheeseburger, and drank water! :)

I had to take a picture with the girls!
Wildhorse Saloon
CMT Building
We walked around a little longer, then headed back to the hotel to get ready for an evening at the Grand Ole Opry!

Tennessee Travels Part 3: Will the Circle Be Unbroken

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*While I’m livin’ it up in Chicago with Neely and Meghan, I’m doing flashback posts of my 2009 trip to Tennessee*
I woke up still feeling a little weird, but I was NOT going to miss out on any more of my trip! We grabbed a quick lunch and headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Momma and I had been to the Hall of Fame before, but we had a very specific reason for going back again.

Carrie’s gorgeous red dress that she wore when she sang “I Told You So” the night she won Entertainer of the Year was on display for about six months. We had to see it!

These pictures definitely don’t do it justice. It was absolutely beautiful!

It was so much fun to see it!

“Country music is music with a lot of class. It’s just oridnary stories told by ordinary people in an extraordinary way.” -Dolly Parton

Up next, hangin’ out downtown!

Tennessee Travels Part 2: Down Home with the Neelys

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*While I’m livin’ it up in Chicago with Neely and Meghan, I’m doing flashback posts of my 2009 trip to Tennessee*

We are all big Food Network fans, and we just love the Neelys! We knew we couldn’t leave Memphis without stopping to eat at their restaurant.

The food was wonderful! I had barbecue chicken nachos, and they were AMAZING!

We posed for a few pictures with them.

After we ate, we hit the road and headed for Nashville.
We planned to check in to our hotel, then find a cool place in the area for dinner. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go as planned.
By the time we made it to Nashville, I was sick. By sick, I mean SICK. We are pretty sure that I got food poisoning from the restaurant. I don’t think I have ever been as sick as I was that night.
Let’s just say, I vowed that night that I would NEVER eat barbecue again, and now, two years later, I still haven’t had any.
Beautiful, isn’t it? Smeared mascara, gross hair, near-death.
I actually can’t believe I posted this picture.
Our cool place for dinner? Our hotel.
Our food? Sprite for me, vegetable wheat thins from the vending machine for Momma and Mom-mom.
This may be a bit too much information, so if you have a weak stomach, you might not want to read. I was so weak that I couldn’t get out of bed to run to the bathroom when I needed to throw up, so I had a trashcan beside my bed. Momma can’t handle when someone throws up, so when I would get sick, she would run to the bathroom and turn the water on so she couldn’t hear! She left Mom-mom to take care of me!
This was NOT the wonderful first night in Nashville that I had in my mind. I was really afraid that I would have to spend my entire vacation in the hotel room.
Up next, the day after The Sickness.

Tennessee Travels Part 1: Walkin’ in Memphis

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Hey y’all!
Today is the day!
After months of waiting, counting down, and packing (ok, maybe just hours on that one!), our Chicago trip is finally here! Because there is going to be way to much fun happening there for me to take time to blog, I’ve got several posts scheduled for while I’m gone.
While I’m gone to Chicago, I wanted to share a little about the wonderful trip I took two summers ago with my Momma and my Mom-mom to Tennessee. It was a pretty fantastic trip, and I’ve briefly mentioned it a few times here, so I thought I’d do several posts about that trip. Let me tell ya, it was definitely an adventure!
Before I get into my first Tennessee post, I wanted to let y’all know that I’m guest posting for my wonderful friend Lindsey today! I’m sharing a few of my favorite summertime songs. Be sure to check it out!
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In 2009, I really wanted to go on a fun summer trip out of Oklahoma and different than the usual Dallas get-away trip. I’d been wanting to go back to Tennessee since the first time I went back in high school. We decided to go back and take my Mom-mom this time. She was a super big Elvis fan when she was a teenager, so we knew we HAD to take her to Graceland.
The trip started way down in Small Town, Oklahoma. I should first mention that none of us fly, so anywhere we go has to be within reasonable driving distance. It’s about an 8+ hour drive to Memphis (minus bathroom breaks), and another 3 hours to Nashville (again, minus bathroom breaks). Reasonable driving distance? I’m not so sure anymore.
After we’d been on the road about an hour, we stopped for a potty break. We knew we’d be taking lots of pictures this trip, but had no idea they would start an hour down the road. We walked into the bathroom and saw this.
No, you aren’t hallucinating. That’s a restaurant booth INSIDE the bathroom stall.
The only word I have for this is why. Why?
Many, many, many hours later, we pulled into Memphis!
We stopped in at the Welcome Center to see a couple of friends.
Mr. Elvis Presley
Not quite tall enough to reach!
We hung out with BB King for a bit too.
We drove around trying to find some dinner, got lost in the ghetto, the GPS yelled at us, I yelled at the GPS, and finally, we gave up and went to our hotel. Our trip was off to a…uh, great start.
The next day, we headed to Graceland!

