A year ago today-wedding day

May 30, 2010

A year ago today I married a guy who holds my hand as we walk through Target. Not because he is being sweet, but to keep an eye on me to prevent shopping impulses.
He also breaks glasses and attempts to hide it, but I keep a count on these things. Somehow we are short on silverware...but he swears he doesn't know what happened to them. Must be our "house troll".
The same guy is apparently taking the whereabouts of the missing Paula Dean Soup Crock to his grave. I know he broke it...but he has no idea where that went either.
He puts up with my craziness though, so I guess I can forgive the fact that he manages to lose my dishes and forks. And the good Lord knows I have a lot more crazy in me than any Paula Dean Soup Crock can hold.
But I love him and that is what matters. Plus the fact that he is a lot taller than anyone in my immediate family helps to increase offspring height potential. Okay that was a slightly Darwin thought, but survival of the fittest tends to do that to short people.

Sorry people if you want sappy you'll have to find another ex-wedding blog that is celebrating an anniversary. J tries to be romantic but it doesn't work out well being married to me.
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Yesterday-2009

The infamous wedding book. It was the best idea anyone had given me, and it contained every detail, phone number and address for any and everyone involved from vendors to guest. And pics of everything  I liked or wanted for the wedding. 
The flower girl and ring bearer had a blast playing in the rocks. 
Our college pastor Whit and Jeremy.
The crazy groomsmen. 
Me and Regina Charboneau directing the whole deal. If you want to get married in Natchez go to her. She is an amazing chef and her plantation home Twin Oaks is one of my favorite in town. Fun fact about  Regina, her son says she has catered things for the Rolling Stones. 
My two best friends Gabby and Brittany harassing my sister as uaual. I feel so sorry for our siblings.
Nanny, Pop, and Mom. What was with all the black ladies?
The girls got a kick out of the flask I put in their gift, except for my underage sister who laughing because she got a juice box.
Technically we were married on the 29th but we dated it the 30th. In Mississippi you have to do blood work to get married...and I don't do needles. So I got married in Louisiana the day before haha.


Well that is the whole rehearsal day in photos. Now for the stress free wedding. 
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Schools {nearly} Out for Summer!

May 27, 2010

This week has been insane. I've always heard end of the year stuff at school is crazy, but I have never done so much paperwork in my life. Well, as much paperwork as I can. iLEAP scores aren't released for our grade until tomorrow/last teacher day, and after they are and we can meet with the SBLC{pass/fail} committee we can file our stuff and head out to start our summer. Or in my case head to the theater to see Sex and the City 2. Oh I am so excited about this movie! 
When I saw the first one, not only was it the premiere, but Jeremy was lucky enough to be on a mission trip in Africa and totally skipped out on the whole thing. Poor thing just may get taken along for the ride this time....and have to deal with my crazy self. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the first one, but I cry every time. 


On another note. I will hopefully have a post up about last weekend but here is a sneak peak.
The first of 7 wedding will will have attended by the end of the summer. Apparently it is "the" year to get married. It would be 8 but my cousin is getting married the same day as a co-worker of mine and the same day as a good friend's bridal shower. This is all making me think a best wedding of the summer award may be in order haha. It sure will be hard to top the second wedding we attended last weekend though;)

How many weddings are y'all attending this summer?
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Today A Year Ago-wedding week recap

May 24, 2010

Monday the week of my wedding I put off going to Vidalia to go to the lake with all of my friends for Memorial Day. So to kick off our one year wedding anniversary here are a few pics of how we started off that week.

{my photog Jennifer and I riding in the front of the boat...surprised we didnt fall out}


{me hanging out in Jer's hammock...I miss being that tan}


I can't wait for summer to hit for two reasons. 1-Ethan {the guy driving the boat} and Becca{the blonde in the first pic are getting married. 2-Lake days.

Weird how fast life can change. Today last year was my first weekday after quitting Restaurant Sage to start grad school classes. Today a year later I am ending my first year as a teacher and about to start my second round of summer grad classes at ULM. 
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Dog Etiquette

May 22, 2010

After a conversation with a fellow daschund loving friend this week it got me thinking. Ya see, we were discussing the potential for a daschund play date, whose house to have it at, and who to invite. The who to invite is always the problem. People will claim all day long they have such a sweet and loving dog and when you come in contact with their pup it turns out to be a total wack job. Considering her Lenny is 9 we don't want to invite anyone with a wack-a-doo dog. Here is a list of owner myths and walking tips we hit on while talking:

Big Massive Myth Numero Uno:

Person: "Does your dog bite?"
Owner: "No, my (wack-a-doo) dog has never bitten anyone."
Person: (then proceeds to be bitten by the dog)

You dog may not bite you, but it such as heck will bite someone else. Yes I am the first to admit, Ellie and Maddie have never bitten anyone, but that doesn't mean they won't. It just means the person they would like to bite hasn't shown up and made them feel the need to attack. The sweet girl at the vet always asks me if Ellie will bite to which I always reply "No, but there is always a first." I love my girls like they are my children, but like some wack job kids, they are still animals and could be unpredictable if provoked. So if you have a dog and someone feels uncomfortable around it, respect the person and put the dog up.

