Greetings to our Opp Knockers! It's been about a week since I posted any "updates" or stuff we've been doing. Mainly just because we've been busy - doing what you might ask? I can't really tell you...really. As I sit here trying to think of fun, interesting, exciting things we've been doing the past 2 weeks, I can't really go back on the calendar and say, yeah on this date we did such and such and the next day we did this.

I do have a few random, funny things that have happened in the past 2 weeks that I thought would make for a funny post...


Many of you know, we are in the process of looking/buying a house in Nashville. (Yes, the final step to make our move a little more permanent. Go ahead - start dealing with it: we're not moving back to Chattanooga any time soon...) Our hearts are truly set on Spring Hill, TN and for those of you who aren't familiar with the area, Spring Hill is about 30 minutes south of Downtown Nashville. We love this community and in fact, it's the 11th fastest growing city in the United States - mainly because the GM plant is located in this small town (it was originally built as a Saturn plant way back when, then GM took over). It's got that small town feel with all the conveniences of a bigger town (ie: Super Target!).

Anyway, last week we decided to go to Franklin, TN to look at a few houses. We originally ruled out this part of town because for our price range, we really couldn't find anything that we loved. We pretty much made ourselves go look at two houses - one was in a great neighborhood, the other was a great rental property if you know what I mean. It was an older neighborhood and for whatever reason had absolutely no street lights. We pulled in front of the house, parked on the street. Our TomTom GPS was on our window (suction cupped to the window) and I turned it off. All of our stuff was in our car, including my purse and Brent's briefcase, but I locked the doors and headed inside the very dark house.

We stayed inside for quite some time - not necessarily because we loved the house, but just because we got into a great conversation with our brilliant realtor (we HEART our realtor by the way). So we walk back outside, I hit the unlock button on my keys as we're walking through the yard. As soon as I open the door, I realize that our TomTom is gone and the CD player face is open. I kind of panicked, but then calmed down thinking that maybe it had just fallen off the window (it's done that before). I feel around in the floorboard, look over and see that my purse is still in the floor - I felt around on the floorboard on the passenger seat, and still couldn't find it. I turned on our interior lights, Brent got in the car and we both kept searching to no avail. I kept running my hands under my seat and still couldn't find it. This went on for a few minutes when we both finally determined that our TomTom had been stolen.

I had made up my mind that while I was inside, I had inadvertently unlocked the doors and because the car was on the street, someone walked by and stole our TomTom. They tried to get the CD player too because the face was open. I was a little surprised that my purse was still in the floor but I decided it was because it was so dark and the person was in such a hurry that they bypassed my purse. Our realtor was pulling away and noticed we were searching - he stopped and we told him our tragic news. He was really sad for us, but it confirmed what he had been telling us about this neighborhood.

Brent and I drive over to have dinner and of course I am beating myself up that I unlocked the car doors while I was inside the house. Brent was trying not to be mad about it, but we were both frustrated. We felt violated. I mean someone had gotten into our car and stolen our TomTom. Our precious, prized, marriage saver TomTom. BUT we were so thankful they hadn't stolen my purse - it was pretty miraculous that they bypassed my purse and just took the TomTom. We talked back and forth that this definitely confirmed that we wanted to live in Spring Hill - surely this wouldn't happen there!

So we pull into the parking lot of the restaurant and this is when Brent decides to really look for the TomTom (I'm not really sure what he had done before now) and lo and behold, our TomTom was under his seat!

Yep. It had fallen off the window, just as I had originally suspected:No one stole it. No one attempted to steal our CD player (we think when the TomTom fell, it hit the release button for the cover of the CD player). It was just lying in the floorboard in one piece.
So of course we laughed about it - it WAS pretty funny. We even had to call our realtor and make sure he didn't completely avoid the neighborhood thinking it was full of TomTom thieves. HA HA
That definitely made for a good laugh.


Our second funny story happened last night. I came home, let out Fletcher and Fiona then had to run to Target. Before I left, I decided not to put F & F back in their crate, but give them some freedom and let them roam the apartment. I put anything and everything that they might possibly destroy up out of the way (they tend to get a little mad at us when we leave them). When I came home about 1 hour later, I noticed that there was something all over our counter top - like something had once been wet and was dried on all the papers that were lying on the counter. I also noticed this really strange looking black plastic ring-like structure was on the counter top as well.

