Tomorrow it will be exactly 8 weeks till I move....that's 56 days.... wow.... I'm so excited and pumped about going, but I also want to make sure I use my time left here really well.

I think my family and I are going to have a comprehensive Fall celebration at home. Complete with a Thanksgiving dinner, wood chopping, football games, green chili, and maybe even some mistletoe shooting (that's technically a Christmas activity, but I just really love it)

Hopefully I'll get to come back home fairly often though. There's a smaller airline in Chattanooga that does direct flights to Orlando for like $30-$50 or even $10 if you catch it early enough! Cool huh!?

This weekend is, my little roommate, Ashley's wedding. I'm so happy for her. It's going to be so beautiful and unique. Like her! Then she moves to New Zealand and then another roommate, Kim, moves to New York on Tuesday...everyone is moving to literally "NEW" places.... I think I'll start saying New Orlando from now on just to fit in...

Moving on....

Today was perfectly splendid (after I got off work of course) so... let me rephrase... my day from 3 o'clock on was perfectly splendid! I walk outside to the most perfect temperature degree outside has ever known! I drive home with the windows down (partly because my AC is broken, but why put a damper on my story?) I voluntarily CHOSE to drive home with the windows down, arrived at the house, greeted one of the roomies, then immediately set up camp on my back porch for arts and crafts time! I'm talking card board, scissors, modge podge, paper mache, and creative juices! I can't tell you right now what exactly I was making... it's a surprise, but I'll post a picture later!

My point is, is just felt good to make something crafty with my hands... doesn't happen as often as I would like... NOW I'm going to make some dinner and then the roomies and I are going BACK onto the porch where we're going to project "The Little Mermaid" onto our garage and watch it outside!!! So excited!

I'M AN AUNT!!!! This is baby Emma Kathryn Rager :) she was born on August 25 around 10:30 and was 6lbs 5 oz and 20 inches long........ we're going to be best friends.

I'm in Jackson right now with my sister and the new baby. She's napping and the baby is in the nursery. I got to hold her though (obvi) and I surprisingly loved it! I'm normally terrified of babies but with baby Em it was just instant comfort and love.... :) so happy to have her in our family now! She's so precious!

A couple weeks ago...I received an email from a couple of my great friends Jeremy and Kelsey from LA. The email was titled "A Potentially Life Changing Email" and basically... it was. They basically said that no matter what they are moving from Las Vegas to Florida at the beginning of November and they would love for me to join them and really work on building the dream of running our own production company!

Jeremy writes, Kelsey produces, our friend Brandon who already lives there is a videographer, and I would do production and set design like I've been dying to do since I left LA. WELL.... I wanted to give this whole thing lots of thought and prayer just to make sure I wasn't going to rush into something just because it's available but rather because I'm really supposed to go.

So during the course of the next few weeks....Florida and Orlando just began appearing EVERYWHERE! At work, one of my co-worker's brother just moved there, another just got accepted to seminary school there, and another is going to flight school there....then about 10 other random connections and serendipitous encounters with Florida. So, I was basically thinking about it all the time and weighing the pros and cons.

This past Monday night I went to a worship service I've been regularly attending called Emanate in Franklin, TN.....it is just an awesome solid time to really connect with the Spirit and worship the Father.... so the whole time during worship Florida was just really in the forefront of my mind and so I felt like the idea was really being presented to God, and the whole time I just had no doubt in my mind that this was right and basically there is no option for me to not go. :)

Tuesday I started telling my close friends and family who were all very supportive and excited for me.....except my roommates. They said that ever since I mentioned it a couple weeks ago that they knew I would go! lol oh how well they know me :)

So yeah! I'm really excited to have a goal to shoot for now and especially because I know it's where I'm supposed to go. Jeremy, Kelsey, and Brandon are just so creative and amazing, it'll be great to be back in that creative environment where we'll push and encourage each other. It's really going to be great :)

This will be another transition from Ellen in LA to Ellen in Nashville and now to Ellen in Florida! Let the new chapter begin!

After my last week at Anthropologie I went to Pennsylvania with Andrea so I could spend the week all my sister-in-law's extended family! random huh?! but really so much fun :) Gotta love those Jacobson's!

A few days later....I have the best birthday of my life. LOL It almost sounds like I'm kidding but I'm not! Maybe I should say adult life, though, because my 7th birthday when I got a bike AND puppy surprise was pretty dang sweet. But of my adult life...this one takes the cake! HA! (get it?!)

