happy halloween!

so halloween is my favorite holiday and october my favorite month.  the leaves begin changing into vibrant oranges, yellows, and reds.  everyone decorates with pumpkins, gourds, skeletons, and ghosts.  children dressed up in their costumes.....  i just love halloween!  sadly, i don't expect us to have any trick-or-treaters, as our house is located on a gravel road minutes away from town.  not to mention, our closest neighbors are a mile away; and I don't recall seeing children at the house anyway.  so... no trick-or-treaters :( but i won't let that stop me from having a fabulous halloween!

while we won't have trick-or-treaters, we will be having some friends over.  every halloween, the country club here has a costume party, and they have a band. so we are going to that, but first we will pre-game, if you will, here... appetizers, drinks, and of course desserts!  i'm pretty excited b/c i love having little get-togethers at our house!! and i love cooking in general, so making food for all of our get-togethers is lots of fun for me! i'm making a blt cheeseball, pumpkin whoopie pies, black, bat shaped sugar cookies, and pilsbury sugar cookies (the ones pre-cut with the halloween pictures/designs).  and i'm still considering making baked hushpuppies--it's the deen brothers' recipe and while they look delicious, they also look like mini cornbread muffins (you make the baked hushpuppies in a mini muffin tin). so, i'm just not quite sure yet.

 so... now the question is what will julius and i dress up as?  and yes, i do understand that it is halfway through the day before halloween, and we still have no costumes.  this is not unusual behavior for me... i'm always late in some form or fashion. anywho, we'll think of something.... hopefully :)

ok, well i hope everyone (ha.. like a bunch of people are reading this. all my fans ha :) has a safe and happy halloween!!

oh yeah, i know i've been slacking on recipes on fridays--this makes the 2nd friday in a row. so i'm going to post a couple of recipes soon.

mid-week/weekend recap

i've been pretty busy since the last time i blogged.  julius' mom, mrs. kathy, and i went to memphis last wednesday for a day of shopping.  it was lots of fun (as usual), but i was exhausted (as usual) after.  anywho, i found some good stuff... mostly got clothes for the honeymoon, which we leave for 2 weeks from today!

so... wednesday, we shopped. thursday, i rested. friday, julius was off so we actually got to spend an entire day together!  we were lazy and watched movies (i love you, man & adventureland).  ju went hunting friday afternoon; alli came over, and we decided to indulge in wine starting at about 5:30.  her boyfriend, seth, came over; ju killed a 9 pt (with his bow); then we ordered supper from our favorite place, 3 way.  saturday was a big time cleaning day for us.  ju was off again, so he tackled outside--the yard, cleaning off front and back porches, etc.  i stayed inside and scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed the shower--all i can say is that i will never ever let our shower get that bad again! it took about an hour worth of hard scrubbing before it was satisfactory to me.  my other big task of saturday was to clean out/organize the guest bedroom/office.  ok, this room has been our dumping grounds ever since the house was ready.... surely you can get a mental image of a small room crammed full of boxes, wedding gifts, and the furniture that resides in the room.  it took me at least 2 hours to get everything organized and cleaned out.  ju took 9 boxes to storage; we took several boxes, along with towels and sheets/comforters, to bear lake (hunting camp); and many a boxes to the trash.  but it feels good to walk in this room now and actually be able to see the floor!

the main reason for us going into maniac cleaning mode on saturday was that my parents came yesterday to visit :)  i was so excited they wanted to come!  it was great to see them.  and it wasn't really that we thought my parents would care about any of our messes, it was more just the fact that these things needed to be done for a while now--my parents' coming just gave us the nudge we needed to get started.

my parents also brought our wedding gift.....  irobot roomba 560!!!

i have been wanting a roomba for a while now.  and on friday, the vacuum cleaner i had, which was pretty old anyway, died--i was vacuuming, then started smelling something. so i cut off the vacuum, went to where it was plugged up (i guess i went here just to make sure it wasn't on fire or something), then went back to cut it on and it blew black smoke out of each side then died.  so, the roomba's arrival sunday was perfect timing! 