As I surveyed the counter top to try to determine what had happened, I notice Fletcher is literally creeping on the floor, hovering about 2 inches above the ground trying to sneak by Brent and I. That's when I realize that it was him.

Remember a few months ago, I had a cake on the counter while I was getting ready to leave for Chattanooga? I suddenly heard smacking noises. When I came out of the back room, Fletcher's beard was full of green cake icing as he had figured out how to crawl up the back of the couch to get the counter top.
Well, for some reason I NEVER in a million years thought he'd go so far as to WALK on that counter top. For what we could figure out, here's what he did:
He crawled up the back of the couch, got on the counter top, walked to the fruit bowl - devoured a pear AND an apple. Then somehow, he walked into the kitchen sink. This is when his paw got stuck on the plastic drainer for the garbage disposal. It's stuck on his paw, he walks back over the counter top, somehow figures out how to get the strainer off his foot and jumps back down off the counter.

Most importantly let me point out: Fletcher ate a PEAR AND AN APPLE! Seriously? What dog eats fruit?
Who says dogs are easier than children?

Anyway, those are our funny happenings in the past week or so. Sorry for the lengthy, picture less post, but I thought they were both funny enough to share - anyone else have funny pet stories or stories about thinking something was stolen when it really wasn't?

Whether you voted for him or not.
Whether you're excited or angry.
Whether you agree with his ideas on politics and the economy or not.
We have to stop and realize that today is a monumental piece of American history as Barack Obama is sworn in on the steps of the Capitol Building as the first African American President to the United States of America.
How fitting that this day comes just one day after we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and I hope you stop today and read over just a few of the amazing words from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Even in the 1960's before our nation had evolved, he hit the nail on the head with so many of his statements - many of which are applicable even today in the 21st century:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." - MLK, Jr. Strength to Love, 1963

Maybe one day race will not be an issue when it comes to electing a president. Maybe one day we can disregard the color of a man's skin to look at his credentials to find him qualified to lead our country. And maybe one day we can each lift up this man, praying for him to lead our country with wisdom and intelligence as we continue to face difficult times.
Maybe today will be that day...

I got a phone call from Brent on Monday that went like this...
Brent: "I'm going to say an artist's name, you tell me your honest feelings about this artist: Celine Dion."
Becca: "eh. 50/50 - take her or leave her."
Brent: "What if I said we had free tickets to her concert?"
Becca: "SURE!"
So Tuesday night we headed to the Sommet center downtown with a PACKED crowd to see Celine Dion in concert. I really wasn't sure what to expect - Brent and I had been trying to think of all the songs we knew from the 90's and even some current hits. Of course there is THE song of the past century from Titanic (no one knows the actual song's title, just that it was from Titanic), the Beauty and the Beast song, and other great hits.
However, while I like to claim that I am a diverse music listener, I'm really not. The scope of my music listening includes a little Way FM and Sunny 92.3 (Chattanooga station) but Nashville's version is 92.9. Same type of music, only Nashville has ...."DELLLLIIILAHHHHH." (please tell me you sang the tune of her name as you read it)
Anyway, so I realized about half way through the concert that thanks to my not so diverse music listening, I actually did know quite a few Celine hits and I have to say it was probably one of the best concerts that I've attended in quite some time. Probably because I knew just about every single song she sang except for her new stuff. I even remember owning one of her Cd's back in the day - the one with the white cover, she's in all white...can't remember the songs or the CD title, but I'm sure some of you Opp Knockers remember, even though many won't admit it.
And that takes me to my next point: denial of Celine. How many of us would never admit to knowing a Celine song? I know I didn't really tell that many people we were going to the concert. I'm not sure why - just the few people I did tell laughed at me. Brent's boss was asked if he wanted these tickets and his response was, "GOD NO!"
Why is that?
Case in point: we shared our awesome table at the concert with another couple. They were probably in their late 40's. Brent asked if they were huge fans and the husband said they would be leaving within 20 minutes of the concert to make it to their bedtime. Ironically, as Celine began her fourth ballad, this gentleman got excited over every single song, knowing every single word. I gave him a hard time about it of course and told him he was in denial of being the president of the Celine fan club. He told me he had a Delilah bumper sticker. It was great.
And while at one point Brent commented, "Your sister would enjoy this so much more than me," we both truly did have a great time. Even if you aren't an avid fan, Celine put on a phenomenal concert complete with numerous outfit changes, incredibly talented dancers, and amazing back up singers. They even did this really neat video with Anthony Bucceli who sang the duet "Prayer" where it appeared as if he was on the screen with her as they sang the song together. It was impressive.
So here are a few photos - we had the same seats we had for the Predators game a few weeks ago, only this time we got one of those table tops I mentioned. We were literally right on the rail overlooking the massive crowds. We also got to partake in some free yummy food for dinner and all you could drink beer, wine, Pepsi, etc.
I also have a few videos (my new favorite thing to do on blog posts if you can't tell...)
And while I'm sitting here All By Myself working in A Man's World I'll be sure to tell that My Heart Will Go On through the Prayer.

