Cloud Nine

If you know me, you know that I like love Jason Mraz. If you follow me on Twitter or seen me in person, then you know I've been counting down the days until his tour stopped in Charlotte. I scored front row seats thanks to a Pre Pre-Sale and I was able to take my best friend, Sairy, who had never seen him live. I was beyond excited and all Tuesday evening I was on Cloud Nine.

I knew this tour was going to be good from all the feedback I had heard from fans on twitter. I had seen pictures and videos from the same tour, Tour Is A Four Letter Word, overseas making me even more excited for the start of it in the U.S. Plus the addition of Christina Perri was just added excitement. That is one talented girl who can sing. It was bound to be a good night. Sairy and I were lucky enough to meet with her after her set. It was literally 5 seconds that we spent with her but she was very gracious and down to earth. She gained two new fans that night.

Jason Mraz does not disappoint. His voice is too amazing to disappoint. His voice sounded better than ever. He did an awesome job of putting a set list together that consisted of a good mix of old and new songs from the gabillion tunes he has to choose from. Our seats were to the left of the stage so I about peed my pants when he moved from the center of the stage to our side to sing a few songs. He was seriously less than 10 feet in front of us. I definitely blocked out the thousands of people surrounding me and pretended that he was serenading me. A girl can dream right?

Mona! This chic is awesome. 

This was during "Plane", my favorite song he played for the night. Photo by Sairy :)

Photo by Sairy :)

Speaking of dreaming...I kid you not, Mraz and I locked eyes for at least 20 seconds while he was singing "I'm Yours". I have Sairy for proof! She nudged me about halfway through because she noticed the eye contact. She said he laughed when he saw that she nudged me. Ahhh, if only I had a video for proof so you wouldn't think I was crazy!

Jason ended the night with an encore of "I Won't Give Up" and taking a bow with his touring family. I could have easily stayed all night but as we were exiting the front row, one of the camera guys gave me a guitar pick that Jason had been throwing out to the crowd throughout the show. I bet that camera guy has no idea how much it means to me.

Loving the artwork on this guitar

During Distance

If you see me within the next two weeks randomly smiling to myself, it's because I'm reliving the night of awesomeness. That's seven shows to add to my Jason Mraz list. I don't think I'll ever get tired of him. Ever.

Polka Dots and Stripes

I was never a fan of tucking in my shirt but I've found myself doing it more and more lately. My mom would be proud.

Oh, and if you can't tell from this post, I love polka dots and stripes. They complete me.

USA! USA! USA!

Sigh. The 2012 Olympics are over. We won't miss staying up until midnight to catch all of the coverage but we will miss the thrill and excitement in the air that the 2012 Games brought with it. We were glued to the t.v. whether we knew the results or not. We watched our country with great pride as they succeeded to come out on top with gold, silver and bronze medals in various sports.

Here are a few of our favorite moments from this years Games.

Jeremy's Favorite moment - It's a tie between Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings winning gold, Allyson Felix winning gold in the 200m, the team portion of gymnastics and everything Usain Bolt was involved in. I won't go into huge detail about each of these because the wife doesn't want this to be a super long blog (understandable) so just know these were my favorites.

Asha's Favorite moment - I loved the moment when South African runner, Oscar Pistorious and Kirani James of Grenada traded race bibs with each other after the semi final 400m. It was a touching story on both sides with Oscar being the first double amputee to run in an Olympic race and Kirani representing his "spice island" country with pride. Witnessing this happen during my favorite track event made the moment even more special.

Oh, and I also LOVED seeing the Spice Girls back together during the Closing Ceremony :)

(J) Surprise - I was really surprised at how exciting fencing was. It's not the best spectator sport (to actually watch in the stadium/arena) but on television with the advantage of replay, plus an audience who actually knows what's going on cheering and fencers who get SUPER excited after each point. It was riveting.

(A) Surprise - I was shocked at how intrigued I was watching the Team Rhythemtic Gymnastics event towards the end of the Games. Those teams came up with some creative moves. It was just fun to watch and let's just say I wish I was flexible and could move like that.

(J) Favorite sport to hate that was actually televised - Diving. Not only am I not a huge fan of sports that involve judges determining the outcome, but I hated watching and saying, "ah man, that was really good!" only to hear the commentators say, "oooo, that's going to be a huge deduction there..." It was LAME.

(A) Favorite sport to hate that was actually televised - Unlike Jeremy, I never got into fencing. It was just too quick for me to understand what they were doing. I lost interest quickly and went about doing my own thing.

Seeing so much Olympic coverage also made us want to go work out...get fit...do something. Watching track & field made both of us want to go run a lap around the neighborhood. We never did...but it was tempting! We even ended up doing headstands one night while watching the "fierce five." We couldn't quite make it up to a handstand... saving that for Rio!