Tip #1
Invest in a baby gate. I had to buy one after Jeremy gave the the wonderful anniversary gift of a manic teething Maddie. She had a taste for carpet and I wanted my deposit back on my Townhouse. Locking her out of the living room was the best thing I ever did. The gate comes in really handy now because we have two doggie doors, one in the laundry room that opens to the kitchen. When Jeremy leaves for work he shuts one doggie door and gates the laundry room. The pups then have access to water and food in the laundry room, plus shelter if it is too hot or bad weather, and free roam of the backyard all day. Which they love by the way. We have also had people come over and timid Maddie gets uncomfortable so we put her over the baby gate till she chills out. Last thing I need is a kid provoking my "hasn't bitten yet dogs" into the "wack-a-doo" club.

Myth #2:
If someone has a dog they must like all dogs, especially your dog.

So not true. Nothing makes me more uncomfortable than a dog I think is unpredictable or that I just flat out don't know. If this is the case with your guest revert to tip number 1 and lock the dog up. Nothing is worse than house guest that are obviously uncomfortable and it is easily fixable.

***Note: A larger baby gate will be needed to lock your mother-in-law in the laundry room, she can probably jump over the regular one. {just kidding people don't have a cow}

For instance, I try to walk the girls everyday, but sometimes the weather/stray dogs get in the way of that. The other day I took Maddie out, made it maybe two houses down and saw a huge Boxer roaming around. FYI I had a Boxer named Sammie who lived to the ripe old age of nine and I loved her to death. But this random unknown big dog wandering around makes me unconfortable, especially with 10 pound timid Maddie. I'd hate to provoke some dog that is bigger than us to attack or chase us home.

On the other hand...

Tip #2

When walking a dog, make sure you restrain it when passing a fellow walker/runner or just get on the whole other side of the road if you aren't sure how the dog will react.

I've taken Ellie walking a million times and every time she sees it her civil duty to kill all runners, kids on bikes, motorcycles, and recently an old man on a motorized scooter. Ellis has a conpletely different personality from Maddie, she thinks she is a 200 pound dog and will attack and kill anything in her way. This explains why I was attacked by a huge lab that Ellie provoked. Just so happens the couple that lives behind us has a 120 pound German Shepard. I only weigh 5 pounds more than that dog! And all of that leads me to this...I took Ellie walking the other day and turned the corner to nearly come face to face with the old man that weighs less than his massive dog and couldn't decided if I wanted to A. Run B. Pick up Ellie and run, because we both know she isn't running anywhere or C. Cross to the other side of the street in hopes it would ignore us. We crossed to the other side of the street by the way. After we crossed the dog crossed too, so we crossed again. The old man never saw us, but his dog sure did. Luckily I was able to keep my nutty daschund from doing her "I'm gonna beat you up bark" and managed to keep myself from having to hop a fence to get away.

Well that is all I have time for today, Old Navy is having their huge Memorial Day sale and I have got to go stand in line. If you have any other tips and myths let me know I think I may do a follow up post on this.

Have a great Saturday!
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Food and Thoughts

May 18, 2010

So obviously it is wedding season, and it is in full swing. This weekend we have too weddings to go to...one of which I am super excited about because my friend Ryan {who I've know literally since kindergarten}  found a wonderful lady to marry. I am so happy for him!

Jeremy went with Ryan and his friends to his paintball bachelor party. Apparently guys enjoy shooting the mess out of each other...I would have loved to shoot the mess out of Jer. He is a lot of paintball shaped marks all over his body by the way haha.
I just love that my husband got the chance to get to know a really good friend I've had my entire life. It may seem kind of odd to some people that a girl had so many guy friends growing up but that was just our little group...me, Ryan, Jody, Travis, and their little sisters...and whoever else we could drag along on our adventures.

...................

We tried a new recipe Saturday night from the Southern Living 2009 Annual Recipes book.

