The Amateur Wife

One and One and One and One is Four

2011-02-13T16:08:00.000-08:00

Everyone, meet Hamilton Culpepper

You can call him Hammie (or Ham) for short.

His family was going through a divorce, and somehow he ended up on my brother's back porch in need of a home, so Brandon and Jen brought him to us last weekend. We had been planning to adopt another pup in the next couple months or so anyway, because Sawyer does so much better when he has a playmate. (As in, he sleeps in the evenings instead of biting my slippers, etc.) Hammie is six months old and almost full-grown (and he only weighs 18 pounds, as opposed to Sawyer's 55 pounds). Andrew took him to the vet last week and he got all of his shots, was de-wormed and basically had the works done.

So far Hammie has been ...

Learning to walk on the leash (he was previously an outside Beagle)

Getting used to the sights and sounds of the big (to him) city

Playing in the snow

Remember when I told you big snows were rare around here? Apparently, they're not.

Playing with his new big brother

And, of course, figuring out the biggest flaw of our house: that the stairs run by the counter. Last Sunday night we found Hammie in the sink—he had walked across the (cold) stove, through some pans (he had olive oil on his little paws) and over to the sink. We promptly put the baby gate up, but he jumped over it.

Sawyer is a proud, slightly confused, big brother. He seems to be adjusting well, so let's hope that continues.

If only they would do this (sleep) more often.

Hammie, meet the blog world!

King Cake, home brew and burlesque, oh my!

2011-02-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

This weekend we had house guests for the first time in a while. There were a few months after the wedding when the Winchester Suite (our extra bedroom) was booked almost every weekend, but it tapered off around Halloween/the holidays, so we were excited to get to show my brother, his fiance Jen, and their pups around our town Friday night and Saturday.

My brother Brandon brews beer (hah, say that three times fast... well, it's actually not very hard) so he brought us a lot of his home brew: a pale ale, a Belgian 8 and a Belgian double. (I have no idea what those terms mean but Andrew says the difference between the Belgians is about four percent alcohol.)

We started off the evening with a tasting of all three, and then headed out to get sushi. The restaurant was packed, and dinner took forever, but it was fun to sip drinks and catch up. The giant platter of sushi was delicious as well.

Brandon and Jen also brought us something else, but that if for another post later this week!

Saturday morning I got up and finished the King Cake I baked for Brandon's birthday. The cake itself looks strange because I put too much food coloring in the sugar and it clumped up, but it tasted really good, I swear! I'll do a post on the king cake later this week so you can do what I recommend, not what I did, should anyone out there choose to make their own cake for Mardi Gras.

Izze Bell, Jen's Boston Terrier, judged me for messing up the King Cake sugar.

We went for a jog with Izze and Sawyer that morning, and then went out for breakfast and Bloody Marys, but I forgot my camera. We hung out around the house and town the rest of the day, and then went to a burlesque show Saturday night which was a first for all of us, I think. It was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend, and I would definitely go to another. (I didn't take pics for obvious reasons!)

Sunday morning Jen, Brandon and the dogs had to leave semi-early to make it back for the Superbowl. Nurse A and I spent the rest of the day relaxing, dog walking and eating chicken wings and fries (even though we didn't watch the game). I hope everyone had a great weekend as well! I leave you with this photo of Izze, reflecting on her visit to Mississippi:

The Beginnings of a Grouping

2011-02-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

I've had a wall grouping in the works since Trish @ This Life of Ours posted inspiration pics for her impressive arrangement back in October. I loved all of the inspiration photos she posted (including Trish's), but one in particular spoke to me. Behold:

Our couch is the same shape ( a little longer, actually) and I have an adorable chalkboard left over from the wedding that I am obsessed with and mention often in posts. We also had nothing on that particular wall of the couch, which was bothering me. Having no money, I started shopping around the house and came up with not only a variety of cute options, but lots of items in the same color scheme. Obviously, it was meant to be. I'm a big fan of shopping around the house.

Andrew and I hung a few things almost immediately after I showed him the inspiration photo, but our little grouping has been half done for some time now. Then, back in November, I won Trish's giveaway (her first to host and my first to win!) and got to pick out a cute alphabet print from fontsupply, an Etsy shop run by designer/artist Arian.

Being Queen of Taking Forever to Do Things (unless you give me a deadline, which I am programmed to meet), I took about a month or more to choose my print. (I was in a battle between gifting the print and keeping it for myself ... conveniently for me, I waited to order it until after the holidays.) Plus, there were six pages of options, all of them cute. Don't believe me? Check out Arian's shop.

Trish chose this print for her grouping, which I love:


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Observe it in all its grouping glory (at the bottom left):


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I ended up ordering this one, and it arrived on my doorstep in early January:

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I loved it not only because the bluish-green border matches the outer edges of the chalkboard, but also because the oval behind the "A" is newsprint, and Nurse A and I both have backgrounds in newspaper. I was trying to find a print that he would enjoy as much as I did. (Andrew, by the way, loves it and even chose the frame!)

So now that I've taken up this much of your time, I bet you're expecting me to show you my wonderful wall grouping, right? Not yet! It's a work in progress, so I'm going to wait to unveil it. It also does not help that Andrew has hijacked my grouping (he has hung it in a triangle formation) and we don't exactly see eye-to-eye, design-wise. I will, however, show you a few of the things we want to include in our arrangement. Four items (the print, of course, included) have officially made the grouping cut. (All the decor in my house is sweating right now, y'all.)

1. The print

2. The chalkboard

3. Framed wedding invite

Number four is a framed engagement picture, but I haven't completely chosen the photo yet. Right now it's this one, because that was the photo already in the frame, and the bluish color scheme continues in our shirts.

If we use one of the photos in the red telephone booth, we can incorporate some more red into the grouping, namely our Coca-Cola sign.

I'm not gonna lie, I kind of love awkward prom pose.

Currently, we have a naked girl sketch by my brother hanging in the grouping, but I ultimately like her in the bedroom best so I'm looking for something to replace her. You can't tell in the picture, but she fits the color scheme too (bluish gray).

Our next step is to incorporate some shelves, like this simple one from Target.

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That way, I could arrange fresh flowers, framed photos, ceramic items, some of the milk bottles from the wedding and random things like these BodyShop oils on the shelves, which for some reason I think are really cute.

Green tea, Cotton Flower and Clear Water oils.

I'll keep you updated as the grouping comes along! And thanks to Trish and Arian for the lovely ideas and the lovely print!

Happy Sunday,

The Best Chicken Salad Ever

2011-01-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

Deliciousness.

I never really liked chicken salad until my friend Lexi made a similar version of this recipe one summer for lunch, and then I was hooked. I combined her recipe with my love of Greek yogurt and my irrational dislike of celery (the dislike is a new thing--it ebbs and flows) and came up with this slightly altered recipe. I served it at my sister's bachelorette party a year or so ago, and it was a huge hit. I'm telling you, this stuff is good. And it's really easy to make.

You need:

1 rotisserie chicken, skin removed, shredded (about 3 cups ... I don't use the whole chicken because we like to make sandwiches and things with the leftovers)

3 Tbsp. non-fat, plain Greek yogurt (I suggest Fage or Dannon, because some brands can be too regular creamy and Kroger brand even tastes sweet, which is odd.)

2 Tbsp. light mayonnaise

1 1/2 cup sliced green grapes

½ cup shaved or crushed almonds

3/4 cup Craisins

Combine shredded chicken, grapes, almonds and Craisins in a large bowl and mix well. Toss with Greek yogurt and mayonnaise (enough to cover but not saturate). Refrigerate for at least an hour. (It's best if refrigerated overnight.) Feel free to increase or decrease amount of grapes, almonds and Craisins depending on personal tastes. And I'm not gonna lie, the last time I made this I put in three tablespoons of mayo and only two of Greek yogurt. Basically, do everything to taste. Serve with whole wheat Ritz crackers, on a sandwich or over lettuce.

Winter Lovin'

2011-01-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

It's the end of January, almost February. The time of year when my thoughts turn to the candy colored nail polish of spring, azaleas, pastel Easter eggs, and, most of all, warmth. What would it be like to go running at the park in shorts and a tank top, with people lounging on blankets near the lake?

Since I can't change the weather, now is the time to appreciate the things I love about winter. What's on the top of my list?

Snow, of course! I love snow, no matter how meager the flurries. We were supposed to get our third (light) snowfall last night, but all seems clear today.

Uggs. I didn't really get the trend until I put my foot into the fluffy, furry, warmth of an Ugg boot. I will certainly miss them when flip-flop weather rolls around.

I definitely see a splurge for these chocolate brown Uggs in my future ... Image via

Slippers and bright socks. I like warm feet, ok?

Target has the best socks, hands down.

Nurse A in a scarf. He got a new one in Highlands and I love it! For some reason I don't have a great picture of it, but at least you can see it here. It's all red and plaid.

Warm blankets. Being able to sleep under tons of blankets comfortably is one thing I definitely miss during spring and summer. Blankets are just so comfortable, as evidenced by Sawyer.

He loves our new pillows!

And, of course, Valentine's Day! Our six month wedding anniversary falls on Valentine's Day, and I'm looking forward to it. Not sure what we're going to do, but it will certainly involve flowers!

Last year's set-up

Oh, I almost forgot King Cake! Growing up we always got Mardi Gras holidays off of school (my town is sandwiched between New Orleans and Mobile, so Mardi Gras is a pretty big deal there) but North Mississippi doesn't really have any celebrations. Still, I'm excited about attempting to bake King Cake for the first time. I'll let you know how it goes!

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5 things I've learned

2011-01-25T13:07:00.000-08:00

While being unemployed.

(ahem, excuse me: self-employed)

I wish my workspace looked like this! If only typewriters had Gmail chat. Image via

Hey, does anyone remember many months ago when I started my "5 Things I've Learned" series? The series that I only posted to twice, so it was in no way a series? Yeah, I forgot about it too. I liked it, so I'm bringing it back, with a topic I've been thinking about a lot lately for obvious reasons.

I've officially been out of a traditional nine-to-five job for three months, and while nothing would make me happier than a phone call offering me a position I've applied and interviewed for (except maybe a surprise pug puppy!), I feel it's important to focus on positive things. And oddly enough, many positive things have resulted from leaving my job without any other prospects in an uncertain economy, as crazy as that might sound.

1. I have control. Resigning from a job without another one is scary stuff. I learned that I can take control of my life and make big decisions like this. I value the skills I gained and relationships I made at my previous (and first "grown up") job immensely, and I know these will benefit me professionally for the rest of my life. But it was time to go. It's a powerful feeling, to realize you can make choices and take control of your future like that.

Homemade ravioli!

2. I have hobbies! For months, the question, "What do you do besides write?" really bothered me, because I didn't really do anything. I always answered meekly that I write fiction for fun (which is true, but I don't do this that often) and that I like to read. They were weak answers, anyway, since reading and writing go hand-in-hand. When I left my job, everything changed. Nurse A and I couldn't afford to eat out every meal of every day, so we started cooking from the Williams-Sonoma Bride and Groom Cookbook, and we realized that one of the best part of our day was coming home and spending time in the kitchen together while Sawyer managed to steal butter and get flour all over his nose.

We also incorporated jogging into our daily routine (to counteract the cooking hobby and because it's free), and have a goal this year to run a 10k (a goal I didn't accomplish last year) as well as a 10-miler. I can't believe we didn't realize how great cooking and running were before! No wonder all you crazy kids do it. And I don't know how we managed Sawyer before we forced him to run at least 10 miles a week.

3. I have a great support network of friends, family and, of course, Andrew. My family supports and encourages me. My lovely friends send me freelancing opportunities my way when they can, encouraging e-mails and kind words and I really appreciate those things. My in-laws have also been great as well. I'm thankful that everyone has been so supportive and non-judgemental.

4. I take pride in my work. I had felt for awhile that I was emphasizing quantity, not quality of work. I missed the thrill of reading one of my articles and being proud of it. I'm lucky that journalism is a field in which you can always practice. I've taken on lots of freelancing clients and I've begun producing work that I'm proud to send to my editor. It's a really good feeling.