we have used ruby (that's the roomba's name.. ruby roomba) twice now and she's done a great job. so far, we are very happy with ruby :) 

today on the agenda is laundry and flowerbeds.  mrs. kathy and i are going to give the flowerbeds a face lift today ;)  we planted the beds right when the house was ready-so a few months ago-and all was well for a while, but a combination of me not being the best plant owner and the flooding it's done here these past 2 months have murdered most of our plants :(  so mrs. kathy and i are going to fix the flowerbeds!  i'm trying to get into gardening---and slowly but surely, i am.

happy monday!

reminiscing italia

i'm feeling better today.  still am coughing some and still have some congestion, but i'm much better than i was!  thank goodness!  ok, time to reminisce...

the year was 2008. the month was march.  katie was studying abroad in florence, italy.  so julius and i decided we would go visit her during spring break. wow! it was a blast!! italy is amazing.. here are some pictures to prove it :)

ju and i in venice with the pigeons

again with the pigeons

venice... skull artwork

ju and i in venice

how awesome is this?! a mosaic made out of pure gold.

ju and bailey in venice with the pigeons

(one of my fav pics of the boys)

typical venice pic

at the vatican museum in vatican city

the sistine chapel

(we weren't supposed to take pictures, but we snuck one... which is why it's blurry)

ceiling in the vatican museum

fountain in front of the vatican

the vatican

front of the vatican

trevi fountain in rome

me and ju at the colosseum in rome

from the very top of the colosseum

'roman' outside the colosseum... 10 euros per picture!
(we took 4!)

again

in pisa... smallest car ever

still in pisa... smallest truck

leaning tower of pisa

graffiti on a building in pisa

2nd day in italy. we spent the day in sienna, and it rained all day. so when we got back to florence, we decided to go out.. what better to do after a day of rainy sightseeing.  we ended up going to one of the most awesome bars/pubs ever.

so.. at this awesome pub, we got pretty drunk. ok, really drunk.  as we were walking back to the hotel, i decided that i wanted to skip on the cobble stone... umm, skipping on wet cobble stone = me falling

the duomo in sienna

(duomo is the italian term for 'cathedral church')

our trip to italy was so much fun!  it was definitely a learning experience.  now, we can check 'italy' off the list!  where to go next in europe??  france, spain, netherlands.... hmm, good thing no decision needs to be made in the near future :)

sick sunday :(

i hate being sick. but then again, who really likes being sick?! anyway, i'm sick, and i hate it.  it started around last thursday, my sinuses started acting up--that's all i thought it was.  until saturday.  i began to feel it in my chest :(  so here we are today-sunday-still not feeling well. at least i can breathe through my nose again (which just happened late yesterday evening). but still, congestion sucks. not to mention, it hurts when you have what i like to call a 'coughing spell.'  so today, since i'm feeling sick, i have done nothing but look at places to honeymoon--no, we still haven't booked it. when you're married to a farmer, farming comes first (actually, ju's dad said we could of course go right after the wedding, but ju, being the great worker/son that he is, said he wanted to stay until they were finished since it's his first year.) so we decided to wait until the 2nd week in november.  i have been going back and forth for months now trying to decide where for us to go----punta cana, dominican republic or st. james, barbados or tulum, mexico (where the resort is mere minutes away from the mayan ruins) or st. lucia or the french riveria (which is what i wanted, but ju told me that he wanted to go to the beach where they spoke english. i just said ok, even though not everyone in the dominican republic or mexico or barbados or wherever speak english.).  anyway, today was the day to make a decision.  we're going to punta cana, dominican republic and staying at dreams punta cana resort and spa.  i'm extremely excited!! white sands, clear blue water, just me and ju.... ahh, i absolutely cannot wait!!  only a few weeks until we are there :)

back to reality.... being sick. ugh.  as i'm writing this blog, i'm drinking a large mug of chicken broth.  i love chicken broth when i'm sick... it just makes me feel better somehow.  my aunt, who's a nurse, says that it's scientifically proven that something in chicken broth helps you get better.  whether that's actually true or not, i like to believe it.  ju just went into work :(  they are so behind b/c of all the rain.  the sun is out-full force, so they're going to be cutting corn-full force!  hopefully, we can have an entire week filled with sunshine!  wouldn't that be nice?!  according to the weather channel, we should have sun until like friday, i think. anywho, hopefully it will stay sunny, so they can finish cutting everything.