Flank Steak Sandwiches w/ Blue Cheese


Herb Marinated Flank Steak:


Ingredients-
1/2 small onion
3 garlic cloves
1/4 c olive oil
2 tbsp basil
1 tbsp thyme
q tbsp rosemary
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 3/4 lb flank steak
1 lemon


Directions-
Place first 8 ingredients in a zip-top plastic bag, and squeeze bag to combine. Add steak; seal bag, and chill 30 mins to 1 and a half hours. Remove steak from marinade and discard marinade. 


Preheat grill to 400 degrees. Grill steak 9 mins on each side. Remove from grill and squeeze lemon juice over steak.


Flank Steak Sandwiches


Ingredients-
2 large onions
4tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 red bell peppers
6 2-3oz ciabatta or deli rolls split
5oz soft ripened blue cheese
1 1/2 c arugula
Herb-Marinated Flank Steak
6tbsp mayo


Directions-

Preheat grill to 400° to 450° (high) heat. Cut onion into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Brush with 1 Tbsp. olive oil, and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Cut bell peppers into 1-inch-wide strips. Place pepper strips in a   large bowl, and drizzle with 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper; toss to coat.
Grill onion and bell pepper strips, covered with grill lid, over 400° to 450° (high) heat 7 to 10 minutes on each side or until lightly charred and tender.
Brush cut sides of rolls with remaining 2 Tbsp. olive oil, and grill, cut sides down, without grill lid, over 400° to 450° (high) heat 1 to 2 minutes or until lightly browned and toasted.
Spread blue cheese on cut sides of roll bottoms; top with arugula, bell pepper strips, steak, and onion. Spread mayonnaise on cut sides of roll tops. Place roll tops, mayonnaise sides down, on top of onion, pressing lightly.
{My camera is dead ;( so here is the link to the Southern Living pic above. Source}
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The Past Week {via Droid}

May 15, 2010

Mother's Day weekend was great...too bad I didn't get a warning about what my work week would look like.

On the ride down the dogs decided staring at me from the back seat was appropriate for the adventure. You'd think I was blocking their beloved front seat with that look.
While I was playing with the fat baby at the Single Mom's Day Out at church Jeremy was working. Sounds sad right. No. He waited on Jeremy Shockey{The Saints} and got a football autographed.

As you may have seen on Twitter, my wet dogs took to the activity mat. Apparently they needed tummy time.

Saturday night we took chunky Joshua to listen to Pop play music. That fat little thing loves music and dancing with me almost as much as he loves Pop carrying him around.

He has also developed a shoe fetish. He is OBSESSED with anything you put on his feet. Hence the video of him refusing to stand because he wanted to get to his shoes.



Sunday we took him to church where he decided to eat through the whole service, therefore containing Laura and I to the cry room where we were peed on and spit up on. No pics of that but trust me we were soaking wet.
......................................
I'd love to post on here what went down but you never know who reads these things...yeah last week was THAT stupid. In case you were wondering what a crapy work week manifest itself into with me here ya go.

An extra stupid day = Chocolate Cobbler.

  • Ingredients
  • 1 cup All-purpose Flour
  • 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • ¼ teaspoons Salt
  • 7 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder, Divided
  • 1-¼ cup Sugar, Divided
  • ½ cups Milk
  • ⅓ cups Melted Butter
  • 1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • ½ cups Light Brown Sugar, Packed
  • 1-½ cup Hot Tap Water

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
First stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, 3 tablespoons of the cocoa, and 3/4 cup of the white sugar. Reserve the remaining cocoa and sugar.
Stir in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Mix until smooth.
Pour the mixture into an ungreased 8-inch baking dish. I prefer my small oval Corning Ware glass dish.
In a separate small bowl, mix the remaining white sugar (it should be 1/2 cup), the brown sugar, and remaining 4 tablespoons of cocoa. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter.
Pour the hot tap water over all. DO NOT STIR!
Bake for about 40 minutes or until the center is set.


Oh just one question. Who on earth sleeps like this?
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Second Try

Well I hate to do this but after not being able to contact the last winner of the "I Will Carry You" book giveaway I talked it over with Whitney and I decided to draw a new winner.


So...Denise Cannedy is my second try winner!


Denise-if you will email me your address to emmaanne04{at}yahoo{dot}com I will get this book out to you as soon as possible!
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{sigh}

May 11, 2010

I just took my last final of the Spring semester.
Do I know where I stand grade wise?
Heck no, these people are worse at grading papers than I am.

Sigh.

Thank God that is over. I was sure I'd stroke out before today...guess it didn't happen.
But work isn't over.