Waiting for our tour to begin

Let’s have a little talk about Elvis right now. Have we had this conversation before? In case you didn’t know, I don’t buy into the lie that Elvis is dead. Seriously, I’m not joking here at all. My theory is that he was tired of the constant attention and scrutiny that he faked his death to get out of the spotlight.
I believe that he still lives at Graceland in his room upstairs. The upstairs is completely off-limits, even to the people who work at Graceland. Plus, the house is randomly closed by the family at different times. Why is that? Because he’s there!
Oh, did I mention I have proof? We saw him. No, I’m not crazy. We saw him.
This man was walking around down in the horse pasture. He’s definitely too old to be working there, plus he was not dressed like any of the workers. He looks to be about the age that Elvis should be, and he was in an area that is not a part of the tour. Who else could it be? (And no, I’m not interested in any other theories. Just let me believe it was him!)

We ended the tour at the grave sites. Elvis, his twin brother who died at birth, his parents, and his aunt are all buried at Graceland. We stopped first at the grave of Elvis’ twin brother who died. As we were leaning over to look, we heard these words come out of my Mom-mom’s mouth: “Wonder what kind of grass that is…” Seriously? People were crying, CRYING and she’s admiring the foilage. I cannot tell you how many times we’ve laughed about this since then.

We had such a wonderful time at Graceland! It was so cool to go back, and it was really great to experience it with Mom-mom.
Up next, Down Home with the Neelys!

Meet-N-Greet Blog Style

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Michelle over at A Little Bit of This and That is hosting a super fun blog meet & greet! Michelle is super sweet, and if you don’t read her blog, you should check it out along with all of the fabulous girls linking up with her!
 
I started Ashley’s Carnival Ride in January of 2010. I’d been reading blogs for quite awhile, and while I was off work because of snow, I decided to start one!
 
I started it mainly just to have a writing outlet and to have a way to journal my life. I never in a million years imagined it would grow into what it is now. I never imagined making the sweet friends I’ve made! I never thought I’d be texting and tweeting with bloggers. I never imagined I’d be spending weekends with bloggers or taking trips with bloggers. I never imagined I’d call bloggers some of my best friends! Blogging has become such a huge part of my life, and I’m so glad I have it!
 
I blog about a lot of things!
 

My family

My friends


Music I love


My sweet kitty Jack


Things I’m loving
A little more about me…

 
A Few of Ashley’s Carnival Ride’s Top Posts
A Year on My Carnival Ride
My Quest for the Skinnies
What I’m Loving Wednesday-I Met Pioneer Woman!
Top 5 Thursday-Celeb Crushes
What I’m Loving Wednesday-Meeting Bloggers, New Design, & Music
 
Want to know more?
Things You Should Know About Me If We’re Gonna Be BFFs
Super Long Q&A
My Favorite Blog Posts
Tag, You’re It
My Life in Song Titles
Guilty Pleasures
 
Hope you enjoyed getting to know a little more about me!

Target Tuesday & Announcements

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Hey y’all!

It’s time for Target Tuesday with Tara!

Here are a few things I’m loving from Target this week!

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Xhilaration® Juniors One Shoulder Dress – Black

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Journee Juniors’ Sleeveless Empire Dress – Yellow

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Journee Women’s Floral Strapless Dress – Black/White

Link up your Target loves with Tara!

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Tomorrow Neely and I leave for Chicago! I am so excited and can’t wait to meet Meghan in person and have some great girl time! Please keep us in your prayers for safe travels. I’m kinda freaking out about the whole plane ride thing.

Just a reminder, while I’m gone, I have scheduled posts about my super awesome trip to Tennessee a couple of years ago. I didn’t have a blog then, so I get to share all of that fun stuff now.