One of NUMEROUS costume/outfit changes and her bizarre dancers in the background.

She has VERY odd facial expressions while she sings. It's very distracting, just a heads up if you're on your way to buy tickets to the next concert based on my post.

Belting out the words. Brent thought it was hilarious that I knew all the words. Thanks Sunny 92.3!

Brent and I have been DYING to have our first celebrity sighting here in Nashville, TN. We live in a great city with a plethora of celebrities who call Nashville home. I have a co-worker who was standing in line at American Eagle at the mall and heard this little country voice in front of him only to realize it was Reece Witherspoon! This same coworker has seen other celebrities such as Kelly Pickler out and about. We've even had mall employees tell us they see Faith Hill, Antonio Banderes, and other big name celebrities All. The. Time. But no, the Whitaker have not seen one single celebrity since moving here 8 months ago.

That is, until this past week.

So we're eating sushi with our friends Austin and Anne at a little restaurant in Brentwood called Peter's. You may recall I've mentioned this locale a few times before - with the Moncriefs and A & A. Austin has this brilliant idea to go to this winery called Arrington Farms in Nashville this upcoming Friday. The unique part of this winery is that it is owned by Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn AND he was going to be at the Winery on Friday signing bottles, making an appearance. So we're discussing this awesome adventure we're about to embark on in just a few short days, when in walks Kix Brooks himself into Peter's! We were floored. First, you have to understand that Peter's is awesome, but it's tiny. It's a hole in the wall establishment, but it is always packed. It was around 9:15 at night when Kix made his appearance and it seemed as if we were the only ones who even noticed it was him. If you know Brent, you know that he is extremely star struck. He's been known to go to great lengths to potentially get an autograph or even a stick that maybe, possibly a celebrity stepped on. Thankfully, Brittany wasn't around or the two of them would have embarrassed the heck out of us. Much to our dismay, we didn't get a picture, but we played it cool knowing we would see him again in just a few short days.

So Friday rolls around and we head to Arrington Farms with Austin and Anne. First, let me say it was absolutely beautiful! The winery is located off 840 in Nashville which is a rather rural part of town. We made our way to the property, settled in for a little wine tasting, purchased a few bottles of our favorite wine, then laid out our spread of yummy cheeses from Whole Foods and had a little picnic on the porch. We had some fun with our neighbors, "stealing" their smoked salmon and cutting up with them. Then we ventured downstairs to have our wine bottles signed by Kix himself. With less than 100 people in attendance at the winery, we had a rather intimate setting with Kix, allowing us time to have a great conversation and even confirmed our sighting of him at Peter's earlier that week. His response, "yeah that was probably me, I eat there about 4 times a week."

The entrance was beautiful. This was a gigantic barrel with the Arrington logo.

Here we are with the man himself. He was super nice and willing to take photos and chat with us the entire time.

This is upstairs in the tasting room with the walls of wine.

He signed 2 of our bottles. The first says, "To Brent and Becca. Scoot Em." Because we both told him how much we loved his music. We're thinking it's a reference to "boot scoot..."

The second bottle, Brent asked him what his all time favorite song was and he told him Red Dirt Road. So our second bottle says to Brent - Red Dirt Road.

Overall it was a fantastic experience - one I would highly recommend to anyone visiting Nashville looking for something unique to experience.

This past Sunday we visited a new church in Brentwood that we actually both really enjoyed. It's the first church we've visited that we both came out of enjoying and actually not finding even one negative thing about it. It was a breath of fresh air to the variety of other churches we've visited so far.