(obviously this isn't julius or anyone of their farm, but you get the picture)

alright, well back to getting better/being extremely lazy!

chicken broth, hot tea, and rest ought to do the trick!

HOTTY TODDY

as i'm sitting here, i can only think of the grove at ole miss. ahh, the grove!  nothing else like it (no, not even 'the junction' at state--sorry state fans, but nothing compares to the grove :).  i wish i were in the grove today.  even though it's cool, the sun is finally out! hooorraaayy!  the grove is perfect on days like this!  oh, how i wish i were there :)

even though i'm not in the grove, it's still going to be a great day!  julius and his dad are coming home this morning from their hunting trip (i guess i haven't mentioned that he left 2 days ago for their trip..... now that might explain all the blogging).  and tonight, we are going over to his parents house to grill out fresh shrimp from key west!! i love shrimp! anywho, even though i/we can't be in the grove today, we will still have a fabulous saturday grilling out fresh key west shrimp! oh, and enjoying this beautiful sun :)))

HOTTY TODDY REBELS!!!! BEAT UAB!!

Let's Get Cooking...

first of all... yes, i am aware that i may have used this expression as quite possibly the corniest blog title ever. but look at the logo i found. i bet either the title, confession, or logo somehow made you smile or at least half-smile. anybody??    :)

second, i love cooking so much that i thought i might share some of my recipes, as well as some of my cooking experiences, on fridays.  why i picked friday? (maybe b/c today is friday?)  no idea.  but here we go.

easy beef potpie (or what i like to call 'vegetable and beef casserole')
it's super easy and includes vegetables and meat.. which makes it awesome not only for it's simplicity and ease, but also for it's delicious flavor. plus, you're getting your vegetables and beef in one dish.. not to mention, crescent rolls on top and as a side :)

11/2  pounds lean ground beef

2 8 oz pkgs of reduced-fat crescent rolls

2 cups refrigerated diced potatoes (i use fresh potatoes..  peel, cut, slice about 2 or 3, then boil them with    butter, salt, and pepper--just to soften them a bit b/c the first time i made this, i didn't boil them first and whilethe casserole was done, the potatoes weren't quite there yet.)

1/2  onion (can use a whole if you like), diced

2 cups loose-pack frozen mixed vegetables

1 15 oz  can of italian-style or regular sauce

1 14 1/2 oz  can italian-style stewed tomatoes, undrained (i use regular petite diced tomatoes instead.. call me crazy for doing it, but i'm not really a fan of tomatoes-there's just great to cook with, as well as required in many recipes. so the last thing i want is huge hunks of stewed tomatoes in my casserole.)

2 teaspoons sesame seeds (i don't use these at all.. neither julius nor myself enjoy sesame seeds enough to actually incorporate them into a meal i/we prepared.)

preheat oven to 400. boil the diced potatoes with butter, salt, and pepper in a medium pot for 20ish minutes. meanwhile,  in a large skillet, pour a smallish amount (think quarter of a cup or so) of olive oil over low heat-just to get it started-and add the diced onion.  allow to cook for about 5 minutes, while increasing the heat every few (to eventually reach medium).  add ground beef and cook over medium heat until cooked through, using a wooden spoon to break up meat as it cooks; drain off fat.  stir mixed vegetables, drained potatoes, tomato sauce, and undrained stewed/petite diced tomatoes into meat mixture.  bring to boiling--i then allow it to boil, while stiring occasionally, for about 5 to 7 minutes.  while mixture is boiling, unroll crescent rolls and fit to baking dish (9 x 13) using fingers to press and stretch and all that good stuff.  spoon mixture into baking dish.  bake uncovered for 15 minutes.  after the 15 minutes, remove from oven and add second can of crescent rolls to the top--just as before, use fingers to stretch, etc so they will cover (or mostly cover) the top of the casserole.  return to oven for another 10ish minutes or until the crescent roll top is golden brown.