5. We're ok. It's been three months. My little family hasn't starved, we haven't lost our house. In fact, I've traveled to New Orleans, the Mississippi Coast, Mobile,North Carolina and Charleston, South Carolina in those three months. Sawyer needs shots in February, and Sawyer will get his shots. We have a warm house, Netflix, great friends and family (even though they're all spread out across the country!), books, wine, a Labrahound, blackberry Izze, etc. I have steady work (if not always steady paycheck) and my client load is growing all the time. Turns out we don't need much to be happy.

Also on a random note, I've learned that I really like coffee shops, taking walks and watching weather reports. What about you? Has anyone else out there made a big decision recently that taught you a lot about yourself?

Baby Shower Inspiration

2011-01-24T17:24:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, there's no baby shower for me anytime in the near future--the shower I'm referring to is for my sister! She's due in late July. My mom and I want to host a shower at my mom's house on the Coast in mid-to-late spring, and I've already started looking for inspiration because now that wedding and bachelorette party planning are over, there is a party planning void in my life. And with my mom taking care of the food and things, I can be in charge of all the cute decorations. Instead of bookmarking my ideas, I'll blog them.

First, I was thinking we could reuse some of the items left over from my wedding, like these Martha Stewart eyelet paper lanterns.

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I was cleaning out our storage space (aka, a giant hole in the wall in the back of my closet) this weekend, and we still have all six in great condition. If we find out the baby is a boy I would love to reuse the blue chalkboard we wrote the menu on for the wedding, but we'll just have to wait and see! (Speaking of reusing party decorations, I just looked at a leftover bag of peni confetti for our Charleston bachelorette bash and tainted my sweet baby shower mind, so I shall taint yours too. But I digress.)

Second, the shower must have favor bags that are related to these, made by Kelsey at Minted Life. They're just little blue bags, stickers, tiny clothes pins and a thank-you stamp.

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Her inspiration came from these cute favor bags, so it's obvious they can be easily personalized. They seem easy enough for me to make too, which is a huge plus.

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The other baby shower idea my mom and I both love is asking guests to bring a favorite childhood book in lieu of a card, and write a note on the inside. That way the baby gets a nice little library full of sweet notes and is sure to grow up to be a genius. I would bring Wynken, Blynken and Nod or Goodnight Moon, off the top of my head. I also remember liking Pinky in Persia but it was really creepy.

Nurse A says his favorite children's book was about a boy who invented a bubble machine, but Google can't seem to do much with that. Do you have any idea what it is? What book would you bring? And have you been to any awesome baby showers lately?

Bachelorettin' in Charleston

2011-01-19T16:27:00.000-08:00

I've missed you, blog world! I've been driving all over the South (four states, to be exact) on a whirlwind trip to Charleston for my friend's bachelorette party, and I finally got back Monday afternoon. Exhausting, but so much fun. It was my first time in Charleston so it was fun to explore a new city, hang out with my favorite friends and go out dancing. But let's rewind about 1,300 + miles.

Wednesday afternoon my friend Rachel and I packed up the car (full of suitcases, snacks, a penis pinata—the usual) and drove four hours to Nashville, where we spent the night with bachelorette Lexi, her fiance Jamie and their fur babies, George (also known as the Great White Fluff) and Jennifer (Princess Shark). We woke up early Thursday morning to snow flurries and worried phone calls from moms, but the snow pretty much stopped falling by the time we left Nashville, and we had good travel weather and road conditions for the whole drive. The whole 10 hour drive. We seemed to be stuck in the Bermuda Triangle on the trip to Charleston—the GPS told us we had four hours left, and then two hours later we still had four hours left, or at least that's how it seemed. We also stopped a lot and went through a tiny mountain town with tiny mountain roads that I had to navigate very slowly. But we finally made it to our pink rental house in Folly Beach (about 15 minutes from downtown Charleston) just in time to unpack, reunite with our friend Stephanie who made it three hours sooner than us, and get back in the car, half of us going to the grocery store and the other half heading to the airport to pick up our fifth, Willow. I was very happy to find that our house was nice, clean and had sheets (it didn't have towels, but I brought some and had secretly been afraid it wouldn't have sheets) because I booked it over the Internet. (I highly recommend HomeAway Vacation Rentals, btw.)

Our house in Folly Beach.

Living room.

Sitting room area that opened out onto a big screened-in porch.

Outdoor area. It was too cold to go out there.

One of the three bedrooms. There was also a loft.

On the first day we walked to the beach, explored a little bit of Folly Beach (lots of it was closed for the off-season) and then drove into Charleston for delicious sushi and shopping on King Street.

There were fried oysters in that sushi!

A sake toast to Lexi, Jamie and puppies!

Rachel and Willow on King Street.

That night we played some card games in the house and walked to downtown Folly Beach for dinner at the Crab Shack. Rachel's steamed shrimp knocked my socks off. I think it's the best shrimp I've ever had, but maybe that's because I don't live on the coast anymore. I got oysters, of course. They were better than the ones we had in Savannah, but not very flavorful.Willow scored big with her oysters and found what we believe to be a little pearl.

My pearl-less oysters.

On day two we headed toward the market area in Charleston and had lunch and Bloody Marys at a rooftop bar there. I'm not sure what it was called, but the fried green tomato wraps with goat cheese were so good. Please ignore what appears to be my massive tangle of hair. Willow looks cute, though!

Stephanie with the bride-to-be

We walked around the market a bit to pass the time before our carriage tour of the city, and sampled Hyman's hushpuppies that some waitresses were handing out on the street. My kind of city, for sure.

Street puppies.

Carriage ride mule.

Rachel and Willow on the Charleston tour.

This girl was really good and had cool hair.

After the tour we stopped in a few more stores and then headed back to the house to get ready for that night. In the picture below, Willow is trying to bump up Lexi's hair. It didn't end up working because you can see the Hollywood Bump It through thin hair, but it looked really good on Willow. For some reason I don' t have a picture of it. Based on my scientific research, the Hollywood Bump It looks good on one out of four people, myself not being one of them.

Before the taxi came we did a small lingerie shower with lots of joke gifts like silver underwear, edible body paint pens and the like.

We went out for dinner at Coast and then walked a little ways to Trio, where we stayed all night dancing. There were two rival bachelorette parties there, but they were lame,as they did not have a pink wenis sticking out of their purses.

The next morning we got up, cleaned the house and hit the road! Where's your favorite place to road trip it? Have you ever been to Charleston?

OMG Snow!

2011-01-10T08:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Nurse A and I got up early to run some errands all over North Mississippi. We had to pick up my car in a town a couple hours away. (I left it at a friend's house when I rode down with her for Christmas.) Then we stopped at the mall on the way back (fun fact: Oxford doesn't have a mall) for some party supplies for an upcoming bachelorette bash, and lingerie for said bachelorette's shower. We were in a rush to get home before 2 p.m. when the snow that was predicted for our area was rumored to begin falling and we made it home pretty much on the dot. The snowfall didn't start right at 2 p.m., but fall it did. All night long.

This morning we woke up to an estimated eight-to-10 inches of snow--right in our front yard! I've never seen anything like it in Mississippi. Normally we have to travel to, say, Highlands to see this kind of snowfall.

We took a walk and watched bulldozers try to clear the roads. It didn't seem to be working very well.

Sawyer felt very sophisticated because he had already experienced snow, unlike many Mississippi pups.

For reference, this is the "snow" we usually get in North Mississippi. At home on the coast, even this little dusting only happens once every few years and lasts for a couple hours.

So after a failed sledding attempt and a cup of coffee, I've got some work to do before playing in the snow again. Gloves would be nice. Happy Monday, everyone! Stay warm!

Top 10 of 2010

2011-01-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I've loved reading everyone's 2010 recaps and have finally written one of my own. The past 12 months have been some of the most challenging-yet-happy that I can remember. Nurse A and I made some hard decisions both professionally and personally, discovered some new hobbies, experienced true loss together and experienced true happiness. Quite a roller coaster, I'd say. But without further ado, here are my top 10 moments from 2010 in no particular order (except the first one!)

Getting married, of course! Need I say more?

August 14, 2010

Honeymoonin' in Savannah, Georgia - These were seriously some of the best days ever. Just my new husband, me, oysters, daiquiris and lots of ghosts. If you get a chance definitely go to Savannah and eat at the Planter's Tavern under the Old Pink House.

Sweaty Savannah night complete with smudged camera lens.

Introducing Sawyer

At the end of June we welcomed a slightly orange member into our little family: Sawyer!

Sawyer, almost eight months old, Christmas 2010

Cooking up a storm

My resignation from my Memphis job in October led to Nurse A and I eating in a lot. And guess what? We realized we're pretty good at cooking for the most part. We love the Williams-Sonoma Bride and Groom Cookbook, and can't wait to continue our cooking adventures in 2011. We have some big goals that I'll share on this blog later!

Adventures in breadmaking

Wedding festivities

Despite some stressful moments, I loved all of the excitement that surrounded our wedding. We had our first shower in the spring, followed by another in Gulf Shores with my family and a lingerie shower and NOLA bachelorette party in July. We also did a mini spa day the morning of the rehearsal, a bridal luncheon and of course our wonderful rehearsal dinner, all of which were great fun.

Showers, lingerie and NOLA, oh my!

Family vacation!

This year, for the first time since 2005, I was finally able to go on our family's annual beach vacation! In past years I've had to work or intern during the week-long trip. Even though there was oil on the beach we still had two lovely pools and a bay, so all was good. My sister Ash hosted a family shower for us, and in the middle of the week Nurse A and I road tripped to St. George Island, Florida for Nikki (the Fashionable Wife) and Charlie's beach wedding!

Luckily, there was no oil on this beach

Hit the ground running

We started running seriously at the end of 2010. Before the week-long fest of food and lounging in NC that ends Sunday morning, I was up to four miles, a is a huge accomplishment for me. (Andrew has run 6.2 before.) I can't wait to do a couple 10ks and start half-marathon training in the new year!

I know you've seen it before, but this is the only race picture I have of us because it's the only one I've ever done. Hopefully 2010 will bring new runs.

Simple fun

Moving back in together in May was a shining moment in our year. After the wedding we enjoyed a lot of simple things, like having some of our best friends stay with us in the extra room, planting a garden that deer later ate, walking Sawyer around our lovely neighborhood and picking pears from our tree!

Garden sprouts!

Endings and new beginnings

Andrew finished his master's degree this year, and I left my job after nearly a year and a half, which alternates between being challenging and rewarding. It was a much-needed move, however, and I'm hoping 2011 will be evidence of this.

Master A

The new year will definitely hold some big changes for us. I'm hoping for a job and maybe another puppy or two! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Happy 2011

Holiday Greetings

2010-12-27T13:38:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays from Highlands, North Carolina!

After a great week at home with my family, Nurse A and I packed up the pupster and all our homemade gifts (we got an adorable ornament, cookies and home-brewed winter lager from my brother and his fiance; venison from my sister and her husband; fish from my grandpa; and tons of the pottery my stepfather makes) and drove to his family's lakehouse in Alabama Christmas night. We finally arrived in Highlands yesterday, after a treacherous (to me) drive up the mountain. It snowed all night last night and is beautiful today!

Sawyer loves snow and can't be bothered with posing.

We have a warm house

and beer

Really, what else could you need? Wishing you all warm and safe holidays! Better holiday recap to come.

P.S.--A certain labrahound got caught in a (sticky) mousetrap his first night in the Highlands house, definitely one of my top five favorite Sawyer moments so far. The sticky stuff came off his paw easily with hand soap, though.

The Dogs of Christmas

2010-12-19T09:07:00.000-08:00

It's officially Christmastime! With less than a week left, I've packed up and headed home to the coast, hence the blogging hiatus. So far we've eaten some delicious food (think French toast, homemade chicken tortilla soup and curried chicken), braved the crowds for some last minute Christmas shopping (even though I'm just giving free Shutterfly cards this year because of my lack of funds) and had a beer or two with my cousins and aunt downtown. We've also had lots of sweets and a couple morning runs, one on which we saw a girl in a pink coat standing in the woods--quite creepy. Fun times though. Oh, and we also have five dogs packed into our house. Chaotic? Yes. Extremely entertaining? Hellz yes. (Except when Sawyer gets up at 7 a.m. and wakes all the other dogs.) I don't have my card reader with me right now, but here are a few photos I have on hand of our the four-legged members of our family. Please keep in mind that I am sharing a twin bed with three of them.