We know that Rio will bring even more gold medals for the U.S.A. in 2016! The overwhelming pride for our country is a great feeling that we look forward to. Watching our fellow Americans compete and win takes winning to another level. NBA and NFL championships like to call themselves "world champions" even though America is pretty much the only place that competes. Not in the Olympics. Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, USA Basketball, Misty and Kerri - they're truly the best in the WORLD. (Yeah...we threw Bolt in there with other American athletes. He's basically American anyway.)

See you in 2016, Olympics. We'll miss ya!

Photo A Day July

Holy crap! We are almost halfway through August! I didn't think I would remember any of my recap stories from July but as soon as I looked at the pictures one more time, all of their stories came running back to me.

1. self portrait. It was a Sunday afternoon and Jeremy was so kind to take my picture before we left to run errands. He captured a great one!

2. busy. Jeremy was busy cooking up a scrumptious meal for dinner; shrimp tacos!!!

3. best part of your day. Jeremy and I celebrated July 4th a little early at the Whitewater Center. We took Apollo and all 3 of us enjoyed the free ice cream :)

4. fun. What isn't fun about July 4th? This year Jeremy and I both took off work early and headed to go see the The Amazing Spiderman. It was good. Really good.

5. on the floor. 20 pound weights. Obviously not mine.

6. chair. We decided to sit outside and eat dinner for our friday night out.

7. garden. We don't have a garden. Nor have we ever planted any type of flower. We happened to be going to Lowes that day to pick out paint but we ended up leaving home with gardening essentials. I have yet to paint and the flowers we bought and planted have now died. I'm afraid I don't have a green thumb.

8. lunch. Jeremy was feeling nice this day and treated me, Reuben, Shannon, and his parents to lunch at one of our favorite breakfast spots, Brigs Restaurant! He did this "just because".  I seriously have the best husband ever.

9. large. A co-worker and fellow van rider gave me this home grown tomato from one of her fellow co-workers garden. I never got around to eating that tomato. It ended up getting moldy by the time I actually wanted to use it. Hey, at least at one point I had good intentions.

10. your favorite color. YELLOW! I snapped this picture after one of our summer evening storms.

11. letter. A for ASU from our awesomely awesome t-shirt quilt made of our college T's.

12. texture. Palm tree from our time spent in Florida last June.

13. open. A diet coke from one of my now favorite restaurants in downtown Matthews, Pure Taqueria.

14. building. Reuben, my mom and I walked the streets of downtown Matthews that morning.

15. finger. Time to relax and read by the pool.

16. sign. A sign from the local Farmer's Market.

17. your addiction. I can't get enough of zucchini in the summer. I could eat it every day.

18. plate. Jeremy made those yummy shrimp tacos for dinner again. They were just as delicious the second time around.

19. pet. My fur-baby, Apollo. I love him to pieces.

20. eyes. This was after getting caught in one of those summer evening downpours. I was soaked from sprinting to my car in a matter of seconds.

21. 9 o'clock. We were at our second cookout of the day celebrating our friends move into their first home together. You can't beat an evening that involves s'mores and good friends!

22. upside down. I snapped this photo when we were at the Whitewater Center earlier in the month. Isn't he handsome?

23. mirror. A butterfly mirrors itself in it's pattern. I thought outside the box on that one.

24. a stranger. Strangers gathered to look at adorable puppies looking for a home.

25. heart. I found this gem on the sidewalk. It happens to be my favorite color.

26. sunshine. I've got sunshine on a cloudy day....

27. on the road. Taking the back roads to work.

28. cup. We had an early morning volunteering at Beds for Kids with our lifegroup at church. We rewarded ourselves with BoJangles for breakfast. It's Bo Time!

29. last thing you bought. A night out at the movies with my mom, sister and aunt. Any guesses to what we saw? ;)

30. calm. By now you know that I love the Whitewater Center. This was taken once the rapids were turned off and the water was nice and calm.

31. toothbrush. This was so odd and random to me. But hey, I would never take a picture of my toothbrush otherwise. This is why I love this little challenge.

I may have posted July late but no worries, I am still keeping up with August's photo list. So far it's one of my favorites to date!

In Loving Memory

At 92 years old, my Grandad, John R. Hall, was still walking around making jokes and bringing a smile to everyones face. He was a World War II Veteran originally from Scotland filled with countless stories to tell.  He was not only a grandfather to five but a great-grandfather to four. He was a great, great man who will be missed unconditionally.

Last Tuesday, my world got flipped upside-down once I received the news that he had passed. My family and I knew it was coming since his condition was getting weaker by the minute but it was still hard to come by that he was actually gone. His love for music, photography, dancing and family lives on through his daughters and grandchildren. He is in each and every one of us without question and that, we will never forget.

I truly appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers that have been lifted up as I try to get back into the swing of things. I know that he was welcomed to heaven with open arms and I'm sure he is happy to be reunited with my Grandma and the rest of his family. I know he'll always be looking down on his "Asha Baby". He will be missed!