Yesterday, Jessica went for her ultrasound to find out the gender of the baby.

IT’S A GIRL!

I am so excited and can’t wait for October to get here so I can meet her!

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I’ll try to catch up on everyone when I get back next week. I’ll be around Twitter a bit while I’m gone, so come say hi!

Weekend Update

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Hey y’all!

Hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was kind of a whirlwind.

Before I get into my weekend stuff, I have to show you the sweetest picture.
Max
Is that not the cutest little face? My coworker Brittany was on vacation last week, and I took care of her sweet kitty Max. He was ADORABLE!

After work on Friday, Colby and I met for dinner and ran into a sweet family from our church. They invited us over to their table, and we had a wonderful meal with them! They are so precious!

Saturday morning, I got up SUPER EARLY and drove home. I hadn’t been home in about four months, and my sweet babies were so happy to see me!

oreo
I sat down and Oreo just hopped into my lap! He’s usually a little scared when I first get home.

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Hershey couldn’t quite figure me out

oreo shoes
I think Oreo liked the Toms!

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My sweet Sandy-girl

Momma and Daddy were out working on the new house, so I went out to have lunch with them. They ended up having me help out.
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I am most definitely not cut out for construction work.

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Shoveling concrete with my Daddy

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Standing on the front porch

After I left there, I went to get my hair done. No more trashy dark roots for me! :)

I met Momma and Daddy at one of our Mexican restaurants for dinner.
food

I had entirely too much Mexican food this weekend. I’m afraid I’ve gained back all of the weight I’ve lost!

After dinner, Momma and I went to run a few errands and ended up driving down to the circus grounds. One of the elephants was visible!


Most people have to go to the zoo to see an elephant. We just have to drive down the road!

I got to spend a little bit of time with my bestie and her babies!
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My sweet K! He insisted on taking a picture with Aunt Ashley!

Sunday morning, I helped Momma in her bible class, then we went for more Mexican food with Mom-mom and Grandaddy.
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It was a fun weekend, but I wish I’d had longer at home. Hopefully I can get back there in the next few weeks.

Now, it’s back to work, trying to finish all of my stuff so my to-do list will be clear before Chicago! Can’t believe we’re leaving in two days!

Fun Friday & Boob Tube Babble

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It’s Friday, y’all!

Fun Fridays

Tonight, I’m getting things packed up to go to my parents’ house for the weekend. I haven’t been home since February, and I really need to see my family!

I’m also going to see my wonderful cosmetological genius Carol so she she can highlight my hair. It’s starting to look a little trashy.

Not as bad as this picture, but close.

What are y’all up to this weekend?
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Boob Tube Babble
 
Did y’all watch The Voice this week?
I thought the performances were wonderful this week!
I am definitely a Team Blake fan!

Dia Frampton performed a piano version of Kanye West’s “Heartless”, and it was wonderful!

Patrick Thomas performed “I Hope You Dance”. Y’all know that’s one of my favorites, so he definitely scored major points with me!
Who are you rooting for?

Next Wednesday is the return of Toddlers and Tiaras.

I blogged once before about this trainwreck of a show. It’s terrible, but at the same time you can’t help but watch.
 
The premiere will feature probably the most talked-about participant ever:

Mackenzie!
She’s such a sweet girl, isn’t she?

Do y’all watch Toddlers and Tiaras?

Link up your tv talk with Neely and Meagan!

What I’m Playing Thursday

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Hey y’all!
I’m linking up for What I’m Playing Thursday again!
“Chicago”-Kate Voegele
Six days until I will be there! :)
“Hope of the Broken World”-Selah
“Old Alabama”-Brad Paisley feat. Alabama
“Live a Little”-Kenny Chesney
What’s on your playlist this week?

My New Blog Design!

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Hey y’all! I’m so excited because my new blog design is up! I am absolutely in love with this new design! Jenn is the absolute best blog designer ever. She is such a sweet person, and she was wonderful to work with! I’m also a fan of her personal blog too, and I love that we get to be Twitter friends too!

I have several new changes. I have moved all of y’all’s blog buttons to the Blogs I Heart tab on the top of the page. I also have my own button, so I’d love it if you added it to your blog! :)

Thanks again, Jenn! You’re awesome!