It's baby Sawyer's first time visiting his grandmother. So far he has enjoyed chicken broth and the sauteed ground beef on his food, courtesy of my madre.

Izzy, my brother's fiance's adorable Boston terrier. Sawyer and Izzy are bff.

My brothr's dog Rosco Bosco the gentle giant.

Joli, the Fun Police. If anyone has a toy, she takes it and rips it up. If anyone is playing, she jumps in and tries to start a fight. We just pick her up because she's a small-yet-rotund rat terrier. She was a birthday gift to me when I was 17, but I think it's safe to say she is my mom's dog now even though she always sleeps with me and we love each other.

Coco (on the left) with Joli. I don't have a picture of just Coco because she's so sweet and always behaving and I apparently just photograph bad dogs. Also, no one in our family is quite sure if she spells her name Coco or Cocoa. Because it's her choice, obviously. Coco is Joli's bff even though Joli is kind of mean to her.

So that's what I've been up to! It's nice to be home. Nurse A is still up in North Mississippi working, so we won't get to see him until Christmas Eve. Then we'll pack up the car and Sawyer, Andrew and I will head off to North Carolina to spend the week after Christmas with his family in Highlands, NC. Safe travels everyone, and happy holidays!

Rolling in the Dough

2010-12-10T13:42:00.000-08:00

I am not, in fact, rolling in the dough. Which is why I started rolling (errr, kneading) my own dough--bread dough, to be exact. It changed my life. That is all.

I used this recipe and threw in a couple tablespoons of herbs. I can't wait to (re) try whole wheat with honey! (I realized my first rock-hard, whole wheat loaf was a failure when I gave a slice to Sawyer and it took him like 10 minutes to chew it.)

Sawyer really likes flour.

Holiday Wish List

2010-11-29T14:44:00.000-08:00

I've really enjoyed reading your wish lists and gift guides, so I'm doing one of my own! My mom has been asking for a list, so I might as well blog it, right? Here are a few of the things I'm wanting, in no particular order.

Vera Bradley Garment Bag in Hope Garden


Image Source

I travel a decent amount (even if it's just weekend trips to visit friends) and I always have a ton of hanging clothes that fall off the hangers in the car or in the street when I'm bringing my things inside, so I'm in desperate need of a garment bag. This one is so cute and this print is discounted! A good deal, I think.
P.S.- Vera Bradley is having some major sales today. Go check it out--the large duffel, normally $80 is $45, and the Vera bag, normally $78 is $35.

Digital Voice Recorder with Phone Recording Device


Olympus WS 500M Digital Recorder

Olympus TP-7 Telephone Recording Device

I'm so fun, right? But really, these two items are at the top of my list because they would make my job infinitely easier. Right now I'm sporting an old-school recorder (like, with an actual tape) in my interviews and I have no hook-up for my cell so I just have to type really fast when I talk to people. This is fine, but sometimes I miss quotes that I would like to use, and a digital recorder that I could use to transfer and save all my files on my computer would be insanely awesome, not to mention very handy for fact checking. I did used to have one, but it died.

Awesome Coat

Victoria's Secret Wool Military Coat in navy

I have no idea what kind of coat I'm looking for here, but definitely something a little different because I already have a classic black pea coat. I like plaid, I like toggle, I like military. Any suggestions as where to find a cute, affordable one? I'd like to pick out something that goes with both black and brown boots, so maybe red. I like the Victoria's Secret one above, but haven't made a final decision. Where's your favorite coat shopping spot?

Netbook Disc Drive

External CD-ROM Drive for Acer Aspire One

I'm no techie, but you may have realized by now that I'm working with some pretty "budget" technology. When my "vintage"--that's what the people at the Apple store called it when they said they no longer serviced models that old-- Mac iBook died about a year ago, I couldn't afford a new one so my mom got me an Acer Aspire One netbook for Christmas, which I would totally recommend by the way. It was less than $300 and so far I haven't had any problems with it except that Sawyer chewed up the charger. (But the replacement was just $30!) Unfortunately it doesn't have a disc drive, which has gotten quite annoying. So I want one! They're not expensive, so I don't know why I've never gotten one...

Running Gear

Nike Tempo Track Women's Running shorts

Nurse A and I have big plans to run at least a 10k this year, and I could use a couple pairs of new running shorts, some sports bras and even new shoes! What is it about new running outfits that's so inspiring?

So what's on your wish list? Do you tend to ask for things you want, need or a mixture of the two?

Thanksgiving in the Woods

2010-11-28T17:53:00.000-08:00

That's where I've been the last few days. In the woods, roughing it (if you call heat and AC and one television channel roughing it) in a cabin with my immediate family and my aunt/uncle/ cousins.

Our digs.

We were visiting my brother and his (new!) fiance Jen, who live and work at a camp/environmental center, which is pretty much vacant for the holidays. Last year, they reserved the cabin for our fam and this year Thanksgiving in the woods became a reality.

Thanksgiving morning started with a bang.

That's my cousin Dustin on the top of a semi-telephone pole preparing to jump onto a trapeze that you can't really see in the picture. Don't worry, he was harnessed to Jen and what appears to be the rest of the pole (it wasn't as tall as a real telephone pole of course).

When it was my turn, it started raining and I spent a good three minutes yelling, "I can't do it!" at the top of the pole while my family stood under a tarp and yelled "Yes you can!" So I did, and immediately slipped off the trapeze because it was wet. I don't think my legs have ever shaken that much, but I did it! It looked so easy when it wasn't me on top of that pole.

Terror stance.

After pole trapeze (I have no idea what it's really called) it was time to eat! The cabin set a nice backdrop for our meal.

We had three kinds of cranberry sauce/chutney, turkey and gravy, salad, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, apple stuffing, regular stuffing--the works! So, so good. The rest of the weekend was spent hiking, posing for pictures, watching movies (Cold Mountain, anyone?), playing Apples to Apples and Yahtzee and trying our hands on the climbing wall.

Sister & Brother

The three of us

Our cabin in the background.

Fork in the road.

Miss Marple, the cat that hung out in our cabin all weekend.

My brother the mountain man

Ready for a hike

The crew

My brother also handles owls, so he gave us a demonstration.

Before we headed home Saturday, a group of us climbed the climbing wall.

Three of us got to the top (not me!)

Since we were in the woods there was no Black Friday shopping for us (probably wouldn't have been anyway) but today we drove up to Memphis to return some lingering wedding gifts to Macy's and use our Bed Bath & Beyond gift card. This of course meant lunch with the Fashionable Wife Nikki and her hubs, who brought us a gift for Sawyer! It was lots of fun but we didn't take a picture and thus are bad bloggers. After some ordeals at Macy's (one store didn't understand that when we return we get the price back that the gift-giver paid, not the super-low price the item is listed at now so we drove across town to another) we ended up with quite the loot! At BB&B we picked up an awesome trashcan, a rolling pin and a measuring cup. The trash can was much needed! We spend so much time picking up ours and putting it on the table or counter so Sawyer can't get into it, so now we have a nice new one with a lid. At Macy's we got a nice set of pots and pans, a cast iron skillet, another set of Pyrex bowls with lids (we love them!) and some kind of herb saver item. I'll let you know if it works!

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and long weekend! I certainly did, but I am glad to get back to the Labrahound (he stayed with groomsman Bob) and a bit of privacy! Seventeen people in a cabin goes a long way.

A Long, Long Walk

2010-11-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

One of my very favorite thing about being a dog owner is the walks! Especially late-fall (because let's face it, it's not quite winter here yet), late-afternoon walks. A few scenes from our stroll today:

Sawyer is almost the same color as the leaves.

Our path.

So many pretty houses line the streets.

A failed attempt to photograph leaves falling on Sawyer.

Peace sign.

This one isn't from our walk, but it's so cute! Look at that honest pup!

Curry-ageous Cooking

2010-11-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

Nurse A and I have been cooking a lot of meals at home recently, some delicious and some not-so-good. But regardless of their tastiness, the dinner conversation almost always starts like this:

Nurse A: "I would make this again, but ...."

or

"I think we used too much of ..."

And then we ramble off a list of flavors the dish needs or reasons the dough didn't rise properly, etc. Well, the Thai curry we made Friday night--even though it called for fish sauce, which terrifies and fascinates me equal amounts--was not one of those recipes. It. was. so. good. Even groomsman Bob, connoisseur of fine curries, enjoyed it.

Thai red coconut curry over jasmine rice

I've wanted to make curry for a few weeks now, ever since I noticed our farmer's market carries three kinds of curry paste and giant bottles of exciting-yet-scary looking fish sauce. I thought this was really special until I realized Kroger carries all those items too, but the farmer's market stuff looks cooler. See?

That Squid brand fish sauce is for realz.

So after a bit of Googling, I chose this curry recipe because it seemed suitable for a beginner (not too many unfamiliar ingredients) and I just really wanted to use coconut milk. The original recipe is delicious (although I agree with the reviewer that the brown sugar isn't neccessary) but we made a few alterations to fit our personal tastes.

-We used double the coconut milk and curry sauce the recipe calls for (we were very hungry!)

-We left out the brown sugar and it was definitely sweet enough with the coconut milk.

-We added chicken to ours that we had sauteed in curry powder and a little coconut milk.

-Since we doubled a lot of flavors we used a 1/2 a teaspoon more fish sauce than the original recipe.

I don't know why I was so afraid! This was so good. We just added more curry paste and fish sauce slowly so we could taste and make sure we weren't overdoing it. We paired this deliciousness with warm homemade naan (recipe here) and served the curry over jasmine rice. I would definitely recommend this! Use less curry paste if you don't want it too spicy, and add the sugar if you'd like it sweeter. And yes, I did eventually realize I chose a Thai curry and an Indian flatbread--oops! They still went quite well together in my opinion.

Our naan looked like grilled chicken but was so quite good!

Now to figure out how to use fish sauce in other recipes since I have such a huge bottle!

Surprise Travels

2010-11-19T08:25:00.000-08:00

Everyone's posts about snow have gotten me revved up for the holidays even though it's a nice 57 degrees here in Mississippi. Besides an upcoming trip to celebrate Thanksgiving in the beautiful Alabama wilderness (well, not quite wilderness, but we're visiting my brother who lives/works in the woods at a camp) and then a quick trip home, the holidays bring another element of excitement.

Why, you ask? Because I married (dated?) into an awesome holiday tradition: instead of gifts, Nurse A's mom and dad take the fam on a Christmas trip!

The destination is secret for as long as possible, but now that everyone has to take off work and drive from different areas we usually find out ahead of time.

The first year, my sophomore year of college and the second year Andrew and I were dating, we went to New York. It was amazing, and it was my first trip to NYC. This one was a legitimate surprise--we didn't get to open our plane tickets until we got to the airport. We saw the Producers on Broadway, explored the city and ate lots of delicious food. I bought a poster at the MET that I have yet to frame.

The next year was another huge first for me. We occasionally get a thin layer of snow in Oxford, but this was a sight I had not yet seen firsthand:

Nurse A in front of our cabin in Winter Park, Colorado

Lots of snow! Lots and lots of snow! Snow so powdery we couldn't even make a snowman. We skied one day and I loved it, but I didn't want to push my luck on the slopes another day as I fear death by ski, so Nurse A and I took a horse and carriage ride which was more our speed. This trip was fun too, but my feet froze on our snowmobiling trip. Like for real froze. There was ice in my boots and everything and it was quite terrifying because we were on top of the mountain. I still enjoyed it though, especially when feeling came back to my feet.

The fateful snowmobiling trip.

Our third trip was to New Orleans, much closer to home for me and a lot less travel time. We stayed at the Hotel Monteleone, ate lots of oysters and took a class at the New Orleans School of Cooking. Andrew and I were in charge of making the barbecue shrimp (which oddly required no barbecue sauce) and tried to cut the amount of butter the recipe called for (like four sticks) in half. The instructor caught onto us and about an hour later we were feasting on gloriously life-shortening deliciousness.

Carousel bar in Hotel Monteleone. It spins, which is fun until you have one too many glasses of wine.

Look at all that butter!