be sure to let cool for about 10 minutes before serving. 

also, if you like-and we do like, as we are a crescent roll family-bake an additional can of crescent rolls on a separate pan and brush with butter first... just to add a little side to the casserole :)

i wish i had taken a picture last night, but i didn't. so next time, i'll be sure to do that just for the blog!

Happy Housewife

Desperate Happy Housewife

So, as of right now, I don't have a job--well, a paying job that is. I think people tend to underestimate the value of a housewife! I mean, it's not like I just sit at home all day watching tv! I'm working too! Here's my typical routine:

*wake up when ju does (anywhere from 5:30 to 7:30, but sometimes I allow myself to sleep in til 8:30)
*breakfast, shower and get ready, etc
*wash 1st load of clothes
*dust (yes, I dust almost every day)
*vacuum (yes, I try my best to vacuum the entire house every day (not that the house is that big :))
*straighten up house--put things where they belong, that sort of thing
*straighten up porch (Ellie thinks it's her duty to drag-every shoe that's outside, along with the flyswatter and magazine that's she has torn to shreds and her toys-all over the porch, to the side of the house, to the tree in the yard, etc etc)
*lunch while attempting to find something on tv (daytime television absolutely sucks!)
*wash next load of clothes
*clean bathroom--counters and toilet just about every day; shower every so often
*start thinking about supper--it seems as though I take a trip into town to the grocery store every couple of days :(
*now comes my tv time--around 2 or 3 (I keep things recorded on the DVR in the bedroom)
*wait for ju to get home (if he's at work)--wash another load of clothes, if needed; start cooking supper, fold all clothes, etc

So my point is... I just don't sit around and do nothing all day!  Ok, ok.. I'll get off my soapbox now!  :)

Seriously though, I am very much enjoying being married (and a happy housewife for now). It's so wonderful to be able to go to sleep and to wake up next to my husband!  I just keep thinking how blessed we are!  I am also enjoying cooking, so it's great to be able to cook Julius breakfast and have supper ready for him when he comes in--I try to wait until he's about to be home, no matter the time, to have it ready--but sometimes, if it's really late and I'm absolutely starving, I just have to go ahead.  All this cooking is a result of no job (happy housewife :).  Another thing that's wonderful is that I'm here to do whatever needs to be done. For example, thank you notes-which have been ordered, but aren't ready yet, laundry, straightening up, running to the store-either in town or to Batesville to Walmart (yes, we have to drive 20ish minutes to get to a Walmart) or to Southaven to Sam's-or to town to the bank or whatever... just any little thing that needs to be done, I have the time to do it.  I am in control.  That might be one of the main positives to me of not working... the control that you have.  When I used to work, all I could think about in every free minute I had was what I needed to be doing--at that time, it was wedding planning! I would make list after list of what I had to do when I got home or to Charleston.  Perhaps lists are another thing that helps me be in control. 

Alright, well I guess I've rambled enough for now :)  That's the thing (or perhaps beauty) with a blog... Sometimes, you don't have anything to say; other times, you can't shut up so you just ramble.  Ahh.. how there's a pro and con for everything.

more pictures

me with my new family :)

ju with his new family :)

julius and bradley (his bro in law)

me with my bridesmaids

ju and his groomsmen

Julius and Adam

Dad bringing me my bouquet

me and daddy almost to ju :)

me and daddy about to walk down the aisle

saying goodbye to mawmaw (Teresa's mom)

leaving the reception

saying goodbye to my heart, pru :)

C, Lindz, Pru, Hol

Leanna, Lindsay, Holly

(bathroom pic :)

Just wanted to put a few more pics up. I'll share the wedding pics website with you as soon as they are all up!

Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Thursday!!! Yay for almost Friday :)