Sigh.

Dang Spring making kids all crazy and stuff. Dang it.

Sigh.

I swear, on some kid's recess, I will post about Mother's Day weekend as soon as I figure out how to get my pics off of the Droid.

Dang technology confusing me all the time.

Side note: I don't like voice mail, I don't want voice mail, I've never had voice mail...and I sure don't see the point. If I don't answer I will call you back if I feel like it...and if I don't then apparently I never wanted to talk to you in the first place.

And don't pretend you don't all think the same about calling people back.

2 weeks and 3 days until my 1 week of Summer break before Summer Session 1 starts.
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Giveaway Winner

May 9, 2010

The "I Will Carry You" book winner is Rachel Ratliff
Rachel, if you will email me your address I will get the book to you as soon as possible.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Mother's Day!
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Show Us Your Life-Future Kids Names

May 7, 2010

Even though kids are no where in the near future I am playing along at Kelly's Korner this week and the topic is "kid's names".
Show Us Your Life with Kelly's Korner

It will take a lot for me to say that I want to actually get pregnant considering I am so freaked out by needles that when I went with Laura for her appointments I was squeamish. Here are a few names I like, remember, Jeremy is not on par with any of them. Who knows what he wants to name kids but it isn't these names. I have already warned him though that if he puts up a fight I will fake like he is stressing me out and get him kicked out of the room. Aren't I a nice wife haha?

Girl:
Ella Grace-all time favorite till someone I know decided to steal it. 
Piper Luz- Luz is my Paternal grandmother's middle name
Amelia Nannette-if someone steals this one I'll hunt them down

Boy:
Jack
Abram
Gabe-love it but a good friend named her son Gabriel

Hopefully boys aren't in my future...I don't like boy names, clothes, or anything for that matter. 


Don't forget about the book giveaway that lasts until Sunday!
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"I Will Carry You" Giveaway

May 4, 2010

By now you have heard of this book right?

Well if you haven't, then now you have. Angie is just awesome and Audrey's story is so amazing and sweet it will just make you cry. Just ask Whitney

And that brings me to the giveaway! Whitney of PrettyWhitty.com had the great idea to do a joint giveaway with me in honor of Audrey and to hopefully touch someone's life with this wonderful book. There is just one thing though, once you read the book we want you to do a giveaway on your blog or to just give the book away and to encourage who you give it to, to continue to read it and then give it away to touch someone else's heart.

So, if you can promise you won't keep this book to yourself after your done reading it you can enter our little giveaway! Here is the next thing, we are both signing our names to the inside cover, and we want everyone who reads this copy we are circulating around to sign it as well. Whitney and I just think it would be super cool to see how many women are touched with a single copy of this wonderful book.

Here is how to enter:

You can get a total of 4 entires, 2 on my blog and 2 on Whitney's blog Pretty Whitty.

1st entry on both are totally free, just leave a comment.
2nd entry comes with a price, become a follower of the blog your entering your second entry on and leave a comment saying your a follower!

In honor of Angie's blog and all of her Sunday's {you should become one too, it's what she calls her followers} we are leaving the giveaway up until Sunday. Sometime Sunday evening we will gather our stuff and pick a winner through the random number generator. Just so ya know, one blog will start the 1-whatever and the next will pick up with the last number through whatever then enter in the generator.

So please help us to spread Audrey's amazing story and the love of our awesome God! It would be awesome if we were able touch just 50 women's lives by reading and sharing this book with others.

Love y'all! Thanks for entering our giveaway!
Emily @LABride  & Whitney @whitneymolder

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Sunday Lunch-Chicken & Sausage Creole

May 2, 2010

No pic of the food this time. Poor camera has died, not totally, but the battery needs charging.

Chicken and Sausage Creole
Ingredients:
1 lb chicken
1 lb of cajun sausage
2 cups of seasoning blend
28oz can crushed tomatoes
4 cups of cooked {Brown}rice
1 clove of garlic
1/4 c whorstershaire sauce
2 tbsp cajun seasoning
2 tbsp parsley
1 tsp sugar


Directions
Dice chicken and sausage and saute in a large pot with seasoning blend until chicken is cooked well. Add garlic, cajun seasoning, whorstershaire sauce, and parsley. Cook for 1 min until garlic is softened. Add crushed tomatoes and sugar. Cover and simmer for 20 to 30 mins. Serve with rice. 
Serves 4-6


I also made peach cobbler and The Pioneer Woman's rolls with this. 

{image source}

What did y'all do or lunch today?
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