Last year we went on a Caribbean Carnival cruise which was my very first. It was a lot of fun, though the first day I had to adjust to the sea. I tend to have a problem with riding on big boats (not small ones), but usually a few hours watching the waves helps. We cruised to Cozumel, where Andrew bought tequila with a worm in the bottom. The weather was gorgeous and it was hard to believe it was Christmastime.

Andrew being eaten by the vine at the Mayan ruins. Have you see/read (or in our case listened to on tape) The Ruins? I wouldn't recommend it, but it inspired our picture.

Pretty water.

The whole group.

A few weeks ago when Andrew's family came to tailgate, his mom revealed our Christmas 2010 destination! We're spending the week after Christmas in Highlands, NC. Andrew's parents love Highlands and we're looking forward to a relaxing week of reading, hiking and, of course, eating. Oh, and lots of wine drinking. And maybe some snow. Have you ever been to Highlands? Any recommendations on things to do?

Cabbages, Sharkdogs and Holiday Cards, Oh My!

2010-11-16T13:06:00.000-08:00

Guess what? My Shutterfly holiday cards came in the mail yesterday and I'm obsessed with them! Maybe I won't send them out and I'll just keep all 50 of them to myself. Would that make me a hoarder? Oh well, I guess I'll mail them out. This is the design we ended up choosing.

They're such great quality and with the blog promo Shutterfly is doing, I paid about $8 for 50! Great deal. We used an engagement picture, a wedding picture and one of the Sharkdog. Speaking of the Sharkdog, Sawyer has recently developed another bad habit. What is odd about this picture? (Besides Nurse A's obvious frustration.)

One family member of the canine variety is in a very odd position. The pupster's latest thing is rolling over on his back, and then being dragged across the yard (by is harness, not his neck). He also likes to roll down the hill near our house.

Since I'm on the subject of updates, remember this?

It's the Box of Everything Thank-You Note. I wasn't very organized when keeping up with our thank you note list (to all the wedding planners out there, definitely keep a spreadsheet!), and I resolved to get them out before our two month anniversary. I failed, but I did put the very last one in the mailbox Saturday, a day before our three month anniversary on Sunday, which I'm putting in the win category. (I don't count the fact that it was after the mail ran, so it didn't actually go out until Monday.)

My next update is not not so successful. A couple of months ago, we spent Saturday planting a garden. It started off well. We had sprouts, and our broccoli transplants were growing quite large.

Grow broccoli plant, grow!

About a month ago, we noticed our jalapeno plant had been completely eaten, all the leaves, jalapenos, everything. Odd, we thought. I don't envy the animal that ate our jalapenos. It was also fall now, and we'd had jalapenos all summer, so it wasn't too sad. But then last week we went out to the garden and saw this. Oh the horror!

Little leafless broccoli plants.

Every single one of our broccoli plants had been eaten. And our tiny lettuces are getting picked off one by one. What would do this to us? I have a really good guess:

The accused.

We have lots of deer in our neighborhood, and they seem to have switched from eating the pears off our tree to eating our broccoli. Or maybe it's raccoons. We saw a very sad neighbor looking at his uprooted flower bed awhile back and he blamed it on raccoons.

For some reason, the one random cabbage has gone untouched and is growing quite large. I have no idea what to do with it, except be proud that it hasn't died. Does anyone have any delicious cabbage recipes?

Well this was a sufficiently random post. Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Home for the Holidays

2010-11-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

Home Sweet Home

No, I don't hail from a boat and I have no idea who Barbara K. is, but this was the best photo I could find of my hometown! (Note to self: take pictures of things other than dogs and food.)

It's November and it's cold outside but it's warm and toasty in the house! I'm getting excited because this means a trip home for the holidays is in the near future. I only live five and a half hours away from home right now, but unfortunately I haven't been able to make it down for a substantial amount of time in a while. In fact, the last time I went home was a weekend in July for wedding festivities, including my bachelorette party, so most of that time was spent in New Orleans, which is not a far drive from my town. This year I'll actually have time to go and stay for a week or so! Home, in case you were wondering, is on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where it only snows like every five years and crawfish, shrimp and crab boils are aplenty (oh how I miss crab boils!). Here are a few things I love about going home, in no particular order:

Dog parties

Christmas 2010: Introducing Sawyer!

We have five dogs in our family, and it's always freakishly cute and chaotic when they all get together for the holidays. One time my sister brought her two cats, but that was a disaster. Which reminds me, this weekend Nurse A and I took Sawyer over to a friend's house and there were nine dogs! Can you imagine? They outnumbered the people by one and there was not one fight the whole evening.

Fresh (and cheap!) seafood

The hardest part of living in a landlocked town for me is the lack of fresh, affordable seafood! Please observe that in the lower left hand photo, my family and some randoms are gathered around a makeshift table in a garage peeling crawfish. We keep it classy like that. The lower lefthand photo is of bridesmaid Rachel eating at my absolute favorite sushi restaurant, Chef Scott's.

And last, but not least these lovely people, of course!

The Fam & Friends

What are your holiday plans? What do you look forward to most when you go home for the holidays?

Sawyer's Bad Habit

2010-11-10T15:41:00.000-08:00

During my last couple of weeks working in the Memphis office and the mad dash to the end of Nurse A's thesis, our housekeeping fell to the wayside. It didn't help that our upstairs shower clogged this weekend and was full of standing water that then leaked through the roof in the downstairs bathroom, prompting us to throw every dirty blanket and towel we owned in to absorb the water. (Who knew that a plunger could have just fixed all this? Andrew did, but he still let me throw lots of blankets into the shower anyway.)

So I've been working on washing all of those things, along with our regular laundry and it seems like I just can't catch up. (To clarify, I have only ever in my life caught up on laundry once, and that was a couple months ago. I'm going for round two.) And did I mention Sawyer has a bad habit? Yes, he does. It's called peeing on the bed.

Sawyer has officially been banned from any room with a mattress, which is our master bedroom (he was banned from that along time ago, as he can not be trusted in the dark) and our guest bedroom. He is also banned from the downstairs bathroom because he eats out of the trash and we put the stuff from our lint trap in there, which just can't be nutritious for a growing Labrahound. Our kitchen trash can is often on the dining room table, because Sawyer does love a good mouthful of whatever he can find.

It's not his fault the stairs are right by the counter.

Today I was cleaning up (I take a really long time to clean because I like to throw things away and organize cabinets) and asked Nurse A to come take a look at his newly arranged bathroom drawer. Andrew was home sick today, and in the daze that must have been his ailing body fighting a cold, Sawyer crept into the room before he could shut the door. The next thing I know, I'm wrestling a 40-pound pupster off the bed in mid pee--he only managed to get the top blanket this time. That's a win for me.

About an hour later I was downstairs folding laundry and I realized in horror that the bedroom door was open to the Winchester Suite, our guest bedroom. I had just put on a brand new bed-in-a-bag set in anticipation (after our friend and four of his friends crashed at our house last weekend and had to sleep without sheets because I was already in bed) of our weekend guests, and sure enough, there was a big, wet stain in the middle. Sawyer strikes again!

Sawyer, pre-bed peeing phase.

Beautiful new bedding, pre-bed peeing phase.

So as soon as the upstairs blanket is done, in goes the guest room bedding.

I'd take a peeing pup over a lighter laundry load any day though. Does your pet have a bad habit that gets you all the time?

Seriously, how can you stay angry at this sweet puppy?

Our Wedding: Partying, Part One

2010-11-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

It's everything you've ever feared! A two-part final wedding recap! Will it ever end? Probably not. This was going to be the last wedding recap, with all the reception merged into one post, but I got distracted and a little confused writing it (we did a fake exit so our photographer/friend could start partying, and then realized we forgot to throw the bouquet ... needless to say, this did not help my confusion about the order in which things occurred that night!) So I separated the post into two categories: non-sweaty mess and hot mess.

I promise the madness that is wedding recaps will end eventually.

So let's start with the reception decor, which, as all you brides out there know, did not look this cute by accident. I really depended on the gorgeous venue to do a lot of the work for me and it did. The only ceremony decorations we had were a few Martha Stewart white lanterns and an awesome old tree, as you saw in the promising post.

But with all the getting married part said and done, it was time to party! I retreated into the bride's room while the wedding party and family turned the ceremony site from this:

into this: (I'm pulling from some guest photos too, to show you the full scene since we only had one photographer and she was being fabulous elsewhere.)

The white tent in the background is where the buffet was set up. It looked quite wedding-y.

It required moving the chairs onto the grass from their semi-hidden location, surrounding them with chairs and placing the centerpieces on them. I had spent many nights stressing about this, but am assured it went quite smoothly.

The awning in the back of this photo is where the band played. The blurs in the greenery are fans.

As soon as the ceremony was over the bar opened (we served wine and beer) and the appetizers were put out (fruit, veggies and cucumber slices topped with chicken salad), so people would flock to that area, freeing up the grass for the tables to be set up. Andrew pretty much got everything he requested at the wedding, since he only had three or four opinions on the whole thing. The chicken salad/cucumber was one of those requests, which I joked would seem out of place with all the Southern-themed food. It was actually a huge hit. A formal apology has been issued to Nurse A.

I am still obsessed with this chalkboard, made out of a cabinet door. It hangs in our living room now.

We served fried catfish, cole slaw, fried okra, hushpuppies, lemonade, water and sweet tea. (Very similar to one of our rehearsal dinner meal options, but in hindsight I'm glad, because I only ate a couple pieces of fried okra, veggies and the cucumber/chicken salad at the reception and would have been quite disappointed had I made it through the whole weekend with two events catered by Taylor Grocery and not had fried catfish.

I loved that hot sauce was part of our centerpieces.

Along with the courtyard area (is that what it's called? It sounds classier than backyard), we also had the whole downstairs of the house we were renting.

We had the guest book set up on the front porch. My sister and I found this board the Thursday before the wedding laying in the aisle of an antique shop down the road from my house. We picked up some colored sharpies Friday afternoon (my mom spent a really long time obsessing over which permanent markers to get) and stuck them in a mug my stepfather made, and thus the guest book was born.

We hung this in our kitchen after the wedding and it's such a lovely, simple reminder of our wonderful day. The baskets are filled with sandalwood fans, cause it was hot y'all.


We pointed guests in the right direction with sign recycled from my sister's wedding, made by Mrs. S. of Poor is the New Black.

The interior of the house was so beautiful on its own that we kept it simple. I picked up lots of antique-looking frames for half off at Hobby Lobby, my mom brought some more up and my MIL had a whole bunch from the rehearsal dinner, all filled with our engagement photos by Jenny.

One of the mantles.

The Fashionable Wife made these letters for me, when I almost paid a ton for similar ones from Anthropologie! Aren't they cute?We've got them set up in our house now. Basically, we decorated our house with all our leftover wedding stuff.

This table is where the charter for our university was signed.

Check out the chandelier.

After everyone ate, I think we cut the cake. I actually have no idea what order things went in that evening, but everyone's pictures seem to suggest that after eating, we cut the cake. That seems logical, right? I didn't really eat though, so what was I doing? Probably drinking, or wandering around in awe.

Our cupcakes were a mixture of caramel and triple chocolate (Andrew's second request--chocolate groom's cupcakes) and the florist decorated them with daisies and billy balls. I love the photos of the cupcakes.

Andrew got a mouthful of daisy. As you can see, we're now transitioning from non-sweaty mess to hot mess, as evidenced by this photo. (Although it's still one of my favorites!)

I love this picture! I love these people! I love this day! Does looking back at your wedding pictures make you freakishly happy? I think that's a good sign.

I couldn't fully brush through my hair until Thursday. No lie.

And then we ate cake.

I have an awkward habit of leaning toward someone when there are multiple people in the picture...

Coming up eventually, friends, we will head outside for dancing, a wedding crasher, beer drinking and a fake exit! And then we will exit for real and the recaps will end! You have these shenanigans to look forward to:

Our bffs got the party started!

Do you look at your wedding pictures far too much? Did you decorate your entire house with your wedding decor afterward because you were too broke to buy new stuff and your house is too small to store it all in a closet?

Shutterfly, Flutter by

2010-11-08T12:41:00.000-08:00

It obviously takes me a minute to pick up on things, because I just realized that Shutterfly is offering 50 free holiday cards to bloggers who spread the love about the site. (Go here to participate, fellow out-of-the-loop bloggers: http://bit.ly/sfly2010.)