As we were walking out of the service, Brent tells me (actually somewhat calmly), "Becca - there's Dave Ramsey!" I look up and literally we are an arms length away from him as we walked by he and Sharon (his wife) who were leaning against the wall by the door. We couldn't believe it! And my theory that Brent would be wordless when/if he ever saw/met Dave was correct. Brent literally could not speak. It was really funny, plus I think we were both in such shock that we even saw him, I'm not sure either of us would have known what to have said to him. If you've been an Opp Knocker for any amount of time, you understand the magnitude of this sighting. Dave's teachings really have changed our lives. Seriously. As cultish as that might sound, Brent and I both have such a high regard for him that it left us speechless. No, I don't have pictures to prove this sighting, but believe me - we saw him. It was him without a shadow of a doubt.

And I promise, our liking of the church had absolutely nothing to do with seeing a man that both of us have such high regard for....PROMISE!

So this upcoming week holds much excitement as we venture out into Nashville and hope to spot some more celebrities. Who knew we'd see TWO in one week?!

And the winners are...



1. Best Opportunity - Brent's Stand Up Comedy
Moving to Nashville opened up a great opportunity that Brent had been wanting to accomplish. Little did he know that first night we went to Spanky's and he performed as a "first timer" on open mic night, that he would be continuing this adventure. He meets weekly with a great group of other comedians for writing sessions and regularly attends events at Zanies - a local comedy club much like the Comedy Catch in Chattanooga with big name performers visiting frequently. I'm sure 2009 will hold many more opportunities as his comedy continues to develop!


2. Funniest Picture - Brent Wants to Be a Dog
Everyone who knows Brent knows that he loves our dogs, Fletcher and Fiona. One night we were trying to get them to go into their crate and they wouldn't go so Brent decided to see how bad it really was to be in their crate. Funny enough, if you've never had the pleasure of meeting our dogs, they aren't that big. Fiona weighs 16 pounds and Fletcher just 22 pounds. We have a fairly large crate for them, but never did we imagine Brent would be able to get in and close the door. The funniest part of this picture, I think, though is how Fletcher is posing outside of the crate.


3. Best Event - Moving to Nashville
2008 was marked by a HUGE life event for the Whitaker's when we moved to Nashville. We had been trying to prepare our close friends and family that the day would come when we would very likely move away from Chattanooga. Something inside of both of us knew we were meant to be somewhere else, if even for just a short time. Nashville had been on our hearts and minds for over 1 1/2 years before everything worked out for us to move. While we were vacationing in Napa Valley, Brent received the official offer to move to Nashville. Within just 2 short weeks, he had officially moved while I was wrapping things up at the credit union. Now, 9 months later, we have fully embraced a new city with all that it has to offer. We have had some pretty amazing and unique experiences here in Nashville which has been so much fun to highlight through this blog. We have met some great friends, participated in awesome experience, and enjoyed our new city.
As we embark on a new year in 2009, Brent and I are both ecstatic to experience all that God has in store for us. We can only imagine how many more opportunities will arise and what changes are around the corner for us.

Thank you all for supporting us as we opened a new chapter in our lives and continue on our adventures!
We hope you look forward to our crazy antics, adventures and life as we start 2009.

And thanks to everyone who voted for the superlatives!

now...back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Today is the last day of Superlatives. As Opp Knockers, you are fully aware that Brent and I both embarked on quite a few different opportunities. Obviously the biggest was moving to Nashville, praying for open doors and opportunities.
Today's Superlative is Best Opportunity/New Venture. Brent and I had our fair share of opportunities - what was YOUR favorite or the best in 2008?

1. Brent's Stand Up Comedy at Zanie's

2. Becca's new job within 2 weeks of moving to Nashville

3. Brent working at Opryland during Christmas

4. Becca's Cake Classes/small business opportunity

Be sure to vote using the poll on the right!

Ok today is Day 2 of Superlatives for "Opp Knockers." Today's category is Best Event.

Just with the funniest picture, be sure to use the poll on the right to vote for your favorite. Polls will close January 5th (or whenever we get a decent amount of votes...)

Best Events:
1. Predators vs Avalanche NHL Game

2. Brent's Stand-Up comedy at Zanie's

3. Becca's Foot Surgery

4. Jimmy's Ironman and Awesome Trip to Chicago

5. Titans Game

6. Hootie and the Blowfish Concert

7. Casey and Brad's Wedding

8. Our First Snow in Nashville

9. Poets and Pirates Concert at LP Field

10. Moving to Nashville