Two Little Lines

The short story:  we found out some exciting news today...

The longer story:  a couple things had happened over the past couple weeks that made us feel like something was just...a little off.  I had had two days in a row where I felt very...combative.  Ok sure, I can get grumpy around a certain time of the month, but this was different, and not the right time of the month. But it only lasted two days so we thought little of it.  

Then...there was the Japanese food.  Let me preface this with, Tim likes to make fun of me and calls me "Half", alluding to my ability to eat only half of things.  His favorite example is that I will eat half of a yogurt and put it back in the fridge (I do eat the other half later...usually).  We had Japanese food delivered one night, and while Tim was placing our order, I had him add some wonton soup at the last minute.  Ok, so not that abnormal for most.  When the food arrived I had my usual half of the wonton soup, and then ate a large helping of food (approximately half of the portion they give you).  Then, I ate the other half of the wonton soup...and then another large portion of food...and then a fortune cookie of course.  I'm sure we probably threw out the idea of a pregnancy in a joking matter, but still didn't put a lot of thought into it.  

As someone who is generally quite regular when it comes to...well, you know...I take note of when I'm a couple days late.  Tim was going to the grocery store anyway, so I flippantly said something like "Oh, just buy me the stupid test, you might as well."  For some reason, I was still thinking that it would be ridiculous if I was pregnant.  Tim came home and I took the test, telling him we would look at the results together.  I did not look (seriously still thinking there was no way I was pregnant), and Tim came in and we looked and saw "those two little lines".  My jaw dropped and I said something that was not very graceful, followed by us having an incoherent conversation, followed by a flood of various emotions.  

Needless to say, our world is going to change drastically in about 9 months :)

Turkey Day

Happy Turkey Day to you and yours!  We pray you have many many blessings for which to be thankful. As usual, we have been terrible at taking pictures...although I think we may have hit an all time low.  Hopefully you'll forgive us when you hear about our annual crazy Thanksgiving weekend.  Since being married, we have hit up both families every Thanksgiving weekend, a couple days with each.  I guess you can't feel to bad for us considering this is self-inflicted, but who wants to miss out on their own family and food.  So while we were not taking pictures, we were driving all around Georgia visiting our family in just a couple days, and eating turkey...lots of turkey.  We consider ourselves to be incredibly blessed to have family in the same state.  We hope your Thanksgiving was as filled with love (and turkey) as ours...and that you remembered to take pictures.

Back to front - Me, Tim, Jeff,  Jerry, Judy, Christy, Jason, Davey, my Dad, Sadie, Lailey, Titus (on Christy's lap), Sarah, Maddox (on Sarah's lap)

*update* I forgot that our family did manage to take a picture.  LOL, I can't tell you what a struggle it was to get everyone together, sitting still and looking at the camera (the latter wasn't accomplished 100% but that's ok).  So here is my crazy, awesome family. - picture added 6/28/12

At The Top

One of our favorite past times is hiking, especially when it's beautiful. On Sunday we hiked to the top of Blood Mountain. It was quite cold. The pictures do not capture how cold or how beautiful it really was.

Remember I told you about Tim making meals in freezer bags? Well, the man cooked me lunch on the top of a mountain, now that's lunch and a view.

My man cooking me a hot meal at the top of the mountain

Isn't he cute?

Cold, but very happy to be eating

It was perfect.

It's Not Easy Being...Orange

Today seems appropriate to share some of our fall projects with you. I LOVE this time of year and have been wanting to reflect it in our home. So, for starters, if you came to our front door right now, this is what you'd see...

Our festive wreath

This "homemade" wreath was as easy as can be. Here are the instructions: 1. Buy wreath and bright embellishment 2. Stick bright embellishment into wreath 3. Hang wreath on door, and VOILA! That's right, I didn't even glue anything. That's the kind of craft that leaves you feeling accomplished in 2 minutes. I may add to it next year...if I get around to it.

This weekend while I attempted to make paper pumpkins as a center piece for our table (not pictured because I did not like the results), the Hubs had a project all his own. I don't remember how he got onto this but he discovered a way to make hot meals on the trail or while camping using dehydrated foods in freezer bags. As per recommended by the websites he read, he tested one of the meals at home...where there is other food in case the attempt goes awry. So here he is with his homemade stove (made from pepsi cans), homemade fire shield (foil), homemade stove stand (wire from wire hangers provided by the local dry-cleaners), and his "pot" of water (or the cup from his canteen). By the way, it was a success, but that is for another post.