This is exciting for multiple reasons, the first being that I was already planning on ordering cards from Shutterfly after my mother-in-law made our wedding announcements and a cute photo book on the site. I've even picked out the pictures I might use. Let us view:

We'll definitely an engagement picture, because we shot them last December so they're season appropriate and the colors go really well with some of the cards I have my eye on.

*Photos by Jenny Anderson

And then a few random combos of Nurse A and Sawyer, Sawyer by himself, the three of us together, etc. We're definitely going to do a card with multiple photos, because I'd rather not try to pose the whole family. I tend to make crazy eyes when posed, and Andrew looks miserable. Sawyer is actually quite photogenic. See?

This card is one of my absolute favorites. We'll probably go with a variation of this design, since we have friends who don't celebrate Christmas. But Shutterfly has plenty just like this with different messages, so never fear!

And this one lets you to list things you're thankful for at the end of the year. How neat is that?

They're so cute and in all price ranges--in my recent unemployment (ahem, I prefer "freelance") I was going through the less-than-50-cent ones and was quite pleased with my options. These are as inexpensive as 32 cents and I love the layouts!

If you're like me and sort things by price when shopping online, you can still send out really nice cards, and Shutterfly is always doing promotions. So if you haven't already done it, head over to Shutterfly and browse their holiday cards, Christmas cards and all the other fun things like calendars and story cards that you can make. It's really simple--just upload your pictures, drag, drop and customize. But you probably know that.

Happy card making!

Versatile Blogger

2010-11-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

Last week, Betty @ Northwest Betty and Jayme at The Simple, Sweet Life gave me my second blog award! Thanks! (If you haven't checked out their blogs, you must--I love them!) So now I get to give it out. Here's how it works:

1. Thank and link back to who gave you the award.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Pass it along to seven blogs you've recently discovered and enjoy
4. Leave your recipients a note, telling them about the award.

Ok, so here are seven random things:

1.) I grew up near across the street from some sort of semi-farm. Once a peacock came into our driveway, and an emu laid eggs in my dad's boat. A horse got loose and ran circles around our house. Looking back, it was not a well-secured semi-farm.

This is a different emu that lived near my house. I promise I'm from a normal town ... of emu-lovers.

2.) My stepfather is a potter and I love it! Our house is filled with ceramics.

Part of our wedding gift from Mom & Steve.

3.) I use an extreme amount of cups and leave them everywhere, much to the distress of those around me.

4.) I interned in Austin, Texas for a summer at a magazine.

5.) I talk to strangers for a living, but don't like to order pizza or make appointments or talk to randoms on the phone when it's non-work related.

6.) I didn't like condiments until last year, starting with ketchup and I felt really ashamed about it. Now I kind of like a tiny bit of mustard.

7.) This one is from Nurse A: I don't close cabinet doors, ever, and I don't even notice.

Now I get to give the award to seven people! I'm trying not to do doubles, but I might, and I'm trying to stick to the "recently discovered." I love these blogging ladies!

Katie @ Spirals and Spatulas
Lexi @ Playing House
Rachel @ Simple Little Joys
Meg @ O. is Me
Elizabeth @ the Young Retiree
Trish @ This Life of Ours
Amy Lee @ A Good Life

Thesising and Feasting

2010-11-06T12:50:00.000-07:00

I have been very bad at blogging lately, friends. But I have a good reason: I've been copy editing for the hubs, who defended his master's thesis yesterday!

This was actually taken when Andrew walked in May, but he wouldn't let me post it anywhere until he defended.

We celebrated with half-price sushi and a really late dinner at our favorite restaurant (we had a gift card), and then today with breakfast with some friends. (No gift card for that, so the spending stops now!)

Yum. Fresh salmon, Florida roll, spider roll and spicy veggie.

Oysters at Snackbar, the only oyster bar with a dinner menu that we love as much as the raw bar menu.

Duck confit croque madame with Parmesan truffle fries.

Eggs Benedict at Honey Bee Bakery.

I promise I'll be on a better blogging schedule soon! I have some big news too that I haven't shared as well: I'm officially a freelance writer. In other words, I'm unemployed in the traditional sense. I had been commuting to my job in Memphis (1 1/2 each way) for the five months since I moved back in with Andrew and it wasn't really working out, so we shall see what the future holds. Right now it looks like it's holding freelance writing and maybe a part-time gig tutoring students. And lots of time spent applying to jobs. Who knows? I do know that thanks to Betty @ Northwest Betty and Jayme at the Simple, Sweet Life, I have a Versatile Blogger award to give out soon! Thanks you two! I'm so excited to get my second-ever blog award!

Now I have to go find something to eat, because just posting this made me hungry! Did I mention I really like to take photos of food?

Pretty Little Weekend

2010-11-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

College football is a huge deal in our town. So huge, in fact, that we planned the wedding around the schedule because there would be no way our out-of-town guests could get hotel rooms on a game day weekend, or park their cars for that matter. (Or any guarantee they'd pick our wedding over the game!)

For those of you not familiar with Ole Miss, we do not, in fact, tailgate. We grove. We grove in high heels and cocktail dresses and drink Bloody Marys out of Solo cups under our tents. One tent even has a little Lyceum thing (the campus' main building), and each of the columns is a different draft beer tap. There are goats and chandeliers and catered tents and the works.

This year, we've had so much going on that we haven't made it to a Grove, primarily because we lost our tent last year. By lost I mean that no one in our little groving group showed up to break it down and campus police probably confiscated it. Who knows? All I know is we are sans tent.

But this weekend, Andrew's parents, sister (bridesmaid Michelle) and her boyfriend were in town, so we headed over to campus (first at 6 a.m. in the morning to park the car in a good spot) around lunchtime. It was a wonderful time, but as an Ole Miss alumni, Nurse A and I committed two crimes:

1.) We tailgated with Auburn fans (just kidding--I love the in-laws!) and 2.) We actually tailgated, like with an actual car.

And while I wore jeans (I guess that's crime number three), Sawyer certainly dressed the part of an Ole Miss dog. I consider this Halloween costume numero uno.

In my defense we were not in the Grove, so I was not required to dress in Grove wear. I was quite thrilled to have a chance to wear my new boots and take pictures!

Andrew and his mom with the pupster.

Our circle of chairs. The weather was perfect!

Nurse A and dad with the pupster.

Michelle and Z.A.--we were outnumbered by Auburn fans!

Look at that classy Labrahound.

The best part of tailgating? The food, of course.

After everyone else left for the football game, Nurse A and I went out for beer with our free draft beer coupons we got at the liquor store. 'Cause we're classy like that. And poor.

Saturday was also our year engagement anniversary, and we celebrated by dressing Sawyer in his second costume, courtesy of the Fashionable Wife. While her pups cooperated swimmingly (as seen here), Sawyer the Sharkdog protested.

He's a chef!

We went for a nice walk on Sunday at the park.

Wow, I take pictures of my dog a lot.

I know it's Tuesday, but I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Our Wedding: Promising

2010-10-31T14:51:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought I couldn't possibly come up with more "P" titles for our wedding recaps, I have! (See primping, peeking, posing and photographing.) My recaps have been sporadic because the disc drive is broken on Nurse A's comp and my netbook doesn't have one, so I had to resize all of the remaining pictures and e-mail them to myself from my work computer. But I digress.

Now, on to the most important part of the whole day: getting married! I don't have that much to tell you about the ceremony, because it went by in such a flash and was so wonderful! We kept it short and sweet. I do remember being afraid I would trip in my high heels, being really happy to be standing up there with Andrew finally and awkwardly making eye contact with one of the groomsmen during the ceremony. (But I don't remember who it was!)

At this point in the day, the venue was all set up.

The guest book on the front porch of the house was ready and waiting.

And so were we. At 7 p.m. on the dot (maybe even a few minutes earlier--the officiant was quite adamant about doing this thing) the wedding started! The party walked out to an acoustic version of "Here Comes the Sun." (Might I add that Hilary Duff got married on the same day and her wedding party walked out to the same song? Famous by association? I think yes.)

A few shots of the wedding party:

Check out the expression on Nurse A's face. The tent in the background is where the buffet was set up.

Then the ladies started walking out.

MOH Ashley.

My mom made the dresses for my junior bridesmaid/cousin Melaina and adorable flower girl/cousin Selena. You can't really tell in the picture, but they had a striped white and light yellow pattern and were belted in the middle with polka dot ribbon to match the bridesmaids' Anthropologie dresses. (Not long after the ceremony Selena changed into shorts and a tank top and dumped the flower petals everywhere. So cute!)

The seats were full of lovely people.

My brother gave me away. I think we talked during this, but I don't remember what we said.

Our only ceremony decor was a set of white eyelet Martha Stewart lanterns. I'm quite obsessed with them and hopefully will get to use them again.

Yay!

I don't know why there is no one sitting near Andrew's mom. Also, her dress looks khaki but was a pretty green.

Married! We walked out to "How Sweet It Is," a song that we randomly came up with at the rehearsal. The song we left the ceremony to was not high on my list of priorities during wedding planning, but this was just fine with me.

I loved the boys' boutonnieres.

Somehow we ended up without a picture of bridesmaid Brooke and groomsman Paul walking down the aisle, but I swear they were there!

After we walked out, lots of us started crying and for some reason I congratulated groomsman Jamie. The whole wedding party hugged a lot and it was pretty much one of my favorite memories. Then I retreated into the bride's quarters with a glass of chardonnay while the bridesmaids and groomsmen transformed the ceremony space into the reception area.

The fans that everyone had hidden in the trees and greenery that morning worked quite well, and the wedding favor fans were a big hit. All in all, it wasn't too hot. The ceremony lasted less than 15 minutes and then people could go inside the house or stay outside if they wished. So what's next? Partying, of course!

*All photos by Jenny Anderson Photography

P.S.- Free Stuff is Cool Too

2010-10-29T17:04:00.000-07:00

In keeping with the fashionable-but-fabulous theme of my last post, Christine over at bun&borough is having an awesome Lands End Canvas giveaway--the winner gets to choose a whole new outfit, and three runner ups get super-cute totes. Go enter!

Happy Halloween weekend! Get excited because Sawyer has TWO costumes!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2010-10-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

The most wonderful time of the year (at least in Memphis) actually comes around twice, once in spring and once in fall. It's called Erika's Ladies Consignment Sale, and it is the best thing to ever happen to poor girls trying to pass for non-poor girls. It runs for about three and a half days, and my is that rented space filled with secondhand steals!

Nikki at the Fashionable Wife discovered this gold mine last spring, when she heard about it on the radio. I tagged along. We swung by after work and an obsession was born.

Consignment sale number one, Spring 2010: Pair of 7 jeans, BCBG dress (for work of course--completely reasonable purchase) and random Gap button up for about $100 give or take a dollar or two.

The jeans were $40 and don't look this worn in real life.

Today was the second day of the fall sale, and we went at 9 a.m. You won't believe what we found!

Tory Burch flats, $55

Two pairs of Tory Burch flats for $55 each! Nikki got the navy pair and I bought the white. Not my very first color choice had I paid full price for these, but I could do worse than white Tory flats. I'm actually quite thrilled! Nikki assures me I can pass them off as "winter white," and she is the Fashionable Wife, after all, so I shall be wearing these all through the frosty season. (They're not as white as this picture makes them seem.)

French Connection dress, $20

This fab find is kind of a dark purple (I think?) and I thought it was too big. Nikki immediately belted it for me and I loved it! (Did I mention the dressing room at this place is a a big open room with mirrors, and everyone stands around awkwardly in their underwear together, and in our case offers belting advice? Less shocking the second time around.) I got a sale Target belt for $5 to wear with it, and plan to pair it with my new boots (courtesy of a gift card).

BCBG dress, $20

Also at the recommendation of the Fashionable Wife, I will pair this one with a white long sleeve tee underneath and boots! It ties in the back and I think it could be quite cute for a work environment. I'm very excited about the fashionable ensembles in my future, as I am just now learning to accessorize. I can literally count the pieces of jewelery I own on my fingers, and most of those are things like a wedding band, pearl studs, etc. which are great, but not the best for dressing up blah clothes. I also received word (via gmail chat) that bff Lexi went to the sale too and bought some wonderful things for way less than they are worth! (Think Free People and J.Crew, y'all.)

