a weekend away

A couple of weekends ago, Andrew and I headed up to Blairsville for a long weekend. I've never been up into the North Georgia mountains and Andrew only went as a kid when they went camping. We were excited to take Lizzey and have a weekend away from home, just hanging out together.

I knew from the time we pulled up that we chose the right place. It was low-cost with a partial wrap around porch and a fenced in back yard for Lizzey to enjoy. Not to mention that it had a beautiful creek running right behind it.


The first night, Thursday, we had dinner on the way up, unpacked, took some pictures and then listened to the creek from the hot tub.

The next day, Friday, we went into Blue Ridge, had some BBQ and spent some time in the cute downtown area. We went into a couple of antique stores and there were some fun finds.


And then we went to see the trains.

Then we went home and spent the rest of the day on the back porch getting some sun and reading our books. Not to mention that I took a few more pictures in the back yard.





On Saturday, we decided to hike up to Brasstown Bald which is the highest point in Georgia. Lizzey loved the hike, we enjoyed the scenery and had a picnic afterward.





After the hike we went back to the cabin and, just like the day before, hung out on the back porch, got some sun and read the day away. It was a lot of fun to hang out, see Lizzey enjoy having a lot of time outside and spend some quality time with my hubby.


We totally plan on going back. It would be such a fun place to go with some other couples in the summer so that we can tube down the river, hike some cool trails and spend some real time together. Can't wait!

to Blairsville and back

A on porch a photo by paldavsav on Flickr.

We just got back from a long weekend in Blairsville, GA. Here is a pic I took just after we arrived. More to come...

Mini Oreo Cheesecakes

Andrew and I had dinner with his classmate Deepa and her husband Wes the other night. We had a great time chatting, eating Deepa delicious pasta dish and playing with their boxer Addie. I took dinner and ended up trying a new recipe.

Mini Oreo Cheesecakes


2 (8oz) packages cream cheese
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
12 OREO cookies

-heat oven to 350 degrees
-beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until well blended. add eggs, 1 at a time, beating on low speed after each just until blended
-place 1 cookie in bottom of each paper-lined muffin cup. fill with batter
-bake 20 minutes or until centers is almost set. cool. refrigerate 3 hours.



We tried them before they were really cooled and they tasted more like custard than cheesecake. After they had been in the fridge for a while, they were much better. I also made some home-made whipped cream and crumbled some OREOs to sprinkle on top. Delicious.

And this is what the OREO package looked like after making them and having a few for ourselves...

spring forward

Is everybody sleepy today? For most of the country, we lost an hour of sleep last night after "springing forward."

Regardless of the lack of sleep, it is b-e-a-utiful outside. I took Lizzey for a walk today and the camera went with me. The trees and flowers are blooming, the animals are all twitterpated and I'm loving the 70 degree, sunny days. What is better than a beautiful spring day?

tulip tree down the street


beautiful buds all around


bradford pears: they may be beautiful but they sure are stinky




one of my favorite parts of spring


these crack me up every time I walk by


the tree over our driveway


the obligatory Lizzey picture

isn't she cute?!?!

a few more greys

If you have ever met or seen a picture of my Momma, you'll know that she has beautiful grey hair. If you have ever met or seen a picture of my Dad, you'll know that he, too, has a very nice head of grey hair.

Both of them started greying early in life though I'm not sure of the exact age. My Dad's happened more slowly and my Momma can't remember because as soon as she saw one grey hair, she started coloring it and didn't stop until a few years ago.

Now if you look at my siblings you might not see the grey hairs immediately but upon closer inspection you will see that we all have quite a few. Whitney and Laurel are both serial grey hair pluckers (quite often under an open sunroof with the sun shining on their head while looking in the rear-view mirror). Josh has embraced his salt-n-pepper hair and it totally fits him because, well, he's him.

I lie somewhere in between them all. I don't pluck the grey hairs but I also don't fully embrace them and let them shine for the whole world to see. There are a few things working in my favor. My grey hairs mostly grow in patches that are well-hidden under the rest of my hair and my hair is a lighter brown with natural blond-ish highlights so that when the greys shine through, they often blend in.

Part of me really wants to embrace the grey hairs. I think they show that you have been through a lot in your life. I think they are a natural part of growing older. I want to age gracefully and not fight the inevitable.