So we bought a pumpkin a few weeks ago and had yet to carve it. I had ambitious thoughts of carving St. Michael the archangel...something like this...

But then realized that, indeed, my thoughts were QUITE ambitious (maybe next year) and so we settled on something a little more simple. We of course had to have snacks while we worked on said projects... and what is better this time of year than...

Snackies while carving the pumpkin

Tim had purchased a pumpkin carving kit and in it had this little thing to trace your stencil onto your pumpkin. After tracing once, we couldn't see the dots, twice, still couldn't find the dots, used a tack the third time...barely could see the dots. So I drew on the pumpkin to help me find the third set of dots. I worked hard to carve the pumpkin before I wore out and resigned to let the Hubs carve the pumpkin while I made yummy pumpkin seeds.

Carving the pumpkin

Spicy pumpkin seeds and sweet pumpkin seeds

Ok, well I didn't "make" the pumpkin seeds...God did...but I embellished them. I made spicy pumpkin seeds from a mix of spices including paprika and chili powder (I didn't have cayenne pepper like the recipe called for), and sweet pumpkin seeds from a mixture of sugar, cinnamon, and ground ginger. I highly recommend the sweet ones, but Tim liked the spicy ones.

Oh, I suppose you want to see what we actually carved into our pumpkin. After lots of hard work, we sat back, ate pumpkin seeds, and enjoyed the glow of...

'Rents in the Flo Bra

Tim's parents, Mary and Peter, drove all the way to Flowery Branch to visit us. It is the perfect time of year to visit N. Georgia, and experience the fall colors (and mountains) that are lacking in Savannah.

We started out our day with Red Velvet Pancakes (a gift from Tim's sister that we had been waiting to try, and thought this was a great opportunity).

We drove up to Blairsville, GA to go to the farmer's market, and promptly arrived 10 minutes after they closed. Oops. Mary and Peter managed to buy up some produce from some vendors anyway. We could have opened up shop from our trunk by the time they were done :).

We stopped at Mountain Crossings at Walasi-Yi at Neels Gap to admire the view. This store is along the famous Appalachian Trail (AT).

Mountain Crossings Outfitters at Walasi-Yi in Neels Gap

Mary and Tim looking out at the view

I got them to pose for me...sorry for the lack of photography skills here.

Better view of the...view

The AT passes through the building, making it the only covered portion in the 2100+ miles of the AT. I thought that was cool. The store was neat and had all sorts of gear and souvenirs that made you want to go conquer the AT yourself.

The AT passing through the building

Yes, those are boots...in the trees!

My understanding is that when people finish the AT (a might feat), they leave their boots in the trees here as a "right of passage". I'm not sure what else to call it, but it made me want to be one of those people that get to hang my boots up there...one day...maybe.

Then we ventured over to Logan Turnpike Mill. If you have ever had grits in Georgia, there is a very good chance that they came from Logan Turnpike Mill.

Logan Turnpike Mill on the side of the road on the side of the mountain

It is hard to imagine that this building on the side of the road produces a significant amount of the grits we consume in Georgia. We also got to visit a little with Cecilia, the owner, who is sweet as can be. And of course bought some goodies, including one of my favorites, Ezekiel bread. The recipe is taken from the book of Ezekiel in the Bible. Here is a picture of the grains and legumes in Ezekiel bread.

Ingredients in Ezekiel bread

After visiting the mill, we headed over to some local shops to peruse all the souvenirs we could buy...but probably wouldn't.

We are just so cute, can you bear it?  harharhar

If you eat too much at lunch (and I did), you can rent this and they will wheel you outta there.

Peter and Mary in the big chair

Us in the big chair

And since we're always talking about our homemade cooking adventures, we thought it was only fair to share some with the parents when they came to visit. We ended our fun day with homemade pasta with Italian sausage in homemade parsley pesto. You hungry yet?

Homemade pasta with Italian sausage and homemade parsley pesto...YUM!

And I found great amusement while reading these, so I thought I'd share.

This was really for my own amusement