Do you have any great secondhand stores in your area, or sales like this? If so, can I stay with you when I roadtrip to shop at them? Just kidding. These may well be my last purchases in a long time (well, hopefully not) but more on that later. I can't wait to start belting! Woot!

October Wedding Anniversaries and Engagements, oh my!

2010-10-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

I have a wedding post coming up, but my disk drive is out of commission, so it will probably come Thursday. On a related note, my lovely sister and her husband, the Gator Slayer, celebrated their one year wedding anniversary yesterday! They had a freakishly cute wedding on the Gator Slayer's family farm last year. Observe the cuteness here. (And read more about the cuteness here.)

Photo by Balance Photography

And then, as the thesising Nurse A and I were driving to the library to do some research (well, I was just there for moral support), my brother called with some fabulous news: he and his girlfriend Jen got engaged on Saturday! I'm so excited. It was just the boost I needed before watching Nurse A go through microfilms for three hours and then having to run back to the car in the rain.

So congrats to my wonderful siblings and soon-to-be new sister!

They like the outdoors a lot.

Tomato Head

2010-10-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

East Tennessee tomatoes.

Had you asked me last week, I would have told you I despise tomatoes. Sure I liked tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, tomato soup, etc., but that was different because they were cooked and didn't have that juicy-yet-rubbery, gag-inducing tomato texture. So yes, I would have told you I hated them. But I would have been lying.

I had an epiphany last weekend, kids. It happened sometime between the Saturday afternoon bruschetta ( recipe from Willow's blog)

Don't forget the over-easy egg, slightly broiled.

and the Sunday night pico de gallo

Look at that cilantro!

that I realized I kind of ~~don't hate~~ like tomatoes. This was quite shocking to me, as I really, truly believed I could not eat them uncooked. I even wrote an ode to my hatred of tomatoes (you can totally do that, by the way) in a poetry class senior year of college. Not liking tomatoes was always the weird thing about me, and I liked to tell people as the popped whole cherry tomatoes into their mouths or sliced marinated heirlooms. I can't quite pinpoint when this began changing, but I can't deny it anymore. I'm still not to the point of eating large (read: thick) slices of tomatoes and I still won't put them in my salad, but they're a nice accent flavor and I definitely can't say they disgust me anymore. And they're just so pretty!

That egg/bruschetta combo above was insanely delicious. Willow posted about it on her blog a couple weeks ago, and I've been craving it ever since. Of course her tomatoes and basil were homegrown, but I strive to do that next year! And I do believe she put some sort of meat on hers, which would be a great addition, but we didn't have any. Over-easy eggs are also another thing I have never liked, until right now.

Are there any foods you hated growing up that you love now?

Happy Friday, everyone! This weekend I'll be doing some life maintenance, like buying shampoo and conditioner (I'm pretty sure I've been conditioning with body wash my friend left in an unmarked bottle), cleaning the house and drinking beer.

Our Wedding, Part Four: Photographing

2010-10-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

One of my discs of wedding pictures didn't work, so the recaps have been on hold until I got the re-send. It finally came Saturday, so expect an overload of picture-heavy posts!

To refresh your memory, we've recapped:

Primping - My mom and sister helped me get ready.

Peeking - Our first look.

Posing - Wedding party "portraits."

After our group photo sessions at Rowan Oak, the wedding party left to head back to the Isom Place to ~~relax~~ drink scotch and champagne before the ceremony. Groomsman Jamie stayed behind in his sweet air-conditioned 'Stang, and kindly waited while Jenny, Andrew and I wandered around the property to take pictures of just the two of us. These are some of my favorite, hands down, and pretty much embody my whole vision of the wedding: romantic, sweet, vintage-inspired, low-key.

At this point, the sweating had gone from a just a nuisance to a straight up situation, so we left to dry off before the ceremony. Remember, the heat index was ~~117~~ (oops, actually 114) on our wedding day.

Observe an un-edited sweaty pic of Andrew's knees:

After this, we all piled into the 'Stang and headed back to the Isom Place, where we dried off and took family portraits. Check out Andrew's adorable, normal sized family.

Immediate A fam.

Extended A fam.

Andrew does have cousins and aunts and uncles and things, but unlike my family, they do not travel in a pack. I shall demonstrate. We were taking these photos outside before guests arrive, so for time's sake we broke them up into two categories: "immediate family" and "everyone else." Judging from my immediate family pictures, my fam looks normal too.

My immediate fam.

However, check out the "everyone else" photo. We've tripled!

I love my family. We're all close and everyone travels in a pack. We even had James, a non-family member (but longtime family friend) sneak in there. Which then prompted everyone (my family is very loud) to scream at Mrs. S, also a longtime family friend, to get into the picture too! And she did! Here we all are. What a lovely bunch. I love these people.

We did a few shots with my dad and PawPaw.

And then it was time to head back inside and wait for the ceremony to begin. Getting all of the pictures done beforehand was a huge relief, because now all we had to do was get married and enjoy ourselves! Stay tuned for the ceremony recap!

*All photos by Jenny Anderson

Grilled ... Pizza?

2010-10-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

We cooked something! It was good! It's a miracle! Let me elaborate.

On Saturday, Nurse A and I enjoyed a night in (like way in--I went to bed around 9 p.m. and we watched Creature), but just because we stay in doesn't mean we want to sacrifice our intense need to eat delicious food at all times. So we decided to cook.

But what? We had a few criteria. First, it had to be easy. My mom swears by how easy it is to make pizza from scratch and moms are always, always right. Second, it had to be inexpensive, because we're a bit strapped for cash. And third--well there was no third, but it is National Pizza Month and that should have some sort of influence, right?

We had been wanting to make grilled pizza since Andrew's co-worker whipped it up for us this summer, so we Googled a recipe and followed this Martha Stewart Basic Grilled Pizza Dough recipe exactly. It worked out swimmingly and we've actually got another batch rising right now so we can make pizzas again tomorrow. This is a delicious twist on baked pizza and it has a very distinct grilled flavor. It's simple and cheap too.

It all started with a foamy mixture of yeast, warm water and sugar.

Next the recipe called for oil, salt and all-purpose flour, and just like it says, it will seem a little dry. Knead it and form into a ball.

Look at that glorious dough ball! Put it in a slightly oiled bowl, brush with olive oil, cover it and leave it in a non-drafty place for about 45 minutes (we put ours in the downstairs shower). Let rise.

Probably the best part of this recipe is that you get to punch the dough down. Punch we did. And then, let it rise in the non-drafty place for another 30 minutes. We went on a walk and left ours to rise for more than an hour, but it was fine. Here is our final dough mass after kneading, punching and two rising sessions:

We then refrigerated it until we were ready to use it later that night. (You can also freeze it.) When you're ready to cook with it, grill it first, about one minute on each side. If you do it perfectly, it should have even grill marks, unlike ours. But you get the picture.

Then put toppings on. We chose red sauce, shredded mozzarella, thinly sliced tomatoes, basil and goat cheese. On our second one (randomly shaped like a triangle, courtesy of Nurse A) we also added mushrooms to the mix.

Back on the grill it goes. Using tongs, rotate it clockwise about every 45-60 seconds, until it's done. (We switched to another recipe in a cookbook at this point, but it's pretty easy to tell when the pizza is done. Just rotate the pizza with the tongs so it doesn't burn, but make sure it isn't doughy when you take it off. It takes about six to eight minutes.) We went ahead and put our triangle pizza on too.

Please ignore the smudge on my lens--I didn't realize until after. Or is it a ghost?

Sawyer was not happy with the whole grilling outside situation.

The finished product was so good. It had that smoky, grilled flavor, and the crust was really light and well-done on both pizzas, even though the triangle one had thicker crust. And, it's easy enough to make on a week night too. Just remember to put the dough together the night before or on your lunch break.

Hopefully tomorrow's pizza adventure turns out just as wonderfully!

Weekend Walks & Irrational Pumpkin Fears

2010-10-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Nurse A and I found ourselves almost entirely free. He's been working on his thesis nonstop for the past coupe of months, and while I had a little bit of work to do on Sunday, we got to enjoy a low-key Saturday together. What did we do? Well, a slim wallet and overactive puppy = walks. Lots of walks and lots of playtime outside. And the weather was perfect for such a thing.

Playing in the yard.

We walked all over downtown. On Saturday, Sawyer met a puppy in a pumpkin costume. He played with the pup, while her owner (and about a few other women, children and men) watched television outside and proceeded to move couches and chairs into the front yard. The weather was that nice. And I think they were really drunk, because they invited us to drink beer and watch football, which was nice, but we passed on it. And on Sunday, a girl offered us cookies leftover from her study group during our walk. Ah, the South. But I really think people just want to give us things because Sawyer is so cute.

We finally took our trip to the pumpkin patch Saturday afternoon. I had hoped to go last weekend, but we slept late, and Andrew had lots of thesis-ing to do. So we walked over to the patch with Sawyer in tow, with big dreams of a photoshoot. Turns out, Sawyer is terrified of pumpkins. Who knew? He wouldn't even set paw into the patch (which is actually just lots of pumpkins in front of a church), and the few shots we got, we had to hold him. But they were cute pictures, regardless.

Nurse A and the pupster.

Regal Sawyer.

We attempted to take a family picture, but it was quite hard with a 30 + pound puppy.

Notice the difference in Sawyer's expressions in these two pictures.

We didn't buy our pumpkins then, because we didn't want to carry them back to the house on foot, so Andrew and I went back Sunday and ended up getting three pumpkins for $8!

And just for good measure, here's a picture of a gorgeous tree.

The rest of our weekend was filled with Netflix and food. More to come on the food later--we made some really delicious things, which is odd, since we usually don't have much luck in the kitchen. But we were on a roll, what can I say? We even used yeast!

Hope everyone had a great weekend filled with beautiful fall weather (even though it is supposed to be in the 80s here today...) and pumpkins! And don't forget to check out Mingle Monday over at Life of Meg, to find some fun new blogs to take the edge off of the Monday blues.

Chili Nights

2010-10-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

Fall blew in today, literally. All of the leaves whipping around and falling off trees sounded like a tornado so I ran upstairs to rescue the pupster, who was happily chewing on a carrot. Then Nurse A called from work and confirmed it wasn't a tornado so I naturally grabbed my camera and ran outside.

A brewing storm.

Pretty fall colors, creepy weather.

It rained a bit and got pretty dark outside, but the wind seemed to be the worst of it. Afterwards, our yard was covered in wet, colorful leaves and the temperature had dropped substantially.

View from our front door.

Wet leaves apparently fascinate me.

We're going to need a rake.

So, in honor of the weather and our slim wallets, Andrew and I made this inexpensive, five ingredient chili. It was delicious, and looked like this:

Photo and recipe from here.

Actually, it did not look like this. But it was really, really good. We added a can of stewed tomatoes to the recipe and used turkey instead of beef, and while I would definitely make this again, I would double the black beans, corn and tomatoes. So good! We topped it off with Greek yogurt, of course. We're trying to save money by eating out less, and all the ingredients for this cost less than $8! Major score, when we normally would have racked up a $30 bill at a restaurant. And if we doubled it, it would just require another can of tomatoes and another can of beans (we only used half a bag of frozen corn), so it would still come in around $10. There's leftovers too, so I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow! Hopefully this new habit of eating in will be good for our health and our wallets.

A Pretentious Affair

2010-10-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had get-together for Nurse A's 25th b-day, creatively named "Pretentious Wine and Cheese Party." It was tiny (like five guests--this is what happens when you live in your college town post-college) but still lots of fun, because we lured our friends Lexi and J down from Memphis to stay with us for the weekend.

The theme of our evening was inspired partly by the extreme amount of serving dishes we got for our wedding/engagement. We didn't register for any, but the all-knowing platter-giving people scored points, because I am obsessed with the dishes to the point where I arranged them in natural light and photographed them. I share this with you now:

Pretty, right?

Guests were asked to don their most pretentious wear and stare down the camera. However, I ended up not having a photo of Andrew and myself, or of our other guests Kory and Bess. Photo fail.

Eddie and Nurse A.

Lexi and Master P.

Even Sawyer looked dapper. Actually, our friend Bob (the Dog Whisperer) got him to pose in his outfit Friday night. On Saturday, young Sawyer ran around with his hat and tie hanging in all directions trying to eat cheese and crackers. Because cheese and crackers are a must on Pretentious Wine and Cheese night, as is classical piano music.