Then the other part of me looks at Andrew. Yes, he has a few more greys shining through these days thanks to med school but he still looks like he is a teenager (at best he looks 20 or 21). This comes with its own difficulty for him but, seriously, think about me here.

I have always looked older than I am. When I was 12, I looked more like 15 and when I was 18, I looked 21. My grey hairs are becoming harder to hide and, lets face it, we're all looking older (except for Andrew of course). How in the world am I supposed to embrace my grey and feel confident in my appearance when I have the fountain of youth always standing beside me? And, bless his heart, he wishes he looked older and is always excited when a new grey hair shines though but at the end of the day, people think I'm robbing the cradle.

The big dilemma hasn't hit head on yet but it's coming and, as you know, I'm a planner. What in the hell am I going to do when the grey becomes more dominant and I'm still standing beside my eternally youthful husband? Do I embrace it? Stand with my head held high knowing that he is older than me and that I'm beautiful no matter what? Do I dye my hair or hang my head and stay out of pictures? What do I do?

I've tried dying my hair and I don't like it. It is too much maintenance, costs a lot to be done right and the color never stays long enough to enjoy because it always fades. But is it worth it when my husband is smokin' hot and I want to keep up with that?

I don't know what I'm going to do when that time comes. For now, I'm going to try and recognize each grey hair as proof of another day, month or year of a well-lived life. We'll deal with the dye later.

days like this

Our first dance was to "Days Like This" by Van Morrison. After we decided on that song, we really felt like it was right. Then, one night I got this very sweet email in my inbox:

One day...

We'll be sitting having a conversation...next to each other.
We'll hardly be able to stand not seeing the other person...so we'll walk into the other room.
We'll say hello to each other...every morning when we wake up.
Our kids will jump on our bed while we're fast asleep...and we'll just laugh as we tickle them.
We'll say goodnight...and always be able to kiss each other as we say it.
There will be days like this...

I found the print out of this email the other day and nearly lost it. It reminded me of our 7 year long relationship of which 5 were long distance. It reminded me of what it felt like to miss Andrew all the time.

Almost everything in that email has come true and even though we don't have kids now, I do know that one day we will. Gosh, I love Andrew.

a few pictures

Today, I followed my dear sister's advice and just took a lot of pictures, played with the settings on my camera and had fun with it. It was really cloudy today, so I got to try manual, aperture priority, shutter priority and action modes while also playing with the white balance.

Inside, I used my kit lens and then I ventured outside and used my second lens. The lens I used outside has a much larger zoom and I quickly fell in love. I was able to stay on my porch and still get some fun shots of the stuff around me.

And, thanks again to Laurel, I started a flickr account, adjusted my blog template and I should be ready to go for posting pictures here on out. I'm excited for what is to come with this camera...the possibilities are endless.

I'm so excited!

I was trying to come up with a clever way to introduce this blogspot but I can't...I'm just too excited!

We bought a new camera! I know that might not seem like something too exciting for a lot of folks but it is very exciting for me. Ever since I was a kid, I've LOVED taking pictures. I would walk around the farm and take pictures of everything which I'm sure my Mom loved since it was a film camera and film sure wasn't cheap.

In May, we bought a $150 Sony camera that broke over Christmas break...the lens got stuck in the out position. So we have been camera-less for the last couple of months and I have been kind of antsy about it. Even though I don't take a ton of pictures all the time, I like having the option.

With our tax-refund check, we decide to splurge on a Digital SLR. My original thought was to get the same one as Laurel, but I soon realized that the camera was discontinued. A little more research led me to a Nikon D3100. Best Buy was having a sale and we ended up getting a camera and two lenses for the price of the camera and one lens...not too shabby.

Andrew picked it up on Wednesday and we realized we had forgotten to buy a memory card. After a late Friday night Target run, we came back with a memory card and I couldn't wait to start taking pictures. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that Lizzey was my first subject. The lighting was so bad, I didn't go fully manual but I did try the camera out in the Aperture and Shutter Priority settings.

Lizzey quickly got tired of having a camera in her face and I got frustrated with the low-light situation. I did come out with a few decent pictures that I then ran through the photo editing program, Picnik (Laurel's recommendation), which was a lot of fun!

So, here you go! Enjoy the photos and prepare yourself to be seeing a lot of pictures posted here.