It seriously was awesome. First off...it started with no expectations or plans for the day... so the night before, Allie, Jessica, Kim, Brandon, and I go out on the boat with our friend Ben in Hendersonville. I had never been on a boat at night and let me tell you....it was GORGEOUS! The moon was huge and reflecting off the water and all the stars were out too... I loved it. So we kicked off my birthday floating on the water and stayed out till about 3 am. I didn't get to bed till 4 but then had to wake up at 5 to go open up Provence. That kind of hurt a little, but then a guy I work with came in at 8 to cover the rest of the day for me since it was my special day! SO after I get off, I meet up with the lovely Ashley Hamilton for a scrumptious brunch and hang out time at Fiddlecakes. Next, it was back out to the lake for me to meet up with my boating crew again from the night before. We go out on the water for some hardcore tubing and sun soaking! Once back on land, we girls went out to eat Chick Fil A for lunch, have a Miley Cyrus shopping spree at Wal-Mart, and take a nap at the house (which would add up to only my 2nd hour of sleep so far). After we all awake it's time to get dolled up for dinner at the Marina including outside deck seating, swooping Christmas lights, and live music....which then turned into Allie joining said live music on stage where I received an AWESOME happy birthday duet! At this point my eyes were already filling up with pure watery happiness just over what a great day and amazing friends I have...thinking my day couldn't get any better.....but it did. We came home to the Buford, I walk in, the lights are off and I think Emily is just having a relaxing evening after she got off work, when I turn the corner to see candlelit cupcakes and all my friends shouting Happy Birthday!!!! There were decorations hanging from the ceiling and walls and the cupcakes were of Princess Tiana! DISNEY! Emily gave me her present which was a case of bottled cream sodas, dark chocolate, AND FRIENDS season 8!!!!! THENNNNNN as if my love tank wasn't already overflowing, they all take me out for a late night showing of "Inception" which was AMAZING.............SO GOOD.

That was where I finished out my last hour of July 20, 2010. I can't get over how great it was. Thanks to my wonderful friends who really knew me well enough to make my day so awesome :) :) :) I'm so pumped about being 23 now. This year is seriously going to be great. I just know.

June 18-27 I was on vacation with the family in Orange Beach, Alabama! I had been looking forward to it for SO long. I loved it. We were in a condo right on the beach overlooking the ocean, so each of my mornings was spent on the balcony watching the sun rise. So good. Unfortunately, the big oil spill had just started to make it's way to that beach, so about halfway through the week a storm really stirred up the water and washed a lot of oil ashore. It was so sad to see. We still had a great time though and everyone enjoyed my board game I made "Kay Family Scene It!"

Being there only reaffirmed in my mind that I want to live on a beach somewhere for at least a short season in my life. We'll see how that works out ;)

After I got back, I resumed work at Provence and Anthropologie....and it really kind of hit me just how much I wasn't enjoying my Anthro job as much as I thought I did. That, plus I've had almost no time to work on any graphic design projects, and Erin wants me to illustrate her children's book that she is writing. So, I decided it was time to go. I'll still be working at Provence and hopefully get a few more hours there, but if I'm wanting my graphic design stuff to go anywhere I need to dedicate more time to it! Which is what I'll do!

Let's see... vacation, quit my job, oh yes, I moved! Yup, Emily and I moved in with Jessica, Allie, and Kim to the Buford house which is about 5 minutes from Provence and right next to downtown Nashville! Cool huh! I currently don't have a bedroom, so my bed is in the living room, but it somehow works! We've all been really having a lot of fun this past week and I think it is going to work out great for us. Plus I just love that I actually live in a house again, I haven't done that since I lived at home!

Things are going pretty dern good. I've really been learning a lot and still have a ton to go. But this time and place I'm at right now couldn't be more perfect :)

So....an update for what's been going on!

Nashville has surprisingly started to grow on me, which is a good thing since it looks like I'm going to be here indefinitely. Indefinitely is actually a good word for me in general right now. Nothing is really for sure as far as planning my life goes. I am certain though that everything is going to come together in a much better way than I could ever design, so I'm not stressing!

Working at Provence and Anthropologie is going pretty good! or WELL, as my mother would say. I like Provence a lot (except when I show up when I'm not needed) and I'm just now starting to get the hang of thing at Anthro so yeah...I think I'm in for a good summer.

ALSO I've been able to do some freelance graphic design work for a few of my musician friends already and just got asked to do another "gig" for someone else now! I'm kind of excited about it. The stuff I've made for them has been getting good reviews so maybe my name will get passed around some!

Alrighty....I think I may go grab a bagel at Panera and then maybe do some shopping I feel like all my clothes are falling apart. ha! ok have a good day!!!