The serving platters were put to good use. This looked a lot better in person. I promise one day to read my camera manual and not take dark, scary photos.

Spinach artichoke dip, fruits and veggies and lots of cheese! We also had summer sausage, pepperoni, blue-cheese stuffed olives and antipasto, as well as some sort of item Andrew put together and named "Flatbread Cool Downs."

Don't forget to pretentiously name your cheeses.

Mighty Humbolt Fog, Vigorous Black Hoop Cheddar, Hearty Havarti and Enchanting Triple Cream Brie.

The only downside to a Wine and Cheese party? There are not many options for dinner Sunday night except for..wine and cheese. And not many options for lunch on Monday, except for lettuce.

National Taco Day and Nurse A's B-Day

2010-10-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

Monday was National Taco Day, for those of you who don't keep up with food-related holidays. (Nurse A works for a food-related trade magazine so we usually know these things, but it was actually me who heard about this wonderful day on the radio while driving to work.) With tacos being one of the only dishes Andrew does well (phenomenally well, actually, with homemade pico de gallo and everything), we naturally had to observe this special day.

So after work, while I was commuting 90 minutes home, Andrew went to the farmer's market (that is the secret to stellar tacos, y'all--fresh, real ingredients) and made an amazing discovery: homemade corn tortillas! They were wrapped in white paper and we had never investigated them before, but they were what our tacos had been missing all these months. We love our farmer's market and they get new things every month or so, it seems. Recently they've started selling jerky, yogurt and milk, but they have everything from tamales and almost any cheese you could want (as well as tons of produce, of course) to local prosciutto and fresh-baked bread.

This is one of the few food things I've ever photographed that actually looks as good as it tasted.

Local ground beef, cheese and produce really make the taco, as Nurse A will ~~lecture~~ tell you. We use fat-free Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and lots and lots of lime juice. And always use fresh pico de gallo instead of store bought salsa! That crunchy taco on the left was really delicious.

Thursday was Andrew's 25th birthday, and I had originally planned to bring him breakfast in bed but it was deadline day at work for him and he got up at 3 a.m. to finish some things up. I love the guy, but breakfast in bed at 3 a.m. just isn't going to happen. But after his long, hard day at work (and then some more work that night for both of us) we finally got to enjoy the breakfast for dinner around 8:30 p.m. Once again, the farmer's market stole the show with its locally sourced smoked bacon. This stuff was amazing, though we probably have serious health problems now. Nurse A also received a birthday pumpkin with his name on it and I made him pose with it. (Don't worry--I got him a real gift too!) Doesn't he look tired?

We plan to have a little celebration on Saturday though, to make up for his extremely busy birthday and the leftover bacon will probably make another appearance, since I need to get rid of it before we eat it all! Oh, and that toast on the plate? Sawyer dined on half of the loaf while I was downstairs for just a minute. He pretty much ate a hole into it, but there was still plenty to toast for dinner. I don't know how he gets those things off the counter. The bread was pushed to the very back, and it wasn't even on the counter with the stairs running by it. What bad design, stairs running by a kitchen counter? But it makes for really cute pictures. Let me demonstrate.

A glamour shot of Buster, my friend Rachel's pup.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy the fall weather. The pumpkin patch is finally open here, so we will definitely be doing a Sawyer photoshoot Saturday or Sunday.

A Game of Tag

2010-10-06T21:41:00.001-07:00

Tag! There's a blog game going around, and I've been meaning to post it. Meg over at O. is Me tagged me a week or so ago but I've had a lot going on and have let my blogging slip. But tonight, Betty at Northwest Betty tagged me! So what's a girl to do? Cheat and merge the questions together! I feel like I picked enough to adequately represent some strangeness. So here goes! If you get bored, scroll to the bottom to see if I've tagged you and what your questions are. But don't worry--this is just for fun, so no need to play it if you don't want to.

Here are the questions from {Meg} and *Betty* with my answers:

{ one } Are you capable of any stupid human tricks (you know, like my Seagull Impersonation, or weird elbows)? Describe, take a picture, or vlog it!

Hellz yes. Double jointed shoulders apparently run in the fam (this is me with my brother, below) and look not-so-elegant when a not-so-talented high schooler tries to do ballet. I can easily get through dog doors because of my strange shoulders, but sometimes at night I sleep on them weird and they hurt a lot. Doesn't look impressive? Try it! Take your right hand and try touching your right ear. Bet you can't do it...

*two* What is one of your favorite books?

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion is my all-time favorite right now and has been for a couple of years. I have lots of favorites, but this one I can read again and again. It's so well-written and well-researched and personal, and I would recommend it to anyone. It's inspiring and heartbreaking. Read it so this doesn't seem random:

{ three } Honestly, how much do you sing in the car? And do you care if people are watching? Furthermore, what do you like to sing in the car?

I, my friends, sing old school Jewel because (and I'm not ashamed to admit) I know all the lyrics to practically every Jewel song. No shame, no shame. So yes, I love to sing in the car and no, I don't mind if people are watching. Once, a group of my good friends and I were singing so passionately (and might I add, fabulously, though Nurse A may beg to differ) in the car that we gave ourselves a round of applause when we finished, while stopped at a redlight.The people in the car next to us just stared.

*four* What are you vain about?

I am really, really preoccupied with the whiteness of my teeth. Is this gross? Probably. I can't afford to get them professionally whitened, but I've tried a lot of things (and I drink a lot of coffee) and the best results so far are from an electronic toothbrush (any brand) and Crest 3D White Advanced Vivid Toothpaste. This combo worked better than the white strips.I used to be really vain about my highlights, but for some reason I feel roots are in. This may be the white trash princess in me. I promise I'll take care of it eventually.

{ five } Name one food that you could literally eat every single day for the rest of your life.

Sushi, hands down. I wish I could eat sushi everyday for the rest of my life. Preferably sushi with octopi.

Octopus.

*six* What about your personality do you wish you could change?

I really wish I could stand up for myself a little better. Truth is, I can write what I'm feeling much better than I can say it, and if I have to actually, um, talk about a hard subject I tend to chicken out. I'm completely confident I can change this, and I'm working on it. I used to be almost entirely unable to read out loud in front of a class, but pretty much conquered that by the end of college. (Who knew the trick was to breathe?) So, I feel if I can consciously change that, I will eventually master the art of hard conversations. And then I can be like George Clooney in Up in the Air. Not really.

{ seven } How long have you gone without a shower/bath? And what was your reason? You're gross.

This question should be, "How many baths have you taken in one day?" I am obsessed with baths, preferably ones with bubbles. I think I've taken like four in one day. Lucky for the environment and our water bill, our rental house just has showers, which don't really appeal to me. I took one for the team, big time.

*eight* What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Didn't a study find it was the chicken?

Chick magnet.

Tag, you're it!

The Fashionable Wife
Kjpugs: Ordinary in Indiana
Twenty-Something Florida Wife
Somewhere in Between

This Life of Ours
I'm a Free Bitch, Baby
Forget.me.nots and city sidewalks
Luckiest in Love

(I have no idea why there is a weird space in that list.)

So those were my questions and here are yours. Have fun if you choose to participate!

1. What is a gross food that you really like? (Like pigs feet, or pickled eggs, sardines, liver, etc.)

2. If you didn't have to worry about money, what would be your dream job?

3. What is the lamest thing you've ever been for Halloween? Nurse A was a chick magnet last year (see above), which teeters on the fine line between lame and extremely awesome.

4. Do you have any signed books? What are they, and what's the story behind them? (If you have lots, just pick one of the most interesting. David Sedaris signed a book for me once and drew a pug in it.)

5. What are three random things in your purse right now?

6. What is one thing that never fails to make you feel better after a long or hard day?

7. What is a weird subcategory on your Netlfix movie suggestions? I'm talking about the weird movie categories they merge together like "Emotional Military Dramas" or "Quirky Television Dramas with a Strong Female Lead."

8. And, because I'm the Amateur Wife, what is the one household chore that you either hate to do or are really bad at doing? Like I suck at ironing.

Our Wedding Part Three: Posing

2010-10-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

While the girls were getting ready, the boys were posing like professionals outside of the Isom Place, in front of what is normally an outhouse, but was out of order the day of the wedding. Seriously, check them out. Besides Andrew's obvious command of the photo, groomsman McRae was coming in at a pretty close second. (He's the one leaning against the window.) But everyone looked great.

And then, they took their jackets off! I am seriously in love with these photos.

I love all these guys! To the far left is Andrew's twin. Did you know he had a twin? Probs not, 'cause I didn't tell you. Andrew's dad was his best man, standing behind him on the right.

Then the girls entered the picture and posed on the front porch with our bouquets. Everyone looks quite beautiful, but as the photos to come will show, Andrew is quite the better model than his wife, who often stood awkwardly and stiffly.

We were lucky to have a venue with lots of cute photo settings. I had originally planned to go over to the Square (our town's downtown), but as I mentioned earlier, the heat index forced us to stay closer to the AC, even though the Square was literally across the street.

This is my favorite girls posed photo.

Then, after much confusion about how to transport ourselves to Rowan Oak, the next photo location (and William Faulkner's home--our town is William Faulkner-tastic), we began the rest of the portraits. With the help of our fans and rolls of paper towels (and a little Photoshopping, I'm not going to lie) we made it through. I saw a couple of the un-Photoshopped pics, and you can totally see sweat coming through the knees of Andrew's suit.

I stood awkwardly through multiple photos, but I do kind of love awkward photos. Why didn't I put my hand on my hip?! I say this in good humor because I love our pictures and how our photographer captured so much personality in each shot.

The beautiful house.

I don't usually like prom poses, but we did a few prom-esque ones, and I've got to admit, I kind of love them. A lot. Especially this one.

I love our wedding party so, so much. At this point Andrew and I both agreed that it just felt like we'd made all our friends get dressed up and take pictures. We should do this more often. Minus the extremely expensive wedding part and the required matching clothing. Andrew appears to have been getting tired in this one.

This is one of my favorites too! I had such a beautiful bridal party and such a lovely husband.

We stared off into the distance to contemplate at one point.

The boys and the bride.

And because I promised you kids an awkward photo:

After this, everyone piled into one of the cars and groomsman Jamie (second from left) kindly waited in his sweet air-conditioned 'Stang while Jenny took photos of just Andrew and me. Those photos are to come, and they are some of my favorite! I say this about all the photos, apparently.

*Photos courtesy of Jenny Anderson Photography

Pretty Flowers, Sweaters and Naps

2010-10-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has been Tuesday since I last blogged! Don't worry, I have a wedding recap coming this week and I plan to be more on top of things. This weekend was so relaxing, full of naps and food and movies, and it was just what I needed. It was the first sweater-worthy weather this season, and it was quite invigorating! A few scenes from the refreshing weekend:

Waiting for pizza on Saturday.

Cute bakery for Sunday breakfast with good friends.

Nurse A's delicious breakfast tacos.

Fall has come to our off-limits shed. (The landlord keeps glasses in there for the restaurant he owns. We think.)

Playing fetch with the pupster on Sunday.


Right before Sawyer took off across the yard and ate some things that shall not be named.


Pretty flowers growing alongside the house.

We also had a great lunch with the in-laws, and Andrew and I spent Sunday afternoon getting some work done and taking Sawyer on a long walk. I hope you all had as restful a weekend as I did! (I can't say "we" because Andrew is working on his thesis, so I got to sleep in while he made edits.) Happy Sunday night, and don't forget to stop by Mingle Monday over at Life of Meg tomorrow to find some fun new blogs to make the work week pass a little faster! (Not that I'd ever read blogs at work.)

Our Wedding, Part Two: Peeking

2010-09-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

I think it is really special for the bride and groom to see each other for the first time when the bride is walking down the aisle, but logistically that didn't work for us. Our ceremony and reception were in the same place, so we couldn't easily disappear for post-ceremony pictures, and also, the groomsmen had to immediately arrange the rental tables (which were hidden behind a brick wall) around the ceremony chairs, while the bridesmaids put flowers on the tables. (This sounds quite complicated but I hear tale that it actually went very smoothly.) So anyway, we did pictures before and I was so glad we did.

