Nashville Day 3, or God and the birth of Jolie-ing

Sunday morning dawned sunny and warmer in Nashville. I went with Joni to her church for the morning. It's a beautiful, old-looking but newly made building up on a hill.

I went to the Sunday School class with Joni's friends (some of the ones I met on Friday night) while Joni taught in the three-year-olds class. The teaching in Sunday School was very solid and challenging, which I love. Church for me is about learning just as much as feeling. God is real to me on multiple levels and I love when I can learn more about Him! It was a little different in the presentation since I haven't spent much time at Presbyterian churches, but people were more than happy to answer any questions I had.

After Sunday School we all went to the sanctuary for the service. The attention to detail in the sanctuary was stunning! In a new building, you don't always expect to see such beautiful stained glass, wood carvings, etc. But it looked just like a lot of older churches I've been in.

There was a children's choir to start the service and a large adult choir later. The music was beautiful, and when a building is created with such great acoustics, you get the treat of enjoying it all the more.

I had a few questions during this service as well and enjoyed the experience very much.

After church was another great lunch at a Mexican restaurant called La Hacienda. We got more time with the Friday night group of friends. 

Joni was trying to make sure that I got to do a lot of things while visiting her, so we had thought of going to hike/walk around somewhere for the afternoon. We were both a bit tired, though, and I ended up taking a longer nap than I intended to. So, the hike didn't happen. Sometimes you have to just rest when you need it though!

We made a relatively quick stop at a going away party for one of the pastors at Joni's church that afternoon. More good food and fun times and talking.

That evening we went to another of Joni's friends' houses for an Oscar Party. I'm not sure if I've ever really been to an Oscar Party before. This wasn't a themed one or something, just a group of people watching together and eating. And it was so much fun! We enjoyed the outfits, laughed at the bits and funny moments and got to see the birth of Jolie-ing when Angelina Jolie did her crazy one-legged pose while presenting an award, and then the winner of the award copied it when he got on stage. Joni is very up on Twitter and let us know when Angie's Leg started a Twitter feed quickly after the moment. Funny stuff! I liked a lot of the interesting other presenting jokes, like Emma Stone's over the top enthusiasm and Robert Downey Jr's Tebow-ing and pretending to be filming a documentary.

I had decided to bring Joni a piece of Chicago. I know she likes Portillo's chocolate cake shakes (since they are AWESOME) and I couldn't make a cake shake last all the way to Nashville, so I just brought two pieces of the cake. On Oscar night, we bought vanilla ice cream and made homemade cake shakes for everyone to try! They weren't as good as Portillo's, of course, but close enough! It was a fun addition to the night.