We had planned on having our first look on the balcony of a nearby bookstore, but it was so hot and kind of hard to be in the same house with Andrew (he was like two rooms away from the bride's room) and not accidentally bump into him. Also, I felt slightly nervous about having random bookstore-goers watch our moment. So we improvised and our photographer Jenny picked a very cute spot in the courtyard. I love how it turned out. And I love the look on Andrew's face. He made this face a lot during the day. What does it mean?

We couldn't believe it was actually happening. At this point the cake was all set up, the house was completely decorated and the caterers were setting up the buffet under a big white tent. Our vision had come together and it finally looked like a wedding! Oh yeah, and we were getting married!

Artsy shot.

Andrew had a really cute billy ball boutonniere to wear but for some reason the guys didn't put them on for pictures. They wore them during the ceremony, though.

Posin' for the camera. It was so good to finally see him. Seventeen hours apart is a long time!

When did you see each other for the first time? Did you do pictures before or after your ceremony? Stay tuned for our group portraits, coming up next!

*All photos by Jenny Anderson Photography

Our Wedding, Part One: Primping

2010-09-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

Our wedding turned out better than I could have ever imagined. We had about 100 guests, an acoustic duo, fried catfish, our best friends and family and tons of wedding cupcakes. Despite all the wedding planning we complained about in the last couple weeks before the big day, Andrew and I both agree we would do it over again in a minute. It seriously was that much fun.

So now the recaps begin! I'm excited to get to relive such a wonderful day in this small way and I hope you enjoy this glance into our wedding as much as I enjoy telling you about it!

We got married at the Isom Place, one of the oldest houses in our town. It was built in 1846 and is rumored to be the inspiration for William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily, but according to academics, that's most likely just local lore. I still think it's cool though. We found the venue about two weeks after we got engaged and knew it would set the perfect tone for our vintage-inspired, sweet summer wedding.

We had the whole downstairs of the house as well as the adorable backyard/courtyard area where the actual ceremony took place, but as I am a classy lady (contrary to what a Google search of my blog name might show), I chose to get dressed inside.

The Isom Place (Image borrowed from Mrs. S, of Poor is the New Black.)

My dress, however, hung outside in a tree for a moment so the fabulous Jenny Anderson (I can't say enough good things about our wonderful friend/photographer) could photograph it!

My mom and sister (my matron of honor, of course!) helped me get dressed while my bridesmaids waited outside for the big reveal. As you can tell, my dress was really simple to get into--it's actually a Melissa Sweet bridesmaid dress that came in ivory. (I interrupt this recap for a budget wedding tip: There are tons of bridesmaid dresses, long and short, that come in ivory, so that's definitely worth looking into! I just called a nearby Bella Bridesmaid and the saleswoman pulled all the dresses in the store that could be ordered in white or ivory.)

The only dress mishap we had was right before the ceremony when I bent down to put on my shoes (which in hindsight were freakishly tall) and the snap on the back popped off. My mom sewed it back on in like 20 seconds though, 'cause she's cool like that.

I did the whole "something new, something borrowed" thing and rocked some borrowed pearls from Andrew's mom, a blue "I Do" applique on the bottom of my shoes (that almost caused me to slip!), a brand new headpiece that I bought that morning at the hair salon and a sixpence in my shoe that Andrew's mom and grandmother wore on their wedding days. I like some tradition, what can I say?

Ash and I stared each other down, apparently. But we looked good doing it!

And then my bridesmaids came in! I love these girls. Aren't their dresses cute? Anthropologie, of course. The dresses set the tone for the whole wedding.

And that's it! Told you my getting ready didn't last very long. One last glance in the mirror (and photo op) later and I was ready for the first look with Andrew!

*All photos by Jenny Anderson Photography

Friday, I'm in Love

2010-09-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

It's Friday! A beautiful, gorgeous Friday with a full weekend stretching ahead. I woke up this morning excited about so many simple things!

A sweet Labrahound.

Strawberries and pears for breakfast! (Seriously, I am proud of these pears like we actually grew them instead of just renting the house with the tree!)

A visit from these lovely people and their eldest puppy, the Great White Fluff (aka, George).

Sprouts in the garden.

And last, but certainly not least ...

wedding pictures!

Which, of course, means wedding recaps! I can't wait. Here's a little preview of what's to come:


Photo by Jenny Anderson Photography

Got any fun plans this weekend? Happy Friday!

Thank You Note Therapy

2010-09-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

Nurse A and I have been married more than a month and let me tell you, we've been living up the non-wedding-planning life. Half-price sushi has replaced trips to the florist, and Instant Netflix has taken the time slot usually allotted for phone calls to the event rentals company about weird sized table cloths. It is a beautiful thing.

But we have one big wedding cloud hanging over our heads that we just can't shake because, well, we haven't done it yet: the thank-you notes. I am ashamed to admit that I have only sent out like 10 notes and Andrew has only written to his groomsmen. We had a big shower earlier on in the engagement and I did get those out in a timely manner, but following my lingerie shower in July I really dropped the ball. I wrote notes to all of the wonderful ladies who came and/or had a hand in putting it together, but writing the card is just half the battle. I never mailed them and then they were out of date. So I've been putting off writing thank-you notes because I need to write one to the lingerie shower guests and then another to said lingerie shower guest and wedding date for the wedding gift. Excuses, excuses, right? Because you all love to come home from a day at work and write thank you notes and I'm the only person in the world who would rather watch TV. But I'm seriously thankful for everyone who came to the wedding and/or sent a gift, which is another reason it takes me so long to get through thank-you notes--I don't want them to sound formulaic. But no more excuses.

Actually just one more excuse (because he's so darn cute. And so damn bad. He has eaten more than one thank-you note.)

Please note the pupster is leisurely enjoying a pizzle stick.

But everything changed today. I was making my usual blog stalking rounds, and two bloggers in a row had posted about finishing their thank-you notes! Laura, at Luckiest in Love, finished hers before her three-month anniversary date (at the rate I'm going it would be six months for us) and Katie at Spirals and Spatulas finished hers within 17 days. Seventeen days, people. I was inspired. And slightly ashamed. But for the most part inspired! I can't thank the ladies enough (maybe I should send a note?) for getting me into gear.

I didn't keep a spreadsheet with gifts and names like Katie did (what a great idea, by the way), but I did have a finalized guest list and this:

Alas, it is the Basket of Everything Thank-You Note. This is horrible, right? Inside you will find gift cards with quickly scrawled descriptions of the gifts and names of people who gave them, a variety of thank-you notes (I love these Target ones) and some cat stickers. (Don't be a hata--I used them tonight on the note to my sweet little flower girl!) And I apologize that everything I photograph is sitting on this table outside (also a thank-you-less wedding gift); I can only take decent pictures in natural light.

So yesterday night I organized the Basket of Everything Thank-You Note, wrote about 12 notes and am already feeling much more on top of things. I have a goal to get them all out before our two month anniversary on October 14. No more excuses. Although I do firmly believe that if I had a desk like this, I would not have a Father's Day card sitting in the door of my car.

How long did it take you to get your notes out? Did you think ahead and have a super-organized process or did you just hope everything would work out for the best? And did your dog ever eat any of your thank-yous?

Home Improvement

2010-09-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

At what point in life did home improvement projects become fun? Because I love them. Give me a Chick-fil-A lemonade and a trip to Home Depot and you've pretty much made my Saturday.

This weekend we put in our first-ever fall garden, which meant two trips to the garden center! Excitement.

We have a normal yard (the lawn mower broke recently while Andrew was cutting it though, so there is a mowed area about the size of a football field and the rest is kind of overgrown right now) and a stone ridge thing right outside our back door. Above that wall is the rest of the yard, which I like to describe as contained chaos. Andrew really wants to weed eat everything up there, but I like the look of it and we're always seeing a fat orange cat slinking around the great unknown. Also, we don't have a weed eater, so I win for now.

Anyway, we put our garden up in the wild area in a spot that had obviously been a veggie garden in the past. I had visions of raking up our supple earth, sprinkling in the seeds and marveling over our finished handiwork by lunchtime with full confidence that in the next few weeks we'd have fresh beets, lettuce and cabbage to dine on. Not so. When we got out to the area we picked for the garden, we found this:

Does that look like a garden to you? It was lots of weeds, a mix of powdery dirt and clay and just an overgrown garden plot in general. So we called my mom, gardener extraordinaire, and asked her what to do about our less-than-idea soil. She and my stepfather Steve spend a lot of time in the yard and stuff actually grows (in weird shapes, but still), which I consider a success. Here they are in their summer garden:

Sure enough, Mom was on her way to buy a peach tree and had some specific advice for our soil therapy: mix organic garden soil, manure (it comes in bags, who knew?) and later some organic fertilizer into the ground to help beef up the dirt. So off to Home Depot we went, where we picked up all of the above as well as a few broccoli plants and a cabbage (because why not?).

And thus, our quick weekend project turned into a two-day event. Fast forward a couple of hours hoein' it up in the garden.

Even Sawyer's friends wanted to help.

By the end of Saturday, we had a (for the most part) clear garden plot. Much better, right?

On Sunday afternoon we finally planted some of our seeds.

Voila!

Whether or not it will actually produce any veggies is beyond me, but we're trying our best! Check out that awesome cabbage. Will it live? Who knows. Have you ever tried to grow anything? Was in a disaster or a success? I've only ever had success growing jalapenos, which is that random green thing over by the birdbath.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Don't forget to start your week with Mingle Monday over at Life of Meg! It's such a fun way to find new blogs to read.

Looking Forward to Fall

2010-09-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

It's not quite fall here in Mississippi, but there are signs that cooler weather is definitely on its way. The early mornings are chilly (thanks to the pupster for getting me up at the crack of dawn!), leaves are noticeably changing and football season is in full swing. Needless to say, I'm excited. I'm looking forward to so many things. Here are a few of my favorites:

Steaming bowls of soup on a cold day.

Photo from here

Boots!

Frye Harness Boots
Photo from here

Cozy socks to go into said boots.

Image from here.

Halloween decorations.

Image from here

Front door Halloween decorations is my new obsession. I love all holidays (yes folks, I actually buy into Valentine's Day) and for the first time ever this year I am planning for trick-or-treaters! Growing up on an unpaved street with a fenced-in yard full of dogs was not conducive to little witches and skeletons and the like, so we always went to my grandmother's for seasonal festivites. So expect to see some Halloween decor posts in October!

I also love:

Hot chai lattes.

Source

Those crazy pumpkin leaf bags.

Source

And dogs in costume, of course!

Source

We're torn between dressing Sawyer in a hot dog outfit like this cute pup (but for some reason I am unwilling to choose between mustard and ketchup and I cannot rationally explain this), a doctor's scrubs (Target thinks of everything) or a Hawaiian shirt and lei. I'll keep you posted!

What's your favorite part of fall? Do you dress up your pets? My friend Willow dressed up her hermit crab as a witch once, and if I'm not mistaken, she won a prize. (Correct me if I'm wrong!)

Care for a Pear?

2010-09-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

Nurse A returned from his trip today and the first thing we did (after work and half-price sushi, of course) was pick pears from our tree! You see, the tree is right on the sidewalk and people tend to pick them as they stroll by (and pull up in their cars) so between that and the pear-loving deer, the bottom half of the tree is pretty bare now. We decided we better not wait any longer to bring in our pears. So Andrew got out the ladder and away we went.

Even Sawyer got in on the pear pickin' action.

The pears were so high up that Nurse A had to shake the tree. Sawyer and I ran around underneath collecting them in our crate.

One busted during the fall and Sawyer claimed it as his own. (On a side note, the pupster appears to be growing jowls!)

And then we had a crate full of pears!

It was much more exciting than it probably should have been and everyone was merry.

We stacked them in our windowsill for now.

Please note the tiny Sawyer-shaped wine stopper to the right of this picture, courtesy of Mrs. S of Poor is the New Black.

So now we have lots of pears and a weekend at home coming up. What should we do with them? My mom makes pears and goat cheese over lettuce with toasted walnuts (which is insanely good, but I'm not sure if these hard pears would work well for that). Or maybe we'll make a pear and apple slaw. I've heard that pie made with hard pears is good as well and tastes like an apple pie, but hubs doesn't really like pies that much. If you have any delicious pear recipes, please let us know!